#The First Battle Scene and Dazai’s Following Interaction with Chuuya

[linklethehistorian]

Randou and the Sins of Season 3's Fifteen Adaption (Part 14/???)

Episode 27 — The God of Fire (2/4)

Contrary to the presentation of the conversation between Dazai and Chuuya following the former’s aforementioned actions in the anime, where it simply ends on the suicidal boy’s several agreements that shooting a dead body is probably excessive and unnecessary and that his partner is right to claim such, that is not really the way it truly unfolded within its source material; no, instead, when Chuuya asks him to show respect for the dead by not continuing to shoot the man’s lifeless form, Dazai only acknowledges his statement once — his superficially familiar “Yeah. You’re right.” taking on an entirely different tone and context in the novel — before adding that that is ordinarily what people would think and pausing a moment, laughing dryly at his own statement soon after as he walks away towards the mansion.

Of course, I suppose that you may be wondering why something as seemingly small as removing his laughter and perhaps swapping a few choice words out for others is such a big deal to me — or to anyone else, for that matter — when it ultimately all sounds much the same, and I suppose I can’t really blame you for that, either, but it’s necessary for you to understand that in this case, the key to the scene’s proper nuance really does lie in these very things that were taken away from us. As I said above, the words, “Yeah. You’re right” are used by Dazai in an entirely different light between the two versions; while in the animation, it was clearly used as an agreement with the redhead’s sentiment, in the novel, it functioned more as a show of attentiveness towards the person presenting their views to him, as well as an acknowledgement that this was something he’d heard many times before from other “normal” people and thus was not the least bit surprised to be told again — especially when Chuuya was, from his then-current perspective, not any different from the rest of the masses in his thought processes.

On the question of whether or not this is a compliment or an insult, I think that it is worth acquiescing that it may genuinely be a bit of both, for although I personally lean more towards the latter and have my own reasoning for believing it was meant as such, I do think that Lea also has some rather interesting insight into and ideas on the matter, herself, and I absolutely don’t want to just ignore her point of view on it, when I do feel that it too at least bears a decent amount of consideration; therefore, I will do my best to give a bit of elaboration on both angles, along with asking that if I fail to explain her thoughts well to you, you might feel free to check out the post in which she originally goes over it.

From Lea’s personal standpoint, it is her belief that the bandaged teen’s laughter at his assertion that Chuuya’s thoughts were ordinary compared to his was not meant as a mockery towards Chuuya or so-called “ordinary” people, but rather was aimed at himself; according to her explanation, this is because Dazai is well aware of how strange his mind is and, as such, how he himself can never qualify as or belong to the notion of anything ‘ordinary’, thus causing him to hold some bitterness towards himself for how out of place he is in the world and how little he believes he can ever fit in. As before, whilst I may hold a different opinion on the situation overall, I don’t actually think this interpretation is precisely wrong, nor do I think it should be completely overlooked, as I absolutely don’t doubt that Dazai does, to some extent, feel a deep dissatisfaction in himself because of how ‘different’ and, in a sense, removed from everyone else, he is, and how that has led to him experiencing this great emptiness inside and struggling to want to continue living; I don’t doubt for even a moment that there are and have often been times in the past when Dazai may have been, on some level, jealous of those around him and perhaps even had a part of him wish that he could be like everyone else, because I’m almost sure that all of this has been true — at least, at one point or another.

That being said, though, that also does not erase the fact that regardless of any envy he may feel for the general population, it is absolutely not because he in any way believes them or their ways of thinking to be genuinely superior; in fact, based on all that has already been established about Dazai — both in this particular entry and all of those in the past as well — I think it is very fair and safe of me to make the assessment that, if anything, it is exactly the opposite that is true. Dazai envies others and their thought processes not for some alleged superiority, but rather, for their supposed inferiority, which his emotionally and empathetically narrow mind perceives them to have; to the young so-called genius, his occasional desire to be like the ‘ordinary’ people around him is little more than a wish that he could sometimes turn his ‘logic’ off — to become simple and ‘naive’ enough to be unaware of what he thinks are the true ways of the world, or at least just be ‘foolish’ enough to see it and still be able to ‘delude’ himself into denying it anyway.

