#natsume author

[cathy-plus-e]

While she was still alive, I did not think Hinako was more precious than the other children. But now that she's gone, she looks the best, and now I feel I don't need the remaining 6 children

—Natsume Sōseki

Extract from Sōseki: A Tragic Father, Article written by Yoko McClain, Sōseki Natsume's grandson

[just-illegal]

spoilers for the last case of aa3

[nezuchuuko]

[sskk-manifesto]

The author got stuck.

[valenteal]

I’ve been posting a lot about my thoughts on Dazai’s characterization and motivations but honestly I’ve been dedicating a lot more energy to trying to understand Oda. Dazai is an amazingly complex character but he’s a constant in the story and we know quite a lot about him, comparatively. Oda is incredibly mysterious and much harder to understand. My breakthrough earlier figuring out that Oda had the book has really helped me open my mind to another side of Oda I hadn’t yet considered.

The things is, authors have to be a bit cruel. Oda’s reasoning for not killing because he wanted to be a writer doesn’t make sense, we kill our own characters all the time. We put them through hell over and over for entertainment/to convey a deeper meaning. I think maybe one of the conditions of having the book is not killing directly, or maybe a certain level of removal from the storyline. Like, if you control reality and others lives with the book you’re giving up a certain amount of control physically in the moment.

Oda is a killer. He is friends with killers. And if I’m right about him being the author of the Dark Era he wrote the deaths of the kids. I think his reaction was genuine, I think he really felt like he shouldn’t have the book, that he didn’t deserve to be its author anymore, but I really think that he wrote the story to give Dazai the opportunity and the motivation to get a better life. I mean, I’ve made myself cry with my writing. The most compelling stories are full of tragedy.

Oda was a child assassin. He was a writer. He was a mafioso. But most of all he was Dazai’s friend.

Wait! Holy shit idea!

Okay so Natsume had the book before Oda, but he was definitely following Dazai around before he got the book so we know there’s already a connection there. I’ve been wondering why Oda was so attached to Dazai. But Natsume wrote the story he adored, the third installment which Oda finished was The Book. But what did Natsume write about? What exactly were the books Oda loved? What if it was Dazai’s story? What if Oda knows Dazai so well because he read his life story over and over and yearned to give him a happy ending? What if his whole motivation was to finish the story in a satisfying way? And everything from the orphan’s existence to Ango’s betrayal was to create an open ended story in which Dazai could potentially have have a better life?

Oda is such an incredible character. He’s full of contradictions until you actually start thinking of him as an author. We authors have strange minds, we love our characters but we put them through so much. Because we wouldn’t love them if we didn’t make them struggle, make them realistic and deep and meaningful. Oda knew the kids were going to die, he wrote it. But he got attached like anyone would. But he was done writing the story, all that was left was for it to play out. So he passed ownership of the book to Dazai and went to play his role.

Fuck I’m getting emotional omg Odasaku is wonderful. I don’t even care if the entire theory is wrong, I’ve figured Oda out with the information I was given and filled in the blanks. Asagiri himself wouldn’t be able to make me give this theory up.

Oda isn’t a good person with strong morals the way he presents himself. He does that to fill the mentor roll for Dazai and to get Dazai to make the desired decisions. He just a fan who was given control of the story by the original author and basically used all the writing tools ever to create a story in which the character he loved but who was tragically doomed and seeped in darkness could find some happiness. Just like anyone writing a fix-it fic. Accept his fix is canon.

Holy shit I’m a genius.

Don’t come at me you have no idea how proud I am of this! Either I figured out the most confusing character ever written or I have created a genius explanation that nothing will ever top (for me anyway).

[spirit-of-anime]

(Source , Twitter & Pixiv)

Tanuma would surely appreciate a fluffy Ponta ^^

[plinko-mori]

Rintarou had a good relationship with his children, you will not find anything about them speaking bad about his father or being afraid of him... Rintarou Mori never gave them traumas, he was an admirable dad

For what I know, his ex couple's didn't hate him at all... But I can't confirm this information since I don't remember where I may be read that

On the other hand, Soseki Natsume's children were traumatized, afraid of him... He had most horrible memories than good memories with their dad, some of them completely feared him, others had still respect for their dad

The "special case" being one of Soseki's grandchildren who was extremely empathetic towards him

His ex-wife ended up bad psychologically speaking because oh Natsume's behavior, which is extremely depressing

Isn't it curious how in BSD we see the opposite?

