#and it's a major part of Kunikida's arc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

halokarii · 7 months

Text

///BSD Spoilers

In view of the last episode of the anime dropping tomorrow and the fact that this will likely be the finale of the DOA arc, I want to share something I have been thinking about for literal months now.

I think Fukuzawa dies in this arc and I want it to happen.

Listen, I love this man as much as the next person (I mean, one of his defining personality traits is that he adores cats - how can you not love him?!) but I still think that his death would bring many benefits to the plot of BSD going forward.

One, it would actually raise the stakes. So far Asagiri seems to be afraid of killing off his characters and at this point, seeing the tenth death bait of this arc adds nothing but some cheap shock value. Actually killing some characters that have a bigger relevance to the story (and aren't "just" antagonists whom the readers might want dead anyways) would raise the stakes for future arcs. It would show that no one is safe and make the plot armor that some characters have (*cough* Dazai *cough*) less noticeable. Plus, I think an arc as big and disruptive to the Bungou world as this one shouldn't just end with zero casualties. Like, yeah, the ADA has Yosano as their overpowered healer (by the way, where is she??) but it would just feel awfully convenient for her to just step in and undo all the stakes built up in the past several chapters.

Fukuzawa's death would end this arc on a devastating note (even if the ADA can secure a win overall) and emphasize how much this battle has shaken the very core of our cast and their support structure - the Armed Detective Agency.

Which brings me to my second major point. Fukuzawa's death would further the character development of several people. He has had a positive impact on so many characters, not only in the present like with Atsushi but also in the past with Ranpo and Yosano. All members of the ADA would be forced to grow through his loss.

Especially since many of them so far have predominantly been developed through flashbacks (eg. Ranpo, Yosano, Kunikida too if we count the first LN as a flashback).

Yosano and Ranpo would have to deal with the loss of a father figure, someone who quite literally saved both of their lives. Kunikida has been hinted as a potential successor to Fukuzawa since very early on in the manga and would regain a more active part in the story (since he has kinda been serving as Fukuchi's kidnapping victim for the current fight...). He would have to come to terms with what it means to be a leader and how he can deal with the fallout of the current situation while simultaneously handling his grief over his well-respected boss.

Tanizaki could receive some much-needed development.

Kyouka and Atsushi would have to deal with the fact that All Men Are Equal no longer assists them with controlling their abilities. They would have to re-learn how to handle them, at least partly.

Given that he survives, Dazai would face grief of a man who gave him a chance even though he knew of his past. Dazai and Fukuzawa haven't interacted much but he is the first person Dazai loses after Odasaku so this is bound to be interesting in some way.

My third point is that, let's be real, Fukuzawa's character arc peaks in this fight with Fukuchi. We know of his past with Ranpo and how he founded the ADA. We see how he went from being someone who preferred to fight alone to someone who leads a strong organization and supports others with his ability. We have learned of his past with his exes Mori and Fukuchi.

In my opinion, his story is finished, he has had his character arc. I think it would be very fitting for a character like his - a fighter in nature and yet someone who so deeply cares about others - to die in a battle to quite literally save the world.

The fourth reason is more or less speculating where the story will go next. After a long, tension and action laden arc like this, I think it would make sense for the next big story point to start with some form of "cooldown" where everything settles back into its New Normal after the recent events. As bad as this may sound, something like a grieving period for the ADA to mourn their beloved president would be perfect for that. The Agency has to build itself and its reputation back up from the ground after having been accused of terrorism. Also, I'm like 80% sure the events of the DOA arc happened in a week or two - let all of them have a breather.

Plus Asagiri needs time to build up the next big villain (given that Fyodor is defeated, which I really hope because as entertaining as I find him, I cannot bear to see him as the mastermind in another arc. It does get boring after such a long time).

A weakened ADA without its experienced leader could also potentially throw the city's balance off. Especially since Mori still has that deal with the ADA that one member will transfer over to the Port Mafia (food for thought, if Mori and Fukuzawa were the only ones who knew about the condition that Mori cannot pick Yosano but Fukuzawa dies - Can Mori just be an absolute asshole and pick her, now that no one could call him out?).

I was honestly a little bit disappointed after seeing Fukuzawa alive and well in the teaser. But the visuals as well as the title of the episode - Twilight Farewell - could potentially hint at the fact that both Fukuchi and him might die in the episode. And I could live with that just fine.

Anyways, thanks for sitting through this way too long post.

(And if anyone got scared reading this, don't worry, so far all of the predictions and theories I have made about BSD have always been 100% wrong. So writing this might just save Fukuzawa's life lmao.)

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs season 5 #bungou stray dogs spoilers #bsd spoilers #bsd fukuzawa #fukuzawa yukichi #i have so many thoughts on this #that i probably forgot to write down half of them #i promise i'll post art again soon

7 notes · View notes

growling · 3 days

Text

Dazai is one of those characters that I absolutely genuinely hate as they are currently in canon (and I don't think that's gonna really change. the writers seem committed to what they have now), but really love the version I've made up of them in my own mind partially out of spite, and what I myself initially genuinely thought was the direction they were going with him for the longest time.

Dazai has never been a great person from the earliest episodes - his former allegiance with the port mafia for one, and obviously, his shitty treatment of every woman he happens to meet along the way, barely regarding them as people in their own right but as means to finally fulfill his own fantasy of committing double suicide with a beautiful lady. The first thing he says after seeing a literal corpse of some woman is to lament on how she should have instead committed a double suicide with him (while smiling by the way), he helps save a woman from drowning and as she's still soaking wet having nearly died and he's asked as to what he thinks of this, he says "[she]'s looking damn sexy", the "i like all women, but Sasaki-san seems like the type to commit double suicide with me if I asked, which is nice" remark, and never completely backing off when the waitress/worker at the coffee shop(?) the agency frequents tells very politely him to stop harassing her - I cannot stress this enough how in season one, nearly every new female character he meets, he harasses in some way or another. Like... that is cartoonishly evil! That's awful! And nasty! Literally nobody except for Kunikida (who thankfully actually beats his ass several times for it) reacts to this with anything more than a wince and a "haha classic dazai!!". And with every little piece of lore we got from that point, he turned out to actually be worse, and worse, and worse, until we actually saw him in his wonderfully heartless port mafia era. Which has to be my favourite portrayal of him, which isn't hard, because I literally don't like any others.

And.... I was expecting him to like, how do I put this? I felt all of this was culminating towards something. Usually, when a mysterious mentor (debatable) figure turns out to be hiding such dark secrets from the main character, and supposedly their entire crew too, they cannot run from their past forever, it's gonna come back and bite them in the ass eventually, and it's gonna be messy. But... it never happened? I was on the edge of my seat and it just, subverted all expectations in the most unsatisfying and infuriating way.

It turns out that nobody cares that Dazai used to be an extremely high ranking port mafia executive who killed hundreds of people, whether directly or not. It's brushed off and revealed that actually, the agency all knew it anyway, it was just Kunikida and Atsushi that didn't get the memo. And once they find out? Mildly shocked, then they carry on as usual. Even if everybody else is somehow fine with this, maybe even they got their own skeletons in the closet - why does ATSUSHI have barely a reaction?

It should have been a major turning point of his development, if we acknowledge his entire damn character. It should made him distrust Dazai instantly, never look at him in the same way again, have some sort of arc where he questions literally everything about the person he thought he knew so well that helped (debatable) him so much thorought his time at the agency. Questions the catboy can be rotating in his head like a fork in the microwave while trying to not have his third mental breakdown of the week, and that's just to name a mere few because I'm not listing them all: How much evil is too much to forgive, if forgiveness is an option at all? How much can a person meaningfully change, if "change" is possible at all and we don't just reveal our true nature or learn to hide or adjust parts of our reactions? Has Dazai ever changed, or is he the same person as he was then? Does Dazai even genuinely regret anything, or was he just bored of the previous thing? If so, will he eventually get bored of what he's doing now too? Who even is the person that is Dazai, and did he, or anyone, ever truly know him?

Even now I still don't exactly know where I'm going with this, but, as it stands now (and I finished season 3 a day or so ago - I think it's too late at this point to change the direction they're taking with him), Dazai has never suffered a single consequence of his actions. And by "consequence", I don't mean that he should be publically flogged until he confesses his sins and then executed via firing squad. I mean, that, I want just a single thing he even done have some kind of actual effect or repercussion on him in the long run. But no, he can never be wrong, it's all in the past, nothing matters once he stops caring, and whenever a single character even as much as dares to express dislike or criticize him in any way, they are portrayed doing so like this is some kinda exhausting 4chan comic where Dazai is the chad and they're the seething soyjak. He is pretty obviously the writer's pet at this point, whom they absolutely adore and think he is just the funniest, coolest thing they have created. He is not even as great and cool as every other character paints him as, especially Atsushi whom he's supposed to have some kinda very complex and deep master-apprentice type relationship i never actually saw.

In their first depiction in the flashback/prequel s2 episodes (and even crumbs from the s1 captive thingy), Akutagawa and Dazai have a.... terrible relationship! it's so bad, you guys! It is heavily implied Dazai was the one who fucked that man up so much in the first place. And so I root for Akutagawa to one day obliterate that guy (since Dazai very evidently. does not care about him and actively mocks him in s1, and Akutagawa too is not that friendly with him and even wants to kill him then), but then........... Dazai suddenly just tells him he's proud of him once and starts getting downright friendly with him, starts trying to matchmake sskk for some reason, and Akutagawa just turns into his #1 simp that clutches his chest and starts scream crying at the mere implification from anyone that Dazai left because he thinks he's cringe and will never be a real gamer like him??

Do not get me wrong, it is perfectly fine for Akutagawa to have those complicated, clashing feelings on the matter, in fact i'd much prefer it over "i 100% hate that man and pray for his downfall every night" that I see much more often in other media. I WANT him to hate him so much and idolize him at the same time, be glad he is gone and will never return but miss him more than anything and sometimes hope he comes back one day, be both disgusted and terrified by and deeply yearn for the approval of his terrible, incredible mentor.

But why does Dazai suddenly care? And if he for some reason, does now.... What does it matter? It's not like he can fix it. And I care more about what Akutagawa feels rather than the guy who fucked him up but is now over it and wants to just forget it or patch it up with occasionally throwing out "great job Akutagawa very epic. ok that's enough i'll be on my way toodles dude". I'm more interested with how Akutagawa copes, than how Dazai doesn't.

And like...... I'm still not finished with the series. There's still seasons 4 and 5 for me to get through, and I really, really hope it manages to surprise me and gets better. But I'm just.... not that enthusiastic that will be the case. It doesn't look like it, but I'm not really crossing over that possibility just yet. I'll just keep on waiting and maybe get incredibly dissapointed and affirmed that me and the writers just have a very different perception of who Dazai is, or maybe actually get to see him/everyone else get an arc on this and regain faith in the existence of a loving god. But basically, what I've been trying to say this whole little disorganized post, is that at the end of the day, it's night. And Dazai continues to prowl around the bowels of Yokohama unobliterated and cruelly mock and torment me specifically by doing so.

