#ALSO THEY HELD HANDS FOR AT LEAST 50% OF S5 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shirosfics · 9 months

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My thoughts on the BSD S5 finale (what I did not like, and what I liked, and how real-life issues might have influenced BSD)

⚠️ spoiler alert!

Late to the party because I was busy (and still am, so I've only seen the main spoilers for the last episode). Now, I have loads of mixed feelings.

Spoilers below!

*Takes a deep breath* Now.

The finale violates so many rules of story-writing and characterisation:

First, characterisation: Fyodor, our genius Fyodor, could not simply be defeated by a pair of contacts and fake fangs that even a normal person can tell apart). That is not the same person who had tricked Ace, nor is that the same person who was able to speak with Dazai in code. If Asagiri had made the contact-lenses-and-fake-fangs decision, he had truly done Fyodor dirty. There is an alternative take on this specific plot that I agree with, more on that below in Fyodor's section.

Second, storyline progress: as of Dazai's death in Chapter 109 (and S5E10), we're at the climax of the DOA storyline. There is a rule in story writing that it must always be followed by a "falling action" phase, and it is severely lacking in the finale, and as a result everything feels rushed.

Number 2 leads to loose ends. Lots of them. Sigma is a glaring one. Crime and Punishment another. Nikolai's motives too.

Oh, and that poison Dazai and Fyodor injected. Given that there's no explanation given, the poison violates the rule of Chekov's gun. Asagiri put so much focus on the poison when it was first introduced, and it was just hand waved away? Asagiri, what are you doing? Please give me an explanation soon, this is unlike you.

ALSO, Sigma's death. Really? Asagiri? Bones? Another rule of storytelling is to never write in a character and hype them up only to kill them, unless there is a damn good reason why. And I will be waiting for the damn good reason why. Or for you to write Sigma back to life. That's all I will say about Sigma for now. Give me my precious cinnamon roll!

My first thought when I saw the spoilers was pure anger, because the rushed finale = shoddy writing and is seriously not up to Asagiri's usual standards. I hope this was (at least) partially Bones' own creative adaptation of Asagiri's storyline. I have no qualms about Bones and Asagiri making Dazai turn the tables. After all, BSD still falls into the shounen category, so it doesn't really take a genius to figure out Dazai is going to live and the Yokohama tripartite was going to win (even if I panicked a lot when I saw Chapter 109). However, again, what I do have a lot of qualms with is the abrupt ending, and the way Fyodor's characterisation and the details were handled.

The only believable thing in the S5 finale was Fukuchi's change of heart and motive, and that's only because BSD is still a genre-savvy shounen series.

The main problem is how quickly Bones has written the rest of the DOA arc out, squeezing them into a span of one episode. To make an apt comparison, the storyline exploded like Fyodor's helicopter :-/ There was simply too much buildup (two seasons worth! And around 50 chapters worth of storyline development in the manga!) for it to end this way. It's like that horse-drawing meme (if you don't know what it is, look it up), and it leaves a really bad taste as a viewer. I was expecting a grander scheme or method of reveal, only to be disappointed.

It's unfair to blame Bones and Asagiri entirely, however. There are a few things that might have caused this, but it's highly possible that real-life factors have influenced the way the anime and the storyline were handled.

Harukawa-sensei is not at her best right now, which means progress for the manga is slow, and the anime had only been advertised until Season 5. Which means unless Bones ties everything up quickly, we’ll be left with an incomplete finale.

The intellectual rights for BSD are held by Kadokawa, and the manga for BSD is selling well. They are also getting a lot of money from the anime (from Bones as well since Bones has to pay them royalty fees), but less so compared to their other IP that have been turned into anime (Oshi no Ko is very popular right now, and is top 1 anime IP revenue for Kadokawa according to their most recent report). The BSD anime, however, has struggled with dwindling sales* in comparison to the manga and Bones' other series. One of these said series is an undated, upcoming project (I will refrain from naming it because fandoms are sensitive sometimes) which I think will be announced soon. From an investor and profit standpoint, it's better for the company to finish BSD quickly and focus their efforts on that, especially since updates for the manga has stalled and Bones has done nothing but focus on BSD this year. This means they are feeding Kadokawa money at a loss.

