#bsd untold story

[beans-beneath-moonlight]

I feel like the anime didn't explore it as much as the light novel (since they left out pretty much all the backstory about Ranpo's parents and why he was raised the way he was plus a few important panels from his call with Mushitaro), but Ranpo basically spent the first 14 years of his life thinking he was stupid and that there was something wrong with him because everyone always got angry and he never understood why, so surely it must be his fault, right?

Fukuzawa may have helped him see the truth, but Ranpo's switch between "why can't I understand, there's something wrong with me" and "everyone else is the problem, I'm the best" is pretty much instant but to me it feels like the one he's really trying to convince is himself. Finally figuring out what's going on doesn't just instantly erase fourteen years of self-esteem issues and feeling like everyone hates you.

I think that's why he's so desperate for praise, because he hardly ever got any and needs that confirmation that he's doing something right, and why he's so scared of not being good enough for the Agency, to the point where he frequently puts himself in dangerous situations if he thinks it will be helpful. Because after his parents died, everyone, even Fukuzawa at first, wanted nothing to do with him once they got to know him, and it wasn't until he started to use his talent to help people that that changed. To him, being useful is what made people finally start to like him, and he's afraid that if he's not useful enough, he'll go back to being hated again.

[maximaxstreasurebox]

BSD Untold Origins: Anime VS Novel (1)

FINALLY ANIME ADAPTATION YESS- This is my fav BSD light novel and I'm so happy season 4 starts with it!! There's obviously moments and LOTS of, LOTS OF dialogue cut from anime to squish it within (most likely) 2 episodes...

Since I finally have the physical copy of the novel (from YenPress), I thought of comparing the changes/cut-out moments between anime & the light novel version..

When I say a lots of text/dialogue, ITS IS A LOT, so I'll also need to cut out most part to lessen the length of this post ^^" I covered the first half of episode 1,,, Obviously season 4, light novel, and (bit of) manga spoilers!

Gifs © @the-chikyuu-times

(Part 2)

Around that time, there were rumors of a highly competent bodyguard in Yokohama. Give him a sword, and he could kill a hundred villains. Give him a spear, and he could take on an entire army. [...] If one had to name a flaw, it would be that he never worked with others on the job and trusted no one. In short, he was a lone wolf. [...] His name - Yukichi Fukuzawa.

This brief tale is a record of one man's struggle, of his growth - and of parenting. -Page 57

Episode starts with an bonus scene that is easily missed when first-time watching (due to hype lol), a phone call from Fukuchi (Gen'ichiro is the real name of the IRL author, and nickname(?) in BSD)

This added scene is mind-blowing in a sense that in the manga, we just got more backstory of Fukuzawa & Fukuchi's past, so this must has been planned out a long time ago, and it will be used as a throwback when anime gets to the *coughs* current events..

[...] However, he wasn't exactly in a bad mood. He was drowning in self-loathing. His client had been assassinated, and it was all very sudden. [...] She was a certain company's president who he'd sworn to guard only a few days prior. They had never talked outside of work. Fukuzawa made it a point to avoid getting personally involved with his clients,[...] However, he was once asked if he wanted to become a full-time bodyguard. Hating the idea of working for a specific company and having subordinates and colleagues made it easy for Fukuzawa to instantly decline the offer. [...] -Page 58

[...] While the victim's body had already been taken away for examination, there was no hiding the enormous bloodstain on the ground.

[...] The secretary, a sickly-looking man dressed in a black coat and a crimson necktie, was lining up some of the papers across the room. He stared at the field of paper, pulled a few files out, and returned them to the bookshelf before lining up some more documents. -Page 59

"What?" Fukuzawa uttered in astonishment. "Is the suspect still next door?" "He's very quiet, so quiet you might think he was sleeping. Almost as if he's given up." -Page 60

Between "He's very quiet" and "I would like to see the assassin" convo is a paragraph about Yokohama being a lawless district, 'city of demons', 'lawbreaker's paradise', and the existent of skill users in the world.

[...] However, bodyguards for important people, such as Fukuzawa, were very familiar with them, [...] . While Fukuzawa was a master of the martial arts, he was not a skill user. [...] -Page 60

After asking to see the assassin, there's literally little more than 3 pages of Fukuzawa (slightly) bickering with the secretary about the papers on the floor lmaoo-

"Mind if I move some of these?" Fukuzawa asked, pointing at the documents. "Oh! Stop! Don't touch them!" "[...] Please find a way past them without touching or shifting them! I know someone as talented as you can do it!" Fukuzawa stopped just short of uttering, "Uh... Excuse me?" [...] - Page 62

His way of getting to the next room is describe as he leaps from a bookshelf and ornament(s), then landing on a guest chair with his hands, using one leg and arm to balance between the documents and reaching for the door and turned the knob with his fingers only, then using the door as balance he jumps into the room.

Probably the biggest change is the way the room arranged, the description of the assassin, and what Fukuzawa does in light novel.

[...] The assassin's hands and feet were bound, and the thick, dark sack over his head prevented Fukuzawa from being able to see his face. [...] Tied around his arms and legs was iron wire in addition to the rope. [...] He didn't appear to be any more than a run-of-the-mill bandit who was good at sneaking into buildings.

[...] This was the reception room. The only items in the room were a simple bookshelf, a table to discuss business, and a painting. [...] - Page 65

Fukuzawa hits the wall behind the assassin, no reaction. He knows after this that he's not an amateur. He keeps observing the assassin, no guess of his name or possible ability. On a small desk in the corner of the room are the pistols, changes, and pick locks. Fukuzawa pickes up a fountain pen on the desk, tests its writiblity, then using the pen as it was sword, he gets into a stance. The assassin reacts. Upon Fukuzawa stricking with the 'sword' (pen), he hops to the side while tied to chair and slams to the ground. Fukuzawa thinking about the reaction differences, then returns to the office.

"Greetings!" It was an energetic voice, reminiscent of clucking chicken. [...] He appeared to be around fourteen or fifteen years old [...] -Page 68

"[...] Oh! Also, I ran into a seagull on the way here. Good thing they're so nasty, huh? It grossed me out so much I ended up giving it one of my rice balls before I could stop myself." [...] "You're seriously never heard of a seagull before? Freaky-looking rats with wings, those things." [...] -Page 70

"Ack! Wait, wait, wait! Stop right there!" [...] ...the secretary grabbed the boy by the shoulder, barely stopping him in time. The boy stared at him, puzzled, [...] -Page 71

"Sheesh, just look at the mess you made here. I get that you didn't want anyone to search the room, but...this? Adults puzzle me. What a puzzling world we live in!" -Page 72

Ranpo keeps pushing and kicking away the papers, secretary is freaking out.

"Old guy"... Fukuzawa was about to counter with "I'm only thirty-two years old!" but he furrowed his brows, more curious about the last part of the boy's sentence. -Page 74

"After all, you're the one who killed her, Mr.Secretary." "...What?" The secretary tilted his head to the side, mouth agape. "...What?" The secretary tilted his head to the side, mouth agape. "...What?" The secretary tilted his head to the side, mouth agape. His head was almost completely perpendicular to the floor. "Why did you just say the same thing three times in a row? I swear, adults make absolutely no sense sometimes." [...] -Page 75

[...] "If my mother were here, she'd already have the criminal tied up and tossed out the window!" [...] You're joking, right? What is this? A test? Do I get points for every obvious detail I lint in the end? Sigh. The city really is a mystery to me." -Page 76

I can't stress enough the amount of times Ranpo talking about why the world & adult are confusing!! Basically the secretary framed the assassin he hired. He killed the president because the role of secretary wasn't enough for him.

