#akutagawa himself would not be so interesting to me were he not as self-destructive and tunnel-visioned as he is in canon. and if dazai had

[blackwaves]

#btw this is why dazai sets him on atsushi #because atsushi is the reverse #he is entirely self preservation #he has trouble moving forward and he freezes #when dazai says “he's better than you” #that's what he means #he's saying see that? do you see that cowering weepy cat? that is the better extreme. #and then he keeps bringing them together because they need each other #atsushi needs akutagawa to be brave enough to act #and akutagawa needs to see what a will to live looks like from someone capable of absorbing the brunt of the fight #also as a reminder. akutagawa is not real. he is a seinen anime character with superpowers. #anime is a stylistic and exaggerated medium #do not work yourself up by dragging them from their context to frame their behavior as if theyre irl high school aged students #the pencil drawings are not hurting each other and cartoon violence is not 1:1 with real violence (tags from OP)

pm!dazai didn't abuse akutagawa. he reacted proportionately to the threat akutagawa posed to himself.

when dazai smacks akutagawa around in canon, they're running drills. dazai is not hitting him in misdirected anger or because he is venting his own suffering on him. akutagawa does not instinctually protect himself. in his fits of hyperviolence, he seeks to kill and be killed, and nearly is in beast, and in the course of his initial pursuit of atsushi.

he does not have the reflex or will or instinct to defend himself, and he is slow because he is having to consciously process the effort. his automatic reflex is to attack, but that will not stop him from being shot or overwhelmed or blindsided.

what they are doing in those scenes, what dazai is uniquely able to practice with him since rashomon can't pierce him, is not unlike cognitive behavioral therapy interventions. akutagawa is wired such that when he is triggered, he develops tunnel vision, pressing forward relentlessly without registering danger or responding to negative stimuli. this is a pattern developed from when he deemed dearh inevitable, and one which is liable to get him killed regardless of whether he has a reason to live.

he needs to consciously retrain his instinctual response, and he has to consciously and consistently reinforce it against his existing, much quicker instinct. he has to do it before he has the conviction or will to do it. and he has to do it over and over again, even when it isn't immediately life or death, because the instinct is self reinforcing, and the pattern he is trying to supplant it with is not yet.

skills are part of their users' framework for responding to their environment. jun'ichiro is anxious, but he can hide within light snow. kunikida has his notebook, but it has rigid limitations that he adapts to, similarly to how he works within the limitations of reality to keep from becoming consumed by his ideals.

akutagawa's skill, meanwhile, is wildly fucking disproportionate to akutagawa's constitution which is a problem when akutagawa wont react defensively. akutagawa is canonically frail, chronically ill, thin, and short (he's 5'8", but asagiri insists he's itty bitty every time he describes him in prose). rashomon, meanwhile, is monstrously powerful and hungry. it lends a false sense of untouchable violence when akutagawa himself is weak, and also is just really difficult to focus and control such that using it brings akutagawa into coughing fits. rashomon is also terrifying even in visage; it invites others to react with violence proportionate to their terror against the spectre of rashomon — but akutagawa is small, sick, and human; what is proportionate to rashomon is IMMENSE overkill if aimed at akutagawa. which is especially egregious because akutagawa will let them.

in other words, when dazai meets akutagawa, rashomon is as dangerous to its user as to anyone else. skills should not get their users killed. dazai is right. it's a shit skill.

akutagawa is vulnerable and self-destructive, and he and dazai are working to rewire his instinctual evaluation of his stakes. even when dazai punches akutagawa after akutagawa kills the mimic soldier, it's not a random act of violence or unregulated anger. the mimic soldier was not going to lead them to gide, there was no reality where they restrained him before he bit his cyanide, and he'd attacked dazai. but instead of reacting defensively at the opportunity, akutagawa fell to the former instinct, leaving himself wide open.

dazai reacts how he does because:

they are supplanting an ingrained instinct that is self reinforcing, the correction needs to be consistent to change the pattern and the former instinct needs to be discouraged with the same severity as the threat it poses;

by punching akutagawa first, dazai gave him notice and time to consciously muster the defense reaction theyre working on;

akutagawa needs to build an association between the defensive reaction and the triggering stimulus for this to work;

the context in which this happens is the exact sort of threat that rashomon is then ill equipped to handle— gide can see into the future, like oda, and mimic are military trained gunmen.

when dazai tells akutagawa that he couldn't ever defeat oda, he's not taunting him, he's right. akutagawa is relying on swift killing blows, but against someone who can see into the future, akutagawa is as vulnerable as a baby. and then, shortly after, that's what happens: gide wrecks his shit and is about to murder him dead when oda swoops in to grab dazai's dumb horrible baby kouhai who's trying to kill himself with the ambitious gusto of a horse.

as long as akutagawa fails to seek self-preservation, he is remarkably vulnerable. he's weak, and he's going to get himself killed. dazai doesn't coddle him about it for the same reason fukuzawa slaps ranpo for scampering into a police car with a murderer. you dont get praise for self endangerment.

dazai is not going to affirm a version of akutagawa that is trying to kill the boy dazai promised to save.