*I wasn't able to find an official investor report for Bones Inc., because unlike Kadokawa, they are not a listed company. If anyone has the official data, please let me know.

On Fyodor:

Right now, I think it's highly likely that Fyodor and Dazai's last scene is Asagiri-canon instead of Bones' own creation. While Bones has deviated from manga/LN canon occasionally, the changes they make are usually not big. This is no longer an era where animes have their own storyline adaptations. However, due to the limitations of an one-cour run, Bones might have changed the details on how Dazai and Fyodor got there. Otherwise, I can't understand why Asagiri would do both Fyodor (and by extension Dazai) dirty like this, this easily. Even his blunder with NLH in the Fifteen Light Novel was more forgivable compared to this. (Yes, I am in severe denial over Asagiri being able to do this to one of the smartest characters in the series. He had hyped up Fyodor's intelligence and observational skills too much for him to fall for this specific trap.)

This does not necessarily mean that Fyodor is completely dead and gone from the storyline. We now know that he's not the final villain (a development that leaves me feeling conflicted because Fyodor is a great villain), which means that there is a high likelihood he will return as an ally given, ah, Fitzgerald's development and the typical shounen manga storyline progression. Or, if he is truly dead, he will continue to influence the storyline in some manner. I based this guess on his lines under the night sky. It's only a wild guess.

Another possibility that's worth mentioning: It has been theorised (and hinted) that C&P is an ability that creates a doppelgänger of Fyodor in a way. There's a chance that it was the ability that died. Maybe. There's also a guess going around that Dazai knows it's not the real Fyodor but the doppelgänger that died, but as of the finale, we don't know for sure. I personally am unsure about this one, because Asagiri has indicated that NLH also works when Dazai touches abilities (see his battle with the Number-ability user in the Azure King/Apostle case, as well as Soukoku's battle with Rimbaud), and Dazai actually held Fyodor's hand after his helicopter crashed. If that Fyodor was an Ability, he would've dissipated the moment Dazai made contact…unless the bandage and cloth act as a barrier (which also does not make sense because Dazai had stopped Steinbeck's ability through his clothes…unless Asagiri had forgotten about that…which he has before.)

Or…C&P allows for body-switching, and Fyodor’s mind/soul switched out before his death? Idek I’m just throwing out guesses at this point. I’m still confused as to what C&P actually does.

This last one, which is my favourite, is that Fyodor fell for the trick on purpose (which, alright, I guess he's choosing the greater good over himself) and chose not to expose Dazai and Chuuya for whatever reason. Perhaps because of the other person he had mentioned. So he's basically acting to the bitter end and paying with his life. If this is true, fine, it absolves Asagiri of his guilt of making Fyodor fall for such a simple trick.

I'm a Fyodor fan, but even I gotta admit he's as resilient as a cockroach (ahem) Dazai, so there's a chance he's really not dead. (This might be my wishful thinking, aha.)

Now, onto things I actually like about the S5 finale:

Soukoku. Enough said. Nice to see you two going about your business as usual. Imagine how much effort Chuuya had to put into not laughing when he shot Dazai.

Aya and Bram's relationship. It's been heavily implied that Aya is the reincarnation of someone important to Bram (manga), more specifically, his daughter (anime). You don't get a lot of relationships like this in anime, and I am stoked (geddit?) to see their relationship development from here. Not from a shipping point of view, but from a familial and platonic (and a knight-and-lady) point of view. Aya is a character filled with possibilities, and Bram seems like a fun character. They have so much potential together. Asagiri, don't ruin it.

Dazai's characterisation: Dazai and Chuuya's little act, and Dazai's influence on Sigma. He could have had Chuuya kill Fyodor immediately, but held off, possibly because he wanted to turn Sigma to be sympathetic and emotionally-attached to the thought of joining the ADA. Now, Dazai is on the side of good, but we know it is within his character to be manipulative enough to do this. Had Dazai made Chuuya kill Fyodor immediately, that emotional connection would have never been established. This is very much in-line with Dazai's method of doing things, and with his characterisation. If that farce actually worked, this is actually a great way to demonstrate how Dazai's darkness can be used for the side of good.

