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from "A Japanese Writer in Micronesia: Nakajima Atsushi's Experiences of 1941-42", Nobuko Miyama Ochner

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I think relevant to understanding why Atsushi is the protagonist is the recognition that Kafka Asagiri, broadly, did what Nakajima Atsushi did, which is break from years of reluctantly adhering to what was known, conventional, and assured to instead face his deeply held insecurities and dedicate himself entirely to writing.

Except, while Nakajima Atsushi burst into the literary scene with verve and brilliance, he was almost immediately killed by his chronic illness. The cosmic cruelty of it is tragic.

Kafka Asagiri, meanwhile, made his leap at a younger age than Atsushi, and survived his first few months. Better yet, he's survived his first 12 years. He began Bungou Stray Dogs at the age of 28 (only a few years earlier than Nakajima Atsushi), so he's now 40 years old. He's still writing, having outlived many of the literary icons he references, including Dazai Osamu, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Kunikida Doppo, Nakajima Atsushi, Higuchi Ichiyo, Nakahara Chuuya, and Tachihara Michizo.

He has dedicated the outset of his career to the authors whose lives reverberated far beyond their years, and I have a suspicion that the author he feels ringing the loudest in his own ears might be Nakajima Atsushi. In part, because Nakajima Atsushi was right, Nakajima Atsushi sought meaning where there wasn't any and found profundity where others couldn't. He was anxious and grappled with low self-esteem, but he didn't flinch at the same shadows as many of his brasher contemporaries and predecessors did.

He seemed to shrug away, even, the calamitous events unfolding relentlessly around him for how focused he was on matters such as his flowers and the books he read. Once, he even disregarded an air raid overhead, utterly unbothered while his companion dug a shelter under the kitchen floor. When his companion irritably asked Nakajima what he wanted to do in such an emergency, Nakajima calmy replied, "I'll die with a book in my hand." Later, the same companion described Nakajima's words as having an inimitable power and clarity, as if all emotions had already been reckoned with and then set aside. (This is the same Nakajima Atsushi known to cry if his flowers were cut, for reference.) Which is to say, he clearly knew something others didn't, for better or worse.

That he died young did little to deride the truth of he'd discovered, and Kafka Asagiri choosing that truth as his means for cradling and honoring the truths of the other authors too is a fiercly ardent love letter to their lives and legacies. But it's also the only way he could, I think, encompass the litany of eras, lives, cultural contexts, and bodies of work that he does. Bungo Stray Dogs can spill with anachronism and absurdity and nonsensical mechanics and deus ex machinas and bombastic personalities because the thoroughline has the same unperturbed focus, brilliance, compassion, verve, timidity, obliviousness, insensitivity, fragility, intensity, frivilousness, and implacable clarity as Nakajima Atsushi.

(Asagiri might too, considering the sheer breadth of what he's written and closely overseen in only 12 years, but also, the obnoxiousness of its substance.)

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ignore the sloppy underlining but screencapping this all just to say it is literally fascinating to touch nakajima's life in a biographical sense for even a second and immediately see where asagiri is coming from. beyond the meditations on and querying about life and existence that are a prominent (!!) theme in nakajima's body of work— the reference to nakajima's opposition to the i-novel is fascinating when thrown next to dazai's mastery of it and the way akutagawa cut himself open on the genre.

from "A Japanese Writer in Micronesia: Nakajima Atsushi's Experiences of 1941-42", Nobuko Miyama Ochner

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from "A Japanese Writer in Micronesia: Nakajima Atsushi's Experiences of 1941-42", Nobuko Miyama Ochner

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For the person asking if it's okay to use non-canonical ships and headcanons: yes absolutely! The restriction on having fics only stay in a canon setting is only about making sure that the wider world of the fic is recognizably the world of BSD (i.e. ability users exist and are known, the PM and ADA operate in modern-adjacent Yokohama, etc) — AUs in that setting are fine, and headcanons that veer off of canon are fine.

TLDR don't place the characters in medieval Britain and start worldbuilding about elves; feel free to indulge in any headcanons you have about different characters' pronouns or past divorces.

BSD Worldbuilding Mini-Bang Interest Check

Preliminary little interest check for a BSD fandom event for exploring gaps, holes, or often lesser-seen facets of canon! I won't be able to start running it for a while, but I wanted to see if there was anyone interested in participating— more details on planned rules are provided in the form itself.

