kouyou-arc-when

[kouyou-arc-when]

“I want to understand you, I study your obscure language.” ― Alexander Pushkin

Painting: "Paolo und Francesca" by Anselm Feuerbach

[kouyou-arc-when]

do you think teruko is really a goner?

Probably, yeah. I feel like Asagiri wants to kill some people for real to make Fyodor's actions have weight. She's in that area where she's not an important enough character to be dangerous to kill, but still relevant enough to make an impact. I think the last chapter basically said only her essence remains? I need to see the Japanese version

[kouyou-arc-when]

Has bsd fandom ever be rational. Despite the story being pretty mature, I associate the fanbase with children mostly (like mha) because most of the people I interacted with are under 17, often the focus are ships and very stupid tiktok theories that don't make sense canonically because most fans don't pay attention to the lore unless it involves their husbands/wives. Makes sense to me that a big part of the fandom doesn't vibe with what's currently happenin.

Gotta say I agree. I don't want to be a dick and tell people what they're supposed to like or not, or whether certain theories HAVE to be true - however, it's very clear to me that BSD is just not the manga a lot of fans expect it to be. How many times do we need to tell people Asagiri's favorite manga is Jojo, and his favorite movie franchise the Avengers? Shouldn't that tell us a lot about what kind of stories he wants to create? My main issue is that people reject/accept theories and events entirely based on whether they like something. You can't ever discuss anything truly unpopular because the person you're talking to has already made up their mind beforehand, and if Asagiri himself came down and told them otherwise, they wouldn't accept it. The worst part is that this doesn't ONLY happen with underage fans, but people over 20 too. They'll completely deny certain aspects of the plot because it doesn't fit what they like. "X character is not in love with Y character? Impossible and you are wrong. " BSD is just one of those manga where so many theories could be true, and it's more fun to speculate than it is to see canon actually happen - but one thing I hate the most is people who won't let others then have their fun? Nope, it is only my opinion that is canon!! I've written a bunch of theories for fucks of it that I don't even agree with.

[kouyou-arc-when]

I can't find your dazai osamu analyse.please, Could you give it's link.

Hey, so I am considering rewriting/deleting that analysis because I wrote it when I was very sick, and a lot of the phrasing is janky. If you're interested anyways, I can relink it, but it isn't terribly well-written (though I am really happy some of you like it <3)

[kouyou-arc-when]

not sure if you've been asked this before, but who's your favourite character?

Thanks for asking <3 Not to be basic, but it's Dazai. I've never seen his brand of isolation and disassociation from normal society shown in any other work of fiction - so I felt...seen? I got into BSD during a bad time in my life, and it helped me get through things, you could say my affection for the character stuck by because I discovered him when I was really low. I love a ton of other characters like Bram, Aya, Akutagawa, Kouyou, Fukuzawa etc but Dazai is someone I emotionally connected to, you could say he left a mark on me.

[kouyou-arc-when]

hello! do you know what happened to zelda after the guild arc?

like, Fitzegerald got bankrupt and rose again after a while, but he makes no mention of his wife after that. Do you know what happened to her?

From what I can tell, we never got much info about her. All Fitzgerald says is that his power activated when he was going to die, and he thinks Zelda saved him. When he got dirt poor, he felt he didn't have the right to contact her - and I am super sad Kafka never went into it. Asagiri talked about how this is one of those times when a power activates in an unusual way that can't be explained. They left it intentionally ambiguous, so I have no idea but I was super curious too!

[kouyou-arc-when]

Unpopular opinion: I think BSD's plot and what Asagiri wants to write just don't resonate well with the audience he has gathered. It's not that the plot itself is inherently bad, but people are reading for something other than the large world plot conflicts. Most fans are in it for the character driven plotlines, but Kafka wants to write large-scale technical wars. It's like Asagiri is writing for...idk the JJK fanbase, and his fans are Kuroshitsuji stans. The expectations are mismatched. He always talked about how he wants to make something like Jojo and YYH, especially because he admires the power systems, but fans don't seem to give a crap about it 90% of the time. The vast majority of BSD fans would NEVER vibe with the type of story Jojo is down the line. Like, you can see how people approach the story. Everything that goes outside of a certain scope is "rejected". So much so, that I see people closing their eyes to obvious logical inconsistencies because they don't like the idea of certain things happening, even if they're staring at you as foreshadowing. Tbh, I haven't vibed with the fanbase for some time now due to this. I'll see people deny theories because "they don't like them" or ignore plot points that might hint to something happening by twisting logic to have it make sense, even if it doesn't once you look at it with clear eyes. For example, it was clear for ages to me Fyodor wasn't dead, yet you had people demanding he had to be down. It was just too freaking obvious. Likewise now, specificities of certain abilities are ignored because fans wouldn't like it if, idk, the Book was used in this conflict. I remember people being intensely against the theory that Fyodor could possess people, simply because they didn't like it - but it was the most logical one. So many fans go for "vibes" instead of reason - the fanbase isn't overly rational, they suspend disbelief too hard

[kouyou-arc-when]

I guess we know what ADA has to do now

[kouyou-arc-when]

oh hey since 115 is out i can show you guys the edit i made when i saw a leak

[kouyou-arc-when]

Small update:

I plan to reply to all of the remaining messages, so don't worry babes, I'd never ignore you.

