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pepper-steam-milkshake · 8 months ago

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I forced my friend to watch three hours of BSD in chronological order and then interviewed him about it: The Interview

Feat. my girlfriend and several side tangents.

All questions are bolded in blue for better clarity.

We watched my chronological edit (still in progress) from Fukuzawa and Fukuchi meeting to Dazai picking up Akutagawa post-Dragon's Head Conflict (ALMOST at Dark Era).

ME: Okay! (claps hands together) First and foremost, who’s your favorite character so far? I have to ask.

FRIEND: Probably Dazai.

ME: That’s fair.

FRIEND: Bottom masochist.

GF: Gotta love him.

ME: (fighting back laughter) I cannot—I still find it funny that that is just what you’re going with. Like, you’ve only known him for like… an hour, I would say?

GF: Those are his most defining character traits.

ME: I mean yes…

FRIEND: He wants to die—he wants to commit suicide gently. Bottom masochist.

ME: (fighting back laughter again) ...Alright, who—

FRIEND: If he were a switch, he’d be into BDSM, you know, just…

ME: (still laughing) Do you—do you, um, do you have a least favorite character at this time?

FRIEND: He’s written really well, but by just himself, probably Mori.

ME: That’s fair. So, Mori...

FRIEND: He’s written very well, but he’s an asshole.

ME: Yes.

FRIEND: And I feel like there’s something about the scientist guy that I’m probably not gonna like, so we’ll see.

ME: About Shibusawa?

GF: The white-haired scientist?

FRIEND: The one we just saw.

ME: Yeah, so… what you saw with Shibusawa, it’s kind of… we’ll get into that more, but what you saw was kind of… the movie does a horrible job of elaborating on anything. Let me just say, I have the light novel, the light novel does a much better job of actually clearing up everything. The movie, the way it was written—first of all, is very different from its prototype, but it’s a thing. But anyways, it’s interesting that Mori is your least favorite character. What is your opinion of Mori’s relationship with Yosano? Like, how they interacted?

FRIEND: The infinite heal?

ME: Yep.

FRIEND: I mean I think that’s why (he’s my least favorite). He’s an asshole. He’s using her, I don’t why the fuck he was there, but he was there.

ME: What are your thoughts on Fukuchi from the few moments that you had seen him? (…) That was the guy at the beginning who was friends with Fukuzawa.

FRIEND: Kind of neutral. I don’t really know what to think of him? I think he’s… kind of like Chuuya where he’s headstrong. I just haven’t seen enough of him yet.

ME: You’ll get to see more of him, like, a lot later on, like…

FRIEND: Something split between those two (Fukuzawa and Fukuchi). The white hair. Obviously, because they’re different ideals.

ME: Hehe. Ideals. You’ll know why I laughed at that eventually. What do you think of Fukuzawa on that note?

FRIEND: He’s probably a close second for being my favorite character.

ME: (surprised) Really?! Interesting!

FRIEND: He’s just a very cool character, he’s a swordsman without a sword. That’s kind of funny. From the beginning, at least. I can see where the guilt lies within him, but he also still has emotion.

ME: (nodding) Yeah. So, you mentioned that Fukuzawa is your second favorite character with your number one being Dazai. Who would you say is your third favorite?

FRIEND: Probably Ranpo.

GF: (clapping) Yes!!!

ME: As you should! I support that! Because, like… he’s just a silly little guy.

GF: He’s autistic! :D

FRIEND: Their (Fukuzawa and Ranpo) interactions are fun to watch. You have them and then it just goes to “ah, look! More death!”

ME: (wheezes) Yeah.

FRIEND: That’s how Dragon Ball’s like.

ME: I believe that.

FRIEND: It’s like, “oh, peace!” and then they’re like, “okay, cool.” Next year, another tyrant.

ME: What do you think of Chuuya?

FRIEND: (thinking) ...I like him. Funny enough, he reminds me of Bakugo.

GF: Oh, Bakugo from My Hero? Interesting.

ME: I don’t know enough about My Hero Academia to be able to comment.

GF: You know of Bakugo.

ME: Is he the protagonist?