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BSD Worldbuilding Mini-Bang Interest Check

Preliminary little interest check for a BSD fandom event for exploring gaps, holes, or often lesser-seen facets of canon! I won't be able to start running it for a while, but I wanted to see if there was anyone interested in participating— more details on planned rules are provided in the form itself.

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The worst part about using a friend as a stepping stone in a game of political subterfuge / power gathering scheme is that you can only really do it once and then you have to build rapport with a whole new friend before you can do it again

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I think Dazai's backstory is really cool in how, despite having more information about it than most other characters, majority of his life is just one giant noodle incident.

Yep, that's the line I'm going with as an introduction to this analysis. Just bear with me.

To start off, for those who don't know, the term "noodle incident" originates from the (amazing) comic Calvin and Hobbes. In it, the whole idea is that Calvin did this unspecified thing in school that involved noodles, but it's never confirmed what exactly happened. It's only referenced in passing, and it is clear that it was not good. Applied to general fiction, the term Noodle Incident refers to an event that is often referenced, but never clearly explained, and what is important is the characters' reactions and feelings towards it. The principle idea behind it is that imagining what said incident could be is way more significant and impactful than anything it would actually be if it was said. It's not the event that's important, but the effects and responses to it are. *for more info, I recommend Overly Sarcastic Productions trope talk video about it*

Now, how this plays into Dazai's life is that, while it is extremely evident that he likely has a horrible, tragic backstory, we never really get to see much of it. The earliest we are introduced to him, he is already suicidal, and he has lost most in hope in existence. These feelings are tempered a bit when he first joins the Port Mafia, but they come back all too quickly. And while you could argue that him being in the Mafia is a large contributor to his depression,the main reasons why he seeks escape clearly transpired before he ever met Mori.

Dazai was already trying to commit suicide at fourteen, which is how he met Mori. Something happened earlier in his life, but we don't know what. Asagiri himself says that he left Dazai's core, the reason he wants to die, vague on purpose. We aren't given many details, and honestly, we aren't given much backstory to it either. The two biggest hints that we get is when he is speaking to Odasaku. First in The Day I Picked Up Dazai, and the second from Dazai and the Dark Era.

We have no idea who or what Dazai is referring to. From all that we have seen, all the backstories and light novels we are given, the only people that we know of whom Dazai actually lost were Ango and Odasaku-for Ango, it was that special friendship, and Odasaku, it was his life. And even so, it isn't much of an explanation, because he was obviously suicidal before he met them, as evident from how he speaks to Odasaku, and losing them wasn't a catalyst for Dazai's depression. (As a matter of fact, it was actually the first step towards improvement, but that's a different analysis).

Yet for how much we don't know about Dazai's life, I think it's done in such a way that it doesn't really matter. It's a noodle incident, in that sense. Because it's not about the events that actually transpired, it's about how that affects Dazai and the way we see him. Don't get me wrong, I would love a full, confirmed backstory, but Asagiri doesn't seem to intend to write it, and that makes Dazai's character so beautiful. It's also one of the reasons why the dark era, especially the light novel, is so tragic. Because yes, you can argue that as far as tragic backstories go, losing two friends isn't near the most awful, especially not in this universe (I'm not trying to play the "which character has more trauma" game, but compared to, for example, growing up in an abusive orphanage, it's relatively not as inherently tragic. That doesn't make it any less horrible though). But the point of the backstory isn't just to explain the reasoning why things ended up the way they did, why Dazai left the Mafia, boo hoo his friend died, but Odasaku and Ango represent everything in Dazai's life, everyone from his past we never got to meet and I'm not sure if we're ever going to. They symbolize all the things in his life that mattered to him, everything he never wanted to lose but did. The last scene in the bar, where the three of them meet up for the last time, Ango leaves, the picture with the three of them laughing and smiling, the whole thing is meant to serve as a microcosm for Dazai's life as a whole. That he feels he's always going to lose everything, and that's why he wants to die. We don't get details, we don't know the specific events, but we're left with the emotions that gives us an important glimpse into this character's mind, more than his life, and that's what makes him such an interesting character that's left open to interpretation and analysis. We aren't privy to the tragedy, but the aftereffects of it. And, almost as if to prove the point, Odasaku dies the next day. Right after Dazai says he always loses everyone, further cementing the idea that there's almost a curse surrounding him, a void of loneliness that may never be fulfilled, which is as much as Odasaku tells him when he dies.

