#And it just got more and more soukoku coded as we went

[nopeleavemealoone]

Thus Always To Tyrants by the Oh Hellos

[blue-thief]

I saw someone say that soukoku is mostly due to Dazai and there’s not a lot of evidence pointing to chyuua being queer coded or having romantic feelings for Dazai. So I was wondering if there’s any cannon evidence pointing to it and if irl chyuua was bisexual or something like irl Dazai

hiii!! sorry if this is a little late lol

now that you mention it, yeah, a lot of the evidence backing up soukoku actually does come from dazai. funnily enough, i actually have a whole list on my phone dedicated to soukoku proof, and when i went to look through, most of it was due to dazai lmao.

however, just because most of the evidence comes from dazai, that doesn't mean all of it is.

any sort of evidence we have for chuuya's possible romantic feelings for dazai is very subtle and scarce. most of this has to do with the fact that chuuya appears in the main story infrequently, and the only times we get any insight into how he thinks and feels mostly come from the light novels detailing his backstory. for me, the most significant instances of chuuya's affection for dazai come from the symbolism behind his exposed hands, the dragon battle in dead apple, and the small comments he makes about dazai.

i've already discussed chuuya's hands a bit in this post:

if you don't wanna go through the effort of reading all of that, basically, during chuuya's battle against rimbaud, chuuya removed his hands from his pockets for the first time in fifteen. he stated that he had kept them away until then because he was reserving himself from fighting properly for when he found himself in a situation that really called for it—in that moment, he genuinely needed to defend himself and found the desire and desperation to keep living.

in the present day, chuuya doesn't keep his hands in his pockets anymore, but instead, he hides them with gloves. the only times we get to see him take them off is when he activates corruption, a situation where he's desperate enough to put his life at risk, and a situation he's only willing to put himself into if he trusts dazai enough to save him. chuuya's attachment to the life he lives becomes clear when he's with dazai, and he's willing to risk it all because his faith in dazai is just that strong.

a perfect example of this would be in dead apple when ango told chuuya that dazai had definitely died, and chuuya basically replied by saying, "dazai can't die but even if he is dead, i'm completely fine with dying with him". on top of that, chuuya isn't supposed to be lucid when he uses corruption, yet he screamed dazai's name multiple times and held back his strength to punch dazai just enough to get him to swallow the antidote in his mouth. this means that chuuya's resolve to save dazai was strong enough to rival a god.

then there's the things he says during their sparse meetings in the main story that seem insignificant at first. however, it's important to remember just how deathly afraid chuuya is of vulnerability after experiencing so much pain and loss in just a few years (betrayal of the sheep, loss of the flags, N's torture, etc). these issues likely just got worse after dazai left the port mafia. when you take that into account lines such as, "back then, your 'spite' was almost an art. you made a fool of everyone, be them friend or foe" and "the night you disappeared, i opened a bottle of petrus 1989 to celebrate. that's how much i hate you, bastard" take on a brand new, much more agonizing meaning. comments such as these are likely chuuya's subtle way of telling dazai that their separation hurt, and separation only ever really hurts when you truly care for the other person. chuuya opening up even by that much is already impressive when you remember just how terrible both sides of soukoku are at communicating.

as for any evidence coming from irl chuuya, there's not really much lol. the only queer irl equivalents of bsd characters that i can think of rn are dazai, ranpo, yosano, akutagawa, verlaine, and rimbaud lol. chuuya was heavily influenced in his works by rimbaud and verlaine, but idk if that's really saying much lmao. however, a lot of bsd's story takes inspiration from the works of the irl authors and poets mentioned, and irl chuuya's poems such as some parts of "sheep song" speak of loneliness and heartache—that could possibly be reflected in c! chuuya's characterization in bsd.

anyways, chuuya's feelings towards dazai hardly ever get expressed in bsd, and most skk evidence mostly rests on what we know about dazai's feelings, but it's not like there's nothing to prove that chuuya doesn't feel the same way.