The fight is similar, slight change is that Fukuzawa have more control, immobilize him using martial art techniques, while the bigger change is that all that moves that Oda does are done WHILE HE WAS STILL WEARING THE SACK. The secretary got killed the same way. Fukuzawa slams the assassin against the floor, and disarms him. He takes the sack off and finally recognizes Oda.

[...] The boy's dark-brown eyes were frighteningly vacant, void of even a fragment of emotion. [...] -Page 84

[maximaxstreasurebox]

THIS

Such a shame that they didn't animate the part where Fukuzawa contemplated on 50 ways of killing Ranpo just because he just wouldn't shut the f up

[cousticks]

I think one of my favorite things about all the collective BSD medias is that we can see glimpses of characters at so many different stages in their lives, and are given the opportunity to watch them grow and change. Like... sure, there's a lot of medias with dynamic characters that change across it, but something about these snapshots of characters' lives we see across the novels & main series feels more organic and alive to me.

We see Oda at 14, already jaded and with blood and his hands, in Untold Stories. We catch him again at ~21 in TDIPUD, just kind of... minding his business. And already. he seems so different from this teenager, more content with his place in life, but he's still outrunning his past. It isn't a completely different person, the past still follows. And then again in Dark Era, where he's made connections with others, connections with places, and has someone to miss him when he goes. I don't think 14 year old Oda had that.

Dazai, too, of course. We can see him at 15, at 16, at 18, at 20, and at 22. We get Dazai at so many stages. His descent into the mafia and the absolute misery around him, and his slow crawl up to the light and how its changed him. How it lingers.

I think Ranpo's arc from terrified 14 year old boy who can't understand the world in Untold Stories to the confident, self-assured and generally relaxed detective he is by the main story is one of my favorites. You can see how clearly he's always been the same, but the change in his confidence and his security on his place in the world is incredible.

There's so many arcs I could talk about. The way pasts linger in BSD makes every character's arc feel so much more real. The way they're all striving towards something but slip, but aren't perfect at hiding where they came from, and how each character's journey and arc is completely different. They aren't all cookie-cutter arcs of 'haha was a bad guy now a good guy,' there's convoluted non-linear climbs that makes their arcs feel so much more realistic. I love being able to see characters in so many places in their lives I love being able to watch how circumstances ruin them, how circumstances bring them back. Incredible. I'm obsessed with all of them.

[botanautical]

"I don't understand what anyone's thinking! I'm scared! It feels like I'm surrounded by monsters! It doesn't matter what I say - nobody understands me! My parents were the only ones who did, and they're dead!"

[maximaxstreasurebox]

ctrl c + ctrl v from own post but yeah-

⎯ [...] "If it was an angel, they would use the divine blade in their hand. There would be no reason for them to wait until someone is alone to kill them in some physical manner." ⎯ [...] "If this was the work of man, then that would mean the killer was one of us. But that's impossible. There is no reason for us to kill one another. The angel would have a motive, though. We are sinners who disobeyed the angel, and it is an angel's job to purge those who have done evil. To look at it from another perspective, all twelve of us are the same. We have all sinned, and we are connected through our fear of the angel. What would killing a fellow runaway help?" ⎯ [...] "O Lord, we have sinned, You have clipped us of our wings and left us on this planer to punish us. Wasn't that enough to atone? Why must we suffer such cruelty?" -Page 115-116

⎯ "It has begin. We angels - we wingless, fallen angels - are about to be killed off, one by one, by the true angels in heaven." ⎯ "How foolish. If the executor were an angel, they would have no trouble killing us. They'd need only play their trumpets. They would have no reason to resort to physical means. This is a serial murder meant to look like an angel's bidding, carried out by someone here." ⎯ "Is that not foolish in itself? We have no reason to kill one another. What good would it do us to kill our own kind?" ⎯ "What do you think, Leader?" ⎯ "Leader!" ⎯ "Leader!" ⎯ "Leader!" ⎯ "Is this the punishment given to us fallen angels for adoring humanity? Angels have been sent from the heavens to purge us. They are called 'Gifted.'" ⎯ "Gifted?" ⎯ "We are humans. We are of the earth, having rejected being angels and choosing to become human. We dream, we love, and seek fulfillment possible only because we are finite." ⎯ "And we do not regret that decision." ⎯ "To choose one's own way of being is the truest form of the soul." ⎯ "Indeed. And angels and humans are of entirely different dimensions." ⎯ "Angels cannot have the fulfillment, which is the realm of humanity, and humans are incapable of the supremacy of angels. Those who control humans from the outside and those who enjoy fulfillment on the inside are like an author and their characters: never shall they intertwine. And yet…" ⎯ "And yet?" ⎯ "There are those who, despite being human, have some fragment of angels' forbidden supremacy." (inaudible from this point who's talking) That is, oh, that is truly the cursed soul that we call Gifted. None of us can possibly be as sinful as the Gifted. The accursed Gifted snuff us out one by one like prey for the hunt. We must find these Gifted. No, perhaps we must first hire a detective?

does anyone remember if the lines in the stage play were changed from the light novel? i read it recently, but i have the impression they altered them to make them more relevant to the current arc, although i might be misremembering

on another note, that would be a banger play and asagiri should write it

[hopefull-mindset]

Lately I've been thinking about the current progression of the story, obviously we are nowhere near the ending, however, what are your thoughts towards how the main story is going to end?

Based on what we know so far how do you think what do you think the climax and the resolution the story is going to be? Because so far it seems like it's going to be something related to the book, but there's so many plot points and characters that we haven't even really touched on yet and I'm wondering if we ever will (for example the order of the clock tower was this just a one and done thing or are we getting more on that Asagiri????)

I am SO sorry. I got sick on the weekend I was thinking of answering this. Then I got completely stuck on what I wanted to say because honestly I have no idea where this series is going besides a few things I know Kafka Asagiri wouldn't leave behind. I have faith in him and I feel like him pulling along Nathaniel Hawthorn for this long into the story and knowing when Fitzgerald would have involvement proves he doesn't forget about his previous storylines.

I see complaints sometimes about how Steinback’s side plot with the Guild is never touched on again and it's like?? Because there's already so much going on already?? I'm personally impressed with how Asagiri handles this bunch of characters and that's why I'm not impressed with complaints about the female characters getting “no” screentime. I think some of you really need to reread the manga because, of course, it would feel that way if you needed to split it between all these characters and have a smaller amount of female characters compared to guys.

It's an ongoing story so treat it like an ongoing story. Some criticisms I see of BSD really feel like they're in bad faith and don't give it any grace. To me, that's really depressing. I don't know what some of you even want from him. I'll move on now to your actual question.

This is a character-driven story with hmm, well I shouldn't say it doesn’t have a clear plotline because the antagonists have a clear goal for The Book, but it's not a story where the protagonist is driven to do anything besides overcome himself. I have ideas on what future plotlines would look like, but not all of them.

There are things that are absolutely going to be followed up on. Like how 55 Minutes’s story was left on a mystery to be explored in a future arc. 55 Minutes was very involved in the Great War and Europe, so I’m guessing some of that will be explored in due time. I’m not very good at guessing so I’m not the best to be asked on theorizing that far into the future.

How about I just speak on the present arc? I think that will be easier and it's good to work with the pieces we have. The ending is much too far into the future for me to come up with anything, really. This series is much too technical with its reference and motivations to say anything other than, “We should expect this stuff in the light novels to play into the story later.”

Since I gave myself some time to think this over, there are some things I am completely sure of having a critical role in the present and future of this story—besides the obvious lasting effects of the Great War and the storm Verlaine mentioned waiting for very much having to do with the Clock Tower’s eventual involvement.

I’ve been thinking about them a lot and I hadn’t realized this was my chance until now! So exciting! I mean these two tend to cross over for me.