#mine #bsd spoilers #bungou stray dogs spoilers #did not really proofread the text as its late and im not really good with articulating myself anyway so #if some of the words on the screen look incomprehensible then sorry thats probably why. you can blame it on dazai too #blame everything on dazai. he is the reason society has fell and he's the one who supplies fuel for taylor's private jet #he is the one ruining my entire life for as long as i can remember. god damn you dazai. i will never truly be happy as long as he exists #EDIT: holy fuck that ended up long as hell #Dazai Osamu #Bungou stray dogs #Akutagawa Ryonosuke #Nakajima atsushi #<- they're also there

5 notes · View notes

abysslll · 8 months

Note

please tell me why those blorbos are you coded 👁👁

hehe dont mind if i do >:)))) (original post here)

here r my guys !!! im tired so this won't be Super in depth but uh yeah :D

yuki - a major part of his character development is learning to be his own person and realizing that his mom doesn't have any power over him. specifically there's a scene where he's talking to her and he says something along the lines of "my end result might not be something you approve of but i want it to be something i'm proud of" and that. inspired me SO FUCKING MUCH. i think about it all the time. he gives me so much courage but i can also really relate to his character before all that development, where he feels detached from his peers because he was isolated from a young age and always wanted friends but was always afraid the people around him hated him

kunikida - the pure rage this man goes through every time something doesn't go exactly according to plan speaks to me. he is perfectionist anger issues personified. also very much relate to his struggle of trying to get dazai to pay fucking attention to their jobs bc trying to wrangle people to stay on task is something that drives me So Fucking Insane. hes just a relatable boy ok.

tome - very obsessed with something that nobody else really cares about, and even the people close to her who Seem to care about it don't really even listen to her infodumping and genuine love for what she does. there's also a scene during the alien arc where they're about to go try to contact the aliens and she says she doesn't want to, because this is her last chance for it to ever happen and if it doesn't work it means she's been lying to herself this whole time and AUGH. that speaks to me. a lot of times i've tried something new to cure my Illness and it doesn't work and i understand so well the feeling of just wanting to give up even though you have a possible solution, because if the solution doesn't work then you just don't have anything left

natsume - this one is mostly just vibes but i think his personality and terrified to make friends attitude are very me coded

tachihara - my family is extremely conservative while most of my friends and extended family are liberal. i often feel like i'm playing spy or infiltrating one group or the other and i never feel like i really fit in either bc i don't want to betray my parents even though our ideals naturally dont coexist and this is something i struggle with and feel conflicted about a lot etc etc

kaido - haha look at chuunibyo boy go

aoyama - haha look at flamboyant to hide a crippling inferiority complex boy go

reki - i dont remember anything about sk8 except for cherry and the fact that this kid has adhd and i think thats self explanatory

iris - after she moves to the city her parents invite her home and then spring on her that they want her to move back home permanently and give up her dreams so she can settle down and have kids and lets just say my mom and i argue about something along these lines Too Much :)

#beck <3 #endless asks #ask games #<- sorta

7 notes · View notes

rainiiisspamming · 9 months

Text

BSD 109 SPOILERS!!!

Seriously read it first don't spoil yourself it's amazing it will ruin you and your life.

Okay now that that's out of the way, I will literally NEVER shut up about BSD 109 ever, and specifically about Dazai. This is not a serious analysis, just me being in pain because what the fuck.

Now before anything gets said, a few points :

He will survive. He's the plot, quite literally, and I have seen a lot of people point out the fact that his character arc isn't finished yet, and I totally agree- Asagiri is extremely careful with his plot devices and writing, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't just cut Dazai's arc right in the middle like that. Tons of people have made several analysis on this, and again, I 100% agree with that.

A lot of people have been theorizing that the bullet in his head is not real, and that Chuuya stopped it with gravity. I agree with that- it makes sense, and would be the best way for Asagiri to 'save' Dazai from his situation.

Biology majors have made several panel analysis explaining that the spots Dazai got shot in are, in fact, non-lethal. Even when it comes to the head injury, the bullet wouldn't go as far as completely killing him, but instead harming parts that would have to do with memories and planning (not gonna get technical because it's definitely not an area I'm comfortable in, I'm a literature major ffs, but the arguments have been made).

Okay, now that these are out of the way, can we just talk about these panels for a minute, because there is so much to unpack. The shot in one the previous chapters in which Dazai kinda just, pathetically drags himself and his broken legs to a camera was bad enough, because we know Dazai hates pain. He endures it, but his whole thing is that he's looking work a way to die painlessly. And in this chapter, well. Not only has Dazai been waiting a while in there, while Fyodor and Sigma were speaking, but his whole interaction with Chuuya is SO much. From the way his eyes lighten like never before when he tries to convince Chuuya to come back, to Chuuya just not being there- I think that overall, Dazai didn't believe a second that Chuuya would come back. I mean, he looked mighty confident there, so either the situation is completely out of his control, which I doubt, because come on, it's Dazai (but I would love if it was the case because Dazai loosing composure has to be the most interesting thing ever), either he did have a plan that involved making his 'death' convincing to Fyodor.

Now, back to that pain thing. I think the worst part was the face he makes while yelling at Chuuya after Chuuya takes the first shot- he is in SO much pain (also I looked it up and the bullet did hit super close to a nerve so he might have a severed nerve I'm unwell). And then the head bullet hits, and the two other- he must have been in so much pain. The way his eyes are light but in a different way as he (falsely or not) realizes that this is It. The way one of his last words is 'finally'. He doesn't even get to finish his sentence, because he passes out before that. It was all so much.

Anyways this post is a mess but who cares I needed to put those thoughts somewhere because I didn't feel a think after 101 except for a oh, that happened, kinda feeling, but 109 had me sobbing. Genuinely crying, out loud, hugging my pillow. I really hope Dazai's gonna make it. Just imagine Atsushi, Aku, Kunikida and Chuuya's reactions if he doesn't. God fucking dammit.

#also i saw a post that was like #beast spoilers but #chuuya went on a rampage after beast dazai died #if bsd dazai dies #chuuya might actively lose it #i wanna see that #anyways i'm in pain #why would he do that #raine talks #bungou stray dogs #bsd 109

12 notes · View notes

asbestieos · 1 year

Note

i know you didnt ask i just. i. Really like bsd i just. basically every character is based on a real life author. it follows the Armed Detective Agency which is like a special class of detective that are ability users. abilities are just magic powers and theyre all names after the authors namesake work. the ADA and the port mafia are all japanese authors, then theres the guild who are all based on american authors, and then the decay of angels who are european authors. the show basically starts off with the ada solving cases and dealing with the mafia and stuff but really its all about the characters and their world views. some of the major themes are the extent to which people go to justify their actions, the reason for living, what makes someone worthy of living, and also how love and friendship are usually the answer people are searching for. its so unique in the fact that it is such a huge advocate for the power of friendship but its SUBTLE about it. like it doesnt actually defeat the bad guys but without it thered be nothing. the characters are all SO loveable and they all have fascinating and well fleshed out dynamics with each other. at its core, its a character driven piece of media and its So Well Done in that aspect. the plot and writing are a bit of a mess but thats because the arcs are about the Characters not the plot. in the recent manga chapters theyve strayed from that and its gotten really clunky and terrible to read it sucks :/. but for the most part. sorry for such a long and im sure incoherent ask i just. really like this seriws im sorry fkdkdjs

kunikida and atsushi hug as compensation, look they love each other /p

i so glad i didnt go to bed immediately, your summary is bery delightful \o/ reading this made me even more excited to get into bsd knowing my mutual wnjoyed it, i loge media thats all about love and friendship and camaraderie and care and andnsksjdd fnfnf fng gkgkkf g love is the anawer narrative 🙏 ny saving grace.. i thinkni really will enjoy bsd based on your review

would you like me to liveblog my bsd watch / read here / in yr asks ? is ok if not for the latter dhhffbj would you recommend watching or reading first? i woulf prefer watching because sonetimes im not good at picking up on more subtle things in manga, but if the anome doesnt do the manga justice, id happily read th manga

#agagahagaga (swuishes atsushi and kunikida)#apllogiys my dleepiness is getitng the better of me so typos amgwlory #galore*#eepy eepy eepy asta #do naort be sorry.. u can bother me evysinfle day and i be happoy #astaposting #spicy 🪴

7 notes · View notes

daisyachain · 1 year

Text

I read Haruhi Suzumiya as a reaction to Evangelion specifically. Am I wrong? Maybe! Eva used and/or started a lot of real common tropes in anime/manga/light novels. The points I’ve got in my favour is that Nagato is explicitly a Rei clone (Ayanami and Nagato both being the names of battleships according to TvTropes). The jargon and mysterious vague organizations draw a more tenuous link (The Organization and the Data Thought Entity ring of NERV or SEELE). Kyon for his part is an anti-Shinji, an aggressively cynical and genre-aware protag instead of the most naive boy alive.

[[MORE]]

If Haruhi is an Eva parody, we’ve got a pretty easy Yuki = Rei and Haruhi = Asuka love triangle. Mikuru is harder, but Mikuru (big) has elements of Misato. Taniguchi and Kunikida are pretty clearly Toji and Kensuke. Random classmates whose names I always have to look up. Leaving, drumroll, Koizumi as Kaworu. No explanation needed there.

The closest Haruhi Suzumiya has to a running plot is Kyon and Haruhi’s romance. They butt heads, they barely seem to like each other, and every arc has to end with them reconciling or making some kind of choice that brings them closer together. Similar to Shinji/Asuka it kind of fills the role of Only They Can Deal With Each Other. Except it’s actually a fun little friendship instead of a dumb annoying godawful mess because I hate Eva and it’s a pain to even think about. They’re literally destined to be together via time loops and the very fabric of the universe as woven by Haruhi.

Only, the love polygon that was such a big part of the Eva (especially the fan response to Eva) is integrated into Haruhi despite the foregone conclusion. Disappearance is an in-universe KyonYuki AU. Kyon has to accept Yuki’s feelings and reject her advances to save the day. Kyon being horny for Mikuru is a recurring (annoying) plot point where an excess of attention or kindness towards her triggers whatever plot-driving conflict with Haruhi that is going to happen in that story.

So the closest thing to a recurring plot in Haruhi is the Kyon/Haruhi romance, and one of the major recurring complications (after Haruhi being an unmanageable nuisance) is Kyon straying from Haruhi. Both of the female SOS brigade members are threats to the endgame that Kyon has to deal with to win the day. Except—there’s a third SOS brigade member! Koizumi.

Koizumi’s a parody as much as a character played straight just like everyone else. He’s the soft-spoken ambiguously motivated bishie that starts with Kaworu but trickles down through a series of White Haired Anime Boys. Canonically he’s got a crush on Haruhi and handles it through OHS-prohibited levels of passive aggression and insinuating that Kyon is into her.

That’s not the whole story. There’s a running gag of Koizumi borderline flirting with Kyon like Kaworu does in his scenes. So! Just because of who he’s parodying, Koizumi is as much implied to have a thing for Kyon as Mikuru. Which means that following the structure of Haruhi, there has to be an arc where Kyon and Koizumi’s friendship is tested and leads to Kyon definitely choosing Haruhi over him. I don’t think it’s happened yet, because Koizumi never gets his own spotlight. Also hard to do, since Koizumi likes Haruhi as much as Kyon. The romantic conflict goes two ways.

What does set Koizumi apart from the girls isn’t his unavailability as a romantic interest, it’s the role he has in the plot. Mikuru, Haruhi, and Yuki rarely chat with Kyon. Mikuru is classified, Haruhi decrees instead of conversing, Yuki doesn’t say anything ever. Leaving Koizumi to handle most of the dialogue Kyon has with another person. He’s got a strong presence throughout the various stories despite not getting his spotlights (like Mikuru and Yuki) because someone has to talk about all the cool math stuff the author found in his old textbooks that day. He doesn’t need a colour story because he’s always there.

The closest thing we get to a Koizumi episode is the Surprise arc. It’s been a while since I reread, but I remember the climax being Kyon and Koizumi storming the school to rescue Haruhi from the anti-SOS. There’s no conflict separating them at any point in the arc, Koizumi isn’t ever tempted to join the anti-SOS or whatever. It just doesn’t line up with Yuki or Mikuru’s roles. I don’t think that there are ever going to be more Haruhi Suzumiya books after that one 2020 bunch, they’re just a silly few parody novels that occasionally have some adventure or puzzles. Still, it’s so obviously making fun of Eva that it feels wrong for it not to close the circle and have a short Kaworu story. For old times’ sake.

