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Alchemy x Steampunk AU

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i wasnt gonna draw anything and yesterday afternoon a dazai snail entered my brain and well here we are now

from that tik tok trend

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meow meow 😻

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i'm odypen-dent on them for happiness i fear

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Before the war

you can tell who inspired my athena design LMAO (gigi & wolfy's designs are too iconic-)

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I’m so lesbians for Yosano Akiko

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If you think about it, what is bsd if not Edogawa Ranpo's personal "x reader" self-insert fic. I firmly believe his ghost logs into his AO3 account every day to read ranpoe fanfic lmao.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think it makes Dazai Osamu's ghost wish he could come back to life just so he can kill himself again.

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So so true but at the same time, I think there is also something about strength coming from community, or rather community amplifying the strength of the individual (basically Fukuzawa's special ability). Like when the ADA and the Port Mafia work together to save the city or when individual characters team up, they are undeniably their own persons with their own strengths and weaknesses but having someone else in your corner is what does the trick and what helps you defeat even evils that seem much larger than you.

Power does not come from institutions, it comes from the People, individually and especially in community. Community that doesn't oppress you but allows you to flourish as a person, with all the mistakes you might make in the process.

stray dogs to me honestly feels like a perfect expression of that inexpressible pain trauma and insanity that comes from living in a world that insists that systems and institutions are the most powerful things and you have to pretend to agree with that and force yourself to believe that to conform but all the while youre like... actually i think human beings are the most powerful things. individuals are the most powerful things

like i have ideas and i have feelings i can love things so deeply it hurts while an institution has to beat people into submission just to toe the line someone could run an idea through a bureaucracy or group that would have to get the permission of orders and hiearchies and codes whereas i could come up with something right now. that feeling of having so much power within you because youre a PERSON and yet thats supposed to not matter until youre told by someone else it matters? that feels maddening. this is why being a writer is such an act of resistance in this show i think. being able to put something in the world that came from your own mind is such an important way of symbolically demonstrating your own power to yourself

thats what having a gift is like in the show, and something i really love about the show is how its always so insistent on how people can be complete forces of chaos. unpredictable, defiantly individual from their weird little quirks to their looks, constantly screwing with each other's plans, constantly bickering and getting in each other's way even when they're on the same side... i love that cause that to me is an insistence in the dignity of being a person

and its part of why i love the fans of this show so much cause asigiri is so emphatically like... be dramatic, be confident, be loud and stylish and unapologetically you...! and so many of the fans are... its beautiful

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Hi, I just wanted to say I've been scrolling through your blog and reading lots of your analyses on bsd and most of them really bring tears to my eyes because they are so wonderful and thoughtful. I believe the ability to experience and connect with art on this profound level is really such a gift and I'm so grateful you share your thoughts with the community, because in the end this shared love and passion for a story is what fandom should be all about i think 🫶🫶

thank you so so much you are so sweet and kind i always say stuff online that matters to me and thinking it matters to other people too is such a nice thought... i love this fandom theyre so passionate i hope i can contribute even more (im working on my first stray dogs cosplay! a chuuya one and im sewing all the pieces hehe) and yes i know what you mean cause i get so emotional too when i read stuff online where im like wow that person loves this thing i love in the same way as me for the same reasons... (i feel like that a lot when i read bsd fanfictions by authors who clearly care a lot) youre so nice i love this shows fans omg

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Dazai Osamu describing his own life (told through his alter ego Ōba Yōzō) as shameful and disgusting vs Fyodor Dostoevsky naming the villain in his story Fyodor

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Souheki having entire convos in their minds

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something something breaching containment

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Detective boyfriends with their racoon son. 🦝💕

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Happy birthday to Osamu Dazai – both the fictional twink and the miserable misogynistic literary genius he was based on.

Tried to find a Dazai quote to post but all of them are depressing as hell ♡ god bless

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i also wonder how much stray dogs can be seen as a kind of response to the disillusionment of living in the modern world that dazai wrote about cause like. for dazai sui was the end of the line. it meant he had failed at being human and had not been able to find a place in the world. and there is something about asigiri's yokahoma that seems to be even more intensely inhuman and unwilling to offer people a place to feel at home than dazai's understanding of the modern world, he sets the show in this weird hi tech future that to me kind of gives off the vibes of accelerated capitalism (think of the massive casino in the sky right??)

which incidentally is why i love that the kind of spaces/institutions that actually save people in this show are not what they expect - not the port mafia or the guild or the government or some organised place that promises people they can "belong" so long as they act like a cog in a machine, its that tiny bar in yokahoma where dazai, oda and ango get drunk and chat about nothing, a place so low key that it allows them to be a part of something without forfeiting themselves

cause what i love about asigiri's response to dazai is that being sui and being inhuman is not the end of the line actually its the beginning, it inspires creative endeavour, trying to find meaning in a place thats meaningless, i mean the show itself literally starts that way, the first thing we see is dazai's sui attempt in the river and its the thing that changes atsushi's fate

the "inhuman" parts of the characters, their gifts, dont condemn them to dying as an outcast in misery, they give them the power to change the city that has rejected them, and being rejected is not the end of the line like it was for yozo in no longer human, its the beginning, because its like dazai tells atsushi when they save yokahoma from the guild, it belongs to him

and maybe if the city had accepted these people from the start it wouldnt be home, they would have had no need to transform it at all so they wouldnt have made it into something that is theirs so they could fit in and belong