***

(also, this explains why akutagawa hates taking baths and being without his coat. dazai tried to instill in akutagawa the vigilance to register danger. in his absence, akutagawa strove to be worthy of demanding his approval by diligently practicing. but he's dazai's dumb baby kouhai who. takes things too far lmao.)

[death-in-a-handbasket]

Ooo headcannon time okay! So some of my headcannons don’t really have much if any cannon evidence, in fact it’s mostly just from vibes alone. Theres the simple ones like how I think he actually has eyebrows but they’re just white like the tips of his hair, or like that I personally don’t see him as cis (no cannon reference I just got a feeling) Oooh and I have a headcannon that he feeds the stray cats by his house/apartment.!In my mind, akutagawa is a protector by nature like he was with his group back in the slums, and over time due to being in the mafia for so long it kinda morphed into something else If that makes sense? I don’t really know how to word it lol. I can’t remember the rest, but if I have anymore I’ll send them in.

honestly sometimes making hcs IS about the vibes alone, sometimes the shit comes to you in a vision with no other explanation besides “it feels right” that’s how I make my playlists half the time, I can’t properly tell you why blood roses goes in his playlist other than that bitch is fucking it up on the harpsichord and it’s cunty

also tbh I’ve always liked the thought that his brows are actually white and just match the tips of his hair, that’s very pretty to me actually 🤭 imagine if bits of his eyelashes are also white ohhuuu preettyman ,,,,,,

also what kind of cisn’t are you feeling? transman? enby? I think it would be interesting if he was agender, him and gin both are abstaining from explaining whatever is happening in the gender department

also he seemingly isn’t a dog person so it would be really cute to me if he was soft to cats as a result, he probably sits with them and drinks tea while they eat and they have a sweet little routine going on at this point, imagine he names some of them after his old friends 🥹

also YES I totally agree that he’s got a protective nature, he’s also prone to obsession and stubbornness which combined tells me instead of it being expressed in healthier ways, the mafia has him semi stuck in fight or flight mode, all his protective nature is going towards keeping his reason to live intact, he’s guarding his purpose because he kind of goes off the rails when he doesn’t have a purpose. Even if he isn’t protecting himself or his will to live, I feel like all that energy and obsession would default to protecting someone even to the point of self destruction

picks him up puts him under my arm alright pookie it’s time to get some better coping mechanisms than this :’)

I think even if he were raised in healthier circumstances I think there’s always a little bit of him that does see violence as a very good option to fix bullshit, like even if he had parents that took good care of him I still feel like if he thought one of his classmates was being a dickhead he would wind it back and knock a few teeth in LMAO bro walks a very tenuous wire of violent and cutthroat but also inexplicably sensitive and deeply caring

also take your time! whenever you think of something send me asks or just straight up tell me random stuff, shit man you could straight up dm me and I’d rock with it, I love visitors in my inbox regardless :]

[linkspooky]

Gogol the Clown

A member of the decay of angels, one of the few characters in the story we have seen follow Fyodor willingly rather than being mind controlled or a sycophant, an immediately loud and attention grabbing character. Nikolai Gogol has an incredible impact on the plot, despite only being around for a short time. There is a lot of deeper themes and philosophy to unravel in this engimatic character. So let’s answer Gogol’s question, just who is he? 

1. The Overcoat

As an ally of all clowns I am obligated to give a more in depth look at Gogol’s character. The first clue to his true nature is the author of his namesake, Nikolai Gogol. The author Gogol had a reptuation of a dramatist and a satirist, and blended humorous and tragic elements in his story to make critiques of society therefore we have Gogol, the laughing and yet tragic clown. 

His ability is named after The Overcoat a short story that had great influence in Russian Literature, as said by Dostoyevsky as “We all come from Gogols’ Overcoat.” 