[charmspoint]

im curious about your opinion on dazai. i personally can't stand him, especially during the fyodor arc. and you're so right bsd is so damn haunting the concept was so good if only it was utilised properly

Honestly I went back and forth on Dazai while i was into bsd mostly cuz of fandom influence and the plague that is Kafka's writing

He IS @autumn-foxfire fav character and Foxy always has good opinions so if you wanna see a fans opinion you can ask her too (yes foxy im dragging you into this if i must go through it so must you <3)

But basically I used to be p neutral about Dazai like, i enjoyed him but he didn't crack my top three. I thought he was a lovable and intriguing member of the cast even tho....god he to suffers from being miswritten even tho he holds the title of Kafkas fave (is he still?)

His suicidal tendencies ... yikes. I think its perfectly okay to make a suicidal character if you want to work with stuff like that. Kafka doesn't want to work with stuff like that he wants to make fun of stuff like that. I talked with Foxy before, like how it would have been SO intriguing for his his suicidal tendencies to be treated a bit more seriously like like okay imagine this

Dazai is suicidal right yes and he comes from Port Mafia where basically nobody gives two fucks about that and treats it like a joke. He's fucking miserable. But then, then he transfers to ada and the 'jokes' that would have got him an eyeroll in pm now get concerned words and attempts tp help. It would have been a shell shock! And it would have been a much better show of the difference between pm and ada. Like how is ada better for Dazai or more a family to him if they do the same thing pm does aka dismiss literal suicide attempts as dazai being annoying. I know its a gag but its a bad gag. Or failing that (i think this was foxys idea foxy correct me if im wrong) ATSUSHI coming in ada and going UHHHH GUYS WHY ARE WE IGNORING THIS. Let him be a change GOD SOMEONE BLS TAKE CARE OF DAZAI PLEASE TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY IM BEGGING.

like, its no coincidence one of my soukoku fics is literally about chuuya trying to cope and help in his own clumsy way, this shit isnt funny to me i want it to be explored properly if itll be brough up

But anyway, along the way i soured on Dazai a lot because 1. The fandom started treating Chuuya as basically a accessory to Dazai, as his tsun tsun wife and little else 2. EVERYTHING WAS ABOUT DAZAI like just everything he was on top of everything had his fingers in everything, everyone was connected to him. It was obvious that Kafka liked Dazai the most and just made him this super powered genius that can do anything and also his interactions with fyodor my god i was already tired of fyodor because ble ble another super genius but putting him in the same room as dazai frustrated me so much THATS NOT HOW MAKING A CODE WORKS. He just stopped feeling like a character to me and more as this deus ex machina thing to push the plot along because its okay dazai knows just what to do when and how. Basically i just got really tired of him in canon and the way his relationship to one of my favs was characterized in the fandom just drove me over the edge. This was the reason i stopped interacting with the fandom too much too.

But like then I spent a lot of time talking to Foxy about bsd and by the power of blorbo in law i started liking Dazai again <3 just you know the version of Dazai in my head not the one in my manga im tired of that guy

Anyway glad to see we are all collectively suffering this fine afternoon <3

[straycatsacademia]

Will You Tie the Knot with Me?

Finally updated my Shin Soukoku fic!

Summary: Akutagawa Ryuunosuke is the top student at a prestigious boarding school. When Nakajima Atsushi transfers in and nearly beats Akutagawa for top spot, things start to get messy.

Chapters: 2/?

Ao3 link

CHAPTER 1:

Nakajima Atsushi was a clumsy, annoying, teacher’s pet who somehow failed at everything yet got anything he wanted. It made Akutagawa Ryuunosuke’s blood boil. Every day Nakajima would run into class one second before it started, his tie loosely done and his shirt half untucked, and every day Akutagawa would glare at him and wish he didn’t exist.

Akutagawa went to a prestigious boarding school for those with special abilities. The teachers were strict, the expectations were extremely high, and the workload was vigorous. Akutagawa would wake up early in the morning to train and stay up late into the night doing assignments, just to barely be at the top of his class.

Meanwhile, Nakajima Atsushi somehow managed to have several friends, be involved in school activities, get the attention of almost every boy in school, and still be right behind Akutagawa in their class rank.

No matter how hard Akutagawa worked, no matter what he gave up, Atsushi was always going to be right behind him, and if he didn’t step it up, maybe ahead of him. No, there was no way Akutagawa was going to let that happen.

