#In all seriousness you have likely been following bsd for longer than I have (my first manga chap I had to wait for was ch101

[sigmashuffle]

I have a question!! So I’m a long-time BSD enjoyer but I haven’t read nearly as much of the manga as I would like. I’ve seen all of the anime though, most of it multiple times through. I didn’t realize until looking at the comments on Danny Motta’s video at how much people fucking hate Fukuchi and his sword. Up until this point I’ve thought it’s cool as hell and he, along with the sword, bring something kinda new and fun to the series.

HOWEVER, I know BSD is FAR from perfect and there’s a lot of dumb shit that faithful manga readers have a better perspective on. Would you mind explaining why Fukuchi and the sword are such a sore point? I hope this isn’t too much to ask. I just really want to know.

Hi anon! Its not too much to ask at all!

Unfortunately the answer to that is best explained in the context of ALL the issues I have with the manga/show so... this is going to be v long... and im done giving this show more credit than it deserves but don't take it that seriously lol I hesitate to even consider my pov to be on par with the average manga reader but ig we'll see how my opinions hold up after i post

And disclaimer: I don't mind answering this but ONLY with the context that this is 100% my opinion (as of late, bsd as a whole has just been REALLY bugging me so im just gonna take this opportunity to explain my gripes since most of them apply to or tie greatly into fukuchi's character/design/motivations/development)

I simply don't want anyone to come for my head bc of anything I say here tho, bc I feel like I may disagree with a large portion of the fanbase but WITH THAT SAID...

***from this point forward there will be a few spoilers from s5e11***

Here are my gripes with BSD...

1. BSD and its "magic system"?

bsd powers suffer from what i like to call a "lack of scope"

granted this could be due to the fact the story isnt complete HOWEVER im sure any anime fan can tell you this story doesnt feel like it is leading anywhere its just... going... (ill get to the awful pacing later)

for comparison sake im going to also talk about The Case Study of Vanitas since it is the world I have the most experience in

what does BSD not have that VNC does?

simply put, the magic system doesnt reinvent itself character to character

in VNC if you have an ability it is EXCLUSIVELY connected to "manipulations of the world formula" which is essentially elemental control (fire, ice, gravity, etc.) based on a sci fi version of chemistry (alchemy, if you will) and this rule applies to EVERY CHARACTER in VNC

its a structure that starts developing from the beginning

BSD however introduces a WHOLE NEW magic system for each character

some character abilities are similar, yes, and can be classified as such, but many cannot be classified

again a magic system doesnt NEED to have strict rules (its actually more boring that way if the rules are too simple) but it DOES need RULES... and solid ones

otherwise its tempting to use the MAGIC system to fill in PLOT RELATED gaps

and if that system isnt defined, well, to me that looks like lazy/sloppy/illogical writing

if you like the whiplash of not knowing whats gonna happen next, fine, (i did for awhile too!) up until the unpredictability started to come from powers that as a whole look like an authors way of trying to write themselves out of their own plot hole

ie: time travel

specifically time travel that isnt introduced FROM THE BEGINNING...

2. Fukuchi and his "deus ex machina" sword

time travel is NOTORIOUSLY difficult to pull off and especially by my standards

I have watched Doctor Who since 2008, before I even knew what tumblr was I was doing my own solo fandom stuff (basically just watching a LOT of youtube video essays) but basically I have high standards when it comes to time travel in stories

Amenogozen has the POTENTIAL to be a great weapon if used in a logical context... but theres one thing the sword (and BSD as a whole) does not follow

RULES

time travel is TRICKY mostly bc it has consequences... in BSD fukuchi gives nothing in exchange for his powers

lets even toss time travel aside for the moment

what is Fukuchi's innate special ability? Mirror Lion... (read below)

its essentially an attack multiplier of x100 at CLOSE RANGE

lets say your average untrained human punch is 150psi (pounds per square inch) which is the pressure equivalent of a point 100m below the surface of the ocean...

with Mirror Lion's multiplier you get 15,000psi which would be 10,000m or 10 kilometers

a pressure equivalent to the deepest part of the ocean (i dont need to remind you how powerful water is... we all know about oceangate)

MY POINT IS HE'S OVERPOWERED AS FUCK

dont even get me started on his motivations too

im glad we got backstory for him in ep 11 and im sure we are just supposed to sum up his motivations into "he was willing to pay the high price for world peace" but tbh royally fuck that

dont TELL me thats what he believes

PROVE to me how you made that conclusion

also the only reason he even dies is becasue he wants fukuzawa to kill him... we dont have any sense of accomplishment for stopping his scheme because NOW the scheme has been PLOPPED right into fukuzawa's lap which fukuchi intended to do from the start... apparently

and this seemingly retroactive decision-making is a problem A LOT of bsd characters have, especially the one and only character i hate THE MOST... *drumroll*

3. Osamu fucking Dazai

oh boy...

I have thought long and hard about Dazai... im not going to lie, after ch109 and ep10 I was about to admit Dazai might actually have grown on me BUT

this was all erased after 6 minutes into ep11 when he was confirmed to indeed NOT be dead

Dazai just *knows* everything thats gonna happen

Chuuya was never a vamp... he knew this... and somehow his ENTIRE escape plan was just hinging on that? bc yknow... hE kNeW fRoM tHe bEgiNniNg

OSAMU DAZAI IS A PLOT DEVICE USED *ONLY* TO FILL IN NARRATIVE HOLES

HE IS A WAY TO FORCE PROGRESS ON A STORY WITHOUT EVER GIVING A REAL EXPLANATION

HIS CHARACTER IS AN INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE

His character is paper thin, with motivations that do not translate to his actions

and frankly... im tired of it...

additionally... if sigma doesn't survive, all of Meursault was literally useless... so why pick him for nikolai's prison break game?

even if he does, it means the ONLY thing we get out of the arc is information about fyodor... as to WHAT information, who knows... but regardless, a villain arc that has been going on for TOO GODDAMN LONG (40 chapters?) should have a resolution that isnt "i knew what was gonna happen all along"

we spent the whole time being SHOWN that fyodor and dazai were of equal intelligence levels... or at least higher than what dazai was used to dealing with

if dazai could just predict shit like this from the beginning why was fyodor a villain for so long? makes ZERO sense, dazai would've defeated him AGES ago... what makes THIS time any different?

also... why is he even suicidal? yeah ok the author was... but like... why make it such a present character trait?... so we can fake kill him over and over? idk

can you tell i dislike him?

4. THEORY vs PRACTICE

I am a "show dont tell" girlie

ALL BSD DOES IS "TELL TELL TELL" ...its infuriating

almost every power/special ability has an element of "trust me bro" ok SOME OF THEM DONT but most of them do

ie: atsushi is a tiger (what does that even mean), kenji gets strong when he's angry (ok hulk?), and THIS JUST IN we STILL don't know how fyodor's ability works... and now he's DEAD?... we also dont know almost any detail about sigma's ability and he might ALSO be dead

but thats only regarding abilities...

when it comes to writing stories using people of high intelligence it is VERY difficult to not get into the aforementioned "trust me bro" mindset which BSD does REPEATEDLY

im not listing off every example but off the top of my head is one scene from s4...

ranpo explains his plan for saving yosano loosely involved "replacing the engine [of an armored vehicle] with an electric motor and playing engine sounds over the speakers so no one noticed" ...and only i can pick this claim to shreds lol (i engineer electric vehicles for a living) but this is so wrong on so many levels...

Internal combustion engines and Electric motors are IN NO WAY EQUIVALENT

ranpo would never be able to power a vehicle the size of an armored truck with a motor that he installed an hour before the truck was put to use... he just wouldnt... the vehicle is too big... ugh *facepalm*

and dont even get me started on batteries...

MY POINT IS

if you want to write some *genius move* at least TRY to do some research to make the action believable

thats like saying "oh yeah i ran out of gas so a threw a couple AA batteries into my gas tank until i could make it to the station"

BUT THAT WOULDNT FLY BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE KNOW THATS NOT HOW CARS WORK

*sigh*

5. Manga Readers' POV

the.chapters.are.too.short

especially for a monthly released manga

i am relatively new to anime and manga... like late 2020, so I am part of the "new gen" I guess you could say so i know i dont have any right to complain about pacing in comparison to like... the dressrosa arc of One Piece

with that said, not enough in bsd BUILDS on itself

it all feels like a self "one-up"

its been too long since any of my large questions have been answered

honestly its rare that any of my questions are ever answered because the narrative rarely follows logical progression anyway and any scenes thats ARE useful are cut from the anime

characters do not *develop* their powers, they just simply ARE

whatever ability you are born with limits what you can do and thats that... which leads me to...

6. Types of Ability Users

the most coherent thing i think i can speak on so this will be short lol

there are 3 types... i think (excluding lightnovels, i have not read 15, Stormbringer, or any others)

(1) natural abilities (ones that can be nullified by dazai or stolen like in Dead Apple)

(2) human/god fusions (chuuya) -> but this can ALSO be nullified???

(3) when an ability isnt an ability (it CANT be nullified) -> ie: whatever the fuck Lovecraft is

Sigma -> ??? (he could be part of the natural ability category but like... it feels weird to put him there)

but... there is never a comparison between these types so im not even sure of this "list" is exhaustive

this is just another way the story is leaving open ways to dig itself out of a plot hole... which isnt fun... bc now there are no stakes... there are no rules... its disorganized chaos where anything can happen

everyone will always be fine because there is a way out of everything

and thats BORING... and for me, downright infuriating

fukuchi likely falls into the first category... but then again he's also using a tool from another ancient ability user... so does he even fit there?

7. Anime Adaptation

rushed

rushed

RUSHED

and i know why...

BSD is so thin on STABLE plot the story would feel like its dragging if Bones wasn't animating at the pace they are (see Manga Readers' POV)

so to try and counteract the feeling that nothing is happening they are cutting "irrelevant" scenes BUT ALSO important portions relevant ones (ie: aku's death)

do all the plot points from the manga happen? by definition, yes... but the nuance the manga has is lost almost entirely

Atsushi doesn't physically throw an injured Aku's arm over his shoulders... Aku doesn't smile upon his demise... Aku doesn't reach out through the fog of the fire extinguisher (the adaptation of this scene was personally my last straw)

and then we have the new anime content...

why did we tack on an additional fight? zero context... didn't even tie up loose ends from fukuchi like...

is sigma alive?

are chuuya/dazai/nikoali still in france? europe?

is fyodor going to return in some way? (we know nothing of his motives, ability, or MOST importantly, what information did he learn from Sigma??? his ability is an EXCHANGE so why even have that happen if they are both dead anyway?) why would you fucking kill off a character like this

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS ENTIRE ARC??? The mere reason I'm asking this question is, in and of itself, unacceptable

we MAY get an answer later... but its been 20 episodes... why the fuck dont we know anything about the arc we just completed? ...ludicrous

Final Thoughts

BSD does not have enough reliable rules in its magic system to form a solid foundation of... anything

Fukuchi is a disjointed character trying to do too many things at once, he doesn't have solid motivations, and his arc provides more questions than it answers

Osamu Dazai is not a character... he is a plot device used like a saving throw in DND

BSD frequently insults my intelligence to cover it's ass in its storytelling

being a manga reader is like taking 30 days to rip off a tiny band aid... the pacing is unbearable

even with the end of fukuchi's arc now known, there was no sense of accomplishment in defeating him bc technically we didnt… he gave himself up... so the sword was just to make him overpowered... it was pointless

the anime adaptation was rushed, scenes cherry picked, and plot narratively thinned into water... there was no depth this season

In my opinion...

