#shes referring to the AK and Kunikida

[theazureapostle]

Why is it that I'm always attracted to the ones with such strong ideals? Is it due to my lack thereof?

[hamliet]

can you talk about Nobuko Sasaki from bsd I heard that you read the Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam novel and i was wondering in the novel about her character.

So, anime!Sasaki is waaaaaay different than novel!Sasaki, with the latter being, imo, a fantastic character. I’ll focus on novel!Sasaki for this ask.

Sasaki is basically, on all fronts, a seemingly put-together woman. Accomplished university professor, strong morals, beautiful, etc. Yet she is falling apart because she, like all BSD characters, is fundamentally lonely and needs a purpose to live. She found one in latching on to another person: the Azure King. (Side note: I love how BSD points out the folly of latching onto another person and expecting that to fulfill you; it always ends badly.) She tells Kunikida:

I... have no ambitions of my own. I just didn’t want to see him in pain anymore.

The Azure King is basically a hybrid of Dazai and Kunikida–clinging to ideals for a way to live, yet suicidal. It fits because Dazai’s Entrance Exam is fundamentally about Dazai and Kunikida learning about each other and trying to decide if they can work together.

In the end, his ideals don’t contrast his suicidal ideation and despair; they fuel it.

“He was... a man of noble character. The rampant crime pained his heart. He tormented himself searching for a way to create an ideal world where nobody had to suffer. Once he realized that simply obeying the law couldn’t save everyone, he aspired to hoin those who create the laws--a government official... and yet... the corrupt system, the interference of his colleagues, the misunderstandings from his boss--he was crushed... every time he got up, he was knocked back down... he simply had enough. He lost his away, unable to realize his ideals, so he tried to... kill himself.”

Sasaki then comes up with a vigilante scheme to bring true criminals to justice, but it ends with the AK cornered and truly killing himself that time. He committed suicide to help his ideals become real, to prove them right (hey, it’s a reference to the current themes with the Fyodor/Kirillov parallel).

Yet, if anything, the AK’s ideals then create a situation where Sasaki spirals. Because BSD has connection as a main theme, the Azure King’s suicide only makes things worse for Sasaki, makes his ideals harder for her to live up to, takes away the one person who helped her feel less lonely, and contrary to proving his ideals, makes them feel hollow to her. Ideals can’t hold anyone up; only human arms can. Yet, there is nuance: as I said earlier, relying on one person solely to save you never works, and it didn’t for Sasaki.

In the end, though, Sasaki truly did care for Kunikida. It wasn’t his ideals that she cared for–she saw his ideals as a part of him, but it was him she cared for even if she was desperately looking for someone else to fill the void the AK had left. But the suicidal part of her partner (represented in Dazai) killed her. In her dying breath, she tries to warn Kunikida that his ideals might get him killed as well, might destroy him from the inside. Basically Kunikida should not become like Dazai and Dazai should not become like Kunikida, but maybe they’d be stronger working together and countering each other’s worst instincts. 

[aspoonofsugar]

Kunikida was inflicted by Q’s ability?! That wasn’t in the anime! Is that woman he’s hallucinating about supposed to be Sasaki from the Azure King arc? You said that Q’s ability causes people to confront “the thing they refuse to accept about themselves.” In Kunikida’s case, would that be his inability to save everyone?—BSD Chat Anon

Hello BSD Chat anon! Incidentally I like many of your thoughts!

Yes, Kunikida is one of the victims of the Guild’s plan to destroy Yokohama and the woman he sees is indeed Sasaki!

Nothing happens to him because Dazai and the others restrain him, so that he won’t become dangerous, but it is clearly significant that he has hallucinations of her among all people.

Unluckily I have yet to read the novel (even if I saw the anime episodes which adapted it), so my thoughts on this can’t be very elaborated.

You have probably already seen this post because you follow @hamliet’s blog, but I have tagged it just in case and for people who might be interested in an analysis of her character.

When it comes to Kunikida, I think Sasaki’s death is something which hit him for several reasons and especially because it is a challenge to his own ideals.

As a matter of fact both Sasaki’s crimes and her death are a result of strong ideals. She committed crimes in order to live up to and to avenge his dead partner AKA the Azure King.

According to Sasaki, he was a man moved by strong and positive ideals, but society prevented him from realizing them in all their beauty and so Sasaki helped him break the law in order to turn them into reality.

However, their scheme resulted in both him and innocent policemen losing their lives. What is more, Sasaki herself ends up killed by one of the victims’ son.

It is important to highlight that by the time the novel is set Kunikida is close to become like the AK. As a matter of fact he too has lost some faith in institutions and this is why he has chosen to join an organization which operates in a gray area like the ADA. If Kunikida keeps pursuing his ideals without ever questioning them he might end up both hurting others and himself.

At the same time, the novel makes clear that his ideals are what prevents him from developing strong bonds with others especially when it comes to romantic relationships:

He has spent so much energy to create the image of a perfect partner, that he can’t accept anything different and this of course ends up working against him.

