#Akutagawa was just handed an inferiority complex as a gift from his favorite mentor

[anti-dazai-blog]

9- Akutagawa gets introduced to his inferiority complex (and other complaints) 

When I say that every single line Dazai says in this chapter has some sort of annotation from me, I really do mean every. single. line. He can’t even say one thing that’s remotely decent to say to people.

Before even opening his mouth, Dazai has already disrespected Akutagawa. As Akutagawa enters into the dungeon, Dazai makes a point of blatantly ignoring his arrival. He stands there singing to himself instead of giving Akutagawa the basic respect of glancing at him. All Akutagawa wants from him is acknowledgement, and yet he won’t even acknowledge his existence, let alone competence. Even prior to Akutagawa physically showing up in front of Dazai, there are sound effects for him descending the stairs. Either the stairs are naturally very noisy, or Akutagawa was walking loudly on purpose, as a way of catching Dazai’s attention. Either way, Dazai won’t give a single shred of attention to him unless he chooses to for the sake of brutally insulting and degrading his former subordinate.

And things only get worse from here. When he first chooses to notice Akutagawa, his first words to him are “Oh.. you were here?”, as if he wasn't aware Akutagawa was here until now; as if Akutagawa is too insignificant to warrant the time and effort it would take to glance at him. 

Next Dazai brings up Akutagawa’s torturous mafia training that took place in this very same dungeon. “Remember when you were still a rookie..” he says. He brings up that he was his “former boss”, reminding Akutagawa of his place. Reminding Akuatagwa that Dazai was, is, and always will be his superior. There’s a certain famous analogy of an elephant in a circus that applies well to Akuatagwa’s current situation. The elephant is captured at a very young age, when it’s still small. To keep it in place, a rope is tied to its leg, and the rope is then secured to a stake. The baby elephant will try and struggle to pull at the rope and escape, but all its efforts are futile. It learns that it can’t break free, no matter how hard it tries. As the elephant grows to its full size, the rope’s and stake’s size stay the same. Once the elephant is an adult, it can easily tear the rope and stake out of the ground by taking one tiny step. But it doesn’t. It learned as a child that the rope will hold it in place, no matter what. It learned that it’s pointless to struggle. So even though it has grown, and even though the rope is nothing more than an imagined barrier between the elephant and freedom, the elephant will stay put. It will forever be tethered to a small, flimsy rope. 

Dazai’s the rope. He holds no power over Akuatagawa at the moment. He has no authority to tell him what to do. On the contrary, he is Akutagawa’s prisoner. And yet the years of grueling mafia training have conditioned him to always view Dazai as the superior he desperately needs the approval of, rather than the cowardly traitor he is [or rather, the cowardly traitor the mafia should view him as].

“It was quite an ordeal training you.. You’re a poor student”, says Dazai. You know those teachers who boast about how no one passes their courses? The only reaction of the students often is something along the lines of “why don’t you do your job properly and teach us, then?” The same should be Akutagawa’s reaction. He was difficult to teach? I doubt it, he’s a hard worker, and very dedicated to doing his best for the sake of earning Dazai’s approval. He has a strong ability, he seems to be a fast learner; in short, he would be the ideal student for anyone to train. Yet Dazai had impossible standards and unreachable expectations to meet. And instead of owning up to his own shortcomings as a teacher, he pushes the blame onto Akutagawa, claiming that he was at fault for not being a better student.

He continues with “and you were quick to take action”. As if that’s a bad thing. Sure, Akutagawa probably jumped into things a bit too quickly, but teaching him not to would be Dazai’s responsibility. Being quick to take action keeps you alive in the Port Mafia. Being quick to take action is the only way to survive in the Port Mafia. It’s a good trait. It’s a necessary trait. Dazai should hone and improve this skill Akutagawa's lucky enough to possess, not insult it and frame it as a character flaw on Akutagawa’s part.

