#atsushi’s entrance exam

[neo--queen--serenity]

Rewatching this series has allowed me to notice the quite frankly hilarious exchange between Kunikida & Jun’ichirou during Atsushi’s entrance exam.

Jun’ichirou is trying to act tough with threatening Kunikida until he—out of nowhere, says this shit:

And Kunikida, understandably, is like excuse me??

Now, you can see the exact moment Jun’ichirou realizes he fucked up. Idk how much improv experience Tanizaki has, but I doubt he intended to make his demand that kinky, and it shows.

But it’s too late to change his bad boy act now, so he doubles down.

At this point, you can tell Kunikida takes a moment to lower his blood pressure, before he just resigns with a “this may as well happen” sort of face.

Like IMAGINE. You tell your colleague to pretend to be a psycho bomber and he asks you to do THIS shit??? Like Tanizaki do you have something you wanna share with the class?

You gotta hand it to Kunikida for keeping a straight face the whole time though, goddamn. He may be a tightass, but he committed to that role.

[kaurwreck]

y'all have eventually got to realize that kunikida's temper and attentiveness to his schedule aren't callousness, they're coping mechanisms. right. y'all have to eventually figure out that much over seasons + tens of chapters of him being so tender it would snap him in two if not for the order he's constructed around himself. y'all will inevitably pick up on that with how he approaches dazai and kyouka, especially, right? surely.

[jalapenobee]

found it REALLY interesting how they dodged the question

[asofspades]

I've seen a lot of people trying to get into the BSD light Novels and quite frankly you can read them in order but I do have a recommendation about the order I think makes more sense chronologically regarding the story.

So:

1. LN 3. The Untold Origins of the Armed Detective Agency.

2. LN 1. Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.

These two take place prior to the beginning of the main timeline and are actually a great way of understanding Ranpo and the partnership between Dazai and Kunikida (also recommend LN 1 to anime only watchers because they mixed the first chapters of the manga with Dazai's entrance exam which takes place 2 years prior to the manga and they royally screwed up on Kunikida's characterisation by doing that)

3. LN 7. Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen

(the manga was good but I feel like you might understand Dazai and Chūya's dynamic and the difference of their relationship to both Mori and the Mafia once you read this)

4. LN 8. Stormbringer

(you might actually understand Chūya as a character after you read this one, dives a bit deeper into his relationship with Dazai, explains who Verlaine actually is and talks about stuff that's mentioned afterwards in the manga, like singularities)

5. LN 9. The Day I Picked up Dazai side A

(this happens at some point between LN 7 and LN 2, and helps you understand Dazai and Oda's relationship prior to reading LN 2, how Oda ended up in the Mafia and also a bit more dive into Dazai's character)

6. LN 2. Osamu Dazai and The Dark Era

(better than shown in the anime, allows you to see how Oda sees Dazai since it's written from his pov, a good dive into Dazai's character while in the mafia and why he actually left )

Once you finish The Guild arc

7. LN 4. 55 Minutes

8. LN 5. Dead Apple

(so, the first one is a bit crazy but actually dives a lot into Atsushi's character, explains weird phenomena in BSD regarding singularities and how Dazai isn't affected by certain abilities even without touch, how Yosano can actually use her ability on Dazai and I find it quite interesting, HG Wells is an interesting character as well)

(Dead Apple is entertaining and dives once again into characters and their abilities but also explains weird singularities again, also the bond between Dazai and Chūya, it also gets a bit weird towards the end in regards to things happening that might be hard to understand but the rest is easier to understand than in the movie adaptation)

9. LN 9. The Day I Picked up Dazai side B

(it's set in the alternate universe of LN 6. Beast and a great point to understand Dazai's actions and motivations in said light novel)

10. LN 6. Beast

(it should come with a warning that it's going to ruin your mental health for a while, an alternate universe of BSD, brings in the Book so you might one to read this during/after the cannibalism arc because it kind of explains a bit what the book does or how it kind of works, definitely needs a bit more explaining but it is good info before starting with the vampirism arc and all that stuff, the book is important and there's talk about singularities again. It's also cool to see how the same characters adapt to a different lifestyle, Akutagawa in the ADA, Atsushi in the PM, kyouka in the PM but with Atsushi, Dazai if he stayed in the PM, the ending will fully rip your heart out if the rest of the novel hasn't done it before that and I really recommend the manga adaptation of it because the art style is *chef's kiss* and heart wrenching)

Done with my rant now, you can still read them in their publishing order this is just my recommendation. Also, LN 9 is not out on paper yet and I think we only have fan translations online but it is definitely worth it, @popopretty has a really good translation of it.

