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alphasmoonlit-selfships · 3 years

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🎫 here’s a gush pass :3 feel free to gush about whichever f/o you want, however much you want, then send this ask to 3 other selfshippers >:3c

(@rose-wine-selfships 🌹🍷✨)

Ahh! A gush pass??!! 😳🎫 @rose-wine-selfships thank you! Better late than never right? 🥺💖 ahh!

Am going to gush on the best two fictional loves of my life if you don’t mind? 🥺 I love Atsushi so much and I want to talk about my dear Jason too! 🥺🐺🐯 I hardly do and he deserves some nice spot light too ! For those that don’t know him to well! 🥺

Come and hear my rambling under the read more ≧ω≦

Mi Tigre! Mi amore! He is such a mood and such a vibe! I love his overall person, his design, his personality, his sweet and beautiful kindness towards people who have gone through similar situations as he had and his just can’t help but want to save them from such fates. He wants the best for all those he cares about and how he believed for a long while that if he can safe others than it would be enough proof for him to continue living. Even at the cost of his own life and I just (ಥ﹏ಥ) nooo my love please,,,

It’s kind of scary how much I resonated with that… not gonna lie, I’ve always had such a mentally too to an extent when I was younger, heck even a bit now but not as drastic as my younger self thought… (then again Digimon college Au definitely tells me otherwise… ;;w;; ahh anyway),,

Atsushi has definitely grown so much and is still learning to better himself! I believe that in this new environment of being with good people of the Agency, he will continue to develop and get better. Being surrounded by a found family that cares and loves his well being, will boost his confidence! And soon he will be truly an amazing mentor towards a future main 👀 watch the manga end the way it started with Atsushi saving someone who was in a similar situation 🥺 of course not the way Dazai did 👀 but it will be a full circle 🥺 like just envision an older!Atsushi in Dazai’s place of saying his name, “My name? Nakajima, Nakajima Atsushi!” 🌅 hdkahdkalfkaldhlasads not gonna lie I just want to see older Atsushi rocking his confidence and growth 💖🥰

Overall, I don’t think I’ve ever come to love such a main character before? The way I resonate with him makes me all warm and fussy and has allowed me to see,,, a lot about myself and reflect on it better. His path to healing isn’t linear, it’s been a constant up and down motion 🥺 I really don’t want to see him encounter more bad things ;;;~;;; but I know it’s to progress the story and for him to get better; but please Asagiri-sensei, don’t be so bad on him ;;0;;

I love mi Tigre so so much UwU he truly my source of comfort and love daydreaming of sweet and silly romantic things with him 💖 the ideal relationship and try to definitely lift myself up in anyway I can with him, especially during my depressive moments. Which happens a lot especially when it comes to comparing myself to others ;;w;; it’s a terrible thing and I swear I break my own heart so many times a day,,, but I know despite it all Atsushi loves me entirely because I am me, there is none other like me 🥺 all his kisses warm my soul ♥️(*´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥﹏°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ )人(´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

Now!! TO MY PRECIOUS GENTLE STORM, MY RAIN, MY DEAREST MATE 🥺‼️🐺🌧

Aghddkjahdkfkaljddj!!! The best boi, the best oc I love so dearly like! 🥺 Jason “Jaystorm” Grey! He is my own fictional OC that I created sometime in 8th grade I believe? About 2010! So almost 11 years I think!

He has dealt with a lot of my creative mind and just pure high school into college anguish ;;;w;;; my gentle storm hasn’t had the best life, in either Au or actual story he’s in. Legendary Wolf Warrior’s story, he and his later sister where born from an affair situation. While not much suspicion was raised with him, he later had to endure a lot of traumatic events in his life.

First, with his older brother leaving him behind to deal with his alpha father’s (older brother’s biological dad) anger.

Witnessing his actual dad (Jason and Lula’s dad) get murdered in cold blood, right in front of him, believing it was his fault for him trying to run away with his brother.

Become physically and mentally abused by his alpha, who was trying to shape him into something worse under all this abuse.

Witnessing said alpha, murder his mother for supposedly sending away his sister through a river. And because of the affair she had that birthed him and his sister. Who’s fate is unknown to him for a long, long time until they are much older.

And then the aftermath of standing up to alpha’s abuse and fighting back for all the years of torment he was put through. Gaining his powers of the Storm in the process. But Jason, bless him, never wanted to be the one to kill him, he just wanted to leave of his own accord, but this terrible wolf that raised and abused him wanted to fight and kill him for trying to leave.

Because of this, he is often plagued with nightmares and believes he sees him in the far distance for a long while after he travels on his own. The mental and emotional abuse staying with Jason for a long while. Even after when he arrives at the Forest of Dreams, being the last warrior to arrive of the seven that exist.

He has no control of his powers for a long time, sometimes drawing storms with the slightest anger. He had no idea how to fight without almost killing someone else in the process. Jason had so much guilt and fear of losing control of this higher power he possessed, even scared of losing the other warriors because of his lack of strength and skills at them. They, who have had their powers for far longer as younger pups.

But of course he has them too, despite his insecurities and fears, the others help him and show him how to better control such a power, especially at his age. They don’t turn him away as he worried so much, they train him and tell him to control his emotions that cause a major melt down of his powers.

Danielle especially (me in that sense UwU), who understands what it means to let one’s emotions get the best of them, helps him find his balance and most especially helps him talk about his past.

He definitely says it so nonchalantly, never realizing how bad his life was for a long time. Actually believing most alpha’s in wolf packs led with such a tyrannical stance. More than surprised by Dany’s father’s lead and his genuine kindness to others and other animals around the Forest of Dreams. A lot of it is due to the abuse of his own alpha and how his mind was filled with such negative things, especially about himself.

Jason does feel like an outsider most of the time, even more so than some of the other animals/humans who lived similar lives, but especially because of his powers. But he grows from when he first arrived in FoD, he learns to socialize more, how to hunt and give to the forest, how live a life of his own and not be ruled over by past influences. He looks back on his younger self a lot and reflects on how he wished to save that young version of himself from so much.

But he has in a sense, by living on his life and being everything his alpha never was and tried to instill in him. He has a new family, one that is genuine and true and would never leave him despite the terrible things that happened. 🥺🌧

Jason is my best mans, the best boi that deserves the world and much peace. Many think the Storm power for him is kind of odd considering his pretty pacifist nature and gentleness. I think it fits him perfectly anyway 💖🌧 he is pretty similar in Digimon Au, though most of his strength and growth is him and his experiences and also the voice encouragement by his Digimon, Raiwolfmon. Even so, he is still a dear and precious person, nothing like the terrible “father figure” that raised him. He is all his own and so much better.

Well I’ve talked for too long 👀🥰 I hope you enjoyed my gush ramble on the two loves of my life! 🥺💖🥺💖🥺💖 I love my Atsushi and Jason so much and this gave me so much time to reflect on them, especially Jason 👀♥️ he is the best boi and love him so much in private a lot UwU but hopefully I can do more DanyJay things 💖🥺🌧🥰

Thanks again for the gush pass rose! 🥺 sorry for the long wait too UwU, bless you! 💖♥️🥺♥️🥺♥️💖 and excuse my rambling and maybe confusing spasm speak to explain things ;;w;; by all means I’m here to answer all the questions 👀😳

#self shipping community #self shipping #gush pass 🎫#atsushi nakajima #jason 'jaystorm' grey #bungou stray dogs #the legendary wolf warriors #alpha’s art #alpha’s oc’s #tag: we are of the moon and stars my dear #tag: always and forever will never be long enough #AtsuDany #DanyJay #alpha howls

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kalperun · 4 years

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The Origin of Abilities in BSD and how they came to be and possible Fyodor motives explained.

(Also small talk about The Book so Spoiler warning!)

Personally, I’ve always wondered about the logistics of abilities. I wondered where they came from, are people born with it, or do they show up mysteriously one day? How do abilities interact with each other as well - especially with supernatural phenomens with abilities that are the same and why does that happen?

Just what could possibly cause that?

And then - as I was talking with @whyis-every-username-taken it hit me.

What if abilities actually came from entities?

I then realized, the more that I thought about it, that the more plausible it became - even if it changed a small detail I made on a previous theory in Fyodor’s ability.

But to show where this all began - I need to bring you all back to the only entity we actually know to exist in current canon.

Arahabaki.

The God of destruction and calamity, a being of ultimate power that the government used to test against other abilities and other worldly entities to ultimately create artificial abilities.

But - what gave the government this idea? What spurred this madness on that made the government think that could actually work and use time, money, and effort to actually obtain an entity and successfully seal it even though it had the power to end them all.

I would like to believe that the government had some sort of conclusive research first - no matter how slim - that they could indeed create artificial abilities from entities.

Which led me to this conclusion-

Abilities come from entities.

Or more specifically fragments of entities.

And the reason I say fragments is because of supernatural phenomenons - like the one caused by Gide and Oda in their last battle.

When Gide and Oda were fighting they experienced the only known supernatural phenomenon known in canon so far.

Their abilities were the EXACT same so they melded with each other, attracting to each other, their ability’s powers increasing to the point where time actually seemed to stop from them.

And I believe that these supernatural phenomenons are caused because their abilities come from the same entity. And that entity wants to become whole with its other fragment badly.

That in turn can cause a supernatural phenomenon especially since the fragments are being forced to fight each other. It’s trying to resist death but at the same time become whole - which is why Oda kept seeing multiple futures when facing Gide as well. Something that he was confused about but this could explain why that happened.

Which brings me to my next point.

Because of this - it only seems right to conclude that entities are sentient beings. They have a sense of awareness - perhaps even identity despite being limited to nothing more than a tool. And if entities are sentient and the source of abilities - then abilities are sentient.

This is best exhibited by three people - and also one event.

But first I’ll begin with the people.

Kyouka’s ability Demon Snow allows her to summon a phantom ghost. But she can’t control it.

And in canon the reason why she can’t control it is because her ability was passed down from her mom to her. It wasn’t her ability.

I would like to add more to that though.

I believe that she can’t control it because her ability has become more aware - it wasn’t restricted as it used to be by her mom, in some sort of perfect vessel. No - it had been caged but then became a little bit more free in Kyouka and had its own will. It was acting out, but once Kyouka was able to to officially become apart of the ADA she gained some semblance of control and her ability remained sentient. It could still act on its own.

That was made evident when Demon Snow made tea for Kyouka of it’s own volition which Kyouka was displeased about. But I couldn’t find the gif for that so have this instead.

Based on this Demon Snow and Elise are actually quite similar.

But Elise wasn’t a passed down ability. She was Mori’s and Mori’s alone - and yet she is actually quite sentient. It is true though that Mori can ‘configure’ Elise’s personality but she does have her own will and can be separate from Mori as her own being, yet she is still leashed to Mori.

I believe this could be explained by the fact that Mori has a larger entity fragment - an entity that is more whole yet he still has control over it.

This could also explain why Chuuya can’t control Corruption. Arahabaki more whole - and the more whole an entity is the less control you have over it, unless an entity has been passed down by blood.

And now - we come to Atsushi.

Atsushi’s situation is actually the exact same as Kyouka. His ability was out of control before Fukuzawa, making me arrive to two conclusions.

A) Atsushi’s ability was not his own and instead passed down by blood.

B) Atsushi’s entity (ability) fragment was too big and he was unable to control it - like Chuuya, his ability would take control over him.

Honestly, it could be either and both options could explain why everyone is after the Tiger beetle - thinking he knows where the Book is but he doesn’t.

But remember. Entities are sentient. And therefore abilities are sentient.

So what if Atsushi didn’t know but his ability itsslf knew?

If it’s option A) his ability knows because his parent who possessed the ability originally knew where the book was.

But if it’s option B) his ability knows because its a fragment of the book - for the book is an elaborate ability - and therefore the Book is perhaps a whole entity.

And detailing off of option B) the Book itself was described as a book - whose pages were made up of parallel universes. And whatever people write in it - it calls forth that parallel universe that sort of grants your wish with a twist of karma.

And perhaps - the reason why entities became fragmented was because of the power of the Book being used.

The Book tore them apart with each universe that was written over - or perhaps - all entities (and therefore abilities actually) could have been created from the Book. Not to far fetched if you MAJOR CURRENT MANGA SPOILER AHEAD remember that Sigma was created from the Book. So why not entities/abilities as well?

If that’s the case - then the Book is a sentient object that gave life to entities which were then torn apart and in turn created abilities that were absorbed by people. So - abilities can’t be born with.

But I would like to backtrack a bit and talk about how far abilities can be sentient. I would like to bring up the event that happened in the BSD: Dead Apple movie about specific scene with Fyodor in it. A scene that I’m bringing up that changes a small detail of a theory I made a while back on what Fyodor’s powers could be.

I would like to bring up this scene:

The scene where Fyodor hotly explains how he was crime and punishment and that’s why his ability didn’t attack him under Shibusawa’s ability.

In a way - with all of this here - I think it was a way of saying that his ability and himself were actually on the same page.

What that page was - hell if I know - but if that’s the case then everyone else that had their abilities attack them, means that their entities wanted to kill them.

They probably wanted to be free.

They saw a chance - and they took it.

And maybe that’s why Fyodor sees ability users as sin.

If you were an entity - trapped and used as nothing more than a tool, restricted by someone else’s will and enslaved, wouldn’t you want to be free as well?

And maybe - just maybe - that could actually be the page that Fyodor is on with his entity fragment. The harm that ability users are doing without realizing it, ability users being masters over something that they don’t understand at all and these abilities wanting to probably return home.

Home being the Book, which could be why Fyodor is looking for it. Why his entity fragment is working with him so well - that could be why they want the book.

To get rid of the sin of ability users and free the entities back to where they actually belong.

The Book.

Oh gee, talk about keyboard smash, but I hope this makes some sort of sense because I just typed all this out in one go and that’s it. That’s all I want to do with it.

Yeah - I can see that there is some holes in this theory - especially with Lovecraft - but that’s why it’s a theory!

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed.

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ruoyeming · 4 years

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My Top Ten Anime, a chaotic list

This was so hecking difficult, I’m gonna have to do some ‘honourable mentions’ for ones I can’t bring myself to leave out. This list is based entirely on my personal feelings, not an objective assessment of what are logically the best anime. There also may be mild spoilers at points because I can’t control myself. Doing this in quarantine cause I looove ranting about things I like.

10) Attack On Titan

This was the first anime I ever watched, and it blew my mind a bit tbh. The music is iconic, and the animation is great as well. It might have been a bit harrowing for my first experience with anime, but I absolutely loved the story. It’s set in a world where titans (man eating giants) have driven the dregs of humanity to live within giant stone walls. There’s a group of humans trying to research titans, kill them, and protect humanity, and the main character decides to join them after a titan breaks through one of the walls and his mother is eaten. It’s one of those where you think you know everything and suddenly the world gets turned upside down by a new discovery. All the puzzle pieces start fitting together the longer you watch, and you find out that everything going on is much bigger than what it originally seemed (government conspiracy time lads). The plot twists are unpredictable (for me at least) and devastating, and the emotion this series evokes is awesome - you can FEEL the sheer desperation of the characters, their rage and despair as they fight again and again against a seemingly unending enemy. Despite almost every battle being a suicide mission and despite too many losses, the characters keep going out of the human need to survive and protect.

