#I guess Ranpo was there to be the strategist but come on

[calitsnow]

I can’t take this anymore

[n1kolaiz]

ENTJ + INFJ DYNAMIC

BSD MANGA CHAPTER 54-57 SPOILERS

Chapter 54 introduced Mushitaro Oguri, and his background involving Yokomizo was ever so intriguing to me. So unfortunately, here I am.

Mushitaro and Yokomizo's dynamic:

The 'Commander' meets the 'Idealist.'

Alright, I won't go into the details about the case of Yokomizo's death, because there's no way in hell I can explain it fluently at all. So if you need further reference to what these few chapters are about, popopretty's post would elaborate on the details and whatnot.

Before I start, here's a bit of little introduction to both individual characters:

MUSHITARO OGURI

Mushitaro appears to take a lot of pride in his ability, which contributes to his arrogant complex altogether. He had his own desires and goals, and lived out his days just to fulfil them.

His ability is called the 'Perfect Crime,' which allows him to erase any trail of evidence pertaining to whatever crime he had committed. Hence, he is also known as the 'infallible Detective-killer.'

Until Ranpo proved him wrongヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉﾞ

His personality type is most likely 'ENTJ,' the 'Commander.'

- ENTJs are known to have exceptional leadership skills. They are confident in themselves and what they do; basically, they don't have the tendency to second-guess what they are capable of. This explains Mushitaro's ambition to achieve his ends, and his ability goes the extra mile of complimenting his success rate greatly. Whether his motives or the end results were morally good or evil, it didn't matter to Mushitaro— as long as his wishes were fulfilled.

"With tyrants and demons, I'll make deal with a demon. That's in my nature."

- They're also quite outspoken with their opinions. It's a fairly minor detail, but this shows why he wasn't afraid to express the distaste he had for mystery novels to Yokomizo— including the extravagant ideas and serpentine stories his close friend based his life upon and discussed with him.

- The subtle insensitivity mixed in with an ENTJ's preference of logic over emotion highlights one of their core weaknesses: which brings us back to Mushitaro's ability to kill his friend. Say you were to put a person with a deeply compassionate heart, who's also very well in-tact when it comes to identifying emotions and being empathetical to other's feelings: would that person be able to kill a friend they'd known for so long? For the sole reason of making his last mystery novel a deathless enigma? This is very subjective perspective, but I believe that if Mushitaro was more of an emotionalist rather than a strategist, things would have turned out different for Yokomizo's eventual fate.

Side note: His insensitivity did, however, find its limit when he realised how devastating it was to have killed his own friend with his hands. Even though there's a wide scale that measures how insensitive a person can be, they are, in fact, still human beings capable of feeling. Killing someone dear to you is no easy task; there is a breaking point for the hardest of hearts.

SEISHI YOKOMIZO

Yokimozo, also known as Kindaichi, was a mystery writer who was very particular about detail and being exclusive, especially when it came to his works. His last wish he pursued to achieve before a terminal illness took his life was done by formulating a 'mystery that transcended reality.'

"I hate regret. So I've done whatever I've wanted to do. Up until now, it's been a satisfying life. But now… I've been given a time limit…Before then, I have to complete the ultimate mystery."

His personality type is identified as 'INFJ,' also known as the 'Idealist.'

- INFJ's are deeply creative and artistic, but they express it in various different ways. For Yokomizo, he portrayed his brilliant artistic skill through his writings revolving around mysteries and their compelling depths. The fictional character's namesake was also a mystery novel writer. Yokomizo was pretty well-versed with how mysteries worked and how their details ravelled themselves into elegantly, well-established riddles, which only added to his natural flair of writing.

- Generally, INFJs are reserved, but incredibly idealistic. Yokomizo was seen to be very abstract in his idea of thinking, and this is due to the fact that INFJs have a thing for pondering about life and the meaning behind everything.

"Mushi-kun, I bet you're laughing at me for destroying myself for the sake of mystery. But if that's the case, maybe there's no such thing as unshakable values. Maybe it's up to us to decide what to put value in and what to live for. After all, we have the right to turn our own decisions into our entire world. It is, foolishly enough, the greatest luxury afforded to mankind."

