#I read this book because of bsd

[briebysabs]

My Analysis on ‘No Longer Human’ by Dazai Osamu

I have finally read No Longer Human and I have so many thoughts concerning this novel that I felt called upon by the universe to write whatever this is. I’m going to avoid giving a summary and more so provide my opinions/analysis on the main character, Yozo and the themes surrounding the book. As such this includes my thoughts on Dazai Osamu as an author and his writing techniques. With that out of the way, let us begin!

Dazai Osamu committed suicide soon after writing this novel, this was the last work of his that was published. You need to have that in mind when reading because it lends you the mindset he likely had. I’ve also heard this is a semi-autobiography but I’m still unsure how much of the book’s content is fictional. I am going to say this bluntly, I did not enjoy reading this. I think this novel is brilliant but consuming it almost sucks the life out of you. If you ever intend to read ‘No Longer Human’, know that you will be diving into the psyche of a troubled man. Not something to enjoy per say.

It’s written from a 1st person point of view. We aren’t given the narrator’s name until five pages into the first notebook. Everything is said matter of fact but bleeds with emotion, perhaps because it feels as though Dazai himself is speaking to you. When it opens up rather dramatically with “Mine has been a life of much shame”, it’s personal. It’s sets the tone for a novel that feels like a long suicide note. Which it is.

Its presentation of its themes are monotone, plain, and chilling at times. It leaves you disturbed with how casually some things are mentioned. It feels alien, it feels ‘not human’.What does it mean to be human? And where is the line in which you cross something unrecognizable or not representative of humanity? Can your circumstances or environment push you to cross that line, is one simply born that way, or do you make the decision yourself?

Yozo is our narrator and everything is seen through his perspective. He is a character that struggles with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. He is also a character that I found myself relating to more times than I’d like to admit. There are questions Yozo raises about humans that I have thought about before and may have agreed with a few years ago. I related with his struggle to form connections and many readers can as well. Therefore, I sympathized with him more than others might argue. People tend to confuse social anxiety with narcissism and granted I do believe Yozo can be narcissistic, there are many moments that I saw as him exhibiting anxiety. But then again, I am not a psychologist. I’m speaking from personal experience.

One aspect I believe people….don’t emphasize as much as I think they should is Yozo’s childhood. More specifically, the fact he was sexually assaulted multiple times at a young age by the servants in his home. And the fact he never told a soul about this because “I was sealed away from the world of trust and distrust. My parents at times displayed attitudes that were hard for me to understand.” Again, I am not a psychologist. But if you went through something traumatic like this and at a young age at that. It will largely affect how you see other people, it will cause you to be distrusting. You will question and doubt everyone, that is exactly what Yozo does. I also believe this is the root of misogyny Yozo displays in the novel. How I interpreted it was because his assault was first inflicted by a woman, he subconsciously took that portrayal forced onto him (2-faced, snake-like, inhuman) and projected that to women in general. I do not think it justifies what he says about women in this book but it's a perspective I feel as though many don’t consider.

This is also to be remembered when he sees Yoshiko being violated. His reaction to it was absolutely horrible and disgusting but keep in mind, he is a victim of SA. So the fact he mutters that “This is another aspect of the behavior of human beings. There is nothing to be surprised about.” And he runs away in fear, afterwards telling Yoshiko “It’s all right. Don’t do anything. You didn’t know enough to distrust others.” At that moment, he was not seeing his wife. I don’t know what he saw but it was enough for him to run away, terrified.

He should not have said that to Yoshiko. And think about, “You didn’t know how to distrust”. He then starts to question if trustfulness is a sin. It makes you wonder if he sees his former trustfulness as a sin, if that happened to him because he didn’t know how to distrust. And he’s treating this situation the same way he treated his own: by keeping it themselves and saying she didn’t know better.

Yozo’s a character that is spiraling in despair from horrible things that happen to him. But also from decisions that he makes. And Yozo isn’t a likable character but for me, I kept wanting his life to be better. I wanted him to be better but he doesn’t think he can be better. The reality is we need support from reliable people to guide and be there to lean on but you make the first step. Sex isn’t going to fix you. Drugs aren’t going to fix you. Alcohol isn’t going to fix you. You need to look within yourself and make the conscious decision to improve.