10/10 for brutality and gore, but also theme of hope.

9) Naruto

A founding father of anime. Surprisingly not one of the first I watched, in fact it took me a few years to start. It’s set in a feudal Japan where ninjas are the defenders and servers of the people, and different villages have different ninja styles. Naruto is a young boy with a dangerous spirit sealed inside him which has caused him to be shunned by society (even though it’s not his fault??), and he wants to become a ninja. First off I’m a sucker for the Naruto archetype: dumbass, cocky, obnoxious, but kind and loyal too. Years of solitude and ostracisation as a child mean that Naruto desperately wants people to acknowledge him, and he intends to become the Hokage to prove himself. There’s a huge range of characters and villains, all with cool ninjutsus and different philosophies. Friendship, power, and determination are some of the main themes and it makes me so proud to see my son *COUGH* Naruto progressing and learning from his mistakes. It IS a long boi though and I haven’t even finished Shippuden yet, but I think Naruto captures the essence of shounen anime and is a great underdog story. Manga is lit too.

10/10 for cool battles and great characters.

8) Psycho Pass

One of the earlier anime I watched, and it became an instant favourite for the way it makes you question morality. It’s set in a kinda dystopian future Japan, where a technology called the Sibyl System checks people’s mental state and determines their ‘crime coefficient’ - how likely they are to commit a crime. The main character is a young woman who joins the police and begins to realise that blindly following this system is perhaps not the best way to go about things. For example, they have special guns that automatically kill people whose crime coefficients are over a certain level, but she soon proves that you can easily lower someone’s coefficient by talking them down and negotiating instead of killing them off immediately. It’s got great drama, great government conspiracy, compelling villains, and some really badass characters. It pushes the question of what is right or wrong, and how far technology should go when it comes to justice.

10/10 for sociological debate and horror elements.

7) One Punch Man

OPM is an anime that stands out for me, partially for mocking the tropes of battle anime, and partially for the uniqueness of the main character’s predicament. It’s set in Japan where heroes and villains exist, and the protagonist is a man called Saitama who gained superstrength after doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10K run every day. However he’s become so strong that he can defeat every enemy with a single punch. Nothing is a challenge for him anymore so he becomes depressed and unfulfilled; he’s still a good man who helps people, but he feels he’s missing something from his life. A cyborg called Genos makes Saitama his master, determined to learn his ways and they become friends. It’s one of the first anime that made me laugh out loud; it’s funny and entertaining, but also shows us that power is not equal to happiness.

10/10 for moral lessons and good jokes.

6) Tanaka-kun is Always Listless

The only slice of life anime on this list and not very well known, however it has a special place in my heart. The main character Tanaka is a boy who dozes off constantly and acts exhausted when awake; he loves expending as little energy as possible. His best friend Ohta looks out for him and essentially makes sure he doesn’t get lost/ be late/die on a daily basis, including carrying him when he just falls asleep sometimes. Although Tanaka seems uncaring, it’s shown that friendship isn’t a bother to him, and he realises that he actually relies on his friends despite saying he likes being left in peace. His friends all have great personalities, my personal faves are a tough gangster girl who’s rude to everyone EXCEPT her adorable loli girlfriend, and a popular girl who’s trying too hard to fit in and starts to become more herself after befriending Tanaka. All the characters share one brain cell, and it’s genuinely a funny anime - I’ve burst out laughing watching it a few times. Also Tanaka and Ohta are extremely shippable if you want to go down that route; it’s said several times in the series that they’re like an old married couple.

10/10 for wholesomeness and comedy.

5) Ouran High School Host Club

Another lighthearted show, probably the anime that’s made me laugh the most out of any. It’s set at an academy for rich-as-heck kids, and there’s a ‘Host Club’ where all the girls go to drink tea with a group of handsome boys. There’s the cunning Kyouka, prankster identical twins Hikaru and Kaoru, stoic Mori, adorable Honey, and princely but obnoxious Tamaki. Haruhi, a working-class scholarship student who is mistaken for a boy, accidentally breaks a precious vase and is forced by the host club to join them to pay off her debt. The group of boys realise fairly quickly that haruhi is a girl, but she becomes a popular host amongst the girls (LOVE the secret lesbian vibes) so they keep up the charade. I think I have a weakness for groups that share one brain cell because aside from Kyouka, they’re all idiots. I also love how flexible the show is with ideas of gender and sexuality despite being a slightly older anime. The daily antics of the host club combined with their personalities is a recipe for comedy, and they’re all lovable in their own ways.

10/10 for characters, drama, and comedy; it’s well-paced too.

4) Bungou Stray Dogs

Set in an alternate modern Japan where some people have secret abilities that can be activated, this anime became an obsession when I first watched it. The cast of characters is amazing and the villains are awesome too. Atsushi is an orphan who discovers he can turn into a powerful tiger, and is hired by the Armed Detective Agency, a small organisation of powerful individuals who fight crime. NEED I SAY ANY MORE?? Many of the main characters share names with famous Japanese authors such as Osamu Dazai and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa which is really cool and something that might add to the story more if I had an understanding of Japanese literature. Anyways the main character Atsushi is kind of a wimp at first (understandably because the world of ability-users is actually terrifying), but he learns to stand up for himself and use his ability to save people. The show’s mixing of dark and comedic tones is perfect to me; one moment a character is off his head on mushrooms and the next Atsushi’s leg is brutally sliced off in a back alley fight (it regenerates later no worries). The plot is really cool and full of intrigue, and eventually you get the whole ‘Usually we’re sworn enemies but we’re forced to become allies in the face of a greater evil’ thing and it’s great! Turns out our main guy and our main bad guy are actually a pretty powerful and efficient team, hoho??

10/10 for supernatural detectives being super cool.

3) Yuri!!! on Ice

Y’all already know what’s going on. Ice skating, emotional breakthroughs, gay shit, HIT ME WITH IT. The story follows Yuri Katsuki, an insecure figure skater trying to regain his confidence, and his self-appointed coach Viktor Nikiforov. Viktor is enthusiastic in helping Yuri train, and Yuri has been a big fan of Viktor since his childhood *throws pillow across the room*. Yuri becomes determined to, quote, “surpass Viktor’s wildest imagination”, and they end up agreeing - through a series of convoluted events - to get married if Yuri wins gold at the olympics (I think it’s the olympics??). Either fuckin way this series has angst, humour, cuteness, and god DAMN did I get invested. When Yuri was doing his free skate my own heart was beating harder than it did when I finished a 10K. Love the vibes and also it’s the closest to full healthy gay representation that I’ve seen in anime for a while. Not much more I can say, but do I really need to say more???

10/10 for GAY and MY HEART

2) Kimetsu No Yaiba (Demon Slayer)

Ok this one’s kind of a cheat cause I’ve read the manga as well which is way ahead of the anime, but FUCC. It takes place in the Taisho Era in Japan (begins 1912), where Demons exist who eat people. Tanjiro Kamado’s family is killed by a demon one night and his sister Nezuko is turned into a demon - but it is soon discovered she’s different to other demons, and can restrain herself. Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps to try and track down a cure for his sister, while proving that demons are not inherently evil. I LOVE Tanjiro as a main character because he values kindness over everything else, not forgiving demons for their sins but recognising they are tormented creatures, trying to give them peace before they die. All demons were once human - a fact that only Tanjiro seems to remember when fighting them. He’s patient, gentle, and determined - hotheaded and brash sometimes, but he has this vibe that just makes people become his friend/respect him even if they don’t intend to. He befriends two other slayers - Inosuke, an absolutely feral Best Boy who was raised by wild boars, and Zenitsu, a cowardly but ultimately loyal guy. This trio works really well together and Tanjiro is a great protagonist. Don’t even get me STARTED on the music and animation. Impeccable. Kamado Tanjiro No Uta makes me cry every time I hear it, and the water/fire effects used to show the metaphorical way the swords move like the elements takes my breath away.

10/10 for morals, music and animation.

1) Mob Psycho 100

Where the fuck do I start here. This anime is so unique in its style, story, and characters that I think it will always be my favourite. It follows Shigeo Kageyama (nicknamed Mob cause that’s what they call extras and background characters in Japan), a plain boy with incredible psychic powers that explode when his emotions are too high. Over time he’s learned to suppress his emotions, causing him to become socially inept and emotionally withdrawn. His (fake) psychic ‘master’, Reigen, uses him to make money exorcising spirits, making Mob believe that it’s for ‘training’. Mob appears naive at times, but he is so simply kind to people that it makes my heart hurt. Unlike many of the egomaniac psychics that Mob comes across, he recognises that without powers, he is just an ordinary boy. Mob’s greatest power isn’t his OP psychic abilities, but his power to show people they can change, that he can change. He forgives (and eventually befriends) people who have tried to kill him. Redemption and empathy are big themes here and they’re done really well.

The other characters are so well rounded and are also given time to grow, including Reigen - at first he’s a seemingly manipulative sleazebag, but later you see that he is a genuinely good man who has taught Mob many lessons and helped him grow up. This is a core message - Mob’s ability to change is due to support from his friends, not purely his own desire - people need other people!

This is also one of the true rarities in anime where the second season is absolutely just as good (if not better!) than the first one. The music is unique to the show, the ops for both seasons get me litty, the animation is incredible, the jokes are great and although it’s not all about big-ass fights, when we do get a big-ass fight it’s so fucking cool. The fight sequences are beautifully animated and visually stunning. MP100 makes me laugh, cry like an actual baby, and want to become a better person. Idk I could literally write pages on it like the big nerd I am but that’s all I’ll do for now.

10/10 for literally everything.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Given : about a boy who joins a band which helps him work through his trauma. Lovely healthy gay representation and themes of healing.

Samurai Champloo : ragtag trio consisting of two samurai - one lowkey feral and does breakdancing, the other lofty and withdrawn - and a bold young girl. Themes of friendship and journeys. I simp for the lofty samurai.

Cowboy Bebop: jazzy music, bounty hunters in space, 90s anime WHAT MORE COULD U WANT. Yet another group of characters that share a single brain cell. Love it.

#anime review #anime recommendation

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gunmaestro · 5 years

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My Problems with Bungou Stray Dogs.

I want to preface this by saying that Bungou Stray Dogs is my favorite animanga. I’m not trying to tell Asagiri how to write the story and I’m not saying these things make it a bad concept--I just wanted to share my criticisms about the show and manga. These things absolutely don’t ruin it for me, and most of them are about the anime only anyway. Note that this list will NOT include the Tanizaki siblings although I do have a problem with their relationship because I’m focusing mostly on storytelling and character analysis. But without further ado, I’ll get into my first criticism. This one, my biggest problem with the series, will be above the cut, but the rest will be under it for length.

Dazai Osamu.

Given that Dazai as an author is a very significant presence in Japan, it’s understandable that he would play a large role in a series based largely upon Japanese authors. The fact that he has a large role is not the reason I dislike him--in fact, he’s been getting a lot less screentime in the manga recently. The reason I view Dazai as a problem with Bungou Stray Dogs is because of his mental prowess which borders on omnipotence.

It shouldn’t come to a surprise that Dazai would play a role in every major arc, given that he’s a main character and all. However, it’s very frustrating and almost boring to have arc after arc resolved because of Dazai. It’s even more frustrating when it’s implied that everything our protagonists do has already been specifically calculated by Dazai, as if their actions are not their own. Having an overpowered character like him makes the narrative seem boring.

At the time of this being written, the manga is in the middle of its arc with the Hunting Dogs and the Decay of Angels. I’m not sure if this is just me, but because of the characters (Ango, Atsushi, Dazai himself) admitting that Dazai had planned for certain events all along, I feel almost no stakes for the arc as a whole. It’s very hard to feel suspense whilst getting constant reminders that everything bad happening is all according to Dazai’s plan. I won’t even bother going into the dick measuring contest between him and Fyodor, either, because I’m sure we all know how that sort of thing can get annoying very quickly in stories.

Dazai being the super genius he is also weakens other characters around him. A striking example of this is Edogawa Ranpo, a character whom I have no problems with at all, speaking in terms of characterization. Ranpo’s entire character hinges on the fact that he is a brilliant detective and the smartest person in the agency--and to people like gifted kids, he’s a very relatable character. It greatly diminishes the quality of Ranpo’s character to introduce the idea that there are characters who know more than him; though Dazai has admitted to not being as smart as Ranpo, the narrative does not reflect this statement. Ranpo as a character works because there is grounds to his bragging--take away his status as the smartest in the series and he becomes nothing.

Similarly, Dazai negatively impacts the characters of Atsushi and Akutagawa. They’re two very interesting characters, but part of the reason they seem to fall flat to me is that they only ever act together when forced into it by Dazai. In fact, it feels like every single character on the side of good in this story would be helpless without Dazai there to guide them--and that makes them far less impactful characters.

Unresolved Plotlines and Bad Math.

Maybe I’m being nitpicky, and I didn’t mind this at first, but there are a lot of cliffhangers and inconsistencies throughout the story. Examples of the latter are easy to come by--Kunikida was initially stated to be a math teacher before joining the ADA, despite being only 22 at the present time in canon. Fitzgerald’s daughter would have been at most 14 at present assuming she was born when Fitzgerald was 18, which is hardly old enough for her to be sent to a boarding school in ANOTHER COUNTRY. These are small, but they somewhat decrease the quality of the story when questioned.

The unresolved plotlines and cliffhangers have a much bigger impact on the story during a time where it is still being released one chapter a month. John Steinbeck’s return has not yet come after two full arcs, despite it being teased by his appearance during Fitzgerald’s return. Going back further, we’ve seen astonishingly little of Agatha Christie--even though she was introduced around the same time as Fyodor.

In smaller cases, there’s the fact that we didn’t get to see what happened with Yosano, we don’t know where Akutagawa is at this point in the narrative, and we weren’t told what happened with the truck containing Margaret. These are small things that won’t be as annoying to read back on once they’re resolved, but having a story set up where everything is left open after every chapter is very disengaging for readers who just want to know what’s going on.

The Anime.

I know what I said at the beginning. The truth is, though, that there’s so much about the anime adaptation that bothers me that I have to summarize it by just saying the anime as a whole bothers me. I’m also aware that it’s very uncommon for mangas to get a perfect, spot-on anime adaptation.. but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a problem with it.

Here’s a speedround of things I don’t enjoy about the anime.

The art style. I’m sure we’re all very tired of the fish-eye lenses, and the weird smiles they’ve incorporated from Dead Apple. This being said, there are times when it looks good, but that doesn’t help the fact that I actually physically cringe whenever there’s a character who’s afraid or overly cocky making a facial expression that reflects this emotion.

The focus on certain characters (Dazai). I’m among the group of people that wanted untold stories to be animated this season instead of Fifteen, because it would have fit better with the plot of the season. The fact that the anime chose Fifteen was a good decision for drawing more attention to the show, since the fans of Chuuya and Dazai are in the majority, but it fits very poorly with the rest of the season. In fact, sorry for the spoiler, but Dazai and Chuuya aren’t even shown interacting in the main season, whereas Fukuzawa plays a major role in the cannibalism arc and Ranpo was visibly shown to have an important connection with him.