- As for their weaknesses, some INFJs are very hard to get to know. They are mysterious at times, which prevents them from being flamboyant with their thoughts and opinions. Yokomizo had a very lighthearted, mystifying nature, which made him a very interesting character altogether. Despite having a high regard for their intimate relationships— INFJs can be quite private. Mushitaro vaguely points out his self-contained, introverted mannerisms in this panel:

Now, I'll get to my point.

ENTJs and INFJs don't ideally match up, but when it comes to general friendships, there are a few details that suggest an accomodating dynamic between the two personality types. These qualities emanate from Mushitaro and Yokomizo's friendship with each other.

Opposites attract in most cases, correct?

Well, in this case, ENTJs and INFJs have a lot of similarities:

intelligent

intuitive in thinking

determined

goal-oriented

But the more numerable contrasting qualities is what really brings out the agreeable traits between Mushitaro and Yokozimo. Think of it as a system where two opposites mutually keep each other in check:

1. Mushitaro bases his life on the gaining his own needs and wants, and is very firm in his sense of realism, while Yokomizo is more focused on the deep, complexities of life itself. This may come off as impractical to ENTJs, but also compliments their coordination with INFJs. Realism limits idealism, but idealists can also expand the boundaries realists place themselves in.

2. INFJs accept people and ideas as they are, not willing to put others down just to prove themselves right. Yokozimo's tolerant behaviour stands in contrast with how authoritative Mushitaro is, especially when it boils down to his arrogance— he isn't afraid to spit his pride right into his opponent's face.

Kneel, detectives! I am the king of crime! No one can force me to sin and repent!

Just for laughs reference^

So it's safe to say that because Yokomizo had an acquired sense of serenity and open-mindedness, he was able to tolerate Mushitaro's extravagant, subtle histrionic characteristics, which were laced with his superior complex.

3. In the manga, Yokomizo speaks and converses with Mushitaro in a way that suggests that he is careful with his words. INFJs are gentle and generally sensitive to the needs of others, so they tend to be careful with what comes out of their mouths. Mushitaro, like most ENTJs, are quite blunt. This points back to how insensitive they come off, even if they don't actually mean it. So when it comes to Yokozimo explaining tales of mystery to Mushitaro, Mushitaro doesn't hesitate to mock Yokozimo; but because of how understanding Yokozimo is, he doesn't take Mushitaro's opinions too seriously to the point of discounting the value of their friendship, because he knew Mushitaro didn't use his words with the intention to harm.

If you were to place a more dominant persona in Yokomizo's position, I doubt that that person would be able to tolerate such behaviours. Then again, this is crucially subjective.

I suppose the main thing I wanted to point out was how ENTJs and INFJs balanced each other out by cancelling out each other's extreme traits, and keeping each other in the middle of the equilibrium altogether. But another thing I'd like to point out to sum up Mushitaro and Yokozimo's relationship was this: the fact that Mushitaro had to kill his own friend to grant his dying wish. Dying for someone or by someone's hands is easier than killing someone, especially if that someone is dear to you, no? I guess that's the part I can't fathom— it was the type of relationship that stood out way more than I had expected. Say, the roles were switched, would Yokomizo actually kill Mushitaro? Or would Mushitaro think of such an incomprehensible way to die in the first place? Or what if these two friends had different, more superior traits that coexisted in conflict all the time, would Yokomizo even depend on Mushitaro with such a task?

The speculations are endless, or maybe it's pretty straightforward. Though, I hope this made sense.

Okay, I'm done rambling for now. Thank you for reading!

[katmaniac21]

How would look a romantic relationship between Mafia!Ranpo (if Fukuzawa never cuts ties with Mori) and Mafia!Yosano? How would Fukuzawa/Mori react to it?

Thank you for the question!

So, for me, the most interesting part of this question deals with Ranpo and Yosano’s first meeting in the manga. The whole reason why their relationship is important is because Ranpo is the first person she’s met since she was first drafted who has valued her for something other than her ability to save lives- her kindness. 