The story narrates the life and death of Akaky Akakievich, an impoverished government clerk and copyist. He lives as nothing more than a tool of the bureaucracy, until he decides to save up for a new stylish overcoat which soon becomes the center of his life. Akaky after fasting for months finally can afford it, and is praised for the first time for the quality of his coat, only to be robbed the next day. When he speaks with a government official and meekly asks for help in cooperating with the police to retrieve the coat, the general scolds him so fiercely for interrupting his time with an unimportant matter. Soon afterwards, Akaky falls deathly ill with fever. In his last hours, delirious, imagining himself again sitting before the general and he pleads for forgiveness, before finally cursing the general. 

While Gogol, a clown who cooperates with terrorists and tries to drag down society has almost nothing in common with a punch-clock bureaucrat who has no life outside of his work, there’s an interesting comparison on how different their stories are. Almost as if Akakay is what Gogol is terrified of being, so much so he runs in the opposite direction. 

Both of their stories are primarily about their own deaths, but the way they die is opposite, Gogol chooses death, whereas Akaky meets his death soon after he deviates just a little bit from the social order of his humdrum life. 

If Gogol is a deviant of society, a dangerous terrorist, then Akaky is the living definition of a normal person. He has absolutely no life outisde of doing what others tell him to do His name Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, in russian means Akaky Bashmachkin the son of Akaky Bashmachkin. Which basically makes it the equivalent of John Johnson. It communicates his role as an everyman. He begins at the story a introverted, and hopeless but otherwise functioning non-entity with no expectations of social or material success. 

He basically acts like he was born to fit in a slot. His entire life consists of copying down documents, he does not do anything for himself other than what he is told. 

“It would be difficult to find another man who lived so entirely for his duties. It is not enough to say that Akakiy laboured with zeal: no, he laboured with love. In his copying, he found a varied and agreeable employment. Outside this copying, it appeared that nothing existed for him. He gave no thought to his clothes.”

He ‘enjoys’ his life so to speak, but he basically lives without living. He never makes any choices for himself, or desires anything for his life. He is satisfied but only because he wants for nothing. He has no thoughts of disatisfaction, but only because he never thinks. He lives without worries, because he never takes on the burden of his own free will. 

In other words as a bureaucrat he is not a person. He is a tool in the system. Not only that, but despite the fact that he is a completely harmless existence lacking any evil or bad intention at all, he is almost constantly bullied. He causes no trouble for others, keeps his head down, and does not even retaliate when he is jeered at and yet people continue to constantly push him down. Even when he is on the absolute bottom of society, he’s pushed. The only time he retaliates is when their jeers start to get into his work, at which point the mocking of him turns from humorous to tragic. 

How little humane feeling after all was to be found in men's hearts; how much coarseness and cruelty was to be found even in the educated and those who were everywhere regarded as good and honorable men."

When he is asked to think for himself and change just a few words on a document, Akaky is completely unable to do it. He’s unable to have a self.

This caused him so much toil that he broke into a perspiration, rubbed his forehead, and finally said, "No, give me rather something to copy." After that they let him copy on forever.

When he starts to desire a coat for the first time, something outside of his work, Akaky develops as a person. His self-esteem is raised and his expectations towards lief are raised as well by the overcoat. Which is why, when it is finally stolen, and Akaky is put back in his place so to speak by a much more important general he crashes back down. 

"Do you know to whom you speak? Do you realise who stands before you? Do you realise it? do you realise it? I ask you!"

In the end it’s a story of someone who dies without ever living, and only ever really making one choice for himself which was immediately taken away from him as he was ordered to go back to fitting in his slot. It shows that there’s more to life than simply obeying every single order given to you. Akaky by all means lived what society might call a good life, he never caused harm, he was never greedy, he never missed a day or work and yet we see the only result of that is people continuing to beat him down without any consideration. It’s an argument of what fitting into a society entails, and how absolutely mundane human cruelty can be. 

And St. Petersburg was left without Akakiy Akakievitch, as though he had never lived there. A being disappeared who was protected by none, dear to none, interesting to none, and who never even attracted to himself the attention of those students of human nature who omit no opportunity of thrusting a pin through a common fly, and examining it under the microscope.

A being who bore meekly the jibes of the department, and went to his grave without having done one unusual deed, but to whom, nevertheless, at the close of his life appeared a bright visitant in the form of a cloak, which momentarily cheered his poor life, and upon whom, thereafter, an intolerable misfortune descended, just as it descends upon the mighty of this world!

