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Children are very sensitive to ‘inhumanity and crude taunts,’ and though they might walk about expressionless as a Noh mask or put on a friendly facade, underneath they burn with hatred at the real world.

Edogawa Ranpo, “The Phantom Lord” essay (1936) from The Edogawa Ranpo Reader

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ranpo and dazai, and what sets them apart from each other despite their shared high intelligence // 

ranpo’s immaturity isn’t solely a result of his personality, or a way to get people to complete tasks for him; it’s a coping mechanism he’s developed so that he can deal with the consequences of his high intelligence. he pretends to have an ability not only because he feels left out being the only non-gifted detective in the agency, but also because it allows him to live under the illusion that his intelligence is something he’s capable of turning on and off, as opposed to being something that permanently and severely isolates him from other people. by telling himself he has a deductive ability, he allows himself to pretend that he’s just like everyone else at the agency; he belongs there because he’s gifted, and there’s no need for anyone to question his place within the organization. if it’s believed that he’s only capable of using his intellect for deductive purposes and nothing else, and that there’s a specific activator for it, others have no reason to alienate him, fear him, or assume he’s inherently manipulative because of it; things that were all done to dazai during his time in the port mafia. 

ranpo’s glasses acting as the activation key for his fake ability lets him ignore his intelligence on a day to day basis, because if he were to acknowledge it and apply it constantly, he’d be able to see through every aspect of living itself and end up as miserable as dazai. this is heavily symbolized by his closed eyes, which he only opens, restoring his true sight and metaphorically enhancing it with his glasses, when he’s using his mind to it’s full potential. he makes the choice to deliberately overlook that capability the majority of the time so that he can assign his own meaning to life and live somewhat contentedly, instead of being endlessly tormented by the lack of purpose that comes with always being aware of the absolute truth and the perfect solution. it’s a voluntary and necessary naivety so that he can continue to live in a way that isn’t painful and boring. that’s the main difference between them: ranpo can look past his own intelligence to find meaning, dazai cannot, or refuses to, rather. the reason for this lies mainly in their relationships with control and trust, which contrast significantly, in part due to the dissimilarities in their teenage years and the organizations they belonged to during that time. 

Keep reading

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on BSD’s Ranpo — on inspiring others, compassion, and forgiveness

By comparison to my post on Poe, this one doesn’t draw direct comparisons to one specific work, though I’ve attempted to drawn in some appropriate historical context. At core, though, this is focused on BSD Ranpo. Stay tuned to watch an idiot compose their thoughts?

It’s fairly general knowledge that the author Edogawa Ranpo is widely regarded as the father of Japanese mystery. Somewhat lesser known may be the nuance of this, which is that he’s credited with trying to adapt European/Western style mysteries (A. Conan Doyle, E. A. Poe, and others) into a Japanese setting, working around and accommodating the architectural and societal differences that come with.

He founded an organization called the Mystery Writers of Japan, which has its own award in addition to the one that’s named after him; the Edogawa Rampo Prize.

What I believe is significant about this, as it relates to BSD Ranpo, is that this award targets new/beginner/amateur novelists, and is awarded to unpublished mystery novels. Winning this award accompanies a 10 million yen cash prize (~63k USD) and publishing by Kodansha, giving the novelist a jumpstart of sorts into their career.

This notion is reflected more explicitly in this part of the manga, where Ranpo encourages the world, the layman population, to become detectives as well (just as the IRL award gives aspiring novelists an opportunity to be published, + gain recognition and money to help in their careers). Earlier in the manga, he also explicitly presents BSD Mushitaro with a career opportunity (via the business card of a special abilities division spy), encourages Poe to keep writing (IE: maintain his career), and offers to assist Minoura on future cases at a discount price (career assistance).

Then, of course, there’s this:

Convincing one third of the police force (who, if we are to compare being a novelist like author Ranpo to BSD Ranpo’s detective work, could be analogous to aspiring writers) despite the page explicitly saying police will not trust the agency is a very powerful something.

I personally like to believe that a large part of this can be attributed to the compassion BSD Ranpo displays in the manga. Mind you, in this context, I am defining compassion, in opposition to empathy or sympathy, as attempting to understand and relieve another person’s suffering, which is something we see him do multiple times in the manga. I have placed this (rough) analysis below the cut due to the subjectivity of this interpretation.