And LN 7 is getting a manga adaptation which is also looking really good so you can check it out.

LN 5 has a manga adaptation as well as being a film and this one is not written by Asagiri but is still canon so you have that.

[hannigramislife]

When I saw Akutagawa choose to save Atsushi over himself – going as far as outsmarting a man who can literally manipulate time and space – my first thought was:

"Well, that would have made for a fine entrance exam, huh?"

Then I cried. Obviously.

[zestylemonsz]

Flashback to when Atsushi said "if you die, you're really dead"

[rotisseries]

i want to get around to reading all the bsd light novels but I have separation anxiety in regards to atsushi and can't consume a piece of bsd media if he isn't there so I keep thinking "hmm well i guess i should read dead apple next" when I know that makes no fucking sense there's literally an entire movie that I have seen that covers that plot exactly already and in fact the ln is just a novelization of the movie. i just don't want to acknowledge that my only options now are light novels without him in it

[anti-dazai-blog]

36- Playing dead (and other complaints)

Welcome back to the Anti-Dazai Series!! Please be proud of me, I’m sticking to my self-imposed once a week schedule. 

________________________________________

When We last left off, Akutagawa and Atsushi were fighting Francis on top of the Moby Dick. Meanwhile, Kyoka is trapped as a captive in a small government plane. Things are not looking good for our protagonists.

If you’re reading this, you already know what happens afterwards: Akutagawa and Atsushi defeat Francis, retrieve the control device for the airship, and manage to stop the countdown. Some mysterious person from the shadows hacks the device and the airship nearly crashes, but Kyoka is willing to sacrifice herself by crashing the military plane she’s on into the airship. 

She goes through with her plan, and Akutagawa and Atsushi make it safely back to shore.

Naturally Atsushi is traumatized. Not so much from the fight with Francis, but rather from the one person he managed to save killing herself for his sake. 

When he first met Kyoka, she was about to sacrifice herself for the sake of the mafia, and then for the sake of the civilians on the train. Atsushi managed to talk her out of the former and protect her from the latter. Then, the agency was going to hand her over to the police, who would execute her for her crimes. Atsushi begged them to give her a chance and allow her to stay in the agency. Even Kyoka herself tried to turn herself in for her crimes. Then she was captured by Akutagawa, and tried to sacrifice herself for the fourth time in two days by trying to blow the ship up with explosives. (This girl is one of the most suicidal characters in the series, and Atsushi and Kunikida are close behind her.) Going against Kunikida’s orders, Atsushi went back and saved her.

And after all of that. After Atsushi has devoted himself to trying to save this one person—to try and do whatever it takes to show her that life is worth living and there is no need to sacrifice herself when she has the agency to rely on—she goes and sacrifices herself.

And Dazai—knowing full well about Atsushi’s past, knowing full well of Atsushi’s devotion to saving Kyoka, and knowing full well that Kyoka survived—shows up and says “It was all for the best, Atsushi-kun. Kyoka-chan conquered herself and saved the city.” He looks Atsushi dead in the eye and says “It was a painful way to end it, yes. But there was a reason why it had to go this way.”

He knows that Kyoka’s alive. For the sake of amusement, or a dramatic reveal, he finds it necessary to say “lmao yeah that sure is a painful way to die. Sucks it had to end like this but y’know. It do be like that sometimes.”

Regardless of whether or not Kyoka died, playing along with it for even a second would cause lasting trauma. There’s a reason the American government is beginning to look into what laws to pass surrounding lockdown drills [for non-Americans: practice drills in case of a school shooting]. There’s a reason why the state of California is trying to ban schools playing gunfire sounds during lockdowns—the students are unaware if the drill is real or fake, and by making it appear real, it will form as the same trauma that an actual school shooter would give them. Telling those students afterwards that it was all fake doesn’t mitigate any of that.

Likewise, pretending someone is dead, even for a second, doesn’t mitigate the trauma caused by it. Atsushi will permanently have this trauma of losing Kyoka. This is not something that will easily be brushed off. 

And now that Dazai’s done traumatizing one half of the duo that defeated the guild’s leader, he has to get started on the other half. 