#kelsey liveblogs haruhi suzumiya

2 notes · View notes

dreamkidddream · 3 years

Note

So far of reading your writing, I really love it! :)) May I request Kunikida, Dazai and Ranpo having an younger member of the agency being a sort of subordinate of them but acts a lot like a younger sibling to them? She's just really pure hearted and soft and really looks up to them so she likes helping them out a lot. Just some fluff because my boys deserve all love and affection

Awww thank you so much for the compliment!! This request is so cute, and yes, all the boys deserve all the love and affection that is possible cause they go through too much 😭 Anon requested this as platonic, and reader is gender neutral. Also, I wasn’t too sure what the age should be, so I went with Kyoka’s age, which is 14. Hope you enjoy!

TW: Mentions of suicide in Dazai’s part, but nothing too heavy or specific is mentioned. It does get kinda sad though, but it has a happy ending. Also, slight spoiler for season 2/Dark Era Arc, but nothing too major

Young ADA Member Acting like a Younger Sibling to: Kunikida, Dazai, and Ranpo

Kunikida

Okay, so when you first started at the office, people (specifically Naomi and Junichiro) were nervous when you got paired up with Kunikida. And Kunikida isn’t a bad man by any means, but he can be very, very, very strict

And how well do rules stick with kids/younger people? Exactly. It just sounded like a bomb waiting to explode

And you look so soft and so sweet! What if he made you cry?!

Which Naomi threatened to draw blood if he did

Even Kunikida himself was nervous. This was not written in his notebook to be a glorified babysitter!

But the President insisted, putting faith into you that you’ll be a great addition to the team and that he can lead you on the right path and not into trouble like some people he won’t mention (Dazai)

That was all that he needed to hear, and he took those words very serious. He won’t let the President down, and he wasn’t going to let you down either. You guys were gonna give it your all, whether you were ready to or not

But, to everyone’s surprise (really his) you both adapted well. You treated him with respect, said yes sir, no sir, tidied up both of your desks (which were right next to each other), you even tried to abide by his stern schedule without any complaints

You were a great help on missions too, you didn’t recklessly throw yourself into danger, and you made sure to look out for citizens to keep them safe and out of danger

And that wasn’t it, oh no

You made sure to bring him snacks (atleast the ones that he said were ideal), made sure that he was keeping hydrated and not tensed up all the time (working in this office will do that to you), and to make his workload as light as possible

After seeing him go off on Dazai for the 1000th time and getting wound up over a case that wasn’t getting any leads, you saw how stressed and frustrated he was getting. Mumbling to himself about how could he “replace the President if he couldn’t do this right”So you tapped on your shoulder, with one goal in mind: To comfort him

When you tapped his shoulder, he turned and yelled, “WHAT NOW?!”, right into your face

Time stood still as everyone froze, shocked. Even Kunikida himself after he saw it was you.

He felt immediately guilty, about to apologize for losing his cool when you began speaking

“Mr. Kunikida, please don’t stress too much. It’s not good for your heart! And don’t let this one thing stop you! You’re a great leader, and someone that I look up to. I wouldn’t be where I was at now without you! So please don’t doubt yourself, because we don’t, especially me! You’re my role model, Mr. Kunikida. Please, don’t ever forget that.”

After that, it was like a flip switched in him

“(Y/N), come here and walk very slowly.”

You did so with no hesitation, but you were curious

“Your shoe is untied. Here, let me tie it for you. It wouldn’t be ideal if you get injured because of a lousy shoelace. It wouldn’t be ideal if you got injured at all.”

“(Y/N), we have lunch scheduled at exactly 12:15. They’re also serving your favorite today, so we can’t be late, understand?”

“Yes sir!”, you said with a smile

“(Y/N), let’s go. It’s getting dark and if you still want to see that dreaded light show, we have to leave in 20 seconds to make it! I don’t want to see you sad or hear you complain if we miss it.”

“Coming sir! Just finishing up some work for tomorrow-“

“I already have it written in my notebook on when it will be done, so we can go.”

“Here you go Mr. Kunikida, I already typed up and printed out the reports for later on!”

“Thanks kid. And you don’t have to keep calling me Mister okay? Kunikida is fine.”

Dead silent in the office

KUNIKIDA is letting someone way younger than him just call him KUNIKIDA? Not MR.KUNIKIDA???

Everyone is, realistically, shook

But as time went on, they understood why

He came to look after you as his own

The entire ADA would have never thought the day would come (it wasn’t even in the notebook!) where he would care for a kid like his little sibling but here it was, right in front of their faces

But they weren’t complaining at all. You seemed to make his day a little brighter, and he wasn’t as uptight as much (but don’t be mistaken he was still Kunikida, just at an 8 instead of a whole 10)

After that mini pep talk that fateful day, he made it his duty to be a good role model for you. To always set a good example, both in and out the office.

He wouldn’t fail you, and he would be damned if he let anything happen to you

You’re a good kid, and you only deserve the best. And he was gonna be the best role model (and brother) for you

Dazai

Aw man, he was..conflicted to say the least

Listen, it’s not like he hates kids or teens, but it’s just extra responsibilities to watch over them. And he already slacks off enough to begin with, so is this really a good idea sticking a 14 year-old with him?

And lowkey, the way that he treated Akutagawa is still heavy on his mind, and he doesn’t want a repeat

But the President made it so, and Kunikida was ready to attack if he even thought about denying the order. Plus, it could be like another Atsushi around (another person to pass work off too) so that was a win!

And another person to annoy Kunikida too

You looked so pure and innocent. Are you sure that you’re in the right place?

He genuinely thought you were a lost kid when you came up to him the first time lmao

Geez, you even sound sweet too! How has this world not damage or corrupt you yet?

“Hi Mr. Dazai! It’s nice to meet you. I hope that we can make a great team, and that I’m here to help if you need anything!”

“Nice to meet you too. And now that you mention it, these reports have been giving me a hard time...”

Not gonna lie, he did take advantage of your help. You offered, so why not? He thought you were gonna get sick of it soon and start complaining, but nope

You took his reports and did it with no hesitation every time. And you always handed it to him with a bright smile. On top of that, you always cleaned up his area and behind him, you did any leftover work that he ignored forgot to do so that he wouldn’t get yelled at, and tried to bring him small snacks and even packed a whole lunch for him when you noticed that he didn’t eat a lot

He even started to feel pretty bad and he was getting disapproving looks from his fellow detectives (even Kenji, and he never frowns)

So he started to take back and *GASP* actually do his work?!

But you stopped him, and told him that he should, “Take it easy! You work hard enough as it is saving the city. It’s no problem doing these reports, and I want to help you in any way I can, Mr. Dazai.”

“(Y/N), don’t worry, I can do them. And remember it’s just Dazai, calling me Mister makes me feel old like Kunikida-”

“I HEARD THAT!”

And it seemed like you really cared for his wellbeing, especially when you had to accompany him on missions

Well, it just so happen that while you were going with Atsushi to find Dazai to start a mission, you both found him

Hanging upside down, sinking to the bottom of the lake

You rushed into the water immediately, pulling him out and onto the ground while Atsushi was just standing there in disbelief

Atsushi is so done with his shit

“Dazai, can you hear me?! Dazai?! Atsushi, I gotta give him CPR I don’t think he’s-”

“(Y/N) don’t worry he’s okay! This isn’t his first time he’s done this, and probably not the last.”

“W-what do you mean?”

You didn’t know about Dazai’s suicide methods? Did he not tell you or talk about it in front of you? Atsushi would have been somewhat proud of him if this whole situation didn’t happen, but here we are

“Geez, guess this method isn’t for me. It seems like someone is bound to always inter- hm, (Y/N)? What are doing out of the office? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

You hugged his chest tightly, not caring that he was practically soaked down to the bone

“Please stop, Dazai! Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to leave everyone?! Why are you trying to leave ME?!”

That got his attention

“Your life is important, Dazai, too important to try and end it on your own terms! You’re special to me, I look up to you. You’re smart, funny, and you help everyone out in your own special way. If you weren’t here anymore, everyone would be so lost...I would be so lost..,I-I-I wouldn’t know what to do-”

“(Y/N)-”

You looked up, eyes red and puffy with tears rolling down your cheeks, but filled with determination

“I promise you that I will make sure you know how much you matter to everyone. I swear on my life that I will.”

Okay, so you know how you were helpful/adorable before? On a scale of 1-10, you were definitely at an 11. But Dazai felt like you were at a 20

At first, he thought that you weren’t being genuine. You were just a young kid who didn’t know any better and was just trying to do your job, in sickeningly, oversweet way. I mean, who would really care about him with his horrid past? He was convinced that you were just naïve, and that the world would swallow you whole when it gets the chance. And it made him feel pity for you

But you proved him wrong

You weren’t just some ignorant child. You were in this agency working alongside him for a reason. And you reminded him of that everyday when he saw you working, handling the cases, taking actions on missions, all the while being kindhearted through and through

You especially went out of way for him, and it was both a warm and scary feeling. People that he ended up caring for shared an undeserving fate, and he blamed himself for it constantly. So he tried to keep his distance, for your safety. You still had a life to live, and he didn’t want to ruin that for you.

But it was kinda hard to when you work together, and with you constantly being under his wing trying to show him the good in life and the difference that he made, he couldn’t help but admit it

You proved him wrong, and not a lot of people can say that.

You went out of your way to make sure that everyone was okay, mentally and physically. He didn’t want to admit it, but you made the office (and his life) a little bit more bearable when you were around. You’re a good kid. And it was so fun to rope you and sometimes Atsushi into his schemes lmao y’all can be so gullible sometimes

Unfortunately, he still planned to leave this world, but he tried not to talk about it in front of or around you, and his number of attempts did dwindle, so that was a good thing

“Hey (Y/N), let’s grab something to eat, I would be a terrible person if I let my dear little baby assistant go hungry.”

“Dazai, if you’re hungry, you can just say that. I don’t mind finishing this later. It’s good to eat when you need to, and your health is #1 priority!”

He couldn’t take back his past and the way he abused Akutagawa, but he could certainly make sure that he doesn’t make the same mistakes

And that would start with being a decent role model for you. He won’t exactly be a “model citizen”, but he will always do the right thing. He’s turned over a new leaf by turning to the light, and while his methods aren’t always legal, he won’t stray from it again

And he won’t let you stray either

Ranpo

He was not a happy camper at all, let me tell you

Hello, do you know who he is?? He’s the greatest detective in the world! Why would the President think he need a sidekick?! He saw you working under him as an insult. Were they trying to say that he wasn’t good enough on his own?!

You weren’t exactly welcome with open arms, but that was okay! You were a complete stranger to him, but you were hoping that would change overtime

And Fukuzawa offered to praise him if he took you in so he stopped pouting momentarily

“Hi Mr. Ranpo! I’ve heard great things about you, and I hope that we can get along!”

“Well, of course you’ve heard great things about me, I’m the greatest detective in the world! It would be a crime if you didn’t hear about me.”

It was a rocky start between you guys to say the least. Not only was he lazy with the work he already had (I mean, it was too easy for him), but you were always willing to complete it (which you did, when you realized that maybe he was too tired or had other important things to worry about)

Who are you trying to fool, this man was just being lazy

But you either didn’t realize it or you just purposely ignored it to get it done for the sake of the agency. Bless your pure heart for putting up with that poutyface

Despite that, you handled everything with positivity and pride. When discussing cases (even though he would solve it in under a minute), you already had the reports ready to go, took notes for him, and you even tidied up his desk (which really consisted of his snack pile)

And you were starting to grow on him. You were like his mini cheerleader/#1 fan. His ego was going through the roof

On missions, it was a piece of cake for him, duh! With his ability, Super Deduction, it was always easy. And you were in the background, in awe with everything going on. He wanted to say he was surprised, but he would be lying. It would be a downright lie if you said you weren’t impressed with his ability and with him in general.

You repeatedly praised him, and he always gave you the same response:

“World’s greatest detective, remember?”