The tone. There’s not much to say, here. The anime takes everything very seriously, and one of my favorite parts of the manga are its humorous lines.

The humor. Speaking of humorous lines, they’re always said in a very obnovious way in the anime that makes it seem like they’re trying too hard. This is an opinion rather than an analysis.

The left-out details. Though the conversation between Fyodor and Agatha was not very important to the plot and nor was Steinbeck’s removed appearance in season 3, they both served as teasers for future arcs, and removing them shouldn’t have been completely necessary.

The changes to characters. The Guild is a particular victim of this particular point. Whereas the characters in this organization don’t come off as a completely serious group of people in the manga, they sure do in the anime. Logically, I can understand why this would be done--they’re the arc’s antagonists, and they’re more intimidating if they aren’t funny. But it completely changes some of their characters if you remove certain aspects of their personality.

The Fandom.

It goes without saying that no fandom is perfect, and a lot of them aren’t even good. The Bungou Stray Dogs fandom comprises mostly of s/skk fans, which is unsurprising, but what makes me compelled to put the fandom on a list of my problems with the show itself is how much they completely warp the characters of Dazai and Chuuya.

I know I have a whole section explaining why I think Dazai is a major flaw of the series, but despite that I actually do find his character interesting, if a bit annoying with how big his presence is. I dislike the fandom’s interpretation of him, specifically the way he interacts with Chuuya. Did he not blow up Chuuya’s car? Did he not let Chuuya suffer for a few more seconds just because he thought it was funny? Did he not make Chuuya embarrass himself for no reason other than his own enjoyment? It’s very disheartening to see him portrayed as someone who would never betray Chuuya’s trust and who is completely devoted to Chuuya.

Speaking of Chuuya, he’s probably the fandom’s biggest offense in terms of making a character unlikable. In my particular case, the way the fandom treats him has driven me away from his character, which I actually do like. Because of how often I’ve seen the fandom treat him like nothing more than a blushing tsundere whose feelings for Dazai are soooo obvious, I’m impacted by these interpretations when I read the manga.

To Conclude + A List of Things I Don’t Mind

No, I don’t think the series is bad and I don’t think these listed things make it bad, but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t bother me. But since I’ve been nothing but negative, here’s a few things that bother most people but don’t bother me at all.

Mori Ougai. I don’t condone his behavior or “preferences”, but I do not believe he is a problem for the show. He is not supposed to be a good character and, as we see with his behavior towards Yosano, his actions are not portrayed as good. There is nothing wrong with the villain of a series being a p*dophile as long as it is not treated as something positive, which it is not.

Tachihara + The Hunting Dogs. This is a spoiler for the more recent chapters of the manga, but despite the lack of foreshadowing I am not bothered by Tachihara’s reveal as the fifth hunting dog. I also don’t care that the dogs are hunting the agency, because it makes sense, story-wise. The agency are technically international terrorists because of what was written in the book.

Lucy and her supposed crush. Romance is not the focus of the show and, likewise, Lucy’s “crush” on Atsushi is not put at the forefront of the plot. However, I have seen fans get annoyed by the fact that she seems to like him.

I’d like to thank everyone who read this for taking the time to do so. I’m not the most coherent with my thoughts and I’m bad at putting said thoughts into words, but I hope you liked the things I had to say.

#bungou stray dogs #anti dazai #bungo stray dogs #bsd analysis

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bayern-moni · 5 years

Note

So, given that Fyodor and the Hunting Dogs are more-or-less being the closest, most imminent threat in BSD, does that leave Agatha as the Final Boss? So far, Fyodor's plans have only exempt her organization, wherein every other group is manipulated to some level.

Hello! Sorry for the late reply, I'm very happy for your ask 😁 I warn you, though, I'm not capable of writing a short reply to save my life ahahah. But, as they say in my country "Warned person half saved person"

So, ready to go.

Well, it is a complex situation. Now, the agency's problems seem to be Dostoevskij (and so, the group DotA) and the Government's military of the Hunting Dogs (whose utility I've still many doubts about). But the latter's actions almost certainly are manipulated by Dostoevskij, even if they probably don't know it. They did create problems in Sigma's casino to capture Atsushi and the others, after all, although Sigma is a member of the Decay of the Angels like Fyodor and Gogol. Gogol who recently infiltrated as a spy in the Government's ministry of justice for six months before he revealed himself and did... well, whatever it was the sense of what he did. And absolutely a coincidence, what is the military organization working for the ministry of justice?

Correct, the Hunting Dogs.

So, they are really convinced that capture our protagonists is a just service to the state, but they're playing Fyodor's game. But only his game?

What's the situation? Well, the players on the chessboard are the Agency & the Port Mafia vs the Decay of the Angels. In the middle, there is the ex Guild and Oguri allied with the first party and the Hunting Dogs maneuvered by the latter. And, aside, there is Agatha,who in chapter 12 is seen to be allied with Fitzgerald and Dostoevskij (although their idea of "alliance" is veeery singular, if Fitzgerald's defeat is to say something).

Fitzgerald is betrayed, defeated and definitely out of the alliance, so there remain only Fyodor and Agatha. She seems to not even be present, though. There is really not even a single mention of her in the manga since then, excluding her short appearance in Dead Apple movie, differently from the almost omnipresent Fyodor. Thanks to the movie, we learn that she is in contact with Ango (so Japanese government) who asks for her aid, that of a foreign government association of ability users, to terminate Shibusawa, former ability user protected by Ango himself and then, coincidence, manipulated by Dostoevskij. Situation she was surely well informed about when she accepted (I bet my head) and disappointed when her slightly extreme solution wasn't needed anymore. A solution that could have burned the entire Yokohama to the ground (and maybe even Fyodor himself who was there, too). They were already allied at that point? Yes.

Anyway, wonders of friendship aside, this disappearance is like if Agatha didn't want anyone to know her involvement in the war, maybe in order to have both the alliance with Japanese government and with Fyodor's group to exploit as she sees better fit in the moment. But both Fitzgerald, Mori and Dazai, we absolutely know it, they are aware of her. Anyone else? Idk, sorry, probably not. So...

Will she return? Absolutely

Will she be the final boss? Not sure, probably, but it doesn't convince me.

Not like she's not credible enough to be one, nay, she would be a wonderful final boss to face, but I think it would be too simple this way, too linear for my taste, at least. Why?

As you said, the only organization Fyodor, the current villain, didn't mess with is hers, The Knights of the Clock Tower. And technically, they are still allied, at least for what we know. Both are in search of the Book, "a single novel where everything written becomes the truth". Dostoevskij to exterminate the ability users from earth's face and Agatha ... Boh, nobody knows. By the way, until now, the enemies are come in a linear order: Port Mafia -> Guild -> Dostoevskij (+ Oguri, then Decay of the Angels and Hunting Dogs). Defeated one, another comes (and the defeated one becomes an ally for the protagonists). This scheme has almost no exception until now. And it's boring. We are currently blocked in the last stage of the sequence. So, the problem is still them: Fyodor and Agatha. And this damned book.

To obtain it, we know that are needed: the death of every ability users in Yokohama, Dazai in a way or another, Atsushi's ability. Dazai and Natsume sensei are the ones that know the Book most than the anyone else, probably even its location. Fyodor has done many attempts to obtain it (Shibusawa, the fall of the Guild's aircraft, Pushkin's poisonous ability and the assassin Hawthorne, Oguri's crimes-proof masking ability, Gogol in the Government and finally the Hunting Dogs). To say that he's obsessed with it would be an understatement. But for a so mind-set man, he seems not to care when his attempts are inevitably neutralized. He seems to be even fine with it, as long as he finds it entertaining. He even indirectly gave Dazai the key to his own "failure" in some occasions. And then, he was always like "beh, it was amusing, now we can get to the next step". It is an incoherent behavior for a man regarded as the epitome of logic by both Dazai and Ranpo (and it is surely to say something). We could understand it if we ask if they can really be called failures. And if he's really working for himself.

He's presented to us as a really unbeatable enemy since the beginning. Always. Even Dazai and Ranpo, even Natsume, even Fitzgerald admit that his strategies cannot possibly be defeated or avoided. And indeed he is a step ahead of the others. But for all his capacity, he's behaving like he has all the time in the world to fulfill his goal, not really caring about 1 or 100 failed plans; he knows Dazai and Atsushi are necessary for the Book? Intentionally not kills the former (his nemesis and the main threatening enemy he has) and never makes a serious effort to obtain Atsushi's ability (Shibusawa failed and Gogol only played with him, maybe the Hunting Dogs alone are seriously trying). Then, there is the Decay group. We know that it consists of 5 members (Dostoevskij, Gogol and Sigma, plus the others unfortunately still unknown, that damn lazy mangaka) and one of them has recently obtained a page of the Book. A page which works well as the entire novel, according to the half dead Taneda. So, how and when the fuck do they intend to use it? If my memory doesn't fail me, the use of the page has something to do with the (quite horrible) death of Gogol, but I'm not sure. And who is this mysterious page possessor? It's not Fyodor, that's sure, for he was already put in chains in Meursault prison by then and later he never even mentioned it; Gogol is dead, so he can't be, can he?; Sigma is not very known yet, but he seems too kind and with an air of "wtf is happening now?" for having taken it (but obviously for all we know, it could perfectly have been him). One of the remaining members? Probably. Agatha herself? It would be too soon, I think.

And we're forgetting that Fyodor is a member of the Decay, not the leader. In fact, when in prison, before getting excited like a kid for having descovered his new cell partner, Dostoevskij makes this comment:

They requested him to form a plan, not he planned something and ordered them to execute it. He doesn't seem to be the boss there. He received an order, and he executed it, while probably creating a fault in the plan just to make things more interesting to him. A fault that he surely expects some people to notice. A not perfect plan is still a challenge, isn't it? It'd explain why he can fulfill his goal but seems to having more fun when losing. He knows he can win (the modest bastard), but purposely lets his goal be delayed. And although he has had many occasions to do so (damn, his same touch can kill) he repeatedly avoided to kill his enemies, maybe because doing so would mean to eliminate the only players who can hope to beat him. Him, or a third party. He openly went to the battlefield, attracted everyone's attention to himself for 30 chapters, seems to be the cause of many events in the series, but this behavior could also be a way to lead the protagonists to beat someone else, trough him. A bait. He is quite devilish, after all. And certainly not new to all the ally-exploit-betray strategy, quite the same as Agatha, I bet.

So, he works with the Decay, but the Decay group works alone or for someone? And who are the ones that requested this plan of his, which, I suppose, consists of every manga panel since chapter 42?

Can they work with Agatha, too? Or for her? Both Dostoevskij and Agatha have every interest to get in the way of each other. Could he work with Agatha and, at the same time, lead Dazai (or whoever else) to foul Agatha's plan? A similar way of thinking could be being unraveled now in Agatha's favor: she probably worked with Fyodor on the plan of his own capture, and the prison of Meursault is indeed described as a top secret prison in Europe, whose existence is known only to the highest members of European government. To Fyodor, a way of hiding himself like a proper puppeteer, to Agatha a way of constantly putting a very unstable ally under her most total supervision. So, given that for both the idea of loyalty is fried air, could his plan be a sort of second "mutual destruction" to make his enemies neutralize each other and then, calmly get what he wants? Dazai himself said that he has not the material means to bring his plan to completion. Means that the guild and Agatha do have (so, the alliance).

Sadly, we have still too little information about Agatha and the Decay to be remotely sure of anything. However, I think the reason why her organization is the only exception in the trouble he caused is because they are still formally allied.

When I said that I don't see Agatha as the final boss is because it would be a really too linear sequence of enemies, it would be fun if there were some surprise in the end. But, if she were really the final boss (and there are some probabilities of it happening), I would like it the same. She would be a serious badass boss and her organization members ... Wow! I'm counting the chapters until they join the battlefield since ch. 12! Still, I'm sure it's only a matter of (veeery long) time for their arrival, but I'm not sure if they will be the final boss. Even if they could. Anyway, we still don't know anything about her, her plans or moves. Not theirs. Nothing can be said for sure. Sorry anon 😅

And then, there is also the matter of that strange group of ability users presented in the novels (that I did not read, so I could say idiocies). Rimbaud, Verlaine, perhaps even Hugo, Goethe etc... For what we know, it can also be theirs the role of final boss. Or someone else's entirely. The final boss could be a known character, or someone not appeared yet. Or Agatha. Or whoever you please. Unfortunately, we are all in the reign of imagination, yet. Even possible for Agatha and Fyodor to be part of that group of ability users, given that they are European like the others. Who knows (I'm surely not, too lazy to read the novels ahahah).

I hope to not have bored you, anon 😅😂 I really got myself carried away, but I hopefully answered your questions? I really hope so. I would like to know your thoughts on these characters, now 😉 and feel free to ask something else, if you want. Only then I will try to make it shorter ahahah. Thanks for the ask, anyway!

#It's really tooo long #😱😱#ask #manga anime #anonymous #bungou stray dogs #bsd #fyodor dostoyevsky bsd #agatha christie bsd #dazai osamu bsd #atsushi nakajima #bsd atsushi #and shibusawa too #Ango #decay of the angels #gogol #Theory #rambling thoughts

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joeys-piano · 5 years

Note

For the character ask thingie: Chuuya 👀

TL;DR - I fanboy about Chuuya for a long time so just click ‘J’ to skip this post if you want xD

Send me a character for me to talk about

What are my thoughts on this character?From an aesthetic-perspective, I respect whatever fashion Chuuya has going on for himself. He exudes this sense of class and confidence, he seems very comfortable in his skin, and he’s a force to reckoned with – on or off the battlefield. He has a nice taste in hats, boots, gloves, overall attire. I’m a little bit of formal suit freak, so I really enjoy the attention to detail on his overall attirical design. His clothes portray sort of the duality of his character – how on one side of the coin, he’s a classy man who’s cultured in the arts and there’s this air of respect and formality. At the same time, on the other side of the coin, you get his rebel-nature that’s more free-flowing. If I was to sum his appearance to that of an an animal, he reminds me of a crow. Sleek, elegant, regal, bit of a troublemaker, ready for a throwdown, and he’ll never forget those that double cross him.

Even though you don’t see very much of him in the anime, Chuuya has the presence of a main character. He’s like a wrecking ball. You see him coming and he leaves behind this impact of emotion that you’re still reeling from, episodes later. From a writing standpoint, Chuuya feels like a solid character to me. He doesn’t feel like a caricature. He knows when to step down, he knows when to put his selfish pride or even his grudges behind him, for a moment, for the sake of finishing what he needs to do. His loyalty might be his downfall, but it’s that loyalty and trust he has in with others that gives him strength. To me, Chuuya is the kind of character that truly shines when he’s with others. He can play a solo-act, but his most memorable moments are when he’s in an ensemble or a duet with someone else.