But, if Yosano remained inside of the mafia and Ranpo joined because of Fukuzawa, this interaction wouldn’t have happened. Instead, Yosano would have continued to save the lives that Mori requested at the same self-exhausting pace. Now, I’m just going to assume that in this Mafia universe that Mori does not exclusively maintain his ties to the military and continues to operate the Mafia as normal. Meaning, the majority of Yosano’s job would consist of healing Port Mafia members and potentially torturing people for information (seeing as though she could keep them on the brink of death without actually killing them). For Ranpo, we don’t have existing ties to go off of, but we could guess that he would be given some sort of stategical position seeing as though the Port Mafia has no need for an actual detective.

Just like how Yosano starts out eager and excited while working for the military but then slowly dissolves into over-worked despair, the same thing would happen if she joined the mafia. She would gradually become unable to bear the moral burden of having to heal so many of Yokohama’s most heinous criminals, and then one day, she would snap. Mori would ask her to heal a man guilty of something particularly cruel and Yosano would just straight up refuse. Of course, Mori wouldn’t accept that and would threaten her in attempt to make her do it anyway. That’s where Ranpo comes in. Using his abilities as a strategist, Ranpo could convince Mori that it would be more strategic in the long run to let the man die instead of reviving him, thus removing Yosano’s responsibilty to heal him. Mori suspects that this is simply a reason to help Yosano, but he goes along with it becuase he knows that Ranpo’s plans have never failed.

From there, Ranpo comforts Yosano and explains to her once again that she is more than just her ability, and that her kindness is just as important and useful to the mafia. While it takes a while for Yosano to recover, she quickly realizes that Ranpo is the only person in the Mafia who truly understands her and thinks of her as more than just an “asset”. Based on their mutual feelings of understanding for eachother, their romantic relationship becomes a natural porgression. Despite the dangerous and criminal work they do every day, they know that there is at least one person in the world who knows them and loves them despite the awful things they do. 

As for Fukuzawa and Mori’s reactions, I think they would both be supportive for different reasons. Fukuzawa obviously has a bit of a soft spot for Ranpo, so I think he would be secretly happy that Ranpo has found something other than people’s fear and respect for him that fufills him. Mori however would would be supportive for a much less wholesome reason. Mori would know just how much of a toll being in the mafia takes on Yosano, but seeing how integral her ability is to his overally mission of making gifteds an essential part of the government/military, he would need assurance that she would stay. Now that he knows that Ranpo and Yosano are in a happy relationship, he feels more confident that Yosano has more of a reason to stay in the mafia.

Whew! This was a really fun question! I’d love to do more sometime :)

[goddamnitdazai]

