#honestly the dragon was the best part of dead apple. so sad that chuuya had to destroy it :(

[zukkaoru]

grace did you know the dragon from dead apple bleps

look at it. the silly

[ID: a cropped screencap of the dragon from Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple. it is sticking its tongue out. End ID]

omg he said :P

[harusomi]

I figure I might as well archive my thoughts concerning the Dead Apple movie in a post, especially now that everyone with a CR premium (or a torrent/pirate site to go to) can see it in their own time. Warning now there are spoilers here for the Dead Apple movie and maybe a bit of the manga...maybe.

If people aren’t sure as to where the movie plays in canon, Dead Apple takes place after Season 2 (the Guild Arc) and 55 Minutes, and overall works as supplementary material, having a more or less contained story in X amount of time that adds to the narrative without detracting it and/or (to an extent) does not break canon. There are two goals as far as I can tell concerning what the movie adds to the characters overall:

Adding more to Atsushi’s backstory as well as affirming reasons why he may be the “key” to finding the Book.

Reaffirming Dazai’s intent of fulfilling Oda’s last request to be a good person, as well as showcasing Soukoku’s partnership.

All extra details aside, the movie does fulfill these two goals while giving a select few characters some good moments for themselves as well. Kyoka is given a little more depth to her feelings towards her own ability, and Fyodor’s presence almost adds a certain wall-breaking element in “making things more entertaining,” His actions may have an underlying motive concerning Atsushi’s role in the movie but for the most part they just serve to create some pretty high-stake moments throughout the second and final acts for the audience. Shibusawa’s character for the first half of the movie had a mysterious allure (although I do feel we have too many geniuses in one spot by this point) and his overall concept is very interesting. His best moments definitely occur with his introduction during the Dragon Head incident and also throughout the Demon Trio moments.

Sad to say, my head felt like this during those points so I can’t say they were really enjoyable.

Overall the movie was just a fun visual watch with some amazingly hilarious moments (see gif above) and it does shine as a Studio Bones production when comparing their action scenes to their others shows like BNHA or Kekkai Sensen.

Narratively speaking though the movie is a bit of a clusterfuck, and it starts to show it during the last two acts. The movie itself is very confused as to whether the main conflict should center around Soukoku vs Shibusawa or Atsushi vs Shibusawa. This fact become wholly apparent to me in the ADA briefing scene. The first 10-15 minutes of the movie have properly established that Dazai and Chuuya do have history with Shibusawa via Dragon Head incident, yet the movie does a bait and switch by giving Atsushi some mysterious connection to Shibusawa as well, something that ends up serving as a second act plot twist transition into the last act. I had made a point that the movie did succeed in fulfilling two goals; this does not mean that they did a good job doing so. 

My main issue with the movie begins with Atsushi’s overall role throughout the movie, which is actually very small when compared to Dazai and Chuuya’s. While I do understand he is the main and our focal character in BSD, it feels as though the movie doesn’t know what to do with him up until the last act, to which by that point the intended twist of Atsushi killing Shibusawa just...rings hollow. 

In comparison Chuuya has a strong grudge built up from the Dragon Head incident, and the movie sets up a premise that just screams good conflicts for him. For one we know that six of his friends died by Shibusawa’s hand six years ago, and he attempted to kill the man but failed to do so, and Shibusawa escapes with help from the Special Abilities Department (which ties to his interaction with Ango in the movie) and is then revealed to have now returned with the help of his ex-partner. All of this information is delivered within the first and second acts, and honestly it made me feel the story was supposed to be for him initially, but they had to cram Atsushi in somewhere because he’s the MC. Truth be told, despite me not being an SKK shipper, I do feel the movie would have been better if it’s primary focus was on Chuuya with maybe a nod or two towards Atsushi’s backstory (delivered in the form of Shibusawa’s motivations to to return to Yokohama in the first place).

So...yeah. I have a love-hate relationship for Dead Apple in that I more or less hate how the narrative is structured, but I did enjoy watching the movie when I don’t think about that. Ranpo’s three minute presence in the movie overall is enough to make that worthwhile (mainly because I felt those three minutes actually say a lot of his character and overall growth, especially now after reading Untold story...god I’m really hopeless).