#bsd sasaki

[sorcerersandskillusers]

I want to talk about one of the most terrifying and interesting bsd characters who almost no fan remembers.

This character nearly tore down the ADA without ever getting involved herself, yet the entire fandom has ignored her because of her terrible anime adaptation.

Who am I talking about?

Nobuko Sasaki

If you haven't read Dazai Osamu's Entrance Exam, then you probably don't even know who this character is, in the anime she is watered down to the lovesick girlfriend of an actual villain, and you probably dismissed her immediately. But in the light novel, we get to see how dangerous and cunning she really is, to the point she nearly gets the better of Dazai and almost causes the ADA to be shut down. (Fukuzawa says he would have closed the agency if they hadn't caught her)

In terms of intelligence I'd put her on the same level as Mori, just slightly below the super human genius characters i.e. Dazai, Fyodor and Ranpo

The Azure Apostle

For those who don't remember, Sasaki was the Azure Apostle, a mysterious figure who challenged the agency with several horrifying cases, which would all lead to mass casualties if the agency failed to stop them. These were; uncovering an underground organ smuggling operation (which the agency failed to stop and which massively hurt their reputation) stopping a bombing of Yokohama port which could have killed hundreds of people, and preventing a commercial aeroplane from crashing into the city (this was not included in the anime)

Each of the people, who committed these crimes, had no Idea they were being manipulated and thought it was their own idea the whole time. There was no evidence that anyone else had been involved at all, and the agency had no way to connect her to any of the crimes. And she even makes the genius move of framing Dazai, the mysterious new member with suspicious knowledge of the underworld and a hidden past, as the true culprit.

In fact, she only made one mistake, challenging Dazai. If Dazai had been basically anyone else, they would have been cornered and arrested, but since Dazai's mind works on a level even master strategists can't imagine, he was able to turn the tables on her.

But even after Dazai sees through her plans, the ADA still has to act exactly the way she wants them too and stop the plane crash. Even when they know they're being manipulated, they still have to do exactly what she wanted.

Finally, after Dazai and Kunikida confront her and get her to admit to being behind all those crimes, even then they are powerless to stop her.

Even after being involved with so many massive crimes, Sasaki herself hadn't done anything illegal, so within the law the ADA is completely powerless to stop her.

They can't arrest her, and if they try then the agency will be put in even more danger as will many innocent lives. She has completely trapped the ADA, and even Dazai in a choice to follow the law and let her go or take justice into their own hands and prove they will stoop as low as she did.

In the end, there she has them in a perfect deadlock, let her continue her mission, or kill her themselves. Both are bad outcomes for the ADA.

In the end, Dazai has her killed by using a third party (Rokuzo) to shoot her, so the agency can't be blamed for her murder, though this ends her plans it deeply scars Kunikida and shakes his resolve in his ideals.

The trauma from this event still haunts Kunikida to this day, we see that when he is affected by Q's curse, Sasaki is who he sees.

So thats the Azure Apostle, a terrifying master mind who nearly brought down the Armed Detective Agency, but now lets look at the other side of this character.

Nobuko Sasaki Herself

We know several things about Sasaki as a character and her history from the light novel. That she was a brilliant criminal psychologist and was internationally recognised despite being so young

,that she was the ex-lover of the Azure King and the real mastermind behind his plans, and that she had very little motivation of her own.

That's not meant to be an insult to the character, she says herself that she never really had much direction in life, even with her incredible intelligence she never really had anything she wanted to achieve.

But the Azure King was the opposite, he had powerful drive and strong ideals, he wanted to punish criminals who couldn't be touched by the law and when he failed to change the law as a bureaucrat, she offered him an alternative.

A very important thing here is that neither of them were manipulating or forcing the other into this path, as far as we see they genuinely loved each other, each providing something the other couldn't, Sasaki her mind and the Azure King his drive.

When the Azure king died, Sasaki had no path of her own to follow, so she simply kept following his, even though she doesn't seem to have really cared about his cause.

All of this creates a very unique character, you can't say she was driven by revenge, because she wasn't really driven at all. It's more like she was running on momentum, she had chosen a path to follow and could not stop even though there was nothing pushing her down it any more.

She's a perfect antithesis of Kunikida and was the best possible villain a light novel about him could have had.

A man who brings his ideals into reality with his own hands against a woman who uses others to enforce ideals that were never hers to begin with.

Anyway, I made this because Sasaki is criminally underrated in this fandom, If you haven't read "Dazai Osamu's Entrance Exam" I highly recommend it, I've only put a tiny fraction of the amazing story here.

[dishwasher09]

if sasaki has no fans i am dead

[that-one-raccoon]

Been having art block working on that poster so I decided to just sketch literally any other character than Atsushi 💀

ANYWAY more The Second Perspective sketches for @wildflowerteas’s fic!!

Featuring TSP! Sasaki Nobuko (obsessing over her btw)

[wistfullywaiting2]

Odasaku, Sasaki, and the orphanage headmaster are all buried in the same cemetery.