GF: No, he’s the bully. He’s the blonde-haired bully one with red eyes that bullies Deku.

ME: Ohhh. Isn’t he the guy that… he’s constantly shipped, like BakuDeku?

GF: Oh yeah.

FRIEND: That’s the main thing.

GF: That’s my ship. ;)

ME: ...Fascinating. (laughs)

FRIEND: (returning back to Chuuya/Bakugo comparison) Just very, like, doesn’t think about what they’re doing, just is very “I’m gonna do it anyway”.

ME: That’s fair.

GF: I think it’s interesting that Chuuya doesn’t have—in the way that Bakugo has Deku—Dazai is not Deku. So it’s a different dynamic completely, because Bakugo has a power dynamic over Deku from the very beginning. And Chuuya does not have that character flaw.

FRIEND: I mean at this rate, Deku is kind of probably suicidal as well.

GF: Middle-school Deku, yeah, definitely. But not in the same way.

FRIEND: Eh, even adult Deku, I would say.

GF: But Dazai is not a—not crybaby, but you know what I mean.

FRIEND: It’s kind of the opposite. I mean, Chuuya’s probably stronger than him, but he’s got that leverage on him.

ME: I am curious about what you think of Dazai and Chuuya’s relationship from what you have seen.

FRIEND: It’s interesting. It’s gonna be fun to see how… they’re definitely the type to say, if someone called them like “good friends” they would immediately deny it.

ME: (laughing) I would agree with that.

FRIEND: But then, like, an hour into them working together they’re playing a videogame.

ME: I would definitely agree with that. They do have that sort of vibe to them.

FRIEND: That’s what some guys need all the time.

ME: Were you surprised to see Odasaku again?

FRIEND: Um… no, I think I was kind of ready for that to pop up again. I think it’s a character that would kind of be wasted—no reason to make that character and then just not bring him in.

ME: That’s fair. Out of curiosity, how has this format necessarily impacted your viewing of Bungo Stray Dogs so far? You can’t necessarily say compared to how it would be normally since obviously you have not seen it normally, but like… I’m interested to see how… what do you think Bungo Stray Dogs is from what you have seen so far?

FRIEND: From what I can tell, a problem with Bungo Stray Dogs is that if you were to watch it normally, you would get kind of lost.

ME: I would agree with that.

FRIEND: Because you’re going back and forth a lot of times, so I think it’s helpful… now, obviously Dragon Ball, when I watched it the first time, was obviously not in order, ‘cause OG Dragon Ball was not playing on Cartoon Networ—Adult Swim.

ME: Yeah.

FRIEND: I got grounded a few times watching Adult Swim.

ME: (laughing) Of course, as do we all.

FRIEND: So I watched (Dragon Ball) Z first, but then you eventually go back and watched the other. To me, it’s better to watch an anime in chronological (order) because then it’s like, you’re just watching it pretty much…

ME: Like getting everything right off the bat of what’s going on?

FRIEND: From beginning to end, yeah.

GF: I think the only issue with Bungo is that since there are so many characters that are a part for their beginnings—for example, seeing the one clip of Lucy, where like—

ME: “Who’s that?”

GF: “Who’s that” and you’re not gonna see her for another six hours.

ME: (wheezes)

GF: Until she becomes plot-relevant.

FRIEND: And that’s fine though!

ME: It’s interesting because for example with Rimbaud, you know, you saw him at the very beginning of all this more or less, and then he reappeared later. Did that have any impact on your perspective with him—did you realize it was him at the time?

FRIEND: What’s the character again?

ME: He was the guy who had the yellow box ability.

FRIEND: I felt like there was something more to him. It’d be really weird to just have him as a bodyguard, like only one bodyguard in the entire Mafia. I’m like, “you’re also designed unique, you’re not just a normal background character” so there’s probably something important for you.

GF: I have a question. Who do you think the main character of the show is?

ME: (wheezes)

FRIEND: No one yet.

GF: Do you think we’ve seen the main character of the show yet?

FRIEND: No. It’s still too early.

ME: What if I told you we have seen the main character?

FRIEND: It’s the baby. (the one Oda picks up in the beginning of DEAD APPLE)

GF: (laughing) It’s the baby?!