Whatever happened in Dazai's life before fourteen was probably something horrible and tragic. Maybe he had a family. Maybe he had other good friends. Perhaps he even believed in the goodness of life and humanity. But what's really cool about the way he's written is that the exact events are not important nor necessary to understanding his character. His life is one big noodle incident, yet because of that, we're able to glean an almost deeper understanding about him, by leaving the details in the dark and exposing only the raw, humane emotions left behind. The most important part about any backstory in fiction isn't about what actually happened, it's about how does this affect the character now? What lasting impact did it leave on them, and how is it evident in the way they interact with the story in the present? This is something that Asagiri nails on the head when it comes to his backstories. And I think the lack of clear information about Dazai's backstory, yet all the information we do end up getting about him, is one of the reasons why Dazai is such an interesting and intriguing character in the series.

Thank you all for you time. You may now return to your procrastination.

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hey. after the tachihara hunting dog reveal how many times do you think gin and hirotdu got to think back to all of the close calls they've had, bullets that just barely missed anything vital, remembering how panicked tachihara had looked, how he undoubtedly was the only reason it didn't hit anything vital? how many times has tachihara saved their lives with the skill he hides, the skill that would out him as a traitor, as someone who can't be his true self anywhere? who still chose to save his family and nearly reveal himself, who betrayed them anyway?

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Happy birthday to this man

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Not everything needs old woman Yuri in it

You're like a terrorist to me

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Akutagawa daily 1314/★

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further onto the fun part: the fic is 1. very intently focused on quiet moments, using the concept of gin as dazai's ex-secretary moved out of the sphere of action the pm-ada dwell in into being someone running from the past via mundane office job 2. making so many extrapolations about her relationship with the rest of the port mafia, primarily tachihara.

there is. something to me about the lonely man you've been the shadow of for years killing himself after promising to kill you as a machination in his plan (hollow, empty promise, but you pleaded with him for it— how much did she know it was a lie?). there is something to me about seeing your brother who you believe was born to do evil and whom you put a knife through the stomach of and left twice over.

quiet moments: cutting your hair in the bathroom afterwards, scrubbing yourself clean of the past, dropping off the girl who your brother hurt with her adoptive brother— the past lingering behind you anyway.

obligatory note to stream the fic i wrote about post-canon beast!gin (due to finding her sibling issues extremely compelling etc) but— the beast version of the akutagawa siblings is incredibly, incredibly interesting to me. gin is central to beast, and it is equally central that she's on-page for so little time.

the first time akutagawa sees her, the narration calls her a painting come to life; the metaphor took me aback the first time i read the beast ln as opposed to the manga because of how fitting it is to how akutagawa sees her: a static, 1-dimensional image and ideal; a child stolen away by his man in black. it's an illusion she shatters cleanly and all at once.

gin getting a knife into akutagawa's gut and telling him he hasn't gotten her back, that he's pursuing destruction and using her as an excuse, that the mafia's violence is rational whereas his violence is an aoe attack that destroys everything in its proximity is:

one: extremely funny to me. sorry gin. sometimes you call your brother inherently evil for his glorified suicide attempt (-> this is, in practice, my view of him leaving gin alone pre-meeting dazai in both canon and beast. do i think it is unfair to gin to leave her abandoned and alone, and that it reflects on the way he is associated with destruction-despite-the-cost and similarly on the way dazai in beast canon addresses him? yes absolutely. do i also think it is unfair to say the suicidal twelve year is inherently evil for semi-explicitly trying to kill himself via extremely abrupt vengeance quest? yeah. sorryyyyyy)

two: not incorrect re:destructiveness. we see time and time again in both canon and beast that akutagawa moves in a straight line to action without consideration for consequences or the deaths that follow. it's the tendency that both canon dazai and canon atsushi object to— atsushi primarily for the fact that he places no inherent value on life and his actions put that on display, dazai primarily for the lack of strategy and rationality in how he operates. he's more feral and uncivilized in beast (/affectionate), but the point stands? (skimming over sections of beast for this and: interesting to me that when he's getting his stamp from kunikida, it's explicitly said: "To make a long story short, destruction was his go-to answer for everything. [...] It appeared to be more of an innate trait of his rather than something he learned from his environment or experience." similarly, it's interesting to me that the way he gets his stamp from kunikida is through the channeling of that destructive energy into a purposeful violence. the concept of mindless destruction vs rationality is the core internal conflict in beast which (relatedly) is why i think it's so fundamental to the trajectory of his arc in canon, but i digress)