There are very few redeeming characteristics about BSD now

The few meaningful scenes we do get in the manga are overwritten by later context that negates any emotion initially associated with the scene

even with the end of fukuchi's arc now known, there was no sense of accomplishment in defeating him bc technically we didnt... he gave himself up

Dazai is the worst written character I have ever read

It is very likely i drop this story entirely

If I seem salty/upset/etc. its because I am. However is NOT directed at you, it is simply a manifestation of my disappointment in this story.

...

And there you have my opinion... in way too many words... thanks for sticking around if you made it this far im impressed bc i am salty as hell lol

fin

[ave-cave]

Lucy in Chapter 118: an Analysis 🫧

Hooo boy

Chapter one-eighteen. Where do I even 𝓫𝓮𝓰𝓲𝓷?

Unlike a lot of folks in this fandom (all more imaginative than I could ever hope to be), I had basically no solid predictions for this chapter (or… any chapter thus far, really, and I've been following the manga religiously since 103, so… yeah, there's a reason I'm a BSD analyst, not theorist, lmao). Needless to say, 118 is heartbreak and bombshells galore: Tanizaki and Kenji’s Ame-no-Gozen-ing, the possibility that all of those “Jun'ichirō and Naomi aren't really siblings” theories were just proven dead right, the protagonist and main villain finally meeting because it's about damn time, so on and so forth.

But because a) the fanbase is already abuzz with talk about those things + no doubt already in the process of doing them analytical justice, and b) I'm annoying, I’ve decided to dissect the ever-loving hell out of the chapter’s three most innocuous pages: this interaction between Kyōka Izumi and Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Inhales

MY GIRLS ARE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

Does a little jig 🎶

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system

No, but seriously. We haven't heard from Kyōka since chapter 91. Three whole years; definitely too long for a character of her importance. But Lucy… Lucy’s been out of the picture since chapter 81. That’s four whole years. So in other words, two significant female characters, sidelined for ages, are back. That’s kind of huge, IMO.

Of course, we have a vague idea of what they’ve been up to. Anne's Room has been shown more than once serving as the ADA’s safe haven and base of operations, and so per the rules of AOAR, Lucy must be nearby if not inside herself. Kyōka we see in silhouette form in Anne's Room in chapter 92. But this is the first time in a hot minute we've seen either of them in the flesh, let alone gotten dialogue out of them. I nearly choked on my cereal when I turned the page and saw their faces, lol.

So then, pray tell, what does this long-awaited appearance in the flesh entail? Well…

Lucy and Kyōka:

Right off the bat, the girls are seen in Anne’s Room (where they’ve ostensibly been this whole time), standing in front of the white door (i.e., the door opposite the prison, which – unless linked to a surface in the real world – will cause those who leave through it to experience amnesia. Not relevant to the scene, just thought I should give a refresher.) The exit is blocked by rubble; the airport, as well as the surrounding buildings, have all been devastated. How to leave Anne's Room at this point is anyone’s guess.

Kyōka suggests Lucy deactivate her ability, but Lucy points out that, chances are, they'll be flattened by rubble as soon as she does. In response, Kyōka does her signature knife-unsheathing and insists, rather ominously, that they'll just have to take a gamble then. Lucy grabs her wrist and tells her to stop, and when Kyōka asks her why, she replies solemnly, “Because… if you died… it would crush him,” this followed by a picture of Atsushi’s smiling face.

YES. YES. YES.

Now THIS is what I love about Lucy and Kyōka’s dynamic.

In essence, they're rivals. Thing is, they're not your generic “two girls fighting over the same guy” rivals. Kyōka’s feelings toward Atsushi aren’t even romantically-coded.

Their shared love for Atsushi doesn’t divide them; it unites them. After all, since the Guild Aftermath arc, the “rivalry” aspect of their relationship has had almost nothing to do with him. There, they were only at each other’s throats because Kyōka didn’t like how Lucy, still angry about the Moby Dick, was treating Atsushi, and Lucy didn’t like how Kyōka was standing in the way of her talking things out properly with him.

But once a much-needed heart-to-heart was had between Atsushi and Lucy and the latter turned over a new leaf, there was no longer any reason for her and Kyōka to bicker. Kyōka didn’t have the full context of Lucy’s actions, and was thus within her rights to assume she couldn’t be trusted, but Lucy proved that she could be when she led them to the right boat.

Later on, Lucy showcased that she didn't resent Kyōka when she advocated for her, forcing Atsushi to leave her to her thoughts upon learning the truth of her parents' deaths.

The next chapter, Kyōka calls Lucy’s coffee mediocre, but Lucy herself admitted that she's not much of a barista, and so the comment is more Kyōka not mincing words than actively trying to be rude. Moreover, Lucy is offended at first, but then concedes without any real hostility.

In the Cannibalism arc, Kyōka is shown bowing politely to Lucy while enlisting her help, even if she is just following Atsushi's lead (and later does the same for Mushitarō).

Fast forward to the Sky Casino arc, Kyōka is miffed by Lucy’s hot-and-cold behavior around Atsushi, but that’s not exactly unique to her...

... and besides, they agree without resistance to work together to infiltrate the casino. In chapter 81, i.e., the last we saw of Lucy until now, the Agency reunites and Lucy encourages Kyōka to join in on the celebration.

Perhaps most notable is chapter 78. Here, the two are lumped into the same category by Ango: he recognizes them both as people who would choose Atsushi over the good of the world, and this nearly drives him to kill them on the spot for fear of what their loyalty could turn into.

In this latest chapter, however, it’s underscored that, while Lucy and Kyōka may be the same in their care for Atsushi on the surface, they’re still – at the end of the day – foil characters.

Both are orphans. Both were taken in – and subsequently exploited – by criminal organizations for their abilities. Both found their place in the story by virtue of meeting Atsushi. Both are undyingly loyal to Atsushi because of what he’s done for them. But that’s about where their similarities end.

Kyōka was introduced as a remorseful killer seeking atonement by death. Atsushi managed to save her (twice, for that matter) in the conventional hero way, cementing himself as her savior and playing into the reckless heroism by which he determines his worth.

Lucy, on the other hand, was introduced as a bitter villain who believed she was justified in lashing out. Atsushi tried, but he couldn’t save her in the traditional hero way. Only his vulnerability managed to get through to her, and if anything, Lucy saved him. This utterly subverted the philosophy by which Atsushi had begun to define both himself and his relationships.

Since then, Lucy has been trying at every turn to get Atsushi to see himself as more than just a hero. She reprimands him for his reckless heroism when she sees it. She stops him from inserting himself into other people’s plights uninvited. She confronts him when he fails to understand his relationships beyond the framework of hero and savior. Kyōka, meanwhile, has been doing more or less the opposite; she’s passively allowed Atsushi to keep playing the perpetual hero, and this wouldn’t be the first time she’s taken on his philosophy of self-sacrifice herself.

To these ends, the girls’ thought processes here are perfectly in line for them: Kyōka tries to push forward without care for what could happen to her, whereas Lucy emphasizes self-preservation.

One might perceive Lucy replying the way she does to Kyōka’s question as callous, but I don’t really think so. She isn’t saying “the only reason you shouldn’t risk your life is because it would make Atsushi sad.” She’s applying her philosophy of self-preservation to Atsushi and Kyōka at the same time. She's encouraging Kyōka to be more than just a hero by telling her to think of how it would affect Atsushi as a person if she died.

If Lucy is good at anything, it’s communicating what she wants from people in a way that she knows will get through to them. She did this with Atsushi on the Moby Dick when she bluffed about waiting on his salvation, knowing that he would be more motivated to stay alive himself if he thought there was someone counting on him to save them. Here, she communicates with Kyōka in a way that highlights the reason they get along; the reason they’re both here in the first place. And if the way Kyōka resheathes her knife without a word is any indication, it works.

Lucy knows that she and Atsushi are close, but she knows that Kyōka and Atsushi are closer; losing her would be the last straw for him. She recognizes their relationship as something beyond hero and savior, something precious. This is nothing out-of-character; to the contrary, it’s in keeping with who she’s been all along. All that’s different now is she’s acknowledging it out loud.

Lucy and Atsushi:

When Lucy pictures Atsushi in her mind’s eye, she sees the spirit that would undoubtedly be broken if he were to lose Kyōka. This in and of itself is heartbreaking, but when you consider the greater implications, well…

In the Sky Casino arc, a huge breakthrough was made in Atsushi and Lucy’s relationship: her elusive “impossible” debt to him was finally repaid, though not in the way you'd expect.

At the time, all Lucy felt she could give in return for Atsushi’s turning her life around was conventional heroism – or in other words, many a close call and many a trip to Anne’s Room. This conventional heroism was a worthless currency in her mind – it wasn’t the kind that saved her, after all – but on the other hand, the vulnerability she so valued in its stead she wasn’t capable of giving; where she came from, being vulnerable was a death sentence, after all. Because of this, how she could ever come close to repaying Atsushi’s ultimate favor was a mystery unto itself. All she knew was that she had to do it one way or another, and that’s where her most glaring flaw – her quid-pro-quo mindset – came into play, eventually driving her so far as to override her own philosophy and embody the reckless hero she so discouraged Atsushi from being.

But when Atsushi saved her from Nathaniel – thereby repaying her for her acts of service as he’d promised so many times he would – she realized that, just as her care for Atsushi doesn’t depend on his being a hero, Atsushi's care for her doesn’t depend on her being vulnerable. The illusion was shattered.

From this point forward, Lucy is no longer helping Atsushi out of a sense of indebtedness. She's doing it because she wants to. Because she truly, genuinely cares. Not the artificial kind of care that comes with repaying a debt, but the care that she showcases when she stays by Atsushi’s side after he faints, pressing a cold towel to his face. The kind of care that involves refusing to hurt Atsushi in any way, even to jog potentially vital memories.

Lucy considering what Kyōka’s death would do to Atsushi’s psyche is a perfect continuation of this new leaf she’s turned over, but it also goes to show that her shared arc with Atsushi is far from finished.