Are they important to the general plot?I’ve only watched the anime for BSD, so I’m not sure what exactly Chuuya does in the rest of the story. In the general sense, I think Chuuya is important during pivotal moments in the story during action sequences and whatnot. But if I’m looking at the story of BSD and how it seems to revolve around the cast of the ADA and how the “camera” follows Atsushi on his adventures, for the most part in the anime adaption, I’d say that Chuuya isn’t important to the story. He’s more like a link or like an old flame to Dazai’s past. The focus isn’t entirely or sharply there, but you get these moments where it’s focused on and you get bits and pieces for sure. From what I see and know from the anime adaptation, Chuuya could’ve been written out and the story would flow more or less the same. With the addition of season 3 coming and more manga updates in the future, I’ll see what happens. Don’t get me wrong. Chuuya is a cool character, but his story isn’t the backbone of the general plot for BSD.

Do you relate to this character at all? Do they grip you emotionally?We’re both short and hate it when people comment about it, so that’s something. From a personal headcanon, I would think that Chuuya sometimes struggles with his thoughts on what it means to be human, considering his backstory. In some ways, I can relate to him on that because I’m not exactly human either. Probably what grips me emotionally about Chuuya is how he feels about betrayal, especially from someone he had some much trust on. It’s rare for me to hold grudges, but I’ll never forget anyone that double-crosses me. I share that characteristic with Chuuya and those are the rare moments where you realize how scary I can be.

Do you ship this character with others? Are you intrigued by their relationships with others? (platonic or romantic)I mean, I’m participating in a week-long event that involves a ship that has Chuuya in it. So yes. I like Chuuya and Dazai’s relationship, both romantically and platonically. They bring out the utter worst and the best out of each other, so I can seem them as frenemies or exes or something. But deep down, whether they genuinely care for each other or not, there’s some interpretations that they do to some regard. It’s ambiguous, so I’ll take what I can get. For Chuuya, I’m intrigued with his relationship with Ango. Something happened in the Dead Apple movie where someone owed the other a favor or something, and I’m curious how that came around.

Is there anything about this character that you would change?I like him the way he is – flaws and all. And….I can’t think of anything to change.

If you were in the fandom with this character or knew them in real life, how would you see yourself interacting with them?I would probably meet him at a bar. I’d be the evening pianist and I’m playing some smooth jazz over the keyboard. Sometimes when I do improv, I get inspired by what I see. I imagine myself seeing him in a corner, alone with a glass of wine delicately balanced in his hand, and I improv a little number inspired by him. It’s probably a sweet yet sad, close yet distant piano composition. Just before he leaves the bar, he gives me a handsome tip and that’s probably the only interaction I’ll actually have with him.

I wouldn’t want to have a close relationship with Chuuya. That would just be weird for me. Having a distant one has its advantages. I don’t need to know everything about him, and I don’t need to see him every day. But if those few moments that we meet and I’m able to play a little tune that softens his thoughts or lets his mind wander a bit, I’ve done my job. They say that wine tastes a little richer, a little fuller when you have a good music to accompany it. That’s what I would do for him. And in turn, he’ll be my muse and will inspire a lot of jazz improvs into the future.

Does this character make the cut as your favorite or least favorite character?He comes very close. I like Chuuya a lot as a character. He has everything going for him, and he has a lot of characteristics that I like to see or resonate with. Just a minor thing on my part – he’d probably take the throne as my favorite character of all time, if and only if in canon, he wore glasses. I know there’s an official art where he wears glasses and he looks adorable in them. However, the description on his BSD wiki page does not cite glasses as part of his appearance and he has yet to wear one in the story from what I know so far. So because of that, Chuuya is not my all-time favorite character but he’s very much beloved by me.

Would you hype this character or warn about this character to someone new in the fandom?Words are just words. People will come up with their assumptions after seeing him, so I rather not influence anything and let a newcomer figure out what their opinion or stance or whatever views they have of him come naturally. After they’ve established their thing for Chuuya, that’s when we can talk more about things. I like it when people make judgments on their own without the influence of the majority or from someone else. That creates a special bond between them and the character. Also, I don’t want to interfere with anything because sometimes when things like this happen, other characters are often overlooked. For a newcomer, I want them to have a sampled taste of everybody instead of focusing on only one character. You know what I mean?

Is this character popular with the fanbase?*stares at the majority of posts that reference/mention/has him in it*Yeah, I think so

#ask #i might have to write an essay one of these days about this man #but that'll be weird #and i don't want to weird y'all anymore than i have to

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athina39 · 6 years

Text

Dead Apple Movie Report/Summary

as promised, here’s my reaction thread/summary/speculations/theories about the Dead Apple Movie!!! sorry it’s a day late orz

everything under the cut because IT’S LONG. the CR subs comparison is c/o Fayto-san!!!! i watched the movie in SE Asia, so it’s a different company who handled the subtitles/distribution (it’s ODEX).

here goes! (also a warning/enticement: i’m shamelessly biased towards chuuya and soukoku)

Extra Notes:

- we probably got ourselves perma-banned so many places yesterday (the restaurant where we had lunch, the coffeeshop we went to pre-movie, the foodcourt where we had our post-movie drink, the entire mall itself....) because we were..... quite wild haha

- we took up a whole row in the cinema and there was another group that had their own row behind us! they're chuuya fans too, which is always awesome. the girl behind me is educating her new-to-the-fandom friend to ship soukoku "even if dazai is an asshole", which is Big Mood.

- certain someones (lol) cough "walking dead show" whenever soda is onscreen;;;;; if only They Knew that was the actual theme of the show (more on that below)

- our group was the loudest in the squealing/shrieking ahahaha. and aside from the obvious chuuya and soukoku scenes, we were the loudest at: (1) ALL THE GIRLS (each time yosano/agatha/tsujimura/kyouka's mom appeared, there's guaranteed squealing; Kyouka is Best Girl); (2) akutagawa's Dynamic Entry & akutagawa's curl-up lol; (3) that scene in the OP with the pm dazai & ada dazai; (4) the backstab scene; (5) dazai's handcuff escape & pill swallow. we were also fairly loud at some of atsushi's scenes, but it was more out of laughter??? like.... tiger son, you're kinda unintentionally funny/narmy this movie;;;;

- the people behind us each time there's an atsukyou scene: "BUT. SHE'S. 14." / "she's cuuuute" / "but. she's. 14."

- drinking game: drink for (1) each time atsushi yells kyouka's name - you won't make it out alive within the first 30 mins. slightly easier version: drink for (2) each time there's an orphanage flashback. fast-paced version: drink for (3) each time the "CLAWSSSS" was repeated

Movie Itself:

- chuuya's dynamic entry is so cool, pink motorbike included. like 30% of movie budget probably went to the animation of that scene. it's also asdfghk;da that chuuya tooling/destroying buildings is like, part of his theme in this movie. also, it makes me excited to see a pm days!soukoku driving a car to a mission - they both drive like hell lol

- dazai's "hi, chuuya~" haunts me until now, like. stop sounding so sassy and flirty, gdI but then again, dazai's teasing voice when he talks to chuuya the entire time is sassy and flirty so. asdfhgla

- dazai's “It would have been interesting if Chuuya got struck with lightning instead.” made us shriek because pre-movie, we were discussing that the French term for lightning strike, "le coup de foudre" is associated with love at first sight

- dazai complaining that because chuuya arrived 5 mins late, dazai had to get hit 3 times & chuuya just rolling with that = old married couple vibe much;;;;

- on a more serious note - it's very interesting to see this side of chuuya - in his previous appearances, he was the type to immediately blow his fuse whenever dazai says something to infuriate him, but this time, while he still bickers with dazai, there's a serious edge to it? chuuya's about to deal with the cause of death of his sheep fa(r)m, after all.

- (also - wtf was that dude holding a gun to dazai's head doing??? he just allowed dazai, his hostage, to fucking talk in the communicator the entire time???? bro, you ok??? are you sure you're a villain??? it would be funny tho if the 3 smacks that dazai was talking was 1 smack per sentence that he said on the communicator - because he did say 3 hahaha)

- chuuya activating For The Tainted Sorrow wordlessly (come to think of it, he has never said anything to activate For The Tainted Sorrow? like, everyone else says their ability name....) and on a whole building range = fucking lit. i wonder how's the range/control for his ability... because he managed to knock every single one of the mooks (incl the Lightning User) on that building rooftop in like, 3 seconds. and he managed to do it *without* crushing his bike, which is also on the roof, so he's able to do fine-tune who can be affected.

- chuuya so very tsun-tsun and dishonest when he wants to "help"!!! like aside from destroying buildings, being married w/dazai and being beautiful - one of chuuya's themes in the movie is that.... he does things that others tell him to, in two ways. one is if it's an order/job - which he'll only take from his superior/boss. another is if it's a debt he has to repay.

- soukoku then meets shibusawa; dazai says that all the gems that shibu's throwing away are wasted and it would have made for a good gift to women. chuuya asks for shibu to return the sheep fa(r)m, but shibu says that the sheep won't return because they committed the (apple) suicide. (so the sheep are Ability users? at least these six?)

- in the crunchyroll ver, shibu calls chuuya (&dazai?) "boring guests", while in odex ver, he calls them "bored guests"

- upon hearing confirmation that sheep fa(r)m is deader than dead, chuuya activates corruption wordlessly and tells dazai to not stop him. dazai actually acquiesces to that order w/o mouthing off, so it's good to see that he actually acknowledges how important it is for chuuya to avenge the sheep fa(r)m, despite the events in 15...

- building with soukoku&shibu explodes....... and camera pans to dramatically billowing in the wind coat of fyodor as he watches the proceedings, and calls it great entertainment. (so fyodor has already seen corruption at work? hmmmmm)

- re: the ADA briefing re: shibusawa....... like. ranpo-san. if you already knew how everything will happen/end......can you like.......inform the rest of ADA too......

- the fog events where a fog appears then disappears after a *few minutes* leaving behind a corpse of an Ability user started 3 years ago. the info that they have on shibu is that he's 29, he's an ability user, he goes by "collector", and he's the person responsible for the fog events

- also laughing at how... the meeting kunikida & tanizaki went to, to meet with the Special Ops agent... so shady hahaha. though apparently, this is the first time that the "calling card" of a stabbed, juicy apple is left behind.

- tanizaki: "why an apple?" / kunikida: "how should i know?" asd;sfha;ds why is that your main concern tanizaki, there's a dead person there in front of you hahahaha

- (flashback to bar lupin - dazai asking soda if he knows about apple suicides & soda replying that it's cinderella..... and dazai saying that soda is really interesting because of that.....dazai, your definition of interesting.... is if people don't know cultural/literary references? and soda's an aspiring author at this point??? do you sure??? and dazai giving such motives to snow white ahahaha, the definition of overthinking....;;;)

- dazai gets ambushed by ango in front of bar lupin after dazai took the pill (that would supposedly eventually act as an antidote) (like.....how the fuck did dazai end up hiding that pill in his mouth for that long and he kept on talking a lot and it didn't slip or melt wHAT) & ango says that dazai's the one who brought shibu back to yokohama;;; dazai doesn't get captured by ango's team, bec that's when the fog appears

- (atsushi sleeps inside kyouka's closet???? like............why. i thought he had his own dorm room before??? and kyouka's apparently living (in the dorm???) that's quite far away from the agency itself, bec they had to walk a long way to reach the agency?? i was initially thinking it was like, just behind the office or just the next street over hahaha

- ADA budget apparently is spent on high-tech communicators (just use special satellite phones asdj;asd) and fancy gun storage. i'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't a flamethrower. also, the gun that kuni gave atsushi??? had so many fucking bullets.

- ango and his team is able to monitor the fog in yokohama so they're.... not in yokohama? do they have like an airship or something? the fog is apparently able to remove any non-ability users in the vicinity & separate the ability user from his gift. ango reveals that the HQ of the enemies is an abandoned tower called Mukurotoride in the middle of yokohama and i'm just.... did nobody ever think that an abandoned tower in the middle of a busy city isn't damn suspicious???? it's apparently been there for a long time ffs

- (atsushi has this one-track mind that because dazai saved him, then dazai must be good at all costs, which is. i'd love to say it's because he trusts dazai, but it's more like those fanatic belief, really. it would be great if the manga can explore this deeper - because atsushi's hypocrisy is a really interesting facet of his character. atsushi who doesn't even want to point his gun towards the enemy abilities in the beginning and who say that 'even if he's a villain, we don't know the type of person he is...' 'no matter how bad they are, there's no need to kill them', but when akutagawa says that bec dazai is an enemy now, he'll kill him, atsushi reflexively points a gun at aku...)

- ango's subordinates track chuuya (A5158) down and sends him a message to "pay his debt to professor glasses"

- bitch trio scene! shibusawa's theme of boredom bec he's apparently that much of a genius whose intellect can't be surpassed. dazai says that he's just like shibu before, bored beyond belief. when shibu asks dazai how he's surpassed it, dazai claims that he's going to show shibu and that shibu doesn't know what's dazai's true intentions. shibu shoots it down by saying that it's only dazai who thinks he's fushigi mystery. dazai says that shibu needs salvation.... by either an angel or a demon.

- and because call a demon and he'll appear, fyodor appears. who tells the two that they're the only ones who think they're being mysterious because they're pretty easy to read. (shibu then calls fyodor "Majin Fyodor-kun" ahhh). dazai claims that fyodor's the one most likely to betray shibu, which fyodor agrees with. shibu just says that there hasn't been anyone who surpassed his expectations, so he's looking forward to it.

- during the entire bitch trio scene, there's a focus on apples and a certain skull.

- aku telling kyouka that she now has the opportunity to kill him in an ability-less world asdfgh;lasd

- the PM apparently has made an emergency passage specially made to counteract ability user-attacks and can't be penetrated by the fog?? i wonder how they made it?? a nullifying ability from dazai??? hmm

- aku says that the fog is a "dragon's breath" & aku schooling atsushi on information gathering is asdfjg;asd (i wonder who gave the info to aku though....? probs mori haha)

- at this point, i'm gonna jump the explanations and go with - during this entire movie, shibusawa is already dead. he's a walking dead. except for That One Flashback, shibu is dead.

- shibu then welcomes the bitch trio to his collection room, Draconia. which is filled with crystallized abilities. the room has abilities that are bright red and dull red - apparently, all the ability users that is engulfed with the mist will have crystals in the room - once the ability user has been defeated by their ability, the ability will be crystallized and will become a bright red gem inside the collection room. the collected ability can then be taken and used by anyone who's holding the red gem.

- fyodor says that the collection is enough to make a devil jealous, while shibu says that fyodor sold him information about most of the ability users in his collection, which is how he was able to collect them. (remember in the Fyodor v A chapter - fyodor got himself captured so he can steal the notes/docs about Port Mafia members. *more on this below)

- Shibusawa: But how did you gather all that information? Fyodor: Every city is filled with rats. Dazai: Meow.