If you imagine Gogol as someone who exists in complete opposition to Akaky, trying to live a life where he makes every single choice in the opposite manner than the clown’s character becomes quite clear. 

Akaky is someone with really no free will, no free thought of his own, and no uniqueness. He is always the punch line to the jokers of other people. He is so plain what you see is basically what you get with him. He has no internal world whatsoever, and no designs of life. 

Gogol is a character based entirely around the concept of freedom, where freedom and his own identity, his uniqueness are the most important things to him. Which is why he dresses himself up as loudly as possible, plays the role of an eccentric, and becomes the clown. 

He is a terrorist, an outsider to society because for him that is the best method of being free. 

Society in Bungo Stray Dogs is after all, a lot like the one depicted in the Overcoat. A stagnant, uncaring thing, almost like a force of its own bearing down on others. Characters cannot easily move their position. Akutagawa is a stray dog, an orphan who is expected to die in the slums without ever receiving a helping hand, and the only way for him to escape that life is to become a murderer for the mafia. The poor stay poor, the weak are taken from, more orphans are not saved, the people in power stay in power in the name of an uneasy peace. 

The decay of angels is a group to hasten the destruction of a society that in their eyes, is already slowly decaying away. Not much is known on Gogol’s backstory, but if the alternative choice is for him to become downtrodden on like the man in the Overcoat it’s understandable why he would be so desperate for freedom he would flip the switch and go in the exact opposite, try to destroy anything that might hinder him, break any chain that might slow him down, run away from society so fast that running away and pursuing freedom became his only true identity. 

Gogol’s plan also shows how quickly society as a whole, but more importantly government bureacracy can turn on people the moment they stop fitting in a slot, the moment they ceae to be useful, no matter how much service they have given before that point. If the employees willingly give up their own humanity, the bureacracy will stop seeing them as people, as we see how quickly the government turns on the Armed Detective Agency despite all of their work before this point. 

The agency is the heart of the country, the nation’s pride, and then suddenly they are not. As easy as that. Which is a good existential conundrum showing that the rules you believe in, the securirty you believe you have, the structures in place are not as solid as you think they are. The foundation can crumble at any moment, and you are not a significant loss, because you are not a person to them in the first place. 

Gogol is someone who wants to be free to the point of radicalism. He deliberately disrupts the status quo, not just for his enemies but even the people he’s manipulating. He leaves the corrupt government agent alive because he does not want him to die until he realizes that he never wanted his seat in society, his power, his role in society in the first place. 

“As I grew up, I opened my eyes and saw the real world and I began to laugh and I haven’t stopped since. I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a high court judge, that the brighest joy of life was to marry a well off girl. That wisdom was what the majority said it was, that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined ten dollar, that cordiality was to say ‘you’re welcome’ after a meal. And that the fear  of god was to go to communion once a year. That’s what I saw, and I laughed.” - Soren Kierkegaard. 

If Akaky is the joke, then Gogol is so determined not to become a joke that he becomes the clown instead and makes others the joke. That society for him is not something that people live in as themselves, but rather repress themselves so they can mindlessly repeat society better. 

2. The Only Philosophical Question is Suicide

“Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.”  - Soren Kierkegaard

Then, what is the center of Gogol’s philosophy? If he sees society as something inherently meaningless that he longs to be free from, if the values of others are just empty ideas to him, if he acnkowledges that every role others might assume, everything they think is important is not, everything they want to hold onto forever was never theirs in the first place: If it is all meaningless to him one way or the other then why are Gogol’s ideals so strong he would die for them in the first place? 

Gogol is someone who tightly controls information. He makes others play guessing games so they can think for themselves. His goal is to make others fall from their roles, and to make them regret the roles they assigned to themselves in the first place. Once again though, this is an objective, this is a goal, there is motivation behind his actions. He acts like everything is meaningless to him, that he is flippant to the world’s woes, and yet he is sharply making these critiques and satires of the society around them with a purpose. That in itself is the central question of his character. His philosophy as confusing and contradictory as it is, is easy to understand once you unravel the central question of his character. 

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide... Judging whether life is or is not worth living. That is the fundamental question of philosophy.” Albert Camus, Myth of Sisyphus

Everything is a choice, and the first choice everyone makes is whether or not to kill themselves. Camus judged existence to be one that is entirely meaningless,  but rather than that negating the meaning of choice rather it makes choices matter more as they define who you are. A life that has no inherent meaning is therefore, defined by the actions it entails. 

“If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so… The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance.” 

