#ALSO DAZAI IS NOT THE PROTAGONIST

[dazaistabletop]

I can't with this New York Times article

Source

[bungobble-my-balls]

OK correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the main 'yin/yang' parallel with Atsushi and Akutagawa is not something like 'this one is bad but secretly has a good side and this one is good but secretly has a bad side'.

I feel like it's more about 'who they are at their core vs who they choose to be'.

At his core Akutagawa is kind and at his core Atsushi is not. But despite this Atsushi tries every day to make the kinder choices and I love him so much for it. He has to work so hard to be good.

He wants to be a bitch SO bad I know he does but he tries his best to help people and be nice (sometimes he fails but that's OK <3)

Atsushi doesn't always WANT to help people, a lot of the time he's selfish and scared, but he does help people anyway. He keeps helping people over and over again. There's still some selfish motivation to it, and his initial motivation for helping people was because the headmaster told him that's all he was worth, but overall he does care about the people he helps and it weighs on him if he fails to save them. And of course, as the series goes on he starts helping people more because he can rather than because he feels like he needs to.

In Akutagawa's case, he's still capable of being kind but his environment led him into being someone who chooses to hurt people. But he's always been a protector at heart. In the start he was bad compared to Atsushi because he was choosing to hurt people and keep the cycle of abuse going. Just like how Atsushi developed in why he saved people, Akutagawa starts to get redeemed when he chooses to not just act on his rage. Not only does he start to spare people, but he speaks more kindly to them (apologising to Higuchi and telling Kyouka he's proud of her). It all culminates into the moment he chooses to help Atsushi and sacrifice himself for him, going back to his core value of being a protector. Even when he's finally revived, he keeps this role in his new position as Aya's Knight.

I kind of see the streaks of white in Akutagawa and the streaks of black in Atsushi not as their 'hidden sides' but as their fundamental selfs. That's who they are at their core, and their main colours (black for Akutagawa and white for Atsushi) are how they're presented to everyone else and how they try to have people see them as.

[alxastrx]

When you're one of the most selfish mc who only saves people because it's part of a job you never wanted and did not get to chose or you would've died, who took your co-workers' morals and ideals because you didn't have any and desperately wanted to fit in somewhere, be it with the heroes or the villains, who's activelly haunted by one the most tragic past to have been created and suffer from a psychosis so bad (dare I say schizophrenia) that even your enemies acknowledged that you are mentally ill and objectively flawed in your judgement, never hesitated to try to kill anyone and has the most egoistic reason to be a good person but the fandom still thinks you're just a kind crybaby "I don't know what a gun is" homosexual twink.

[note-boom]

Higuchi and Ranpo are just such interesting author-based characters in BSD.

I know it's weird to connect the two but hear me out...

So far, the only authors I can remember that don't have a known ability are Aya, Higuchi, and Ranpo. Aya and Higuchi will likely get an ability (latter has been confirmed to have one, at least) while Ranpo...probably won't? Though you never know.

But the reason I bring Higuchi and Ranpo together is because the latter is an author who is heavily implied to be the son of one of his IRL counterpart's characters. And meanwhile, the former is someone who has one of the real people in her IRL counterpart's life (that is to say, BSD Higuchi's sister) brought into the manga. Yeah, Tanizaki and Akuatagawa have their sisters be based off characters, and we also have Haruno based off a Tanizaki character, plus Fitzgerald's characters in the eyes of god story arc.

But I really think that it's interesting that Ranpo is the child of his own character. And that Higuchi is I think the only one with a family member that is based on IRL Higuchi's own family situation. That we might actually have a BSD character based on a real life person that wasn't a significant writer of some sort (to my knowledge, at least).

I don't really have a point with this, but it is interesting and aghhhhhhh Asagiri I'M BEGGING you to do something with Higuchi that doesn't involve Akutagawa! There's so many things about her and I want to know!

[astralspen]

Please this came to me so randomly but I now have the headcanon that Dazai likes to draw. Not like full on pieces or artworks but he likes to doodle randomly. In the margins of his paperwork you'll see small sketches or doodles of things like the sign for bar lupin, the pen on his desk, just small little things he remembers or is looking at. Also he has a small sketchbook that is really just a re-purposed notebook (Kunikida probably gave the notebook to him to solve his 'fish like memory issues'(he was just ignoring heads up for meetings, deadlines, etc.)) where Dazai will just sketch things that look more similar to full on pieces that he uses as a way to vent cause God is he emotionally constipated.