Having said that, I should preface that Ranpo having compassion ≠ him being a good or moral person. Just remember he was 100% willing to let Atsushi get kidnapped (likely having foreseen that not doing so would induce the Guild to attempt to destroy Yokohama and the agency), and then even more willing to let a war between the agency and the mafia ravage Yokohama (which would generate innumerable casualties) if it meant saving Fukuzawa.

Anyhow,

Inspiring Other Characters to Self Fulfillment

A note I want to touch on is that the four characters whom initially oppose only to side with Ranpo (Fukuzawa, Minoura, Poe, Mushitaro) are all self-actualized after he catalyzes them to do so. Fukuzawa finds his “life’s path” in founding the agency. Minoura gets his moment in ch81 where he fights for what he believes in and protects Ranpo. Poe is inspired to write again (and this time, for a positive reason—because Ranpo wants to read his works—not out of hate). Mushitaro, who was previously made to be the villain in two deals he made (murdering Yokomizo, evidence erasing evidence for the Rats), makes a decision for himself to turn against the Rats and do something he himself wants to do —not what his near-death friend wants him to do, but something he chose for himself and at the expense of himself. It also allows him to meet Poe later, and begin to write.

This is not to argue that Ranpo is responsible for these people’s finding of their desired goals/life paths, but rather that he catalyzed them to think about it and pursue the goal themselves. It was ultimately their strength and motivation that got these characters to pursue what they do—pursue something that satisfies themselves—, Ranpo simply had a helping hand, through his compassion, in inducing them to decide to make that change. This is similar to a person being inspired to self-improvement —something like an inspirational person/post or friend may trigger them to make that change, but ultimately it is the person themselves that puts in the effort for the change.

Compassion: Understanding of A to relieve the suffering of B, vs Understanding of A to relieve the suffering of A

I consider this a demonstration of compassion, because though it isn’t intended to relieve Sugimoto’s suffering, it does relieve Minoura’s. Notably, prior to this scene, Minoura is agitated over Sugimoto not confessing the location of the evidence which Minoura’s subordinate died for, and in demonstrating understanding of Sugimoto like this, he got Sugimoto to confess what Minoura wanted.

This is notably the same method through which he gets Mushitaro confess. Granted, with Mushitaro, it’s explicitly blackmail, but the principle of understanding the motive and tragedy involved with the crime —the fact that the victim cared for the murderer, and vice versa— and using that to derive the result Ranpo wants, is the same. The suffering relieved here is Kunikida’s.

Demonstrations of compassion which relieve the suffering of the one being understood are most obvious with Poe (who he gives acknowledgement and praise to) and Mushitaro (who he fulfills his promise to of both granting him work, as well as burning the manuscript instead of keeping it as blackmail). In both cases, he openly gives two people who tried to hurt him encouragement for them to build their own futures. He encouraged Poe to write and Mushitaro to find work on the right side of the law, though it would ultimately be up to both to make the most of these opportunities.

Kunikida fits this category as well, as Ranpo understood how awful he felt about letting that child die in front of his eyes, and acted to relieve that suffering by clearing his name. It remained up to Kunikida, of course, to move on from the incident on his own.

Less obviously, there’s also Kyouka and his immediate acceptance of her into the agency.

This moment, I suspect, is due to Ranpo seeing Kyouka as someone like himself. Like him, she lost her parents and very nearly lost faith in the world, only to be shown the light again (by Fukuzawa and Atsushi respectively). This may be the reason for the sibling comparison between them, as well as the fact that Fukuzawa accepts Kyouka (and even lies that she’s his granddaughter) after looking at her pleading face (which I like to think reminded him of Ranpo, given their similar ages, hair colors, liking of snacks, etc.) Like with Ranpo as well, once she lost her parents, Kyouka was taken into a world of “monsters” —people which were terrifying and hard to understand (the Port Mafia).

This sympathy and acceptance which Ranpo displays towards Kyouka is notably something Atsushi was excluded from, which is something I believe stems from what I highlighted above, as well as the fact that Atsushi (being who he is, and having the ability he does) presented much more significant danger to the agency than Kyouka does.

And now that I’ve been over all of this, I also think it’s interesting to highlight that Ranpo has been a very forgiving person throughout the manga. He forgives Minoura for insulting him. He forgives Poe for trying to kill him and Yosano. He forgives Mushitaro for his hand in Kunikida’s torment. This, I believe stems in large from what Fukuzawa told him about everyone else being stupid. His explanation to Ranpo was something roughly along the lines of (not a direct quote): compared to your intelligence people are like babies. They don’t hate you, they’re just ignorant. How can a baby who can barely hold its head up have malice towards you?

