#i'm *so* pleased w/ this adaptation so far y'all

[liyazaki]

are you sure?

CHERRY MAGIC [TH] | EPISODE 2

[mossy-rot]

Long post time! been reading and I'm sure someone has talked about this before but. Does Dazai's characterization unnerve anyone else when put in context of the real Osamu Dazai.

I would like to preface this saying this isn't like, a callout post or saying that "you should stop watching/reading BSD because it's problematic and the author should be cancelled!!!!" so don't get yourself all in a bunch if you don't like the post (I've seen y'all with ships, it gets hella ugly). I myself am going to continue watching BSD despite my feelings in this post just because I enjoy the show- if something was going to get me to stop watching it would've been Naomi or Mori lol but I digress.

I'll need to do some research to see if Sango Harukawa has any specific reasoning, if they do this with the other characters and their reference authors, etc but upon reading No Longer Human and reading in depth about Osamu Dazai's life it's all so.. unsettling, choice-wise. I'm most likely predicting the choice was made due to No Longer Human being the second best selling novel of all time in Japan, which I'm hoping is the case and they just made an uneducated choice in poor taste. Again, I'll need to do more research.

I'll be brief but if you want a very in depth explanation about the book and author you can find that here (although I recommend the video if you can handle the topics anyway, it's a great essay). However I cannot stress enough that this needs a massive TW for many things- and that includes this post. If you know anything about No Longer Human, you know that it is extremely haunting and dark. I do not use that lightly. so if you can't deal with mentions of things like: suicide and/or suicidal thoughts, violence against women, child abuse, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse, please skip this post and the video.

But in brief, the story, which is a partial autobiography about Osamu, it follows someone with a disturbed point of view- he doesn't feel desires or normal emotions as others do, he has a very different way of viewing the world that most don't get. Because of this, he grows terrified of people as a whole- more specifically, their desires, and what they're willing to do to achieve those desires. This is brought to light particularly early when he is abused- physically, emotionally, and sexually- by his father's servants as a child. Many events occur, including multiple unsuccessful suicide attempts- both alone and double suicides with lovers, all of whom do not survive. He slowly picks up a drinking problem along the way, as well as a drug addiction to morphine. This isn't a very coherent explanation, of course, but it's a gist.

Bringing it back to the real person- many of these things reflected into his own life. And although No Longer Human ended with the main character disappearing into an indifferent life, this was not the case with Osamu Dazai, who, one month later, was found having committed suicide with his mistress, Tomai.

So the choice for Dazai to be very suicidal, attempting often, trying to convince women to do a double suicide with him, and for this to be all played as a joke and inconvenience to the main cast- minus Atsushi- especially with Dazai's implied issue with alcohol (although this can be overlooked)- is... unsettling. Something about choosing such a broken and haunting book, and an equally broken author- it just doesn't sit right with me. I would forgive it if his behavior was more crucial to the main plot, or if it was far less prominent, but it's almost always the end of a joke. This is less of an issue in later seasons which is nice, but for me it always leaves this undeniable sour taste in my mouth whenever I think about it.

I love Dazai, I do, but it's a weird choice when you read the book. I had only watched a few episodes whenever I had picked up Junji Ito's adaptation not knowing that it was so, and was taken back by just how dark it was. I delved further, and it just got worse from there. It was a pretty violent shock when I realized that the anime I just started watching had a character by the same name of the author of this horrifying story. This is more a ramble than anything, and if anyone has anything to add or any more info to clear this up or add context please do! I've only watched BSD and haven't listened to much outside of it. I'd love to see some discussions about this.

[artswaps]

*unfollows all the blogs barfing “langst” on my dash*