#dazai entrance exam

[reililie]

kunikida and the azure king ; is he the king? *ೃ༄

This blog will contain spoilers to the specific light novel  “Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.” If you would not like spoilers, do not read more.

1. WHO IS THE AZURE KING?

The azure king is a terrorist, who is introduced in episode seven “Love for the Disease Called Ideals” and the light novel “Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.” He is someone motivated by ideals and was described as “ambitious.” When cornered by the police, he sent off a bomb, killing himself.

2. HOW DOES HE CONNECT TO KUNIKIDA?

The azure king and Kunikida have numerous similarities which can be seen throughout the light novel and throughout episode seven. For starters, dare I say the most obvious one, their appearance. Kunikida and the azure king look alike.  Whilst the azure kings face is primarily obscured with an azure-colored banner, blonde hair can be seen sticking out, as well as his eyes, but the color can be easily confused due to the screen-like texture. Their shape is also noteworthy as well as their expressions.

Another notable resemblance between the two is they share the same Japanese VA (voice actor) which is Yoshimasa Hosoya. The two of them are both idealists, along with educational background being mentioned (as to which I find quite odd, I’ll explain why.) Speaking about Bungou Stray Dogs, the characters are based on authors, and some have severe similarities to the book they were inspired of or- in general. Kunikida Doppo; the author, was born in 1871, his first wife was Nobuko Sasaki, the azure king’s wife in the anime. Nobuko Sasaki divorced him after about 5 months of being married while pregnant due to financial struggles. 

3. WHO IS NOBUKO SASAKI IN THE ANIME?

Nobuko Sasaki was introduced in the light novel and episode six through seven and makes an appearance in a flashback in episode ten. Nobuko Sasaki had appeared to be a well-mannered polite and patient woman but had been the completely opposite. She is incredibly manipulative when together with the azure king and to other people generally. Behind the scenes, she actually helped the azure king with his bombs and many plans due to the fact she has no ideals so completely committed herself to his own, trying to find a reason, or will, to live. When he dies from the bomb she practically loses her will to live, and in return, directs her grief and unsettled anger towards the armed detective agency because they played part in his death. In the end, she doesn’t feel accomplished at all or satisfied with trying to damage the armed detective agency's reputation. She is the main focus along with Kunikida in the “Azure Apostle Arc.” Kunikida and Dazai go to an abandoned hospital where she is seemingly drowning, along with four other people in the building at the time due to a kidnapping, she was the only one saved. Later, she goes to the abandoned hospital after Dazai calls her over ; speculating she was the azure kings significant other. When she gets there she shoots  Rokuzō Taguchi, someone who’s father died to the azure king in front of Kunikida and Dazai. She lowered her gun because she knew Dazai couldn’t shoot her but Dazai “drops” his gun and Rokuzō picks it up while he bleeds out and shoots Sasaki to revenge his father.  She was later revealed as the “Azure Messenger” the one who sent real threats to Kunikida and Dazai, just as Dazai had suspected.

Kunikida then goes on to yell and argue with Dazai because he doesn’t agree with what comes down to; Dazai’s sense of humanity in a way, Kunikida doesn’t agree with dropping the gun as he deems it wasn’t necessary and a life or possibly both could have been saved. The point isnt their contrast on their perspectives of lives and ideals though, so i’ll leave it there.

4. KUNIKIDA AND THE AZURE KING’S IDEALS.

Kunikida and the azure king both have what they consider extremely important ideals. Both of their ideas, ultimately, wish to protect innocent people by whatever they can do. That’s what it comes down to. The execution of those ideals however is very conflicting to the other. Kunikida attempts to stop violence whilst the azure king creates violence and destruction because the people he was dealing with were criminals. The azure king essentially punished detectives and government members for failing to capture criminals which isn’t necessarily their fault or something they could control, at least I hope not.

5. KUNIKIDA AND THE AZURE KING’S VIEWS.

I believe not only with the contrast of their ideals their views on life and humanity are very conflicting as well. The azure king tries to make the world a “better place” by what he deems correct, which is, well, committing crimes against criminals. (Ironic, isn’t it.) In contrast, Kunikida strives to heal the world and make it a better place just like the rest of the armed detective agency, but through harmless change. The biggest difference here is the azure king strives to fix imperfection by covering it up with more imperfection whilst Kunikida holds himself as high as he needs perfection or close enough to fix imperfection. Both of their ideals are so strong it controls their life and how they act, if Kunikida were to “change his ideals” it would be extremely difficult.