Interestingly, this is the opposite problem Dazai has:

As a matter of fact Dazai is implied to be a lady killer, but it is clear that he has superficial relationships with all his partners and he is probably just using them to feel less lonely.

In short, both Kunikida and Dazai end up lonely because they can’t approach others earnestly. Kunikida expects his potential relationships to be ideal, while Dazai expects them to be casual ones.

Going back to Sasaki, the story makes clear that Kunikida feels strongly attracted by her and that the attraction is mutual. However, Sasaki has started a path of self-destruction she can’t stop and Kunikida is not able to help her nor to understand her until it is too late. Maybe if he had tried to grow closer to her before he might have been able to figure out which kind of person she was and this could have led to a different outcome.

In other words, Sasaki embodies the darkest aspect of Kunikida’s ideals. Let us underline that Kunikida is painfully aware of this side of his idealism. For example, he knows he might have to compromise on it and to embrace ruthless methods:

This is something he probably realized after the police’s failure to capture the AK alive. In that operation some agents lost their lives and Kunikida ended up searching a new path by joining the ADA. After he joins he tries to follow in Fukuzawa’s footsteps and this means that it might be necessary to take extreme measures sometimes (for example, Fukuzawa tells him to kill Dazai if Dazai were to turn out to be a threath).

However, Sasaki’s death adds a new layer to his self-awareness because it shows him that not only idealism is complicated to put into practice, but also that it can be damaging.

It is not sure, but his experience with Sasaki might very well be why Kunikida, despite his strong beliefs in what is wrong and what is right, ends up hesitating when it counts the most:

Interestingly, in both the scenes above Atsushi is the one who does what Kunikida would really want to do and Kunikida ends up following Atsushi’s lead.

This might very well be because Kunikida finds himself stuck between two generations and two developmental stages.

On one hand there is Fukuzawa who has found a good equilibrium between ideals and pragmatism. Fukuzawa will act both for the greater good and to protect his loved ones and he has no hesitation in understanding when it is the case to do one thing or the other. For example, he immediately acts to save Atsushi, while Kunikida himself would like to do so, but hesitates because of the ADA’s general situation. Similarly he won’t let Mori take advantage on a traumatized girl, but is ready to work with him to save Yokohama.

On the other hand there is Atsushi who is willing to put his life at risk to save others. By following this strong instinct he has managed to save people and to pursue Kunikida’s ideals in an earnest way. However, he has still to realize how self-destructive his pursue may be and how this behaviour is rooted in trauma.

Kunikida gives me the impression of being in the middle. He is still far from sharing Fukuzawa’s self-trust and he can’t ignore how self destructive idealism and selflessness can be. Interestingly, differently from the other two characters, he doesn’t really seem to have a particular violent side/past to reconcile. Maybe it is exactly because of this that his struggle lies elsewhere and that he has much more doubts than the other two characters. This may also be why Kunikida might appear more rigid than the other members of the ADA.

That said, the series makes clear that Kunikida’s path doesn’t lie in leaving his idealism behind, but rather in him finding a better way to apply it. This is because idealism like everything else is a weapon and it can be used positively or negatively.

Talking about weapons which can be used both well and badly we go back to Q’s ability and what it represents:

On Moby Dick Atsushi hallucinates and sees the headmaster. he wonders if it is an after-effect of Q’s ability, but imo it is left ambiguous because in the end this is not the only time Atsushi has this kind of experience. The headmaster talks about how Atsushi has left himself be tricked by illusions and ended up giving others fake kindness. This is a reference both to his previous experience with Q, but also to a deeper trait of Atsushi’s personality.

However, once he confronts Lucy in her room Atsushi says this:

He repeats the headmaster’s words, but shows how “imagination” and the ability to be flessible has not only negative effects, but also positive ones because it lets a person do things they would not have considered possible up until that point.

In this meta, I mentioned how this is something true for Lucy and her power as well:

In the end, the true value of her power did not lie in Anne’s strength or in using it to kidnap people, but rather in letting people escape boundaries (the ability is used to overcome the effects of time, to let Atsushi escape a room and to let both him and Kyouka move around despite being wanted). This is something which fits the idea of Lucy’s ability representing “an escape into one’s imagination”. After all, what does imagination do if not letting people escape boundaries? Lucy used it to isolate herself, but once she starts sharing her power with others, she becomes more powerful to the point that she is considered Dazai’s queen in the current arc.

However, this is not something which is true only for Lucy and Atsushi, but for every character and this makes sense in a series which explores fiction and literature and their effects on one’s life. These activities which are rooted in imagination can both help a person bond and grow, but can also lead them to isolate themselves in a non-existent world.

I want to suggest now that the same is true for ideals and so it can be applied to Kunikida as well. Ideals are rooted in one’s imagination as well and they can make a person single-minded and rigid, but they can also make one’s perspective wider.

Thank you for the ask!