55 Minutes is the 4th light novel in this series. Anyone who has read it loves it because of the focus on world building and getting to follow Atsushi for once in novel form. I went into it thinking that it was going to be a quick, self-contained story that happens a bit after the guild arc, but I was shocked to see that there were so many questions unanswered! On purpose obviously to set up a plot line for the future, but man.

While I am excited for many things from the light novels to be answered in the main story, I want to bring attention to the main antagonist. The living ability of Jules Gabriel Verne AKA Gab. Verne was a part of The Seven Traitors, a group that committed itself to stopping the war by any means necessary. They were what the Armed Detective Agency is to Atsushi for him. His ability (The Mysterious Island) absorbed other users’ abilities, so long as they were on an island he claimed as his domain.

By the time the war had ended, he was alone again and the rest of the members were either dead and disappeared. Verne decided to stay and maintain the Standard Island so his friends had a place to come back to. Fourteen years pass and a deadly weapon called Annihilation and it's maker, H.G. Wells, came onto the island. Annihilation had been stolen from her and Verne agreed to help her get it back from the terrorists under the name “Gab”. The terrorist in question being the colonel, not to be confused with the character of the same title who was an executive to the Port Mafia.

This colonel had actually been the former leader of the group who had called themselves Mimic after being abandoned by their country and had heard his men drifted to Yokohama, only to die there in vain. I wonder if that connects to anything that happened in another light novel, wink wink.

It wasn’t hard for Verne to find where it was hidden, but next he had to come up with a way to get it back without using his ability. He decided to join the thieves that had snuck onto the island by turning himself into a teenager and asking to be the pupil of the boss so he could borrow his ability to go through walls. It had worked as planned, until Wells was hit by a stray bullet and died. He was devastated that he couldn't save this one woman.

His solution to save her was to absorb her ability (Time Machine) to go back 55 minutes in time to reverse what had happened. That worked, but then he thought of another thing: if he absorbed her ability again, couldn't he go further back in time to get a better result? Wells’s ability has the condition that it could only send a person back in time once, but by absorbing it again, he can ignore it as if he were using it for the first time. He regretted how many of the colonel's soldiers had died and he never learned his motivations in the end.

He was right, but creating the perfect future is almost impossible because of how someone always gets hurt in the process. Every time he succeeded, there was only the “what if?” hanging over him that this wasn't enough. The more he used the ability, the further he could go into the past. Even larger ideas had come into his head. What if he could reunite with his friends? What if he could prevent the entire war from happening? He hadn't realized just as Wells's ability evolved, something else would too: Gab, the island and the boy he posed as.

It overtook him and left to reside inside his own flesh as an echo of his own self, at the very corner of his mind. He died and Gab had been birthed from it. Gab is an unstable creation and even so, his humanity still urges him to keep living no matter what. So instead of being motivated to repeat time to save others, he keeps living to save himself so he doesn't fall back into the darkness of an unknown waiting for him.

I could keep going and talk about how he's pretty much the embodiment of the themes present in BSD, his resemblance to Atsushi that the narrative points out so graciously, and the nature of what he is supposed to be in the grand scheme of BSD, but this isn't why I brought him up.

55 Minutes has aspects that have appeared in the main story ever since the Decay of Angels have taken their place in the manga as antagonists. Dazai’s ability to control his heartbeat, time travel, Akutagawa calling Atsushi his “trial” and fighting out at sea, and the Great War being the source of the conflict. Now what if I propose my idea of what had happened to Fukuchi to be similar to what had happened to Verne when he had used Wells’s ability?

This is Fukuchi’s corpse reanimated, I think we all know it. While it’s possible Fyodor must've put a safeguard to put the condition for this to have happened or that this is a Fukuchi from another universe, I think what had happened altogether, in the end, was the consequence of using Amenogozen so freely to the point he was messing with the state of the timeline and creating paradoxes. The backlash of this divine blade had either created a divine being or let one reside in him.

It's not only 55 Minutes that has parallels/foreshadows what's to come, but Untold Origins as well. I do like noticing how Kafka Asagiri adds things so they fit more snuggly into what's to come later in the season or make the connection more obvious, like Fukuchi having a feature when Fukuzawa is visiting Oda behind bars and Fyodor appearing on the roof when Fukuzawa monologues about “V”.

I think I've been seeing some people notice this too, but I think the play featured is incredibly important. Like really, really important. I mean beyond any resemblance people saw in the visuals used in the anime background that looked like Fyodor being crucified. I feel unprepared to talk about it, so I hope I make some sort of sense.

“The Living World Is a Dream. The Nocturnal Dream is Reality” is a real quote from Ranpo Edogawa and is used as the name for this play. Twelve fallen angels gather in an old theater to earn god’s forgiveness. They had disobeyed god in the past by wanting to coexist with human beings and were shunned after the fact. During this, they are killed off one by one without the killer ever being seen. The killer, as the script follows, is a supposed angel of judgment, but it's hard to tell for the others if it really was an angel imparting their judgment or a serial killer because of how common the methods seemed to be. That is their mystery to be solved.

One of the fallen angels claims that an angel would use a divine blade to purge them and not methods like these, while another begs the question of why a fellow sinner would go after them and that an angel would have a real motive to have them killed. Their reason to going to this old theater is because they were searching for an ability user. In this fictionalized story, ability users are angels who had fallen but were able to atone and given a portion of their power back. Their hope is that when they encounter the ability user, they will gain atonement as well.

Suddenly, Murakami (the lead performer) is stabbed by a blade that came from nowhere. Completing the promised threat of an organization named “V”:

“An angel shall bring death, in the truest sense of the word, to the performer.”

So, what happened?

As he takes his newfound identity as an “ability user” in pride on stage and claims himself to be the savior of all, Ranpo explains that the angel that the play refers to is the audience watching it. A metaphor to how the audience is invisible to the characters on stage and knew almost every that had happened, but Ranpo also says that because the audience couldn't have laid a finger on the them, it means the angel couldn't have been the killer.

The “angel” was more the victim than anything and the so-called judgment imposed was the show of what was originally regarded as another victim. The switching of roles. The same thing has also applied to this murder. While Murakami was regarded the victim, the accused killer the police suspected was a man under a fake name who has randomly disappeared. Tied up behind the currents, the man had been here all along. The true victim of this case.

Which makes Murakami the real culprit of his own “murder”, but he's only a piece of the picture. After getting arrested, he speaks about how he had planned with the playwright about this but has no clue what capturing the older man was for. Not even after saying this, a detective rushes in saying that the playwright had been impaled with no weapon to be found.

Again, after an officer who had worked for the mysterious group “V” and tried to kill Ranpo after refusing to join them had been arrested, he was also killed the same way as the playwright. I feel like I don't even need to say that this “V” group is obviously the Decay of Angels after laying that out. The same motivations as Fyodor (”rid all evil of this world”) and the sword business is Fukuchi silencing people.

What was the purpose of the play though?

Besides capturing Natsume Soseki (if you haven't read it), it was foreshadowing for what was to come. Let's abandon the idea that skill users are redeemed angels for a second. Just a second, I promise. Have you ever looked up what Kaumi (神威) even means?

While one of the first results you get will refer you to gods themselves, you should be focusing on a more literal translation. That being “God’s Authority” or greater divine power, making Fukuchi function basically as Fyodor’s own angel of judgment. Let's say that ability users are the sinners and Fukuchi (or Fyodor) is the one imposing their judgment, even if they should've been in the same boat.

Just like the play, they swap the victim (Armed Detective Agency) and the killer (The Decay of Angels) for the public‘s unknowing view. This play is filled with Fyodor’s personal bias and I think the irony of their searching for the “ability user” in the play is that to Fyodor, there's no such thing as a redeemed ability user. There is only salvation of death for this great evil and that is exactly what happens to the characters from the play.

