#I don't think I would be any longer interested in reading bsd if he definitely disappeared from the story–

[kyouka-supremacy]

The only thing better than Akutagawa dying is Akutagawa dying TWICE

[himi-wiz]

Hehe

Chuuya for bingo! <3

(And Dazai, if you want to.)

YOU. YOU HAD TO HUH.

Definitely don't know you anon. And therefore I can lie about it but here we go:

Dazai —

Interesting lad in the most atrocious manner possible. Admittedly I still needed to read the novels but I think Dazai is an odd character which I've never quite gotten completely even from the start of my initial bsd phase at 2014-2015. Now I'm as old as him (which is bizarre to think about) and I get what's going on, I still don't think I'll ever quite grasp what's in his head. He has this apathy and intelligence I will never take hold of as someone who understands that I am extremely an ordinary individual and chooses to remain so — being oblivious and normal — for fear that I would turn out to be as isolated as he is.

I think it's terrifying.

To be too smart and think too much of yourself, to realise you're never going to be normal for you will always reason a way out of your greatest passions and your worst nightmares. And therefore you never truly fear anything nor could you truly love something wholeheartedly either. How could you when you can't trust in anything?

I am fond of the irl author, Mr. Dazai Osamu's dedication to his work of No Longer Human which I did read through ages ago and encounter some memorable quotes. But it's only rather recently I was able to fully comprehend the sheer terror it brings as the protagonist Yozo elaborates on the despair of understanding one's role in life is inevitably meaningless, akin to an insect realising its doom to fall prey to fate in a web full of lies.

Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.

— No Longer Human, Dazai Ozamu

And I only have pity for such a being that is unable to unlearn that despair or at the very least, be able to stop, condense and move forward with these thoughts and live with them.

Our BSD Dazai however is given a chance to do so unlike Yozo thanks to Odasaku and it brings a fond affection to see him trying his best. I hope he does find his way and learns to enjoy the difficult journey stumbling around in life. But at the same time, it'll be foolish of me to presume just because he's moving towards the light, Dazai's darkness and general sense of dissatisfaction with people and life would change.

Dazai is not kind, he is not gentle, he's inconsiderate, deplorable, utterly wretched nuisance of a man who can and will use you if he decides it's worthwhile for him to do so, otherwise he has little interest in you even if he can sees through all your struggles and how he could help you, he wouldn't, certainly not intuitively desire so.

And I much prefer that viewpoint for it's more remarkable that Dazai is choosing when he does good. And how he's actively trying to be the side that reaches out to someone else and be there for them. To let himself be tied to people he feels isolated from and be vulnerable enough to take bets and place his trust on the Armed Detective Agency (and Chuuya and Akutagawa) so he could save lives he honestly doesn't care much for. How fascinating.

And so when fans do brush that darkness aside, I can be mildly peeved. But hey, it's still valid and okay to have some fun with just comfort and softness of just wishing happiness for a character you like. It can hard to decipher these layers if you don't know where to look too. Or perhaps am I reading too deep into this? Who knows. Asagiri sure has a way of writing nuances like these and it's so delightful to unpack them.

I still don't understand Dazai on a fundamental level.

That is more of my fault as I am someone who both emotionally and socially impaired so much that I use myself as a medium to "empathise" with people. I merely mimick emotions — like I don't feel sad if someone lost a loved one, I 'force' myself to feel bad if I am that person, I play out the scenario of losing something precious to me and I take that sadness to apply it to the person.

That's how I can predict people well enough, aside from those who are far too passionate in an ideal or passion I can't understand like Kunikida, those who learn to hate everything, and those who comprehend the reasons why they hate and shift to a complete apathy, able to pinpoint all the ways they're wrong — ways they don't fit, they aren't human enough, but are ultimately far too timid and cowardly to work on why they are outsiders and maintain a distance for it's far safer this way.

Dazai is still that person who's terrified of attachment and rejection, still struggling to believe in people more than he trusts his mind and vision of the world around him. And he appears to be doing his best, so perhaps I would fall in love with his character a little more when I finish rereading No Longer Human, the dark era stuff and other bsd side stories.

For now let's see how he'll end up.

Chuuya—

I refuse to elaborate on him.

Suffer anon.

[daz4i]

your last line in the theory ask got me thinking (the "why else are we following his story like this?")

do you think there's a reason atsushi, the protagonist, is kept so passive (until recently, someone was pretty much always there to help/save him in different ways), and dazai, arguably a secondary protagonist, is kept at the center?

a theory i saw is that atsushi being in the spotlight/not in the spotlight aligns with when the book is in the spotlight/not in the spotlight, and he'll be the center piece to actually locating the book

it's always fascinated me how we're repeatedly being Told he's the protagonist, but very rarely shown it past the first chapters/first season of the anime. it's a relationship between story and protagonist i've not really seen anywhere else.