Akutagawa fought hard. Akutagawa could desperately use some reassurance from a certain former mentor of his—and logically, that mentor has every reason to give it. Akutagawa fulfilled what he was set up to do—he partnered with Atsushi and worked together to combine their abilities and defeat an enemy leader. 

Akuatagwa tries to present himself to Dazai as a stronger person than he was when they last spoke. Akutagawa says that he’ll show Dazai his strength. Yet Dazai’s first words are “will you now? Aren’t you at your limit?” The first words out of his mouth are a petty insult—after everything Akutagawa has done— and the only thing he get is mocked by his former mentor. 

Of course the next words out of Dazai mouth are “you’ve gotten stronger, huh?”

In flirting terms, this would be called negging. 

For those unfamiliar, negging is “an act of emotional manipulation whereby a person makes a deliberate backhanded compliment […] to another person to undermine their confidence and attempt to engender in them a need for the manipulator’s approval.” [Wikipedia, also I hate citing sources, this is not an academic paper, leave me alone]. 

Dazai first makes a backhanded comment about Akutagawa’s current (weaker) state, before giving him a halfhearted compliment on his strength. This is like saying “eh, you’ve done well this time, but could be better. I’m sure some people (like Atsushi, for example) could fight an overpowered ability user, win, and then NOTnearly pass out afterwards. Maybe if you were like that, I could give you a real compliment”

This is another move to drive Akutagawa to push himself harder (harder than he needs to. Harder than he should. [especially given his lung condition]), and to have him devote himself and his life to winning Dazai’s approval. Which, of course, he’s already doing. But it never hurts to increase your disciple’s devotion tenfold, right?

After all of that, Akutagawa does in fact pass out. For funsies, Dazai moves out of the way (we can’t be catching our formers mentees in front of our current mentee—how scandalous!), and allows Akutagawa to slam into the concrete.

If this were more medically accurate, Akutagawa may have lasting brain damage from hitting his head like that. Luckily we’re playing by manga logic here (we weren’t when Akutagawa lost his fight to Atsushi in season 1 and had a hundred broken bones, but we’re nothing if not inconsistent). So we won’t hold Dazai to such a high standard of trying to mitigate brain damage, since brain damage might not even exist in the bsd world. 

_______________________________________________

And that’s that for this week’s entry!! Join me again next week to get right back into the Kyoka content (I’m pretty sure that’ll be the main thing in next week’s chapter). Writing this one has made me think about Kyoka more than I ever had in the past and I’m pretty concerned about how self-destructive she is. This girl would take any opportunity to die.

[frankenjoly]

"You don't need to fake anything. You're better than that." + sskk

"You're too smart to play the victim." + ranposano

Pretty please? :3

sskk + “you don’t need to fake anything. you’re better than that”

“I cannot possibly understand. Why would you do that?” Akutagawa said, and he sounded confused instead of upset… which was good, truly, but didn’t make Atsushi feel any less guilty in the slightest.

“I…” His attempt at explaining was cut short by Atsushi himself, as he hurried to stare down at the floor more than evidently flustered; right then there was only one thing more embarrassing than having gotten caught pretending, and it was admitting why he had tried it in the first place. “It’s stupid, but everyone here counts as damn rich, and I didn’t have a single yen to my name till I joined the Agency and–”

“Jinko.” It was then Akutagawa’s turn to cut him off, interlocking their hands together as abruptly as he had spoken. “You don’t need to fake anything. You’re better than that.”

For a second, he was about to reply saying he wasn’t, but opted to yield instead and let himself be reassured. And so, Atsushi didn’t utter a word for the time being, but buried his head in Akutagawa’s shoulder with the intention of keeping it there until his cheeks had recovered their usual color and he was ready to face the world again… or at least until the first part had happened.

Or that was the plan, since what Akutagawa told him right after made Atsushi lift his head back up to stare at his boyfriend in evident surprise.

“Besides, do you really think Gin and I are the only ones here apart from you who have experienced poverty?”

ranposano + “you’re too smart to play the victim”

“Would we do something like in Atsushi’s exam, in that case?” Yosano was saying, more than clearly amused. “If yes, I think it’d be funny to play the helpless troubled civilian this once.”

“Dunno, you’re too smart to play the victim.” Ranpo answered, blowing a kiss towards her direction as if they weren’t sitting right beside each other over his desk and holding hands as well. Needless to say, she motioned to ‘catch’ it midair between her index and thumb, then pressed those fingers to her lips with enough care so the gloves’ fabric wouldn’t get lipstick stains after the gesture.