Ranpo filps this narrative on its head and forcefully changes the ending of the fallen angel. He wasn't a part of the story, he forcefully shoved through its bullcrap to create something much more ideal. Something much less miserable. It's a little fun that two people he goes out of his way to help out (Yosano & Mushitaro) both have the title of “angel of death/murder” as that's how the angel of the play is also referred to. Save the killer that was actually a victim…

With that, I really shouldn't abandon how ability users get referred to with titles like angel and demon right? Chuuya had an angelic allusion in Storm Bringer when he activated corruption for the first time, and hell, look at my buddy Gab and his mechanical wings. The further they transcend themselves of their humanity, the more angelic or demonic they become. There really is no true difference between them though.

This should've been about the trajectory of bsd…. Then it became me wanting to talk about DOA crap….

Well, I really don't know much. I connected dots that were there for me, but nothing to say for the future of BSD. I understand what is happening, but not enough to be psychic haha. I mostly went on about that because I didn't want our conversation about what is currently happening to be pushed aside because there's always more to say. Maybe if I read more of the authors involved, maybe I'd know.

If this is disappointing, oh well! It has taken me so long to think of something to say that the new chapter has already come out. Kafka Assgiri always leaves me with more questions than answers.

What even are abilities anyway?

[momo-jpeg]

UNTOLD ORIGINS IN SEASON 4

[calitsnow]

Ranpo's parents and their influence on his life + Ranpo’s anger + how Fukuzawa gained Ranpo's trust

The second episode of Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4 was released today and it continues the adaptation of my favorite novel from the series; the one depicting the meeting between Ranpo and Fukuzawa and the founding of the agency.

And I have so much to say but let's start with the topic I want to talk about the most:

The red thread of this post will be: Ranpo's parents

Unfortunately their importance has been diminished in the episodes and I can not help but tell myself that it is a significant loss for the understanding of the character of Ranpo but also many other themes and events that were closely linked to them.

Through this writing I will address four points:

I/The identity of Ranpo’s parents and their relationship with him

II/The influence of Ranpo’s parents in his life following their premature departure

III/The breaking point

IV/The birth of Ranpo’s blind trust in Fukuzawa

So be prepared for a long but (I hope) interesting ride

Whereas the first episode was based on introducing us to the past characters of Ranpo and Fukuzawa, especially introduce us to their encounter and to set up the different elements for the rest of the story.

This second episode had also a clear theme: the anxieties and the feeling of alienation from the rest of the world that gnawed at Ranpo.

But also the how of why Fukuzawa chose to lie to him and make him believe he was an skill user and why Ranpo believed him.

And these are very important elements to the character of Ranpo, because it is indeed this meeting and the words of Fukuzawa that gave him such a blinding faith in him and I would even go so far as to say, that shaped this haughty and superior behaviour that Ranpo showed at the start of the manga.

I'm not saying that Ranpo wasn't like that before, but he was so; in a much more moderate and silent way because of his parents' words (we'll come back to that later) and what stands out above all in Ranpo's character (either at the time of the founding of the agency or at the moment present in the manga) is his childish character coupled with a hint of haughtiness and an intellect superior to all.

So far, all we knew was that it was Fukuzawa who had given his glasses to Ranpo, who had revealed to him the fact that he is an "ability user" (even if it is a lie) and that he had founded the armed detective agency so that Ranpo can fully utilize his gift without fearing the outside world.

But it's never been made clear why Ranpo and Fukuzawa's bond was so strong, and we'll later learn that Fukuzawa didn't just create a safe space for our great detective, but was also the one who saved him from the image of a world that was breaking him a little more every day.

I have sometimes read posts that speculated on what Ranpo could have become if it hadn't been Fukuzawa who had found him but Mori for example, and often the conclusion is clear, either Ranpo would have ended up even more broken and frightened of the world he lived in or had he been influenced by someone who, like Fukuzawa, understood Ranpo's true potential but tricked him into using it for manipulative and scheming purposes, he would have been shaped to be someone like Fyodor or Dazai.

We could often witness as the manga progressed that Ranpo lost to Fyodor because, firstly, he was facing a very intelligent opponent but also because he is not able to set up and foresee all the stratagems which pass by the manipulation of the emotions of the men, whereas Fyodor and Dazai are specialists in it.

And this is due to the fact that Fukuzawa (and his parents, we will also come back to this later) did not educate Ranpo to use his intelligence for this, but to solve mysteries and have a strategic vision which is based on data / facts.

However, that also doesn't mean that Ranpo would be unable to become like Fyodor or Dazai, although he could never match them in their domain. He has already demonstrated that he can do so by manipulating Mushitarō Oguri into surrendering to the police.

Anyway, I digress a bit and I ended up not talking about the episode anymore.

But it was only to show that these episodes are very important to better understand the character of Ranpo and how he came to be who he is today.

Especially to explain the behavior of superiority that Ranpo adopts which can annoy some at the beginning of the manga because its origin is not clearly explained and can pass for simple arrogance linked to his childish behaviour.

Even though the theme of this birth of feelings of superiority and the theme of the fears related to a Ranpo who fails to understand his environment and who is not able to find someone who seems to understand him were addressed during this episode; some equally important themes/elements were unfortunately not brought up by the latter and I find that’s a shame, especially when they are such important elements in Ranpo's life and that manga/anime only cannot know unless they did research on the light novels.

To be fair; I think that the episodes do a fairly good job of adapting the novel but unfortunately; adapting a novel with so much informations into three episodes is a tedious task and certain elements must be skimmed over or deleted to keep the essential that is here, namely the meeting between Ranpo and Fukuzawa, Ranpo's discovery of his gift through Fukuzawa and the founding of the agency.

Ranpo's parents are a detail in all this, a way to deepen his character but they are not necessary to the story, only their death is.

But I still think it's a shame to have cut their involvement in their son's development because it's not just the loss of his parents that fractured Ranpo, it's also the vision they gave him of the outside world which led to his feeling of alienation.

Many people might wonder why Ranpo couldn’t figure out on his own that he was smarter than the rest unfortunately the episodes didn’t really try to give an answer.

I therefore wish to clarify things for the anime and manga only who would not have had the opportunity or the desire to read the novel 3.

I/ The identity of Ranpo's parents and their relationship with him

« What was your father’s name?”

When Ranpo told Fukuzawa, he was slightly taken aback. It was a name even Fukuzawa knew. There wasn’t a soul who worked in his business who didn’t. The man was a legendary detective. The “Headless Officer” case, the “Moonlight Phantom,” the “Cow Head Incident”—he helped solve several difficult cases that shook the nation.

His powers of deduction and observation were so extraordinary that people called him the Clairvoyant.

He was highly respected and praised. »

Even if in the anime Ranpo informs Fukuzawa that his parents are no longer of this world, he does not go further in his explanations and the subject is quickly forgotten while in the book we learn more about their identities.

We learn that Ranpo's father was also a great detective, which in a way can serve as an explanation for Ranpo's exceptional intellect, the apple does not fall far from the trees, especially when we learn later who was his mother.

Above all, we learn that Ranpo's father was a well-known figure in the world and that he was respected everywhere as a great detective, this public image may have harmed/endangered the Edogawa family and the cause of their deaths was perhaps not so accidental. But here, it remains speculation.

Ranpo then continues with new information about his mother.

« He probably wasn’t amazing enough to be known to the public or anything, though. He could never beat my mom when it came to solving mysteries or reasoning, so she always got the upper hand on him when they argued back home. »

Here what is interesting, in addition to the information about his mother, is that Ranpo, unlike the rest of the world, does not consider his father as someone exceptional and whose intelligence, surely, did not allow him to be someone famous.

