#atsushi nakajima slander will not be tolerated in this house

[osamucide]

do we talk enough about how atsushi and the weretiger and his character overall are a great metaphor for healing from trauma, specifically through community? i mean we meet him as this scared young adult who believes himself to be incapable and worthless. he doesn't even realize the manifestation of vengeance inside him or the fact that it's already lashed out and hurt people - in fact, he thinks he's running from this exact thing that lashes out, without realizing it is in fact himself. memory loss is a common trauma response, and when he does learn he's the weretiger, he's frightened by it and its capacity for harm. it's dazai and the agency who give him the opportunity to use his willpower for selflessness and help him to understand that he's not bad, he's just hurt. throughout the story we're watching him move from uncertain, insecure, overly-polite and meek to strong, assured, determined, and unabashed in his protectiveness over others (see kyoka). we see him go from paralyzed by his flashbacks to determined to dispel those misconceptions about himself. when higuchi corners him and the tanizakis in the alley early in season one, he still doesn't know how to summon the tiger, but it comes out after akutagawa's words (and also, debatably, watching naomi 'die' - just the stressful situation overall, perhaps) trigger a flashback - a really sound metaphor as manifestation for his trauma (stressful/triggering event = fight response). and while his is certainly not the most common or relatable circumstance to understand and heal from trauma under, the weretiger is so powerful metaphorically because ultimately, he uses his harnesses this destructive, disruptive, terrifying power for good. sometimes healing your trauma feels like inching close to this big, scary animal until it trusts you enough to touch and when you finally do, you realize the big, scary animal was also once just a hurt cub who needed a figure to tell it hey, you're not any of those things you think about yourself. (the imagery in the manga/anime/official art of atsushi sitting with the tiger, cradling it, petting it, etc. is so powerful to me for this reason)

it's another reason why akutagawa is such a good thematic parallel for him. akutagawa was not given this grace as a hurt child, by dazai specifically, and thus grew up into a hurt adult - and this also speaks to how complex of a character dazai is. these characters just play so well with one another and demonstrate such complex reactions to trauma, how it is cyclical, how that cycle can be broken, etc. and i just think it's really beautiful and refreshing for a mainstream anime to deal with themes like this