- that meow also haunts me hahahaha

- shibu then basically says that he's actually just looking for That One Special Ability to make the collection worthy

- akuatsukyou arrive at the end of the passage? but it's foggy, so either the fog is stronger, they're outside of the passage, or aku's lying about the passage being impenetrable by the fog asd;fasd

- Shibusawa: To me, people are nothing but machines of flesh, behaving in identifiable ways. But there is just one person I fail to comprehend. Myself. Dazai: Don't you have any friends? Shibusawa: I don't need friends. I understand everyone's mind, after all. I will surely go to the world beyond, between my lines, past the blank spaces. Dazai: You wouldn't be saying that if you actually had friends.

- this exchange is just so asdfgj'asds like pls you two

- akutagawa summarizes rashomon's ability as.... "to change a cloth to a blade and send it flying towards the enemy". i'm so proud of how aku's able to utilize that ability and create so many things (so demon armor is literally like a suit of blades??? damn son);;; (also, this brings to mind the saying "silk hiding steel" hahaha)

- aku defeating rashomon by slapping it towards the vat of lava..... damn son again;;;; aku going "just as planned", then rashomon apparently survives and aku changes it to "just as i expect from my own ability" ahahahaha.... and aku telling rashomon that he should quiet down and that he belongs in there (in his coat).... ahh bless him

- atsushi shattering the crystal on Byakko by shoving the blade inside its mouth.... is apparently Foreshadowing for something later

- chuuya complaining that he's being expected to go to ango's facility by one phone call.... but chuuya.... you still went..... ;;;;;

Chuuya: You've got some nerve, expecting me to answer your phone call like I'm on your beck and call. Ango: May we have some time alone? This is a government facility. You don't expect to get away doing something like this, do you? (referring to chuuya probs destroying a dozen doors in the process of him reaching ango's office) Chuuya: I'll be the one to decide if I do or not. Not you. Ango: You have a debt to me. Chuuya: No, you have a debt with me. Ango: What are you talking about? Chuuya: Don't act dumb. Do you think I'm stupid? It's about what happened six years ago. Ango: What do you mean? Chuuya: It was the government who sent Shibusawa into the Dragon Head Conflict. It was supposed to end the conflict that had engulfed all of Yokohama. But he never had any intention of maintaining peace. All you did was create more corpses. You sheltered him anyway, because he's a gifted that can help in protecting the nation. That's why, not only did you turn a blind eye to all the corpses he'd produced overseas, you covered it all up. Ango: All for the peace in this nation. Chuuya (grabbing Ango): Watch your mouth, professor glasses. If you hadn't sent him out, all six of my friends would be alive right now. Ango: Will you kill me? I wouldn't mind. I've been prepared ever since I'd decided to ask for your assistance. Chuuya (throwing Ango aside): It's a deal, then. I'll accept your job. And you'll pay with your life.

- back at the creepy beautiful castle:

- fyodor and dazai utter the "keikaku doori" line, which means shit is about to go down - apparently fyozai had made a team-up to sneak into the collection room w/o shibu knowing - dazai reveals that he worked to "guide" shibu in yokohama because shibu is someone that can't be touched because he has the protection of the government... which means that he'll just continue filling up his collection room with ability users and japanese gov't will just turn a blind eye to it, and therefore shibu must be stopped by other means - fyodor says that even w/o dazai meddling with shibu, shibu would create a fog in yokohama. - fyodor takes out 2 abilities. 1st ability can summon all ability users in the area and teleport them to a single place. 2nd can turn the abilities of the gifted who touch it into crystals. (was A a foreshadowing for this all along? A's ability is to change the lifespan of his subordinates to jewels....what is with fyodor and ability users re: gems hahah) - fyodor holds up the 2 gems so that dazai can touch it and nullify it

- (a side note: at this point, here are the characters who've been shown to still retain their abilities: Dazai, Chuuya, Fyodor*more on this later; Dazai because his nullification still works; Chuuya, because he still had that glowy red when he dealt with ango and cracked an entire office wall in the process)

- the logic is that, if dazai touches the 2 gem abilities... the crystals will be broken and the abilities will return to their "former state"*** (v important) and the ability to summon all ability users in one place (aka The Fog) will be cancelled and therefore fog will disappear

- fyodor offers the 2nd gem first... dazai touches it.... but instead of the abilities returning to their owners, the abilities escaped from the crystal shells inside the collection room and fused into one

- before dazai can work on dispelling the fog by touching the 1st gem, shibusawa stabs dazai in the back with a fruit knife. shibu says that he expected this, bec nothing surpasses his expectations. dazai just blandly says "i see... so this is where the betrayal happens", bec fyodor had supposedly locked the door to the collection room when they entered it, but woopsie, apparently not, because fyodor values entertainment

- dazai asks shibu what's his next step, but shibu says that his target is dazai anyway, so there's "no next"

- dazai says that he didn't expect a fruit knife to hurt this bad, so there must be poison in it

- shibu tells dazai that he can now taste the death he's longed for dearly

- in CR subs: dazai says: "How could you? This feels great" while in ODEX subs, dazai says: "What have you done? This doesn't feel great at all", which i think makes more sense

- fyodor says that "with the owner dead, the ability leaves him", and dazai "dies" and "no longer human" crystallizes

- (a side note: so it's confirmed that if ability user dies, ability leaves him.... but what happens to it next? is it transferred to a next person? how about its effects? the people that yosano healed... will their effects be gone and therefore the people will regain their wounds??)

- shibu holds NLH in his palms. shibu's very excited to see NLH crystallized because it very blue (as opposed to the red-gem abilities), the blue changes to red, gemblocking him.

- (presumably, NLH activates?? but.... fyodor held the two gems before and they didn't really activate.... but maybe they didn't because they were already active??)

- Fyodor: The merging ability (the 1st gem, aka: The Fog, aka Shibusawa's Ability) and the disabling ability (NLH). With the two contrary abilities becoming one, a singularity is born. Even with Dazai's special ability, what you really desire-- your lost memories-- will never come back.

- fyodor then says that he'll help shibu recover his memories, and slits his throat

- (joint orphanage flashback time!! c/o atsu and shibu as shibu regains his memories! shibu experiments on young atsushi by electrocuting him. shibu says that the president was mistaken about atsushi's ability, implying that atsushi's real ability isn't Beast Underneath the Moonlight. it's apparently a Very Special Ability, but atsushi's not able to use it properly because of his youth/inexperience. shibu says that even he isn't able to pull the ability out and collect it with his fog.

- in CR subs, shibu says that: "It's the only special ability that won the envy of all other gifted." // in ODEX subs, shibu says that: "It's a special ability that can grant the wishes of other ability users"

(a side note - if his real ability is an ability that can grant his wish, it's possible that atsushi probably read a picture book somewhere or got influenced into thinking that Tigers are Bad. his ability goes haywire, bec it was too strong and he was too young to control it, so atsushi's ability has formed into a tiger because atsushi needed something to blame. something beastly. something monstrous. he can't accept that he himself is the one who's hurting others, so he has formed his ability to turn to a tiger. the regeneration, the shounen power ups... they're not very "tiger-like" or it'd make for a very OP tiger, so his ability could be to make his wishes to reality, like "i want to heal!", "i want to be strong!" and the tiger is just the form that atsushi can deal with/can understand. you can even say..... that byakko is his fursona;;;; *gets kicked*)

(more side note: irl!atsushi wrote a story Tiger Poet, which features a man changing to a tiger....that is a poet... so he might have read that story and got an idea re: the tiger. there's a quote there, "We are all the trainers of wild beasts and the beasts in question are our own inner-selves.", which could be atsushi getting the idea of personifying his ability as a tiger so he can "tame it", aka control his ability)

- anyway, young atsushi didn't enjoy the electrocutions, the tiger takes over and claws shibusawa's face off, killing him

- shibu then says that the reason why he targeted atsushi to begin with is because he heard from a Russian named Fyodor that atsushi's ability is special (see the same contrast betw the CR and ODEX subs noted above)

- present time, fyodor then confirms that shibu died at that point. But. upon death, shibusawa apparently inherited a new ability - the ability to split himself (his soul? spirit?) away from his corpse. his body (aka, the skull that's been there the entire time) is the one who remembers death while his mind doesn't remember it and has retreated into a room (the Collection Room) to deal with his Feelings. (so it means that the shibu soukoku faced off in the beginning is walking dead shibu as well, because apparently shibu has gone for the gem collection quest after his death)

- a side note: so Shibusawa's Real/Original Ability is The Fog (1st ability can summon all ability users in the area and teleport them to a single place....and presumably "pull" the ability away from them). after dying, he got the ability to separate his mind from his corpse (redefining mind over matter), presumably given to him by fyodor?. he then gets the ability to turn abilities into crystals, presumably given to him by fyodor too?, then because he's basically a ghost wandering around earth, he tries to find a reason for "existing" to fulfill the void, which leads him to gathering abilities (*more on this later)

- the abilities continue fusing to each other, creating a huge mass. dazai's "dead" body is sucked into that mass.

- fyodor comments that dazia is quite greedy, because even in death, he intends to watch the city fall into destruction. fyodor then says that as congratulation for their anniversary of being friends (LOL; also - they've known each other for a year already? or is fyodor gigglesnorting here and considering that very same day as the start of their friendship?), he'll tell the dead dazai the reason why he managed to keep his ability in the fog.

- a "2nd" fyodor appears, the personification of his ability. he looks exactly like him. they say the "I am crime. I am punishment. Did you know? Crime and punishment are close friends." line ahahaha

- fyodor merges with his ability

- the mass of abilities that sucked dazai in changes for to a dragon

- fyodor reveals that the dragon is the form of the chaos of special abilities. (remember that "original state of abilities" that fyodor said above? apparently, it's a dragon)

- the singularity anomaly readings are over 9000, more than the events 6 years ago (aka, the opening scene). ango checks on chuuya's location to see if he's on his way

Ango: Chuuya-kun... Dazai-kun is almost certainly eliminated by now.Do you understand what that means? (implying that if chuuya ends up using corruption, there's no dazai who'll nullify it, therefore he'll also die) Chuuya: I don't care. Ango: Are you sure? You haven't taken your reward... My life. Chuuya: Don't get cocky, asshole. You were a just lowly infiltrator six years ago. It's not like anyone would have listened to you if you had opposed their plan to use Shibusawa. (Chuuya lowkey implying that he actually doesn't blame Ango all that much, despite all his talk earlier) Chuuya: This is nothing but that idiot's plans. That Dazai is still inside there. No doubt about it. I need to give him a smack, or I'll never get over it. I'm hanging up.

(can i just say.... chuuya.... even though he has no proof of it whatsoever, he believes that dazai's still alive and waiting for him. ango, who can see the readings of the ability users, knows that dazai's dead. but chuuya----he doesn't need that kind of logic. unconditional trust is here, folks. also, the theories about chuuya actually being able to read dazai's plans/motives??? hell yes)

- chuuya's in a plane approaching the castle (so confirmed that ango's office really is floating over yokohama??? or at least not near it?)

Tsujimura: We're approaching the target. Chuuya: You're that chick from way back. Tsujimura: I'm Tsujimura. Are you really going? Chuuya: Yeah. Tsujimura: It's no use. No human can defeat it. That thing is a monster beyond human comprehension. Get overconfident and fight it, and you'll die. (lowkey spoilers about chuuya being beyond human, thanks bones) Chuuya: That's not a reason to chicken out and go home. Do you know when it's all right to chicken out and go home? Tsujimura: I do not. Chuuya (jumping off the plane): There is no such time.

(chuuya's badass way of removing his gloves and jumping off and his hat and coat flying off???? the whole cinema SCREAMED)

- chuuya chants the "grantors of dark disgrace" line and corruption activates

- chuuya lands on a building, breaks it down to chunks and launches them at the dragon (with dazai inside hahaha)

- extended battle scene with chuuya just battling a dragon, which is the force of a fuckton of ability users' abilities combined, and nailing it. like. just. think about it. the dragon is formed by the force of all the abilities. and there's like, more than 128 of them (as per the initial briefing with ADA). chuuya actually defeated the force of that many ability users. fuck.

- chuuya jumps down to a huge-ass building, floats it and uses it to beat up a dragon. a building is being used as a baseball bat to hit a dragon. the sheer scale and ridiculousness of how powerful he is??? amazing.

- chuuya ends up ramming the building to the dragon's mouth. that's how the fight ends. he makes the dragon choke on AN ENTIRE BUILDING.

- chuuya then yells "DAZAIIIIIIIIIIII" as the dragon explodes (while he's still in corruption mode)

- chuuya reaches dazai, who's inside the dragon, and chuuya (still in corruption mode) punches dazai in the face

- the punch is apparently the key needed for dazai to bite down on the pill, releasing the antidote to the poison (if only romeo and juliet knew about this method...)

- dazai lives. chuuya coughs out blood from using corruption for too long.

- they float in the air and dazai. just. softly touches chuuya's cheek, disabling corruption.

Dazai: You believed in me and used Corruption? I'm so touched I could cry. Chuuya: Yeah, I did. I believed in your disgusting craftiness and refusal to die.* Dazai: That was a somewhat violent way of waking Snow White. Chuuya: You're the one who planned it by hiding an antidote in your mouth, knowing I'd punch you.

...JUST.

dazai's voice.

chuuya. admitting that he believes in dazai. in ODEX subs, it was "i believed in the fact that you wouldn't die", which is extra doki in that ----- even though they've said "i'll kill you" to each other so many times (even in the beginning of the movie) and even though chuuya knows about dazai's double suicide longings.... he still believes that dazai wouldn't die.

and just. dazai implying that he's snow white. and chuuya just rolling with it????? dazai implying that chuuya's the prince who woke up snow white. and chuuya just rolling with it????????

this is high-level flirting i CANNOT

and chuuya KNOWING that him being here is part of dazai's plans and him being here anyways knowing that (even though he had mentioned about dazai's plans always toying with him---)--------------- i CANNOT

Chuuya: Let go, asshole. Dazai: (*dazai presses down on chuuya's head to prevent him from moving*) Don't move. The fog hasn't cleared. I don't want to have to protect you from your special ability in this situation. Chuuya: It's still not over? Dazai: No, it's just beginning. Chuuya: Shit. I can't even move a single finger. (Chuuya collapses into Dazai's thigh, his face/chin landing on Dazai's upper right thigh/hip) Dazai: I predicted things this far. But the rest is on them.

and of course. the lap scene. the scene that killed everyone in the cinema. just. there's no words that can bring it justice. the fuwafuwa atmosphere. the shoujo music background during the floating then the lap scene. the sound of dazai's hand patting chuuya's head. the body placements. the camera angles. that pic in the magazine???? oh boy the actual scene, the extended scene is 10000000000x gayer.

just think.

dazai. who shoved atsushi off when he fell on him.

dazai. who had chuuya fall on his crotch and legs and just. let him stay there. like yes, the point is that dazai has to keep on touching chuuya so he can nullify chuuya's ability and therefore not have his powerful ability have a separate form that can fight them. but they didn't have to stay in that position, did they? i mean, chuuya can't move but dazai could have shoved him off, right? he could have touched him using anything else but keeping him between his legs and patting his head/hair right.

.............BUT WAIT.

dazai.

before he "died".

he.

already nullified the ability to form abilities to crystals. the only ability left is shibusawa's fog, which can trap ability users in one place and extract the ability from them (and just that. the abilities shouldn't be trying to hunt down their "owners" anymore, because no more moon crystal power. right???)

so.

dazai........didn't really have to keep touching chuuya then?