Assuredly, I can grant that the suicidal teen may dislike or even resent his own nature, but once more, it is not because he believes there is something wrong with him mentally, half so much as that he believes he is much too smart for his own good; thus, I hardly think it appropriate to say that his laughter is in intentional mockery of that or of himself, when I find it far more easy to believe that he is amused by and making mockery of the “lower intelligence” of others and their compassionate, ‘uninformed’, emotionally-driven outlooks.

Of course, if this conclusion of mine is indeed right, then we would naturally have a much better explanation for why this moment was omitted in the anime. I know that some people might think that it is very logical to presume that they simply cut whatever they could for time, and that this part was just one of those things that could be easily and fairly harmlessly expended, rather than to take the less charitable stance in saying that this was a calculated move of some kind; however, when you truly give any degree of genuine thought to it, you must admit that it is a little absurd to suggest the studio decided that these few potential seconds of additional dialogue were “taking up too much time”, especially when you consider that they were just fine with wasting much, much longer on credit sequences and extended events that did not even happen as presented in the original story on other occasions.

Furthermore, while no one is denying that the moments leading up to this removed final exchange aren’t exactly the best at providing pleasant representation for Dazai, there is still no ignoring the fact that without this last piece being kept in, it is nonetheless infinitely better for a more SKK compliant, ‘kinder Dazai’ narrative than it would be with it still maintained, as it not only makes Dazai look slightly nicer, but especially lends much more of a sense that Chuuya’s words had a profound effect on him than they actually did. As for what they gain in pushing this untrue portrayal I continue to allude to so often, and what reason I have to believe they’re actually doing that, well, that’s something I’ll get into much more later, but I imagine it isn’t so hard to at least partially figure out on your own anyway, in the meantime — even if you don’t truly know the full extent of the butchery they’ve committed to achieve it.

Temporarily setting aside this treachery and mutilation, though, even if this one choice hadn’t been a part of some much bigger picture, I would still be just as disappointed in their decision, as I feel it heavily tones down the full extent of the scene’s eeriness and loses the true sense of the two teens’ personalities, thoughts, and relationship with each other.

It is, true, too, I have no doubt, that the earlier addition of Dazai’s “what you say is probably correct” to the conversation, after twice confirming that Chuuya was right with his assessment, was included in order to mirror a certain scene in DEAD APPLE, but I don’t really have much to give of my own, commentary-wise, on it, since unlike the other alteration, its existence does not change all that much, and as a result, I neither hate nor adore it; it simply exists, and that is fine.

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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. 

[catsbythegreat]

My thoughts on Fifteen ep 2 featuring my love for Nakahara Chuuya that knows no bounds, focusing on Arahabaki: 

So in this episode my main take-away is that I really like (for the most part) how they animated Chuuya’s facial expressions. There’s a lot of emotion in it, which is kind of subtle to the point where Dazai is surprised that Arahabaki has something to do with Chuuya personally rather than as a general problem affecting his area. In addition to that, this episode provides a lot of details for how Chuuya interacts with others, something we don’t see in the main series, and some interesting things Dazai does in regards to Chuuya too. 

I wrote about the opening battle scene here with regards to Dazai and Chuuya, so this is really just about the way Chuuya’s emotions show throughout the episode. 