The one thing that would cause him to see you in a new light, was when he got lost. You remembered Kunikida mentioning that he wasn’t the best at navigating the train system

He really said that Ranpo didn’t even know how to read the schedule, and that someone had to always walk with him to make sure he was going to the right places.

He just wanted to go back to the office to his beloved snacks, when this happened. He wasn’t stupid by any means, but it was a waste to use his ability on something trivial as this-

“Mr. Ranpo! Wait for me!”

Just as he knew, you were running late meeting him

“Hey (Y/N) what took you so long?! My beloved snacks are calling for me back at the agency, and I need to answer-”

“Don’t worry, I packed you some!”

“Yeah, I already knew that since that’s the reason you’re late. And before you ask, you look out of breath, the receipt is still crumpled in your hand, and I see some crumbs from something you already ate on your clothes.”

Huh. Was it that obvious? You guess so...

Or maybe Ranpo really is the world’s greatest detective!

“I know, I know. I’m the best, no need to tell-”‘

“Mr. Ranpo, you deserve all the praise that you get. You’re someone I want to be like when I get older.”

“Hm?”, there you go praising him again, but you were crying

“I feel like people don’t take you seriously like they should, Just because you don't fight like the others doesn’t mean that you’re not a valuable asset to the group! And I wish people saw you like how I do! You’re my inspiration to do my best everyday. And I know that I can’t be the best detective, but I want to be as strong and intelligent and brave just like you so I can save people and be a motivating hero like you!”

He’s silent, and your words are sinking in. You’re wiping away your tears, the start of an apology on the tip of your tongue, when he suddenly put his hand on top of your head

He’s staring right at you, glasses on and green eyes open for you to see

“You’re already on your way there (Y/N). That I know. And I’m never wrong with my deductions, let alone when using my ability.”

The flood gates have OPENED

You know that he doesn’t technically have an ability, but that doesn’t stop you from accepting his words and finding them as the truth. If Ranpo said it, he meant it. He was the world’s greatest detective, and you didn’t have any doubt in him

“Now let’s go, it’s going to start raining and I don’t want us to be hungry and drenched. Plus, Kunikida is totally freaking out and thinking that we’re both lost and in some criminal’s hideout right now.”

After that fateful day, the dynamic shifted between you two. Instead of you just doing the work, he pushed it off on someone else so he could explain to you about the different cases he had to solve, and other detective matters

Really he was just bragging and having you both slack off, but it didn’t matter you guys were still having fun

It even got to a point where he shared some snacks with you from his sacred snack pile

BOY WAS THAT THE TALK OF THE OFFICE

All in all, while he knew that you couldn’t be the greatest detective (that was his title after all), he would help you get to your goal regardless. Not that you would need a lot of extra help, he was watching over you after all, and you already have a good head on your shoulders along with the heart of a hero

Every Sherlock needs a Watson, and he deducted that it wasn’t too bad having you by his side

#bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs reader insert #bungou stray dogs x reader #bsd imagines #bsd headcanons #bungou stray dogs headcannons #bungou stray dogs #dazai x reader #ranpo x reader #kunikida x reader #dazai headcanons #ranpo headcanons #kunikida headcanons #bungou stray dogs imagines #platonic #platonic headcanons

750 notes · View notes

linklethehistorian · 2 years

Text

BSD Season 4 Reveal: Initial Impressions

Speculation and initial personal thoughts under the cut due to spoilers for the manga up to Chapter 95.5, and Storm Bringer (and also the Fifteen light novel and the previous anime seasons, but I should expect that’s a given by now and no longer requires a spoiler warning to begin with, since it’s been years).

Hello, everyone! It’s good to see you again! As I’m sure you all know, last night I was made aware of the announcement for BSD anime Season 4, and now that I’ve gotten some decent sleep and had some time to reflect on the announcement with a clearer and more alert mind, I’d like to share all of my initial musings on the matter with you — both positive and negative.

I actually do have a quite a few points I’d like to cover, so rather than going on one long, messy rant, I’m going to be separating them into different sections as per my two previous articles — here and here (the latter of which is still in progress) — on the animated series.

With that out of the way, let’s begin!

Season 4 Light Novel Adaption Expectations & Thoughts

Given the series’ at-times-beloved-and-at-other-times-disastrous past tradition of including a light novel adaption into each season of the anime, I do think it should go without saying that the speculation on which one, if any, will get chosen to be “brought to life” through the TV series this time is a very valid avenue for anyone to want to go down immediately upon finding out that there is going to be yet another season.

Personally, I don’t think any speculative analysis of a new season is complete without that kind of banter, so let’s explore the possibilities and what exactly they each entail, shall we?

Ordinarily, I would have tended to go on a longer ramble about the situation and all of its implications than I actually will this time around, but thankfully, most of what I’ve already said and the reasoning I’ve already laid out in my speculative article on the previous season still holds up, so today, I will mostly just be building off of that, instead. (If you haven’t read that already, I do highly recommend reading it before you finish this mini-article, but it isn’t strictly necessary, for I’ll probably quote or summarize most of the important parts here.)

As stated there, while there are, in fact, still many light novels to cover in the anime before we’ll have seen them all — Untold Story, 55 Minutes, BSD Gaiden, BEAST, and the at-the-time-unknown-of Kunikida and Katai's Magnificent Days short story and Storm Bringer — when we take into account informative relevance to the current arc and all previous seasons, we are really left with only a few possibilities.

BSD Gaiden, being a spinoff in its own right, is, if anything, better suited to being a movie — or better yet, becoming its own spinoff animated series, sometime in the distant future, and has nothing of major relevance to contribute to the main series at all at present.

BEAST, while informative in some ways about the Book that is so highly sought after and semi-used in Season 4′s arc(s), is honestly the farthest of all light novels from being necessary to introduce into the main animated series. To quote the aforementioned piece I wrote prior to Season 3′s release:

Yes, [...] I too agree that the things this novel brings to light about the Book and its functionality are almost as insightful and compelling as the very premise itself; however, [...] in the end, this story is an AU and therefore has the least necessity to be brought into the animated series in any way, and I’m quite sure that if any of the information from it regarding the Book is truly essential to the main series, it will be brought up at some point within those events on its own, as I can’t imagine that Asagiri would ever leave critical information only within what otherwise would appear to be an entirely optional side story/spinoff. [...]

If BEAST is to be animated at some point at all [...] I feel that it would be best served [...] as its own standalone movie, probably ideally released sometime after our hypothetical Season 4, which should be fairly Book-centric in itself.

Furthermore, now that BEAST has its very own, fully-fledged live-action movie coming out, as much as I may enjoy the idea of seeing it animated someday, I really don’t think that that will — or even should — be taken into consideration anytime in the near future, when there are many other novels already waiting to get their chance to come to life in a movie or TV series that haven’t gotten such special treatment or privileges.

In regards to the Kunikida and Katai's Magnificent Days short story, I’ll admit that is the novel (if it is to be called such) I know the least about at present, but from what I do know about it, although it does star two characters who appear in both Season 3 and Season 4, it also doesn’t seem to establish anything of critical importance to either of these seasons, or the main story as a whole. Thus, I feel that placing it as this season’s light novel adaption — although it may be able to be squeezed into a very small number of episodes with no issue, from what I understand, if not just one — would be a waste of both time and opportunity, if they’re determined to keep with this tradition; I think it would really just be better off being adapted as a bonus OVA of some sort later on, if they felt the need to animate it, as I frankly don’t feel it’s long enough or high-stakes enough to be worthy of an entire movie, however cute or touching it may be. As for 55 Minutes, while I do think it’s one of the better candidates out of the bunch to be chosen, my feelings about it ultimately still remain as they did over two years ago: that it would be best relegated to a movie, either released sometime between the previous season and Season 4, or — given the better understanding I obviously have of Season 3′s contents now — between Season 4 and a potential Season 5, depending on how far into the manga we truly go in this season (more on that question in the next section).

If you would like to know more about my reasoning for why I think 55 Minutes could be considered a good candidate to go alongside Season 4′s (or a potential Season 5′s) main arc(s) at all, you can read about that in my previous article’s section on the subject, as well why I think that although it is a good candidate, between it and Untold Story, the latter is really a much better fit to be integrated directly into the new episodes. As much as I would like to talk about that again here, I think it would just be a massive waste of time to merely (and probably poorly) re-iterate what I’ve already said and documented very well in the past, when that information is presently available for you to go back and read at any time.

Now, with all of the above eliminated from the running, that ultimately leaves us with the two possibilities I think are most feasible for them to choose: Untold Story and Storm Bringer.

Oh, and I know, I know — I can hear the metaphorical stones being cast at me already; how dare I mention Storm Bringer as an option above all those older novels for them to pick? I’m clearly just biased and want to see more of my favorite character/story getting animated, or I must be a Soukoku shipper (I’m personally not, by the way), or some such thing; go ahead, get it out of your systems, I know it’s probably in there from the moment you read that, but, if you do think any of that, you’re actually very highly mistaken...sadly.

I would love to have listed Storm Bringer of my own volition, because I’m “biased” and excited about it; that would definitely be a more fun reason for me to have done it, personally, but...that’s not remotely the case.

In actuality, if I got to choose between the two novels in regards to which would get to be this Season’s light novel representation in the anime, I would actually still choose Untold Story, just as I did for the then-hypothetical Season 4 I explored the possibility of prior to Season 3′s release.

To quote myself during that time, I still very much do believe that:

[...] yes, [...] you could absolutely adapt Untold Story into season three, and yes, it would give everyone even more information than they already had and perhaps even more reason to feel the way they already do about [Fukuzawa and Ranpo and their bond], but if you’re looking for the story to actually have an impact on anything, you would be better off waiting until it would have some kind of effect on the overall plot, provide some form of insight towards it, and aid in altering the way things are perceived; an opportunity which is clearly presented to us in the form of the manga’s Chapter 65 and Chapter 66 — which, in the anime, would manifest themselves as episodes within Season 4.

In these chapters, it is shown how Fukuzawa fought Mori for the freedom of the young Yosano Akiko and how he and Ranpo together gave her the chance to join the Armed Detective Agency as its second ever member.

If Untold Story were to be introduced at the beginning of Season 4 or even well into it, just before these episodes, it would have a very heavy impact on the overall story, and it would lend even more importance and depth towards all of the characters that are involved, while also displaying the extreme contrast between the methods, morals, and personalities of the two heads of the series’ leading organizations to an even greater degree than ever before.

I still stand by what I said there, now and forever; Untold Story is without question the light novel that has a place in these new episodes — that is not, and never was up, for debate.

The real question is, though, does Studio BONES feel the same way about it as I do?

I’d love to say “yes, absolutely!”, but the reality is that despite technically getting what I wished for and knew could have been best last Season, it was that same ‘granting’ of my wish in the way that they did — butchering and bloodying it beyond recognition and removing nearly all of the reasons why I thought it belonged in that season in the first place in favor of rampant fanservice — that opened my eyes to the very harsh reality that quite frankly, BONES cares more about raking in that sweet, sweet cash from SKK content than preserving narrative integrity, at the end of the day.

Trust me, being the dedicated and passionate Fifteen and Arthur Rimbaud/Randou fan that I am, I would love to be able to say that if they do choose Storm Bringer over Untold Story, it would at least all be for the right reasons of wanting to deliver on giving us the rest of the tale they presented to us last season, but that motive is an utter impossibility, even if they someday try to claim it, when the way they butchered Fifteen ensured that at least 70% of the plot and lore that actually mattered in Storm Bringer was destroyed beyond redeeming, unless they go back and redo it — which they won’t, because that would be admitting to their error.

As things stand right now, because of that fact, even as a fully-fledged, several hour animated movie, Storm Bringer would be an utter disaster of a film, much less as a 400+ page beast of a novel — more than three times the size of any light novel before it, including its predecessor— crammed into the space of 3-4 measly episodes in the television series.