.......is that so. huh.

.....i see.

sasuga dazai.

(i mean even that conjecture is incorrect - as in the Fog can also make abilities fight their owners, aside from just extracting them..... did dazai really have to touch chuuya like that????? .....he really did, huh. i see. sasuga dazai)

.........also. the ability, even if given form, only attacks the owner. (except for that lol-worthy case of rashomon and the tiger having different ideas and attacking each other). so if dazai, as he says, really hates chuuya and wants him to die...... he can..... just let the ability kill chuuya, right??? he doesn't *have* to protect chuuya from it, right? his keikaku that will allow him to use the antidote pill is done, right....? ....ah, but he has to protect chuuya... i see.... sasuga dazai) (unless dazai thinks that chuuya's ability would also hunt him down, in which case.......... dazai, you think yourself that important to chuuya that his ability will hunt you too, huh...... i see.... sasuga dazai)

....also.

dazai.

saying that this is within his predictions, while he's holding the collapsed chuuya to his thigh. still with his hands on chuuya's head. dazai....... why are you predicting that chuuya will end up in your lap. more importantly, why does your predictions END once you have chuuya in your lap. you're leaving the akuatsukyou children to fend for themselves and didn't predict the next parts because you got chuuya in your lap already. .....i see. sasuga dazai;;;;

(a sidenote. from above. fyodor sold the port mafia's information re: ability users to shibusawa. the ability users that shibu knows about will be in the collection room, their abilities getting taken from them. chuuya has his ability The Entire Movie. he didn't lose for the tainted sorrow, at all. so.

- chuuya's ability too strong and can't be extracted, just like atsushi - OR chuuya's ability not in port mafia records - OR chuuya's info is there, but incorrect/incomplete - OR chuuya's info is there, fyodor kept chuuya's ability's information and didn't sell it (a good theory for fyoya fans???) - OR collection room can only get abilities from humans?

(signs point to the first one....... but the other options are also hmmmmm)

- fyodor planting a broken crystal of shibusawa's original ability crystal on the skull's head (it looks like a goddamn horn) so that shibu becomes the "point of singularity" in lieu of the dragon bec dragon is dead. fog continues.

- shibusawa realizing that all his plot?? at collecting abilities? is just his way of trying to cope with the fact that his real thirst lies with atsushi. no really. he just really, really, really wants to see atsushi again.

- another sidenote: AGATHA IS A QUEEN. also, we're laughing about how Agatha is in command of EU. (no brexit in BSD world, apparently) (but also crying a bit because..... Verlaine and Rimbaud and the Trancendentals could be part of the clock tower order??? because there's 12 Transcendetals, there's 12 #s in a clock and they're from france, therefore europe, therefore part of EU therefore----)

- THAT FUKUMORI BACK TO BACK SCENE. MOTHER OF FUCK. mori having faith in dazai's keikaku..... but he's wrong.... because dazai's keikaku had already ended a few minutes ago, with chuuya in his lap. (but really. so mori can't 100% predict dazai, apparently. because mori thinks that it's still within dazai's plan, but dazai says it's not anymore, so.) also. mori being able to kill the ability-elise but not doing so because of the power of cute??? wow, just wow.

Mori: Fukuzawa-dono. Fukuzawa: What a coincidence, Mori-sensei. Mori: Are you having a problem? Fukuzawa: I've just had a glimpse of a solution. Mori: Excellent. Is it not at times like these that your daily actions speak? (They attack each other's abilities) Fukuzawa: I thought you only used your scalpel. I'll be careful from now on. Mori: No mercy, even for an endearing girl. The lone swordsman, Silver Wolf. You are indeed full of sin.* (CR: you are indeed guilty; ODEX: you are indeed, full of sin) Fukuzawa: That was nothing but a demon. Elise: Hey, Rintarou! What the heck are you doing, leaving me behind?! Mori: It's the real Elise-chan~ Fukuzawa: I think she's a demon either way.

- the akukyouatsu v shibu fight continues, with shibusawa basically saying, "ATSUSHI THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE" in repeat. the reference re: tiger v dragon is brought up. shibu says that he's not bored anymore bec atsushi's there.

- the tiger and the dragon are enemies. (more on that here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TigerVersusDragon) apparently, because the dragon represents all the abilities fused together, the tiger is the opposite (......so..... tiger = no abilities? hmmmmm. no wonder fyodor wants him. it's the fulfillment of his goal of a world without abilities, then?). shibu says that atsushi's ability is the opposite of all the abilities, the most special ability of all. atsushi's ability crystallizes, but before shibu can take it, atsushi grabs and says "that's not an ability, that's me!"

- (side note:

- i wasn't expecting that atsushi (whether it's the beast underneath the moonlight or the possibility that his is an ability that takes the form of his desires/wishes) would be the opposite of all the abilities. i would think it's more of dazai's or someone who can erase an ability, but. MC powers? - then again. all of shibusawa's info came from fyodor. so it's also highkey possible that this is all Fake News from fyodor)

Shibusawa: I understand everything, now. Why I'm here, why you appeared before me, and what his words mean... You... You must be the angel who saves me.

- shibu proving dazai right that "an angel" saved him, though technically a "demon" saved him "from death" before too....

- atsushi kills shibu for the second time by crushing his skull

- AGATHA. BEING DISAPPOINTED. THAT YOKOHAMA IS SAVED. because. "The scent of a burning nation goes well with tea." AGATHAAA

- at the end of fighting, chuuya's propped up against the wall of rubble (YOU KNOW THE ONE). his hat apparently landed a few feet away from him. (did dazai drag him there so he can be near his hat? did dazai look for the hat?? did the hat get magically pulled to where chuuya is??).

akutagawa appears.

chuuya asks what the hell is he doing here, then says that the idiot dazai is safe.

akutagawa..... bows to chuuya.

like damn.

akutagawa "DON'T YOU ORDER ME, YOU FOOL" ryuunosuke, bowing down to chuuya. a+++++++++

but then akutagawa starts to leave chuuya behind ahahahaha

and chuuya goes..... what, you're just gonna leave me here when you see i can't walk what. but seriously, his line is: "Oi. Lend me a shoulder."

(so.... dazai and chuuya were together till daybreak, in time for chuuya to wake up, for the spoonDI cover to be shot, for them to have matching bruises on their lips in that photo, huge smiles in their faces, for dazai to change clothes, for chuuya to be unable to walk.......... i don't to say they banged in the rubble, but they totally banged in the rubble.)

- dazai basically saying that, welp i did this keikaku and harmed so many things! - atsushi: but dazai is helping yokohama!!! - Dazai: Do I look like such a good person?

- atsushi.... i want to say it's your trust or that it's your naivete, but...... are you sure you have eyes lol

- dazai reveals that he hopes that shibu managed to fill his boredom and loneliness..... dazai, stop projecting your issues on others. stop helping others with your same issues achieve happiness.... do it to yourself first please.....

- as the ending song plays... we have this scene from ango:

Ango: Given the complexity of the three masterminds' motivations, we still don't have a full picture. Dazai-kun's the same as usual, and demon Fyodor's intentions are impossible to comprehend. But, beyond all the scheming and lying, the incident may fundamentally be very simple. How is a man like Shibusawa, so intelligent that others look like alien creatures to him, to act, to be destroyed, or to be saved? To be one of three aliens in the world, in isolation and loneliness... I can't even imagine it.

.....like, given the movie. it really is a good summary. all these genius aliens.... they actually have such simple thoughts.

- shibu did all of that, but he just really wanted to see atsushi again. - fyodor did all of that, but he just really wanted to be a bitch and have fun. (and maybe kill all ability users eventually) - dazai did all of that, but he just really wanted to try an apple suicide and be saved just like snow white.

.....one of it is not like the others, ahahaha;;;;;;

- chuuya looking beautiful in the ending scene, as he talks with mori

Chuuya: Were you aware of the trick, Boss? (*referring to dazai not really dying? and using that antidote pill?) Mori: Dazai-kun was acting on his own, and I expected he would need your help. As a forerunner. Chuuya: So I was an opening act? Mori: Dazai-kun decides the star. (in ODEX: Dazai-kun was the one who decided on the star.) Chuuya: And what do I get in return? Mori: The return of order in this city. Chuuya: The peace of this city, huh? Mori: Good work. Chuuya: You don't need to thank me. It was your order, so I'm just doing my job.

- asdfgj;asd - mori #1 soukoku shipper confirmed. like. even if he has that much faith in dazai's plans (see above), he also has a lot of belief that dazai's plans will work if chuuya's there to help.

and that "dazai decides the star"/"dazai decided (on you) being the star.... and chuuya....... just rolling with it. he's not ok with simply being an "opening act" ahhaahh. and mori knowing that dazai made the plan with chuuya having the starring role. and chuuya Knowing that too.

and here comes chuuya's concept of "reward" again.... does this boy get paid.......

chuuya's reward being yokohama's peace???? is he really part of the mafia??????????? a pure boy. someone give him the yokohama peace prize.

- second to the last scene is fyodor still creeping on them:

Fyodor: Everything is but entertainment. But in order to end this world, rife with crime and punishment, I really do need that book. The blank novel sleeping in this town.

(so Book's location is confirmed to be in Yokohama at this point)

- final scene with ADA doing business as usual and atsukyou going out for a mission? to buy crepes? to buy chazuke? idk

#dead apple #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs: dead apple #DA Spoilers #soukoku #nakahara chuuya

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ko-shichi · 6 years

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what's your opinion on the latest bsd chapter ?

A warning. This is going to be a fairly long opinion post. I have a lot of feels and opinions on it. This is also HUGE in spoilers.

Chapter Highlights: 1. HOLY SHIT CHUUYA IS BACK AND HE IS THROWING BULLETS. I LOVE HIM SO FUCKING MUCH MY BOYFRIEND. You’re so amazing and beautiful and I fucking LOVE YOU CHUUYA. Being able to fling bullets is so beautiful, even if the science doesn’t exactly back your Ability as much as one would like. You are also the king of entrances. Like baby, they not only gotta catch your hands, but they gotta catch your bullets too. OH WAIT THEY CAN’T, BECAUSE YOU ARE A GOD. 2. The fact that Chuuya and Yosano appeared in the same chapter again under circumstances like those (with the exchange) really backs a ChuuSano headcanon I have (I will speak about that later).3. KuniChuuZai is now an OTP of mine. Like Chuuya looked as though he held so much respect for Kunikida when he saw him? KuniChuu fuel? And most people know I am also a Soukoku fan and a KunikiDazai fan. If you take my fics as anything. KuniChuuZai has always been a favourite of mine, because in one way, shape, or form, they all come across as compatible. It also is a huge angst party, seeing as Chuuya is Dazai’s past, Kunikida is Dazai’s present, and Chuuya is collectively their enemy. 4. Finally, I am bringing up the exchange once again. I find this super, super fascinating and I can’t wait to know the outcome. I have a few ideas, rest assured, and I will get to them.OVERALL OPINION.I absolutely loved this chapter and everything about it. From Chuuya returning to Kunikida getting his morals bashed by Jouno, essentially, when it comes to saying Tecchou should cut Yosano’s head off, to Kunikida jumping in to sacrifice himself for the entirety of the ADA, even stating that he was well aware it was essentially an act of suicide.I have to hand it to Asagiri, however, about planting Chuuya in as a supposed hero when in actuality Kunikida ended up being the true hero of the chapter, and arguably of the past few chapters. We all have to admit, Kunikida has recently had it very rough. His ideals have never been more evident in the series than the past maybe 10 chapters. It has been challenge after challenge for him, and quite honestly, while I much enjoy conflict in a manga, I do believe he needs a break. And rest assured, to those who read this and maybe got concerned about the turn of events with Kunikida, he is not dead. Asagiri isn’t necessarily the best writer, but he isn’t all about that life. Kunikida would not die in something as mundane as self-sacrifice. And Asagiri would pass up an entire opportunity to put Kunikida into despair if Yosano were lost. Or rather, even this entire situation has already tossed him up in the air. After this event, if Kunikida lives, which he will, he’s going to go through a midlife crisis.

Remember, just remember, Kunikida has a tendency to blame himself if anything goes wrong on his watch, and Kunikida is the type of person to take the entirety of the blame and be immensely hard on himself. That’s part of his life as someone with strict morals such as his. There is no way Asagiri would kill Kunikida. Especially with Chuuya and Yosano being there, Yosano, if she goes down at the right time (which she could, with Chuuya’s help) she could save herself, Kunikida, and if any damage were done to Chuuya, him too.

The Trade

I believe the trade is of the utmost importance to the plot, in some way, shape or form. I believe that there are three primary choices for who would be chosen (I would assume by the Port Mafia and Mori himself because he would not pass up any chance of no success in this trade by letting the Armed Detective Agency decide) : Yosano Akiko, Kunikida Doppo and Dazai Osamu.

I will provide explanations.Yosano Akiko(Most Likely): Yosano has a very prime Ability, one Mori would most certainly desire. Being able to heal people while on the field would give Mori the upper hand when facing many of his greater enemies, this counts for the Port Mafia by default. She also has acquired the title, “Angel of Death”, despite us having little to no knowledge of what that means. Yosano also has a past with the Military and therefore has some sort of offensive (I’m assuming) experience in combat. Not like Kouyou or Chuuya, but certainly enough to get by. If Yosano’s past with Mori has shown her love for life, it would give a disadvantage for Yosano, because he would know just how desperate Yosano would be to heal individuals. Yosano would have no hesitation, most likely, to go if it meant the Agency would be helped, if only temporarily, and would be loyal if the conditions were met to help the Agency.

Kunikida Doppo(Third Most Likely): This chapter in itself has been a very prevalent example of how Kunikida would sacrifice himself for the good of the Agency. He wouldn’t kill anyone, though, but his selflessness is very much something to note. One thing that makes this a challenge, though, is if his morals are broken, if he isn’t able to save people, will he die? Will he turn out like Oda? Many people make references to how they are similar, and I can see it too. Mafiosi who wouldn’t kill. But, it is to be noted, that Oda broke, and killed. Who is to say that Kunikida won’t do the same if something happens to ruin his ideals? If something causes him to break more than he already has? Kunikida, despite having many emotions, can be ruthless if need be. Another reference to Oda that you could use to justify this would be the fact that Kunikida is very close to Dazai as far as the Agency is concerned. And we all remember what happened when Mori knew how close he was to Oda. If Mori wants to break Dazai back into being with him in the Mafia, Kunikida is arguably the way to go about it. If Mori knew this, he would probably also have plans to eventually get Kunikida to die during a mission after he broke. Kunikida would be Dazai’s second Oda. No one can deny the fact that Kunikida has done some wonders for Dazai, had taught him in the Agency, had taught him how to be a better person. And that is something Oda told him to do. Kunikida helped him be on the side that saves people.