There might’ve been a point where you’ve been Yozo to some degree. Or maybe you know someone who’s a Yozo in your life. And it hurts for me to have such a self-destructive character repeatedly push opportunities for happiness away. By the end, Yozo is in a state of numbness and I could understand. It’s a scary feeling to see the world as gray, living everyday like nothing matters. You can’t laugh, you can’t cry. Everything just….passes. The very fact he concludes saying he’s currently 27 blew me away. Remember, there is a three time skip from when he gets released from the asylum to his last statements/paragraphs. Meaning he was 24 at the time. That means everything from when he started college to leaving the asylum, all of that occurred in the span of 5-6 years.

That’s insane.

In conclusion, you can accept this as a depressing read about human nature, the thoughts that plague us and monstrosities that lurk within. A story where our main character dissociates himself from humanity and speaks as though he’s a completely different species. You can sympathize with that or despise it, depending on who you are and where you’ve been in life. But you can also take this novel as a warning or perhaps a wake-up call, who knows. That this world can be cruel, life will hurl its thorns at you. But how you react, how you cope, who you surround yourself with is what’ll make the real difference. Don’t be Yozo. Fight to break out of that downward spiral and be someone who you think is deserving of love.

For it is through our perseverance that we become ever closer to being human.

[dazachi]

Theory time on the whole "ADA member transfers to PM" deal and why I genuinely think this was part of Dazai's plan (loooong post):

Based on what we have, I actually think we can assume that Fukuzawa, Ranpo, Dazai, all of the higher ups in the PM, and the govt. are aware of the deal and that Dazai will go back. Here's why:

Prior to Fyodor's arrest, Dazai had been maintaining an essentially crimeless record (and if he does do something morally questionable, he either had government backing from Ango, or was done in a way that can't be pointed back to him).

However, before anything could progress in S4, Dazai purposely put himself out in public to get arrested. I'd even argue that he had Ango purposely release some of his old crimes rather than it being written on the ripped page of the book (and if it was actually written in the book, then Dazai must have anticipated it in the first place because he knows Fyodor would do that).

This idea is further cemented by the fact that Ango, Mori, and Chuuya are actually aware of what Dazai is doing (more than the ADA even). Dazai had contacts in and out of Mersault ready before his arrest.

To make these plans in the first place, Dazai had to have talked to (at least) Mori and Ango. This would have to be roughly around the same time as when Mori and Fukuzawa made a deal. What if all of this was just one meeting?

Because let's face it. Fukuzawa only saying "except Yosano" was such a red flag moment. If there was anyone Mori would have wanted back in his control, it would either be his angel of death or his demon prodigy. The conversation must not have ended there...

Also, why was this deal even created in the first place? I feel like there could have been a different agreement, and this just looks like an excuse to get Dazai to go back. Fukuzawa agreeing with this deal is weird because he knows what the PM is like. Why would he subject his employees to possibly experience working there?

Dazai may have actually purposely put himself up for the taking in preparation to a future enemy that needed him back in the PM- back in his hometurf with all the manpower he could command and to give soukoku the free reign they had once again (without the limitations of the law on Dazai).

So anyway, now we have Dazai with his crimes leaked, which would have been fine alone because it could be played off as part of what was written on the page, but then he kills some guards in Mersault and commits jailbreak, along with several other crimes in just 30 minutes. In addition, he is clearly shown to be working with Chuuya, a well-known criminal, who has also committed several crimes while there.

Say what you will about Mersault security (which is actually good but just couldn't keep the demons on hold lmao), but they would 100% have records of what Dazai had done there. Even if he could be considered crimeless before, he can no longer be called crimeless again now. His actions here are beyond the manipulations of the book. To have these crimes (in France) erased would require the government to have an agreement with another country and to have Dazai go into hiding for some time again (doable, but troublesome).

That leaves us to the fact that Dazai is back to willingly committing crimes and partnering up with Chuuya as Soukoku for an extended period of time. All of these acts are known to Mori and Ango.

This implies that the choice had been made prior to S4, and this is why Dazai could do all these crazy schemes.

This also clears up why Ranpo and Fukuzawa no longer consider Dazai in the ADA roster recently. Not because they don't care for him, but because he is secretly no longer part of the ADA in the first place, and Dazai's safety is now under the concern of the PM.

Scarily enough, this could also possibly set up Dazai as the next boss of the PM in preparation for the next big enemy. One thing some people in the fandom noticed was that Mori had mentioned before that Dazai would become the boss when he turns 23. This fits in the timeline well because Dazai is several months (or maybe even weeks) closer to his 23rd birthday (or he may already be 23 right now). All of this may have been pre-planned for longer than we think.