ME: (laughing) The baby?!

FRIEND: The girl.

GF: (laughing) The one that Odasaku saved?

ME: (disbelieving) Kyusaku?! No wait—(wheezes)

GF: The one that Odasaku saved!

ME: Pleeeeeeease!

(laughter for a few seconds)

ME: (laughingly) Yes, how did you know? How did you know a seven-year-old is our protagonist of Bungo Stray Dogs?

FRIEND: Am I actually right?

ME & GF: No.

GF: (is not remembering) I don’t think that character—that was a random-ass kid.

FRIEND: (falling for it) Ah. I just thought, like, maybe the baby grows up to be… I mean, it’s none of the characters. I don’t want to assume.

GF: What’s her name…

ME: Lucy?

GF: No…

ME: Yosano.

GF: Umm… Season 5 little girl. Karate girl. (Aya)

ME: Oh. I don’t have clips for her.

GF: I know, but what’s her name, I forgot her name.

ME: (picturing Teruko) Oh, I can see her…

FRIEND: Steve.

GF: She’s that little girl that Odasaku saved!

ME: (laughing) Oh god—she’s not, but—

FRIEND: You can’t remember her name, so it could be Steve.

GF: Steve. I wanna say Anya but I know that’s not right.

FRIEND: Anya’s from SpyXFamily.

GF: I know… I associate the same name for some reason. (returning to original topic) You’ve seen about ten seconds of the main character of the show.

FRIEND: (jokingly) Oh. Arahabaki.

ME: (laughing) Yes, how did you know!? How did you know?! (moving on) I am curious who you think is the antagonist of the show.

FRIEND: (hasn’t moved on) Wait, is the main character that like, cat guy? The one that turned into a cat?

ME: (panicking internally) ...Maybe!

FRIEND: (immediately) It is.

ME: (wheezes)

FRIEND: I can read body language really well.

GF: Based on the reaction of “I’m not answering that”!

FRIEND: Whenever you don’t answer something, I’m like, “Yeah, okay, that’s the answer.”

GF: Who do you think the antagonist is then?

FRIEND: Not Mori. (thinking) I guess besides from Arahabaki? Because I feel like he’s gonna be a Sukuna situation.

ME: Interesting, interesting.

GF: I’d watch the fuck out of this show more if Chuuya was the villain, I’m gonna be honest.

ME: I mean, that’s fair.

FRIEND: Have we seen, like, a little clip of the villain at all?

GF: Oh yeah, we’ve seen him multiple times.

FRIEND: Oh, a couple times? (thinking) I don’t think it’s Mori. He’s the most obvious one.

ME: That’s fair. He’s very antagonistic, but he does… he has his moments.

FRIEND: He’s giving me weird vibes, because I’m like, “Is the Port Mafia a bad organization or a good organization?”

ME: That’s the question everyone asks themselves!

GF: Depends on who you are!

FRIEND: I like how they have the gi—the biggest building in the city.

ME: Oh yeah, no, it’s literally like Yokohama looks normal, and then there’s just this one fucking tower.

FRIEND: Are they a Mafia, or are they just an organization? There’s a difference!

GF: “Damn, where’s the Mafia hideout?”

ME: “I don’t know, guys!”

(laughter)

FRIEND: I would I guess say Mori just because he’s the most obvious one, but it’s probably not him. I don’t think it’s the scientist guy (Shibusawa) either.

ME: Interesting. What do you think of Natsume? That was the guy who had the cane.

FRIEND: The guy who got kidnapped?

ME: Yes, that was the guy who got kidnapped.

GF: During the play, yes.

FRIEND: I haven’t really seen much of him, so I don’t really know. I mean, I know him for two things: being stuck in a carpet and then giving out business cards.

ME: (wheezes)

FRIEND: That’s the only two things I know him by!

ME: That’s fair, that’s fair. What do you think of Yosano from the little bit you’ve seen of her?

FRIEND: Yosano?

ME: She was the infinite healing person.

FRIEND: Yeah. (thinking) ...Traumatized. She’ll probably have more screen time, maybe? She’s pretty important.