three: not fully incorrect re:using gin as an excuse. this is actually the most important point to me, because: akutagawa cares about gin and cares about the ideal of his younger sister stolen away, regrets deeply his initial abandonment of her and hates himself for it, but his actions with regards to "saving" her are fundamentally undermined both by his pursuit of dazai and his own impulsiveness. he repeatedly prioritizes vengeance and impulse over the actions that would actually put him face-to-face with him, and he doesn't consider her as a person with her own agency. when he collects oda's stamp (via threatening to kill himself in front of a child. etc.) there's a point made about him viewing anger as the center of his world. when he is a child facing dazai for the first time, it's said the first clear emotion he feels is hatred. this is without getting into the events of the final sequence, in which he is repeatedly called out for prioritizing his anger over finding gin.

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okay! at the fun part now, which is to say. how does this reflect on gin herself.

basic facts we know about gin in the present are that

she's dazai's secretary who's always with him, and she views him as lonely (the implication given is that this was also her first impression of him, when she went with him willingly)

she's highly protected because of her position of secretary and anyone who asks about her should be attacked immediately (this may be a set-up for an sskk meetcute via dazai, but presumably it comes into affect via how she's treated by others)

atsushi believes she has no family, which is either 1. again, set-up for the sskk meetcute, or 2. what the pm as a whole usually believes

she's quiet and very observant (presumably, reflected in canon)

she believes in rationality placed over emotion (fascinating contrast. obviously) and doesn't object to the port mafia's violence because of how its violence is impersonal

atsushi refers to her and akutagawa as having bloodstained hands, which may be solely a jab at akutagawa, but in equal measure may be a reference to her position in the pm? she stabs akutagawa easily and respects the violence of the pm, so it's possible/probable that it also refers to how she's associated with the pm.

she was convinced by dazai to enter the port mafia because she didn't feel safe remaining solely with akutagawa

she pleaded with dazai to sacrifice her life instead of killing akutagawa (which indicates that despite it being a ploy and bait, it's real to her. alternatively, she could be in on it being a ploy and maintaining the lie with akutagawa, but i think that's less likely context-wise.)

she disappears post-lightnovel, according to akutagawa because she can't return to his side. akutagawa doesn't go after her because he thinks rushing after her would drive her away once more.

the majority of what we know about her is her emotions towards akutagawa: she thinks he uses her as an excuse to commit violence, and she wants to think he functions more rationally than he does. she thinks he was born to do evil and she cares about him anyway. she thinks he's incapable of keeping the people he loves safe from himself, and she wants him alive anyway.

i am always, always thinking about o-gin in relation to beast!gin, but particularly when she is saying "I don't care what kind of person you are. All I want is for you to live." o-gin is the story of a girl who renounces her beliefs and the idea of heaven for the sake of living in heaven so that she may meet her family again in hell. gestures incredibly wildly. you know.

sorry for the recap i just think. they're so so interesting. i just think they're insane. i want to lock them together in a room and make them argue with one another.

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the ada is such a loser compared to every other organization they go up against. they've got like eight members. they work out of a rented office above a coffee shop. half of them probably also live there. they're all broke. and yet everyone from the mafia to the government to the most powerful foreign gifteds see them as an equal opponent. and they're RIGHT.

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obligatory note to stream the fic i wrote about post-canon beast!gin (due to finding her sibling issues extremely compelling etc) but— the beast version of the akutagawa siblings is incredibly, incredibly interesting to me. gin is central to beast, and it is equally central that she's on-page for so little time.

the first time akutagawa sees her, the narration calls her a painting come to life; the metaphor took me aback the first time i read the beast ln as opposed to the manga because of how fitting it is to how akutagawa sees her: a static, 1-dimensional image and ideal; a child stolen away by his man in black. it's an illusion she shatters cleanly and all at once.