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I've been obsessed with this particular storyline from the start, and if I ever have the patience to put together an organized analysis about it I would also add in one thing from a separate analysis that I've read on here: the fact that Akutagawa initially asked Dazai to give him a reason to live and Dazai gave him this reason in form of a search for his approval, because honestly I think about that a lot. AND because I'm a huge nerd I would also love to write a piece about how Asagiri used the irl dynamics and relationships between the authors he based his characters on to shape their fictional dynamics, especially between Dazai and Akutagawa (Akutagawa being Dazai's literary idol to the point where his suicide shaped Dazai's life from that point on), but alas, maybe I'll do it one day if I take enough Adderall lmao.

The genius writing of Akutagawa and Dazai's relationship.

Dazai and Akutagawa's relatuionship is incredibly interesting and is essential to the story as a whole.

Here I want to talk about how we see Dazai’s careful manipulation of Akutagawa at the start of BSD and what his motivations are for doing it.

In Dazai's entrance exam we see how Akutagawa is still pursuing Dazai even after 2 years. But he is going after him more for revenge, he has clearly become more independent but still desperately wants to find Dazai and hopefully understand why he was left behind.

Akutagawa sternly watches the agent go. “Wait. I’d like to ask you something.” The agent stops in his tracks. “I’m looking for someone. He has the ability to nullify others’ skills upon contact. Know anybody like that?” “Sorry, afraid not.” “Then get out of my sight.” “You got it.” He begins to walk again before disappearing into the darkness of the evening twilight. “…Where did you go? Why did you suddenly disappear?” Akutagawa soliloquizes, alone on the street. “For a moment, I thought you might have been the Azure King, but I was wrong. Where are you? There’s no way you’re dead. You are somewhere here in Yokohama. I just know it.” The winds of the night collect his words and carry them away. “I’ll find my mentor if it’s the last thing I do. I’ll find you, former Port Mafia executive Dazai.”

By the time the manga really starts we see that Akutagawa's attitude towards Dazai has changed a lot.

This is his first time seeing Dazai in years and he is able to keep his cool and brush it off. He is even confident enough to threaten Dazai when we know Akutagawa before this and even later in the series would never.

Dazai taunts Akutagawa here, poking at the old insecurity’s and letting him know Dazai is still not impressed with what he's achieved. you can see from his reaction Aku is affected and shows that even though he's acting tough, he hasn't really escaped his past.

This is where the mind games begin.

Look at Akutagawa's face when he enters ,you can see that he is really nervous about confronting Dazai here, and Dazai pointedly ingoring him like he's nothing when he tries to intimidate him really just emphisises that Dazai doesn't see him as a threat.

Akutagawa tries so hard to be in control here, Dazai is chained up, sententenced to death, has no friends or allies there to help him while Akutagawa has the whole mafia at his back. But still its clear that Dazai is 100% in control of the situation.

Akutagawa hitting Dazai, threatening to kill him, saying how he is no threat, we would never see him do this kind of thing later in the series. Dazai here very carefully brings him right back to the state he was in before he left.

Dazai bringing out every old insecurity, dismissing everything Akutagawa strived to achieve and the strength he uses to justify his existance. We see Akutagawa trying to justify why he doesn't need Dazais approval, how he's a traitor and doomed to die anyway, but Dazai just talks about how disapointing and pathetic Akutagawa was as a student and for Akutagawa who's ability and talent are what he values most thats a deep wound. Akutagawa is trying so hard to control the present but the fact that Dazai's words affect him so much shows that he is still very much trapped by the past.

An important note is that we know for a fact this is Dazai lying. He says multiple times in the Dark Era that he sees huge potential in Akutagawa and that he thinks he could be the strongest ability user in the port mafia. All of this is Dazai deliberately getting under Aku's skin, breaking down the confidence he built in the years after Dazai left.

But what Dazai said that cut the deepest was comparing him to Atsushi.

The fact that Dazai had taken on another pupil after him, and that he said he was better means that Akutagawa was just weak. And we see how after this Akutagawa developes his hatred of Atsushi since to him Atsushi is everything he despises but some he won Dazai's approval.

Akutagawa is brought right back to how Dazai used to train him, the hell he went through to earn Dazai's acceptence, and somehow this random weak coward gets everything he ever wanted dispite everything he did to earn it.

By the Guild arc we see that Akutagawa is now completely motivated by Dazai again. This is also important because he is a lot less cocky here, it's clear that losing to Atsushi really has pushed him to start fighting with everything he has.