So Kunikida, Atsushi, and Dazai all run into each other grave visiting regularly and politely pretend they don’t. They never acknowledge the meaning behind the bouquets brought, even if all of them know the others know flower language. They never acknowledge the tear streaks down Atsushi’s face, or the solemn look on Kunikida’s. Atsushi never points out how the scent of whiskey is always a bit stronger on Dazai’s coat. They never acknowledge the location of their accidental meetings.

Sometimes Kunikida might offer to take them to get food, or Atsushi will offer a random hard candy from his pocket, on colder days Dazai might lend his coat. None of them are really themselves when faced with grief, and none of them will to hold it against each other.

[minugasakuranohana]

Louisa and ghost-Sasaki

For @bsdladiesweek

[insufferablewhore]

i will forever defend every single girl in bsd

they deserve so much better than how the fandom treats them :(

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Nobuko Sasaki. Reblog if you agree.

[wiwiurikawa]

The heel i will die on is that asagiri can't write geniuses. Asagiri is Smart men and all, but ranpo, dazai and fyodor are geniuses that are unbeliveble. Dazai and fyodor could be well writen geniuses (like how dazai was writen in the dark era when he thoght ango worked for the mimic) but they are over the top. Most of their plans are basen on random bulshit that hapens (chuya and his vampire cosplay, nikolai not dying and his killing game) some things, werent thare at first and were added so plot can go forward( fyodor Injured hand so he can't fly helikopter himself(he just could tell us that fyodor don't know how to fly helikopter!)). Ranpo bulshit explanation that could be good if his way of thinking wasn't random( in manga it was first case rampo and atsushi took and in untold origins first chapter when it COULD be well writen fukuzawa is a great example because he actually used logic and informatioon he had. But ranpo insted going that way he explained it by saying that because sekretery said that he doesn't heve the evidence that he killed his boss but rampo said that only guilty talk that way. It relayed on absurdity and stupidity of characters. It could be well done ....) so by that I meen to Say that asagiri writes over the top geniuses and he doesn't have stakes and because of that it's unbeliveble. Thare are several good writen geniuses such as mori, ango, dark era! dazai( and i'm telling even thought i hate especialy dark era! dazai ), sasaki, rokuzo(his hacking abilities). Asagiri can write well writen genius characters but by wanting them to be SPECIAL GENIUSES he ruined them.

[szopopraczo]

I want Kunikida's backstory.

What made him join the ADA? Where his ideals come from? When did he decide to put all his ideals down? Why did he want to become a teacher before? HOW GOOD AT MATH HE REALLY IS?

And I want to read (or write (this is a good plan actually) fanfiction about him and Sasaki more than I want to breathe on a daily basis.

[lesbianyosano]

worlds normalest polycule

[fyodorsushankaaa]

sasaki appreciation post!!

[saffron0v0]

My contribution to the Dazai week 2024→ Day 2

Romance→ Dazasaki

I love them to bits, so if you don't like this pairing just leave it be. I'm very attached to this one so I'm specifically asking to not repost this one (the same applies to the rest of my art)

@dazaibirthdayweek2024

[tunamayuuu]

some old art i doodled for crush culture by @snknmda​! it’s an angsty modern au oneshot with a cute ending!!!! crush culture has been my most favorite suegiku fic for the longest time so i really wanted to draw something for it! i highly recommend this fic along with myra’s other sgk fics !! <3 <3 

(personally, i’m a tattooverse au fan)

bonus doodle under the cut!

[that-one-raccoon]

More TSP Sasaki sketches because I love her ❤️

ignore the math i was supposed to be doing

Sasaki Nobuko from the fanfic The Second Perspective by @wildflowerteas

[rosalinesurvived]

I’ve been trying and failing for so long to cohesivley articulate my Azure King + Kunikida thoughts to the point where this is going to be an incompetent mess but i really do think that the entire Azure King and Apostole Incident were like, the Defining moment for who Kunikida was, is and will be.

His character revolves so strongly around the Azure Incidents because its his fixed point in time, his two mini Dazai-Oda moments. Thinking about how his two light novels Magnificent Days and Dazai’s Entrance Exam were focused on the before and after of the Azure King’s death. And the novels themselves! “Kunikida and Katai’s magnificent days” Love and intimacy, a shared, sheltered world, a decade worth of friendship. The story takes place mostly with just Kunikida and Katai, inside one cozy house.

And after the Azure King’s death you have “Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam” like a work report title. Cold, militaristic. Missions, strict schedules. Beginning in death and ending with death.

The tone shift from the gentle, domestic Magnificent Days to Entrance Exam feels so daunting because you can almost sense how neurotic and hurt Kunikida is over even accidentally getting people killed. Its that loss of control that made him so stiff.

How Kunikida can’t even wear blue because of it. How Sasaki still haunts him years down the line. How the anime made it a deliberate choice to have the Azure King looking similar to Kunikida. Red string of fate except it’s the blue of corpses. “Traitor to their country”

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

Written for @bsdladiesweek Day 6: arson, Sasaki burns down the Azure King's old government workplace <3