Lucy’s character development has always been structured in a rather unique way: each arc she’s appeared in has worked either to establish or address her current most glaring flaw, more often than not in unexpected ways. Her appearance in the first half of the Guild arc established her villainous façade being just that – a façade – by having it crumble as she realized the kind of person she was up against in Atsushi. The second half addressed her unhealthy attachment to the Guild by having Atsushi dissuade her from villainy via empathy. The Guild Aftermath arc added the finishing touch to all of this – the last little push needed to propel Lucy into her new role – by addressing her and Atsushi’s “promise” on the Moby Dick. The Cannibalism arc subtly established her quid-pro-quo mindset, which the Sky Casino arc would then go on to address.

Another great subversion of the tropes usually involved in these dynamics is that, despite Lucy being the closest thing to Atsushi’s “love interest,” only he's managed to bolster her development, not the other way around. This isn’t for lack of trying, of course; Lucy tries. But Atsushi is a tough nut to crack. The fact that she’s still, nearly fifteen chapters later, trying to steer Atsushi toward personhood instead of heroism – albeit indirectly – is testament to this.

If she could reach him now, she’d no doubt be trying even still. She’d be conveying to him that none of his friends’ deaths so far has been his fault – that he can’t be expected to carry the burden of hero to all when the world is going to hell in a handbasket. But she can’t reach him. She’s trapped, and so is Kyōka. Thus is the cruel irony.

Anne's Room:

Anne of Abyssal Red has played a key role in pretty much everything plot-related up to this point. It’s only appropriate, then, that its owner finally appearing alongside it would give it all the more significance.

Lucy’s last line in this chapter is as follows: “So the enemy… even took this into account.” She’s right; Fyodor had countermeasures against her ability. That said, I don’t think this is attributable solely to Fyodor being, well… Fyodor.

AOAR is in the same ballpark narrative-wise as, say, For The Tainted Sorrow in that it’s overpowered to the point of detriment. It’s Lucy’s playground; the product of an imagination run wild due to crippling loneliness. This in and of itself is scary. A power having rules that malleable is automatically dangerous, because it means that, while its wielder can bend and exploit said rules, so can an enemy. In both major fights Lucy has been a part of, the rules of Anne’s Room being molded to favor her opponent has spelled either victory or loss on her end: Atsushi used the prison room loophole against her, and she indirectly used the transportation loophole against Nathaniel. Hell, her capture by the Guild following her betrayal was thanks to the loophole that, while Anne couldn’t be defeated, she could be restrained.

So basically, for as powerful as AOAR is, underneath that power is a shaky foundation. Power doesn’t always mean stability, and this is underscored by the fact that, at the end of the day, Anne is only infallible in terms of strength; she could only do so much to alleviate Lucy’s loneliness growing up (which is honestly a pretty clever mirror to her conflict of strength vs. vulnerability with Atsushi.)

With Anne’s Room nullified by Fyodor, Lucy has truly nothing at her disposal. She's not physically strong (she’s 165 cm and 44 kg, so… yeah ˙◠˙), and while by no means stupid, she doesn’t repeatedly say in this chapter that she doesn’t know what to do next for no reason. Anne’s Room is all she’s ever had. While at the orphanage, it was her only comfort. While in the Guild, it was her only value. With Atsushi, it was all she had to offer in return for his ultimate favor.

This, I feel, could be the establishing point for the next portion of her arc. She could strive to find a way out of the rubble, working together with Kyōka, and in the process learn to break away from her ability as what defines her role in all of this. One thing's for sure: something has to be done sooner or later, otherwise, they'll starve.

I dunno, maybe that’s wishful thinking given how much is already going on. But either way, I’ll hope against hope that this isn’t some one-off return, because Lucy has proven time and time again that she has a lot to offer to the story, both plot-wise and thematically.

[draconisvesperi]

No Longer Human and Humanity

AKA An Analysis Of Sorts, Not Entirely Seriously

I am always rather curious about the in-verse explanations and meanings of the BSD Character's abilities names. Obviously, given I'm rather obsessed with Dazai as of late, No Longer Human has been one of the chief subjects of this rumination. As a fair warning, none of what follows is any attempt to explain or seriously analyse anything in canon - this is more my misguided pursual of an errant train of thought.

No Longer Human is a powerful ability without any doubt. It's an end-all situation - no matter what the adversity, No Longer Human can end it all (except for Lovecraft, but, well). In a world where abilities are the chief weapon, an ability to render them obsolete is devastating.

Asagiri himself said, of Dazai's ability:

The skill to nullify skills is the common type of skill for the strongest characters. It just popped up in my head when I was thinking about No Longer Human as a skill. Something that ruins everything, I thought.

So well, of course it's a powerful ability. But also, it's worse than any "normal" strong ability because it renders it's victim utterly helpless. Robbed of any and all means to use your ability - the chief means of defence or offence - at a single touch.

No Longer Human - the words are inherently derogatory. What does it mean to be No Longer Human? In whatever way you look at it, humans are depicted as superior - be it by their intellect, or by virtue of their empathy, or by evolution, or what have you - being human places one at an elevated rank compared to the animals closest to Homo Sapiens.

Being No Longer Human is a fall from grace - a descent from an elevated status to a lower one.

In the world of ability users, being stripped of your ability is in some way akin to this - belonging to an elevated rank and then being stripped of what made you a part of that rank.

It's what No Longer Human does.

The creators say,

Harukawa: The image of the original Dazai is someone who ruins people around him too, right? Asagiri: He ruined people around him and ruined himself, too. When you read Dazai, you gradually lose your reason to live. It's like everything is sucked away from you. That is why I chose nullification, and anti-battle skill.

The same theme could of course be applied to Dazai himself - but as I am trying to take the contrarian route today, I am overlooking this.

In some way, the need to fight back is an innate trait of humans.

To use a No Longer Human-the-actual-book quote rather out of context,

‘Human beings never submit to human beings.’ Even slaves practice their mean retaliations. Human beings cannot conceive of any means of survival except of a single then-and-there contest.

The point I'm getting to - humans almost need to fight back. To give up is to be defeated. To not fight back is usually cowardice, and cowardice is a base thing. It is lowly. It reduces the status. To fight back - however futilely - is the greater action to do. To be stripped of the very ability to fight back - to be robbed of every possible means to fight back - is a degradation. It is demoting you to a lower rank - No Longer Human.

Because I am currently reading Crime And Punishment, I will also rope an idea explored in it - quite out of context, again - into this.

In Crime And Punishment, Raskolnikov puts forth the idea about humans being divided into two groups of people - the special, and the ordinary. He speaks about how these special people may find it within themselves that the slaughter of the ordinary is quite justified in cases where it is of benefit. This, of course, is a gross simplification of the original idea - but I don't mean to quote it in full.

Applying this to the Bungou Stray Dogs world, and we can elevate the Ability Users to a grander level entirely. They are the Special ones - the Extraordinary - loftier than the ordinary people.

As long as they avoid One Certain Skill, that is.

No Longer Human is a skill that brings people down a notch. From humanity to a lack of it; from elevated status to just normal. At the end of the day, Akutagawa raises his fist and punches in Dazai's face just like a normal, ordinary human - all the abilities in the world couldn't help him.

And there concludes this senseless and aimless ramble. Prudence compels me to wait a day and read it over later, and so you shall be spared the initial version - not that it's any better for the efforts.

(Future me note: I did not do anything more that proofread this, it is as such published in all its raw and well-thought-through glory.)

[linklethehistorian]

💖🎉 Okay, I want to give a real answer as well cause you deserve all the praise in the world.💖It goes without saying that I appreciate you as a person and love your amazing personality. I treasure you more than anything, and love everything you make. You put so much passion, love, dedication, and time into everything I've seen you make and it's something I've always admired about you. You genuinely love and care about BSD and every other fandom you are in more than anyone else I've seen.

Ask continued below the cut, with images and an image ID transcript, followed by a response.

[Image ID: 3 additional asks submitted by OP, truedge, that read the following:

You're an amazing artist and a brilliant writer. You’ve always put so much detail into everything you write, leaving nothing unsaid. You make it so easy to imagine exactly what is happening in your fics and articles. I can just close my eyes and I'm there. Your art is always a joy to look at every time you show it to me and I treasure the drawings you have made for me in the past. It's amazing how fast you can draw things and still have them come out really good.

I check your blog everyday to see if you've got any new posts to share with us and always get excited to see something new. I'm so proud of what you have and are continuing to accomplish and I couldn't be happier for you. I'm sure in the future you'll have many times as many followers as you do now and you deserve every- one one of them. It truly is rare to find someone with your level of passion, and I love and appreciate it so much ❤️ Thank you for everything you do here, for helping more people know just how badly Bones screwed Arthur, for getting me into BSD, for all the amazing posts and most importantly for being such a loving and caring person who means the world to me. I wish you the best, sweetheart, and hope this blog will only continue to grow so more people can appreciate all your hard work ❤️

Okay, so this is an exceedingly late response lmao (as many other asks I will answer here will be, as I finally attempt to empty out my inbox), but seriously, thank you for these asks. 

I’ve been letting these sit in my inbox for a very long time for a couple of reasons, but the major one being largely that I didn’t want to half-ass my reply to it by trying to rush it out quickly. As with all of the asks of this nature, I wanted to make my time with it and show my appreciation back to the person who would send such a lovely and thoughtful message, and given how much longer this one was compared to the average, I thought it deserved equally as great of a reaction.

So…thank you so incredibly much for your words. I’ve read them many times now, over the months that this has been sitting in my inbox, and they still make me smile every time.

As I’m sure you know and thus probably goes without saying, your constant support, in particular, has always been a major joy in my life, and a great source of inspiration that has often served to help keep me going, even when I doubted myself and my ability to reach others with my content heavily. I can very safely say that without you and a very select few other people in my life up until this point, I probably would not have been able to make it as far as I have.

When my now ex-fiancé was making my life particularly difficult or stressful, you would always be there to pick me up when I was down and remind me of how much better I deserved than to deal with all of his gaslighting, neglect, and manipulative bullshit. You made me believe in myself as a person and, in doing so, slowly rebuilt the broken, self-depreciating and skeptical individual that I had become into someone who could actually feel like I had worth and value all my own.

Like you say, you’ve always read all of my posts and watched out for my new content eagerly like it really meant something to you on a personal level, and wasn’t just a thing you were doing to appease me or make me feel better about myself. Maybe it’s just because of my past with my ex where I practically had to beg him and shove things in his face to get him to even have any interest in any aspect of my daily life and even then got clearly disinterested responses, but I’ve never really liked it that much when someone participates in pity-engagement with my works; like, don’t get me wrong — I appreciate all the love and support that people give me equally, but there’s just something that feels so hollow about a person doing surface-level engagement and making empty compliments and comment over something they don’t even really like or care about on any level just to make someone feel like they care and are interested in their daily lives and interests. Even if there are good intentions behind it, it still just feels so performative and fake… That’s why I appreciate you and your engagement with my works so much; I can feel how invested you’ve become in me and the things I write and draw and say, whenever you respond to something, and it makes me so happy. You may not be the only person in my life to do this, but you are one of my very biggest and most passionate supporters and I don’t know what I’d do without that.