Also, as a personal opinion on the other possible transfer candidates, they actually have better hold on the ADA and would not function well in the PM.

The PM would clash with Kunikida's ideals (though it would be interesting to have the future leader of the ADA be put in the PM the same way the future leader of the PM was employed in the ADA)

Tanizaki would be a great candidate, especially for his skills (and it would be interesting to have another redhead in the PM hahaha), but I highly doubt Naomi would take his transfer sitting down (Naomi would probably even attempt to join the PM) and, in turn, Junichiro would hate to bring his sister in the PM as well. Tanizaki's entire shtick involves his care for his sister, and taking that away brings him back to having no motivation to go crazy.

Atsushi is actually my 2nd option. Moving Atsushi to the PM would make him learn more about how the PM functions, and this allows SSKK to spend more time building their relationship. Chuuya could watch over the two of them as an aide to Dazai's mentoring, and this could lead to more character growth for Atsushi. Unfortunately, this voids Atsushi's plans to learn how to fight under Kunikida's tutelage, and the "no killing" deal with Akutagawa slightly lessens its impact because they would now be in the criminal organization rather than the opposing one (I'd rather have Akutagawa join the ADA tbh. This would further cement the "no killing" idea that Atsushi demands of him and build the SSKK partnership.)

Kenji is also a good bet, but the PM already has Chuuya, which makes having Kenji redundant. Kyoka would not return without an all out brawl and would actually waste all the efforts from S2. Ranpo would be insufferable lmao, and he is not made for Mafia types of strategy (he's smart! But he is not here for the manipulation and long chess matches. He doesn't have the patience for that when he can get straight to the point), and I'm not sure who in the PM he would have synergy with yet...he works best as a detective.

NOW, I may be wrong, because who knows what Asagiri will pull on us, and all of this is based on what is shown (I'm not sure if we could trust it lol), but this is the theory I came up with based on my understanding of events. Dazai planned to go back, and the tripartite knows of it.

Before anyone says this is a waste of Dazai's character development, I'd argue that there may be a misconception as to what Dazai is actually here to learn.

Odasaku knows that good and evil does not matter to Dazai. Dazai choosing to save people is not Dazai's character growth because he has ALWAYS been capable of that despite his unconventional means. The real character growth that Dazai needed was that there was a world beyond the darkness that he insists on putting himself in, and that he is capable humanity. Mori realized this too by proving the humanity in Dazai by chasing him out with Odasaku's death. Dazai has also realized this, and is now ready to return to his hellhole as a new man touched by the light. He is ready to be a leader, not the tyrant that he would have been without this lesson. Mori just prevented another insane mafia boss from taking the throne.

In addition, the PM has repeatedly been defined as the organization that protects the city in the dark. Being in the PM does not hinder Dazai from saving people (again, they've done so before while there). This might actually give him more power to move around and defend Yokohama more efficiently.

I guess this is it for now. I may have missed some things, but these are my main arguments for now hehe

[sableeira]

someone free me from this very cursed The Raven Cycle inspired bsd au. rich kid Dazai spends all his time researching the supernatural and ley lines in Japan’s country side. He had a (near) death experience as a kid but was saved through supernatural means and now he is unable to die. But the gift of his immortality is unbearable to Dazai. Thus he has dedicated his life to researching the supernatural to figure out what happened to him and how to reverse it. Since his incident he has also been able to see the supernatural. Unfortunately, when he is trying to come in direct contact with the supernatural it dispels, almost like he is nullifying it.

Chuuya is the youngest in a found family household of shrine workers and spiritual mediums. He is the only one in his family that’s not inclined to the supernatural but everyone around him feels the supernatural more severely when he is around. Even though he can’t see the supernatural like his family members do, he helps out and enhances the supernatural during seances and other family business.

When Dazai and Chuuya meet, their opposing inclinations to the supernatural cancel each other out. But the same way their inclinations to the supernatural are opposing each other so are their personalities. Will they get over their differences to work together?

And then there is this little tiny detail that could shake up this potential research partnership. Chuuya has been told since he was a little kid that he would kill his true love with their first kiss. During a seance he enhanced a few months earlier, Chuuya managed to catch a glimpse of an actual ghost for the first time. The ghost of a boy who is supposed to die in the next 12 months. Lippmann told him that non-clairvoyants are only able to see the ghosts of the future-dead if they are the one to kill them… or their soulmate. The boys name? Dazai. And now that Chuuya has met him he is pretty sure he is going to kill him. Right?!