Which is so telling about Ranpo's skewed worldview and which is a clue to the true situation he really finds himself in:

« Ranpo knew the secretary was the criminal the moment he walked into the office, but the reason he didn’t speak up was because in his head, he thought the adults in the room all knew that as well.{…}

Or perhaps it was because he had simply lived a sheltered life in a bubble with his parents and no one else »

Ranpo grew up isolated from others, alongside geniuses but he didn't grow up with this vision of them, seeing them as normal people with a banal level of intelligence, because that's how his parents wanted him to see them. (We will come back to this later)

Second information: Ranpo's mother was also if not smarter than his father, which confirms to the reader that Ranpo grew up surrounded by eminences grises on the same level as his.

However, unlike her husband, she was not a public figure.

Third information: either Ranpo's father hid his activity from him and managed to hide his reputation at home or he retired to live a less dangerous life and not endanger his family with all the enemies he could have gain over time, hiding in anonymity.

« He hated the countryside. He hated the people, the school, and essentially everything else there. »

Moreover, we learned that Ranpo was brought up in the countryside, facilitating his isolation from the rest of the world, but even if he was isolated it seems that Ranpo still felt this feeling of ostracization from the others.

Even if Ranpo mostly talk about his inability to understand the world after the death of his parents, we cannot rule out the idea that Ranpo did not get along with children of his age because of his different reasoning from theirs.

If this is true we can conclude that even before the death of his parents, Ranpo felt misunderstood and left out, being unable to understand others and to act like everybody excepted him to.

However he had the presence of his parents that allowed him to live without worrying about that. Their presence and ability to think like him, allowed Ranpo to feel normal in a world that didn't seem that much to him.

In sum, Ranpo's situation can be summed up by one of the sentences from the novel:

« A naive only child raised by genius parents… »

Here is the beautiful family picture that the book paints for us, but that's not all:

So we know that Ranpo's parents were intelligent, his father was respected, but they seemed to live far enough away from the rest of the world that Ranpo might not be able to realize their off-the-charts intelligences.

But there is another characteristic to describe the Edogawa family: they loved and cared deeply for each other.

Well, in truth, we can't really know what the relationship was between Ranpo's parents, but even if he mentions "arguing where his mother had the upper hand", I think it was heated arguments between two smart people trying not to lose to each other, nothing too bad anyway.

What matters most is that they ensured the education and development of their son, at least until their death.

Also, the way Ranpo seems to talk about his parents doesn't hint at a relationship driven by tension.

And it is made clear throughout the book that Ranpo was raised with care and love by his parents and that he loved and respected them deeply.

« You’re special, Ranpo, and if you so desire, you will become a greater mind than even your parents.”

“As if.” Ranpo immediately shot down the claim. “My parents were amazing. There’s no surpassing them to reach the top because they were the top. Neither of them ever told me once that I had a gift, and I believe them. »

« But Ranpo’s parents did that with their extraordinary minds. What was such a feat, if not unconditional love? »

« The only thing he liked was his parents. »

Ranpo often mentions his parents throughout the book and one can clearly feel the respect he had for them and feel that Ranpo out of love and respect for his parents is applying everything they have teach him: Because his mother taught him not to place himself above others, it is unthinkable for him to put himself above someone else, especially when his interlocutor is an adult.

And above all, Ranpo is incapable to place himself above his parents because they were the only people who were ever able to understand him (more on that later) and it’s because he loved and respected them so much that Ranpo can’t imagine going against their teachings.

And it was this lovingly constructed cocoon that was meant to protect Ranpo from the outside world.

« The protective wall his parents created was thick.

That wall protected Ranpo from a world of ordinary people who would fear and fail to understand him, yes{…} »

But unfortunately not everything went as planned.

« {…}but it was also what rendered him unable to step into the outside world. »

II/ The influence of Ranpo's parents in his life following their premature departure

But what were the consequences of this isolated education and stopped too abruptly?

Main effects can emerge from this:

Ranpo's parents "normalized" his level of intelligence, making him feel like his brain capacity was the one of any child or adult. But why? It is true that, one could wonders why Ranpo's parents sought to educate Ranpo in the most total unawareness of his gifts?

The answer is all found in the book:

« So his father knew, after all. He understood that Ranpo possessed an extraordinary gift. That was why he sealed it away. He didn’t want Ranpo to go astray, to ever hurt others and make the world his enemy. »

« His father wanted Ranpo to learn virtue and what’s right just like any ordinary person until he had grown up with good judgment and knowledge. »

All is said. Ranpo's parents were aware of his gift and what it entailed; and they knew the danger that the world could represent for their son if he failed to understand and adapt to its workings.

This is why they sought to hide Ranpo's gift, so that over time, when their son would have matured; he would be able to understand and adapt to the world despite his difference.

However, his parents weren't just doing it for the world, they were doing it for their son first: Ranpo's gift is still a unique talent that many might seek to use but above all they didn't want Ranpo to find himself alone because of his difference.

Why didn't they tell Ranpo that he was smarter than the others?

Well, the situation is quite complex, but from what I understand, Ranpo's parents did not want him to feel excluded from the rest of the world and wanted him to grow up like an ordinary child, so as not to accentuate this feeling of "being different" that Ranpo will have to deal with all his life. They also wanted Ranpo to know how to be humble so that, what he manages to see and divulge is not seen as arrogance.

Moreover, explaining to a child that he is special and different is not easy, because even at 14 years old, Ranpo does not understand why he is the one who had to be different.

« Besides, why would only I be special? There are so many people in the city, so why would I be the only special one? »

« But even if this hypothesis were true, how would one explain that to this kid? “You’re special. You have something that others don’t.” But why? And how different exactly was he? How could it be proved? »

Depending on one's feelings, it may seem more like a twist of fate, a curse, forever preventing him from understanding others and the workings that seem logical to anyone else.

A real feeling of bitterness and frustration coupled with loneliness can arise from all this, especially when others do not make the effort to try to understand in return.

Explaining to a child that he should not act according to what seems logical/correct to him without a concrete explanation is a complicated situation, especially when Ranpo's parents were able to understand him without him needing to adapt. I think Ranpo’s parents didn’t want him to hide his talent but they also din’t want him to feel the pressure that come along with it.

Especially since the difference, when you are a child, is not very well received by other children. They will not try to understand what seems strange to them.

A child does not admire another child for his intelligence, especially if it’s a child who cannot understand others and communicate as expected of him, he will just see him as a weirdo.

Ranpo's father has therefore created a cocoon woven of lies or at least omissions about reality to let Ranpo mature for the time it takes, until he is ready to accept the truth about himself and act accordingly/ appropriately for others to understand.

« He was protecting him, creating a transparent cocoon to protect his extraordinary gift from this strange world. Ranpo’s parents raised him like an ordinary child.

How difficult it must have been to convince him that the world he saw was normal and nothing he knew was anything other than common sense. »

He did not want his child, because of his gift, to have to live a childhood filled with stares full of misunderstandings and judgments. Ranpo didn't deserve to be blamed for that.

« Ranpo, still naive, may have fallen into that trap, but he did not deserve to be blamed. Nevertheless, Ranpo was an extreme case. Although he possessed such extraordinary powers of observation, he didn’t think he was special. Why? Was it his parents’ fault? Was it because he lived a sheltered life with parents who had minds that rivaled his? »

However, the death of Ranpo's parents prevented them from seeing to the hatching of this cocoon and Ranpo was therefore never made aware of his talent and what it involved. Forcing him to live with an idea of ​​a reality that, now, only oppressed him with its lack of logic, which no one seemed to notice.

« But long before Ranpo had fully matured—far before Ranpo was ready for the world—they departed this life. An immature yet gifted larva was stripped of his cocoon and abandoned. »

The only people who could understand him and answer him satisfactorily had just tragically disappeared without leaving him with anything concrete to hold on to. (Apart from the job at the police station but no one there was able to explain to him why the world was so strange).

Which means that Ranpo has kept the vision that his parents have always taught him and transmitted of the world: you are like everyone else and everyone is like you.