On Mobi Dick we see that Akutagawa has completely abandoned the mafias orders and is solely focused on killing Atsushi.

We also see just how much Akutagawa's attitude has changed from when he met Dazai in the prison, here even just the chance to talk to Dazai makes him throw everything else away. He's desprate and confused and needs to know why Dazai would choose Atsushi over him.

Then, Akutagawa learns a bit of Atsushi's past.

This is it, I think that here (even though he would never admit it) Akutagawa kind of realises that him and Atsushi want exactly the same thing, but to Akutagawa approval has to come from Dazai while for Atsushi even he doesn't know how or when it will be enough.

Atsushi thinks his life has no value unless he saves others, Akutagawa thinks his has no value unless he kills others. Both are wrong and both need to learn that from the other.

(Atsushi and Akutagawa's dynamic is also incredibly well done and will probably get an analysis of its own but this one is too long already)

Now I want to talk about why Dazai did this, why he dragged Akutagawa back to this state even after he has seemingly moved on. I don't think it was just to control him (though thats probably part of it), I think it was because he knew that the only person who could save Akutagawa was Atsushi.

Very important point: Dazai was not the one who made Akutagawa think his life had no value, or the reason he was so eager to kill. Both of these are part of Akutagawa long before he meets Dazai. We see in The Heartless Cur that Akutagawa was already very quick to kill and had no will or reason to live.

In the Dark Era Dazai tells Oda that he wants Akutagawa to learn to temper his rage and not always jump to killing.

“That skill user Akutagawa was one of your subordinates, right?” I said, tracing my memory. “I heard he had a rather aggressive skill…but even he’s no match for them?” “Akutagawa—he’s like a sword without a sheath.” Dazai grinned from ear to ear. “He’ll surely become the Mafia’s strongest skill user in the notso-distant future, but for now he needs someone who can teach him how to put that sword away.” I was surprised. I had never heard Dazai openly speak so highly of one of his men like that before. “Is he really that talented?” “When I first saw him over in the slums, I was horrified. His talents are extraordinary, and his skill is extremely destructive. Plus, he’s stubborn. If I’d left him to his own devices, he would’ve ended up a slave to his own powers until he destroyed himself.” Dazai didn’t freely make people work under him, period; much less a boy on the verge of starvation in the slums. But Dazai seemed to have his own reasons for doing it.

Notice how Dazai says he needs "someone" to teach him to sheath his sword, not that "he" can/will teach him.

Dazai seemingly regressing Akutagawa back to being 100% dependent on his approval was because Akutagawa never really escaped it. He was still just an attack dog who killed indescriminatly and whose self worth was tied entirely to his role in the mafia. If Dazai had just left him alone he probably would have ended up destroying himself just like Dazai predicted. But when Dazai met Atsushi he knew he had found a way to save Akutagawa too.

This is not me (or Asagiri) trying to justify Dazai's abuse of Akutagawa. Dazai himself says about Atsushi's headmaster that the methods he used were horrific and unforgivable, but that doesn't mean they didn't shape who Atsushi is now.

In the mafia Dazai wouldn't have cared about how he "saved" akutagawa, he says it to Akutagawa himself.

He immediately pointed the gun at Akutagawa, who was still on the ground. “I have this friend who’s supporting several orphans all on his own, you see,” he continued, his weapon still drawn and aimed at the boy. “Akutagawa, I’m sure Odasaku would’ve been patient enough to give you the guidance you needed had he been the one who’d found you on the brink of starvation in the slums. That would have been the ‘right’ thing to do. But ‘righteousness’ doesn’t take very kindly to me. And there’s only one thing people like me do to useless subordinates.” Dazai mercilessly pulled the trigger the moment he finished his sentence.

We even see this play out in BEAST, Oda and the ADA are able to really help Akutagawa and teach him the value of life both his own and other peoples, what Dazai did wasn't nessacary or justified. But it is what happened and can't be changed.

Obviously Dazai was also struggling with horrific things of his own, but that doesn't change or excuse what he did. Everything he put Akutagawa through left a mark, so to undo that damage and let him move on he needed to make him and Atsushi truly understand eachother by breaking down the walls Akutagawa had put up.

In the end this isn't a moral exploration, good and bad in general have very blurry meanings in bsd (and in real life). I just wanted to deconstruct this since it's such incredible writing that I almost never see talked about. And it's extrememly important for understanding the latest chapters.

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I will take this opportunity to say that a pet peeve of mine is when ppl tag posts about bsd characters without putting "bsd" or something in front of the name. Because I also run a literature blog and I sometimes look for quotes or discourse on the actual people and their works, like Dazai and nlh in this case (which i just finished), it's really a little frustrating 😭😭

Mad at Bungo Stray Dogs fans because I can't find any discourse on the actual book No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and instead am plagued with posts about his twink anime counterpart