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[mercury088]

Armed Detective Agency? More like All Dead Agency at this point.

I'm okay I promise.

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They're matching!

- Chapter 1

- Chapter 36

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Friendly reminder that he knew the reason himself. That he kept his promises. That he didn't need words, only actions. That the hole was only for his ally to flee through.

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This is truly our Bungo Stray Dogs.

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I don't understand a single thing, but I'm cheering nonetheless.

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Born to snuggle up on the sofa to watch movies and cuddle at night and wake up together and kiss before going to work and go on cute dates and heal and LIVE HAPPILY WITH A GARDEN AND A CAT.

Forced to Bungo Stray Dogs.

[mercury088]

I want to add my (very vague) interpretation of this scene:

Strength isn't only found in battle, it is also in one's humanity. That's why Atsushi asked Akutagawa not to kill anyone for 6 months. He wants to show him the value of humans' lives.

Akutagawa may not be strong, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's weak. He's just him. Not a strong man, not a weak man, just the one standing in front of Atsushi at that moment. Just a human.

So, what I think Atsushi means is that the thing Dazai values is not one's strength, but one's humanity. It has been shown multiple times that he's drawn to people who are humane (Oda who doesn't kill, Ango who records information of the deceased, Chuuya who would do anything for the people he loves). Not that his treatment of Akutagawa is acceptable, but Dazai may have acted that way because he doesn't like his... inhumanity (sorry, I couldn't find a better word).

In short, "What you need for Dazai-san to acknowledge you is to realize that you don't have to be strong in order to not be weak, and that there is strength within yourself, within the human inside you."

Hey (^-^)/

I have a question: What did Atsushi mean in this panel when he said "the fact that you're the one standing in front of me"? I don't get it.

And why Akutagawa's face seem conflicted by hearing that?

I'm not entirely sure - that line is fairly ambiguous - but I can share my own interpretation! Here, Atsushi is trying to explain Akutagawa that the reason why Dazai has not acknowledged him yet is not, as Akutagawa is convinced of, because he isn't strong enough, and that his being powerful is actually of no interest to Dazai. Atsushi suggests that there's something else Dazai is waiting for Akutagawa to grow better at before acknowledging him, and Akutagawa will only be able to see what it is by keeping himself from killing (likely, what Atsushi is thinking Akutagawa lacks is moral virtue to some extent, compassion and humanity. I feel like that's also consistent with how Dazai sees Akutagawa in Beast, and what believes is wrong with him: “It’s human nature to lash out with violence. But if hurting others is your natural instinct… then you are nothing more than a mindless beast” (Dazai, Beast novel, page 18) ).

Akutagawa so far has believed that everything he could do to be seen by Dazai, was proving his own strength; and that his current situation of not being yet recognized was due to his own limits on that front. With that last line, I think Atsushi is telling him: “The reason you are where you are now [both in terms of his path towards being acknowledged by Dazai and overall current status as conjunction of events that led him to be where he is] has nothing to do with your strength or lack thereof. You're here in front of me [in your current situation that led you to this place in this moment] because there's something you've yet to realize [that would be, once again, that strength is not what Dazai seeks in him but rather for Akutagawa to accomplish a moral step up]”.

Additionally, I think Atsushi might also imply: “The reason you're here in front of me, the reason Dazai decided you had to be here, is so that you could see something you still can't grasp”, since both sskk and the bsd author seem to be fairly assured that everything sskk themselves do is because Dazai wanted them to, in some sort of weird determinism (“Why were you so eager to put Akutagawa-kun against that tiger lad? [...] How long have you been aiming for this scenario?” “From the time I met Atsushi-kun.” (Hirotsu, Dazai, chapter 37); “Why do you think Dazai-san put us together?” (Atsushi, chapter 51); “Dazai-san didn't abandon me after all. This was all a trial. A guidepost, lined with wailing.” (Akutagawa, chapter 85); and even more examples could be made; everything sskk do, seems like it's because Dazai wanted them to at some point.)

The reason why Akutagawa looks so conflicted, then, is probably out of bewilderment for Atsushi's words, for the revelation that proving his strength - that is everything Akutagawa has tried to do since meeting him - is actually not the way to make Dazai acknowledge him.

Here's an alternative fantranslation to the official English translation + the raws of that page for further insight :)

[mercury088]

PM!sskk AU where Oda trains Atsushi and Chuuya trains Akutagawa.

No (very few) Dazai involved. I have decided that he is the source of all their suffering.

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Unhappy Pride month.

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Akutagawa reads poems, Atsushi reads stories.

That's it that's the post.

[mercury088]

what do you think about the option of aku completely dying because of his lung issues?

personally I feel like it'll be really meaningful if it happens after us the readers get to know his character better, his past, his trauma and faults. the information probably being revealed to atsushi as well and him dying right before he's about to step into the light and make that final step into becoming a good person.

the thought of it makes me want to cry but it'll be a really good plot point in the story.

[mercury088]

Happy birthday Atsushi!

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On a side note, I would like to see Yosano, Kyouka, Lucy, Tanizaki, Kunikida, Kenji, Tecchou and hopefully Jouno again.

[mercury088]

So... Pride month sskk then?

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Is it a good time to post this?

[mercury088]

Regarding Akutagawa and his literary voice, he was criticized in his later career for how he used Japanese historical and mythological settings + his sharp, precise style to insulate himself from his works. In the era of the I-novel, his command over language and story and his reliance on existing narratives as props branded him as inauthentic and manufactured. To this day, decades after his suicide, forewords to anthologies of his works muse on how his nerves were too frail and his constitution too delicate for him to survive the confessional writing demanded by the zeitgeist. (Although, I'm certain the excessive amounts of barbiturates he was prescribed played a more meaningful role in that decision than his aversion to autobiographical fiction.)

Anyway, I think it's clever that Kafka Asagiri wrote him so that his ability relies on a prop that he has immense difficulty relinquishing (his coat) and that Rashomon is sharp, precise, mid-range, and also capable of devouring space. Like his namesake author, bsd!Akutagawa cuts with a brilliance that distances him.

[mercury088]

"why does writing take so long" because 60% of it is coming up with a sentence, realizing that sentence doesn't work the way you want it to, and staring at a wall