Dazai Osamu(Second Most Likely): Mori has dictated that Dazai’s Mafia Executive position is still available for him should he ever decide to go back. Mori would choose Dazai because Dazai has a mind as similar to his, built to manipulate and control. Of course, Dazai has learned that there is more to life than that, that life is actually slightly worth living. Though, despite probably not belonging in the Mafia anymore, having done too much good, having learned how to be a decent person, when given the opportunity to choose whether or not one should experience a life like that, he would say no. He wouldn’t want someone as idealistic as Kunikida, someone as young and almost naïve as Atsushi, one who cherishes life like Yosano, to experience what life in the Port Mafia would be like. He would most certainly figure that he would be saving a lot more people if he sacrificed himself in this. Dazai wouldn’t admit that the Port Mafia destroyed him, probably destroyed most of his opinion on life. He was empty at that point in his life. He may not want to subject himself to it again, but he would rather do that than let anyone else experience it.HONOURABLE MENTION: ATSUSHI NAKAJIMA: It is entirely possible that Atsushi, with his ability being so strong, that he would be chosen by Mori to join the Mafia. It would be good in terms of plot development, but I also think that Dazai himself wouldn’t allow that. Akutagawa wouldn’t necessarily be fond of the idea either, given how much they ‘hate’ each other. As the main character, it also wouldn’t surprise me if he were chosen to join the mafia because that’s the life of a protagonist.Now, I am going to focus on RELATIONSHIPS:Dazai Osamu and Kunikida Doppo, Dazai Osamu and Nakahara Chuuya, Yosano Akiko and Nakahara Chuuya, and Yosano Akiko and Kunikida Doppo.

Kunikida Doppo and Dazai Osamu: An important thing to note, is that should Kunikida die at the end of this chapter, what would that do to Dazai? As aforementioned. It would send Dazai into an unspeakable pit. He would be full of despair. Dazai isn’t one to really acknowledge guilt when it comes to him, but I do think it’s plausible for Dazai to feel guilty if something happened to his partner. I think it would send him into a rut because Dazai is aware Kunikida probably trusts him with his fucking life.When it comes to the trade, it takes little to no knowledge of Kunikida to understand that should Dazai ever rejoin the Port Mafia, even in the situation like this, that he would certainly disapprove of it, he would try to convince Dazai not to. Kunikida may not have considerate knowledge (personally I don’t believe anyone other than Oda, Mori, Ranpo, and possibly Ango would) of what royally fucked with Dazai’s life, and what the Mafia had done to him. So, it is a given that Kunikida wouldn’t want to let Dazai back to that. Despite it all, much like Chuuya, Kunikida does care about Dazai and his wellbeing, even if he believes that Dazai’s suicidal antics are a façade. Nakahara Chuuya and Dazai Osamu: Now, Chuuya, he isn’t a given. We don’t exactly have knowledge about how much Chuuya knows about what the Port Mafia and being a ploy of Mori’s did to Dazai. Of course, Chuuya would have an opinion, but we don’t know what Chuuya knows. It was shown that they knew each other quite well as partners, but that doesn’t mean anything, either. We don’t know if Chuuya was aware. And I am not going to stereotype it and be one of those people who will say that he’d be definitely okay, or definitely not, though I lean more toward not. I think it depends. Regardless, Chuuya has shown genuine care for Dazai’s wellbeing, so basing it on the fact that Dazai fucked up their partnership is not reliable. If Chuuya was aware, even to a small extent, I don’t think Chuuya would be okay with it. I believe that Chuuya would rather Dazai not go back to that state of mind. We don’t know if Chuuya is also aware of how much Dazai has changed, that he has found more of a reason to live, but if he has, he wouldn’t wish the worst on Dazai.Conversely, if Chuuya wasn’t aware, I think it would settle more on Chuuya’s perception of self. I said that I wouldn’t bring their betrayal out in this, but it is undeniable that Chuuya is in some way still hurt. Being over something doesn’t mean you aren’t affected by it, still. Chuuya doesn’t perceive them as partners anymore, that much is for certain. No one could blame him for that. It depends on the person; if you are one of those individuals who thinks that Chuuya can’t live without Dazai, then sure, you can go and say that Chuuya would prefer to have Dazai by his side. I’m one of those people who doesn’t necessarily believe that. Because they’re Soukoku, they get under each other’s skin. That’s what they do. It would be easier to do that when they are together. And Chuuya probably did like that. This one is really iffy. I don’t think he would want Dazai to come back to the Mafia, though. EDIT: My friend brought up an interesting point about the plot of Dead Apple, where it was very evident that Chuuya has a lot of faith in Dazai, like that Dazai wasn’t truly on the side of Shibusawa and Fyodor.

Yosano Akiko and Nakahara Chuuya: Now, I have a lot more to say about that, but I want to focus on the opinion I have on how Chuuya and Yosano met, and it wasn’t in the underground in the Guild Arc. We all know that Yosano has connections with Mori and that she used to work in the military as well. It wouldn’t have shown it, but my personal headcanon is that one time, ONE TIME, Chuuya was healed by Yosano from Corruption’s damage before the Armed Detective Agency was formed, and was sworn to secrecy by Mori, who had probably paid her. At that time, Chuuya had probably been out of it in one way or another and was to leave right before he woke up. Though, I imagine, when she is offered the chance to heal someone, given the fact that she really does treasure life. One thing I do wonder, is did Yosano have control of her Ability before the Agency? She probably did, or else, the “Angel of Death” would have not been employed by the military. If she did not have control, maybe she just healed anyone within her vicinity on the brink of death. But, that is why I doubt it. This chapter could have been a lot of shock to Yosano, seeing Chuuya once again. Yosano doesn’t seem like the type to lie, rather seems very blunt when she opens her mouth, so to withhold information, like the fact that she was hired to save and heal Chuuya, and act as if she doesn’t know him, probably did more numbers on Yosano than she would like to admit. I believe if Chuuya suggested for them to save Kunikida, she would agree and go along with it.

Off topic: The two probably find each other really pretty. They would most definitely be drink buddies and Chuuya would take Yosano out shopping.EDIT: Yosano worked in the military, and Chuuya was ‘made’ and ‘experimented on’ in the Military, presumably during the Ability War. So perhaps there is connection to that in them as well. It is a possibility, and this is only to be noted, that Yosano could also have an artifical Ability like Chuuya? Or something of the sort? That is something we can’t say for certain, though.

Yosano Akiko and Kunikida Doppo: This is my very last topic, but I want to shed some light. Kunikida, Ranpo, and Yosano were the first ones (other than Fukuzawa) to join the agency. Yosano kind of views Kunikida as her little brother. She most certainly wants to protect Kunikida no matter the cost, and I think that is going to put her in a situation that could get her killed. I also think that between the two of them (Dad and Mom of the Agency), they would try to prevent any other member of the Agency younger than them, say, Atsushi, Tanizaki, Kyouka, or Kenji from being subjected to the life of the Port Mafia. Yosano and Kunikida are shown to be quite close as well, and they look after each other. They also have familiar morals, so that means they could work well together, and probably would for the sake of the Agency. They also have close bonds with Ranpo. All three of them, but namely Yosano and Kunikida, care most about the success of the Agency.

This was a long post, and this is about what I think about chapter 61.5 of Bungou Stray Dogs.

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liaroflesbos · 6 years

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So I’m just trying to get something clear in my head regarding the amazing summary of the Beast LN that @looking-for-stray-dogs has done for us. To do so I’m going to break down the conversation between Atsushi and Dazai during the first chapter, given the context of what is revealed in chapter three about what Atsushi had done the year before.

What kept confusing me about the novel was why Atsushi stayed with the mafia, as it was never explicitly explained. Why did Atsushi want so desperately to obey Dazai, even if it meant staying within the dark clutches if the Port Mafia, going as far as to force Kyouka to stay in that darkness too? Wasn’t he afraid of his beast for the death it had caused (namely, the director’s) and wouldn’t he want to avoid situations where he could kill? If you already know where this is going, please skip over this meta, although the very end two sections might have something slightly more original to say.

But let’s look at that scene from the first chapter. Atsushi says that he has a certain event which has greatly affected how he responds to enemies, made him utterly--apathetic, or serene maybe, in the face of them.

“Yes……I’m scared of the battlefield, but I do not sweat a single drop, and I do not tremble in the slightest. Like a calm lake, I do not react. Ever since that time.”

Dazai then proceeds to frame “that time” as an event which ocurred outside of Dazai’s orders and involved Atsushi actually acting.

“That time, huh?” Dazai said. “You’re talking about that day you ignored my orders and took action?”

Confronted with this statement, we have several paragraphs of Atsushi attempting to fight against some overwhelming fear. The first time I read it, I thought it was fear of Dazai’s punishment for going out of line--the kind of brutal punishments we saw him give Akutagawa in another timeline--but I know now that’s wrong.

Emotions receded from Atsushi’s face. His originally limited expressions disappeared and dried up. And then he became nothingness.

“I—”

That voice was trembling.

“I, that, that incident is.” Atsushi’s knees bent, and he grasped his arms as though hugging himself. His knuckles, white from biting into his arms, were all trembling.

That was trembling as a result of fear. True fear, his soul’s shrieking that came from a place much deeper than death.

“No, I, I—”

This section is singularly interesting because Dazai reveals that until “that time,” Atsushi was the same kind and cowardly boy who seeks nonviolent options in the prime timeline.

“You say you’re timid, and I agree. Once, you were a cowardly young boy who sought escape paths even before an enemy. But you’ve changed since that day. Do you know why?”

Dazai then reveals that Atsushi has changed because of a great fear created that day which has overwhelmed all other fears in him. Once again, I originally thought this meant a fear of Dazai.

“Indeed, it is only fear that can erase fear. Since that day, you have felt fear beyond a bearable capacity. Without even a second’s rest……and that has robbed you of reaction to other fears. Guns, blades, an enemy’s murderous intent, all those will never reach the bottom of your heart. Because there, there is already a monstrous fear lying.”

But then, of course, Dazai reveals a hint at what happened that day that has made Atsushi so scared.

“Can you still not escape? …from the fear of his death.”

Now let’s stop a second here to look at what actually happens during “that time.” According to @looking-for-stray-dogs‘s summary, Atsushi disobeyed Dazai’s orders to stay away from the orphanage, and upon returning, killed the director before he realized that the director was doing his best to praise and accept him--praise that Atsushi had always wished for.

Akutagawa correctly identifies what Atsushi was feeling as guilt instead of fear during this chapter three fight scene--

“I know, now, you—that, isn’t fear.”

Cold pierced through Atsushi’s entire body. He stopped breathing.

“You, that is—guilt.”

--so I always thought that meant that Atsushi was guilty for killing the director, so he’d want to avoid future death? I mean that makes sense right--if his beast is the purveyor of accidental death, better to stop causing death, in fear of what the beast may do when let out.

But I was confusing the hang-ups of the Atsushi of the Beast universe with that of prime timeline Atsushi, or maybe with Oda a bit. Beast!Atsushi doesn’t just think that he is an uncontrollable beast. Rather that he’s a beast who needs to be chained. Let’s return to the very end of that chapter one conversation to see what I mean.

Atsushi loses almost complete control over his fear and begs Dazai to know that he will never disobey his orders again

From a trembling he could no longer control, Atsushi crouched on the floor.

“Please, order me, Dazai-san.” Somehow, Atsushi squeezed his voice out from behind trembling teeth. “Immediately. I will never again, go against your orders. Never, never, never.”

“I’ll believe that,” Dazai said while coolly looking down at Atsushi.

Once again, I originally thought that this was fear of what Dazai did in reaction to Atsushi disobeying his orders, but it’s not. It’s fear of what Atsushi does when disobeying Dazai’s orders. Atsushi, when utterly wounded by the death which he brought to his fucked-up mentor, clings all the harder to Dazai and his ruthless orders as Port Mafia Boss instead of flinching away from more death. Atsushi has decided that what is ultimately responsible for him going out of control and killing the orphanage director is his disobedience of Dazai’s order:

“As the boss I order you.” A voice from the past. Black shackles. “You must never go to the orphanage, Atsushi-kun……okay?”

Atsushi saw what he did when he went to the orphanage, and decided that it was only Dazai’s good sense that was keeping him from becoming a rampaging beast. Dazai knew what was best for Atsushi, and how to prevent the tiger from doing more harm, how to prevent Atsushi from doing more harm.

Interestingly, I think it’s possible that Atsushi didn’t just come to this commitment to Dazai through fear/guilt of killing the orphanage director. Let’s look again at how Dazai immediately frames “that time:”

“That time, huh?” Dazai said. “You’re talking about that day you ignored my orders and took action?”

Dazai himself frames the incident not as one of Atsushi losing control over his tiger, but of Atsushi failing to listen to Dazai. In this way, by framing the discussion of what Atsushi did in this way, Dazai can encourage Atsushi to become reliant on him and the Port Mafia.

Finally, I think this all proves that the real Beast of this light novel is Atsushi. Let’s look at the definition that Dazai gives us from the prologue of what it means to be a beast

“...If you wield violence of your own free will, no matter how cruel you are that’s a side of humanity. But if you convulsively harm others, like you’ve been programmed to from your environment……that is simply the frenzy of a beast.”

Atsushi in the manga normally only wields violence because he decides that it is appropriate. And it seems that the Atsushi of this timeline was much the same way until he killed the orphanage director, as that quote I mentioned in the first section shows. However, in killing the orphanage director, Atsushi has responded only as he has been programmed by the environment of pain and fear that the orphanage director created (which like should absolve him of a lot of the guilt of that death given that the director created the fear in Atsushi which inevitably killed him? but that’s for another meta). And then in response to thiss programmed killing, Atsushi becomes someone who does not use his free will in killing, completely tying himself to the orders of Dazai. Therefore, until he meets Akutagawa, Atsushi is really a beast created by the orphanage director and Dazai, doing harm at the Port Mafia’s whim.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd spoilers #bsd meta #beast spoilers #I FINISHED #THAT WAS ABSURDLY DETAILED AND LONG #i'm mostly trying to develop my meta writing skills #for someone who is like a pretty good english student i am terrible at writing meta?#somehow it just lines up in my head better when i'm writing an essay #but!! i was very confused about this and very excited about the conclusion i came to so i hope this helps clarify things for something else #rarely does bsd not just like state things so it's nice to have to do some real interpretation here although i'm pretty sure asagiri was #heavily implying it and i just didn't notice it beforehand lol #my meta #my fanstuff

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undeadimpulsereviews · 7 years

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Enen no Shouboutai/ Fire Brigade of Flames (Fire Force) Review

Some context; for this review I will be referring to the manga by it’s English name. I would like to go by the translated name of Fire Brigade of Flame, but Fire Force is shorter, and if I tried to shorten the former then I might start some confusion about whether I’m talking about the manga or one of the brigades. Also with me being in school, I’m starting to learn thing in my major and wish to try them here. The overall framework of the review will be a little different from the past. That’s not to say that I’ll be taking segments out and adding in new ones; though I will be spreading sections out more. When I make a point on something, instead of just continuing the long running paragraph; I’ll instead break the paragraph up into smaller ones. Other than that, you are all set to dive in.

Fight fire with fire; an expression used to this day by many. It’s meanings may vary depending on the person, but again it’s just an expression. Who ever heard of actually fighting fires with more fire? Though what if the fire was special? Maybe then it just might work.