For example, his hope for change in Dazai. That’s a bit less serious though, since he’s just a pain in his ass.

6. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND ; WHY IT’S ODD.

The only thing we know about the azure kings backstory is he graduated at the top of his class from an elite educational institution. Similar to Kunikida, we barely know anything about him, except that he taught math in the past. Besides that, he doesn’t really talk about his past. I think it’s more than that, but this isn’t about his past. My point is, we don’t get much about people's educational knowledge on other characters, so it struck me as odd both of them had it mentioned, especially a terrorist. Who cares??

7. MY OPINION ; CONCLUSION. 

In my opinion, the way Kunikida is in general is the opposite of him being the azure king, while they both are idealist’s, Kunikida is very against murder, as can be seen when he gets mad at Dazai when he lends his gun over.

Or when he hugs a child with bombs strapped to her even while they go off. Sacrificing his life for a child? And his strong ideals against murder? It’s just very contradicting. There’s also contradictions in the plot of bungou stray dogs itself if this were to be the case, why is Kunikida always in the ADA? If he were the azure king he would need to be other places, and how would he have survived the explosion? The azure king, what the characters come down to, is a contrast to Kunikida’s character, a path that he could’ve went past; a challenge he faces, and I think we do know more about Kunikida and what he struggled with than just the eye surface, which is this. I also believe that the azure king is a mix between Kunikida and Dazai which is absolutely perfect because it’s about the beauty of the new partner Dazai has earned, whilst shining light on Kunikida’s character. The azure king did reckless things, he was suicidal, as Sasaki had said, “Every time he got up, he was knocked back down… he simply had enough. He lost his away, unable to realize his ideals, so he tried to… kill himself.” while also living for his ideals, like Kunikida. 

Thank you for reading this really long blog, if you want to discuss this more feel free to! You may also leave some other theory's in my questions box and I’ll try my best to respond. <3

[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.

[whathorselegs]

I think one of my favourite character journeys in BSD has to be Kunikida learning to be better with kids because you'd expect it to be a fun wholesome character arc. Only, it ends up being heart breaking as it's immediately turned against Kunikida.

Despite the 'Dad status' that the fandom has given Kunikida, he was actually terrible with kids towards the start of the manga.

Take how he treated Atsushi in the first chapter. (Yes, Atsushi is not a little kid, but he was a starving and vulnerable orphan when they met.) When Kunikida and Dazai mention the 'man-eating tiger' Atsushi immediately freaks out and tries to run away.

What does Kunikida do? He grabs Atsushi, slams him to the floor and then threatens to break his arm for information.

It's Dazai of all people who has to reign Kunikida in reminding him "The boss himself warned you that the gathering of intelligence needn't be an interrogation". Dazai was the sweet talker and Kunikida was threat, even to a terrified, starving orphan.

Later with Kyouka, he's not much better. He attempts to intimidate her into giving the agency information. Whilst Atsushi now fulfils the role of the gentle approach. She's a mafia assassin after all, even if he knows she had no choice in it, Kunikida treats her as a threat before he treats her as a child.

Even with Aya, the interaction that gave Kunikida his 'dad status', he started off badly. But, it is here we start to see Kunikida trying to be better, trying to take a softer approach, even if he's clumsy with it.

When he realizes Aya was just handed a bomb, he snatches it from her and gets rid of it. That can't be helped it was a literal ticking time bomb, he then phones the authorities to deal with it. He was planning to leave, it's only because he caught sight of Aya sitting alone did he approach her. It wasn't his first instinct.

If he hadn't seen her in that moment, he might not have gone looking for her at all.

He asks her if she's alright and then she shocks him by wanting to hunt down the culprit. He rightfully tries to dissuade her, but again, he's not good with kids, he's blunt and argumentative with her.

Obviously, that's not going to convince a kid with a hero complex to not chase the bad guy.

However, his turning point, in my opinion, is when he realizes he has to choose between Aya and the people on the train. Now, he had already set off the stun grenade and is putting all his faith in Yosano finding them. He trusts her so he knows they are most likely going to be okay.

But Aya doesn't know that and he can't explain it all in the time they have. He sees a child who thinks she's about to die and is trying to be brave about it. And Kunikida comforts her. He needs her to know that she's not alone, that she's not going to suffer, that he is with her and he hugs her.

There was no need for him to step into that explosion with Aya except to comfort her. He chose to do that. Above his own life, he chose her needs.

And that's where this journey starts to get heartbreaking, because Kunikida hadn't always been like this. He was obviously always going to try and protect children, his ideals state as much, but he also didn't believe himself to be a hero. He doesn't see himself as someone capable or even worthy of that role.