OH THIS IS SO INTERESTING TBH

so. i have a few thoughts abt this lemme number them bc it's just easier for me to organize them this way hehe

1. oooooooh love that theory abt atsushi being more in the spotlight for locating the book (and after it will be found i assume :?). it does make sense! but then it's still strange just how long it took to get there, given we're over 100 chapters, technically 5 seasons of the anime, and multiple light novels into the story and not there yet. i wonder if the story/its formatting will change to accommodate that somehow :0

2. this is more abt the last part of your ask, and this concept in general! i think something that changes bsd and the context and role of atsushi in it is to see him more as a narrator (albeit an active one) rather than the actual main character whom the story is about, like. i wanna say nick in the great gatsby (<- hasn't actually read it so don't take my word on that one specifically, but like. it's been done before is what i wanna say! just mainly in books. but that does work with bsd at the end of the day! if any manga would mimic the style of books it'd be bsd hehe), and then the main character is dazai

this does align with the light novels more, imo. while he's not the main character of most of them, he is definitely present and moving the story along, same as he is in the main story. despite that, we never see his thoughts or read anything from his pov (i've seen people describe him as "a force" bc of that before, which is interesting, but i find it sort of... dehumanizing? and therefore kinda missing the point of his arc, imo). reading bsd with this thought in mind - that the main character is actually dazai - changes the context of things a lot

[ok this next part is a very crackheaded theory on why that may be that i wrote with the expectation to later add another theory. and then i couldn't come up with another theory to fit the topic i was talking about. so i'm just gonna make it indented and if the grammar/syntax(?) doesn't make a lot of sense. this is why. sorry]

it might've been done as a vague sort of homage to no longer human and the way it's written - the novel opens and closes with the pov of another character, who found yozo's journals years after he wrote them, likely after his death too. right from the start, our view of yozo can be distorted by the way he's described by this unnamed character. in a way, they are the narrator of his story. yes, we read most of it from his own pov, but we step in and out of it through an external view of him. the way we approach him, and the way we leave him, is affected both by the "narrator" and the inn owner who knew him in his life.

if we consider dazai to be the main character of bsd, it's not that out of the question that elements of no longer human will affect it beyond dazai's character alone, and that it might slip into the meta level as well. we view dazai from an outsider's perspective - not just atsushi's, but in the light novels as well - like we technically do with yozo.

it is a bit of a stretch lol i don't know if i actually fully believe that, but it's interesting to think about it that way imo :3

3. it puts a bigger focus on the generational trauma theme of bsd. the story was dazai's, and we're just watching as atsushi "inherits" it. so the light novels describe the background of our current story - the past generation, in a sense - and the manga is the new generation, building upon what's laid out already. but, like in real life, non-metaphorical generations, just because there's a new one doesn't mean the previous gen is dead yet. you can view it as dazai being like a father and atsushi as a son, in a way. just because somehow has a kid doesn't mean their life or their own stories stop, so we get to see it. and since atsushi is like a metaphorical kid, he can't do that much yet, and still has to learn how the world works before he can

yeah i have no idea if that makes sense or if that analogy is clear or not askdjfglkh i'm sorry. this post also ended up being more messy than i thought. hope you enjoyed it anyway tho!

[chazukekani]

Hello, first I want to thank you for your efforts and contents. As an overseas fan, I don't have much access to BSD but thanks to you, I can enjoy the work. I've read your analysis on Singularity so I'd like to ask if you have any personal speculations on the nature of abilities/singularities. I feel that abilities are a lot like programs and singularities are computing errors.

Hello anon! My pleasure that my tiny effort can help, and it is pleased to know that you enjoy work! Thank you so much for the support and I am always grateful for that ^^ I definitely agree with you that abilities are like programmes and singularities are like computing errors. It is also noticeable in Dead Apple (let’s assume DA is canon lmao) that abilities are separable from their owners and able to achieve self-consciousness in order to fight against the characters in the movie. Also another characteristics with abilities is that there are people who cannot fully control their own abilities (ie Atsushi, Kyouka and Tsujimura etc), which makes me wonder ability could be more than just a normal programme, but also like an AI with partial autonomy/judgement.