Therefore a lack of meaning, of outside validation, ironically gives people more freedom to dictate their own meaning. 

If the fundamental question of all philosophy is whether or not one should commit suicide, then what Gogol aims for himself is radical freedom. 

Sartre's notion of 'radical freedom' said that everyone always has a choice, and every act is a free act. When people say they have 'no choice' but to do something, they are lying to themselves.  

“We are left alone, without excuse. This is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free” (Sartre). 

Sartre’s view of the world is that everyone, everyone, is utterly free. Existence precedes essence. Human beings first come into existence, then they determine their own essence by the choices they make. 

There is no essence to any thing that exists.  There is no pre-existent essence that makes a thing what it is.  There is no essence to a human being that preexists the human and makes a human what that human is.  There is no essence to being a male or a female.  There are no predetermined roles.  NOTHING is predetermined.  There is NO fate or destiny.  Humans make themselves what they are.  Humans choose to believe what they do about themselves.  Humans choose to believe in something called a human nature.  But humans make that nature what it is by choosing to be what they are.  There is no God that predetermines what humans are and even if there is a God, God made humans free to determine their own natures.  Humans are freedom.  I am what I choose.

Therefore if everything is free, then everything is a choice which you bear responsibility for. The cost of Sartre’s absolute freedom m of realizing our own freedom is Angoisse, or the anguish of existence. Everything is terrifyingly possible because humans are just making it up as they go along, and are free to toss aside their shackles at any time.

Because suicide is a choice, that means that choosing to live is also a continued choice that people make. If a gun is put to your head, you are still responsible for your actions, because the choice to die was still a choice available to you. It is something that emphasizes an incredibly harsh respsonsibility on the ideal of freedom, as people are no longer able to blame outside their circumstances for their own choices, it is at the same time liberating but heavy. This is the same philosophy which Gogol holds. 

This idea of freedom is reflected in Gogol’s ability as well, it’s one that allows him to tranvserse space with almost absolute freedom. He can move things around at his will, as even dimmensions bend to his choices. 

During their fight, Atsushi assigns him the predetermined role of a villain. As if he was a character cast in a play, rather than a real person.  Atsushi himself like a striped tiger, sees things in blakc and white, often loses control of himself and blames the tiger rather than his own free will and emotions when his ability went crazy and lashed out. He is in a way the opposite of Gogol, someone who rties to chain himself down because it gives him a purpose, rather than soemone who liberates himself. Atsushi clings onto his past pain, his obligation to save others even to harm himself, and repeats those actions without analyzing their true meaning or even taking full responsibility for them. 

Gogol then plays to Atsushi’s expectations of the world. His black and white, regimented story roles. In Atsushi’s mind people can only cause hurt to other people, because they’re bad people who feel nothing. He has a hard time grasping complexity, because he himself does not want to take responsibility for his negative emotions, his resentment, his anger, so he completely fails to see it in other people.

Gogol confronts Atsushi with the reality that society is not rational and acceptable to him, but rather it is fundamentally irrational and something unacceptable. 

Gogol kills people, he acts as a terrorist, but his pursuit of freedom is the real deal. For Gogol, complete freedom also means the freedom to lose others, the freedom to hurt other people, the freedom to live also means the freedom to die. He accepts the anguish of existence, and the responsbility of all of his choices because to him that is what it means to be free. 

He does not take orders, he chooses to cooperate with Fyodor fully as an equal, because if he took orders he would no longer be responsible for his own essence, and no longer free. He does bad things of his own free will and does not attempt to hide from the guilt, and instead frees it and takes responsibility for the kind of person he is because that is what it emans to be radically free. 

He is someone completely honest with himself, because decieving himself, or lying, is something that would once again make him untrue to his own essence which he wishes to set out to define. 

Which is why Gogol is honest to Atsushi, but also tells him not to listen to the words of a clown too seriously. Because what GOgol says is a heavy revelation. The extreme freedom he exists for is almost too much of a burden, because it means accountability in every single one of your actions in every single circumstance. 

Atsushi can choose to live free of the stories of good and evil he thinks is meaningful, or he could continue to live bound to those stories trying to seek out meaning in them. If Atsushi let go of what other people told was meaningful, than Atsushi would have to define it for himself, which is hard for someone so desperate in validation from others they are almost entirely lacking in a sense of self. It would mean him acknowledging that the validation they constantly risk their life to seek means absolutely nothing. 