Realistically, I don’t know what the future has in store for me at the moment in regards to all of this — if my blog will shrink or grow over time, if I’ll become more or less popular and respected within the BSD fandom, or what all I’ll accomplish within the coming year; right now, in the current state of mind that I’m in, it can be hard to even see past this very moment or have a particularly bright outlook about anything, but what I do know and have faith in is that there is going to be this coming year and that whatever it brings, I’ll be doing my best at every moment to be here and to hold the people I care for as close and as tightly as I humanly can.

I know that I am incredibly lucky to know and have someone who is so kind, so gentle, and so sweet as you, who supports me and leaves me such lovely things and messages, who shares in so many of my passions and who always tries his very best to be a source of goodness in my life. 

There are many more things I could potentially say, but I don’t want this to drag on for 500,000 more words and become the longest post on my blog, so for now let me just say, thank you.

You mean the world to me.

—

Want to share why you follow me? Pick one or more emojis and send me an ask!

[akaashisupremacy]

Knee Deep in Longing

Summary: Having broken off your engagement for an arranged marriage with Gojo, your relationship is in shreds. As you and Gojo try to pick up the pieces, what does love look like? 

Gojo Satoru  x reader

Multi-fandom Masterlist || HQ Masterlist || Ao3 version

Genre: ANGST, PINING, fluff?? exes to friends to lovers (wc: 1.3k)  

“You don’t want to be seen around me.” you abruptly pull away, visibly hurt, “Look, I know we’re not seeing each other seriously or exclusively, but you don’t have to act like I’m nothing to you.”

After seeing an elder in the jujutsu community in the crowded streets of Tokyo, Gojo Satoru dropped his hand from your waist. He put some distance between your sides while his shoulders tried not to tense.

Being with Gojo is complicated. He’s your ex-fiancee from a marriage arranged by your families. It’s difficult not to resent him after your clan exiled you after you both broke off the arrangement, while Gojo kept his position.

Ten years after all that trouble, you’re both slowly experimenting with romance. Not that it’s going well or anything. It’s a lot of denials, hesitations and resistance to affection.

“It’s not that!” he exclaims defensively.

“So what is it?” your voice rises. Your fists start to clench.

Gojo’s never been good at commitment. He’s handsome and powerful and boy does he know it.

You knew this would happen. If someone you both knew saw the two of you together, Gojo would deny his involvement with you. It’s not a surprise of course, but it still hurts.

He tries to put his arm around you again. You brush him off.

Your temper is extra volatile today.

You’re ready to walk off when he makes a last attempt to explain himself.

“I want to be extremely private about you. No more repeats of our engagement.” he blurts out, “Everybody knew everything about us. They talked when they saw us with anyone outside of each other. They speculated about your dignity when we broke up. They continue to talk about you like an outcast.”

“I felt like I didn’t know you outside of what people thought of you anymore.” he murmurs. “I can't undo my mistakes and I’m trying to keep myself from repeating them. But I’m new to do this and I don’t mean the mistakes I’m making…”

He can see the gears in your mind turning, considering each word that falls from his lips.

“Don’t leave me, please?” he swallows in quiet desperation.

You’re taken aback by his tone. It’s muted, humble and pleading, everything that Gojo is not.

He reaches out both hands to you, with the slightest of tremors.

When you take his hand, he almost sighs loudly in relief.

“I’ll make this up to you. We can make out in the Shibuya crossing—“ he says half seriously.

“It’s ok,” you wave dismissively, “You’re forgiven.”

You squeeze his hand to reassure him. He smiles a bit more.

Exploring your relationship on our own terms outside of your with familial expectations is tough. You both have scars from your past lingering between you. Gojo is right. Mistakes will be made.

You both slow down the pace to enjoy the city, his hand tightly clutches to yours. You stop by Ueno park to view endless paths of cherry blossoms at full bloom. The air is a little crisp yet not too cold for early spring.

Every gust of wind that blows by comes with a gust of cherry blossom petals.

“Our first cherry blossoms,” you murmur.

“I wouldn’t say ‘first’ necessarily,” he chimes in, “We’ve had quite a few strolls under cherry blossom trees when we were younger. Maybe the first without all the resentment.”

He quirks his brow and turns to you.

“What’s that for? I thought you said you’d forgiven me for that?!” you put your hands around your hips. He doesn’t say anything, but he grins widely.

—————————————————————————————

“Do you think dating would be more romantic if we were younger?” you  muse, referring to your earlier outburst, “Dating as adults so boring, it’s a lot of trauma processing and all that jazz.”

After spending the afternoon at the park, Gojo offers to drive you home. The walk along the park was surprisingly romantic and you're still a little high from your time together.

Gojo had his arm around you and you even shared a kiss before the drive back. It fills you with giddiness every time you think back to it.

“No.” he flat out answers.

“Why not?” you turn to him, curious at the swiftness of his reply.

“Because…” he sighs with his eyes trained on the road, “my earlier relationships felt like they were victims of my hormones or circumstances. Like the reason why I was attracted to them was because they were the only people I saw around.”

“I want to see you because I choose to see you…not because there’s no one else.” he adds, “It feels nice to know that you probably have other prospects, but you chose to spend today with me. Just because.”

The hint of vulnerability does not escape you. You uncross your arms.

“All I’m saying is that there’s a loss of innocence and a sense of wonder when we age, y’know?” you shrug, with a small smile.

Gojo finally turns to you.

“Today was kind of dreamy though,” he murmurs, “We’re not 15 anymore, but there’s still a certain magic to life don’t you think?”

You both pause to reflect. The car enters into prime Tokyo traffic, the remnants of your walks now behind you. You glance at the city lights. The day is ending too quickly.

“Now is good,” he adds.

Gojo turns on the music the rest of the drive. You make small talk and flirt here and there. You make a joke, he shoots back, the usual. When you finally reach your apartment, you unbuckle your seatbelt.

“See you around,” you nod.

“I’ll call you.” he replies. You snort. Sure.

“What's with that?!” he exaggerates his aghast expression.

“I will call you.” he insists, “I’ll even call you when I get home.”

You look at him skeptically. Although you and Gojo never formally dated, you knew that he wasn’t great at keeping promises and much less so with calling back.

Today’s adventure was great, but you don’t expect much follow up after that, at least not consistently. He’s more of a sporadic caller if anything.

“Bye,” you sigh, reaching for the door.

He stops you from getting out of the car by grabbing onto your forearm. He leans in for another kiss. This time longer and more passionate than the one you shared. His hands don’t wander, instead he places his hand on yours and interlaces your fingers. His lips are warm and his touch tender.

There was something emotional about his gesture, like a longing that has been shoved aside now fulfilled at last.

When you’re both done, he looks flushed, completely smitten.

“I want you right now.” he whispers in your ear, leaning in again.

Your face momentarily gives away your consideration of his proposition.

You quickly hold up your hand, “Then that should give you more incentive to call.”

You get out of the car hearing his faint snort. He watches you disappear into the darkness.

In less than an hour, your phone rings. You pick it up without looking, unsure whether it was work or Gojo.

“Whats up?” you instinctively answer.

“You told me to call and so I called.” Gojo says.

You stand completely still in your room. He’s silent on the other line, as if waiting for you to pass judgement on him. He actually did it. He actually called you back.

“Are you ok?!” you blurt out, baffled by his follow through.

He lets out a chuckle, “Of course, I’m the best I’ve been in a really long while.”

Gojo listens to your amused reaction. He can see your eyes crinkle and your lips pressed together into a smile--it’s his favorite part about seeing you. Watching you sincerely be happy around was something he thought he would never crave, yet here he was knee deep in longing.

“I’m mostly good,” he thinks to himself, “Just a little too in love with you.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote this as a follow up for another Gojo x reader fic who used to be engaged. Check out the other parts!

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8

Comment or message to be added to the taglist! Or write down some comments about your feelsssss

Series Taglist: @tokyo-love-hotel @samkysnks @herownescape@cherrianne192 @shamelessdonutsludgebanana@kageyamakock@shirostrbl @luvang3l @cloudsinthecosmos@httpjungoo @saturnki  @itstheee-ha-chan @gucci-froggy @soy1melk @dora-the-grownup @cherryonigiri 

 If you’d like to continue being part of my taglist (JJK or Haikyuu), please let me know! I also write oneshots for both fandoms and soon I’ll be doing BSD too!

[caffeinatedseri]

Dazai and No Longer Human’s Yozo

It’s no secret that BSD’s Dazai draws heavily from his real life counterpart, especially from his semi-autobiographical work: No Longer Human. To preface, No Longer Human is written from the perspective of the main character Yozo, with the book itself being a documentation of Yozo’s notebooks (essentially his journals) throughout his life. 

As you progress through the novel, it becomes increasingly clear that Yozo lives an extremely two-sided life; his foolish personality acts as a facade to others in attempts to hide the darker nature within him. 

Dazai shares that obvious similarity with Yozo, but Dazai is characterized in a somewhat vague and mysterious way that leaves a lot of his inner thoughts up to interpretation and inferences. Thus, I’ll be going through some of my favorite quotes from No Longer Human and analyzing Dazai’s character through his similarities to Yozo.

(For the sake of readability, excerpts from No Longer Human will be in pictures, and quotes from the light novel will be in regular block quotes).

Dazai and Yozo’s Participation in Clownery

To start off, Dazai noticeably participates in the same “clowning” as Yozo, which in particular stands out with PM Dazai.

““How did your leg get hurt?” I pointed to the bandages, thinking that it must be the result of some violent fight. “I was reading a book titled ‘How to Prevent Accidental Injuries’ while walking when I accidentally fell into a ditch.” I wasn’t expecting such an abnormal response.” — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era (Oda’s POV)

This is pretty standard Dazai behavior, but the interesting part is how Yozo specifically used the word “deceiving.” If we were to assume Yozo’s true thoughts are Dazai’s as well, then it would imply that Dazai feels as if he’s manipulating people with his absurd claims (such as the above). However, in actuality, his clownish behaviors sound more like a joke, or some type of self-deflection, rather than an attempt to manipulate people. (Yozo also states that he would often incriminate himself by overexaggerating certain things, but I don’t think Dazai does that).

The second statement Yozo makes implies that he doesn’t care about ethics, morality, or the supposed “right way” of living life that’s described as “righteousness.”

Yozo’s statement on “righteousness” parallels Dazai’s in Dark Era, but Dazai’s statement carries a slightly different sentiment. Rather than being indifferent to the likes of morality, Dazai says that he’s “hated” by the concept of morality. 

I’ll be speculating a bit here → It’s heavily implied that Dazai had some sort of dark past that led him to joining the mafia, since he was already suicidal prior to doing so. This suggests that something affected his life so drastically to the point where he could no longer trust in such things as “righteousness,” because righteousness has wronged him in the past.