A small opinion about all the ‘Dazai ex machina’ posts I’ve been seeing. This is by no means meant to disregard/correct anyone’s like or dislike of a character or chapter(s). Y’all feel how you feel and that’s chill, but there’s a few things that I’d like to point out in defense of Dazai’s character and the way this arc wrapped up. This may not be the most eloquent post because I tend to shit out these metas the minute I start thinking about it also I’ve had a lot of coffee to counter the no sleep. I too was disappointed at first in the way this arc ended. It ended too quickly, too easily, and I was slightly confused on how Mori and Fukuzawa were up and ready to fight when they were basically decomposing in their beds in the previous chapter. Looking back on it after the initial shock I realized that was probably the point. A lot of people have been criticizing the writing and saying that it’s lazy or anticlimactic, but look at the way the guild arc ended. That was the practical opposite of this ending, and this ending was so obviously easy that it seemed purposeful. Fyodor may have been surprised to be found, or may have had a Plan B, or maybe it was his plan all along. We don’t know yet, but I’m leaning towards the latter two. If the ending was meant to be short and sweet, it would not have been so abrupt. We’ve seen it end dramatically with Moby Dick so the talent is there. Just don’t count Fyodor out yet, it’d be like assuming Dazai would get caught and whisked away like “oh no ya caught me time for jail”. That’s not how he rolls, and Fyodor has already been compared to Dazai. Let’s be real Fyodor would not walk away so easily. Regardless of this being the original plan or a plan B Fyodor is not even close to being finished. Now, the subject of Dazai being this god like all knowing persona is understandable but kind of a simple assumption at the same time. We watched Dazai and Ranpo work together in the first season with ‘Murder on D Street’ where Ranpo deadass knew the last words of a dead woman he had never met, but that’s Ranpo and he’s that smart right? We know it’s not an ability he’s just smart as hell and even Dazai admits he has no idea how Ranpo figured anything else out. But, Dazai explains to Atsushi how he figured out the few details he managed to catch, yet there’s nothing bashing Ranpo for his intelligence. I understand that Dazai is always portrayed as the one with the plan, and that knows everything but that is his role in the agency. He doesn’t have a combat ability and he’s not very good at physical fighting. What does he have to offer then? His intelligence. His knowledge of the Mafia’s inner workings is helpful sure, but they aren’t always fighting the mafia. The ADA doesn’t exist solely to fight against the Port Mafia--they’re detectives. Dazai and Ranpo are the strategists of the ADA, but Ranpo is a side character thus his amplified intelligence is not over-used. Going back to the Guild Arc Ranpo was the one who planned the ending, figured out where Moby Dick would land and helped Dazai set up the ending with the smoke screen and everything else. Dazai didn’t plop down and within five minutes figure out how to take them down--he needed Ranpo’s help. There’s a moment in the manga where Dazai makes a guess at the ending--he mentions the mountains, and Ranpo corrects him--yes it’s a minuscule part but it shows a sliver of Dazai’s intelligence being beneath Ranpo’s. We also see Dazai reaching out to Ranpo during the Azure Messenger episode to figure out where the bomb is going to be. Dazai knows when he needs help and isn’t afraid to reach for it, but because there have been chapters upon chapters of Dazai being the strategist vs Ranpo these things tend to be forgotten. We also don’t know how these plans come to fruition--if Ranpo and Dazai planned together to bring down Moby Dick how do we know this doesn’t happen with each major plan that’s been laid out? I get it though, Dazai is a main character and his ties to Akutagawa and Atsushi drive the parallels centering around the story so yes, I get why it can get exhausting watching him solve everything. But, we don’t know if he actually figures everything out before hand or if he just shits out side plans based on the information given and goes from there. We don’t know how he thinks--and that’s part of his character. We get small glimpses of him (more than once) looking dejected when no eyes are on him, and that smidgen of emotion is all we are getting (for now). Until we know that he literally knows everything everyone is going to do before they even think it themselves, assuming Dazai is the master puppeteer in the universe is a bit unfair. We also need to remember that Dazai had this logistic mind set drilled into him for 8 (possibly more) years vs his two and a half (?) years out on his own. For a vast change of mindset that’s not much of a time lapse.  I can’t lie and say I wouldn’t like to see Dazai legitimately screw up again but right now isn’t the time for his character development. If he suddenly starts realizing “maybe I shouldn’t be a manipulative shithead all the time” its going to take away from the beautiful development of Akutagawa and Atsushi. This whole arc centered around them (again) just as The Guild arc did because they are the main parallels. If Dazai’s character starts getting the development he needs it would be better to mold it realistically rather than it happen out of nowhere. So I get it, I really do, but Dazai is still not a perfect god like character. We watched him devastatingly fuck up and not realize Mori’s plan in the Dark Era that resulted in Odasaku’s death. Odasaku is clearly a huge influence on Dazai, and there is a possibility this massive guilt could be the reason he’s more meticulous. In the Port Mafia he was more reckless, and that seems to have changed with the way he goes about executing plans. Now, he is not exactly good either. He doesn’t include people in plans, he manipulates, and he uses his perceptiveness to get what he wants. That’s not how he should roll, but that’s what stops him from being a very generic trope. I can understand how people feel his perceptiveness can be overbearing, but there have been snippets of him not always being on top of his game.  I would love to see some serious character development for him and he needs to be tripped up, and I’m hoping that Fyodor is the character to do that. But for now we just have to wait and see if the writers take the right direction.