I’ll separate this into two posts so this one will be about Arahabaki: 

Chuuya is not great at hiding his emotions except when it comes to things that don’t involve other people. Everything involving himself is more subtle than anything he talks about with anyone else, which is part of why no one seems to notice that Arahabaki is a personal issue, and even Randou can’t confirm it until Chuuya outright tells him. In the beginning when Randou talks about Arahabaki we get a close-up of Chuuya’s face: 

He looks so somber here -- he’s basically hearing abut himself. No one is looking at him in this scene, though, so him looking like this is lost on everyone else. Dazai doesn’t think he needs to focus on Chuuya when Randou is right in front of him. Chuuya doesn’t seem to be focusing on Randou at all, but rather his words. It’s more of an introspective look than a focused-on-who’s-speaking look. 

Then there’s this which I found really funny:

It’s a nice little detail which, again, no one else sees. Chuuya’s brief shock when Dazai says he’s figured it out, not because Dazai figured it out first but because of what it might mean for him, immediately followed by him not believing it at all. 

The next time they talk about Arahabaki is in the arcade, when Dazai asks why Chuuya only fights with his feet and if it has to do with his trump card. Chuuya closes off and fires back with an extremely personal question to Dazai: 

He deflects from a highly personal question with another highly personal question, but I don’t think Dazai puts together that Chuuya did that because the Arahabaki question is so personal to him, because then the Sheep come in, and later when Dazai is talking about how he solved it, he’s focused entirely on Randou rather than Chuuya being a part of it. 

After that, Chuuya has to tell the Sheep that Arahabaki comes first and his expression there is interesting as well:

He doesn’t look at anyone when he says it and doesn’t offer an explanation for why that’s the case, especially since the Sheep hostages have been released. No one really questions it, though. 

Then in the last scene they get into actually talking about Arahabaki in a more direct way. After going back and forth about how Chuuya figured out how Randou was the one behind everything he comes out with “gods do exist.” He probably knows at this point that the conversation won’t end without him having to tell the truth about the situation. 

Despite saying that, he still hesitates and looks for a way out. The way he talks about Arahabaki is interesting because it’s the same way everyone else talks about it, as completely inhuman, but coming from him, he’s talking about himself. I think this is the first time he’s actually talked about Arahabaki’s nature as well.  Also the phrase “meet that thing” kind of implies that it’s sentient, even if Chuuya ends up saying it doesn’t have a personality. He doesn’t say “find that thing” or “use that thing” which is what Randou is doing. 

Considering what happens next, this is intriguing because again, Chuuya is kind of talking about himself: 

This is the point where Chuuya opens his eyes, and I think it’s the point Chuuya realizes that no matter what he says, he can’t convince Randou to just drop the subject. It’s clear Randou is after the power rather than anything else. It’s also clear Chuuya still doesn’t really want to tell him. 

These last two screencaps are...interesting...but fish-eyes aside I think the framing of it shows a lot about Chuuya’s state of mind, with the choice to have Chuuya not looking at Randou until he admits that he’s Arahabaki. 

Again, fish-eyes aside, Chuuya kind of doesn’t have an expression on his face. I think the effect shows that Chuuya is completely open, in a sense, and that he’s not hiding anything. This is the point where he admits who he is, and I think it’s probably the first (and maybe only) time he does that. 

I think this last frame is also how Randou sees him -- he’s looking into the face of this fifteen year old kid who’s admitting that he’s the god Randou has been searching for this whole time, and that kind of changes how Randou sees him now that it’s confirmed. Especially since Randou had met him before. Now Chuuya isn’t a pain in the ass kid stopping him from reaching his goal: Chuuya is his goal. And Randou doesn’t see Chuuya as human, so the whole effect is unsettling. 

I could be wrong about that, of course, but that’s how I read it. I can’t wait to see how they adapt the next part next week! 

[linklethehistorian]

Randou and the Sins of Season 3's Fifteen Adaption (Part 13/???)

Episode 27 — The God of Fire (1/4)

With the best episode out of the bunch now behind us, and the worst still yet to come, Episode 27 presents itself as the middle ground between the two — the limbo between the proverbial Heaven of its predecessor and the Hell of its successor, neither good nor evil overall, though certainly leaning more towards the latter than the one that came before it.