On Fyodor and Dazai: After one movie and three seasons, Fyodor finally acknowledged Dazai! He went from underestimating him to enjoying his battle with Dazai, to finally acknowledging him upon his defeat. Nice.

There's more coming based on Fukuchi and Fyodor's lines, and Akutagawa and Atsushi's last scene, which is great, because I need to know more. There's so much left unexplained and/or unexplored: the Transcendents, Christie, Crime and Punishment and Fyodor, and the Book, just to name a few.

(Also, I quite like Aku's new design :P)

I don't know when we'll be able to see the anime again, but as long as Kadokawa doesn't drop BSD, and Harukawa-sensei takes her time to recover carefully, I'm sure, one day, we'll get an anime adaptation of the upcoming seasons.

Still, I'm desperately hoping that the manga storyline will offer us a more complete explanation.

#shiro's ramblings #bsd spoilers

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S5 Ep 15 Pt 1: The Gang Gets Lost in India

Ah, back to Yugioh classic. Sort of. We’re going into the second filler arc before Bakura, which I have been told is kind of nonsense. And youknow what, from the first scene--this is the first scene by the way--yeah I can see the nonsense.

We got Yami cosplaying as the Chrysler building, we got Yugi saying WTFWTF, we got...this thing?

This thing tells us “Join my game, Yugi!” and then the demon just kinda bounces.

K, bye, I guess.

(read more under the cut)

Waking up from this nightmare, Yugi reveals that he has outgrown his good pajamas. Or maybe he just overused them like I did to my favorite pajamas during quarantine (which, not gonna lie, I hand sewed my favorite pajama pants back together 2 or 3 times like they were the Velveteen Rabbit. Quarantine pajamas and me were like best buds for a year there.)

RIP Yugi’s good pajamas.

It’s fine. I’m fine.

I can get used to Yugi in his normal ass old man pajamas without any cute stars on them. I can accept this. He’s getting older. So much older that for a second I thought he was learning Hebrew, by the looks of his books on his counter. I thought...wow, is Yugi actually attempting to learn a language spoken around the time of ancient Egyptians???

But uh...I went a searching and unfortunately that’s not Hebrew, and if that is a language, I don’t know what it is. Pretty sure it’s just random marks because this show has to be translated in so many languages. Man. For a second there that looked like really sneaky world building, but nah, Yugi is still kind of a dumbass who has yet to attend a solid year of school.

Also, I got to take in this mustard yellow as if I’ve seen it for the first time.

It has strong building blocks energy. It’s...so much yellow and it’s extremely the vibe of that one set of animal crossing decorations that I have because it’s a very common recipe, but, can’t figure out for the life of me how to fit into any room.

What am I supposed to do with these, Nintendo? Other than recreate Yugi’s Muto’s haunted game store/house?

Like I live in the Bay area and we have wild painted houses so you can see them through the fog (back when we...still had fog, RIP California) --but this is a little much. This is such strong Protagonist energy but as a house.

Also, I’ve don’t think I’ve brought this up before, but like...Yugi is loaded, right? Like he’s way too good and humble to ever say he’s loaded, and they sort of make it seem like he’s not (when compared to Seto Kaiba) but damn, this location of his real estate sure is something. That and Grandpa’s tiny shop seems to run on a constant deficit and his family just doesn’t care.

We flash back a bit to Gramps sneaking out, and Yugi is like “oh great, my only Father figure I ever talk about is getting a backpack together and just...leaving without any notice, huh? Without telling me you were going to go? Didn’t think that would maybe be a little off putting?“ and Gramps is like “Yes?”

Like Gramps nearly died going to an amusement park a few episodes back so I can see why Yugi is a little bit concerned.

Down the street at a little town lottery, Joey is getting further into gambling (I don’t know what those little street lotteries are called, it’s in a lot of anime--but kinda looks like mom lotteries for moms.)

I’m not sure why India is on Joey Wheeler’s bucket list, seems a little random, but he went to Pegasus’ country, after all and that’s barely even a country.

Joey going nuts on a lottery machine instead of going to school was pretty peak filler, so I’m not really minding this stuff so far.