« Ranpo knew the secretary was the criminal the moment he walked into the office, but the reason he didn’t speak up was because in his head, he thought the adults in the room all knew that as well. That must be why he kept rambling on about himself rather than the murder. {…} »

But this vision did not help - because where it acted as a protective barrier in his childhood (a barrier maintained by his parents), once immersed in the middle of the active world — this sea without landmarks — at only 14 years old, this vision represented more of an anchor that prevented Ranpo from moving forward.

« He didn’t understand others because he didn’t think he was special. He didn’t think he was special because he didn’t understand others, which only confirmed what his parents had told him. It was unyielding logic that fed off each other{…} »

He couldn't destroy what had been the truth to him for 14 years, especially when that truth was taught to him by the only people he loved and who understood him. And that truth was the only thing keeping his head above water.

And so Ranpo lived in a world where he thought everyone else could see what he saw but everyone pretended not to see because that's what adults do.

And we arrive to a very important new point in this blockage that Ranpo has towards himself and his own abilities; Ranpo is still a kid

He lived all his life isolated with his parents but that was enough, but here he is, released in the middle of the jungle at only 14 years old, in a world that he thinks he understands but which constantly sends back an illogical image to him.

« However, Ranpo still hadn’t realized that what he saw was only visible to him and him alone. He was still immature in that sense. »

Ranpo is a teenager, a very intelligent one yes, but still a teenager, of course he will show immaturity and not correct himself, because even if he suffers from it, it does not make sense for him to do that.

« If a kid like me was able to figure it out, then surely you and the police already noticed a long time ago, right? My mother never got tired of telling me, ‘You’re still just a kid.’ And I agree with her. I really don’t understand what adults are thinking. Sometimes I even doubt they know anything, but that’s not even possible.” »

« “You’re still just a kid.” Of course you don’t understand adults. Because adults are smarter than you. Is that what she meant? It’s not hard to understand why Ranpo’s parents drilled that into his head, at least to a certain degree, and yet… »

Ranpo fails to understand adults and we see that he has already suspected that adults do not see the same things as him but it was an impossible idea because the latter had been taught to him by his mother. This lie, which was meant to protect him, prevented him from accepting his hypotheses. Also the only adult example that Ranpo had in his life was his parents and his parents understood him, his parents were as smart as him, his parents knew. So of course, since this is the only image he has of adults, he cannot imagine another one.

It is as if he only knew the color red but was asked to visualize blue, impossible.

And the fact that the others around him are adults and he is a teenager doesn't help because his mother taught him that adults know best.

A child cannot fully understand adults because he is not smart enough to do so yet, there are some things that you only understand as an adult.

Ranpo's parents must have wanted to instill this value in him so that Ranpo would listen to them growing up and know that even if sometimes his life can diverge, an adult has experiences that allow him to better respond to a situation or how to behave.

But this vision of the adult should surely also help Ranpo to know how to behave if he had to face another adult, he should not be pretentious but respect him so as not to be scolded for no reason.

Especially since Ranpo was educated by his parents to go/fit with the others and to adapt his behavior (so as not to offend those who listen to him and keep a low profil).

« Uh… My father always said, ‘One day, you’re going to surpass your mother and me, and you’re going to win the admiration of all those around you. But now’s not that time. Stay humble and keep your silence. Always be modest. Just quietly observe and don’t hurt others with what you discover.’

…Or something like that. I don’t really know what he meant, though.” »

« My mother told me to never look down on others. »

Ranpo's parents taught him to be silent and they associated this silence with the respect and humility that children should show towards adults. This mechanism was still intended to protect Ranpo and his talent but this mechanism was meant to disappear over time, it was simply to help Ranpo not to make the world his enemy until he was big and mature enough to understand and accept his difference. But his parents were never able to break this mechanism (because they died before they could), leaving him with a defense mechanism that only increases his feeling of odds with others, which is what his parents had done everything to avoid.

"What good would that have done?" Ranpo replied as if he was offended. “You're all adults. Do something about it yourself. What good is asking a kid what he thinks is going to happen? Besides, everyone gets mad when I state the truth.” »

“There it was again. Fukuzawa felt as if something was off. “I have absolutely no idea what adults are thinking,” the kid said—and something about how that came across seemed vaguely wrong. »

Ranpo thinks it's normal for him not to understand adult behavior because he's still a child and he makes sure to remember that. In the novel, Ranpo often refers to himself as a child, because that is what he is, but he also very often puts this word in parallel with "adult", indicating the clear and sharp border that there is in his head. Of course Ranpo think this is the only difference capable of explaining why he does not see the world like the others because it’s the only one he found.

Because of all this, Ranpo doesn't understand others and goes through what his parents always wanted to prevent:

“Most people would probably chalk it up to powers of deduction, but…even if the average person couldn’t understand him, surely the reverse wouldn’t be possible, that he couldn’t understand them? There was a decisive discretion. »

"He didn't understand others because he didn't think he was special. He didn't think he was special because he didn't understand others, which only confirmed what his parents had told him. »

This vicious circle in which Ranpo has found himself trapped is a trap from which he cannot escape on his own because nothing proves to him that he is trapped because no one tries to understand and/or no one succeeds. And his inability to understand other people prevents him from thinking that he would be different, that he could be smarter because who considered himself intelligent if he couldn't solve an equation that everyone else did seem to know how to solve.

All of which brings us to our third point.

III/ The breaking point

“Ranpo was all alone. After losing his parents, he was thrown into a confusing world to wander without a path. He had no one to turn to and nowhere to go. He was merely surviving, existing. »

This sentence sums up very well the true state in which Fukuzawa found Ranpo, even if it was not apparent at first glance.

Ranpo was alone and this loneliness hurt him, broke him a little more every day and no one seemed to be able to understand him or answer him without coming into confrontation with his very precise idea of ​​the reality that his parents had sown in him.

And that's where Fukuzawa's intervention comes in and saves Ranpo from a mental breakdown and the birth of, I think, a real hatred for everything around him.

We will now go into the beginning of an analysis of the parental figure parallel between Fukuzawa and Ranpo's parents and how they are both opposite and similar.

But also an analysis of the adaptation of the anime compared to the light novel.

“Ranpo’s eyes were ablaze with fury. “Seriously, why? It makes no sense to me. I don't understand anyone! Why are adults like this? Why is everyone like this? Someone, just tell me why!” he shouted. This outburst didn't just come out of nowhere. Doubt and stress had been swelling inside him for the longest time, waiting to explode. “I don't understand what anyone's thinking! I'm scared! It feels like I'm surrounded by monsters! It doesn't matter what I say—nobody understands me! My parents were the only ones who did, and they're dead!” This time, he was screaming—an anguished lamentation aimed at nowhere with clear animosity in his eyes”

This is how Ranpo's breaking point is translated in the book; a real cry of rage, a call for help filled with despair that can only be expressed with animosity and anger because the situation has been going on for so long, without any improvement, that only frustration can result.

And we can only understand: Ranpo was alone but and felt misunderstood since forever and the accidental death of his parents did not help to accept this situation.

We clearly feel a rage, a hatred buried in Ranpo that took root a long time ago and finally bloomed.

It's a last cry for help filled with raw, honest sentiments from a teenager who doesn't understand what he's doing wrong.

In the anime this distress isn't expressed in the same way, first because we don't really have time to dwell on all of Ranpo's emotional struggle as much as in the book and we don't have time either to explain how this pain is also related to the death of his parents, because the anime didn't show their importance in his education and growth as an individual.