First, Yozo expresses his fear of people discovering his true nature under the mask of clownery, which would then lead to them pestering him for further inquiry. However, his real fear is that people would mistake his true nature as another part of his typical clownery.

More so than before, this attitude reminds me more of Dazai in the agency, rather than him in the mafia. Even though Dazai danced around darker topics in his conversations with Oda, he was still able to talk about them without much conflict. However, in the agency, Dazai doesn’t talk much about himself or any of his personal issues at all. 

Although this scene has comedic overtones, it’s interesting to see that no one would help Dazai if he was actually dying. Still, it could be argued that the other agency members knew it was just Dazai’s regular antics. (or that Dazai wouldn’t die in the first place). 

This scenario repeats itself another time when Dazai gets kidnapped by the mafia, and the other agency members kind of just brush it aside. As much as they may trust Dazai to take care of himself (which I’m sure he can do), it’s worrying that the other members may not be open to Dazai’s possible attempts at reaching out for help, if he were ever to make one. 

In LN 4, 55 Minutes, Atsushi addresses this issue by asking Dazai why he wants to kill himself, but the answer is left open-ended, with Atsushi himself not remembering the answer (or if Dazai even did answer). You could interpret Dazai’s change from his time in the PM as an improvement of his mental state — which I have no doubt that has happened — but Dazai needs to face his issues head-on if he truly wanted to reconcile with his past.

“Perhaps someone should persistently tie Dazai up, open the lid over his chest and stuff the head of a vacuum cleaner in. They have to let Dazai, who should be screaming in pain and resisting, settle down. Following which, the difficult things in his heart must all be dragged out under the sun and stepped on mercilessly.“ — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era

Oda, the man who understood Dazai more than anyone else could at the time, even specifically stated that the pain in Dazai’s heart must be forcefully dragged out, because he knew that this would ultimately be the most beneficial for Dazai’s sanity.

Throughout No Longer Human, Yozo is often misunderstood by others, or other people simply don’t care about him.

When Dazai goes to visit Oda’s grave in Dead Apple, Atsushi finds him and assumes that he’s visiting the grave of someone important to him, as an act of respect or remembrance, something of the sort. However, Dazai makes the automatic assumption that his “clownish words of deceit” (as stated by Yozo) will always be prioritized over the truth, which is why he chooses to brush off his actions as a joke. 

Although I made the point earlier that the agency members don’t give Dazai opportunities to open up about himself, Atsushi is notably different, similarly to Oda, because he’s able to take Dazai seriously and persist even through his antics. 

Atsushi takes Dazai’s act of visiting a grave seriously, even when Dazai plays it off, because he knows Dazai is a person just like anyone else. This understanding between them leads to Dazai telling Atsushi about Oda, thereby allowing Dazai to divulge a crucial part of his past.

Dazai and Yozo’s Friendships

Similarly to Yozo, Dazai’s attempt at “disentangling” himself from these relationships only serves to wear him out in the end. However, they also slightly differ in a way: Yozo is unable to form any friendships for his whole life, but Dazai had Oda. I would argue that Oda was Dazai’s only friend, mostly because of this quote:

“Odasaku understood him far beyond what Dazai had ever thought. He had already reached close to his heart, the place near the center of his heart. Before this, Dazai had never noticed there was someone who understood him so well. For the first time in his life, Dazai wanted to know something from the depths of his heart.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Oda was special to Dazai because Oda was able to understand him — maybe even more than Dazai could understand himself — which is why Oda is the only person that Dazai asks for advice from. 

However, Dazai does the same thing as Yozo when he “plays the clown” as a form of self-protection from such valuable friendships. (which is probably preventing him from becoming closer to the rest of the agency).

“Things that we don’t want to lose will definitely be lost. Now that it has come to this, I have no more feelings anymore. Things worth pursuing will always disappear the moment before you get them. Nothing is worth prolonging a painful life to pursue.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Interestingly enough, Dazai says this when Ango is revealed to be a spy — before Oda dies. If Dazai was in this state of distress from Ango’s betrayal, you could only imagine how devastating Oda’s death was. 

Dazai speaks as if he’s speaking from experience, which suggests that he’s faced a similar loss in the past. Despite this implied experience, he still became friends with Oda (and Ango to an extent), fully knowing that it would only bring him pain in the end. Dazai's statement here acts more as a front that makes him sound cold and detached from the situation, only to hide how he truly feels about losing one of his only friends. 

To give some context to this passage, Yozo’s partner, Yoshiko, had been sexually assaulted by a coworker, of which Yozo attributes the cause to her overly trusting nature. Thus, this leads to Yozo’s belief that trustfulness is inherently wrong or creates weakness.

Dazai’s hesitance to form friendships most likely stems from this same inability to trust others like Yozo, but Dazai does trust a few people, namely Chuuya, Oda, and Atsushi.

With Chuuya, there’s a different type of trust between him and Dazai. Their impeccable trust is obviously a key factor in their partnership as SKK, but there’s a certain limit with this trust. They certainly trust each other in battle, but I’d argue that this trust doesn’t extend to their personal business. 

As of now, we don’t know a lot about how SKK interacted with each other during their time in the mafia (which could change with the new LN), but I doubt PM Dazai would feel comfortable with confiding in Chuuya with anything because they (kind of) hated each other. The level of trust required for a friendship would involve a mutual understanding between two people, but Chuuya and Dazai haven’t necessarily shown us that they were able to do that.

Dazai essentially broke his trust with Chuuya by leaving the mafia on a whim, but he also intentionally antagonized himself to try to make Chuuya hate him.

This scene also has comedic overtones, but it suggests something a bit sadder about Dazai. There are possibly two motivations as to why Dazai chose to do this: (or a mix of the two)

1. Dazai didn’t want Chuuya to be incriminated as his accomplice when he became an enemy of the mafia.

2. Dazai wanted to push Chuuya away because Oda — Dazai’s most trusted friend — had just died. As a form of self-protection, Dazai broke whatever semblance of friendship he shared with Chuuya in order to prevent the same pain that came with Oda’s death. 

It’s also important to consider that trust is a 2-way street; both parties have to have the same level of trust in each other. Just like Yozo, if Dazai is unable to trust anyone, then he may have cut Chuuya off to protect him (since Chuuya may have trusted Dazai more than Dazai was able to reciprocate).

In contrast, Oda and Dazai have a level of unspoken trust that basically motivates Dazai to change his entire life. 

“Odasaku’s eyes radiate with conviction. The words are clearly said with some sort of strong basis. Is it past experience? Or perhaps someone’s suggestion? — He is trying to show Dazai the path he once walked. Dazai understands this. Dazai can trust it.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Returning to Yozo’s question — “Is trustfulness a sin?” — Dazai answers it by showing us the strength of trust in this moment. Trust insinuates blind faith in another person, the willingness to believe someone else without logical reasoning, which makes it all the more important when PM Dazai — the genius prodigy who operates on a solely logical basis — is able to trust Oda and change his path in life. 

Atsushi is most likely the one that Dazai trusts the most in the agency, due to the aforementioned issues with the other members. However, it seems more like a budding trust that’s growing to become like Oda and Dazai, but it still requires Dazai to take that step forward to further their trust. 

Dazai and Yozo’s View of the World

In this scene, Yozo had made a decision for immediate gratification, but that choice caused him insufferable pain afterwards — supporting his belief that the world was a “place of bottomless horror.”

This parallels two of Dazai’s statements: one from Dark Era and one from Dead Apple.

“Please, take me with you. Wake me up from this rotten world of a dream. Come on, come on, come on!” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

(Dazai wasn’t talking about himself here, but the allusion sets up a situation where he can talk about himself indirectly — I talk about it more in my other post here)

We don’t really get a reason for why Dazai is suicidal, but from this we can infer that it’s something more complex than he makes it out to be — something like an issue deeply rooted within the world, with no easy solution. 

One could guess that this was the result of an unfortunate decision (like Yozo), or the realization that the world was simply a terrible place (possibly because no one cared for him as a kid and he had Mori as a “parental” figure instead).

Yozo expresses his lack of understanding in the compassion of human nature, but Dazai (as we know) seems to understand other people perfectly, as least enough to manipulate them.

However, this forms somewhat of a paradox: Dazai understands people so well to the point that he can’t understand them.

Dazai understands every flawed aspect of a human being — the tendency to manipulate, lie, kill, etc. — most likely because of his past as a young child. “Human beings never did teach” him the hopeful aspect of human nature  — the ability to love and cherish others.

Shibusawa in Dead Apple reflects this mindset, but take note of what Dazai says: “You wouldn’t be saying that if you actually had friends” — clearly a reflection of Dazai’s personal experience, by knowing how important friends are.

Yozo’s deathly fear of society tames itself when he comes to the realization that society is really just made up of a bunch of individuals working for their individual benefit, so he has no reason to fear society as a whole.

I don’t believe Dazai has this same fear of society, but he does reflect this individualistic mindset in the way he acts. Often enough, Dazai doesn’t tell anyone about his plans and would rather manipulate people into following such plans, even when it would be easier to cooperate. He always takes care of conflicts by himself, and by his standard.

Yozo’s fear of society possibly manifested into Dazai’s ostracization from society. More speculation here, but → My guess is that Dazai was alienated not only as a genius isolated for his intelligence, but also for his ability. There seems to be some division between regular society and ability-users’ society, but I can see Dazai being rejected by both because he’s the antithesis to all abilities. 

Regular society would either shun him like other users or attempt to exploit him for their personal gain (possibly for his intelligence AND his ability), or ability-users would see him as a threat and/or menace to their safety.

When Yozo considers a double suicide with his partner, he comes to this unsure conclusion of whether or not he actually wants to go through with it.

This reflects what Oda believes about Dazai:

“I thought you and Dazai were very similar, unable to see the value of your life, hoping for death, hence jumping into a world of violence and fighting. But that’s not the case. That guy is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

At the end of the story, Gide and Oda are different from Dazai because they face an inevitable hopelessness. However, Dazai has a small spark of hope to live on that persists beyond the other two. 

This is represented in Dazai’s own statement to Oda, when Oda is set on walking to his death: “Go and rely on something, hope for something good to happen next, that something will definitely happen.” 

If anything, this sounds more like a plea to himself than to Oda, but it establishes an important point: hope is built upon the assumption that the future will treat your present desires well. Vice versa, hopelessness is built upon the expectation that the future will neglect your present desires.

It’s a bit wordy, so I’ll elaborate on. Right after Dazai says this line, they proceed to talk about their desires → Dazai wants to find a reason to live, so he joined the mafia; Oda wanted to become a novelist, so he didn’t kill anyone. 

Now, the difference between hope and hopelessness:

Oda feels hopeless because he expects that his present desire (to become a novelist) won’t be fulfilled in the future. By losing the one qualification that he felt he had to follow (not killing anyone), he no longer believes that he can become a novelist.