He might be happier not having that revelation, to think there is still value to his pointless struggles. Camus argues that after the revelation of an empty life, our search for meaning and happiness is a moral obligation, even though in the end it is as futile as siyphus pushing a boulder up a stone. It’s labor for labor’s purpose that will amount to nothing in the end. Existence is a search for meaning in Camus’ view. A search we must undertake even though we are certain there will be no reward. 

Gogol’s ultimate trick is to switch the roles that the detective agency thought were so fixed in place. They were the heroes one moment, and the villains the next, because the meaning and security they thought they had never existed in the first place. 

He sets them adrift from meaning the same way that he is. He frees them from obligation of protecting others, and makes them have to survive for themselves. He presents them with the same moral dilemna that he awakened to. 

Are the armed detective agency the good guys because they want to be? Or are they obligated? The same way Atsushi believes he is obligated to save others because he believes it is the only thing that will give his life worth. The detective agnecy are in a trap they 100% could have avoided if they simply made the choice for themselves to avoided it instead of acting out of thoughtless obligation. 

There is one truly seriously philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Gogol appears as a careless clown, but he is actually the most responsible character in the story. He lives with his choices, and then dies with them as well to live a life perfectly defined by his own choices, himself. His death therefore, awakens the characters to the fact that they are also responsible for their own choices. 

[aspoonofsugar]

Do you have any thoughts on BSD ability colors? I.e. How Rashomon and For the Tainted Sorrow are red, No Longer Human and Beast Beneath the Moonlight are blue, Demon Snow is purple, Doppo Poet is green, Little Women is yellow, etc?

Hello anon!

I don’t know how much the colors are meant to symbolyze something specific, but I can link you to this post by @gon-furiikusu and @subdee. The series it talks about is hxh, but the topic is the same since the author is trying to assign a meaning to the color of each character’s aura. The post has also a useful link to sites talking about color symbolism.

Even if I am not sure there is any specific meaning in most cases (if not a generic one linked to each character’s personality), I think that the colors of the abilities might be important for soukoku and shin soukoko and especially for the last two.

I will be quoting what @hamliet said in a conversation we had:

Red and blue make purple, which is assopciated with the sunset, which the anime uses a lot :P But in the openings and EDs it’s a thing. Like in the third season, the OP changes: Akutagawa is shown wiht blue and Atsushi with red (in addiition to their traditional other associations) when they appear together, it’s in front of purple. Red and blue are ofteen seen as opposite primary colors actually!!!! Hence red oni and blue oni!

I think her comment is pretty explicative in itself. In short, Akutagawa and Atsushi are associated to two primary and complementary colors because they are meant to complement each other and to help each other grow. Their union is  meant to create a new color and hence why they meet in front of the purple which symbolizes the synthesis between their two personalities. If you are interested in an analysis about the second ending I can link you to this meta by @linkspooky​.

When it comes to Akutagawa and Atsushi’s specific colors, I think they are meant to highlight their different personalities. I think that it is especially telling the fact that the red oni is often associated with the id aka to the more instinctive parts of the self, while the blue oni is associated with the super-ego aka the most rational parts of the self. The id is an illogical and almost feral part each person has, while the super-ego is made up of the rules society imposes on the individual. Between them there is the ego and the ego must balance these two opposite parts and make so that the person can develop a healthy sense of identity. Basically, both Atsushi and Akutagawa are extreme. I have mentioned it here:

The point is that Akutagawa represents everything Atsushi doesn’t want to accept about himself (the violence, the possibility of being left behind, how pathetic and wrong it is to let one’s worth being decided by others’ praise etc.). At the same time Atsushi is the same for Akutagawa.

Moreover, Atsushi and Akutagawa are also complementary as Dazai explains.

However, their complementarity should not be considered only on a functional level, but also on a symbolic one.

On one hand Atsushi’s ability lets him turn into a beast he is scared of and can’t control. He literally hides the tiger from both others and himself.

On the other hand Akutagawa transforms his coat into a beast and so he projects a violent persona.

Atsushi hides his aggressiveness, whereas Akutagawa wears it proudly and hides his vulnerability.

In short, they are both the same and opposite and this is why they can’t stand each other. This is also why they balance each other like yin and yang.

As far as Chuuya and Dazai are concerned, I find interesting that from this:

It seems to me that Chuuya’s ability is black in the manga rather than red like in the anime. All in all, it makes not much difference because either way both black and red are colours associated with Chuuya somehow.