In all honesty, while I do, in fact, have some rather major and highly significant complaints with this episode’s handling of certain subjects, the bulk of these lie mostly in the last 6 minutes and 17 seconds — and since that final period of time deals purely with Randou’s characterization and his overarching role in the story, this means that I will not be covering any of that in this section; nevertheless, I am not completely without commentary on the presentation of the other events that unfolded here, as there are a few earlier deviations that I need to address, even if they are not quite to the same extreme as those that follow them, in my opinion.

The First Battle Scene and Dazai’s Following Interaction with Chuuya

All in all, I don’t have too much to say that is particularly negative about what we were given with the battle in the courtyard outside Randou’s mansion; despite it not quite matching in certain ways to the mental image I’d always had of the area while reading the book, I don’t really feel it was all that inaccurate to the source material on the whole in regards to the visual aspect, nor even in terms of the storytelling, apart from some small details that I will delve into in a moment.

Nay, verily, I was actually quite satisfied with the things that were there; the only two objections I do have about the handling of this part are rather more about what wasn’t present than what was — namely, Chuuya’s warning to the last man standing in the fight and lack of blame in his death, and the final portion of the conversation Dazai had with the redhead following his own...meltdown.

As much as I may have enjoyed Chuuya’s battle against GSS and thought that it was extremely well done, I still can’t help feeling that it was doing the boy something of a disservice to only show him acting so murder-happy and merciless; without question, he can be rash at times, and he certainly isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty when it’s necessary, but even if that’s true, this scene did not unfold quite as brutally as the anime portrayed it.

In reality, Chuuya was not just thoughtlessly murdering every single man that was there before they were even given a chance to surrender, but actually took caution in leaving at least one man alive and well after the battle was over, whom he tried to question about Arahabaki and even warned not to attempt any last ditch effort at an attack if he wanted to live. It was only that same man’s disregard for Chuuya’s cautionary words — not Chuuya’s ‘merciless’ nature, or even said boy’s attacks — that resulted in his own death, as the GSS member met a very similar fate to that of the Mafioso in the plane at the beginning of the book, with the bullet he tried to shoot at Chuuya being ricocheted back to the shooter himself from the tree it hit without any help from the teen’s gravity manipulation whatsoever, piercing the man in the neck.

Once again, no, this is not a highly catastrophic thing for the show to have removed; it’s very far from being the end of the world that we were left without it, but I do feel its inclusion would have gone a long way in painting Chuuya in a slightly better and more truthful light than the mini-arc has tended to depict him thus far, along with just making for a more interesting and suspenseful end to the battle in general, rather than having a bunch of bodies lying scattered around and Chuuya cruelly trying to question an already dying and suffering man.

Speaking of which��

Though I’m very glad that they had at all decided to keep in the scene in which Dazai had snapped, psychotically laughing whilst shooting the GSS man’s body over and over, when they could just as easily have taken it out altogether, I am still nonetheless very disappointed that despite doing so, they also carelessly went ahead with removing the final piece of its conclusion anyway, with no regard for the many different points of relevance and bits of characterization that it had within it — or rather, perhaps, in some ways, exactly because of it.

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“Randou & the Sins of Season 3′s Fifteen Adaption”: A Grand Directory & Master List (Part 1)

Looking for a specific portion of my article, or just want to have every part readily available in one place? I’ve got you covered! In here, you can access every part of my article that exists!

Seeing as that much of my article has yet to be posted at this time, this post will have to be edited with sections and subsections and their links as I go along, but rest assured that it shall be done! 

If you are considering sharing my article with anyone you know or wish to reblog it in general, please prioritize reblogging this page most of all, as it offers the most complete access of all of the posts I will be making.  Thank you for your interest, and I hope you enjoy!