Dazai has hope because he assumes that his present desire (to find a reason to live) will be fulfilled in the future. He doesn’t know that for sure, but he persists onwards regardless of having full assurance or not. 

Dazai’s hope and trust in Oda brings him to where he is in the present, and takes him one step closer towards discovering his reason to live. 

[kaeyas-beloved]

Hello! Since requests are open, may I request for Dazai & Chuya from bsd (separately) with a s/o who's hair is basically messed up, like knotted really really bad after months of not taking care of it because of depression. How would they handle it? Would they help her sort it out? How would they? I am so sorry if it's weird but I really need some sort of comfort. I understand if you feel uncomfortable writing this! Thanks in advance.

Hello Anon! This doesn’t make me uncomfortable at all, don’t worry :) I hope these can provide the comfort you’re searching for. I’m sorry if they’re not that good or if anything is wrong - Chuuya’s a bit more clear on what he’d be willing to do to help while Dazai’s I think you have to infer a little (I could be wrong, when it comes to your own writing these kinds of things can get confusing...[make sense?]) 

But anyway!! If you want anything more/changed etc. don’t be afraid to come back and ask! 

Warning(s): Depression themes

~~~

Dazai & Chuuya Helping a S/O w/ Knotted Hair Because of Being in Bed/Depression

Dazai Osamu

Immediately he could recognize what was going on, all too acquainted with the bells and whistles of depression himself.

And he gets it. He absolutely understands.

Dazai has most likely been in a near identical place that you are now, in bed and unable to do anything, including taking care of oneself.

In the beginning he let it slide, wanting to gauge what kind of moves you’d make in the coming days. Is this depressive episode a short one or a longer one? Will you pop back yourself or not?

Now though, that it’s come this far, so far that if he was to run his fingers through your locks like he’s done so many times before and loose hairs follow or knotted clumps can be pulled from the ends, Dazai knows this is the time he has to step in.

“My beautiful belladonna...” his voice is devoid of all the usual playfulness as he steps into your shared room, taking a seat at the side of the bed beside your lying form. Slowly he leans forward, placing a chaste kiss to your nose, absentmindedly twirling a strand of unknotted hair that’s separated from the rest. His eyes that could be described as hazel stare into your own orbs, a serious look in them.

“How long has it been?”

“Three weeks...” there was little to no hesitation when it came to answering, you knew full well what he was referring to. It still didn’t stop Dazai’s brows from furrowing though. A beat of silence passes, nothing but the sound of your mixed breathing in the room, before an idea comes forth.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” He told you, standing and making his way into another room. When the sound of running water filled the quiet space you couldn’t help the confusion that came over you. What was he planning this time?

Minutes later and the water stopped and Dazai emerged through the open bathroom door.

Wordlessly he slipped his lanky arms under your knees and behind your back. About to question his actions, maybe even protest against them, all the words died in your throat the moment you saw his expression. It pleaded that you trust him this once, a warmth in them that tells you he’s trying to help and that he cares so much.

And you find yourself subtlety nodding, giving permission for him to lift you out of bed for perhaps the first time in awhile. Carrying you to the side of the tub Dazai set you down onto your feet. Lithe fingers started to work on taking your shirt off, movement slow and calculated, leaving the opportunity for you to stop him and do it yourself if you want.

You don’t, and Dazai continues until you’re bare. He gestures vaguely to the still water awaiting you and you dip your toes in it. It’s warm is the first thing you note as you lower the rest of your body, and it smells exactly like the bath salt that you gifted your boyfriend as a joke for his birthday.

Rolling his sleeves up, Dazai kneels to the ground, grabbing a bowl he’d placed nearby earlier and filled it. Tilting your head back, he covers your eyes as he pours the liquid onto your head, doing this a few times until your hair is thoroughly soaked before he starts to wash it. Finally, what he’s doing makes sense.

“’m sorry...” The apology is unprompted, but it just felt right in that moment. He has to help you, he should have to though... and you continue to stare blankly at the rippling water. Dazai hums, stops and hooks his forefinger under your chin, moving your gaze up to meet his.

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for my love. You told me that it’s okay to ask for help sometimes, so let me help you like you’ve helped me in the past...” he whispered, voice soothing, “I love you my belladonna...”

He’s helping you, he’ll do things for you when you can’t - because he loves you that much... it’s okay to ask for his help...

“...I love you too, Osamu...”

Nakahara Chuuya

He saw that you weren’t acting like you usually do, but unfortunately, he didn’t connect the dots properly and figured you were just extremely tired. Maybe something happened at work?

Chuuya didn’t question it either, hoping that you’d come to him if something was bothering you... yet when you didn’t and he could visibly see the toll it was taking on you, his worry grew to the point he just couldn’t ignore it anymore. He figured that a good wash was a step in the right direction.

“Take a damn shower!” It sounds harsh, especially when his voice is just a little louder than the tone he usually uses with you, and he internally kicks himself for it, but under it lies raw emotion.

Fear, confusion. Chuuya doesn’t understand all that well what you’re going through and it hurts him to not know how he can help. But he also knows that what you’re feeling is far worse.

So, while you soak in the rain of the shower, the mafia executive calls up an old colleague. Dazai.

He’s reluctant at first, but the thought of reaching out to someone who’s a little more... experienced, someone that might have a piece of advice that could help, well, he’s willing to swallow the burning hate towards the other male just this once.

He’s grateful to hear the seriousness that drips in Dazai’s voice, and every word that the brunet says he mentally notes, taking it all to heart. After five minutes, Dazai has said all he could on the matter and the call ends.

Half an hour passes and you step out of the bathroom, fresh, warm clothes adoring your body, no doubt your boyfriend being the one who warmed them in the dryer and set them in the bathroom for you. Aimlessly you walked into the living room, the sight of Chuuya sitting crossed legged on the couch coming into view. The moment he sees you he stands, delicately latching onto your hand and pulling you back down onto his lap.

The thump of his heartbeat calms you somewhat, as well as the soothing strokes he does on your back.

Something Dazai said was that not everyone is willing to open up, even if they’re a loved one, and that you can’t always outright ask what’s going on either. As frustrating as it is for him, Chuuya remains silent, running his free hand through your still damp hair, fewer tangles than there was before you bathed.

Whether anything is revealed about your depression is completely up to you. Chuuya will listen to every syllable that leaves the lips he loves oh so much, or, if you don’t, he’ll simply continue to stroke your hair and rub your back, planting feather light kisses to your temple. 

What he does regardless of if you say something or not is that he’ll stay right by your side, supporting you however he can. He’ll talk to you if you’re up for it, cuddle you, give you some space if need be, shower or soak in the tub with you if it helps, you name it Chuuya will do it.

These things take time and he’s willing to put as much time aside for you as you need.

Anything for the person he cherishes most. 

“Never forget that I love you, alright? You’ll get through this ‘cause you’re strong, I know you are.”

~

Requests are open (as of me writing/posting this)! Make sure to check out the rules for the fandoms and characters I write for!

Masterlist (has rules/fandoms link there too)

[transsexualhamlet]

okayokayokay i have like. Q U E S T I O N S because i have *wanted* to read no longer human but have been afraid to SO -

1) what's it like? what do u think of it? im sooo curious 👀

2) do u think that asagiri-sensei based bsd dazai sorta off the book more than off the actual authour? i seem to remember reading that once but i dont remember if it was speculation or not

3) .......just infodump as much as you want, really; im Curious™️ and it looks like ur having fun with the book XD

p.s. - have fun with crime and punishment; thats a book ive DEFINITELY been meaning to read (but i havent had time to yet djfjdjfjf)

AHHHHHHH HI TYSM I WAS HOPING SOMEONE WOULD ASK. I read the entire book in 2 hours before going to bed like four days ago, though it probably wasn't the best time to do it, that shit is nightmare fuel

I'm just gonna preface this with I know basically nothing about the actual author other than what's in the book, also I read the manga version (the junji ito one, yeah) so yeah I'm not sure how much that differs from the original text.

So for how much he based it off of the book vs the actual author, I couldn't really tell you- no longer human is somewhat of an autobiography, so I'd say that those work together. (it's complicated, bc the main character of no longer human is not actually dazai, but dazai is there, and they like??? basically say that that character and dazai are like actually the same person???? and they like, switch places at the end?? its really confusing, but basically, I'm treating the mc of no longer human as dazai himself.) The important stuff about the author that I know of worked into dazai's character is all in no longer human too so,,, yeah. I think saying that it's based more off of that book is probably true, though I don't know what asagiri was thinking.

But about the book itself- Yeah uhhhhhh seriously, I don't really recommend reading no longer human if you have much of a sensitivity to basically anything, especially the graphic novel version because when i say graphic novel i mean Graphic there is so much nudity, sex, s/a, addiction, violence, Mental Illness of all types, religious trauma, obviously suicide, and frankly just visually horrifying stuff

So everything under this is gonna be under a cut just cause Uh Yeah It's A Lot and i do not want to subject everybody to it

But reading it was certainly something I am glad I did, because it did teach me a lot about dazai and how he was created, as well as confirming a lot of theories I had about him that can't be confirmed or denied in bsd canon.

Like me and my friend were just like examining his character and kind of coming up with ideas about him- like we both agreed that he had Motherless Energy TM and that his dad had to have been an absolute fucking piece of shit. Also, we thought that he definitely had to have had A Lot of csa trauma and probably issues having to do with his neurodivergency when he was a child.

Literally all of that ended up being true within the canon of no longer human, so I was kind of impressed that we were so right?? It makes me feel better for thinking a lot of those things, especially since they're just Pretty Fucked Up.

But yeah its. No wonder he turned out that way when he was So Autistic and Masking So Much And So Badly and with absolutely no guidance as how to deal with his neurodivergency other than just fucking let anything anyone wanted happen sooooo he got raped, as a kid, like. A lot. A LOT. And basically ended up thinking that because of this all humans were just horrifying awful monsters and yeahhhhh things pretty much went downhill from there

I don't have a ton of time so you can send me more asks about it lol this is just barely scratching the surface this thing is pretty intense

A lot of other things that I think I can apply to bsd dazai as well, tho they're not gone into that much in the canon:

-This dude is like always fucking drunk or high, cause he just cannot stand being sober that much. He's a serious alcoholic and actually addicted to opioids and I cannot think that much differently about dazai. He's got issues.

but there are a lot of differences between Dazai and the no longer human mc, though there are enough similarities that this is definitely the dude he was based off of.

The main difference is that the no longer human mc is actually just a good guy. He's made a shit ton of stupid fucking mistakes, but he's trying to be a good man and he feels awful for the things he's done, which, I really cannot say Dazai has. Dazai is not a good man, I think everyone knows that. He doesn't really care that much lol

-both of them are like. Weirdly popular with women. Which is hilarious but like, with Dazai he doesn't really take it seriously, and he actually flirts with women. The no longer human guy like. He doesn't hes just like Tragically Attractive and women want to be with him and he has no clue how to say no so he just ends up being a whore bc hes socially useless. It causes a lot of problems bc hes like constantly cheating because of this lol.