Edit: I just realized Chuuya would DEFINITELY tease dazai about his doodles. If he found of Dazai has a secret portrait drawing of him... well, Dazai is never gonna hear the end of it

[kyouka-supremacy]

tbh though the anime rushed to get to meursault more than the manga, them ignoring atsushi is just. Kinda the feeling i've gotten from the manga. it suffers a lot from dazai supremacy

FINALLY found something Bones has kept consistent with the manga

[artheresy]

I know they'll probably end up putting something, but honestly? My ideal vision for Season 5 of Bsd would there being no light novel adaption at the beginning of the season like the past three

I don't know quite which one of them would really even fit the current arc of the anime, I don't think any of them quite fit too well especially not enough to cut a space in-between where the season ended and where the next one will start

Plus I mean, the anime will basically be caught up with the manga at that point so not adapting a light novel in season 5 leaves more room for adapting them after while waiting for the manga to get far enough to have new content for the anime

Its wishful thinking honestly and I highly doubt that Bones wouldn't try to keep fitting the formula they've already set up in the past three seasons, but I can dream 😞 God can I dream

[gothamcityneedsme]

I really like how this ending is really taos, i like how shes placed like the protagonist is in the humanity ending of the og game. Happy to see her world but existing outside of it. Its more about her than it is him and im okay with that, esp since i think shes a very effective rep

[lnkedmyheart]

Saw someone unironically say Ango, Oda and Mushitaro are carrying bsd. One is dead, one is a minor character and one showed up in season 4. That's not carrying the series. Words mean things people.

[chiaracqueen]

main character of a shounen: *is brutally murdered in the latest episode/chapter causing the breakdown of the whole fandom*

me: damn i should def start this rn

[heartless-curr]

i want to talk about the moment that both made me fall in love with atsushi nakajima as a character, and which made me realize that I was probably going to get obsessed with BSD.

specifically, it was this moment.

words can not describe how important this moment was to me, and how vital this is to both atsushi as a character and his relationship with dazai as a whole.

as someone who is currently living with my abusive parents, this was something that resonated with me a lot — oftentimes, media when attempting to portray abuse (specifically parental abuse) and victims of abuse, does 1 out of 2 things:

1. Tries to justify the abuse and protect the parents — having the kids be okay with the treatment they recieved.

2. Has the kids utterly despise their parents with no shred of good feelings.

And whilst, sure, both of these can happen — and I'm sure there are victims who actually feel like this — it's not the most common response.

Speaking from my own experience — I don't know how to feel about my parents. If they died, I wouldn't know what face to make. I hate them more than anyone else, but at the same time, I grew up with them. I hate them, but I also love them. If they died, I don't know how I'd feel about it. And we get to see Atsushi having that exact breakdown — the elation over the person you hate dying, versus the grief and frustration and confusion. Abuse isn't simple, and feelings aren't simply — your abuser dying isn't something that's clean cut, it comes with a million different conflicting confusing emotions.

And the fact that Atsushi is allowed to have these feelings, is allowed to hate the headmaster, is allowed to grieve without forgiveness, is so important. BSD doesn't try to justify his abuse — it's okay to mourn someone that hurt you even if you don't like them. Their death — or their intentions — don't make forgiveness a necessity.

And even moreso, the fact that he gets explicitly told that regardless of the fact that that abuse was what molded him into the person he is today and has helped him survive, and the fact that the headmaster had good intentions, it was bad and unforgivable, is extremely important.

dazai not forcing atsushi to feel a certain way about his abuser, and encouraging him to mourn without forgiveness and to actually feel, is an incredibly important moment — i doubt that i'm only speaking for myself here when i say that when dealing with these subject matters, these are the types of things we'd like to hear.

the fact that dazai is the character telling atsushi this isn't lost on me, either — considering that earlier on this chapter, he sent ryuunosuke to tell atsushi about the headmaster, and they had this interaction:

everything about this is so fascinating and well written — from atsushi having an extremely realistic breakdown over the death of his abuser, to dazai telling him that he has zero obligation for forgiveness — and the implications that he's aware that what he's done to ryuunosuke is wrong regardless of intentions, is fascinating.

to me, atsushi nakajima has always felt human in a way most protagonists don't — his trauma impacts him, he has complex messy feelings that can't be easily resolved. it's his choice what to do with his emotions, and all others can do is give advice, and let him figure out how to deal with them.

atsushi nakajima crying over the man who simultaneously raised him and made his life a living hell is accurate in a way that almost hurts.

(slightly unrelated, but i sure was accurate with this prediction from a month ago, huh!)

[lazyflower48]

I love how despite the show being called Bungou Stray Dogs, most of the characters are either cat coded or canonically cat people OR they just dislike dogs.