ME: What I will say is the majority of characters you have seen up to this point are recurring characters in present-time Bungo Stray Dogs.

FRIEND: I figured, yeah.

GF: You’re getting the backstories.

FRIEND: It’d be really weird if they just, never showed up again.

ME: Yeah, no. Well, as you can see with Fukuzawa for example, he has been a recurring character since the beginning. We saw him when he was a little kid, and then we saw him again in the future when he found Ranpo, and then we saw him again—like, he keeps showing up.

FRIEND: He’s important. (returning to original point) Yeah, I think we just got to see more of her. Really the only time I—I mean, she’s 11 at the time when we first meet her. Well, I mean not technically not when we first meet her. Just in the backstory.

ME: Yeah. So, out of curiosity, do you think any of the characters we have seen so far are main characters, meaning that they are main focus protagonists of the story?

FRIEND: I think Ranpo and Fukuzawa. I think they’re pretty important. I can’t imagine they’d make a duo like that and just not have them be too relevant. Even if they’re side characters, I think they’re still going to be important to the story. Obviously, the duo here, Dazai and Chuuya, I think that’s obvious. Oh, and Mori.

ME: So far, out of the different things that we have watched, different scenes, arcs, do you have a favorite amongst the ones that you have watched over the last three hours?

FRIEND: I’m a big shonen fan, so probably the fight scene against Randou and the boss, technically. I like well-made fight scenes. Even if they’re kind of short. If they’re well-made, I like them.

ME: I can respect that, that’s fair. Do you have a least favorite arc or scene of what you saw previously?

FRIEND: I guess… it’s not even bad, it’s just compared to the others, the war scene? Like the war part? Just feels out of place to me, until I see more of it. Compared to the other parts, it was like “ehh, did we need? The war?”

ME: We did need the war, because the Great War is very important.

FRIEND: But yeah. For right now!

ME: For right now!

FRIEND: Compared to the other arcs it was the weakest.

ME: Out of the antagonists that we’ve seen so far, who is your favorite?

FRIEND: Probably Mori. I can understand he’s the most well-written right now.

ME: That’s fair. I would say that Mori is overall a very well-written character in Bungo Stray Dogs.

FRIEND: That’s why—I think when you watch Dragon Ball, when we get to Frieza—incredibly racist.

ME: (flabbergasted) ...Okay?

FRIEND: Well, Saiyans, you know, they have tails? So what do you think is a slur they call them. (brief silence) He calls them monkeys. It doesn’t help that when they look at a full moon, they turn into a great ape.

GF: Why have I never seen that?

FRIEND: It’s pretty iconic!

GF: I’ve never seen one as an ape.

ME: So, wait, Goku turns into…?

FRIEND: It’s a whole thing. There’s a reason he doesn’t have a tail later on.

ME: Wait, so is the tail the reason they turn into an ape?

FRIEND: Yep. They can’t without it. Saiyans are born with tails.

ME: ...Fascinating.

GF: (goes to look up Goku as an ape)

FRIEND: In OG Dragon Ball, he has a tail. He turns into a great ape—it takes a lot of control. Goku—he doesn’t find out he’s a Saiyan until way later.

GF: (found it) I’ve never seen this monkey before… Like every screenshot and clip I’ve seen of Dragon Ball I’ve never seen a great ape on screen.

FRIEND: It’s more important in OG Dragon Ball and then the beginning of Z. After that…

ME: It’s not really talked about anymore?

FRIEND: No, because they bring in Super Saiyan. Which takes the storm for transformations.

ME: Actually, on that note, you told me you do a lot of power-leveling for Dragon Ball.

FRIEND: Not just Dragon Ball. Everything.

ME: Well, that’s perfect because I’m curious to see what you would rank the abilities you’ve seen so far on screen. So obviously I’ve not conveyed to you everyone’s ability, but from the abilities that you’ve recognized, how would you rank them?

FRIEND: How am I ranking them? (sassy) Do you want me to scale them?

ME: (sassy back) Maybe.

FRIEND: If that’s the case, no offense, they’re block level. Like, city block level. That’s kind of it. They’re not gonna be planetary or anything. Like, Goku as a ten-year-old—and it’s saying a lot—beats them. He was able to blow up the moon.