“Now, if you two lovebirds give me a sec, I have a question.” Naomi said, smirking playfully. “Does that mean I wasn’t too smart to play the victim, Ranpo-san?”

“I mean, we were staging Dazai to be the hostage until you changed your mind and betrayed me.” Kunikida chimed in. As far as she knew, Jun’ichirô had also been part of the scheme, but he made no attempt to join either side. And Yosano already suspected why.

“It’s not my fault I had a better offer for her, Kunikida-kun.” Dazai added, giggling.

“It literally is! Anyway, and as much as I love making plans in advance, she wouldn’t join us so soon, so…”

The conversation went on, but Yosano’s attention shifted back to Ranpo when he moved a little in order to rest his head on her shoulder, leaving a kiss over her cheek right before.

“Wanna get take-out tonight and watch that movie Poe-kun suggested?”

“Of course.”

(Also on ao3.)

[crowscadence]

Me realizing that bsd novel v1 having an audiobook now and v2 getting one in September means that v3 will likely have one which means hearing the Tanizakis’ bullshit be narrated. Fuck.

[that-was-anticlimactic]

no but like can we talk about how jun'ichiro is like... an amazing actor? i mean... atsushi's entrance exam, the whole lets himself get taken hostage by the port mafia in cannibalism arc thing... jun'ichiro has RANGE. and like if you think about it, he acts more than he realizes. like... his ability kind of requires him to act and pretend. or he'll need to pretend he's not using it or that it's real... idk i just think jun'ichiro is such an interesting character ahhhhhhhhh

[sskk-manifesto]

:)

[dazais-guardian-angel]

one of the (many) reasons why this exchange makes me so emotional is that Dazai knows very well the feeling of only ever being used and taken advantage of as a tool, and not knowing anything other than that life. He understands that Sigma can’t yet comprehend the notion of someone wanting you without any ulterior motives, of people just having natural relationships that don’t involve wanting to get something out of each other, because that was his life before he met Oda, who was a ���balm for the soul” (in his own words) for him; hence, he doesn’t try to explain it to Sigma at first. But he does relent once Sigma takes Dazai’s initial silence as him being unworthy for an explanation... He doesn’t go into more detail as to why “understanding would be difficult”, because that would require opening up about himself which is something Dazai is still far from ready for, and because he knows Sigma wouldn’t be able to fully understand or accept all of this yet, but just the two reasons he does give for choosing him are already causing Sigma to start to rethink everything he’s ever known about the world and how people treat each other.

Dazai chose him to use his ability, just like everyone who’s always used Sigma has -- but he also chose him to save his life, and to help the agency, people he cares about and wants to help for completely selfless reasons, without expecting anything in return (sure, Dazai jokes about him being on the agency’s payroll, but that’s just his usual deflecting to avoid admitting that he cares :’). This is completely foreign behavior in Sigma’s world, where everyone has to use each other in order to survive, but he’s realizing that Dazai is different from them: he’s realizing what it feels like to be wanted simply out of compassion and love, and not because of how valuable he may be. Sigma isn’t just any other ordinary orphan Dazai saves; he wants to save him particularly because he empathizes with him and sees his old, hurt, jaded self in him, and he’s slowly becoming the balm for the soul for Sigma that Oda was for himself back then, which is truly touching.

[leniisreallycool]

Does anyone else think Kunikida is lowkey suicidal

It's not the same as Dazai, who doesn't see any real value in living. It's more of a "my ideals and my comrades are more valuable than my life" type thing. What did he do in Dazai's Entrance Exam when he saw the people in the poison gas spewing cage? He immediately ran forward to try and break them out, knowing it would probably kill him. What did he do when the subway bomber attached bombs to Aya? He flipped the switch to save the people on the train and hugged Aya so she wouldn't have to face the pain alone. What did he do when the Hunting Dogs attacked the ADA? He jumped out of the helicopter with a grenade to blow himself and Tetcho up give the other members of the ADA a chance to escape the Hunting Dogs. Over and over, he throws away his life to save someone else. Even if he knows it might not work, he does it. So yeah, I don't think Kunikida would try to kill himself, but he doesn't hesitate to jeopardize his life for even a sliver of a chance to help someone.

[rotisseries]

does anyone have a link to read bsd gaiden I've impulsively decided this is the next light novel I want to read and the post I saved with links to all of them actually does not have gaiden

[jalapenobee]

i'm WHEEZING how is this real