Bearing this mentality in mind, it makes sense that Ranpo does not rebuke the above listed people, who he regards as ignorant compared to himself. Minoura just didn’t know how great of a detective Ranpo was, Poe was just upset, Mushitaro was just acting on his loyalty to his friend, etc. They were not malicious.

Noting Poe—yes he was after revenge (and I discussed this in a previous post), but he seemed to delight more in the action of defeating Ranpo than in watching Ranpo be miserable. The most obvious evidence to this being that when Yosano died, he simply gloated that he’d defeated one of the detectives and that Ranpo was next, not the more sadistic alternative of being happy Ranpo lost a good friend.

In summary: Ranpo is capable of an astonishing amount of forgiveness and compassion, so long as it is to people who are ignorant compared to him, do not act in malice, and are not threats to the agency. When he does decide to extend compassion and/or forgiveness, his doing so often inspires them to pursue their own goals/happiness in life.

I hope, if you have read this far, there was some value to be derived from this analysis. In truth, I wrote this to organize my personal thoughts in preparation for writing as well as other analysis.

Previously I declared that I wanted to touch on BSD Ranpo’s and Poe’s social isolation, however that turned out to be more of a complicated topic than I expected. Same thing with connecting The Case of the Murder on D. Hill (the novel which Ranpo’s debut chapter is named after) to Ranpo.

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My boiii

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atsushi being dragged into ranpo and poe’s couple shenanigans :3 also help the last panel, not Karl holding up a fan w the word “rival❤️” w a heart💀💀

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Thoughts on Ranpo

I said something about Ranpo being a jerk but being the nicest person around from his perspective on twitter yesterday and my meta got too long to post there. This got way out of hand and is more of a Ranpo analysis than an explanation. Anyway:

Let us first consider Ranpo’s perspective in general. Ranpo can look at a person, place, or thing and know everything about it if he so chooses. He figured out Fukuzawa was an assassin in about 30 seconds and that was before he gained 12 years of experience as a detective.

His glasses gave him the confidence to acknowledge he was smarter than everyone else – something he was afraid of because, as he said in Origins, being smarter than everyone else meant he was all alone and because being the smartest person around meant that if he was wrong no one would catch his mistake in time as we see with Kunikida. But what we don’t acknowledge often enough imo is that the primary thing Ranpo does with his glasses is not wear them.

What Fukuzawa said when he gave Ranpo the glasses was: “If you put these on, your ability will activate, and you will be able to see the truth, right then and there. On the other hand, when you’re not wearing them, other people’s simplemindedness will not bother you anymore.”

(This is, of course, the basis of the ability Fukuzawa later manifested – “You can turn your power on and off at will” – but I digress.)

But Ranpo could already do the first part. He was like Scott Summers from X-Men who can’t turn his power off. If you notice, when Ranpo’s in Poe’s book with Yosano, Ranpo isn’t actually bothered by knowing things. He starts deducing the case out of sheer annoyance, and it’s only when Yosano goes “wow you’re on a roll” that he snaps at her and stops. Despite all his supposed self-importance, he spends the entire case trying not to be special.

He also gets mad and asks “are you saying the president lied to me?!” which. He knows. Fukuzawa told him to his face it was a lie. What matters here is that he didn’t acknowledge it because he didn’t want to know.

Imagine you have the ability to be better than everyone at nearly everything. Go to get your car fixed and they can’t figure out where the short in your electrical system is? Well, you can, so shouldn’t you do it? You go to the doctor and they’re not sure what’s going on with that click in your wrist. Well, you'll know if you just read a couple of anatomy books, so shouldn’t you do it? You go to the coffee shop, to the grocery store, to the post office, and you can do everything better than everyone else, so shouldn’t you?

Fukuzawa correctly believed that Ranpo had the confidence and support to drop the glasses charade after their first case. But what Fukuzawa really gave Ranpo with the glasses, and what Ranpo clung to for so many years, was an excuse to turn it off. To say no, I’m not taking all that energy to do all that thinking for other people. To see someone be totally, completely, maddeningly wrong and go “huh, sure I guess,” as long as it didn’t interfere with his life. To not be expected to just deduce how the trains work.