Quite frankly, although I fear this may sadly be a very hot take, unless that miracle happens and they somehow, someday decide to abandon their pride and redo Fifteen correctly, I would really rather they never touched its sequel at all — even if that means I never get to see an animated Storm Bringer; I would rather never see it in that medium than to see it and have it butchered.

Unfortunately, though, I know all too well that that novel is much too tempting for them to resist forever; not because of the amazing, deep, beautiful, simultaneously tragic and hopeful story it can tell, or because of the well-written cast of characters, but because of the opportunity for fanservice it brings.

I am not delusional; I know that it will be animated at some point — whether that is now or later — and when it is, it will be a pitiful, cash-grabbing disaster that has no right to share its title with the novel from which it claims to have been born. The only question we have is “when is that going to happen — in Season 4, or later?”, and sadly, I don’t have an answer to that.

Personally, I see a high probability they will try to animate it soon, but whether or not that means including it in the upcoming season is anyone’s guess; all we can do right now is hope that if they do try to fit a light novel into it, it will be Untold Story, instead.

The Hunting Dogs Dilemma: A Concerned Exploration of Season Length & Exhausted Resources

Of course, that brings us to the next issue: should there even be a light novel adaption this season? I know this is a much-debated topic in the fandom, but personally, I have always been of the highly controversial opinion that yes, they do belong there — at least, until now, and that’s all thanks to a little something — and a good many someones — present on the newest poster.

While I may be just as excited for the new season as the next person — yes, despite my reservations and how my initial public reaction may have come off, I actually am looking forward to the new episodes in general — the very fact that we’re apparently getting so far into the arc as to see the Hunting Dogs and the Aerial Casino period, much less on the main illustration...concerns me.

I had honestly hoped and expected, for several reasons that I will elaborate on within this post in just a short while from now, that the Season would end on the Chapter in which the Hunting Dogs first arrive on the scene in their pods, after the Armed Detective Agency is ‘revealed’ to supposedly be the Decay of Angels via the use of the Book.

With the revelation now shown to me that it will apparently be going farther than that — and potentially still include a light novel adaption — we are once again forced to return to the age-old query we explored last season: just how many episodes does this season intend to have?

Up until now, every season in the Bungou Stray Dogs anime has had a total of 12 episodes on average, and it would be very logical to assume that Season 4 is going to be no different. Yet, if that’s true, how exactly do they intend to fit all of these chapters into one season? It’s utterly ludicrous to even dream of doing such a thing — and that’s without taking any potential chosen LNs into account; without that, it’s already impossible, but with it, it’s even more so!

Perhaps if they decided to do a 24 episode season and forego the LN adaptation — which I find highly unlikely, but let’s go ahead and give them the benefit of the doubt for a moment — it could somehow work, but even then, the question remains of just how far they intend to go with the arc. Ending it at the point just before the Hunting Dogs are all introduced would have made sense; it was logical, it left a cliffhanger for a potential fifth season that would leave viewers definitely wanting more, and it would leave a fair amount of content already in existence for that next season.

Try as I might, I just cannot begin to fathom what good can come of trying to cover much more than that in Season 4; where will they end it? Do they intend to finish the entire current arc in this season somehow, when at the time of writing this, the ending isn’t even out yet? How do they intend to cram all of that into just 24 episodes, let alone a potential 12? Hell, what do they even intend to do for a Season 5 if they push that far and leave themselves few to no current manga chapters left once they’re done with and release the season? To exhaust all of your current resources like that, when you could easily get away with shoving in a light novel adaption and ending Season 4 at the aforementioned logical spot, with plenty of content left to spare, just seems entirely reckless on their part.

I have all of these questions, and absolutely no answers to give; it isn’t sustainable, it isn’t wise, it isn’t even profitable, and it confuses me beyond belief.

Season 5: To Be or Not to Be — A Look into the Potential Future of an Animated Series that Has Spread Itself Too Thin

So, if all of this is true, and they intend to push through to the eventual defeat of Fukuchi and the Decay of Angels, what awaits us at the end of it all? Is there even hope for the animated series to easily continue and thrive beyond that point?

I want to be positive, to end this on some spectacular final section that gives all of my readers — my fellow BSD fans — hope, to have my words be like a warm, friendly pat on the back that says “don’t worry; everything is going to be just fine! ^-^”, but if I intend to continue to be honest, all I can really do is try to look at the statistics of the situation and offer up the most likely probability as a potential answer, and from where I’m standing right now, it...sadly isn’t looking very good.

True, it did take them a little more than two years to announce the anime this time — definitely a bit longer than the length of time between Season 2′s and Season 3′s announcement, comparatively — but even so, if they want to continue this pattern of averaging a new season every 2-3 years (supposing Season 4 doesn’t jump the shark with this new, bold tactic and actually does well enough to warrant another season at all), will they even have enough new content to make by the time a Season 5 would roll around? Honestly? I don’t know the answer to that; every arc has been a different length — some longer than others, and this current Decay of Angels one definitely being the longest of them all yet, spanning over a whopping 50 chapters long and counting. We don’t know how long the next arc will be; it could be 16 like the smallest arc to date, it could be around 20 like the average arc seemed to be up until this point, or it could even be as many as this arc or more.

Even if we are optimistic and say that the next arc could be as low as 16-20 chapters long, when we factor in that the current arc hasn’t even ended as of writing this, and seems to at least have another 10 chapters to go before the end — if not way more — that’s still a good 26-30 chapters of content that needs to be produced before Season 4 can be finished, and Season 5 can be remotely feasible.

To quote my previous article:

A new chapter of the BSD manga comes out once a month in the Young Ace magazine; this means that in one year, barring any potential breaks, a total of 12 chapters are released.

If we presume that Season 4 comes out sometime next year, that could be enough for this arc to have ended in the manga just before its premier, but definitely not enough time for much of anything else to have been produced. Assuming Season 4 could span anywhere from 3-6 months depending on how many episodes it contains, by the time it ends, around 3-6 new chapters of the new arc could potentially exist, should Asagiri-sensei and Harukawa35-sensei take no breaks; that would mean they would still have to wait at least another year to a year and a half to have enough content to even begin talks about a potential Season 5, then probably spend another year or so working out the specifics before making the announcement, and then it could take potentially another half-year to a year before it’s out. That’s three to three and a half years for the next season; it’s not undoable by any means, but definitely not the most ideal situation ever.

If the next arc is longer, however, and reaches, say, 30 chapters, you’re looking at a good four and a half years before we get a Season 5, after Season 4 ends, and even longer than that if it becomes as impressively long as the current arc and they intend to do the entire thing in one go again.

Could the animated series stay relevant enough to survive another four and a half or more years without another season after this? Potentially, it could, supposing they make Season 4 really good somehow, despite these concerns, and keep the series in anime-only people’s hearts and minds by possibly renewing BSD Wan! for another season, and/or releasing new movies in the meantime (whether original content or LN-based), but once again, it’s certainly not ideal and could prove to be a major struggle for them in the future.

All I can really say is for now is to hope for the best, even if, like me, you manage your expectations so much that you are actually expecting the worst-case scenario. As I’ve said before, I actually do love the anime very much, save for the handling of the Fifteen adaption, and I do hope that it can live on and continue to be as great as it has, in my opinion, almost always been besides that.

I am, above all, thankful for this new season, and hope it is everything we dream of, even though I may not have the most positive outlook at the moment for all of the aforementioned reasons. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading my initial thoughts on Season 4; I feel like they’re certainly not as well-articulated as usual, but it is the best I can do on short notice, and without allowing myself to obsess over re-writing it a million times before finally getting around to posting it weeks or months later.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a wonderful day. 💖

Oh and BONES? Hands off Storm Bringer. 👀 🔪

33 notes · View notes

aspoonofsugar · 4 years

Note

What do you think might hypothetically happen in the future to cause Chuuya to break with Mori?

Hello anon!

It is difficult to say for sure and the best I can do is to try and underline some themes which might be linked to Chuuya’s character and which might be used in a potential character arc.

As for now, Chuuya has received some focus, but said focus has yet to properly be finalized I think. That said, I think that the focus he received is coherent and fits with his character arc in Fifteen which is the work where he receives proper development (as he will in Storm Bringer oc). In short, I think that the two novels which tell his story are gonna be very important for the future of his character and so far what we know of him in the manga should be considered together with the info the novels gave and will give.

This is the premise I will use in this analysis. Because of this, I invite people to take everything I say with a grain of salt because in the end everything will have to be confirmed by the manga itself if and when Chuuya will be given focus.

THE GUILD ARC: SLEEPING BEAUTY AND THE DRAGON

If Q is Sleeping Beauty, then I would say that Lovecraft is the dragon keeping watch:

What is important is that both Q and Lovecraft can be linked to different parts of Chuuya he refuses to aknowledge.

Generally speaking, Yumeno and Lovecraft are two characters who are linked:

First of all, both Yumeno and Lovecraft are representative of the horror genre and they are both associated with the montrousity, but in different ways. Yumeno’s monstrousity is linked to the mind and to one’s interioriy, while Lovecraft is monstrous because he is not properly human and so he is far stronger than humans and somehow difficult to properly understand.

As stated above, they represent two kinds of monstrous and this is true also in regards to Chuuya.

On one hand Q is a victim of a system Chuuya is helping to perpetrate. His reaction in this scene:

is interesting for two reasons.

1) It is interesting because it seems to contrast his behaviour in Fifteen. As a matter of fact, Chuuya used to protect a bunch of children who decided to ally in order to fight a society which wanted to exploit them. However, as an adult Chuuya has become part of a group who does the exploiting.

2) It is interesting because it confirms a trait Chuuya has had since Fifteen and which has not changed since. This trait is Chuuya’s tendency to see others either as a part of his group or as outsiders. He is as ruthless against outsiders as caring to his people.

In short, it is interesting to see how Chuuya has both changed and not changed.

Chuuya’s change stems from this experience:

In Fifteen we are shown that Chuuya puts a lot of importance in trust, but ironically he doesn’t really understand it. As a matter of fact Sheep’s betrayal is born by the fact that both Chuuya and the members of Sheep are not able to trust each other in key moments:

The members of Sheep do not trust Chuuya’s allegiance and fall for Dazai’s trap, but at the same time Chuuya too is not trusting his comrades with his past. All in all he gives them zero explanation as to why he is so fixated in working together with the mafia to find Arahabaki. This is of course because in the end the relationship between Chuuya and his comrades was a superficial one despite how much grateful Chuuya was to them for having let him into the group and how much he cared for them.

In short, in Fifteen even if Chuuya talks about comraderie he ends up betrayed and he himself is not able to trust and to depend on his comrades. This is why he ends the novel by embracing a more utilitaristic point of view:

Sheep’s betrayal has shown him that a romantic vision of the world can’t always lead to a good result and that strength alone is not enough. This is why he chooses to swear loyalty to Mori who embodies a pragmatic vision of the world and strategic thinking.

At the same time, his choice to swear loyalty to Mori and so to put all his trust in him is interesting because the one between him and Mori is all in all a relationship ruled by a hierarchy. Chuuya is Mori’s subordinate and not really his equal exactly like Chuuya was the Sheep’s leader and not their equals. This is something Fifteen puts some focus on:

Even if Chuuya insists that he and the other members of Sheep all share the same amount of importance and influence within the organization, this is clearly false. All in all Chuuya is much stronger than them to the point that he becomes the one everyone depends on and that him possibly leaving the organization is enough to threathen the survival of the group.

In conclusion, it is interesting that Chuuya starts Fifteen by putting emphasis on the fact that he is not the leader of his group and so by refusing a hierarchical relationship with his comrades. However, in the end of Fifteen he fully embraces a hierarchical relationship with Mori and enters an organization which is all built on hierarchies and ranks:

This is an interesting change and we’ll go back to it in the last section of this analysis.

Let’s now focus on the parts of Chuuya which have not changed and on why they have stayed the same.

