one of my favorite things in dunmeshi is how chilchuck turns out to be the guy in the party with the least to hide despite how much he goes out of his way to act all secretive. like the more we learn about everyone else it seems like they’ve all got like trauma or crimes or even just oddities that they don’t share explicitly not bc they’re hiding anything, but just because it’s never come up, or it’s too much of a hassle to explain, or it just didn’t occur to them. meanwhile, Normal Man Chilchuck is finding new gray hairs every morning because his friends want to know how old he is and his darkest secret is that his wife left him for being… too secretive. like up against a monster-phile, a dark mage, a circus attraction and Schrödinger’s cannibal, him making such a big deal out of having three adult kids is kinda epic
i would actually like to argue that that makes it even funnier because chilchuck actually recounts this tale with very little hesitation. he’s extremely open about his traumatic half foot experiences because they’re the reason for his dedicated work/life balance. the oppression he experiences is part of his everyday life within the workplace, so naturally he talks about it within the workplace.
by comparison, the others are all entrenched in some kind of drama deeply related to their roles to an extent that it’s like. yeah it makes sense that this isn’t a typical conversation topic, but they’re not ever the ones shouting about respecting professional boundaries, and also their issues are more related to their professional lives than chilchuck’s. laios is a team leader who dislikes humans because of how they historically have treated him and his sister. marcille is here to study dark magic because she’s consumed by her fear of outliving everyone she loves. senshi and starvation. izutsumi and the inherent trauma of living in a body that has been permanently changed against your will.
chilchuck is the most well-adjusted guy in the group. he’s on salary. he formed a union. he’s working on his family (more or less). he likes to drink as a hobby rather than to cope. he pursues healthy, constructive outlets for his frustrations with the world and doesn’t hesitate to advocate for himself. my point isn’t that chilchuck doesn’t have trauma, it’s that the trauma he does have is stuff he’s processed and dealt with, so that by the time the story starts he’s at a point in his life where his most closely guarded secret is that he has a family.
and the way he guards that secret so obsessively is HILARIOUS by comparison.