And as a cat person myself, I absolutely adore this little detail (I love dogs too ofc, just prefer cats a little more)

The protagonist is literally a cat. (Okay yes, he's a tiger. Close enough lol)

Dazai was referred to as "a burnt black cat" by Oda. And he's also a cat person with a very obvious dislike for dogs.

The strongest gifted is LITERALLY A CAT.

Then of course there's Fukuzawa- the biggest cat person in the series. And Ranpo is also one of the most cat coded characters in the show (he's just as lazy as a cat)

Kyouka being the most adorable cat person

And then there's Haruno and her obsession with cats, specifically, Mii-chan (Natsume). Also, love how cat girl is just a...CAT girl. (We don't even know her name)

There's Akutagawa with his dislike for dogs (imo, he's also very cat coded. According to a CD drama, he hates baths. If that isn't very cat like, then I don't know what is)

Lastly, Chuuya being one of the few dog people in the show is so funny to me.

Maybe Chuuya is the true Bungou Stray Dog amidst all the stray cats.

[yarrayora]

see, like, sometimes i see bsd fans commenting about how it's weird for asagiri to make the tanizaki siblings incestuous or the whole lolicon gag with mori and elise but the thing is both of those things are based on the real life tanizaki junichiro and mori ougai's works

naomi is, of course, based on the novel naomi, a story about a man who groomed a young girl into a westernized woman and it ends up with her turning the table by dominating his life. which is why the junichiro in the manga is unable to say no to his sister. while the irl work is mostly a commentary about the cultural change in taisho period, the siblings in the manga focuses on the unhealthy relationship of the protagonist jouji and naomi. you might find it disgusting and that's okay. but the character dazai is also created based on the real dazai osamu's uncomfortable depiction of humanity's ugliness. it just doesn't make sense to allow one depiction but not the other.

elise is named after the love interest in the dancing girl, but the power that creates her is named after the real mori ougai's erotic novel that is secretly about his own sexual experiences. you can argue that there is no need for elise to be a child because the character in the dancing girl isn't one, and vita sexualis itself is more about the author-slash-protagonist's struggle with having sexual desires in a society that champions moral purity.

but the thing is elise isn't even a fanservice character. she isn't depicted as someone the audience should find desirable for one. when it comes to lolicon fanservice you can expect either excessive depiction of innocence or at the very least elise getting jealous when mori gives attention to someone else. but even her mocking is just that, mocking. we were never shown her returning mori's affection even in a tsundere way.

the biggest hint is actually the fact that in beast au, a timeline where mori gives up his position as the mafia boss, elise is an adult. it shows that the child form of elise is symbolic of mori's desire to control those with the power he wants to obtain i.e. dazai and yosano. it's so much easier to gain power over other when they're a child and you're the authority figure, after all. so when he no longer chases after that ambition, elise becomes an adult.

tldr; asagiri didn't necessarily make tanizaki siblings and elise for the sake of fanservice but it's definitely because he actually pays attention to the literature that inspires him

[euphoricimagination]

꧁༺ 𝓜𝓮𝓮𝓽 𝓬𝓾𝓽𝓮: 𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓾𝓼𝓪 ༻꧂

You were in your favorite coffee shop after your day at work had finished, a small and very cozy shop that was in the middle of Tokyo that surprisingly didn’t have many customers for being in the heart of the country.

After a very tiring day you decided to visit, ordering your favorite pastry and coffee to have while continuing the book you were reading at the moment: The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai.

You were comfortably reading there when suddenly loud voices start to come closer, soon entering the café four people with big bags.

“I told you this place is so quiet! Almost nobody here!” one with greyish hair says

“How d’ya know about this, Bokuto-san? Ya don’t read” one with blonde hair asks

“Akaashi showed it to me when we where in uni!”

“Akaashi-san does seem like someone who would like this place” an orange hair one says now.

You noticed that the black hair one didn’t say anything, in fact he looked rather annoyed by his friends; but deciding to mind your own business, you continue reading while they order. Soon enough they came to sit near you, enthusiastically talking about volleyball and whatever had happened in their practice. You had seen them before, but not enough to know their names.

“Excuse me” you hear a few minutes after, the orange hair dude now beside you smiling brightly “It says Osamu Dazai? Like the dude from Bungo Stray Dogs?”

“Eh? Well, yeah, but…”

“Osamu? Ma brother was named after an author?” the blonde one says, taking his things and setting himself on your table

“You idiots, Osamu Dazai is a real person and a famous author” the black hair one says, looking carefully at the book as the other ones also join you

“Yeah, but it is true that he appears on the anime, all characters are based on real life authors, Dazai being one of them”

“ahh, I see! Thanks for letting us join you! I’m Hinata Shoyo” the orange hair says smiling, making it harder for you to even be mad at them

Surprisingly enough, despite being strangers, they made you feel really comfortable, everyone being chatty and making sure you join their conversation.