The reason Chuuya has not changed is this:

Just to be clear Storm Bringer might give us new information and change things (after all, it is supposed to end Chuuya’s arc in the past), but as for now, I think that it is safe to assume Chuuya has still to properly come to terms with his identity as Arahabaki, whatever that is. All in all he perceives himself as a mass of power closed inside a human body. This is why he needs to feel accepted by others in order to affirm his humanity. So he ends up joining large organizations and ties who he is to said groups. I think that a good way to illustrate this is to compare Chuuya’s way of dressing when he was in Sheep:

To the one he has now as a member of the mafia:

The two styles are so different that they are almost opposite. What is more, in both cases Chuuya ends up adopting a style which is almost stereotypical of respectively a street rat and a mafia member. Let’s also highlight that the story often makes fun of Chuuya’s sense of fashion:

And I like to interpret Chuuya being overly self-conscious when it comes to his appearance as a sign that he is actually trying to fit as well as he can.

In short, according to this reading, Chuuya’s sense of self is very frail because he struggles to reconcile the “monstrous” part of himself.

Lovecraft is symbolic of this part of Chuuya:

The manga doesn’t make it explicit, but once Chuuya’s background is known it becomes difficult not to compare Chuuya and Lovecraft. After all, both are linked to supernatural beings/forces since Lovecraft is clearly hinted to be one of the Old Ones and Chuuya is the safety device to keep Arahabaki in check. It is true that we don’t really know what Arahabaki truly is. It might be an old deity like Lovecraft is hinted to be or an artificial ability or a combination of the two. It doesn’t really matter because what matters if that Chuuya himself perceives this part of himself as something inhuman and monstrous. This is exactly what Lovecraft represents.

Even the fact that Dazai’s power doesn’t work on Lovecraft is interesting:

Despite how much it frustrates Chuuya, Dazai’s No Longer Human is what manages to keep Chuuya in check and what is able to bring him back when he is too far gone in his desire of destruction. However, Lovecraft is someone who can’t be brought back by Dazai no matter what. In short, he is really what Chuuya is mostly scared of becoming.

In conclusion, Chuuya’s battle against Lovecraft to save Q can be seen as a possible way his arc might turn out shown to us in a nutshell. Chuuya needs to save Q aka to act on his wish to protect those weaker than him that he has shown in Fifteen, but in order to do so he has to fight Lovecraft aka to face his own insecurity and vulnerability about Arahabaki.

THE CANNIBALISM ARC: OLD GRUDGES

In the section above it has been underlined how Chuuya has both changed and not changed since Fifteen. This section will instead try to figure out the entity of this change and how deep Chuuya’s transformation in Fifteen is.

I have talked of Chuuya’s role in Cannibalism in this meta:

In Cannibalism the leaders of the two organizations are out of commission. However, the two people who are supposed to temporally lead the two groups fail in almost opposite ways. Chuuya is too aggressive in his leadership and ends up in a trap because of his personal feelings, whereas Kunikida’s leadership is too weak. After all, by the end the majority of the agency prefers to fight the mafia head on together with Ranpo instead of continuing the investigation with Kunikida. And even when it comes to the investigation it is Atsushi the one who insists on it while Kunikida can’t choose between the two options given to him. We can say that Chuuya doesn’t consider other options and so doesn’t think enough, while Kunikida thinks too much to the point that he is stopped in his tracks.

What is more, the arc makes perfectly clear that both Chuuya and Ranpo are two people who still depend a lot from respectively Mori and Fukuzawa aka the adults who took them in as kids and that they see as role models. It is because of this that the two fight and this almost leads to the destruction of the city and of both organizations.

As my quote above makes clear, Chuuya ends up foiling both Kunikida and Ranpo in this arc. He foils Kunikida as far as their flaw at leading others is concerned and he foils Ranpo when it comes to their dependence on their respective leaders.

I have talked about the foiling with Kunikida above, so let’s now focus on Chuuya’s foiling with Ranpo.

All in all both Chuuya and Ranpo are motivated by the desire to save an authority/father figure. They might go at it differently, but when all is said and done, they are both ready to sacrifice everything else just to have Fukuzawa and Mori back. We know Ranpo’s motivations:

All in all the agency is Ranpo’s home and a place where he has been accepted despite his quirks. We can infer from this foiling and what I discussed in the previous section that the mafia is the same for Chuuya. In the end, Ranpo and Chuuya’s conflict during Cannibalism has nothing to do with Yokohama’s future and which organization has to survive. It is simply a conflict born from personal feelings and desires.

However, by that point Ranpo has started his development, as I have written here, and he manages to use what he has learnt in the previous arc to his advantage:

Ranpo uses the connection he has made with Poe to fight against Chuuya. As I have stated in the meta I linked, the fact that Chuuya is dragged in a fantasy world is not something which happens by chance:

It is also interesting that both times Ranpo’s opponents ended up in a setting which challenged them by playing with their flaws. As it was shown above, Mushitarou had to admit his feelings for Yokomizo, while Chuuya who relies on his power too much found himself in a world without abilities.

These two situations occurred because Ranpo needed to win against his opponents, but at the same time he has been using Poe’s power which is representative of fiction in general to challenge people in a way which could have helped them grow.

Chuuya relies on strength and on his ability too much, so it makes sense that Ranpo brings him in a fictional world where abilities do not exist and that he forces Chuuya in a fight of wits. However, this is not the first time Chuuya has been warned about his over-reliance on violence and on his ability:

Fifteen is basically about Chuuya’s failure to win with only his strength and by the end of it he accepts the limits of his approach and chooses to depend on Mori to integrate the parts he lacks. However, after seven years he finds himself struggling with the same problem as before.

What is more, this is not the only thing Chuuya has failed to solve since Fifteen:

At the end of that story, Chuuya asks Mori what it means to be a leader and realizes the limits of his own leadership. So Chuuya wants to improve his leadership, but once he is given the chance to lead again after years he has still trouble with it.

In short, Chuuya has still the same problems he used to have in Fifteen even if he were supposed to have partly overcome them at the end of the novel. This means that Chuuya has not changed as much as it seems. This is the case because Chuuya’s change in Fifteen is superficial and doesn’t involve his most deep parts (the ones symbolized by Lovecraft):

Rimbaud’s words are meaningful on an existential level and Chuuya should accept them completely in order to go on. However, the fact that he has undergone a superficial change, but has kept his chore attributes suggests that he has yet to completely go through a complete transformation.

Finally, another example of Chuuya’s failure to grow is given by the comparison between these two scenes:

Chuuya claims that he is not motivated by old grudges, but in the end he loses specifically because he can’t overcome his contradictive feelings for Dazai. In short, he loses because he can’t let go of an old grudge.

Let’s highlight that old grudges are mentioned also in the Guild Arc:

What is more, they are mentioned in relation to Chuuya and Dazai’s partnership since their alliance is said to have the potential to make up for old grudges/can happen only if old grudges are overcome. The whole thing is interesting because all in all Chuuya and Dazai’s relationship is built on a mix of old grudges, affinity and deep knowledge born from the long time they were forced to spend together.

In synthesis, in Fifteen Chuuya has apparently changed everything. He changed group and ideology, he even accepted the importance of strategy and hierarchy, but he has not overcome the idea that he is different from others. This idea goes in the way of his relationships with others and of his own self-realization. From this, it stems that Chuuya has to solve his past in order to gorw and one of the most important parts of his past is represented by his relationship with Dazai.

CHUUYA AND DAZAI: THE DIFFICULTIES OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEERS

Let’s have a brief summary of what was said up until now. I have argued that the guild Arc offers us an idea of what Chuuya’s objective should be, while Cannibalism shows Chuuya’s major flaws. In both arcs it is clear the importance Dazai has for Chuuya’s character. On one hand it is thanks to Dazai’s help that Chuuya manages to win against Lovecraft. On the other hand it is his anger about Dazai which leads Chuuya in Ranpo’s trap.

Because of this, let’s talk a little about Dazai and Chuuya’s relationship.

First of all, it is interesting how their relationship turns out in Fifteen, especially in comparison to Chuuya’s relationship with Mori. I have mentioned above that Chuuya swearing loyalty to Mori is an attempt Chuuya does to change and to integrate the parts he lacks. What is interesting is that many of those qualities Mori has and Chuuya values about him are qualities Dazai shares as well. As a matter of fact Dazai is even smarter and more calculative than Mori and it is precisely this which makes his combination with Chuuya so powerful. In short, Dazai and Chuuya are clearly complementary because they have opposite weaknesses and strengths and it is Dazai himself the one who shows Chuuya how dangerous his weaknesses can be. However, in the end Chuuya chooses to depend on Mori rather than on Dazai. This is obviously because of many factors the novel explores, but I would just like to highlight that an interesting difference between these two relationships is that the one between Mori and Chuuya is hierarchical, while the one between Chuuya and Dazai is not.

All in all, Chuuya and Dazai are peers and this is why their relationship ends up being different from the other ones Chuuya has. As I have said in the first section, Chuuya’s relationship with the members of Sheep ended up being asymmetric because of Chuuya’s incredible strength. However, Dazai is not scared by Chuuya’s ability or by his prowess and manages to stand up to him using his wits and his own ability:

At the same time, Chuuya refuses any attempt Dazai makes to force him into a position of submission:

Basically, each one wants to dominate the other in some way, but since they are too good at such opposite things they fail to do so and their relationship maintains its equilibrium. In short, Chuuya is so strong that he survives Dazai’s schemes and Dazai is so intelligent that he can escape Chuuya’s attempts to hurt him.

It is precisely because of this equality that their relationship ends up being so conflictual and so potentially enriching at the same time:

In the end Dazai is the one who is there to listen to Chuuya’s past and not any member of Sheep. Similarly, Chuuya is there to hear Dazai express his will to live:

Even when it comes to “trust” which is such a key concept for Chuuya’s character, the novel emphasizes how Chuuya has to trust Dazai in order to win against Rimbaud. Of course this “trust” is complicated because both boys end up hurting each other respectively at the beginning and at the end of Fifteen:

In short, the relationship between Dazai and Chuuya is a double edge sword. On one hand they empower each other and this is why their combo is so effective, but at the same time they hurt each other. This ambivalence is something which happens both because they are so opposite and because they end up reminding each other of what they do not want to face about themselves:

This is Dazai and Chuuya’s first meeting in the manga. The ways they call each other is interesting and it represents what they can’t stand about the other.

On one hand Chuuya emphasizes how Dazai is obsessed by the idea of taking his own life. On the other hand Dazai mocks Chuuya’s looks and his clothes. They have both singled out each other’s major flaws and they are highlighting them. As a matter of fact Dazai’s major struggle is to find meaning in his own life, while Chuuya has the tendency to modify his looks to fit in. At the same time, though, their dislike for these traits of the other underlines something deeper they both try to hide from themselves.

On one hand Chuuya has a self-destructive tendency exactly like Dazai:

On the other hand Dazai’s wish is to connect with others and he is scared he can’t exactly like Chuuya:

Their similarities and differences are efficiently conveyed also through their designs.

As a matter of fact both Chuuya and Dazai wear things symbolic of the barriers and the limits they impose on themselves:

Chuuya wears gloves and Dazai wears bandages. Chuuya’s gloves represent Chuuya’s attempt to hide his inhuman parts. All in all they are nothing but something superficial which are meant to hide and suppress his destructive potential. Dazai’s bandages are representative of the barriers Dazai puts between himself and others because of his fear of being hurt. Both pieces of cloths show that Dazai and Chuuya hides parts of themselves from others.

At the same time, Chuuya and Dazai have also shown opposite behaviours towards another important piece of clothing they were given:

Chuuya keeps Rimbaud’s hat with a lot of care, while Dazai has left Mori’s coat behind. This opposite behaviour symbolizes their opposite reactions to the mafia and to their father figures as a whole. Chuuya clings to his (both to Mori and to Rimbaud’s memory), while Dazai is trying to cut all ties he has with his. It is probable that in the end Chuuya will have to finally make himself independent and to grow, while Dazai will have to finally face his past and resolve his unsolved issues.