The black is symbolic of the mafia. As a matter of fact the members of the mafia wear black and it is not by chance that the name of Dazai and Chuuya’s partnership can be translated as double black. As a matter of fact they were both in the mafia by that time and were considered the organization’s strongest asset. Black is also mentioned in Chuuya’s character song:

“I’ll push myself to the limits and dye everything jet-black”

The red is a color strongly associated with Chuuya to the point that no matter how much his design changes in the different novels, it is a color Harukawa always tries to put in. Red is symbolic of Chuuya’s violent and passionate nature since it is a color associated to both blood and feelings, so in a sense it nicely highlights Chuuya’s best and worst traits.

At the same time, when it comes to Dazai’s ability, we have this:

I have personally always seen it as white, but you are right since there is some light blue in it.

Anyway, the fact that it is of a light color and of a mix of white and light blue is interesting when you compare it to Chuuya’s For the Tainted Sorrow which is either black or red.

On one hand the red and blue theming colors have the same meaning highlighted by Akutagawa and Atsushi’s abilities.

On the other hand the fact that we can imagine them being alternatively white and black is interesting because white and black are once more opposite colors. I like to think that Dazai and Chuuya’s abilities being potentially black and white highlights how much opposite they are and how their difficulties in complementing each other comes also by this almost complete opposition. All in all black and white suggest to me a stricter contrast than blue and red. I have mentioned this difference also in this madoka meta if you are interested.

That said, this might very well be just a rumbling of mine, rather than something the narrative openly supports. That said, the importance of black and white is something which is definately in the narrative and not only when it comes to Dazai and Chuuya:

After all black and white are the colors of the tao and are the two major colors used in Atsushi and Akutagawa’s designs. Akutagawa is almost completely black except for his tie and Atsushi is almost completely white, but has some black as well. They are obviously meant to look like the two halves of the tao when they are seen together. This is something highlighted also by the title of Beast aka White Akutagawa and Black Atsushi where their roles and colors are inverted.

In short, red and blue and black and white are colors linked to both soukoku and shin soukoku because both couples are meant to be seen as opposite, but complementary and are also meant to represent the two sides of the conflict between the mafia and the ADA.

Finally, let me discuss briefly the use of colors in this scene of dead apple:

The scene has mostly red and white and the balance of the two colors is pretty beautiful and potentially thematically resonant because the white and the read are the colors of an apple. @linkspooky​ explained in this meta the meaning of the title Dead Apple and how it is built on an oxymore since the apple is representative of life, but at the same time it is associated to the adjective “dead”. The complicated relationship between life and death is one of the major themes of the series. The point is that the scene between Dazai and Chuuya is one among the many scenes of the movie which highlights this connection.

Dazai is Snow-white who has died. This is why he has white clothes and is surrounded by a white aura. What is more, white is also the color of grief in some cultures. In short, Dazai here represents the “dead” of dead apple.

Chuuya is instead surrounded by red. His ability is red and the dragon he has just fought is red. It is not by chance that Chuuya and the dragon share the same color because all in all they are both associated with the id aka with the unconscious and the feral. The dragon is a literal monster and it represents Tastuhiko’s id i.e. the parts of himself he had forgotten and refused to face. It is not by chance that he re-emerges as a complete individual and fights Atsushi once the dragon is defeated. He can do so because he has faced his shadow and accepted it just like Atsushi does when he accepts that he had killed someone. As far as Chuuya is concerned him facing a literal dragon simply adds up to what I have discussed in this meta. Chuuya is a character with a very strong id which is symbolized by his ability which can literally take control over him. When Chuuya is in his state of corruption he forgets himself and lets his desire of destruction free. This is something which scares him and this is why Dazai’s nullification is so important. It acts as some sort of super-ego and helps Chuuya find himself (his ego) again. However, the id is not inherently something negative and it is actually something linked to the most human and primitive instincts like the one to survive. This is why red is also linked to the color of the apple aka it is the color of life.

So, we can simplicistically say that the white is the color of the death and of the super-ego (this is also why it is strongly associated with Atsushi and Tatsuhiko who are two characters linked to the super-ego), while red is the color of life and of the id (and it is associated with Akutagawa among others).

The scene between Chuuya and Dazai shows how these two realities are linked since Chuuya saves Dazai and immediately later Dazai saves Chuuya. Even the medicine which nullifies the effect of the poison is half white and half red. This symbolizes how Dazai is on the brink between these two realities since he prepares an antidote, but instead of taking it when he is poisoned (which would have been simpler and more efficient) he bets his life on the fact that Chuuya will punch him. This can very well represent Dazai’s complicated relationship with his life and how in the end his own connections are what saves him.