ME: That’s not very cash money of him.

FRIEND: He was not the one that did it, ‘cause remember, he turned into a great ape, so, there’s only one option they had. The moon gets blown up twice in the show.

ME: Why? How does it get better from the first time?!

FRIEND: Dragon balls. You can make any wish on a dragon ball.

ME: What?! ...And he wished for the moon to come back?

FRIEND: Well, yeah, the Earth kinda needs the moon.

ME: Well yeah, yeah. (mimicking Snapcube Dub) “It’s gonna have like an effect on the tides or something.”

FRIEND: Yeah, and all the astrologists out there. (returning slightly back) The person he was fighting was the same level to blow up the moon, and at the beginning of Z he’s able to destroy planets.

ME: Gotcha.

FRIEND: Pretty easily. A whole level of difference in power. (returning back to original point) Yeah, but at most I’d say they’re city block level. They’re not leveling cities or anything.

ME: That makes sense. How would you rank their abilities in comparison to each other?

FRIEND: If we’re counting to experience, because I haven’t seen Mori’s—

ME: You have seen Mori’s.

FRIEND: ...Is it the medicine girl?

ME: Yeah. Elise is his ability.

FRIEND: So she’s a fucking Stand, from Jojo. (moment of confusion from me) A Stand is like another being that they can control.

ME: Yes.

FRIEND: So he has a Stand. I know where they got that from—that’s from Jojo.

GF: It’s a reference to a very old Japanese… book?

ME: It’s based off Mori Ougai’s written works.

FRIEND: (laughingly) Well, so when was that?

ME: So, basically the whole thing with Mori and Elise is Elise is based off—oh god, I’m gonna say this wrong and I’m gonna get absolutely slaughtered for it when I post this—Mori Ougai’s The Dancing Girl. (I WAS CORRECT)

FRIEND: And when was that? Out? (The answer is 1890.)

ME: It’s old. So, I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, Bungo Stray Dogs features characters that are named after famous authors.

FRIEND: Yeah.

ME: For example, Yosano Akiko, we have Mori Ougai… she was very briefly there but Kouyou Ozaki, although—

FRIEND: (jokingly) Where’s the J.K. Rowling character?

ME: There is not one! I think the only actual British character we have that’s only really been seen like once or twice is Agatha Christie.

FRIEND: It could’ve been Gordon Ramsay.

GF: Is he—does he count as an author?!

FRIEND: He’s made cookbooks!

ME: I mean, I guess if you count that!

FRIEND: He’s had published books!

ME: So—that’s another thing, their Abilities and their lives are based off of the books that these authors have written, so it’s one of those things where their Abilities are literally named after things they’ve written. For example… (clicks tongue) I’m trying to think of an example…

FRIEND: Is there an Edgar Allan Poe character?

ME: ...Yes.

FRIEND: (immediately) There is.

ME: Yes, there is.

FRIEND: That’s a pretty big author!

ME: He is in fact in this.

FRIEND: (thoughtfully) Does Shakespeare count?

ME: (immediately) Shakespeare is not in this.

FRIEND: Damn.

GF: It’s all authors from the 18 to early 1900’s. We don’t have any, like, historic authors. There’s no Odyssey.

ME: Could you imagine if Homer was in there?

FRIEND: Just a nine foot jacked guy.

ME: The characters that have been shown in Bungo Stray Dogs, there have been Russians/Ukrainian authors, there’s been American authors, Japanese authors… Trying to think if there’s anyone else off the top of my head, but I think… I mean, technically Canadian… because Lucy Montgomery’s Canadian… So there’s a variety. Season 2 is around when you’ll really get to see some of the Americans. Which will be a while, so. It’ll be several hours before you see any Americans. I mean you saw technically an American (Lucy).

FRIEND: Can’t wait to see the Snoop Dogg character.

ME: Please. (sadly) There is no Snoop Dogg character, sadly. (thinking) I’ll give an example. With Edgar Allan Poe, his ability is The Black Cat in the Rue Morgue.

FRIEND: Okay, that’s fair.