Linkle's Mini-Handbook of Relevant Bungou Stray Dogs and General Fandom Terms You Might Want to Know:

Part 1/3

Part 2/3

Part 3/3

Disclaimer and Notes:

Part 1/6 (Post 1/? Total)

Part 2/6 (Post 2/? Total)

Part 3/6 (Post 3/? Total)

Part 4/6 (Post 4/? Total)

Part 5/6 (Post 5/? Total)

Part 6/6 (Post 6/? Total)

Episode 26 — Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen Years Old:

The Opening Scene, Chuuya’s Motives, and the First Introduction of Arahabaki

(Part 1/3) (Post 7/? Total) (Part 2/3) (Post 8/? Total) (Part 3/3) (Post 9/? Total)

Dazai’s Difference in Personality and Mori’s Dealings with the Two Teenagers (Part 1/3) (Post 10/? Total) (Part 2/3) (Post 11/? Total) (Part 3/3) (Post 12/? Total)

Episode 27 — The God of Fire:

The First Battle Scene and Dazai’s Following Interaction with Chuuya

(Part 1/2) (Post 13/? Total) (Part 2/2) (Post 14/? Total)

The Confrontation with Sheep at the Arcade (Part 1/2) (Post 15/? Total) (Part 2/2) (Post 16/? Total)

Interlude

(Episode  27 — The God of Fire: A Post-Section Addendum)

(New Working Link to DarkestJay’s English Translation of Fifteen & Commentary on the Discrepancies Therein (PLEASE READ)) 

Episode 28 — Only a Diamond Can Polish a Diamond:

Shirase, the Sheep’s Betrayal of Chuuya, and Dazai’s Deal

(Part 1/3) (Post 17/? Total) (Part 2/3) (Post 18/? Total) (Part 3/3) (Post 19/? Total)

Chuuya’s Question to Mori

(Part 1/1) (Post 20/? Total)

Chuuya’s Outfit Post-Entry into the Mafia and Dazai’s State of Health

(Part 1/1) (Post 21/? Total)

Bones' Biggest Changes & Greatest Failures — The Tragedy of Arthur Rimbaud 

Chuuya’s Restraints & The First Glimpse of Randou’s Ability

(Part 1/6) (Post 22/? Total) (Part 2/6) (Post 23/? Total) (Part 3/6) (Post 24/? Total) (Part 4/6) (Post 25/? Total) (Part 5/6) (Post 26/? Total) (Part 6/6) (Post 27/? Total)

Rumors of the Origin of Suribachi City and Arahabaki

(Part 1/3) (Post 28/? Total) (Part 2/3) (Post 29/? Total) (Part 3/3) (Post 30/? Total)

Randou in the Burning Mansion & the Encounter With Arahabaki (Part 1/7) (Post 31/? Total) (Part 2/7) (Post 32/? Total) (Part 3/7) (Post 33/? Total) (Part 4/7) (Post 34/? Total) (Part 5/7) (Post 35/? Total) (Part 6/7) (Post 36/? Total) (Part 7/7) (Post 37/? Total)

Something Missing: Arahabaki’s Mysterious Memories (Part 1/1) (Post 38/? Total)

Dazai and Randou’s Party for Chuuya

(Part 1/?) (Post 39/? Total) (Part 2/?) (Post 40/? Total) (Part 3/?) (Post 41/? Total)

On Dazai's Skin-Deep Kindness & Playfulness, and His True Views

(Part 4/?) (Post 42/? Total) (Part 5/?) (Post 43/? Total)

On Randou’s Genuine Compassion & Consideration, and His Impossible Purity of Heart

(Part 6/?) (Post 44/? Total) (Part 7/?) (Post 45/? Total) (Part 8/?) (Post 46/? Total) (Part 9/?) (Post 47/? Total) (Part 10/?) (Post 48/? Total) (Part 11/?) (Post 49/? Total) (Part 12/?) (Post 50/? Total) [See Masterlist Part 2 (Post 51 and beyond)]