So he built up a barrier around himself that made him harsher and more callous. He called it a professional detachment. He had to, it was to protect himself, to keep his sanity in those moment when they couldn't save everyone. Now it's breaking down and he's showing more and more how much he cares.

And it's immediately used against him.

The very scenario that got him to open up is placed in front of him again. A child with a bomb around their throat. Only this time Yosano isn't there, and this time Fyodor is orchestrating it.

And Kunikida does everything right. He tells Atsushi to leave and carry on the mission so he can stay and help the child. He gets on the child's level, makes himself small and none threatening. He reassures the child in gentle voice that everything will be okay.

And then, it's the line "How about a magic trick?" that really gets me, because he's trying so hard to present himself as someone trustworthy. And a magic trick is exactly what he pulled off with Aya, but it's what goes wrong here.

Because Fyodor planned it this time. He didn't just target children to get at Kunikida, he made a twisted mockery of what happened to Aya. Except she doesn't live this time and Kunikida can't bring this child any comfort or safety because Kunikida is the threat. This child dies alone and afraid because Kunikida was there, just like Fyodor planned.

Fyodor saw Kunikida bare his heart once and immediately reached in his chest and crushed it.

[alchemicon]

one of my favourite running themes in bsd, is the power of gay male partnership. like you and the guy you're psychosexually obsessed with can truly change the world. anyways happy pride month asagiri

[carbonateds-oda]

no bc the fact that kunikida didn’t say those words out loud kills me like imagine if dazai knew what he was thinking of him in that moment that even when he believed that dazai had been lying to him all along he still thought of him so fondly and I hate that the anime didn’t include him saying this at all cuz it rlly waters down their bond and just how quickly they connected which is exactly why so many skk fans insist that his partnership w kunikida doesn’t compare to the one he had w chuuya and why he’s seen as genuinely hating dazai when there was so many moments in that light novel just like that one that show that that isn’t the case and-

the drive thru worker: can you please just order already I’m fucking begging you

[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.

[originalartblog]

Dazai trying to pretend to be a nobody who knows nothing so his new colleague won't be too suspicious of him during his entrance exam is hilarious

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Reminder that the Dazai's Entrance Exam audiobook comes out tomorrow! It's narrated by Patrick Seitz, Kunikida's English dub voice actor!

Here are all the places you can buy it:

Barnes & Noble

Audible

Google Play

Apple Books

Libro.fm

[the-port-mafia]

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅? 𝑪'𝒎𝒐𝒏, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒔.

[originalaccountname]

everyone should read Dazai's Entrance Exam (the original Azure Apostle/Messenger arc) because the amount of changes they made when adapting the plot to fit it into 2 episodes in the present instead of the past cannot be covered without basically doing a full recap of the entire book.

The intrigue is built around the uncertainty of who the Azure Apostle is. Not in a "who could this person be?" way, but in a "oh no, could the azure apostle really be Dazai testing the ADA's limits?" way.

Dazai tagging along Kunikida during the investigation is his entrance exam. There is no trust established yet. Everyone is on edge. Dazai seems to know more than he should, but never shares. Fukuzawa gave Kunikida a gun and told him to shoot Dazai dead if Dazai turns out to be bad news and a danger to the ADA and the city.

You as the reader know Dazai will join the ADA. If you watched the anime you know the big lines and how things end. Or do you, really? So many things are different in this version, is the ending gonna be the same? Your knowledge barely settles your nerves.

Read it. It's good. It's honestly among Asagiri's best in terms of plot structure and foreshadowing. It's an actual mystery. You will like it.

[kunikiiida-kuuun]

Teruma as Kunikida Doppo

[arangora]

Google doc with all the bungo stray dogs links :

Contains:

-All the light novels

-All the mangas and spin offs (gaiden, beast, wan ect)

-beast live action

-anime s1-4

-welcome to the hot springs CD

-stage play

-official art archive

Note : most of these are illegal websites and might have dangerous files, I do check these every once in a while but I might miss some. If you have the links to anything missing please send it my way so I can add it 💗 have fun reading / watching!!

[gay-snufkin]

what a great time to remind myself that if only they animated dazai's entrance exam properly like it deserved, kunikida and kndz would have a lot more fans

[lotus-pear]

guys stop asking me for bsd fic recs, i will tell u to go read the light novels

[twixcrush]

"I'm a top" "I'm a bottom" Okay???? You were so talented???? I couldn't have asked for a better partner????