Mori is remembered mostly for bad things, both fandom and characters

Natsume is remembered for more good things, both fandom and characters

[neria-rt]

new brush goofin

[moxie-girl]

bungou stray dogs 🤝 ace attorney

natsume soseki

[mihai-florescu]

But can you imagine shu and wataru's next meeting... "my grandpa sent me on an international journey that made me realise the importance of living as your true self and seizing happiness to honor the lgbt people before us who couldnt live openly. So i've started taking estrogen. What have you been doing?" "Amazing! My dear friend i am so happy for you. Yeah it's been busy here, on a personal note i've started getting more in tune with my negative emotions instead of surpressing them. Also I've been committing identity theft as a rich heiress for months."

[sigmas-split-hair]

as much as i love bungou stray dogs a part of me inwardly cringes when i google an actual person and half the results are about an anime character who’s in the mafia or smth instead of the important cultural figure even though i know i’m technically part of the problem

[note-boom]

I was thinking about BSD's female characters again (as one does) and being mildly frustrated that a lot of their trauma comes from being controlled by an outside male source....and then it hit me.

Almost EVERY BSD character has a past and trauma rooted in being controlled or having a lack of control.

Atsushi under the orphanage headmaster. Akutagawa under Dazai. Kyouka under Akutagawa (and keep in mind Koyou helped get her out in the end). Yosano under Mori. Kenji losing control after his best friend dying. Chuuya under the government and then the Port Mafia. Koyou losing control over her freedom thanks to the old boss. Ranpo having no control over his own self and having been isolated from the world. The Hunting Dogs under the government. Sigma under the DoA and the Book. Even Dazai a little (more on that later).....just this persistent theme of people not getting control over their lives.

And you know what that sounds like? Characters in a story being manipulated by an author.

We have this persistent theme of literature and writing and books throughout BSD, after all. And this incessant use of a character having a tragic past rooted in lack of control or losing control and being manipulated by some superior force screams (to me at least) literary imagery. And what's most interesting is that Dazai both is a character and a manipulator.

Of course he's not the only one pulling the strings, as we know. But he does eat up a BIG part of the narrative, I think...a character who previously had no will to seek out anything to do (and thus adopted the values or reasons of the people around him) trying to craft a narrative of his own after the death of his friend. A character essentially trying to become the author (the light novel Beast just makes me wonder more about this, tbh). But also one whose story is told through the stories of other characters.

And what I find interesting about that AND Beast with regards to Dazai is this page from Vol 17...

People writing. The writer including their own self into the story. Being both a character AND an author and in that sense taking control of your own life and your circumstances....

I'm not sure where I'm going with all this, but I just wanted to really point out that part of a lot of the BSD characters' narratives have to do with this lack of control over their own lives....and we see the ADA full of people trying to take back control. Kunikida and his ideals, Yosano and her healing, Ranpo being the agency's core, Atsushi trying to save people, and Dazai trying to become the author in other people's lives if he can't be the author of his own (his inability to die, you know?).

So my question honestly is just what's the deal with that? Am I making mountains out of molehills or seeing themes and motifs that aren't there? And if not, what does the existence of the Book say about these characters struggling to write their own narratives? (Or the narratives of others, in Dazai's case). Just....literary imagery in BSD and the "toxic" relationship between the author and the character....

[nezuchuuko]

[sskk-manifesto]

Finally got around to watching ep 11 (´；ω；｀)

[ao3screenshotss]

[lotus-pear]

Hello! So, I was wondering if you knew what happened to the part of the book Sigma was written into existence with? (This is for a fic im writing and google had 0 answers so I ask you, only other bsd watcher i feel i can ask) If you don't know I'm just gonna write it disappeared after he was created or something.

hii!! i believe the pg that the doa has contained not only the terrorist plot but the creation of the sky casino and sigma as a person.. or at least that's what dazai claims when he was questioning sigma's existence w fyodor. so when the agency obtains the pg they also basically have sigma's lifeline w them. idk where the actual BOOK is (apparently sigma knows when he used his ability on chief tanaeda) but the doa only has a single pg not the book itself