I think what’s special with ability is that they will know how to protect their owner. For instance, when Atsushi was starving after got kicked out from the orphanage, the tiger took over Atsushi’s body such that he could live (but that is just my own interpretation). We also have Tsujimura (spoilers alert), who got saved by Shadow Tag in order to prevent her got killed by Ayatsuji’s ability. We even have Dazai, whose nullification ability is activated regardless Dazai himself would like to activate it or not (with referenced to 55 minutes).

It is as if abilities have some certain bonds, where they act as guardians for their owners.  

On the other hand, singularity is an interesting topic that worth to discuss. When I first come across the word ‘singularity’, it reminds me quantum physics. The google definition of singularity (in terms of quantum physics) is

A gravitational singularity, spacetime singularity or simply singularity is a location in spacetime where the density and gravitational field of a celestial body is predicted to become infinite by general relativity in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system.

Coincidentally, another series that is written by Asagiri (Guilty Children),it was shown that Asagiri has a grasp of quantum physics (idk how well he knows about the discipline but he said he read books about it so anyways)

Translation: Q16 I have read books about quantum physics and military weapons while writing Guilty Children. I didn’t understand books about quantum physics very well so it was actually quite tough... and of course I have read various of all the great author’s works, essays and commentaries. That was a lot of fun.

In Beast, Dazai explained that he used No Longer Human to create an Ability Singularity, which forced to connect with the canon universe in order to acquire memories from canon Dazai. 

…何故なら私は異能無効化の能力者だ。そしてその特性を利用して特異点を発生させ、世界の分断を強制接続させた。そして『本』の外の自分……つまり本来の自分の、記憶を読み取ることに成功したのだから」

Beast Chapter 3 (JP) Kindle ver. location 3328/3643

Other than the bugs that we observe in the battle between Oda and Gide, I do think singularity is something more than ‘errors’. It can be a bridge between universes, or it can be the key to unlimited power (with reference to Stormbringer). The Ability Singularity in BSD could be a chaos, but could also be an order. And this links to another problem because ‘chaos’ is a main focus in quantum physics as well (I am not able to further elaborate it because I am not a science students, but feel free to google quantum chaos), which I am not sure whether Asagiri will continue to expand the story with this direction. But still, please beware that my speculation above could be completely wrong because I am a complete outsider in terms of science. 

I may have overthought, or over-interpreted Asagiri’s plan on Ability Singularity because there is so far no indication that the story has referenced quantum physics, but I personally are very delighted if Asagiri decided to put the discipline into BSD. After I first acknowledged that Beast took place in a parallel universe, I do believe that quantum physics will be the best tool to reconcile the existence of canon and Beast universe.

Sorry for such random and baseless reply! and please correct me if I have made any mistakes!

[kyouka-supremacy]

hi! I've been going through your blog and I love all your analyses, we may not agree on everything but it's definitely fun to read and eye-opening and I'm grateful to see someone looking into bsd with such depth and whipping out whole essays <3

On that note. There was a fan theory I read when dead apple came out (for the life of me I cannot remember the source, if anyone knows please tell me) that Atsushi's healing ability applies only to the injuries caused by other abilities, and he can't heal from non-ability things like guns etc. The op cited the scene in ch18 where Atsushi is caught in a shooting, and healed by Yosano in the next chapter.

This theory came about because 1) in dead apple, Shibusawa says that the tiger is "the antithesis to all abilities" and "the ability everyone desires." Then we never get the reason why Shibusawa was so obsessed with Atsushi. And 2) in ch7 after sskk's first encounter where Atsushi's leg is severed, Yosano takes a look and thinks "there's no scar, it's more of a restoration than a regeneration."

The gist of this is that I like the idea of Atsushi not being 100% invulnerable. And, if his is indeed the antithesis to all abilities then I'm excited to see what that entails; it implies that in the face of a time travel ability, he would be able to turn back time (if he knew how to use it ofc, cough Fukuchi fight cough). If the book is tied to an ability, Atsushi may be able to undo changes done by the book? he may also nullify Dazai's nullification? idk this opens many doors. Anyway! this is my fave bsd theory. I think, with how Akutagwa's ability sort of completes Atsushi's, and with the whole Rashomon being able to eat space, maybe with this development it will also "eat" a portion of the timeline, as in, undoing the events that occurred? is this making any sense? sorry for the rant I'd love to hear what u think, thanks <3

Hi!! Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot!!! Could this be the post you were looking for? Funny enough, it was at the very top of my reblogs queue. Indeed, it's an extremely insightful theory!!!