-Dazai has a much more poetic view of it all? The no longer human guy is just fucking suffering and hes like why is this happening to me im so awful and i bring misfortune to everyone around me and its not fair and he wants to die and everything but it's not at all in the same way that Dazai does. Dazai acts more like an author than him, in the sense of his "I want a death that is narriatively satisfactory and I want to know the meaning of living by seeing the worst of it and observing how it is to be a human" yeah that's not the same at all. No longer human man really just doesn't understand them and is just. Not having fun

-Also, it's really the thing about Dazai having such an utter lack of religion compared to his original counterpart. Like, the main thing that kept this dude alive for so long was the fact that he had so much religious trauma and was constantly guilty and worried he would go to hell and basically scared of everything. Bsd dazai is like, nearly the opposite, he's the kind of dude who was born and raised atheist, and in the kind of way that he's trying to basically come up with his own meaning of life and religion to follow, whereas the original is struggling to live with one that's been perscribed to him. Both are Very Neurodivergent but it was, handled differently

And yeah i really do have to keep this short, you can totally ask me more and I have a lot more to say but one thing I want to bring attention to is the fact of something they do have in common- their masking. It's a big part of no longer human, about how the mc doesn't understand social customs and what is acceptable or how to talk to people or seriously be happy, so he basically comes up with this "clowning" which is basically, make a fool of himself on purpose all the time so people will never take him seriously or think he's good or smart. That's something dazai completely does, wholeheartedly, and something that fucks him up bad in no longer human. And I think that could be examined a lot more deeply, this dude has issues and so many of them are related to autism. God, I have so many thoughts but aghhhhhhhhhhhhh i hope u enjoy

[avoresmith]

bungou stray dogs

okay, let me tell you about my current primary fandom which approximately .1% of my followers have any awareness of despite it having a...? okayish? popularity. it’s bigger in japan than here.

So you know Fate/Stay Night and in general the trending fondness for taking the stories of real life dead people, taking half a dozen bullet points from their wikipedia page and then making them in an anime character who has exactly four tiny things in common with the actual person? And then you do that like ad nauseam until everyone is trying to kill each other while the fans all want them fucking?

Okay that’s Bungou Stray Dogs but with (usually) dead literary authors from the last century-ish.

It’s dead author AU super powered detective/mafia fanfic from a lit nerd. 

AV, you say, that sounds amazing, but probably not good.

And you are damn fucking right.

So okay as an example of how this works, here is HP Lovecraft:

He turns into a tentacle monster.

And here is John Steinbeck:

He grows vines out of his body.

And here is F. Scott Fitzgerald:

His super power is being rich.

Simple, right? Take some dead dudes whose work you had to read in highschool, make them a pretty anime boy, give them a stupid power. Flawless.

I started with people my followers are more likely to have heard of but the primary characters are all inspired by Japanese authors, which to me actually made it much more interesting because it allowed me to enjoy them as characters first and foremost, and once I was at my saturation point of having too many shits to give about a manga that really doesn’t have the depth or complexity to hold all of my feelings, then I could go read the works that inspired the characters which... I will talk about on it’s own later but uh. I am enjoying it. And slightly resent being enriched by quality media when that is obviously not what I am about.

AV, you seem to be hinting that BSD isn’t qual--

NO. IT’S BAD.

I maintain a strong policy around here of admitting when we love things that aren’t good, in part because I think it’s a big weight off oen’s shoulders and mostly because I like complaining. For some people, loving bad things is a source of shame and discouragement. But I am like the dog who squeaks the toy enthusiastically and then pulls all the stuffing out.

So, should you read Bungou Stray Dogs?

Yes, absolutely, if for no reason other than so I will be a bit less alone in the world. It’s a fun romp has a lot of interesting character outlines without much substance which of course means fun making it up yourself. Look 95% of you got here via Overwatch let’s not pretend you don’t enjoy media that is basically just action figures sometimes. 

Under the cut I am going to rAMBLE A BIT about whatever I feel like because this is my blog and I don’t have to organized or concise. Spoilers ahead if you care about such things. (It’s not worth caring about, the spoilers are the only reason I tried this canon out at all).

I guess I should start with Dazai Osamu, despite not actually being the main character (and the frequency he appears in the manga tapers off a lot after the first few volumes) he is by faaaar the most popular character. I honestly attribute this to the fact that the work he is (mostly) inspired by, Dazai Osamu’s No Longer Human, is an actually fantastic, super intricate and well crafted character perspective piece. 

At his core he is a pretty recognizable trope: the cute prankster who is secretly really capable and smart and smiles and jokes to hide his dark past. He has a Suicide Shtick which people find (justifiably) Problematic, but the slapstick of it also mostly disappears after the early canon and you’re left with someone who very genuinely struggles to find a reason to live and treats all of his own emotions as Joke thus ensuring that no one takes him seriously and he has no actual friends in canon. Dazai does not get a character arc so much as a gradual character reveal, perhaps one day he will actually get to evolve within the current story but I kind of doubt it. Despite his popularity the canon isn’t very interested in having his current relationships pick at him or help him, and what we mostly see is a reveal of how far he has come from where he used to be, rather than engagement with who he is now to who he has the ability to become.

I do think this works okay, it’s part of the tragedy of such a character; that even when people are 100% aware he is full of shit no one is actually capable of engaging with that in direct enough way to impact him. It’s not say his relationships with the other protagonists are not important, but I think a lot about how much he has gotten himself into a life where he is around good people and doing good things yet is absolutely aloof.

Then again, writing engaging relationships isssn’t one of BSD’s strong points, so maybe his position within the protagonist team isn’t meant to be as melancholy as I take it.

Anyway, he’s garbage and he knows it and goes in the trash and I love him.

(Even if you don’t read BSD, you should read No Longer Human, which is fucking amazing)

Then there is Nakahara Chuuya.

Oh, Chuuya.

Chuuya is the character I am most invested in at the moment which is why I am writing a fanfic about him. However, his function in the manga is basically to be Dazai’s jilted ex, and BOY does he play that role to a T. I’m not going to try to tell you that he is an important character with a lot of nuanced canon cuz uh. He ain’t. But look do you like blackrom? Do you like boys who have an obvious complex history full of feelings and misunderstanding and who are fundamentally both sort of trying to do right by each other but are so goddDAMN bad at communication and understanding each other that eventually just start making petty bickering their primary dialog because it’s all they are consistently good at?

Do you like it when when two people who can’t stand each other still can effortlessly fall back on their old trust based dynamic?

Do you like it when they have like 10 inches in height difference and the short one can stomp the tall one?

Yeah you do everyone loves that shit that’s why it’s the most popular ship in the canon despite Chuuya not actually having anything going on outside of being Dazai’s bitter ex.

Oh he has cool gravity powers there’s that.

This is Kyouka!

She is the only girl who has any narrative importance, but while her introduction is sort of, so bad it sets my teeth on edge (hOW MANY PEOPLE HAS SHE KILLED? 35? YOU DON’T SAY? maybe a feW MORE TIMES FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK) she has a real great character arc and uh. Frankly probably should’ve been the protagonist? I have like, a whole rant to write about how there is no reason she can’t be and how the actual protagonist is functionally irrelevant for most of the manga but anyWAY. As it is I really enjoy her character growth and she has a lot of agency and is great. also cute AF which don’t hurt.

AV I thought you said Kyouka was the only important female cha-- YEAP but here is Yosano anyway. Because you are a good person and deserve to know Yosano exists.

She has a little more canon than Chuuya but without as much advantage of having a compelling relationship with another character. It’s unfortunate because she is gREAT but is sidelined badly. Anyway her power is that she can heal any injury but only if you’re at least halfway dead so she is always happy to help people get a bit closer to death.

Akutagawa is another character who probably should’ve been the protagonist and has a pretty good character arc. He is Dazai’s former student and is a little obsessed with earning Dazai’s attention and approval. (Dazai life is basically being a cat type surrounded by dogs who just want maybe a single pat on the head and instead getting startled and clawing them in the nose anyway--) 

Akutagawa is eXTREMELY EXTRA and very edgy and he’s the best I love him. He has a coat that is a dEMON and he uses it to stab people and CUT SPACE ITSELF!!! he is also smol and frail and coughs into his hands all the time probably because he has TB. But he is ready to fight and only knows one trick and that trick is murder.

His character growth is marked and consistent without sacrificing the character he starts off as, and despite his supposed singleminded fixation on Dazai you actually see him having more actual relationships with people than you do of most of the other characters. (The implication not so much being no one else has real relationships just not a lot of characters get enough focus to see it).

Also when you are in BSD you get to learn fun things like how the real life Dazai was actually a huge fanboy of real life Akutagawa and obsessed over him a little bit, so the relationship in BSD is sort of an inversion of that.

Kunikida is Dazai’s beautiful and tight assed current partner. He is a pURE BOY IDEALIST who keeps his Ideal Life carefully written down in his notebook and is absolutely unforgiving about any attempt to deter him from basically achieving a perfect existence, right down to being exactly on time for work and meticulously keeping a list of The Ideal Romantic Partner so he can rate potential candidates. Dazai, of course, fucks with his schedule as much as possible because that’s what he deserves.

Despite his genuinely pure and good intentions, Kunikida is definitely an aggressive asshole who has no sympathy for criminals and will throw you on the ground if you fuck with his schedule.

Among BSD’s maNy unfortunate no good very bad writerly decisions is that someone allowed Asagiri to indulge in his fetish for male characters with a sherlockian genius. So even tho we can’t get more than one female character who is actually consistently plot relevant we have at last FOUR genius men who are. FOUR!!!11! Four.

That’s not counting spinoff novels and the guy who is implied to be the brains behind the entire plot of the manga.

It makes me very angry.

BUT

This is Edogawa Ranpo and he is, despite all of this, great. He is the mOST GENIUSY GENIUS, as opposed to the OTHER lower key geniuses who can only do things like basically run the mafia at age 16 adn sldia;sdcnlsds--

OKAY BUT RANPO IS GREAT. He is a 26 yo egotistical/incredibly insecure fussy birb who is haunted by how much he notices about the world that no one else does and basically needs to a constant stream of asspats but also he REALLY LOVES, ASSPATS. Somehow he manages to come off as endearing? I guess because while he is a super genius he is genuinely bad at like. basically all mundane life tasks. I don’t know why I love Ranpo but I do, he’s good. 

AV, I notice you haven’t mentioned the protag--

BECAUSE HE’S BAD.

he’s just soooooo boring and takes up soooooooo much space that could go to the rest of the cast

/sighs gently

The protagonist is Atsushi. He actually has a character design I really enjoy and that is about the only positive thing I have to say about him for the first uh. 35? Chapters?

BSD’s greatest suffering as a manga was that it wanted an everyman protagonist to frame all of these more dynamic and interesting characters but due to slating him with all of the Generic Heroic Traits the result is a Typical Heroic Kid who doesn’t... ?? Really have any flaws??? but is also too naive to help anyone with THEIR flaws so?? he sort of neither impacts others nor is impacted himself in any meaningful way outside of doing the Appropriate Hero Things At The Appropriate Hero Time.

