#that's why Chuuyas brown eyes and less bright red/brown hair works there while anime chuuya would probably stand out like a sore thumb

[mirokuna-hime]

My unpopular opinion of the day is that making Chuuyas eyes blue was absolutely the right decision for the anime.

#I sometimes see edits of anime chuuya with brown eyes and it just looks off #the anime has a much higher saturated color palette so he needed some contrast in his design imo #especially since his outfit consists of dark reddish brown and blacks including his hair #so making his hair more orange and his eyes blue really helped making him stand out #the manga has a more washed out color palette #black white brown and grey is what most covers and official art look like #that's why Chuuyas brown eyes and less bright red/brown hair works there while anime chuuya would probably stand out like a sore thumb #chuuya nakahara #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs

[franzsiska]

A bit random: I've been comparing Chuuya and Oda a lot recently in relation to their colour schemes. Chuuya has bright red hair and sea blue eyes, whilst Oda has reddish brown hair and grey blue eyes, like a toned down, less violently vibrant and intense version of Chuuya (which matches their personalities). To me, Oda is like the flame of a candle or lamp giving off a warm light (much like the ambient lighting at bar Lupin) but Chuuya is like an inferno, a warm escape vs lively heat. Thoughts?

Ooh, I love analyzing character design choices :3

While I don't think there's anything inherently similar about Chuuya and Oda, their designs probably do carry meanings of their own. Like you said, Chuuya has bright red hair and cool blue eyes—in the anime, at least. In the manga, he doesn't have a fixed eye colour, and we've seen blue and grey and brown and even green. But let's put that aside for now. Chuuya is portrayed to be intense from the get go, vibrant and impulsive, but not needlessly reckless. He feels everything too strongly for his own good and because of that, he has to work twice as hard to keep himself from being overwhelmed. And considering everything that goes on around him and inside his head, he does a stellar job at that, to be honest. He's not as stable as he'd like to be, but he isn't a wild card or a loose cannon either. He's... a caregiver, for lack of a better word, and he cares too much about the people close to him.

On the other hand, Oda, who has darker red hair and clear blue eyes, is portrayed as this beacon of stability in Dazai's life, level-headed and sensible. That's a load of bullshit, if you ask me. Oda only seems mature and sensible because he's surrounded by people who are even bigger disasters than him. But that doesn't change the fact that he used to be a fucking assassin as a child for who knows how long and probably carries more baggage and trauma from that than anyone in a five mile radius of him. The oldest he ever got to be was twenty three. Do you know just how young that is?? He wasn't some all-knowing, wise ascetic. He didn't know what he was doing either, he was terrible at guiding or mentoring people, and he was just as much of a disaster as Dazai, in my opinion, but bless him, he was trying his hardest. With Dazai, with his kids, with himself. He was always just... trying so hard and he cared so much brb i'll just go... cry for a while ;___;

In any case, it seems to me that Chuuya and Oda were designed as literary foils to each other. They're exact opposites in terms of almost everything. Where Chuuya is an outward disaster and inward calmness (granted, he tries very hard for it), Oda is an external façade of stability paired with internal chaos. Chuuya deals with everything head on while Oda just sort of... shoves it under the rug and pretends that if he doesn't look at it, it wouldn't exist. Their individual character designs are certainly very telling in some of these aspects, I think. That's part of the reason why I love literary symbolism so much, because it's so completely subjective while also being obvious.

Anyway, this was my rant about the Chuuya-Oda comparisons in the narrative. (I also have many thoughts about the Oda-Kunikida parallels and how they're also foils to each other, but I'll scream about that some other day.)

#is my lit student side showing too much? 😅 #nakahara chuuya #oda sakunosuke #bsd #meta #answered #anonymous