[videogamelover99]

Y'all I hope everyone here understands that Chuuya knew IMMEDIATELY the culprit was Randou and was sweating the entire time cause he didn't know how much Dazai figured out.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Ok this is my "I need something to occasionally check up on to entertain me as I finish my report which is due tonight" poll, but I'm also genuinely curious and I think this could be fun!

And elaborate in the tags if you'd like! What would she get to do on that day? I'd love to see!

(Sorry I couldn't list everyone there weren't enough options. :/)

[anti-dazai-blog]

y'know, it's kinda ridiculous that dazai eventually won without much difficulty. in recent chapters of the manga, we witnessed for the first time that dazai was struggling so hard, which showed him less omnipotent than he was, and more human at the same time. but it turns out that he was making a fool out of fyodor all along!!!! he lost to the power of alliance!!!! ...excuse me? then what was meursault arc all for?

i love bsd, but there are too many things that annoy me, and the flaws of the series are rarely talked about. so im reaaally happy to see you criticizing the series. i love your blog sm, please never stop posting!! 💕

YES EXACTLY!!

Dazai’s omniscience does NOT help humanize him. All that it does is give him more accountability in everything that happens. He doesn’t get the luxury of pleading ignorance because at this point, the story has made that no longer believable. 

No matter what, Dazai knows everything all the time, doesn’t make mistakes in his plans and strategies, and is capable of anything. If this is the case, which I said it was semi-jokingly in the early days of this blog, he really can be held accountable for pretty much anything and everything happening. Which I’d really rather wasn’t the case.

One of the main themes of bsd is humanity. No one’s special or perfect, everyone’s a human being trying their best to get by. The Meursault arc did a pretty decent job of humanizing both Dazai and Fyodor, two characters who were previously shown as (intellectually) flawless, by having them struggle in their battle of wits against each other. Having both of them mess up or miscalculate in some way made them seem like real people and not just two algorithms playing chess. 

Having Dazai reveal in this final episode that he knew everything all along, everything went according to his plan, and there was never any challenge to begin with entirely defeats the purpose of the arc. What are we supposed to take away from this? That Dazai automatically wins any fight because he’s Dazai? That removes all stakes. 

Why continue watching a show if you’ve already been told that one specific character will always win—and not only that, but it won’t even be a struggle for him to get there, because he knows everything about everything all the time. 

I really, really hope that this was an anime-only ending. Asagiri can still fix this. Admittedly, bungo stray dogs has always been character-focused rather than plot-focused, so while I trust Asagiri to handle the characters better than this, I’m not really sure what to expect plot-wise. But I’m gonna hope for the best.

[mitskiluvr]

elitist bsd fans will get upset over you not knowing a detail that was revealed in half a sentence of a light novel

[damianito]

Hi! I've been seeing bsd on your blog(is that what it's called? I'm new to tumblr) and I was wondering in what order to read the manga? there's so much content that it's confusing me lol

The thing about Bungou Stray Dogs is that the manga can be read as it is, without anything else, but if you want to have more depth into characters & details.

There's the light novels which are side stories from the main plot, like Dazai's entrance exam, Stormbringer, The origin of the detective agency, 15 soukoku, etc.

An order for the light novel in releasing dates

1. Osamu Dazai's entrance exam

2. Dazai Osamu to kuro no jidai

3. The untold origin of the detective agency

4. 55 minutes

6. Dead apple

7. BSD Beast

8. 15 soukoku

9. Stormbringer

There's also the current going of 15 Soukoku drawn by Shiwasu Hoshikawa (Which also illustrated BSD Beast if you wanna read the manga)

We have BSD Wan which is our piece of fluff. Little chibis of our characters being silly, animated & also on manga.

[human-adjacent]

i desperately need dazai’s pre-mafia backstory because what the fuck are you talking about!!!! what happened to you!!!

[curry-and-gunpowder]

Feeling completely normal about Oda Sakunosuke this morning.

[aroacehanzawa]

packing up my bindle and trudging back to the classic lit fandom 💔

[kyouka-supremacy]

I really wanted to make a Fukuchi meta after the last chapter but haven't found time until now because of exams so. here we go! The pace at which the manga events are proceeding is dreadingly slow, but if we take the last plotline in its entirety I feel like it makes for a very interesting one!! I find Fukuchi's character quite compelling, and I believe the last chapter was a very neat exposition of it.