ME: That’s his ability. I’m not gonna tell you what it is. You’ll find out eventually. (returning to original point) Basically, it’s different works—it could be poems, it could be stories—Fukuzawa’s ability—which he does have one—is actually based—it’s All Men Are Equal, which actually comes from a treatise encouraging education that he wrote.

FRIEND: Thought it was gonna be the Declaration of Independence.

ME: (laughing) Nooo, nooo, not quite. Which actually, I started reading that treatise out of curiosity.

FRIEND: I thought you were going to say the Declaration of Independence.

ME: (jokingly) “I started reading the Declaration of Independence. Um, I’ve come to notice some uhhh clear exceptions in there?”

FRIEND: (half-jokingly) I mean, I’m fine.

ME: (jokingly) Okay.

FRIEND: Just saying.

ME: (jokingly) I see how it is.

(various threats of kicking occur including one instance where I am called short; my girlfriend asks me how does it feel since I’m constantly making fun of how short she is /affectionate)

ME: I was reading his whole writing about encouraging education, it was interesting because I could see how the character Fukuzawa could be pulled from what he had written about, so it’s cool seeing the different aspects of these characters through their writings. (moving on) Do you have any guesses, hypotheses about what will happen in the future of Bungo Stray Dogs?

FRIEND: (immediately) They’re all dead.

GF: (starts cackling)

ME: I mean! You’re not wrong! He’s right, but he shouldn’t say it!

(all of us laughing)

FRIEND: You said guess!

ME: (laughingly) I was talking more specifically like, “oh, what do you think will happen to characters?”

FRIEND: “Oh, made by Bones? They’re all dead.”

ME: I mean—

GF: He’s not wrong!

ME: He’s not wrong, but he shouldn’t say it!

(friend laughing)

ME: No, but like, what do you think will happen for potential characters in the future, do you think certain characters are gonna show up or not show up again?

FRIEND: I’m not going to be that knowledgeable about authors, so I can’t really say on that one. I think we’ll maybe see more organization leaders, characters meeting—like characters we’ve already seen meeting.

ME: I can confirm that.

FRIEND: I think Arahabaki is probably going to be a big thing for the show.

ME: (in the know) Really?

FRIEND: (not in the know) I feel like there’s something there.

ME: Interesting.

FRIEND: I mean, the chaos was him transforming with the corruption. It’s gotta be something. You can’t just be like, “oh, yeah, there’s like a thing inside of you” and never…

ME: So what I will say with Corruption is it does come up again later in the series, so this is not the last time you’ll see it.

FRIEND: I figured.

ME: It also was introduced in Storm Bringer.

FRIEND: Which technically is before what we just saw?

ME: Storm Bringer came between 15, which was the bit with Dazai and Chuuya, and the Dragon’s Head Conflict. (incorrectly) So in the few months between that period of time—(realization) actually, it takes place a year after Dazai, Chuuya, 15. So at that point, they’re Dazai, Chuuya, 16! :D

FRIEND: Yeah.

(mac n cheese questioning and discussions)

ME: Any final thoughts about Bungo Stray Dogs?

FRIEND: I think it’s good.

ME: (claps hands together) Thank you for letting me put you through three hours of this!

He has not seen the entirety of BSD yet. Some other fun things:

Almost immediately called Dazai a masochist bottom. I lost my shit while watching.

We have seen Atsushi once, which is when he's being tortured by Shibusawa (and proceeds to kill him).

He has not seen full-blown Corruption, just the brief tidbit from DEAD APPLE.

I am surprised he didn't mention Fyodor considering how every time he reappeared (Origins of the DOA, DEAD APPLE) he was like "oh hey it's that guy".

We watched two hours and forty minutes. I rounded up.

Yes, I am still working on this. Still trying to put it together + figure out where to put it for sharing.

It's so interesting how the order in which we watch has affected his perspective of character importance. He seems to think Fukuzawa and Ranpo are like, the big father-son duo of the series. Curious to see his reaction once he realizes they're not.

I love that he thinks Arahabaki is going to be this big deal. This is the funniest thing he could've clung onto.

He has not read the manga.