Planned activities

1. An essay on what type of people Dazai likes

2. In-depth romantic compatibility quiz for BSD characters

3. Short Nikolai pov Fyolai fic (one-sided)

4. A degenerate Fyodor fanfic

[kouyou-arc-when]

Sketchbook photo under the cut

The scan looks too purple and the photo too blue but if I try to edit them I will mess everything up too much... Imagine a mix of both 😅

[kouyou-arc-when]

the way you casually drop the hardest theories in the bsd fanbase

Lulmao ty I'm super ineloquent so I guess this balances it out

[kouyou-arc-when]

personal opinions on bsd?

like, if you were to review it objectively, how would you rate it? ☺️

Oh god, don't do this D: No, but really - BSD has such chaotic writing and a terribly structured plot with a ton of gimmicks that I can't rate it too highly, YET those select moments of brilliance have an iron-strong hold on me. I haven't read many stories like this, and I read waaay too much. To put it briefly: -Characters are underutilized and underdeveloped -The scale of the plot grew uncontrollably without proper setup -Characters, plot points, events and skills are gimmicky and unrealistic. The franchise suffers a lot from telling, instead of showing. For example, the narrative will beat you over the head with how intelligent Fyodor and Dazai are supposed to be - and then a 12 year old girl on tiktok will come to a sharper conclusion than the top 2 in story geniuses about how to deal with X. -The novels and the main manga have a gap in quality -Asagiri can't seem to decide what direction he wants to take the character arcs in in a cohesive manner. -The intense need to idealize or Gary Stu-ify certain characters. At this point, when you're reading interviews, certain actions from Dazai reach a level of absurdism I cannot buy. No matter how he frames it, I cannot accept that Osamu was perfectly right in how he treated Akutagawa, and that he alone is entirely correct in how Ryuunosuke should be "guided". However, even with all of this, BSD's portrayal of feeling lost in life and those of us who fail and live on the edges of "regular" society are so well done that I am still obsessively writing about BSD even today, so. I guess I adore BSD with all its flaws. As Asagiri said "this is not a story for those who are good at living" and I relate to this hardcore lol You always send lovely asks, thank you <3

[kouyou-arc-when]

hi! just finished reading your 10k dazai character analysis and it got me thinking...i'm not sure how recent it is and i've never sent an ask on here before so sorry if this is isn't something you care about anymore! i want to start off by saying i really love your interpretation of dazai, i feel like there's a lot of people who "analyze" him and conclude that he's emotionless and evil, or center his entire personality around his suicidal tendencies. i also really liked reading about his thinking and emotional process and how it translates into his actions, instead of treating all of his behaviors like they are controllable and intentional all the time. i'm currently writing an assignment where i have to discuss a character portraying mental illness, which is why i read your post (dissertation?) and it got me thinking way more than just looking up the symptoms. but now i'm wondering if you have any more thoughts or new interperetations of him based on the chapters that came out recently! I also wanted to ask if you think his symptoms fit other types of personality disorders, and why? personally i've seen a lot of evidence from people that he has BPD, but i disagree because the most commonly referenced traits of his that exhibit BPD are the traits that are used as evidence for most other mental health headcanons for him, and I think that he has more defining characteristics for other disorders. but idk. depression is obviously a given, and i am interested in doing more research into antisocial personality disorder to see how much dazai portrays it after reading your paper. i recently did a research paper on CPTSD and thought of him, but i come up blank thinking of other possibilities! If you have more thoughts or ideas on this topic i would absolutely love to know, i really enjoyed reading your analysis and will probably go back and read it again! sorry this is so long...dazai gets me thinking.......you know how it is

I wrote such a large ass reply that I had to make a post -_- I am so sorry. You can find it here:

[kouyou-arc-when]

Hey, this is a great ask and I am so sorry for not replying earlier. I am responding like this because I actually broke the character limit since I'm dumb -_- I've written a lot of posts about this on reddit, and many people came up to me and asked me something similar. Your line of thinking is good. Regarding Dazai:

So, the thing is - to properly diagnose any personality disorder, you need to talk to that very person to understand their inner mechanisms. There are certain behavioral traits we can observe from the outside and make some guesses based on that: for example, Dazai's broadly dented empathy and why that's often found in people with ASPD.

However, for many other personality disorders it is very difficult to conclude much without the person saying ~I feel x because of y. I do c because of b.

Why? Personality disorders are internal structures that cause a person's behavior to be challenging to either them or others. To understand these mental processes is much more demanding than seeing a person just feels sad or anxious, to explain it simplistic terms.