So, last chapters. Fukuchi and Fukuzawa fight. Fukuchi's true motives are brought up. Fukuchi tells Fukuzawa to take a guess; Fukuzawa guesses wrong. And yet I find Fukuzawa's answer, although mistaken, so so useful to understand his very character!! Instead of revealing Fukuchi's true intentions, it ended up speaking lengths of Fukuzawa's own nature. Fukuzawa's answer ended up being, very unconsciously, all about himself.

His explanation starts with him mentioning himself: I refused to go with you, and that caused you to experience the horrors of the battlefield alone. It ends with himself: you targeting the detective agency must be a punishment against me, for betraying you. And it's so deliciously logical, so satisfying to read, because of course Fukuzawa, for how he is, would believe that! Because lies in Fukuzawa this unspoken thinking of himself as horrible, someone kin to make others suffer; someone that has to constantly redeem himself, someone that is cause of plenty of wrongs. Of course he would blame himself for that too! In Fukuzawa's own narration of events as it's shown in chapter 104.5, the world leaders' responsibility in the war almost falls on the background: he's so blinded by that suppressed self-loathing¹ that he's unavoidably going to believe even Fukuchi's evil plan to end human kind is, ultimately, his fault.

But it's not. I may be wrong here, but I don't think Fukuchi is actually that enraged at Fukuzawa as he believes him to be. A little resentful, sure, but I also like to think their meeting in chapter 71 was... Sincerely friendly? Maybe I'm delusional - after all, Fukuchi was still playing the role of the “good supersoldier savior of humanity” there -, but I think Fukuchi's offer to help Fukuzawa was genuine, and that Fukuchi cares about Fukuzawa; not as much as to give up on his goal, but still cares for him. After all, Fukuzawa played no role in the deaths of all the war victims (in fact, he contributed making the war end as the Silver Wolf), and Fukuchi knows that; if anyone, he'd truly resent the world leaders who uselessly watched soldiers die taking no real action to make the war end².

And one last point but, retroactively, for Fukuzawa to think Fukuchi's plan is all a big revenge taking place mostly against him is short to ridiculous: if that was the case, he would have just tried to kill him and him alone. But I think something here could be said about how a man's ego can be really big even in the believing everything is their own fault /////

So, what is Fukuchi's true motive? Funnily enough, that was Ranpo's first question after it's revealed Fukuchi was the big evil behind everything:

The thing is, I feel like we have enough material to take a politely good guess at what it is– or at least one has, if they use to read chapters 83-88 compulsively. These panels sound close to an answer themselves alone, don't they?

Fukuchi wants to end all nations. He doesn't want to end all nations for the sake of it, but because he wants to end all wars, and the two things are deeply interconnected. Ultimately: Fukuchi wants to rewrite a world where there's no nations, nor war, in a way ending the world they are currently living in.

When Atsushi is questioning Fukuchi on why he keeps inflicting violence, he asks: “did you suffer severe torture from your enemies?” (chapter 85). What he doesn't understand is that Fukuchi doesn't resent a single enemy like him and Fukuzawa thought, but the war phenomenon itself. He wants to end all wars. He wants to end all nations. He wants to end a world that was built on them.

Once again, I think Fukuzawa, in his own “it's all my fault” view of events, ended up misunderstanding Fukuchi. Fukuchi isn't enraged; he's tired. It's consistently shown in all of his scenes; Fukuchi is exhausted. He's tired of people dying and of making people die. He wants to end the torture, end the suffering, end the endless war.

(Fun fact as a side note, but Teruko also says, in chapter 103.5, “to go through the task of tearing off your limbs one by one, by force... I'm much too tired”, which makes a very interesting echo to Fukuchi's words. As of the current manga events I do think Teruko and Fukuchi's ideals align to a large extent, and she's willing to accept the destruction of the world because she agrees with him– I just find this another little thing in which Teruko and Fukuchi are similar and is perhaps telling of them having shared similar experiences, too tired of the torture they themselves were perpetrators of.)

I don't know, I definitely lack the confidence to call this a theory pffftttt. But I think it could be a coherent outcome given what has been previously established about Fukuchi's character! As well as explaining how Dostoyevsky seemingly sides with Fukuchi, having them share the goal of “cleansing the world from evil and sin” (if Dostoyevsky is truly siding with him, that is).