Thank you for the ask!

[bungou-stray-dogs-indulgences]

Hey, what do you thinkMafia Atsushi is like? Im so curious- also what do you think of it? (Went to Mafia from orphanage like canon time instead of Ada)

Ooooooh boy, hold on to your fucking hats, you bunch of sinners, because do I ever have some thoughts about Mafia Atsushi.

To start off, I don’t think his personality is a whole lot different. He’s eighteen when he’s booted out of the orphanage, after all, and at that age your personality’s pretty cemented. Sure, there’s minor changes after that age, and drastic circumstances can change anyone, but his main being- what makes Atsushi fundamentally Atsushi- isn’t going to change. He will always be a bit of a clueless, bumbling tiger-boy with a sweet personality and self-esteem issues.

That being said, his worldview is going to change dramatically. When we meet him at the first episode, he’s on the verge of starving; it takes him that long to decide he’s going to steal so he can eat. Petty theft, just so he can survive, doesn’t really cross his mind for awhile. He’s just not geared to crime, and we can assume he’s got a pretty solid set of morals. So, to drive him to an organization like the Port Mafia, something drastic has to happen.

He’s never known personal comforts, so a life on the streets just wouldn’t be enough. Whatever drives him to the Port Mafia has to be an experience so jarring, so shaking to Atsushi’s very core, that it completely undermines all of his morality. 

In my opinion; Atsushi figures out he’s a were-tiger on his own, likely after a horrible accident in which he can no longer hold the beast back and it kills someone. We all know how much Atsushi values the life of other people; being responsible for an innocent’s death would destroy him, and he’d be searching desperately for any way to control his ability. His safest bet would be the Port Mafia; probably, he’d be lured in with the promise that he’d only have to do petty crime, and wouldn’t have to go through with anything that ends up with more blood on his hands. Something like Ango’s position.

Of course, Atsushi’s ability boasts too many destructive capabilities to simply let him keep books. So they’d have to work on a way to warp him into a killer. Likely, the simplest way would be to pick at his self-esteem issues even more; this is already his weakest point, and with a murder hanging over his head, Atsushi’s not going to be gaining any love for himself. They’d have to pound that sentiment of ‘I’m no good’ into his head so deep that he’s going beyond just trying to prove that he’s good enough to live, that he’s better than what those at the orphanage painted him as, like we see him doing throughout the series. He would have to abandon ‘good enough’ to live entirely. Atsushi would need to resort to finding any reason to live, and there’s just the point they’d keep him at; cracked, but not broken. The Port Mafia would offer bloodshed, and Atsushi, so eager to please that he’ll do anything if they’ll just assure him that he’s valid, that he deserves life, will grasp at that bloodshed.

I’d have to say that they’d treat him a lot like Dazai treated Akutagawa. There’s a lot of similarities between the two in destructive capabilities alone. The Port Mafia would want to unlock that. Can Atsushi flower and grow with the Port Mafia, like we’ve seen him do with Dazai’s encouragement and the ADA’s support? Not even a little. But he can progress, so a Mafia Atsushi would be who-knows-how-much stronger than canon Atsushi. He would truly be a terrifying, killing force like nothing we can even imagine.

That being said, like I mentioned before, he’s still fundamentally Atsushi. A mafia Atsushi wouldn’t be a carbon copy of Akutagawa, even though the two would undoubtedly be more similar than they are already are.

Atsushi would become an asset to the Port Mafia. We’ve already seen his self-sacrificing ways, and with the manipulation he would be put through, that trait would skyrocket. He’d latch on to his coworkers and would lay down his life for them in an instant. He wouldn’t suddenly turn ruthless, either; he’d only resort to violence if it was his last option, or if it was expressly commanded. 

Mafia Atsushi would be like canon Atsushi, but if canon Atsushi stood in front of a fun-house mirror. Everything’s basically the same, but some aspects are blown way out of proportion, and some are shrunk down. 

As for my opinion; I think it’s a super interesting concept, and I love to delve into the particulars, but it can’t be good for Atsushi. While Dazai might not be the best mentor (Chuuya as a mentor AUs slay me but I think that probably wouldn’t happen just because of how much the Port Mafia would need to change Atsushi as a person, and Chuu-Chuu doesn’t strike me as the best manipulator) he’s still offering Atsushi encouragement. To grow and overcome his flaws, he needs that positive support.

The switched Atsushi art is really hot, though, which is a plus.