In the anime, this cry for help comes more like a stifled cry, a surplus of emotion that fails to express itself. You can almost see it as a mechanism that Ranpo adopted; he wants to express what he feels but does not know how to make himself understood, so he is only able to collapse into almost complete silence with clenched teeth, relying only on himself; but he comes to the same conclusion again and again:

« "If there's a skill user here, save me! If there's an angel, then save me! Why must I be alone?! Why do I have to live alone in the middle of a bunch of monsters?” »

Ranpo wants to be saved no matter by whom and despite that all he sees are monsters around him.

And that pressure, those fears, that feeling of not understanding, that has built up over time is so strong in the book.

It's alluded to in a subtle way by all of Ranpo's mentions of his past failures to fit in with the rest. Until it has become too much to bare and take the form of a cry of rage during the opera.

I find that in the book, the oppression of this life that Ranpo has been leading for almost a year is very well illustrated and really supports the character's lost/desperation and how Ranpo was really a bomb ready to explode.

What makes this outburst of anger even more striking is that it is pure and genuine. It's a raw emotion that Ranpo can't express otherwise.

"This outburst didn't just come out of nowhere. Doubt and stress had been swelling inside him for the longest time, waiting to explode. “I don't understand what anyone's thinking! I'm scared! It feels like I'm surrounded by monsters! It doesn't matter what I say—nobody understands me! My parents were the only ones who did, and they're dead!” »

We really feel the broken state in which Ranpo is:

Ranpo has tried to accept himself and understand his environment but despite his best efforts nothing seems logical to him and the others only make fun of him.

This idea is all the sadder when we see how much the death of his parents and the resulting loneliness affects Ranpo on a daily basis: he is a child who does not know that he is special and who has lost the only ones capable of understanding him and giving him this sense of normality and all he feels now is that it's his fault.

Here Ranpo is just the image of a scared child crying for the comfort of his parents.

In the anime, I feel much less this aspect of total rupture; in the novel Fukuzawa compares Ranpo's situation to him being on the edge of an gulp, ready to jump at any moment.

However, even if this comparison is very accurate, it is not really what stands out in the anime.

Ranpo doesn't really seem angry with the outside world, he seems more scared and lost, suffocating in this illogical daily life.

The anime mostly kept this aspect and his impression of being misunderstood by the world, but it didn't really keep the frustration that Ranpo had been able to accumulate, because this frustration takes on more meaning if they had time to talk about Ranpo's parents and the education they gave their sons.

Ranpo doesn't understand the outside world?

In the anime it's because it's a world he had never known before the death of his parents, it's the world of adults and it's a world that seems illogical to him and this absence of logic frightens him, but there is no anger, why?

Because the past vision of Ranpo’s world has not been broken (or at least the situation has not been presented like that to the viewer).

Whereas in the novel Ranpo found himself in the middle of a strange and illogical world whereas until now it made perfect sense thanks to the presence of his parents. So it's easier to understand why in the book Ranpo is reacting angrily, it's because he's frustrated at not understanding what he understood so far and feels like everyone is laughing at him out of pure malice.

I can't say that I find the adaptation bad either, because even if it removed all this feeling of anger in Ranpo, I admit that the anime replacement of it with a feeling of a suffocating helplessness is pretty interesting.

It fills the most important spot; letting us understand just how suffocating was the life he led.

They're just two different expressions of his emotions and two different images of his character.

In the book, Ranpo tries to understand others and fails but he doesn’t accept his failures and it results in anger.

In the anime, Ranpo tries to understand others but fails and therefore forces himself to live with this anguish even it suffocates him until he breaks down.

Two different stages but which stem to an event necessary for the development of Ranpo: his breakdown.

Ranpo can no longer live with such a reality

Ranpo's parents also served to create anger in Ranpo and for me that anger seemed so important to show because it tells us so much about Ranpo and the pressure that has been on his shoulders, it is a part of him . And this anger is all the more bitter when you know that it's just the anger of a 14 year old teenager, it seems so legitimate and you can't help but have empathy for Ranpo because even for us all of this seems too unfair

However, no one told him, explained to him that his view of the world is wrong and that none of this is his fault.

Nobody knew or took the time to do so, before Fukuzawa arrived

That's why Fukuzawa takes on this role of father figure in Ranpo's eyes, because he fills the role that his parents couldn't assumed until the end.

The parallel is so strong and so much clearer in the book because Ranpo's parents are constantly mentioned and paralleled with what Fukuzawa is trying to do: help Ranpo to accept himself and live normally.

I think removing the scenes mentioning Ranpo's parents is a loss, since they are the ones who had the most influence on his life and they are the ones who made Ranpo think the way he does in the past. Especially the mention of the role of Ranpo's parents in his life and his development because they were also supposed to be a parallel with the role (of parent) that Fukuzawa will decide to take on in the life of the great detective and all this parallel was supposed to support that idea.

Which bring us to the last point of this post:

IV/ The birth of Ranpo's blind trust in Fukuzawa

The problem I have with the anime is that everything is very fast. But really very fast, because unfortunately we don't have time to dwell on what can be seen as detail / bonus.

Just as proof of this, the absence of Ranpo's tantrum from the theater is mostly, I think, a way to simplify the after discussion with Fukuzawa and gain time.

In the book Fukuzawa doesn't calmly lead Ranpo out of the room and the two leave with some annoyance towards each other.

The most noticeable difference is that Fukuzawa doesn't know how to help Ranpo right away, and it's not as easy for him to find the right words and solution to appease the young boy.

But mostly, Ranpo doesn't trust Fukuzawa so easily. Because even if he is surely one of the only adults who is ready to listen to him and try to understand him, Ranpo is not going to sweep away everything he believes in just because a “stranger” suddenly explains to him how it works.

Fukuzawa must gain Ranpo's trust before he is able to change him. And I find this scene so important because we see that Fukuzawa did not just arrive with a ready-made solution and easely eclipse everything Ranpo's parents built.

We learn that, this so important trust that Ranpo shows in the manga towards him, this loyalty was won by Fukuzawa and does not simply come from the fact that Fukuzawa has offered glasses and "his gift" to Ranpo

This scene makes us understand why Ranpo gives so much importance to Fukuzawa. Because even if he is the one who found a solution to his problem, he was, above all, able to gain a position of guidance figure, of a parental figure in the eyes of Ranpo.

He took the place of his parents.

But then why isn't this scene illustrated in the anime, when it explains and complicates Fukuzawa and Ranpo's relationship?

Well because of the lack of time, the absence of Ranpo's anger and the abscence of the "presence" of his parents in this conversation.

“My parents were amazing. There's no surpassing them to reach the top because they were the top. Neither of them ever told me once that I had a gift, and I believe them.” »

““Don’t think you can control me with a few compliments.” Ranpo slightly warned his gaze. »

In the book, Fukuzawa tries to get Ranpo to understand the truth by bringing up his parents but it doesn't work as Ranpo only sees it as compliments and more lies.

Ranpo loved his parents and his parents loved him, so it is very difficult to destroy what they have built, especially when Ranpo has only known Fukuzawa for two days in front of his parents who raised him with this love for 14 years.

Still symbolizing the importance of his parents in his life and the influence they have even after their deaths

“He was stubborn. The protective wall his parents created was thick. »

"If Fukuzawa didn't use just the right amount of force, then the damage would be irreparable. »

Fukuzawa must then turn to something else and he must above all be careful not to cross the line, which could break Ranpo.

And even though Ranpo is suspicious, Fukuzawa manages to offer him the start of a new perspective:

“Have you ever thought the people around you were stupid? That they were a bunch of fools who didn't understand a thing?” »

He achieves this by talking about a situation that Ranpo has faced before but does not accept because it goes against what his mother taught him.

But what allowed Fukuzawa to gain the ability to change Ranpo's point of view, what convinced Ranpo to listen to him and stop believing what his parents had taught him.

It's simply: his sincerity.

Whether in the anime or the book, it's Fukuzawa's sincerity that earns him some initial trust from Ranpo.