Ever since Atsushi has transferred to this school, Akutagawa had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with Atsushi. He turned down every offer Atsushi had to study and refused to join anything that involved Atsushi. It didn’t take long before Atsushi wanted nothing to do with him either, and Akutagawa was fine with that.

Unfortunately for him today, Atsushi was late, again, and the only open seat was beside Akutagawa. Akutagawa internally groaned as Atsushi sat down, and Atsushi made a point to face his body as far from Akutagawa as it could go.

Their teacher for the semester was none other than Dazai Osamu. He was barely older than Akutagawa and Atsushi, but had managed to skip enough grades that he was able to teach to finish his degree.

Akutagawa had always admired Dazai’s brain and dedication, but Dazai wanted nothing to do with him. He had made very clear that Atsushi was his prodigy, despite Akutagawa being above him. His blood boiled as their teacher smiled at Atsushi as he took attendance, and he looked down at his notebook.

Doing what he was good at, Akutagawa threw himself into his schoolwork. He took extremely calculated notes with near-perfect handwriting that were color coded and organized. Beside him, Atsushi pulled out his one notebook that was stuffed to the brim with papers shoved inside and started to write.

Akutagawa rolled his eyes and continued to focus on the lesson before the bell rang and indicated it was time for gym class. He packed up his things neatly into his backpack when he heard a crash beside him and noticed there was paper everywhere.

He knew immediately it was Atsushi who had dropped everything, and was about to berate him for being a clumsy idiot when he noticed Atsushi’s face was contorted in pain, and there was a blood stain forming on the shoulder of his uniform.

Akutagawa’s eyes widened. He and Atsushi were the only ones left in the classroom, besides Dazai.

“Akutagawa, it seems Atsushi has an injury that needs tending to. Please accompany him to the nurse’s office immediately,” Dazai instructed.

“But I’ll be late for gym, and it’s his arm that’s hurt, he doesn’t need help for that!” Akutagawa protested.

“He’s right, I can deal with this myself,” Atsushi pleaded with Dazai.

Yet Dazai wasn’t having any of it. “I will explain the situation to the gym teacher, and Akutagawa will accompany you to the nurse’s office. If either of you think about going around me, I highly suggest you don’t,” Dazai smiled creepily, and both Akutagawa and Atsushi shuttered at the thought of being punished from Dazai.

“This day can’t get any worse,” Akutagawa thought, as he picked up Atsushi’s things and hoisted his backpack on his other shoulder.

“I can carry that,” Atsushi argued.

Akutagawa scoffed. “And have you drop everything again? No thanks. Come on, let’s go. I don’t want to miss warm-ups,” he muttered.

Atsushi rolled his eyes but followed him to the nurses office. Once they got there, Akutagawa set down Atsushi’s things and sat by the door. He may not have liked Atsushi, but Akutagawa valued his own privacy so he was not going to invade Atsushi’s. Besides, he didn’t want Atsushi to think he cared.

In a few minutes Atsushi was patched up, and they silently headed to the gym.

“You’re not going to ask what happened?” Atsushi asked him.

“Not my business,” Akutagawa replied, and headed toward the locker room.

Usually the locker room was packed full of boys shouting and laughing, but since they were late they were the only ones there. Akutagawa let out a breath of relief when Atsushi walked to his locker on the opposite side of the room.

Once they finally got changed, they met their gym teacher. Since the rest of the class had already been placed on teams, the teacher told them to walk the track.

Akutagawa’s eye twitched. He was late to class because of Atsushi and now he was stuck walking with him too? Great.

“I’ll start walking on this side, you go to the other side. I don’t want to be stuck near you the rest of class,” Akutagawa told him.

Atsushi bristled. “You’re not the boss of me,” he spat. “I’ll walk wherever I choose, and just to piss you off, I’m going to walk beside you the entire time. Maybe I’ll even make small talk,” he smirked.

Akutagawa groaned and started walking, Atsushi right beside him. Every time Akutagawa sped up to get away from him, Atsushi would walk faster to catch up with him. By the time Akutagawa’s lungs started to give out, they were full out jogging.

“Are you alright?” Atsushi asked him, concerned.

“Yes, I’m not weak,” Akutagawa growled.

“I didn’t say you were,” Atsushi retorted.

