#bee.analysis

[villain-byteniwoha]

Oh sskk with their opposing black and white aesthetic (both in fashion and in ability), their parallel backstory, their shared loyalty to Dazai (who is canonically preparing them to become partners, mind you), their clashing ideals; the way Atsushi unearths the humane side of Akutagawa and how Akutagawa, in turn, nurtures Atsushi's rage.

The fact that they make each other hold on to their self-worth... So, so much of the text can be read as romantic, it's insane to me.

Akutagawa's ability is literally using his clothes as a weapon, and for him to be able to give Rashoumon at all while leaving himself bare to violence? Just so Atsushi, who's always had to beg for the pain to stop, who's just gained control over his damn ability to regenerate, can be armored—be stronger.

Tell me that's not a metaphor for vulnerability, I dare you. The inherent intimacy of giving someone your cloak to shelter them while you take the brunt of the harsh environment. The contentment of having the person you love, safe. (This is an ode to Chapter 88 btw in case you didn't notice.)

Like—there is something so raw about being someone's enemy. It is showing the worst parts of yourself (the anger, the self-worth issues) and knowing your other half will come back to you, regardless. It's feral and wild and uncontrollable; Akutagawa will bear his scars like they are the most tender love marks, and while Atsushi may heal, he will always know the pain of Akutagawa's claws.

Their abilities aside, they just click with each other, but they live with circumstances where that connection is (portrayed as) unwanted. BEAST is proof enough that they can bond over the horrors of their past, where others would not be able to comprehend them.

There's also, you know... Something something, Atsushi telling Akutagawa that he's more than what Dazai says. Akutagawa telling Atsushi he's stronger than his past. Something along those lines.

Something something I love you because I know no other way than this, where I does not exist nor you and all the other love sonnets in the world.

[villain-byteniwoha]

Can we talk about the creative (queer) writing choice in building up Chuuya's most powerful yet self-destructive ability to only have the failsafe centered around Dazai?

Or the even more glaring characterization of Chuuya's unstable relationship with his humanity and how Dazai's ability is literally named, "No Longer Human,"—which, I digress, perfectly follows his real-life namesake, sure. But for the interpretation to reflect such importance on their parallels all traces back to Asagiri's heavy emphasis in partnership; one of Bungo Stray Dogs' key elements in world and character building.

Of course, two characters can be friends without forcing a rose-colored perspective. That's a reasonable take as any.

Arguably, two characters can very much be coded romantically through incredibly pointed text that tiptoes around the word, "friendship."

Because from the very beginning, what kind of relationship did Dazai and Chuuya have?

First, they were enemies—with Chuuya very much against Port Mafia and, by extension, Dazai, even though he wasn't an official member yet. Then rivals set out to achieve a common goal; the only winning hand being, who would get there first (and mind you, this all happens within the same arc/timeline). Fast forward to a year, they are begrudging partners. Professional, sure, but still teenagers who would argue at every other sentence. Yet, they will also have each other's backs.

Their name as a duo has already been written in Yokohama's underground history books; they are terrifying on their own but together, they are legendary.

Now, I don't know about you, but a brain-and-brawn duo trope? An annoyance-to-partners trope? A violent meetcute ending in a friendship trope? Better yet, an enemies or rivals to lovers trope? Sound really romantic to me (and that's not even everything because there's much more to explore, with soukoku in relation to other partnerships in the series.)

The writing choices made for Dazai and Chuuya just sound really romantic to me, actually.

[villain-byteniwoha]

there's been "discourse" between genshin and wuwa recently (and i use the word "discourse" very lightly as there has yet to be a popular/widely accepted and viewed exchange between the two fandoms outside of barbed insults at each game's problems)

i bring this up because i have not thought about genshin for a LONG time (i have never played wuwa) but its players have brought up an interesting argument against wuwa, which i never accounted for when pondering genshin's success

because there are many, many criticisms to be had with genshin (from its use of real cultures as inspiration to the lack of quality of life upgrades) but it is still undeniably popular. if you haven't played it yourself, then you definitely know someone who did or still does

back to my point, in this (frankly tiring) discourse between the two gacha games, genshin players brought up that wuwa is like any run of the mill gacha game because it caters solely to please the player by leaning into the aesthetics and faux-parasocial-ism of its character designs i.e. the characters don't interact outside of the MC because the world revolves around the MC

and, interestingly, through this narrative choice, wuwa garnered a kind of fanbase that doesn't have an organic fan content system—AKA the shippers, the fan artists and fanfic writers, the zine and bang mods, the theory crafters, the content creators; fans who create and circulate the love

which isn't to say that there are no wuwa artists (of any kind!) because i have seen fan works doing rounds—it's just that, wuwa's players may already be satisfied with the interactions they get, through the MC's fulfillment and interactions with the game's characters

I don't want to use demeaning language like "gooner game" but that's basically genshin's argument here, which is still ironic considering genshin's large mass, and the subsequent breadth of nsfw fanmade content because of that

this dichotomy of ([apparently/allegedly] mostly male) fans who only consume vs fans who celebrate creating is the real meat of my point

because there are tons of wuwa art (though admittedly, the most popular ones that bleed into my algorithm are often on the lewd side and are mostly women) but the community isn't as coordinated to come together.