How will the two of them do it?

I do not specifically know, but I think that it is clear Dazai’s arc revolves around Atsushi and Akutagawa who are the two most important characters linked to his arc. He will probably have to help the both of them and to solve his conflict with Akutagawa before the end. Through this conflict he may have to solve also his problems with the mafia in general.

As far as Chuuya is concerned (and we are finally arriving at your question), I think that whatever will happen to him it will have something to do with Dazai. After all, Dazai is the most important character in Chuuya’s arc, so it makes sense that in order to develop Chuuya will have to solve his contradictive feelings towards him. If he does so, Chuuya has the chance to finally grow, while if he doesn’t it won’t matter how much he changes superficially. As a matter of fact it will be just like him changing clothes and won’t lead to any substantial transformation.

Thank you for the ask!

#bsd #bsd meta #chūya nakahara #dazai osamu #chuya bsd #bsd chuuya #dazai bsd #bsd dazai #soukoku #bungou stray dogs #asksfullofsugar #anonymous #my meta

368 notes · View notes

cyanoscarlet · 4 years

Note

20/20 vision ☀️🎁 "He’s being saved again, comes the rueful thought. How many times does that make it, now?" The sheer *clenches fist* BACKGROUND in this line, how DARE you dani. This is the line that spawned my train of thought, I hope you're happy. Reducing me to angstful tears as I think about backstories and the potential in a hospital.

...... Aiyah...... (breaks into nervous sweats)

I’ll preface this with the fact that 20/20 vision, too, was a product of post-duty chaotic-brain-ing while on a coffee high, so thank you again! THANK YOU so much. Forever over the moon over this! <3

List of fic asks here!

He’s being saved again, comes the rueful thought. How many times does that make it, now?

20/20 vision, bungou stray dogs

(In which Chuuya is an ophthalmologist, Dazai is his optometrist, and they slowly fall in love.)

☀️ - Was there any symbolism/motifs you worked in?

Apart from the obvious references to eyes, some of the other passages used in this story are, indeed, metaphors for certain aspects of Dazai and Chuuya’s relationship, as well as Chuuya’s developing feelings for Dazai— many of them I’ve only derived from rereading this fic again and again just now, you’ll note!

Just a few major ones among the many:

The business proposition - Dazai does mean it literally, but yeah, he’s also taken interest in Chuuya himself, and wants them to be in a relationship. Chuuya himself is at first tolerant, then accepting of it, which runs parallel to his growing thoughts and feelings for Dazai. The way he keeps track of how many times Dazai has said this now is indicative of that. He is still hesitant, of course— be it due to confusion or to career-related reasons, but Dazai is and will always be willing to wait for Chuuya, hence the gentle, persistent reminder every time he visits.

Also, yes, the ending part in which Chuuya calls back to this is totally him saying ‘yes’ to Dazai— tantamount to a love confession, if you will. The essence of that whole last conversation, in light of everything that has happened before it, makes the story come full circle in its own way. There is always something sweet about saying ‘I love you’ without actually saying it, and the symbolism of the business proposition works really well for this whole purpose.

The spare glasses - It reflects both Dazai’s long-term familiarity with (everything about) Chuuya at this point, and the fact that no matter what, Chuuya will always have a safe space (home) with Dazai himself, eye problems and friendship and everything in between. You have Chuuya ruminating on his pride and principles and admitting his own faults, and he can just be all of that— that is, himself, when he is with Dazai. And Dazai knows this, too: “You didn’t have to ask, you know.”

The coffee and prescriptions - In the more literal sense, it’s Dazai being his disaster himself + creating trouble (coffee), and Chuuya having to take care of him (prescriptions), albeit a bit more hilariously unwilling on his part. Subconsciously, Dazai is always wanting to keep Chuuya’s attention on him, hence the repeat offenses, but Chuuya is always willing to forgive him those anyway / shower the attention that Dazai wants. Similarly, the wine / coffee discussions represent their individual differences, and what Chuuya thinks of them. They do try their best to meet in the middle, though, coming to an understanding / compromise of sorts— you see this in the ending, too, when they go out drinking.

A note on Kunikida, and his relationship/s with Dazai and with Chuuya - Kunikida, in this story, is Dazai’s old classmate from college, and is currently Chuuya’s colleague in a different department. Although it may appear that Dazai and Kunikida seem a bit more dismissive of each other, they do have a good relationship founded on common ground (science / statistical analysis), which Chuuya does not share with Dazai (literature / writing). You are right in that this makes Chuuya and Kunikida good foils of each other, yet they, too, have a good relationship / understanding despite their differences, both as individuals (Chuuya in Ophthalmology and Kunikida in Internal Medicine) and within their respective relationships with Dazai (Chuuya being more tolerant / forgiving as the newer friend, and Kunikida being more strict / stern, as the older friend).

On the more headcanon-y stuff (which I really don’t think I’ll be able to write at this point because my brain is already decidedly chaotic as fuck hahaaahah), a couple of lines I’ve picked up that can be expanded on are:

1. Chuuya and 20/20 vision - As you may have probably sensed from his character (and it totally fits him in canon), he never really wanted to be a doctor. He even had a rebellious streak in college for it. He still ends up in med school, though, but he doesn’t have a direct goal / direction in life at this point. This is represented by his worsening visual acuity, which, yes, was directly caused by constantly burning the midnight oil while studying. He’s stuck in a field he doesn’t want, yet tries his best, way too much, that he just gets lost. It is at this low point in his life that he meets Dazai, and his life changes. He gets glasses, tries to make sense of his life (regain 20/20 vision), and where to go from there. And Dazai, god bless him, is always there, always has his back for the whole ride: He’s being saved again, comes the rueful thought. How many times does that make it, now? They fall in love along the way, and it takes very long for them to reach the endgame, but they do, and it is beautiful. Chuuya’s 20/20 vision is his contentment with his life now, and a forever with Dazai. It’s the best view he could ever wish for, and he is very happy with it.

2. Chuuya, Mori-sensei and Promises - A very different version of Chuuya learning from (and in turn, being influenced by) Mori from Fifteen (Pre-canon) Arc. I don’t have a solid one for this tbh, but let’s just say an encounter with Mori greatly changes Chuuya’s outlook and makes him choose Ophthalmology as his specialty, the way he comes to swear loyalty to Mori and the Port Mafia in canon. No real solid connection with Dazai, in this case, but feel free to make of it what you will! I’m not quite imaginative enough for this hahaha.

... Okay, that was long. (sweatdrops)

🎁 - Any writing advice for people who want to write something like this?

First of all, do not drink brewed coffee at lunch time and end up with nearing 48 hours of palpitations later. Also, do not be like Dazai and drink 18 cups of coffee in one sitting, holy crap. I don’t think even Kunikida can save you from that if you do end up going over that literal and proverbial edge.

All that crap aside (which I do mean in earnest!), this idea totally came from a simple desire headcanon of Chuuya in prescription glasses. This, in turn, was influenced by downtime chats with my triage partner for that day, my classmate from med school now doing Ophthalmology residency. There were also other small things that happened to me IRL, like the way the lenses of my false glasses quickly yellowed within days of purchase, and the unexpected offer of free brewed coffee. Bottom line, take cues from real life; it’s a fun goldmine of tales tall and short, and you’ll have fun telling those because they are first and foremost yours.

Similar to this, take note of the small things around you— pay attention to the way the leaves are swept by the wind, the way she crosses the street, the taste of the coffee you drink. Then describe those in your head— what I find works best for me is both immersing myself in the scenario and staying outside of it, like controlling a video game character / avatar, in a way. That way, I can develop my sentences in a vivid manner yet stay objective. (This is a bit harder to explain, actually.)

Most of all, write what works best for you, no matter what style you use. One quote I remember from English writing class (yet another gen-ed pre-req subject boohoo) states: “Write in white heat; revise in cold blood.” When you are struck by the idea, write it down. Let the ideas take over your fingers and let yourself get carried away. I admit that I really didn’t think through the plot of this very fic myself; I just let myself go until I was done a few hours later. This heat-of-the-moment writing high rarely happens to me (I wish it happened more often!), but I find that what I do come up with when I don’t think things through ends up a final product I quite like, other people’s feedback aside. The editing later is another story; don’t be afraid to critique your own work and adjust accordingly, if you feel that it will make the story better. (This part I have a decidedly much harder time with, but it’s still good advice, so I’m putting that down here, as well.)

Okay, that got reeeeeaaaaallyyyyyy long, now. Aegis really be pushing me to my limits every time we talk, and it’s making me grow and learn more about writing and about myself. I’m really, really grateful for this ask. I hope you all enjoyed reading this, too!

List of fic asks here!

#dani answers #eternal-aegis #fanfic ask #fic meta #fic discourse #bungou stray dogs #dazai osamu #nakahara chuuya #soukoku #skk #dachuu #long post

9 notes · View notes

hamliet · 5 years

Text

Messy, Perfect Redemption: Dazai

My least favorite trope in fiction is probably redemption via death. It just seldom works for the best possible story and more often than not comes across as an author wanting to take the easy way out with having now made the audience like the character, but not having to deal with the repercussions with their relationships with other characters and actual work of changing. Which honestly is also fair. Writing is hard.

But one of the things I love about Bungou Stray Dogs is how the entire story is basically Dazai’s redemption arc in all its disastrous messy glory. Redemption is hard, becoming a better person is exhausting and it doesn’t happen overnight. Despite an often cavalier attitude towards everyone around him, Dazai never loses sight of Odasaku’s last words to him.

"Listen. You told me that you might find a reason to live if you lived in a world of violence and bloodshed. You won't find it. You must know that already. Whether you're on the side who kills people or the side who saves people, nothing beyond what you would expect will appear. Nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. You will wander the darkness for eternity. (...) Be on the side that saves people. If both sides are the same, become a good man. Save the weak, and protect the orphans. Neither good nor evil means much to you, I know... but that'd make you at least a little bit better. (...) Of course I know. I know better than anyone. Because... I am your friend."

Leaving the mafia and deciding to save people from now on is a good step, but it’s a process, as we see. It’s choosing every day to save orphans, to protect the weak, and even after making the overall choice to become a better man, there are still plenty of struggles along the way. It’s what makes Dazai such a compelling, powerful and ultimately hopeful character for me.

I know Atsushi is often seen as representing Dazai’s second chance after Akutagawa, his redemption in a sense, and that’s not wrong at all. Atsushi is definitely a major, even the main, part of it, but in my opinion it’s not the whole of it. Dazai’s mentoring of Atsushi is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it absolutely is a part of his redemption. He’s genuinely trying to do his best with Atsushi, and I do think he cares for him--clearly, he cares enough to let himself be captured by the mafia, even.

On the other hand, ignoring a kid you hurt for a kid you didn't is not redemption in and of itself when you could still do something about it. It’s not like Akutagawa has given up on Dazai in any way; he’s pretty desperate for Dazai’s acknowledgement even now.

If saving one requires you to abandon the other, are you really a better person for it ? Like, if you wanna save orphans, you kinda have to include the one who's literally begging you to save him and who is only in this bad place because of you.

If joining the agency would have redeemed Dazai, we wouldn’t have a story, though again I’m not minimizing the importance of this or the resonance of Dazai’s mentoring of Atsushi. But in joining the agency, Dazai left someone behind--more than one someones, actually. Dazai’s redemption is a process that will require him to face the harm he caused in the mafia and as much as possible, fix it. And he can’t fully redeem himself until he integrates with his shadow. Unlike Atsushi whose shadow is directly personified in Akutagawa, though, Dazai’s is in several other people (we could also consider Odasaku and Atsushi part of the anima), including Akutagawa, Chuuya, Dostoyevsky, and Mori.

Even the next time Dazai saves an orphan (Kyouka), we find out that a lot of the cruel ways Akutagawa trained her came from how Dazai trained him.