They continued to walk in silence, and while Akutagawa usually preferred it, something about Atsushi being quiet unnerved him.

“So… what happened to your shoulder anyway?”

Atsushi looked at him in shock, and for a second Akutagawa thought Atsushi was going to make fun of him for caring, but he didn’t.

“Ran into one of the benches when I was running track,” Atsushi told him sheepishly.

Akutagawa rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. You’re so clumsy,” Akutagawa reprimanded him.

“And you’re an ass, are we going to keep listing each other’s faults,” Atsushi retorted.

“If I listed all your faults we’d be here all day,” Akutagawa replied.

“What did I do to deserve your hate?!” Atsushi asked him, loud enough to grab the attention of some of their classmates.

“You never come to class on time, you always drop your things, you barely even try yet somehow you’re always behind me in class. Do you know how hard I have to work to keep my spot? For someone like you to grab Dazai-Sensei’s attention is an insult to me and everything this school stands for!” Akutagawa snarled back.

Atsushi just stared at him, his jaw hanging open. “That’s what you think? That I just don’t do anything and somehow magically claim the top spots? Why do you think I’m always so late and tired?”

Atsushi stepped closer to Akutagawa and put his finger to his chest. “All YOU do is sit at the top and judge everyone else, including me, and I’m sick of it! I deserve to be here just as much as you!” And with that, Atsushi walked back to the locker rooms to join everyone else to change.

Flabbergasted that anyone, let alone Atsushi, stood up to him, Akutagawa stood there in shock. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat and headed in to change.

Lunch passed by quickly, with Akutagawa sitting alone at his usual table. He caught Atsushi looking at him a few times, but whenever he looked up Atsushi looked away.

Finally, it was the last class of the day, and Akutagawa couldn’t be more thankful. Ever since his fight with Atsushi he found it hard to concentrate, and it annoyed him. Since when did he care about Atsushi’s opinion?

Yet his anxiety just got worse when Dazai-Sensei announced they would be working on a group project. Akutagawa didn’t have any friends, who was he going to work with?

“I will be picking your partners this time!” Dazai-Sensei announced, and the class groaned.

Dazai started listing off the partners, and Akutagawa felt his heart drop into his stomach when he announced his partner was Atsushi.

For once, Atsushi seemed to be on the same page.

“And no, you cannot switch partners,” Dazai added, looking directly at Akutagawa.

Soon enough class was over, and Atsushi headed over to Akutagawa’s desk.

“So, when do you want to work on this?”

“You’re the busy one, you decide,” Akutagawa replies curtly.

Atsushi winced. “Tomorrow is open gym, I can probably skip that if you wanna meet in the library?”

Akutagawa nodded, and grabbed his stuff to head back to his room. Atsushi looked like he wanted to say something else, but Akutagawa slipped past him before he could.

The next day passes by quickly, and surprisingly, Atsushi was waiting for him in the library after class.

They quickly got to work, and Akutagawa realized that Atsushi had something on his mind.

“If you’re not going to focus, maybe we should just meet another time,” Akutagawa told him.

“I’m sorry!” Atsushi blurted out.

Akutagawa stared at him. “For what?”

“For yesterday… I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that, I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Akutagawa raised an eyebrow. “I started it didn’t I? Only apologize if you say things that aren’t true,” he told him.

Realizing this was as much of an apology Atsushi was going to get, he smiled.

“Okay, let’s get to work then!”

Much to Akutagawa’s shock, they were on the same page for what needed to be done, so the afternoon passed by quickly.

Realizing it was time for dinner, they headed to the cafeteria together. They grabbed their food, and when Akutagawa headed to his normal spot, he realized Atsushi was behind him.

“What are you doing?”

“I thought you might want some company today,” Atsushi told him, and Akutagawa knew that his mind was set on sitting with him.

Rolling his eyes, he sat down and started picking at his food.

“Why do you eat by yourself?” Atsushi finally asked him.

Akutagawa raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Well, it seems lonely,” Atsushi said.

“I like the quiet,” Akutagawa responded.

“Oh, well if you want me to leave…”

“No,” Akutagawa said, surprising both himself and Atsushi. He coughed into his hand. “I mean… you can stay,” he muttered.