“I heard that this book it’s quite good, the protagonist is recovering after a suicide attempt, right?” Sakusa asks you, looking at the book again

“yeah, he’s the only survivor out of the couple. Its much more…joyful than his previous works”

“I see, I might try reading it. How did you found out about it?”

“honestly…because of the anime” you chuckle, making him have a faint smile “it is very good though, so I’m kinda glad I did pick it up”

“I’ve heard of the author, never actually check it out though” he says while looking over at his teammates, who know where loudly discussing about a match “sorry about them, you were reading peacefully and they came and ruined that”

“it’s alright, I don’t mind. They’re funny”

“They’re annoying”

“Omi-kun! Why do ya look more comfortable with her than us? We’ve know each other since high school!” Atsumu whines with a small smirk

“Unlike you bunch, she knows how to act outside”

“Ah! I know! We have a game on Sunday, why don’t you come to watch us Yn-chan?” Hinata asks you, also with a knowing look on his eyes, it seems that the three other players realized something about Sakusa

“Yeah, we can show you how awesome we are! You can see Omi-kun in action too!” Bokuto adds, a slight shade of red in your cheeks

“We have to go, we have practice early tomorrow” Sakusa stands ups, sending a sharp look to the guys and making them stand up saying their goodbyes. Sakusa is the last one to leave, looking at you right before he left “I do hope you can come to see us….maybe you can lend me that book after”

[lxikobsd]

It hurts that it feels like the way Kunikida was created to be a bit more of an important character but the plot constantly shafts him

You're telling me we have a character who was introduced in the very beginning of the story, who is the main mentor to Atsushi our primary protagonist, and current partner of Dazai our secondary protagonist, so important roles to both characters who kinda share the spot of being the main protagonist.

You're also telling me that we are constantly told that he's the person who embodies the values of the ADA the most, the main organization of the manga and is one of the things that we as the audience are supposed to care the most about. So we have the character who is the human embodiment of the beliefs of the ADA, who is the character that is going to be the next leader of the ADA, and is the character that was specifically targeted to be broken first because of these reasons.

so not only all that, but Kunikida's Matchless Poet has arguably some really strong parallels to The Book. We've got:

An ability that allows the user to create anything they want by writing it into a special book.

A special book that allows anybody to create and change reality into anything they want by writing in it.

Obviously there is a massive difference being the scale, The Book being able to change reality, and The Matchless Poet only being able to create notebook sized objects to our current knowledge. I don't genuinely believe there's gonna be any relation between the two but the parallels are still there and we also don't know the full strength of Kunikida's ability due to Fukuzawa's ability and lack of a proper backstory for Kuni showing what it was like before the ADA. There is a very good chance that The Matchless Poet is stronger than what it's shown to be but its purposely kept to such a small size because of practicality.

I'm not saying that he isn't important at all, but it definitely feel's like he's been shafted the most out of the ADA, except for maybe Tanizaki. At least give us a backstory please.

[xinvisiblestringsx]

I'm going to defend Asagiri's fake out deaths

Asagiri fakes deaths too much yes but they make sense to the story. Fyodor was "killed" by Dazai and Chuuya and let me remind you that Fyodor is the main villain but Dazai is not the protagonist. Typically in fiction villains are defeated by protagonists so Dazai killing him doesn't make sense imo. (Atsushi barely did anything big and the cliffhanger at the end of s5 is proof of that)

Also about the fake deaths I don't think any "deaths" we've seen so far was enough of a big deal considering the importance of these characters to the story. If they were to fr die it would've been much more emotional and it would drag out through episodes.

Best example of Asagiri killing a character we have is Oda's death which was impactful to other characters and the overall storyline.

Also Fukuchi's death makes sense too but how Chuuya or Dazai "died" in previous chapters is underwhelming (i know they weren't when the chapters first came out but now through a clear lens they feel underwhelming)

And Fyodor dying without us learning about his ability/backstory/motivations + the battle just being chess with Dazai (there was no organization battle/we haven't seen all of Fyodor's cards/other characters were more involved with Fukuchi and hunting dogs business rather than Fyodor) were also hints that we're not done with Fyodor.

DoA fight was also all over the place like the arc was more focused on Fukuchi and his motivations (which is way different than Fyodor's) and Fukuchi got a proper ending unlike Fyodor.

So stop provoking this man I already am starting to think he's going to make Chuuya and Dazai die together (ehm we're destined to die together theory) And Akutagawa is obviously going to die at some point. Let him do his thing please 😭😭