And then, just to spook me, check this out:

I can’t believe they even let them back into a classroom. In my nerd school, if you missed one too many days, you were sent to the bad schools to be someone else’s problem. But in Yugi’s case...that either IS his school or...Yugi is failing International School, which is just a thing he’s allowed to do, because, as I said before, this kid has got to be loaded. Even Seto Kaiba was like “I’m not spending money on this school anymore. That outfit is like 50 bucks a jacket.”

Youknow, I have seen all the other characters knock on Tea’s choice of cute ass monsters for the last 5 seasons, and she has never once changed them out. She is holding onto this scary seraphim thing with the many wings like every child with their first Pidgey. She does not care.

Also how is this thing cute?

like the front of this orb has a face with hearts on it but like...it is kind of remarkable what Yugioh decides is cute. Magma golem: not cute. this thing? This thing that looks like it’s a chibi version of the last chapters of the bible and will sound the trumpets of the second coming? So cuuuuute.

Tristan used to be the Janitor/hall monitor/square archetype. Like hell he can walk around with that 00′s R+B soundtrack.

Joey appears in order to get us the hell out of school, and the art team retires this school background for the rest of what I assume is this entire series.

Goodbye school. Maybe you’ll come back with Bakura. Which would be weird, since rumor is that arc takes place in ancient Egypt.

On their walk home, Tea lets out in an inner monologue that no one could hear that after 5 straight seasons of his BS, she’s sick and tired of Pharaoh being the center of attention all the time and she needs a freakin break.

TBH, as she was thinking in her head like “Pharoah is just so freakin much” Yugi switched over to Pharaoh and was like “WHATS UP TEA, THINKING ABOUT ME??” and I thought for a split second maybe he read her mind with his Pharaoh powers.

And like...maybe he did? Seems like a thing he can just do but chooses not to tell anyone about. I mean would you tell anyone? I wouldn’t.

So, unlike Miho in Season Zero, who at least had the decency to try to take her Mother to Australia, Joey Wheeler has wisely decided that the 3 other ticket holders will not be the 3 other members of his immediate family. That would have been the most awkward trip between Serenity, his mother he hasn’t really spoken to in 7 years, and his absent father who was written out of the series for being a raging alcoholic. They would have not even made it to the plane.

Instead he’s gonna take the ghost in Yugi’s head and call that an adult (two tickets in one, really). It’s honestly not that bad of a plan, since his only other father figure, Grandpa, is MIA, and his only other, other father figure, Roland, charges like 300 dollars an hour and wants stock options and health insurance.

And honestly they should have taken Roland because he’s one of their best plane guys.

So they take the smallest little Amelia Earheart plane in the world, going from Japan to (checks map) India...which 2 times the distance this plane can go and it crashes...which is exactly what would happen if you took a teeny tiny plane over the Himalayan mountains without refueling that thing.

We call this a magical incident later in the episode, but this is just basic math.

So, fun fact, (and probably why I discuss planes so often on this blog) two of my Grandfathers were pilots (well, three, since my grandmother remarried another pilot), which sounds like a crazy coincidence until you recall that their generation was in WW2 and we just shoved children in planes for 20 years and called that normal.

Anyway, to save on travel costs, my engineer Grandfather built his own plane out of junkyard parts, which, as you can imagine, is a living nightmare, and it was held together by like duct tape and gasoline (which at one time used to be cheap). Tempted God every day that Howls Moving Castle touched the sky.

And while I only know it from photos since I wasn’t exactly born yet, it looked exactly like this plane. So looking at this, all I can think is...yeah...that’s what you get for flying to India in a tin can car. To this day I cannot trust any plane of this size.

So, they climb out of their wreckage virtually unscathed and into familiar Californian territory.

At least Joey thought about bringing a tent.

It’s interesting how our cast has become so accustomed to this that they’re not even all that shell shocked. It’s just another day in the life.

So next time we shall find out what India has in store for us. Or if we’re even in India...because again...feels a lot like this BG team doesn’t do any research into their landscapes and every place feels a whole lot of the same. But...at least they didn’t put any Arizonan mesas in India.

#Yugioh #YGO #yu-gi-oh #recap #photo recap #S5 #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #School?????#A really ass plane #gambling #And a trip to India

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