Enen no Shouboutai, or Fire Force here in the states, is a shounen manga that goes a little more literal with the idea of fighting fire with fire. It’s the tale of one fire brigade of rookie fire fighters looking to uncover the inner workings of an ongoing epidemic. Fire Force began it’s run in September of 2015; it’s an ongoing manga with around ten volumes currently out in it’s place of origin. For us here there are only five volumes available physically, but you can read up to chapter eighty four online. Fire Force is currently being serialized in Shounen Weekly Magazine, and it’s the work of Ookubo Atsushi. You may know him as the man behind the famous manga series Soul Eater. Now for me I was a little skeptical going into the manga. Having knowledge of the mangaka’s work I wasn’t completely sold; what I mean by this is that I couldn’t get into Soul Eater. I don’t hate it, but it just didn’t really keep me invested when I tried it long ago. I was scared that Fire Force would provide the same feeling, but I wanted to give the manga it’s fair chance. I’m now currently caught up with the manga, and it definitely has kept me invested; however, the manga does get a little questionable at times. It’s good, but it’s not without some big flaws. Plus these flaws are in present in every part of this manga; it’s story, it’s characters, and it’s visual style all have moments I could do without. Though thru all this the manga stand strong for me; some of the problems are early in the manga and are remedied pretty early as well; while others are still constant issues that I wish were addressed. Yet I’m getting nowhere with all this, so let’s start from the beginning and see just was Fire Force has to offer.

Set in what seems to be present day; Japan, and possibly more of the world, has been struck with an epidemic. Cases of random human combustion are spreading like wildfire; it’s unknown as to why but no one is safe. Though the problem doesn’t end there; they aren’t just burning, but turning into demonic like entities that go on a rampage through the streets. Thus the Fire Brigades were formed; though these aren’t your average fire fighters. These men and women are trained for just this occasion, or were gifted abilities from the fire. The fire brigades are made up of three types of people; normal humans, second generation, and third generation. The humans are self explanatory, but the second and third gen are special. Second generation people can control the fires around them in a certain fashion; while third generation people have a sort of fire centered in their body that gives them extraordinary powers. Our hero, Shinra Kusakabe, is a third generation. It’s his first day on duty and he’s looking for answers. Though above all he wants to be a hero; a shining beacon to those afraid of the epidemic. Yet for reasons he’s seen as a demon, rather than a hero. Can Shinra pull through his ordeal and show the people he’s here to help, or will he forever be know as a demon?

After getting caught up with the manga, I have to say that I was pleased with a lot of what I read. The idea of the combustion epidemic was really interesting, and the uses of fire to form super powers was pretty cool. At times the explanation for how these certain abilities work seem a little far fetched; I’m no scientist, and I don’t know all the capabilities of fire. However, it’s clear that the mangaka is pushing the boundary of what is actually possible for these characters. For this I will sometimes give the manga a pass; the abilities thought up are pretty awesome regardless of the logic behind how they operate. Plus how is the mangaka going to create something, where one of the key ideas is fire, completely logical.

As the story stand, there has been some good progression. We’ve been introduced to many different brigades; possible allies and enemies, and have come to uncover the mystery at a decent pace. Yet there are some things, and some people, that the manga has yet to introduce. We’ve seen some of this in passing, but haven’t been fully introduced. For example, the image below features the eight commanding officers for each brigade. Brigade one being on the far right and each number continuing down the line. Out of these eight commanders, five of them have seen their stories come into play. The commanding officers for brigade two, four, and six have not been fully implemented into the story. The only one out of those three that has had some sort of moment was number 2, but it was small and held no big significance to the overall story.

What scares me about this is that the manga seems like it’s reaching an ending point. Our heroes are steadily approaching what seems to be the main antagonist. Though it’s not the fact of the missing cast that I have a problem with, but the idea of the manga continue with how it currently is. Given the current events, if the manga does not end here I think there is a chance that the manga could struggle in it’s future. The best way I can describe it is with an example that I feel is similar. The series Rurouni Kenshin had plenty of arcs with it’s fair share of villains; however, I think many will agree that Makoto Shishio was one of, if not, the biggest antagonists of the series. For me Makoto’s arc seemed like a good place to end the story, it wrapped up a lot really well; while at the same time delved deeper into Kenshin’s past. Yet the manga didn’t end there and instead continued to a new arc with new enemies. This new band of enemies didn’t reach the level of Makoto in my opinion which kind of put a damper on the tail end of the manga. I feel that this is what’s happening with Fire Force as well. The confrontation currently happening in the manga is bringing parts of Shinra’s story to a close and many of the questions that appeared at the beginning of the manga are being answered. So if they continue past this it might be hard for the mangaka to excel past this point. Though this is all speculation and hypothetical fear at the moment. As the story stand right now it’s good; though there are some flaws to the story as well.

The story was one of the strongest things about the manga; each part has it’s ups and downs, but the story I believed had the least flaws. Though they also have one of the bigger ones. In total there were only really two things about the story that got me. It’s dialogue, and it’s originality. The dialogue is a minor problem that has been remedied over the course of the manga; while the manga’s originality is the bigger issue. Starting with the dialogue; at first the manga is pretty normal with it’s speech patterns. Though around one fourth through they start to introduce characters that have an annoying way of speaking.

The character above is one of two people that speak in this manner. For some reason the mangaka thought it was a good idea to have certain characters repeat a certain word. I want to say this was done for a laugh, but instead it just comes off as annoying. It’s needless repetition that doesn’t add anything to the scenario or the characters involved. Yet this is only a small issue, and that’s because it’s not frequent. The repetition happened a lot at the beginning of the manga, but this idea was quickly remedied. After the conclusion of the arc this picture is from, repetition hasn’t been a problem. Though that doesn’t meed we’re in the clear.

Now as the manga stands I find it to be a pretty original story; sure it’s another super hero like tale, but the uses of fire as a means for power is what sets this story apart. Though this latest confrontation has started to see a hit in originality. The ideas aren’t terrible, but when reading the current scene I felt a little disconnected. As I was reading this manga there were times that took me out of the manga, but the story was never really the problem until now. This is because I’m a fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. While reading the last few chapters I come to realize that I’m no longer reading Fire Force, but instead a retelling of the final fight in Stardust Crusaders. The fight in Fire Force is almost the same idea as the one in Stardust. The villain has an unknown power, you find out the power is unmatched (and also both Dio and the Fire Force villain have the same ability), and then the main character also inherits a power like that of the villains. Not to mention that both Shinra and Jotaro use their power in exceedingly better ways than their respective villain. The only reasons that this isn’t a carbon copy scene is due to the idea of how the powers operate, and the relationship between Shinra and his opponent. Now I can’t say that Jojo did this scene first, but it’s what comes to mind. I understand the limits that the manga presents given the logical leaps that are taken to explain a power, but you can’t tell me these scenes aren’t overly similar. It takes away from the story, and I can’t stay immersed when I have a constant image of another series playing in my head while reading this. Though this is the only scene I can really say was lacking in originality.

The rest of the manga’s story is really well done, and I hope it follows that example as it moves forward. As I said before though, the story isn’t the only thing that needs some adjustments. The same can be said for the stories cast as well, or at least a couple of it’s members.

Fire Force has a very broad cast of characters; though as I said before a decent amount of the characters haven’t fully been introduced. The commanding officers from before aren’t the only people in the manga that haven’t seen their moment quite yet. Though for those who have, there has been a great amount of development done. Shinra is an amazing character main character; he’s misunderstood, but that’s not something that weighs him down.

Most of the time, Shinra is seen as a demon for the crazy smile he’s seen wearing sometimes. It tends to appear when events of disaster or misfortune are happening. A lot of people think that he gets a kick out of others in trouble; however, that’s not the case. It’ something Shinra has little control over; what seems like the workings of a mad man, is actually just a nervous reaction. Whenever Shinra is presented with a certain situation his mouth distorts to the face about due to being nothing more than nervous. Though instead of running away in fear, crying, or hiding from the problem; Shinra’s resolve is never shaken. Regardless of the scenario, no matter how futile his efforts may seem, he pushes forward with this big grin on his face. He has his cliche shounen hero moments, but at the same time there’s something about him that sets him apart from the others. There hasn’t been a moment where I’ve really disliked this character, and he’s not the only one. There are plenty of good and diverse characters throughout the manga. My all time favorites are the original officers in the 8th brigade.

The starting members of the Brigade give off a great first impression and they can be comedic when the time calls for it, and they don’t feel forced in their delivery (save for one joke that Maki repeats). My favorite would probably be Hinawa, but the one I think deserves the most recognition is Oubi. He is one of two people in the 8th squadron that can’t use an ability. He wasn’t born with the capability and so is just your average fire fighter. Though instead of sitting back behind the desk and giving orders, he’s always on the front lines fighting along side his team. He has special equipment to help him; though what really gets me is that each day he works his body for hours on end so he doesn’t fall behind.

Now as I said before there are some exceptions to this; not all of the cast is up to par. Just like the story there are two problems that need to be addressed; one of which is small and has seen so adjustments. Though there is one character that has no business being in this manga; they haven’t developed at all, and even though they are regarded as a main character, their sole purpose is for a joke that’s in poor taste. After Shinra, there are two other officers that join the 8th brigade. They both join for different reasons, but that’s beside the point. The first of the two is a character named Arthur

Arthur is a little bit of an oddball; he thinks that he is a knight, much like King Arthur. He was one of Shinra’s old classmates before they both joined the 8th. Arthur’s first impression is good; he comes off as a rival to Shinra, someone who might challenge our main character and help in his growth. Though as time goes on he goes from being an interesting character to a bad joke. For some reason the mangaka decided to make Arthur the stupid character, but his IQ is well below that of the average stupid character. Due to this there are scenes with Arthur that could be interesting or cool, but instead are given to Shinra because “Arthur was so stupid he got lost for weeks.” However, Arthur is the small problem in terms of the characters. In the recent chapters Arthur has trained and had his moment; he’s excelled and showed that he can be an enjoyable and interesting character. While I don’t think the stupid jokes will end, I do think Arthur will develop. It may be slow at first, but there is progress.

The big problem of the manga comes from one of it’s female characters; she started out in another brigade, but due to the events of a previous arc, she was placed in the 8th.

The character above is Tamaki; her ability is called Forked cat, or I believe it is, but we’ll get to that later. Tamaki starts in the 1st brigade, but later is transferred to the 8th. Upon her first reaction she isn’t given much; instead she has a slew of “unfortunate” occurrences . Three to be exact; her first scene is of her moving close to Shinra and Shinra’s hand somehow accidentally slipping into her bra. That followed by another occurrences with Arthur not a second later; and then another second later of her falling towards Shinra again and Shinra’s hands accidentally entering her pants. Already she’s not an interesting character; the only thing that caught my eye was her fire. It manifests on her in the shape of cat ears and a tail. What does the ability do? You got me; I’m caught up with the manga and I still have no clue what her ability is. Instead every scene involving her has been a random moment where she is unlucky. Though why is she unlucky? Well she has something called “Lucky Lewd Syndrome”. Apparently this is a common occurrence in the 1st brigade. Though in my eyes it’s a shameful, poorly done attempt at comedy. Once, maybe twice, would have been alright; however, this happens in every scene with her. The worst part is when she’s in her first “serious” fight. Instead of finally seeing her ability, she instead gets lucky and beats the guy with her “condition”. This is lazy; you give a character an ability and instead of fleshing it out you decide to utilize some terrible joke. You could take Tamaki out of the manga and it would be infinitely better. You’d lose nothing from her being gone; though it sucks, I really want to like Tamaki, but she’s become this boring character with nothing going for her.

Other than those two I can’t really complain about the characters; again, I’d like to see more from certain characters, but for now I’ll enjoy what I got. I can get past Arthur, but Tamaki may prove difficult. Plus with the story where it currently is, it’s hard to say where things will go. Now Ookubo has had some interesting visual style with his manga; the characters and their designs were pretty normal, but they stand apart from other shounen. What gets me about the visuals was never really the character design, but the world and things around our main cast. One example comes from his other work Soul Eater; The sun and moon in the soul eater series has always stood out in my mind when I see the visual style of Ookubo. Soul eater aside, you can definitely see the classic style of Ookubo present in this manga as well.

Upon when you first start Fire Force you are told of the epidemic currently taking effect. Immediately following this is a normal subway where people are living their normal everyday lives. Though a man on this train starts to show signs of burning, and before you know it he’s up in flames. Fast forward and the train has arrived at the station; the doors open up, and out comes one of the fabled flame humans.

The first one you see in the series is just a basic idea of the flame human, but as the story progresses you start to see more of them emerge and they get crazier. Horns growing from the head, charred bodies; some of them even show a more complete design to them. All of them however, have a certain suspense to them; it’s clear the danger they impose. They are a lot like zombies in a sense; they don’t have any really thought going thru their head and run more on impulse than anything. Though there are some who look and act more evolved than the basic ones. Fire Force really shines in it’s humanoid designs; the regular characters and the flame humans are all really well done, save for a few. I know I said before that the world is usually what Ookubo excels at, and I don’t go back on that; however, the world of Fire Force is pretty normal for what it’s selling.

Now there are a few characters that I feel are out of place, even with the style implemented. Here’s an example of one I feel fits really well, but at the same time is extremely apart from the rest of the cast.

This is Joker, right away he isn’t like the past characters we’ve seen. Yet he still is able to keep himself within the spectrum. His clothes and eyes are what set him apart in my opinion; though his facial features and overall stature is very similar to the rest of the cast. I feel Joker really work well in Ookubo’s style. Now the reason I show Joker is because there is another character that also is apart from the rest of the cast; however, this character feels more like something out of another manga, than something from Ookubo.

The character above is Jonah; he is one of the antagonist in the group Shinra is fighting. This serves as your introduction to the character in the manga, more or less. I don’t really know much about him; while he’s been appearing more in the manga his character hasn’t fully been fleshed out. Though these two frame in the manga came as a surprise to me because, throughout the entire manga the art has kept pretty current. Though Jonah appears and his face just keeps distorting. He feels so out of place in the manga; if the rest of the characters and designs were professionally made, Jonah would be a piece of fan art or art from the authors child. His facial features are drawn in a way that looks and feels weird. This is illustrated in the following frame when he proceeds to literally cut paper with his nose for no real reason. Though Jonah is the only problem I’ve had with the visuals so far. Other than him I can’t complain with what I’ve been given to look at. I really like Ookubo’s art style and look forward to see more of it.

Overall I give Enen no Shouboutai a 7 out of 10; it’s a good manga, but the flaws are to big to ignore. The reason it’s not lower is because Ookubo has worked hard at getting rid or working around some of my issues. Though that doesn’t fix everything, and the remaining issues are some of the worst. I really do like what I’ve read and plan to continue the series, but at the same time I’m scare where the manga may go. I recommend this, but at the same time I will say it’s not for everyone. There are a few groups of people that will not find this manga appealing.

That will do it for this week (last week) Later in the week I’ll release the next video game review, but until then have a good day and I’ll see ya soon.

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