The key behind many disorders is to know WHY a person is doing what they're doing. This one thing changes whether a person has x,z,y,t,n or whatever condition.

An example: BPD and CPTSD are often mistaken for one another. Same as with BPD, CPTSD, Autism and ADD in women, but BPD and CPTSD tend to have the largest "overgap", you can even have both at the same time. That's because many of the outside observable symptoms are the same.

An example: unstable relationships are a symptom of ALL of the above, but BPD is sort of...an outdated PD according to many specialists due to the fact that it was used as an "everything" disorder, where people with socially unconventional emotions were dumped. That's why you'll find two people with BPD that are almost nothing alike.

However, even if we hold to classic diagnostic criteria, let me show how the same symptom can be a product of entirely different circumstances.

For example: Someone with BPD will have unstable relationships due to an extreme fear of abandonment. Someone with Autism may have unstable relationships due to differences in communication styles Someone with ADHD will have unstable relationships due to various circumstances: emotional regulation, executive functioning etc.

So really, the outward result may be the same, but the cause is different.

However, now, typically the main reason someone could have BPD is either due to extreme splitting, favorite person behavior, numbness and/or abandonment issues.

Dazai 100% has "favorite person" syndrome going on with Oda - the way he idealized Odasaku and then devalues everyone around him in comparison is pretty clinical - doesn't mean their relationship isn't lovely, but it's certainly something a therapist would take note of.

It's no shocker Dazai has unstable relationships, but we don't 100% know why he does what he does.

That's the whole thing Asagiri said - the character is meant to be like a donnut, where you don't really know what's in the middle - so it's extremely difficult to say which PD fits him for sure, probably even more difficult than the average neurodivergent character. In my opinion, several interpretations of Dazai are simultaneously valid due to the fact that you could assume multiple personal struggles within him, and come to a reasonable conclusion.

Does Dazai have abandonment issues? He says he always loses everything he wants, is EXTREMELY bitter over Ango, and definitely shows some levels of "splitting", especially in how he treats Oda vs Ango, Akutagawa vs Atsushi etc etc.

I'm pretty confident he has PTSD, and everything that comes with that. He certainly has a personality disorder too, due to the fact that a lot of his difficulties stem from his personality, and not just brain chemistry.

Kunikida says that most of his emotions "seem" like an act, which raises a lot of questions to what is even happening on the inside. Asagiri said Dazai is really only himself in front of people like Oda and Fyodor. That version of Dazai is...much less cheerful than with everyone else.

I don't personally think Dazai is autistic since he has a good hang on social cues and overall communication. Mamoru Miyano said PM Dazai was still learning to communicate with others back in his Dark Era days, but it wasn't that he couldn't do it - he was just not interested in learning it.

I feel like Asagiri gave Dazai this "unrealistic" trait of being primarily isolated because he's extraordinarily intelligent (which is not how geniuses tend to feel irl, most of the time) but I always feel like there is something more to it.

There is definitely some /disconnect/ between Dazai and "normal" people, where he doesn't fully seem to understand certain things, he falls short there. As someone who has CPTSD diagnosed, I get the impression he maybe has a similar thing going on as many of us: A extremely traumatic experience disrupted a lot of normal emotional and cognitive processes, and now he's both extremely hypervigilant and unable to snap out of that "shellshocked" state. He needs to "perform" conventionality, and being a normal person.

In one wan chapter, he "made a joke" that you start doing one bad thing after another, and suddenly you feel nothing at all. That's the trademark numbness in both CPTSD and BPD.

There was this TDIPUD moment where he talks about how a personality is just a bunch of unstable premises that survive to uphold the basic instincts of the human mind - but how it's easily destroyed for that reason. This is a scene where he tortures the guy, and I was like "wow, I really get it". Severe trauma can just destroy the very structure of your personality, because extreme pain just numbs everything within you. "You" as a person can't survive.

BPD is also related to an unstable sense of self - which could be connected to the former paragraph. Sometimes lowered empathy is also a byproduct of BPD, in fact, the thing is that both BPD and CPTSD come from trauma 99% of the time. They're shockingly similar disorders.

So, does Dazai have BPD? No idea. He could also be schizoid to some extent, which is funny, because Franz Kafka had this disorder, the author that inspired Asagiri's nickname.

For now, I'd just leave at he has CPTSD for sure

Most of these disorders are very broad descriptors, and it's difficult to label most humans in a way that will genuinely encompass what their experiences are. Most of the time, these diagnostics are used to match a person with the best treatment available, or to explain what they're going through - so I don't think there is a perfect diagnosis for Dazai aside from PTSD, but he's definitely extremely neurodivergent. Thanks for reading <3

[kouyou-arc-when]

On actual life support from how Fyodor is making me feel a certain kind of way in these leaks

Won't spoil, no worries. Accidentally found the images

[kouyou-arc-when]

do not disturb!