I believe both Atsushi and Teruko's reactions as shown in chapter 104.5 are in line with it too:

Atsushi is, as Teruko had anticipated the chapter before, entirely frozen with indecision– would he ever find it in him to stop the ending of all wars? But would he stay still allowing the end of the world as they know it? And Teruko's expressions too: she's sad, sorrowful, but determinated; she knows it's the highest possible price, but she also believes it's a price worth paying.

When push comes to shove, I'm fairly confident Atsushi is probably going to stand up and intervene to defend humanity for its flaws over rewriting a perfect world; after all, “In the past I would never regret anything I had done. I only felt a constant regret for the things I had never done.” Maybe he'll even step in to save Fukuzawa? But we shall see, I'm probably being too hopeful ahah.

¹ Which isn't really self-loathing, but calling that for the simplicity of the term; more than hating himself, it's an objective acknowledgement, according to Fukuzawa's perception of himself, that he's not a good natured person, and he must face the consequences of that)

² Again that might be nothing more of a delusional headcanon though: in chapter 83 Fukuchi does say “[Fukuzawa's] friend? // Yes... // Of course I am... // ... Or at least I was, until a certain time.”, implying that perhaps they aren't friends anymore.

[dazachi]

Chuuya can understand Dazai so well because his mind is actually similar to Dazai's.

These two understand each other the most. They "hate" the other because they can see hints of themselves in each other. It is why they are convinced in the other's humanity when they question it on themselves. It's why they don't do much talking and yet arrive to the same conclusions. It's why they work so well. They're different in so many aspects on the surface, but deep inside, they know it's like looking in the mirror.

They don't have to agree, but they do understand the thought process BECAUSE they've thought of it before.

They probably rarely had to talk beyond short arguments because they don't need to talk to know what the other is thinking. They always agree at times when it mattered the most.

"Soulmates" is the only possible definition for these two because there's no better way to describe them.

[im-still-watching-anime]

can’t STAND when “everything will be okay as long as we’re together” stories realize the devastation potential of separating them

[kaus-quietis]

the reason he doesn’t have a yet  r e l e a v ed older brother is that we co||ective|y do not deserve a Mikhail

[jagged--dust-jacket-analysis]

Spoilers for Bungou Stray Dogs Manga and Anime

So recently one of my favorite anime reaction you tubers, Danny Motta reacted to episodes 3-4 of season five of Bungou. Also known as the episodes where Fukuchi fucks some shit up.

During this episode Danny was ranting and raving about how much he loved Fukuchi as an antagonist, and how cool space time sword was.

And while I think the space time sword is so ridiculous and overpowered it doesn't even deserve to be capitalized, I kind of see where he's coming from in term's of Fukuchi himself.

Because I hate Fukuchi in terms of how his actions effect some of my favorites. But from a writing perspective he's actually an amazing antagonist. Specifically for this story.

Bungou Stray Dogs has made a habit of having not necessarily bad antagonists, but I always feel like they're too easy to defeat. That or they end up switching sides.

The first two seasons are essentially just the ADA picking up random allies from organizations that are supposed to be antagonistic. The issue isn't that they make allies of enemies. It's how quickly it happens, how easily the supposed to be antagonists flip sides.

Then for season three, it was just kinda meh in my opinion. The antagonists were nobody's. Only Fyodor really matters in the grand scheme of it all, but this was mainly to set up bigger things between him and Dazai. Probably a foreshadowing(?) of their face off in Mersault. And then even now, he's really only effecting Dazai, sigma, and Chuuya

Then we have the Hunting Dogs. A step up as antagonists. They get two seasons that focus on them as a group, their motivations. So when Tetcho ends up befriending Kenji it feels more earned as opposed to when other enemies have become allies in the past.

But still with two of the four actual Hunting Dogs "gone" they're kind of in shambles. So while I think they're interesting, they aren't great antagonists currently.

Which leaves Fukuchi.

Now, I dislike Fukuchi because he keeps killing ("killing" let me be delulu) my favorite characters.

But writing wise, he's one of the best antagonists the show has presented.

He's actually decently strong. If we take Space Time Sword out of the equation, he's not unbeatable. But he's certainly not easy to defeat. Clear by how he did have to pull out his stupid hack sword to get him out of a pinch.

He presents Atsushi and the gang an actual challenge. Someone who won't just be beat over the course of a season. He has motivations personal to the main cast, and all of the things he's done have personal ramifications.

It's perfect. Plus he's easily hateable, making me certain there's no redemption for him. Only a lifetime in Jail or a bittersweet death.

So while he's definitely a frustrating character to watch, he works perfectly writing wise.