#dazai osamu's entrance exam

[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.

[kunikiiida-kuuun]

Teruma as Kunikida Doppo

[redacted4life]

I think about this light novel a bit too much..... my friends are probably annoyed by the amount of time I mentioned it in conversations.

So here are some of my favourite scenes, there will be spoilers

Fukuzawa! that all I have to say, this...I'm lost for word, it such a powerful scene and should have been in the anime (im mourning)

Idk I just love how casual this sounds

Let there be light - Doppo Kunikida 2014

and then later in the novel.....

Dazai will never let this go

This whole scene is really good, like Ranpo knows and Dazai know he knows, this silence stare and then Ranpo okay cool, he could of spilled the bean but nah he's above that. - written by a Ranpo fan

WORDS COULD NOT EXPLAIN HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS SCENE. THIS WAS WHY I READ THE LIGHT NOVEL. WE COULD BE HERE ALL DAY AS I EXPLAIN WHY DAZAI ENTRANCE EXAM WAS DONE DIRTY IN THE ANIME (still love the anime)

Dazai being 'huh how do you use a gun kunikida??? I never used this in my life before' is so silly

Idk why but that fact that kunikida, a man who is so strict on following schedules and doing work literally not being to even leave bed just hurt me so much. is it obvious that I like kunikida character?

[leniisreallycool]

Fukuzawa: "Hey this guy is totally sus but I'm obligated to hire him. Kill him if he's secretly evil"

Kunikida: "Yeah okay seems legit"

[hanashiz]

"She twirls in her white kimono like a flower petal fluttering in the wind. Then, just like a marionette cut from its strings—"

[matchboxartist]

the entrance exam light novel is just a blond bisexual disaster giving a suicidal man a vibe check and i love that

[annemariearcher]

Reading Dazai Osamu's Entrance Exam for the first time...

Fukuzawa: "So, if it turns out Dazai is evil"—hands Kunikida a gun—"just go ahead and shoot him."

Kunikida:

[lady-shadow-and-darkness]

I just thought of a new poll idea for the BSD fandom, so let's go.

If possible, leave your reason as to why in the tags or replies.

[hanchouu]

dazai stop getting shot in the head by your partner challenge (impossible)

[allbuthuman]

i wish we'll actually see this (dazai would be happy he lost the bet and kunikida would've forgotten there was a bet)

[kunikiiida-kuuun]

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Dazai and Kunikida learn the truth about the Azure Apostle incident.

These scenes turned out longer than expected so I had to upload them separately. I've had lots of fun creating subs for the stage play. Please enjoy watching these intense (and emotional) scenes from the play!

[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.

[hanashiz]

KuniSaki 💔

[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