Atsushi beamed at him, and Akutagawa pretended not to notice.

Atsushi made small talk the rest of dinner, and Akutagawa hesitantly responded to all of his questions. They both found out they were more similar than they thought.

The night went on, and as Akutagawa headed to bed, he realized he was unsure how he felt about Atsushi anymore.

The next day, classes passed without incident. However, Akutagawa was shocked when Atsushi took a seat next to him for lunch instead of his friends. His friends seemed just as baffled.

“Don’t you want to sit by your friends?”

“You’re my friend too,” Atsushi argued, and Akutagawa felt the tips of his ears turn red. He looked down at his food, and asked Atsushi how his day was.

Atsushi smiled and talked to him about his track team and how proud he was of them, and how he was up late making posters for the seniors. Atsushi did most of the talking, which was fine with Akutagawa.

They decided to meet in the library again for their project in a few days, and headed back to class. Atsushi continued to sit with him at lunch, which baffled Akutagawa considering Atsushi’s friends called him crazy over it.

They met in the library again, and after hours of working, they realized they were done. All that was left of the project was to present it.

“Guess we don’t need to meet in the library again, huh,” Akutagawa said, almost sadly.

“We could keep meeting and just study together,” Atsushi replies sheepishly.

Akutagawa blinked, and smiled softly. “I’d like that,” he said, and Atsushi beamed.

They continued to eat lunch together, and a few of Atsushi’s friends even joined. They met at the library after class every Tuesday and Thursday to study, yet they always ended up talking long past they were done studying.

They were talking about school one night and Akutagawa learned that Atsushi was here on a scholarship.

“I’m an orphan,” Atsushi explained. Akutagawa’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Dazai-Sensei’s friend took me in after some things came out about the orphanage I was staying at. I worked hard at school to catch up and I managed to get the scholarship,” he explained softly.

Akutagawa knew Atsushi felt uncomfortable talking about it, so he didn’t push the subject, even though he had a million questions. Did the orphanage hurt Atsushi? It made his insides twist just thinking about it. Guilt about how he treated Atsushi in the beginning rose in his throat.

“I’m sorry,” Akutagawa told him. “For what happened to you and for how I treated you when you came here. I was jealous that you seemed to have everything handed to you, and I was wrong,” Akutagawa whispered.

Atsushi smiled at him, and Akutagawa’s heart skipped a beat. “I forgive you,” he replied.

The more they met to study, the closer they seemed to sit together. Winter break was coming up, and the library was closed for renovations.

“We can hang out in my room,” Akutagawa told him. Most students had roommates, including Atsushi, but because of his coughing/illness Akutagawa had a room to himself.

Atsushi agreed and they headed up to Akutagawa’s room. Akutagawa suddenly got nervous, but he pushed the feeling down.

They sat beside each other on his bed, studying for finals.

“What are you going to do over winter break?” Atsushi asked him.

“Travel somewhere with my parents, probably,” Akutagawa told him.

“You don’t seem to happy about that,” Atsushi frowned.

Akutagawa shrugged. “They just use me for publicity. A previous orphan whose chronically ill gets a lot of pity points,” Akutagawa sighed.

“Well, that’s ridiculous! You’re amazing, and they should realize that!” Atsushi blurted out.

Akutagawa looked at him, and they both turned red.

“Thanks, Atsushi. And… you can call me Ryuunosuke,” he blushed.

Atsushi inhaled deeply. “Okay, Ryuunosuke,” he smiled, and Ryuunosuke’s heart skipped a beat.

Winter break was too long, in Ryuunosuke’s opinion. He sat quietly and obeyed his parents, while texting Atsushi under the table. He realized how much he missed Atsushi, and he smiled when Atsushi texted him saying he missed him too. School couldn’t start back up soon enough.

[hamartian-cathexis]

Rules: Tag nine people you want to get to know better.

Tagged by: @auro-cyanide (!!!! hi???? i didn’t??? know??? that you were aware of my existence??? I LOVE YOUR ART?????)

Relationship Status: Single and completely, utterly, NOT ready to mingle, like, ever (probably)

Favourite Colour: Grey. Spelled with an e (important).

Lipstick or Chapstick?: Chapstick. If I feel like bothering with either.