the most telling sign is probably the impact of hoyofair and/or hoyofest, as they can showcase just how enormous both the community is as well as the labor of its love

anyways, because of this niggling thought, I decided to test something, and my tool of choice is our most beloved AO3

wuwa is turning one year old next month (in May 2025), so I checked how many fanfics are currently published under the fandom tag

keep in mind, i applied no other filter so this number is the collection of fics from all the ratings, all the languages, with crossovers included, plus completed AND ongoing works

curious, i wanted to compare numbers, so i pulled up genshin's stats which i filtered from Sept 2020 (when the game was launched) to Sept 2021

like it or not, a lot of the most popular fandoms have creator type fans to thank for its success. fandom history has already dictated how amazing women are with organizing together and creating something beautiful out of love. and even back then, it was gay fanfic that bonded us

here's the top 10 relationship tags for genshin in its first year btw

idk maybe it's all insignificant to you but the difference is so, so fascinating. to me. and while i know this'll all just blow over soon enough, i thought i'd put my two cents in

even if you can't really buy anything with that, in this economy, so maybe i contributed nothing in the bigger picture lmfao

my final words for this silly long post are: popular doesn't automatically mean good, fan creations are the heart of fandoms, and oh my gosh isn't it amazing how we live in an era where communities like this can exist? fandoms and shipping and nerding out over niches are a lot more mainstream nowadays, but with that popularity comes a price.

but hey, would you rather we move two steps forward one step back than or stay stuck and stigmatized forever?

EDIT: i also want to acknowledge that genshin launched at the peak of lockdown and that there was still luck involved with its success. BUT in doing so, you have to remember that it was fans talking with one another and building its momentum that made genshin the godzilla it is today; the rise of streamers, content creators, fan challenges—community boomed!

in contrast to this, when wuwa first launched, most of its discourse surrounded comparisons to genshin (better quality of life, better movement and fight mechanics, better gacha stats, etc) which was fair! genshin is stingy as fuck!!!! but notice the difference in how genshin's community persevered because of emotional attachment to the characters and the story vs wuwa's hype (like tower of fantasy, now that i just remembered it) dying when it established itself as the friendlier game to play, but ultimately didn't flesh out characters for their potential stories so much as they were created as products to be bought

which, hey! it's gacha! it's supposed to be addicting! you're supposed to want these characters enough to be willing to spend real money for even the chance of obtaining them. but if all that's tempting your player base is the character design (aesthetics and parasocialism like i said earlier) then that's not going to run as strong or as long as genshin, I'm sorry!

have you seen the dedication this fanbase can amass? people saving for characters that may never even be playable. old fans coming back from the dead when old lore gets expanded upon. hell, ONE submission to hoyofair is enough hard work already, and there are so, so many submissions every year!

it's been a rough journey and there's no telling if it'll get better or worse from here, but it DOES make you wonder. why, just why, is genshin still getting traction when there are clearly other options that "treat its fanbase better"

i fear the difference speaks for itself

[villain-byteniwoha]

I lost the tweet earlier but someone said "I miss when bungo stray dogs was about its characters and not this death scare marathon" or something of the like, and I agree 100%. I stopped reading right around the famous Akutagawa "Just go" chapter with tears in my eyes and rocks in my chest. Now, the latest chapter doesn't even faze me anymore—because these stakes are too ridiculous for even the cast.

I miss when it was about these organizations of ability users with rivalry and a shared love for their city; hence why, when the big bad threats came to try to take over, they teamed up to take them down. I think that's why, ever since I picked it back up again, I've been more interested in the light novels.

Can't deny that I am very partial to skk and their obvious obvious queer romantic subtext but more than that, I miss when bungo stray dogs was about the characters, the "stray dogs," learning about themselves and each other.

I do think it peaked with Fyodor, who is the perfect Dazai antithesis. Fyodor could have scaled in a more organic way. Instead, readers have been stuck for what has literally been years without a glimpse of the main cast, all because the list suddenly exploded and we're getting all this exposition thrown in our face.

The S4 adaptation disappointed me greatly, the key points about war did... make sense narratively, but also felt too much like an Eren Yeager callout to be emotionally or even intellectually stimulating. My current biggest fear is that the manga will follow the blueprint that Bones set down, even if I haven't seen that happen yet.

I do think Asagiri got too lost in the sauce and, in return, lost the charm that made BSD special. Which isn't to say, boo-hoo bad author give me back my good-feels and let the characters stay stagnant in that bubble, no. But do I think he could've scaled the stakes in a more gradual/less in-your-face way? Yes. And do I think the manga would have suffered less if they did so? Also yes.

tldr: detective story with powers and mafia got too convoluted that it feels like it jumped into an entirely different genre. went from 0 to 100 too fast that the whiplash sometimes isn't worth it anymore. go read the light novels tho i love them sm

[villain-byteniwoha]

On the train of soukoku parallels, here is my favorite one:

Chuuya and Dazai go through the same pipeline of being "King/Prodigy," being betrayed, having their friend(s) die, and fully swearing to the path they originally opposed.

Where Chuuya originally despised the Port Mafia; Dazai never considered walking the path of light. Their titles of, "King of the Sheep," and "Demon Prodigy," held the most narrative weight for them individually, before being known as, "Double Black." Their betrayal lied in someone they once considered a friend; Shirase and Ango. The death of the friend(s) became one of their catalysts to fully turning down their path.

It's not the most straightforward comparison but the major points are there, they are in place and that's all that matters to me at this point lmao

[villain-byteniwoha]

Bee's other side blog. They/them lesbian. AO3/Main: @vendettasfanfictioning. AR55. TL70. Down for discussions on discourse and theories !!!

#bee.texts - my senseless yapping

#bee.reads - more yapping but specifically about books/comics/any sort of text canon

#bee.analysis - critiques, tin foil hat shenanigans and the like

#beez.waxing - fic blurbs and the occasional edit

#beez.buzzing - written works

#bee.recs - fanfic recs