So, there's a lot to unpack here. Ever since I've read that theory, I've found Yosano's thoughts regarding Atsushi's healing from chapter 7 extremely interesting. It's curious, because the nuance gets completely lost in the official English translation:

(Raws → fantranslation → official Yen Press English translation). As you can see, the meaning gets totally lost in the last one. It almost makes me wonder if it was an intentional change due to the fact that the plot point won't be brought up in the manga in ten years (much like opting out of adapting the Steinbeck Guild uprising in the anime, since that plot point has been apparently discarded), but I hope that's not the case.

All taken into account, I don't think it's a stretch to say Atsushi's ability, due to his quality of denying other abilities, can only quickly regenerate as far as other abilities wounds go. When I was reading the manga I thought it was only plot convenience and suspension of disbelief, but taking a closer look perhaps the pattern of wounds not caused by abilities taking longer to heal isn't coincidental: it already happened with the wounds he suffered from in the orphanage, which ended up leaving scars (chapter 28), with the Guild's attack, which was of unknown nature but required Yosano's help to heal (chapter 18-19), with Twain's sniper attacks, which as the theory's Op point don't seem to have healed immediately (chapter 29). But in my opinion it's still too little instances to be able to affirm with certainty that it's not just coincidences dictated by plot convenience.

I do have a feeling there must be Something to Atsushi's ability. it can't just be tiger transformation and wounds regeneration. He's the protagonist, and leaving it at that, that's about the lamest ability of them all (sorry!! I love him still!!). I like the idea of Atsushi's ability being truly special, carrying qualities that have yet to be unfolded that make it different and somehow above the other abilities. I really think it'd be the most satisfying progression narrative wise, because so far Atsushi has gotten really little to claim for his protagonist role, being constantly overshadowed by Dazai; but he's the main character still, and it's like the story itself is waiting to reveal what makes him special. And there being something special to his ability has been, though subtly, consistently underlined: the extraordinary bounty on his head that nothing about what we know seems to explain, the fact that the Guild wanted to capture him specifically, the no further elaborated on fact that he's the key to finding the Book, Shibusawa's concern with him and, most importantly, the ability's quality of tearing through other abilities. Like, that feels very relevant; it's different from Dazai's nullification ability in the way it doesn't just temporarily nullify the other ability, but straight up denies it. I feel like in a manga that is so littered with meta commentary on literature, it'd be fitting to have an ability that denies other abilities' very existence, like moving an eraser through the page. It's certainly interesting to think about. And I like the concept of Atsushi's ability as an alternative to Dazai's nullification ability. Dazai has been feeling invulnerable so long, it would be gratifying to contemplate the existence of something that's outside of his sphere of influence, and potentially even more powerful and destructive than he is.

Again, there's already so many elements that make it impossible to ignore the uniqueness of Atsushi's ability; but even then, they're still so sparse and obscure it's really hard to take a guess on what it could really be about, or what is the reason why it's special. There's so much space for speculations - a connection with the book, a singularity, a God-like ability just to name a few -, but in my opinion none of them have any concrete enough canon basis to leave space for theories. I think I'd rather limit myself to say it would make a lot of sense for it to be an ability superior to other abilities, since it's something that has the power to tear through abilities themselves, and I believe that such quality is also coherent with its link to the Book as another ability-originated, extremely powerful object. The ability's power to rewrite reality, if only to a smaller extent compared to the Book, may further hint to its connection to the Book / being originated from the Book / sharing origins with the Book. When the ability immediately helps Atsushi regenerate from ability induced wounds he is lowkey rewriting the story to portray a reality where Atsushi wasn't hurt, and when he tears abilities apart it is lowkey rewriting a story where the ability didn't exist. In that, I believe it wouldn't be too far-fetched to draw similarities with the way the Book works. This also made me realize that where it's confirmed that the Book's altered reality to the point of changing the ada's memories so they remembered committing the terrorism crimes, I'm pretty sure that we never got the confirmation the same happened to Atsushi. Then, what if the book can't have effect on Atsushi due to his ability, but only on the reality surrounding him.

So yeah. I'm curious to see how this will unwrap, although I have my doubts I'll still be around when it does (man, the manga is going to take another six months just to catch up with the last anime episode, so you know). I really really like the concept of Atsushi's ability developing in a way that will make it more functional in a rematch against Fukuchi. I've been advocating for a sskk vs. Fukuchi rematch for years at this point, and it seems like we will indeed be getting it; and sskk BETTER win it this time, it wouldn't make any narrative sense to be otherwise. But to do that they'll have to overcome their biggest disadvantage that is Shintou Amenogozen's time manipulation, so you know!! Looking forward to see a sskk that is now mature and experienced unveil new skills to their abilities.