“Fukuzawa was not an eloquent speaker. He wasn't someone who could manipulate others with his words. There was only one card left up his sleeve that he could play. Sincerity. »

“Ranpo carefully observed his expressions. »

And Ranpo was able through his observation skills to understand this sincerity and to believe in it. It was this sincerity that marked the beginning of the deep relationship that would unite them.

It's almost ironic that Ranpo and Fukuzawa's relationship starts out on both a lie and a truth at their rawest.

“If you refuse to acknowledge your gift, you are no different from the bloodthirsty man I used to be. You must recognize your talents, especially now that your parents are gone.” »

“All he wanted was to be able to tell a little white lie so that this kid could see the simple truth. »

Thanks to this, Ranpo is ready for the first time to believe in something else, he wants to understand and is ready to accept Fukuzawa's explanation because he no longer sees him as someone who could manipulate him but as someone sincere.

“But—then tell me. What am I? What were my parents telling me? Make me understand why I'm here—why I'm like this. If you can do that, then I'll believe you.” »

That doesn't mean he has to deny everything his parents did for him and hate them, no, he just has to find a new interpretation for their behaviors.

Fukuzawa does not seek to antagonize Ranpo's parents and what Ranpo learned from them because they are not the enemies in the story. Ranpo just doesn't have to choose between their version and Fukuzawa's because Fukuzawa manages to make them cohabit between them and I think that helped Ranpo to accept that it's just because of a new factor (his skill) , awaken after the death of his parents that he began to no longer understand the world. It wasn't his fault, he was just unable to control his gift.

And so here come Fukuzawa's lie.

The situation is almost the same in the anime, except for the following:

In the anime, it looks like Fukuzawa thought about and came up with the idea of ​​the ability use naturally, it felt so natural that I even thought it was weird when he tried to backtrack at the end of the episode.

But in the book Fukuzawa gives this answer in a rush because Ranpo gives him the chance to help him get better and that's what Fukuzawa wants to do.

“Ranpo was no longer sulking. Instead, he was honestly looking for an answer—something he'd never done before. And Fukuzawa was the only one who could give it to him. »

"Fukuzawa didn't have much time. If he let this chance go by, Ranpo would probably never seek answers again. »

“Anything would do. He just needed to say something. He had already used the ace up his sleeve: sincerity. He wasn't good at persuading others or speaking eloquently, either. He was even worse at lying. »

“As if by reflex, Fukuzawa said: “Because you’re a skill user.” »

Fukuzawa sincerely wanted to help Ranpo, but he was in a rush and was unable to come up with a more stable plan. It was his environment that influenced his choice. It may seem rash but what mattered for now was that Ranpo could accept that he was not the one missing something but that the situation was reversed: the rest of the world was missing something.

“{…} and the only way to breakthrough was to shine light on something completely new. Something different. »

This status of skill user had become the new beacon in Ranpo's life, it was thanks to this that he could navigate in the middle of this sea filled with lack of logic.

That's why Ranpo clings so much to his status as a skill user at the start of the manga, because it's the only truth that was able to save him and given to him by the one person he has been able to believe.

This was new data that Ranpo didn't know about until the theater incident, so he never got to consider this possibility on his own, which makes the situation perfect for Fukuzawa.

"Yours (skill) is the reason why you're in pain and why everyone seems like a monster." “…???” Ranpo was at a loss. He blinked in silent confusion. »

And even then, Ranpo still doubts, because he doesn't understand why he would be special, because his parents always made him realize that he wasn't but Fukuzawa manages to justify that.

“Your skill awakened when your parents died. »

In the anime Fukuzawa remains calm but Ranpo accepts this "explication" much more quickly whereas in the book, even if Fukuzawa keeps a straight face, he moves forward guided by his impulses and his only goal: to help Ranpo get out of his cocoon.

He must insist, explain, and convince Ranpo of what he is saying.

“Fukuzawa gave thanks to his daily training. He had no idea what he was saying, but his heart was racing, and cold sweat dripped from his palms. Nevertheless, his expression was completely still. »

“Any hesitation in a fight with real swords could lead to death. The enemy must never get the chance to observe your eyes and predict your next move. That was why Fukuzawa was naturally able to keep a straight face, was feeling anguished or terrified. »

And it is with this calm and perseverance that Fukuzawa manages to convince Ranpo of his new status.

But the book shows us the complexity of how Fukuzawa became someone so important to Ranpo and where this blind loyalty comes from.

Then comes the moment when Fukuzawa finds an object to allow Ranpo to focus: the famous glasses.

This symbol of the sincerity and trust that unites their relationship is also the symbol of its basis / of how it all began.

It's a rebirth for Ranpo

« “{…}repeated Fukuzawa as if he were imprinting that thought on a newly born chick’s mind. »

But what matters is that Fukuzawa managed to help Ranpo and that he understands what is really happenning and who he really is.

« "Isn't it all clear now? The world isn't a frightening place. Everyone else isn't a monster. They're just stupider than you." Ranpo caught his breath. He traced his finger around the glasses' frames as he weighted. “But… No, could it be…? »

[beans-beneath-moonlight]

I can't believe they left out the part with Ranpo shit-talking seagulls

[maximaxstreasurebox]

*SCREAMING*

[sskk-manifesto]

And so the big sskk shortage begins (no sskk for the next 15 episodes) (and the sskk episode coming after kind of sucks)

[bsdwherearethedogs]

happy bsd season 4 day

[cousticks]

Can we take a look at the "rules" for skill users presented in the play in Untold Stories?

One skill per person.

Some could freely use their skill, while others were uncontrollable and happened automatically.

While some people were born with skills, others suddenly developed theirs.

Skills do not always make the possessor happy.

That last one. Something about how skill users having complicated relationships with their skills is so innate to skill users that this is considered one of the basic rules. Being a skill user is not always a positive thing. This is innate to being a skill user. And then you look at characters like Kyoka, like Atsushi, like Kyusaku, like Chuuya, like Dazai, hell- like Verlaine, and... geez. Being a skill user really does suck. That tragedy is inherent to them.

There's also something about the second one. About free use vs. being automatic. It made me think about how, technically speaking, Dazai doesn't necessarily have any control over his ability, does he? Its always active, regardless. I find it interesting that he's often seen training others on their ability use (Akutagawa, Atsushi, Kyusaku was technically his charge for a while) or helping others regain control of their own when it is lost (Chuuya, arguably also Kyusaku), when he himself does not have any control. I can't help but wonder how frustrating that may be at times. His ability is wickedly powerful, yes, but is entirely unmanaged. The only management No Longer Human has is that it is contained to Dazai himself.

The other two are just interesting worldbuilding to me, but I don't have anything to say at the moment on them. Actually, that's a lie. Kyouka's mother was able to pass on her ability to Kyouka, right? What if Kyouka already had an ability of her own, and then her mother attempted to pass Demon Snow over. The rule is "one ability per person." Would it work, since it wasn't Kyouka's skill to begin with? Would Demon Snow have rejected and simply bounced off or dissolved, or have ended up in the next viable host? This opens some concepts in the ability experimentation as well that I'd love to dig into some time. I'm sure I'll have more to say on these base rules, but gosh. They're such simple structure but there's so much there to think about contained in four basic statements.

Skills do not always make the possessor happy.

[videogamelover99]

Peronally I think both "Dazai has an out for Chuuya" and "Dazai has to sacrifice Chuuya" can be narratively appealing, but have little to do with Chuuya's odds of survival. I could see the second play out, only to bring in Chehov's "He was undead (vampire) already, so it doesn't count". Or it being the same method but Dazai knows about it.

If anyone's actually dying in this arc, it'd probably be Fukuzawa, lets be real.

[ranposcactus]

Fukuzawa:-holding Ranpo up and fidgeting with him-

Fukuzawa:-leans into the microphone- the body is round