It’s a consequence coming back to Dazai that his mentee decides to save a child trapped in the mafia whom everyone wants to give up on, a child whose been through the same training he forced Akutagawa into (which I should remind you includes a canonical mock execution). The difficulties of saving Kyouka are probably exactly why Dazai took so long to make baby steps towards Akutagawa. But to his credit, while he’s not exactly compassionate with Kyouka while she’s imprisoned, Dazai does save her. If mentoring a kid on the verge of turning into a criminal is the first step to reconciling with his mafia self, then Dazai’s helping save Kyouka is the next one.

However, he doesn’t fully understand the cruelties of he did to Akutagawa, as shown in how he mocks him after his capture by repeating Akutagawa’s worst fears to him:

I know Dazai’s playing a long game with setting up Atsushi and Akutagawa’s partnership in shin soukoku, but the ends don’t always justify the means and that’s a lesson often shown to us in BSD (it’s in part the reason Dazai left the mafia; he couldn’t buy that Oda’s death was justifiable because it got rid of Mimic and got the Port Mafia their black ticket). This type of triggering really isn’t okay. Like I said here, Dazai is in part the cause of Atsushi and Akutagawa’s struggles to get along, and he should be part of reconciling that schism as well.

I know while some people are annoyed that fans call a person two years older than someone else their father figure, but the manga itself draws this comparison and codes Dazai/Atsushi and Dazai/Akutaqawa as a mentor/mentee relationship which is 99% of the time coded as parental in literature (and it definitely is here). Akutagawa literally draws the comparison himself between his relationship with Dazai and Atsushi’s with his abusive orphanage headmaster. Yes, Akutagawa’s making some logical jumps here (refusing to acknowledge that Dazai is just as much Atsushi’s mentor as his), but the manga wants us to make this comparison.

As Atsushi wasn’t able to reconcile his frustration and hurt towards the orphanage headmaster, he’ll probably do so through Akutagawa and through Dazai, because Atsushi’s view of Dazai is basically that he’s already redeemed and fantastic and justified in his choices--again, I know Atsushi complains about his irresponsibility sometimes, but it’s mostly played as a joke and isn’t a serious critique of just how he treated Akutagawa, despite Atsushi hating Akutagawa for how he treated Kyouka (take that train of thought a little further, Atsushi).

But onto Dazai’s other relationships. It’s telling that Dazai is at his most unrestrained and violent in the mafia when he partners with Chuuya, who despite being very restrained thanks to him being capable of uninhibited destruction that would lead to his own death without said restraint, knows who Dazai is and what he’s capable of from the very beginning (he’s so much as seen Dazai murder the orphans who comprise the Sheep even after promising Chuuya he wouldn't). Kunikida is Chuuya’s foil in that he works most closely with Dazai in the agency and is perpetually ready to strangle him, but Kunikida is also incredibly principled and restrained--yet he is significantly the only member of the agency who, prior to the Guild Arc, did not know Dazai used to be in the mafia.

Kunikida’s ideals including saving everyone if possible. Both Chuuya and Kunikida represent these two extremes of what Dazai is capable of--and yet notably both of them care about saving children and are in many ways more compassionate people than Dazai.

The one time we see Chuuya talk about killing a kid is with Q, who notably is introduced to us as another child with the soukoku partnership team-up.

Q, a child with half-dark hair and half-white hair (gee I wonder what that symbolizes) is a child made to curse the world and hate ever being born. Chuuya and Dazai team up to save him but contemplate killing him.

Dazai’s choice not to kill Q is stated to be to save himself, which is probably is, but it’s also symbolic of how Dazai’s saving other people is saving himself (and also ties back to another quote Odasaku liked to repeat from Natsume: “everyone exists to save themselves”).

But Chuuya’s motivation, as I wrote before, is because he’s grieved over the loss of his comrades. Chuuya really cares about people, including Dazai, and the fact that Dazai is actually going to far as to model Atsushi and Akutagawa’s team-up on his team-up with Chuuya pretty strongly implies Dazai doesn’t hate Chuuya as much as he says he does. To be able to truly leave the mafia, he has to make peace with those relationships there. It’s part of being honest with himself: like Atsushi, acknowledging the darker shadows, and like Akutagawa, acknowledging the better parts of him too.

At present, Dostoyevsky proves a perfect foil for Dazai, as @linkspooky has written here. They’re the same in a lot of ways, but Dostoyevsky has allowed nihilism and a god complex to completely consume him and is not trying to be human, whereas Dazai still tries to save people and was devastated by Oda’s death. Dostoyevsky’s ability, whatever it was, works by touching someone like Dazai’s, but since Dazai’s No Longer Human negates another’s abilities, Dazai is the only person on which Fyodor’s ability will not work, making them the perfect counters for each other. Dostoyevsky is what Dazai could be if his feelings of alienation from human society (a prominent theme in the real life Dostoyevsky’s works) were taken to their utmost extreme, and so it’d be fitting for him to ultimately defeat Fyodor through the relationships he does have (including Atsushi and Akutagawa).

To return to Odasaku, Odasaku is also kind of a warning to Dazai as much as he is a man Dazai wants to become like. When Odasaku lost the orphans under his care, he fell into complete despair and knowingly embarked on a suicide mission to do what Mori wanted him to. Still, Dazai tried to save him. He wasn’t able to save his life, but Odasaku’s death saved Dazai. Yet it’s potentially concerning that Mori used Odasaku’s human connections to engineer his downfall, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mori uses Dazai’s to try to engineer his downfall later on (like, way, way on).

The difference is that Dazai is a good foil to Mori, too, in understanding what makes people tick and always thinking several moves ahead. Mori groomed Dazai from the age of like fourteen (or younger) to be his successor in the mafia, manipulating his suicidal tendencies and hopelessness to get what Mori wanted from him. It’s telling that the earliest we have of Dazai is him with Mori, in that Mori instead of caring for a suicidal patient decided to take him along to murder the mafia’s boss and induct him into the mafia thereby. The thing about Jungian stories is that there are often some Oedipal tendencies to them--like, for example, a character needs to overcome/break away from completely/kill their father. I can see Dazai at some point having to overcome Mori and his influence to cement his arc, but that’s highly speculative (yet fits with Mori’s build up as a villain), so we’ll see.

#bsd meta #bungou stray dogs #soukoku #dazai osamu #shin soukoku #akutagawa ryunosuke #nakajima atsushi #oda sakunosuke #mori ougai #fyodor dostoyevsky #izumi kyouka #nakahara chuuya #bsd theory

602 notes · View notes

straycat-writes · 4 years

Note

Soooo random question but who are ur top five favourite people from the manga and anime? I'm saying that cuz ya know the anime doesn't have every character? I hope u get it cuz i mean I'mma stop now lol

Oof, just five? Why you gotta make me choose like this?? I love them all 😭

Alright let’s see. For this purpose, we’re excluding Dazai from the counting because let’s give others a chance for a change. Including manga-only characters, my top favorites are:

5. Akiko Yosano. I have gone on and on in the past about why she is an amazing character, and how Asagiri did an absolutely phenomenal job of portraying her and designing hr arc without disrespecting her as a character. 4. Oda Sakunosuke. For the longest time, he was the only good thing in Dazai’s life, and played such an integral part in his story’s progression. Conceptually speaking, he is the reason Dazai is still alive. Plus, Odazai is one of my major ships, so... 3. Nakahara Chuuya. no i will not be explaining any further 2. Kunikida Doppo. He’s so amazing, and super-underrated. Agency mom deserves a lot more credit than fandom gives him, asfgjkl i just love him so much 😭❤❤ 1. Atsushi Nakajima. Tiger babey is the protagonist of the story, no matter what Google says 😂 And I feel like all the subtle turns and curves and nuances of his psyche that make him such an amazing character routinely get ignored by the fans in favour of, well, Dazai.

I see now that manga exclusive characters didn’t even feature on this list lol. Oh, well.

#answered #anonymous #bsd

12 notes · View notes

abysslll · 1 year

Note

hello hi luce can u please tell me all about the bsd main characters

HELLO JERI WHY OF COURSE I CAN

1- atsushi nakajima! actual mc but everyone forgets about that part 💀 his gift is beast beneath the moonlight and hes a lil tiger boy. a weretiger if you will. he has the worst haircut of all time and about all he's good for in the first season is moping about how he got kicked out of his abusive orphanage. (which is valid but he literally cannot go for more than five minutes without talking about it its soo </3) fun fact before i watched the show i'd seen a few pictures of him around and i legitimately thought that he was a side character who got introduced in like season 2 and then immediately died as cannon fodder. thats how pathetic he is as a mc.

no but fr i do really love him, his character growth is great and the current arc is really showcasing him as a character. he just happens to have Sad Boy Syndrome 😔 like im actually trying to come up with Plot and Important Stuff to say about all these guys but i have nothing to say about atushi hes just so overshadowed

2- dazai osamu, the Actual mc. hes so fucked up i love him so much. his main character trait is that he wants to kill himself. he is introduced by a failed drowning attempt and goes on about different ways to die for at least two minutes an episode. he used to work in the mafia and was only recruited because of (youre never gonna guess this) a failed suicide attempt in which the eventual boss, who was working as a doctor at the time, met him. its never explicitly said, but he was abused for years as the boss's subordinate (the boss, whose name i will not say for spoiler reasons and also because i cant remember it rn, is canonically a pedophile and sadist. i dont think i need to spell it out). he eventually left because one of his dead friends was like "go make people's lives better dipshit" and he was like "shit ok" and went and joined the detective agency. hes truly a disaster of a human being i can't express enough how skrucnkly he is.

3- chuuya nakahara. hes not a main character but he is in my heart <3 angry short guy i love him so fucking much. anyway hes dazai's ex husband (/j) and they fucking hate each other and have so much intertwined hurt and trauma together its insane. their ship name, soukoku, is actually a name that is canonically used for their special ops team (it translates to double black iirc?) and just aaaaaaaa soukoku <3333 my actual beloveds my first published fanfic EVER was about them

4- ok im running out of influential characters. uhhhhh how about akutagawa. hes dazai's understudy from the mafia and is so horribly fucked up by this that all he wants in life is for dazai to acknowledge his existence (dazai refuses. this is actually a very fucked up plot point). hes a mass murderer and is terminally ill and i would die for him. also he and atsushi are a very popular ship! in their first meeting aku cuts off atsu's leg <33 talk about a meet-cute

5- kunikida is a very major character i just realized 😭 ummmm so hes this guy. and he has a notebook. and he likes to yell at dazai.

no but actually hes a very interesting character with a very solid set of morals that is challenged throughout the course of the show. he's really the only character that like. Follows The Law and Doesn't Want To Hurt People and this is challenged a lot because as you can imagine being partners (as in coworkers. they are not dating) with an ex-mafioso is not a great way to stay morally correct. hes really great actually. he was a math teacher and then became a detective for some reason. hes 22. he was also my favorite character during my first watchthrough though he was quickly replaced by chuuya and akutagawa <3

6- RANPO!!!!! RANPO RANPO RANPO!

think sherlock holmes with the mindset of a child and the confidence of reigen arataka. and also an obsession with candy. that's ranpo. now that i think about it that also kinda sounds like L but we're not talking about death note here. hes basically so smart that he can deduce the truth of a case within like a second, but he has to be wearing glasses. he thinks that he has a gifted ability but he actually doesn't lmao.

he starts off as a side character but becomes a lot more important in like s3 onwards. im not a Super huge fan of his but he is fun! he has a lot of angsty moments throughout as he realizes he's like. Not God. Not Special. which are sad but also ghnghh emotional whump <3 anyway

uhhhhhh i cant think of any more characters rn who are important enough to mention and also youve been waiting liek a day for this response so im gonna cut it here. ty for the ask <33

#bat <3 #endless asks #bsd tag

9 notes · View notes