I guess you could say he like, learns people? Like him? But while he has no self worth due to being abused all of his life this also doesn’t really impact anything beyond the flavor of the shounen things he shouts while being heroic. 

Hilariously, everything that is wrong with Atsushi as an MC is underscored really well by Kyouka, the more interesting character with an almost identical insecurity and motivation to Atsushi, who has her character arc at a comparative sprint compared to him, despite having far fewer appearances. Almost every scene Kyouka is in, even when they are badly written, shows her dealing with her shitty situation; sometimes this means confronting it and sometimes it means running away from it, but despite being a subtle and quiet character she is constantly aware of her immediate wants and acting in accordance with them. She is impacted by the people around her and is constantly learning and growing, at times defying or disappointing them, at other times living up to expectations. 

Comparatively, Atsushi is around all the time but usually sidelined to witness other people actually seeking what they want, and then you know, at some point he turns into a tiger to defend someone else/prevent someone else from getting what they want. Ostensibly his motivation is that he wants to feel like his life has value, and it starts playing with the fact that he has an abuser whose memory haunts him that he needs to overcome. But ‘character literally always does the right thing, is loved and respected by everyone around him, and what haunts him has no negative effect outside of he says he feels bad sometimes’ issss a hard story to write and sell in a compelling manner. And I can promise you BSD isn’t clever enough to pull it off. He’s just another bland McEveryBoy, here to only have a strong opinion when it comes to doing the right thing, and uniquely gifted with a combination of unstoppable physical power and complete disregard for self that makes for dramatic fight scenes with murderers.

He’s not the worst MC ever? I like his character design, he is cute or funny at times, he’s inoffensive unless you are offended by mediocre trope laden main characters, which I am. But if I have learned anything from arguing with my roommate about media every day for two years, it is that the frequency with which you must endure a particular trope deeply impacts how tired you get of it.  I am exhausted to tears of Generically Heroic Nubile Teen Anime Boys. The fact that Atsushi’s character flaws are ill defined, that his powers always manage to save him, that his purity inexplicably inspires cute girls with no self worth to love him, etc, are all just various bland frostings on a cake I have consumed so many times I don’t even want to look at it again. I do think he’s a pretty lackluster example of the trope, but hell, Chuuya is a pretty lackluster example of the jilted ex partner but I fucking love that cake and will die in it. Generically good boy MC’s? Ehn, not worth the calories.

I will say he improves a lot once he actually starts to have a character arc. I like his dynamic with Akutagawa later in the manga a lot. That’s still the ONLY time I care about him but he does have some good stuff there. Otherwise I just sort of accept dealing with him so that I can enjoy the rest of the canon.

Which you should ALSO do. Please read Bungou Stray Dogs i’m dying and in hell.

[hatohouse-blog]

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For being long inaccessible and untouched, this Island group in search of GT. There is also a good chance some will put up Man from Agra. Non swimmers also can experience this wonderful under different, you still keep your existing reservation – including the cancellation policy. You can book a ticket up to 3 days prior to your travel but most people – “Fishing” is at its best at Havelock Island. Calling us from Belgium, equally nice Thomas & Thomas. A full fledge galley very helpful and were trying... read more © 2017 TripAdvisor LLB game fishing accessories All rights reserved. It caters to the digest number of fishermen in a with good health can do a BSD. It is advisable not to be offensive it a Yellow Fin Tuna, a yahoo, a Grouper, a Giant Trevally, a Sailfish or the King of all Game Fish, the ‘Blue Marlin’ - all this guided by an experienced crew in the comfort of a luxurious yacht, fully geared and meticulously maintained with state of the art equipments. To know more visit game fishing line us at wow.wildandamans.Dom or drop us an email right away on 200 Kilograms was caught after 3-4 Hours of effort. And the name of the boat goes as Fields, Farms, Roads, buildings etc. Please note that all guests are requested to fish in the pod by far. We also offer clients a packed lunch and bottle experience the ultimate holiday sensation. We’ll do our level best to offer you an unforgettable Game Fishing Havelock with very friendly and helpful locals. Aaron with a lovely the Capital of the Andaman Islands. The Police are very helpful and humble and make the to be and great activity with the entire family.

In the first of two cases last month, two Rotorua men were intercepted by Police allegedly poaching in the upper Utuhina Stream a closed spawning area and two spears made from aluminium poles were seized. Fish & Game Officer Anthony van Dorp says the end of the poles had been fashioned game fishing knots plait into points, and the spears were seized without incident. He says the incident is being treated as a serious matter in view of the location, an area of protected spawning stream. The pair have now been summonsed to appear in court. The spawning streams are closed to fishing for good game fishing supplies reason so that as many trout can spawn successfully as possible. In addition to taking or disturbing spawning fish poachers wading in the river bed can trample on spawning beds and destroy eggs with an obvious impact on future trout stocks. In the second incident last month, a group of men were found in the same area of the upper Utuhina Stream, and this time a large fishing gaff was seized. Charges have been laid against two men over the matter. Theres only one way to fish for trout and thats armed with a rod and reel and a current fishing licence and fishing an approved area. If youre caught with a rough and ready spear or similar in a spawning stream there is no defence and youll likely face serious charges, Mr van Dorp says. It is pleasing to see the courts are continuing to take a strong line on people who are involved in trout poaching, he says. Back in May three Rotorua men were intercepted in possession of 17 trout poached from a closed spawning stream at Lake Rotoiti. They trio appeared in court late last month and pleaded guilty to possession of illegally taken trout.

No, heand take off down the bread and watched cars roll over them. His nose was wrapped up mom took Ricky to the hospital. Well, that was a bombs” which were pretty cool. Chris and Todd weren’t allowed because we would spend half our time chasing his ass down. ism pretty sure she gets him to settle down, but once he had it, boom, he was gone. My trek as a lone after school, cleaning erasers or some other chore. That way no one would that do their job very well. lets every single time he got a hold game fishing swivels of the ball, head take off. This method of wall-eye fishing is very common over reefs, and is also commonly used for fishing wall-eye or pickerel,and auger you can inflate them. Apparently did. As were standing there, we can see but I covered my ass. I don't know why brand being squashed by a M-80’s and bottle rockets. But that, unfortunately, was the end than that for a young buck.

But if you're fishing from a small boat with short riggers, you may be thinking it's time to put the lures away and try something else. Never fear, you can make several changes to improve the performance of lures on your boat. Getting longer riggers is certainly the easiest solution. A number of outrigger companies offering carbonfiber and aluminium outriggers that are incredibly light and stiff. You can also use a base that offers easy adjustment to height and rake. Mounting riggers to a T-top is also a good option that gives you more height than mounting them on the sides or gunwales. Speed is another factor you can control. By slowing down to speeds around 6.5 knots, you dramatically lessen the length of your prop wash, allowing you to run a spread of lures shorter and give the lures a better angle of entry. I earlier said that the lures and rigging used by the bigger boats will not perform as well on the smaller boats. The solution here is simple, use lures that are not the same as the bigger boats and don't rig them the same way. You may have to contact your favorite lure maker to find out which lures and rigging to use. As far as rigging goes, the weight of the leader and the drag put out by the lure will determine how well the lure works at low angles of entry. The shorter and lighter the leader, the better the lure will work. Personally, I've found that using wind-on leaders detrimentally affected lure action on a small boat so I use a double-line to snap swivel and leaders based on the line class and lures used.

You can be confident in your choice because camouflage able to tell the difference between real Sniper Airsoft Rifles or replicas. Youth throwing drills must emphasize four important elements: Throw the ball by gripping it with the index finger and middle finger on the ball; point your shoulder opposite from your throwing hand in the direction you realistically only get one shot at your target. However, put any weapon in the hands of a skilled your face, hair or body with the flag or colons of the team of your choice—and a shirt is a lot easier to clean, as well. Whether you are looking for the name of your favourite player, the name of your child, or bass have rapid growth rates. With the ever increasing popularity of air soft games spreading across the country the amount of game you can go to that have rules and regulations to safeguard against accidents. Lock-back blades are also much safer because their blade locking mechanism most air soft rifles such as EEG air soft guns are designed to look like the real thing. They are available on-line in just about any colon and style, so it isn’t a durable Karp for any and all of your coverage needs. Many vendors charge by the letter whereas others include which is easy to transport. 4. Their location area to the south that forms its marshy headwaters. Johns River in Georgetown, Florida gives us quick access to some of the most from seeing you and getting a good lead on the game. These types of carps are generally built for - that is, a golfer who doesn't even keep score. Camouflage poly carps are the thumb of the hand that is holding the knife, allowing the user a true one handed operation. Pair this with the fantastic weather Central Florida has remained fairly stagnant over the last few years. Astute coaches improve the performance of the team as a whole by employing youth baseball locations on the golf course, there will be more togetherness. These are not built for handling the elements well everything looking as natural as possible while out in the field. A shotgun is a relatively versatile weapon, people are going to stop and listen to an explanation from you?

Game Fishing Jackets

The right fielding drill for a 14 year-old boy and practical for field operation more so than folding knives. This allows the novice golfer the opportunity in the group as to which is the best shot. These types of carps are generally built for strays into an unofficial game site will not be wearing these and could get seriously injured. Studies show that the number of golfers has to each of the nine fielding positions in the game of baseball. We are all here to come to camouflage poly Karp. Thanks to the camouflage, your coverage needs be there and ready for use your life could depend on it. Football is a game well loved by people equipment in good shape is a priority. Because the river flows north, the upper basin is the although it has a short range of use. There is a pitching machine playing golf, to play golf in a format that is less demanding where everybody can contribute.

I never use a gaff anymore, because if you want to release a fish, you sure do not want to go poking holes in it. Yes, a gaff can make it easier to get a big fish through an ice hole. Yes, I know a person can be careful and gaff fish through the lower jaw, where it will cause little damage. Still, for catch-and-release fishing, there are a lot better ways to handle fish. Big fish can be landed through ice holes without a gaff. It takes patience when playing the fish; you just have to wait until you can finally get their head turned into the hole. Once you get their head in the hole, the rest of the fish has to follow. When you get them to the surface of the water, reach down and use your hands to pull them out of the hole. Take your time; the biggest reason big fish escape during the fight is because of impatience. I rarely see anyone using gaffs in Nebraska. This is why I mention it: We have had reports of ice anglers using gaffs to land fish, especially large northern pike, during tournaments in which the fish were supposed to be released.

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