Last song you listened to: Technically…the ED to season two of Boku no Hero Academia. Before that, that one Ed Sheeran song that’s been playing everywhere. But the last song I’ve actually listened to, for the sake of listening to music, instead of just hearing it casually at the end of a show or overhearing it played somewhere… Haikyuu!! OST. As in, the song from the Haikyuu!! OST that is titled Haikyuu.

Last movie you watched: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. My sister and I went to Universal Studios the other day and we spent like 4 hours in Harry Potter world so we were planning a Harry Potter marathon…unfortunately an entire day of walking around is not conducive to sitting through roughly 16 or more hours of movie watching so we only got to the second movie, haha.

Top 3 Characters: …hhhhhhhhhahahaha you mean. Top 300, right? ha…ha… I’m just going to stick with anime/manga characters because… if I try to include book and movie characters (that includes anime movies because there are way too many favorites there too) I’m done for. Also… yeah. The top 3 thing isn’t going to work. haha. ha. I’m just gonna go all out… Series listings in no particular order, characters within series ordered starting from most favorite. Here goes.

Mob Psycho 100: Hanazawa Teruki, Kageyama Ritsu, Reigen Arataka, Mob

Boku no Hero Academia: Bakugou Katsuki, Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta…and like, all the class 1a girls, let’s be real (but especially Hagakure)…and basically everyone else oops

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dazai Osamu, Yumeno Kyusaku

Noragami: Yato, Yukine

Pandora Hearts: Elliot Nightray, Echo, Jack Vesalius, Lacie Baskerville, Oz Vesalius, Xerxes Break

Code Geass: Lelouch vi Britannia, Rolo

Hyouka: Fukube Satoshi, Oreki Houtarou

Death Note: Light Yagami, L Lawliet

Haikyuu!!: Tsukishima Kei, Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka Langley, Ikari Shinji, Nagisa Kaworu, Ayanami Rei, Misato Katsurugi, Ritsuko Akagi

Mushishi: Ginko

Durarara: Orihara Izaya, Heiwajima Shizuo, Karisawa Erika, Kishitani Shinra, Kida Masaomi…okay, and pretty much everyone else

FLCL: Mamimi Samejima

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: E V E R Y O N E

Cowboy Bebop: Spike Spiegel, Faye Valentine, Edward

Hunter x Hunter: Kurapika Kurta, Killua Zoldyck

Princess Tutu: Rue, Fakir

…tbh i actually…have a lot more… but maybe… ive already gone a bit too overboard… i will stop now… rip fma, baccano, steins gate, psycho pass, zankyou no terror… and many more…

Top 3 Ships: :^) again with the top 3 thing… i…just can’t… listed in no particular order…only including normal pairings, no OT3s or poly ships (i have lots of those)

Mob Psycho 100: Riteru

Boku no Hero Academia: Hagakure x Ojiro, Hagakure x Himiko, Iida x Hatsume, BakuDeku (ik it’s problematic…but shipping something doesn’t necessarily mean i think it’s healthy or that i think it should or would work out, i just really love angst…that’s all I will say on the matter), Kacchako, Shindeku (shinsou not shindou), Bakushima, Jirou x Kaminari, TodoDeku

Bungou Stray Dogs: KenKyou, Odazai, Dazango, Kunikidazai, FitzJohn, Steincraft, Shin Soukoku, Dazaku, Dazatsu, AtsuJuni

Haikyuu!!: TsukiHina, KageHina

Kuroko no Basuke: KiKuro, AkaKuro, AoKuro, MidoTaka…Oh man there are lots of knb ships, knb is what made me multishipping trash, i can’t list them all…

Durarara: Shizaya, Erika Karisawa x Walker Yumasaki, Seiji Yagiri x Mika Harima

Ouran High School Host Club: Haruhi x Hikaru, Haruhi x Kyouya (I’ve been told this is problematic? In my defense when i first watched it i was a cinnamon roll who had no idea what was going on and totally believed what Haruhi had believed in That One Scene. I just want to see them grocery shopping and being happy about their shared delight in smart spending okay), Honey x Mori, Mori x Haruhi, Haruhi x Kaoru

Death Note: LawLight (duh)

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: all the canon ships. all of them. the only show that made me ship all the canon ships with all the canon ships being het, it’s amazing, watch it

Hunter x Hunter: KilluGon

Neon Genesis Evangelion: KawoShin

Pandora Hearts: Echo x Oz

Books and manga you are currently reading:

Mob Psycho 100, Boku no Hero Academia, Noragami, Bungou Stray Dogs, Black Butler, Oyasumi Punpun… all of which I’m at least a few months behind on except for Noragami.