And to save his energy for more important things. Yes, some of the information comes easy, but it did take him a little thought to figure out Fukuzawa's past. He believed everyone was doing some thinking all the time, but the revelation that he was the only one would put all that effort on him. There's a reason most colleges limit the number of finals you're required to take in a day: you can't apply yourself forever without burning out. Ranpo admitting he was smarter than everyone else without the glasses would have had him on track to either run himself into the ground or harden his heart at the tender age of 14 to protect himself.

Case in point: it's Ranpo who says he has to protect all the "foolish infants" around him just seconds after he finally admits he's smarter than everyone else - and just seconds after he's been given an excuse to not kill himself doing it.

Circling back to the statement that triggered this essay: Fukuzawa’s final bullet point in his explanation of Ranpo’s ability is that nobody hates him. Ranpo digests this, and in the anime we see flashbacks to him getting thrown out of the academy, but we also see him at his parents’ grave. Now, what would his parents’ deaths have to do with people being foolish or hating him?

Potential answer: Even when he shuts his brain mostly off, Ranpo knows what people are going through. He knows their pasts, when he needs to, their bad deeds and things they’d like to keep secret. We've seen that he knows what would hurt them the most, too (re: his intro episode when he repeats Yamagiwa’s last words to Sugimoto.)

Other people don’t.

Other people might make an off-color joke that they don’t realize breaks their friend’s heart. Other people might spend two years guessing Dazai’s history and making strong generalizing statements about how evil and deplorable everyone in the Port Mafia is. Other people might accidentally get caught whispering at a funeral about how they heard the boy’s mother had an affair, which, to Ranpo, looks like intentionally being overheard saying things you know are lies about a kind and wonderful dead woman.

For two years he didn’t understand that they didn't know. For two years he walked by thousands of people who saw an energetic young boy, but he thought they saw an orphan who was lonely and hungry and sad. It looked like people hated him, because why would they say the things they said if they knew? (They didn’t.) Why would they walk by him if they knew how he felt? (They didn’t.)

In the novel he says “all the times I was suffering” at this revelation, implying it happened often and he couldn’t understand why people were so awful.

Of course, Ranpo is still a jerk – but he could be much worse. He’ll tell people they suck to their faces and advocate for leaving Atsushi to be sold on the black market and be obscenely arrogant, but legitimate stabs, those awful moments when you put your foot in your mouth and really hurt people – he never does that by accident. But other people do it to him by accident. For friends he knows just what gifts they want for the holidays, knows their favorite and least favorite foods, and a dozen other little things other people don't know and make it look like they don't care about him enough to pay attention.

Which finally brings me to my original statement: Ranpo is a jerk but from his perspective he’s the nicest guy around. Assuming they're idiots and "not being bothered by the ignorance of others" lets him ignore their lack of social graces.

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Coming back here to post this in high quality

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osamu dazai I WOULD die for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Joker dies bcs during his big dramatic speech of the day he tries to be be all insane and funny by pretending to shoot himself in the head with his BANG! flag gun but he fucks up getting distracted by flirting with Batman and mixes up his guns and he shoots himself in the face in front of the bats. Jason, who was being bodily held back from shooting him himself by Bruce and Dick for the past 15 minutes, laughs so hard he fractures a rib and has to be carried back to the batmobile

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these guys

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one of my favorite little details about ranpo that didn't make it into the anime is his penchant for patting people on the head. i just think it's very silly, yes, but it's a very ranpo-y thing to do. that is, being a bit more than a smidge condescending, likely without even noticing it (or caring) himself.

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I counldnt stop thinking about them lately and them sharing merch finally

Happy Holidays to everyone! 💫

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not only are poe and ranpo dating, they're both completely obsessed with each other. ranpo will proudly use his 'ultra-deduction' to let the armed detective agency know that he knows they're all jealous of him.

ranpo: i've used my ultra-deduction to determine that poe is the best boyfriend by every conceivable measure, therefore you are glaring at me in defeat, because i have won! i have the best boyfriend!

the rest of the agency who has had to hear about poe's newest mystery novel in excruciating detail for the past hour: ...

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ranpo number one desirable babygirl in the area

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Do you ever think that Ranpo accidentally lets out, like, major secrets because he genuinely forgets what these less-intelligent life forms can and cannot figure out for themselves?

"Oh, it was so obvious I thought everyone already knew it and was staying silent out of politeness."

"No, we didn't know! And why would we stay quiet over such a matter???"

"I DON'T KNOW HOW MANNERS WORK!"

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