gin getting a knife into akutagawa's gut and telling him he hasn't gotten her back, that he's pursuing destruction and using her as an excuse, that the mafia's violence is rational whereas his violence is an aoe attack that destroys everything in its proximity is:

one: extremely funny to me. sorry gin. sometimes you call your brother inherently evil for his glorified suicide attempt (-> this is, in practice, my view of him leaving gin alone pre-meeting dazai in both canon and beast. do i think it is unfair to gin to leave her abandoned and alone, and that it reflects on the way he is associated with destruction-despite-the-cost and similarly on the way dazai in beast canon addresses him? yes absolutely. do i also think it is unfair to say the suicidal twelve year is inherently evil for semi-explicitly trying to kill himself via extremely abrupt vengeance quest? yeah. sorryyyyyy)

two: not incorrect re:destructiveness. we see time and time again in both canon and beast that akutagawa moves in a straight line to action without consideration for consequences or the deaths that follow. it's the tendency that both canon dazai and canon atsushi object to— atsushi primarily for the fact that he places no inherent value on life and his actions put that on display, dazai primarily for the lack of strategy and rationality in how he operates. he's more feral and uncivilized in beast (/affectionate), but the point stands? (skimming over sections of beast for this and: interesting to me that when he's getting his stamp from kunikida, it's explicitly said: "To make a long story short, destruction was his go-to answer for everything. [...] It appeared to be more of an innate trait of his rather than something he learned from his environment or experience." similarly, it's interesting to me that the way he gets his stamp from kunikida is through the channeling of that destructive energy into a purposeful violence. the concept of mindless destruction vs rationality is the core internal conflict in beast which (relatedly) is why i think it's so fundamental to the trajectory of his arc in canon, but i digress)

three: not fully incorrect re:using gin as an excuse. this is actually the most important point to me, because: akutagawa cares about gin and cares about the ideal of his younger sister stolen away, regrets deeply his initial abandonment of her and hates himself for it, but his actions with regards to "saving" her are fundamentally undermined both by his pursuit of dazai and his own impulsiveness. he repeatedly prioritizes vengeance and impulse over the actions that would actually put him face-to-face with him, and he doesn't consider her as a person with her own agency. when he collects oda's stamp (via threatening to kill himself in front of a child. etc.) there's a point made about him viewing anger as the center of his world. when he is a child facing dazai for the first time, it's said the first clear emotion he feels is hatred. this is without getting into the events of the final sequence, in which he is repeatedly called out for prioritizing his anger over finding gin.

—

okay! at the fun part now, which is to say. how does this reflect on gin herself.

basic facts we know about gin in the present are that

she's dazai's secretary who's always with him, and she views him as lonely (the implication given is that this was also her first impression of him, when she went with him willingly)

she's highly protected because of her position of secretary and anyone who asks about her should be attacked immediately (this may be a set-up for an sskk meetcute via dazai, but presumably it comes into affect via how she's treated by others)

atsushi believes she has no family, which is either 1. again, set-up for the sskk meetcute, or 2. what the pm as a whole usually believes

she's quiet and very observant (presumably, reflected in canon)

she believes in rationality placed over emotion (fascinating contrast. obviously) and doesn't object to the port mafia's violence because of how its violence is impersonal

atsushi refers to her and akutagawa as having bloodstained hands, which may be solely a jab at akutagawa, but in equal measure may be a reference to her position in the pm? she stabs akutagawa easily and respects the violence of the pm, so it's possible/probable that it also refers to how she's associated with the pm.

she was convinced by dazai to enter the port mafia because she didn't feel safe remaining solely with akutagawa

she pleaded with dazai to sacrifice her life instead of killing akutagawa (which indicates that despite it being a ploy and bait, it's real to her. alternatively, she could be in on it being a ploy and maintaining the lie with akutagawa, but i think that's less likely context-wise.)

she disappears post-lightnovel, according to akutagawa because she can't return to his side. akutagawa doesn't go after her because he thinks rushing after her would drive her away once more.

the majority of what we know about her is her emotions towards akutagawa: she thinks he uses her as an excuse to commit violence, and she wants to think he functions more rationally than he does. she thinks he was born to do evil and she cares about him anyway. she thinks he's incapable of keeping the people he loves safe from himself, and she wants him alive anyway.

i am always, always thinking about o-gin in relation to beast!gin, but particularly when she is saying "I don't care what kind of person you are. All I want is for you to live." o-gin is the story of a girl who renounces her beliefs and the idea of heaven for the sake of living in heaven so that she may meet her family again in hell. gestures incredibly wildly. you know.

sorry for the recap i just think. they're so so interesting. i just think they're insane. i want to lock them together in a room and make them argue with one another.

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