#as does stormbringer but beast i really loved the different perspective of a lot of the characters

[anticidic]

Have you read all BSD novels? If you have, which is your favorite? Why?

I got about halfway through 55 minutes and just haven't found the time to pick it back up yet, but all the others I read. 😊

BEAST and Stormbringer are tied for first place, but I think I'll give it to BEAST for still making me tear up after reading it three times even knowing how it ends. (lmao I love the pain what can I say)

But, I really like how the novel explores the what-if of Atsushi and Akutagawa swapping sides, Oda remaining alive, and the sort of butterfly effect that spawns from them as a result. Kyouka still defected from the Port Mafia in BEAST, but she returned because of Atsushi. Akutagawa's frequently described as a monster and a beast of a man by Dazai, but we also see Akutagawa trying to process his trauma of seeing a bunch of armed men gun down all his friends when he was still a young kid just trying to stay alive in the slums and then being separated from Gin all in the same night.

After reading The Day I Picked Up Dazai Side B, I do find it ironic how Beast!Dazai describes others as beastly or murderous machines when that novel includes a depiction of him torturing and leaving someone for dead while he was still a teenager. I find it ironic because I think him calling others those things is more a reflection of how he feels about himself more than anything. I also liked this novel a lot, but it's a little harder to go into depth about it until an official translation is released.

But then when he meets with Oda at the bar and talks like he would've from his canon self in Dark Era and Oda rejects him, I think that killed Dazai like crazy on the inside and left him hollow, so he detaches from that gaping void of total emptiness by projecting on others. Like, he's made enemies out of almost everyone in BEAST meanwhile he knows from the other world that his ADA self is surrounded by all these friends despite losing Oda. Ango and Oda were never his friends. Kunikida was never his partner. Fukuzawa never trusted him. And he doesn't have that mentor-mentee relationship with Atsushi.

I also like the alternate peeks we get into Mori's character when he takes in Atsushi under his wing toward the end of BEAST and expressing his regret for not being able to save a particular, young doomed man. aka Dazai. His BEAST personality I feel is more...honest? because he doesn't have the title of Port Mafia boss looming over his head where the whole city is a chessboard and he's constantly strategizing and planning his next move to capture the king. There's no impossible expectations or concern over his underboss coming from him or backstabbing him at any moment. He's just...free? but now he lives with the remorse of not being able to do anything for someone who took on the world all by himself to the bitter end.

BEAST has always left me feeling very...bittersweet. It's not a happy ending for a lot of them, but there's that tiny flickering flame of hope. Everything still goes on. The world exists. Akutagawa being on a roof overlooking the city and thinking to himself before Oda interrupts paints a sort of...attempt to be at peace with himself, but also becoming stronger from that resolve.

Knowing Chuuya's fate along with Higuchi introducing herself to the ADA at the very end of BEAST has me speculate a lot. The ending is an odd sense of déjà vu from canon Higuchi introducing herself, and I can't help but think it's ominous. (I want to write this)