He discourages Akutagawa from perfecting this skill that he could use a bit of work perfecting. Yet next he says “and your ability is junk”, as if he needs to improve in the area of his ability. It’s exceedingly clear that he doesn’t. He’s incredibly skilled as it is. And to whose detriment would it be to if not the agency- or more specifically, Atsushi– if he got any better at using Rashomon. And of all things, what right does Dazai have to declare which abilities are and aren’t junk. Dazai, the guy who never had to truly fight against an ability in his life. He never personally had to fight against Rashomon— he couldn’t even if he wanted to. He has no right to call Rashomon, or any other ability, junk.

Akutagawa at least has the sense to defend himself— he has every right to, after enduring Dazai’s mockery for the past ten minutes. So he threatens to destroy the agency. It would be a decent enough threat, if only Dazai cared even a little bit about the overall well-being of the people he works with. So Dazai replies with “Do you have it in you?”, further provoking him to go through with his threat. Mori says in a later chapter that Akutagawa has a habit of going off on his own. Dazai surely knows this. Dazai surely knows that regardless of what Akuatagwa’s orders are, he may ignore them for the sake of fulfilling whatever his own goals are. Dazai provokes him to go ahead and attack his so-called friends, just for the sake of it. Just to prove that Akutagawa’s threats are meaningless to him, and by extension, so is Akutagawa.

And now- This is the part you came here to read, isn’t it? This one specific line. This one thing Dazai says that’s unanimously declared a Supreme Asshole move. You know what I’m referring to. I doubt I even have to say it. 

But of course, that’s the purpose of this blog. I place a spotlight on both the not-so-obvious and obvious Dazai Crimes equally. 

“My new boy is far more talented than you ever were”

There’s so much wrong with this. It’s an overall cruel thing to say, for so many reasons. I’m sure someone could write a whole essay on that line alone. But I’m just gonna give a quick little summary of my personal favorite reasons why Dazai should get hit by a truck for saying that—

It’s yet another ploy for setting up Atsushi and Akutagawa as rivals. Dazai has decided that giving Akutagawa a reason to deeply and personally hate Atsushi would be good for their rivalry and partnership. In doing so, he puts Atsushi in immense danger by causing Akutagawa, someone who’s already incredibly strong and powerful, to have a personal grievance against him. 

It also puts Akutagawa in danger, because Atsushi also has a strong and powerful ability, but unlike Akutagawa, he hasn’t fully mastered controlling it yet. Even if Atsushi doesn’t want to kill him, he could easily do so by accident, on instinct, in a fight. 

Akutagawa is trying his best to earn Dazai’s approval. The lack of Dazai’s approval is literally the area he’s most self-conscious about in life. Dazai knows this, and chooses to attack him in this way on purpose. This falls right into the category of “Dazai knows your deepest hopes and fears, and will have a great time toying with them, just for the fun of it”.

Not only is this cruel, but it’s uncalled for and off-topic. No one brought up Atsushi. No one mentioned the weretiger. No one was talking about how skilled or not skilled Akutagawa is. Dazai just says this out of nowhere. Seems like he was waiting to say this the whole time. 

Dazai’s whole thing with creating sskk [the duo] is to mimic his own partnership with Chuuya. Their partnership was incredibly dysfunctional in its own right, but there was at least some semblance or illusion of equality between them. By the way Dazai’s setting up sskk [the duo], he’s creating a pair of people where one of them will constantly feel inferior to the other. Atsushi doesn’t spend any time comparing himself to Akutagawa, but Akuatagwa was “behind” Atsushi from the start. Dazai told him so. Dazai told him outright that Atsushi’s superior to him, and so Akutagawa will spend the rest of bsd trying to catch up to someone who is actually his equal (or quite possibly less powerful than him). There was absolutely no reason to give Akuatagwa an inferiority complex that he didn’t previously have.

And in the very next scene, Akuatagwa goes and stabs Atsushi straight through the chest. He blatantly ignores the fact that the weretiger is wanted alive, and now his only goal is to prove to Dazai that he’s superior to his new protégé. So look at what you’ve done, Dazai. You went and got Atsushi stabbed. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

Join me next week when I talk about.., Oh I don’t know.. STILL the dungeon scene. It goes on for three whole chapters, I think. That’s a bit too much dungeon for my tastes. I’m already exhausted after only one chapter of this.