Top 5 Musicals:

I’m not really a musical person, so I don’t know if I have 5 tbh. uhmmmm. Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, Newsies?

Tagging!:

@yatomochi

@bakanohealthy

@luckygrapes

@tsukishhhima

@gibberishism

@zokudarakuron

@mab-speaks

@howling-rabbit

@kiribakus

[charmspoint]

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT ABT THE BSD MANGA ILY THANK YOU I FEEL LIKE MY OPINION IS FINALLY VALIDATED WHICH IS: BSD has turned meh. I have become indifferent towards the plot due to the fact there are no real stakes - I feel like the OP characters like Dazai will always have a solution with a deus ex machina feel to it, making it impossible for me to care. With the recent chaos happening in the manga (I too gave up on the manga a year or so ago!), I was baffled to find out I could no longer enjoy it. My memory is poor, and I can't really pinpoint it at the moment, but BSD just... doesn't engage me as it used to. Keep in mind I was an obsessive fan of it and analyzed it to the tiniest details, but all of my great love for the series has long died, sadly. But! I am glad to hear you feel similarly about it because, yes, the potential was there, but it got terribly wasted.

Bruh don't I feel it, me and @autumn-foxfire have like monthly bitch sessions about the state of bsd at this point. I was also super invested in it in initial arcs (Up until the guild arc ended) and then slowly started petering off only to drop it the first time around the hunting dogs introduction. Then after some time i was like okay ill go give it a second shot, came to the vampire arc went 'wow this is really fuckin stupid' and dropped it again. Idk will I pick it up again, maybe I'll just stick to being an anime only, even tho I also have problems with some adaptation things but that's BESIDES THE POINT.

Please click under for The Point

The thing about Kafka is: He's really good at coming up with interesting concepts and ideas and REALLY BAD at executing them in any sort of satisfying way. Like, when I say I only like bsd until the end of the guild arc, I don't mean it was perfect. It could have handled it's female cast better, it would have been fun to see more mafia and agency team ups besides soukoku and shin soukoku, I still don't get why shin soukoku is supposed to be a replacement in training since Dazai and Chuuya still work together perfectly and even if they hate each other they hate each other less than Akutagawa and Atsushi AND have way more experience fighting together but that once again is besides the point. The point being those arcs of bsd were SATISFYING. We got introduced to two organizations, seen them butt heads and then have them forced to work together against a common enemy. It's very simple but it's effective and it's satisfying.

And then the rats struck.

While up until then bsd wasn't perfect it was fun and had lovable characters and an interesting plot and engaging dynamics. Rats arc wasn't horrible per say, the idea of the cannibalization was really fun (Though I think Kafka should have used it to get rid of Mori, nobody fuckin likes Mori) but this is where we slowly get introduced to what I think are two main failings of Kafka's writing: That he's unable to handle characters properly and that he likes writing smart things but doesn't know how to write smart things.

Kafka has a very, very bad habit of INTRODUCING TOO MANY FUCKING CHARCTERS. Every arc is a new massive group with like a bunch of members, one of who may actually end up being fleshed out before they are inventiblely replaced by another large group or maybe two why the fuck not. The mafia and the guild left lasting impressions on me and I can still name all the main members but fuck me if i know a single rat aside from Fyodor (AND ILL GET TO FYODOR). Kafka feels like someone who's idea of rising conflict is 'introduce a bigger enemy each time' and it's just so annoying. Chapters and arcs end up centering around these groups of new characters while old characters, who we loved the manga for, just fall into obscurity. He almost had me in the hunting dogs arc by giving Yosano a backstory. I was so excited! I was like!!! finally development for the agency!!! But that barely went anywhere did it. I've talked about this with Foxy but it really feels like Kafka is just BORED of the og characters and is trying to silently sideline them for his new shiny characters. When's the last time we saw Chuuya again, you know, the ex partner of one of the series protagonists? The next predicted mafia head? Is he important? Foxy tells me Dazai's been sidelined too, fUCKIN DAZAI, for a good while I was sure Kafka liked Dazai a lot better than Atsuhi for protagonist and now he's getting sidelined. I know bsd is still really popular in japan but at this point i think it would have been more merciful for Kafka to just end bsd and start a new manga with new characters instead of doing whatever weird metamorphosis this is turning out to be.

Introducing new characters isn't a bad thing of course, but bsd has become mcdonalds of new characters. They are cheap and disposable. I can't feel anything for them because I know nine times out of ten they'll barely make any impact and they'll disappear as soon as the new group slides in. When adding new characters you should do so while knowing what role those characters will play in your plot, what will they bring. If a character is just there to waffle around until they get shoved away they should probably be cut because they are wasting time and space. AND YOU SHOULDN'T SIDE LINE YOUR CORE CAST FOR UR SHINY NEW CHARACTERS YOU'LL GET BORED OF IN COUPLE OF ARCS ANYWAY, ARE YOU A TODDLER???

I still think that bsd could have been SO much better if instead of focusing on the next big evil group they just focused on shifting tension between the agency and the mafia. I mean they've had to team up for the guild and then they immediately got thrown into the cannibalization. It would have been interesting to see them pull against and pull towards those ties made during the guild arc when they are forcefully pitted against each other again (and decide that killing mori would be in everyone's best interest). Instead we got, idk I already forgot what the rats arc ended up being about, atsushi and aku team up again yadda yadda yadda, Chuuya gets done dirty and never recovers, Fyodor ruins Dazai

SO ABOUT FYODOR. As I said, Kafka strikes me as someone who REALLY likes to write geniuses and who wants people to think he's super smart but also has no idea how to show his work. At first this was okay. We had Dazai and Ranpo who were very good at pushing the plot along and sometimes you'd get explained how they got to that conclusion and sometimes you didn't but it usually wasn't a big deal. But then the writing became more and more and more of 'well he's smart so he figured it out so just trust me' without actually explaining anything and as you said, it ended up feeling boring, unengaging and very deus ex machina. You know what Kafka's writing reminds me off? That video about how Sherlock is so happy to stroke itself to how smart they look while never showing their work, you know the one. Kafka likes writing smart characters but doesn't actually know how to write smart characters so instead of giving us reasons and clues and explanations to how they come to some conclusion, how they predicted or planned or whatever, he just goes 'oh well they are super smart so they figured it out'. I don't think I need to explained why this is bad, annoying and unengaging writing. This is why i say Fyodor ruined Dazai for me, Dazai was fine as a genius but then they had to pit him against Fyodor who's another genius and things just got ridiculous. You know how in that sherlock video the guy points out the one scene that encapsulates every irritating thing about sherlocks writing. This had been it for me and BSD (thank you Foxy for helping me find the panels)

THATS NOT HOW CODES WORK, THATS NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS, THEY WOULD JUST BE COMING UP WITH TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF CODES HERE. Even if they were both smart enough to remember every conversation in detail, how on earth are they supposed to 'guess out' what the other means. How are they supposed to confirm or deny that's what a certain word means in a way that can be understood, how can they even guess what the word the other guessed is IF THEY ARE BOTH TALKING IN CODE. KAFKA'S ANSWER: THEY'RE MONSTERS, THEY ARE JUST THAT SMART, NO NEED TO EXPLAIN IT BECAUSE THEY ARE JUST THAT SMART AND THAT'S YOUR SOLUTION AND THAT'S BULLSHIT. This scene broke bsd in half for me and honestly made me dislike Dazai for a long time (I got better), but it honestly shows so well how Kafka wanted to make his characters so smart he actually made his manga really fuckin stupid, ruining very good and interesting concept he had started with.

In the end, Kafka writes how I wrote when I was 15. With no idea where the plot is headed, adding new characters and situations whenever it strikes his fancy whether they work for the story or not, ending up just flopping around plot holes and fizzled out character arcs and boring ass writing. And that's fine for a 15yr old writing fanfiction. It's not fine for a presumably grown ass published author of a relatively popular manga.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.