#oda dark era

[little-blurry-stars5]

what if...... oda and ango were dogs... and so was akutagawa and chuuya....and say......dazai....was betting on losing dogs...... because.....everything he never wants to lose...............is always lost.......

[shrimpkini]

*Tragic trio mentioned*

[sorcerersandskillusers]

Oda: if I had a nickel for every time I had to carry an injured teen with gunshot wounds wearing a long black coat and threatening to kill me, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[frenchonionsoop]

"Dazai's expression as he placed a finger on his forehead and approached the enemy - that of a child about to burst into tears - remained burned into my eyes."

[i-eat-mold]

Do you ever think about whether Oda ever received a call in the middle of the night from Dazai? How Oda knew dazai was just too stubborn to ask anyone for help. Maybe just once he was worried about the kid, he said ‘to call him if he ever needed him, he didn’t even have to tell him why, if dazai called him he’d go and get him, any time, anywhere’. How Dazai brushed it off with a joke, but one night Oda receives a call in the middle of the night and when he sees the caller ID his heart drops, and as promised, Oda gets in the car and speeds out to get Dazai without a single word needed to be spoken. Do you ever think about how many nights Oda might have lost sleep because he was worried about this kid? and how he’d never forgive himself if he needed him but he wasn’t awake to pick up his call? Do you ever think about how oda might have looked at this boy and thought “how can they not see he’s just a kid? How can they see him as a demon? As a monster? All I see is a scared, alone little kid. How can they not see this? How can they not think it’s inhumane to let him live in a literal metal container?” Ever think how he saw the empty eyes of this kid and wanted to take him in? Give him a warm meal? A hug? A real bed? Ever think how he must’ve felt knowing he was his only real friend, and how he must have felt when he was dying in this kids arms, this lonely, sad, messed up kids arms, leaving him behind? How he cared so deeply about this kid that his final words were to plea him to get out of that darkness, to seek light? Ever think about how proud he must be of this kid, now grown, for staying alive and taking in other lost children the way he wanted to take him in? Ever think of that?

[sunsetsushiii]

Dazaicopter

Yippee!!

[originalaccountname]

there is so much to unpack in such a little excerpt. This is from the exchange between Mori and Oda near the start of Dark Era.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Just Dazai ruffling Atsushi’s hair and hugging him, painfully aware his hands are forever stained with blood. And how someone so kind shouldn’t get so close to him. And then he remembers how Odasaku held his children close despite his own blood stained hands from a lifetime of being an assassin.

And Dazai holds Atsushi, holds the Agency just that bit closer because if Odasaku thought it possible they could change. That they deserved to hold the people they care about close, then he will too.

[nori-draws-sometimes]

the end of an era

[welivetodream]

Dazai, slamming his glass: why doesn't he love me, dammit!

Oda: maybe you should calm down a little; following him around and spying on him would come off as creepy to him.

Ango, massaging his temples: I have no idea how you haven't gotten arrested for spying!

Dazai: maybe because we are fucking criminals that work in the Mafia, Ango? I don't think Chuuya would report ME to the police of all people....

Oda: what if he reports you to the boss?

Dazai: the boss is the one who gave me the idea of spying on Chuuya to get his attention! He has been helping me all along!

Oda:......

Ango: that sounds like him.

*Meanwhile*

Chuuya: that idiot mackerel has been following me around for a week! Can you stop him?

Mori: interesting, have you thought of giving in and going out with him?

Chuuya: of course no----wait a minute! THAT'S your question? Shouldn't you stop that crazy ass behaviour?

Mori: I have decided to send you two on a joint mission to Hawaii....for a month.

Chuuya: huh? What will we do there? Have a honeymoon?

Mori:....

Chuuya: NOOOOO

[carbonateds-oda]

dazai having a self deprecation moment at lupin and joking abt not being human and ango is just awkwardly silent cuz he doesn’t know what to say to that while oda with complete sincerity is like “yes, exactly.”

ango is ofc like ?? what the fuck?? oda this kid looks up to u, don’t u think that’s a little cruel

but odas just been waiting for this moment cuz he’s like legit convinced that dazai is some kind of cat in human form

he just casually tells them this and ango is just staring at him in utter bewilderment and slowly starts sliding odas drink away from him while dazai and natsume side eye each other from where he’s laying next to dazai on the counter

[clickermp3]

this flopped on tiktok i fear 🙁

[sorcerersandskillusers]

Between Dazai calling Oda a "balm for the soul" to Mori and him giving Akutawaga a whole lecture about how he couldn't beat Oda in 100 years.

I love the mental image of Dazai just going into tangents about how great Oda is around other mafia members and them being completely baffled when they meet him, and he's like the most underwhelming person ever.

Mafioso: "Why does one of the top five executives never shut up about you?"

Oda: "I really don't know. He's been like that since I tied him to a bed and force-fed him porridge"

Mafioso: "YOU DID WHAT!?"

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Dazai Osamu and the Dark Era: the visual novel (a fan project)

On a whim, I've decided to finally just publicly release this project that I've had laying around for two years at this point, for Dazai's birthday today. It was originally made for my very dear friend @letmereachforthestars , when I first introduced her to the series and wanted her to be able to read my favorite BSD light novel in an easier-to-read format. You need a computer to be able to play. The details and links are under the cut:

If you've never played a visual novel before, it's basically a novel in the form of a video game. Text will appear line by line, one a time on the screen, and it will be accompanied by relevant background visuals, music, and sound effects, to make the reading experience more immersive, and more stimulating than just reading from a book. Some visual novels have actual gameplay elements to them, and some are just books and nothing else (oftentimes dating sims/choose-your-own-adventure novels), the latter of which this is. If you've played the mobile game Bungou Tales/Mayoi, the story sections of that game are basically mini visual novels.

This game was made with screenshots and music from the anime, sound effects from the anime and Bungou Tales and free sound effect online sources, as well as graphics and fonts and other assets from Bungou Tales and other official BSD art (particularly the official anime soundtrack cd covers). The script is taken entirely from the official Yen Press translation of Dark Era, with the exception of about two or three iconic lines that I used different translations of because I felt like they had more impact. Additionally, at the very, very end, I added on the original ending scene from the Dark Era stage play and wrote a few fanfic lines of my own to accompany it you can tell because they are very cringe and don't match Asagiri's writing style.

Before playing the game, there are a few very important things to keep in mind; PLEASE read all this:

I am not a professional in the slightest. I took some coding classes in high school, and have some photoshop skills (when it comes to the design elements of the menus), but for the most part the former wasn't much help here; this was my very first time ever using the Renpy engine, and I made this entirely from scratch. I used my knowledge of playing other visual novels to emulate the kinds of effects and timing that is typical for these games, and I think it turned out pretty well all things considered, but it's still very amateur. This is most evident in the sound effects. The sound effects have no volume consistency between them, and some of them, particularly the gun/battle sfx, can come on very suddenly and be loud. I highly, HIGHLY encourage going into the settings and turning down the sound effects volume (the music should be fine), so that you're not startled by certain sounds when they happen, and for a lengthy time. I wouldn't blame you if you decide to turn the sfx off entirely if's too distracting, honestly 🫠 I am no expert in sound files equalizing and making sound files loop seamlessly, so this was by far the most tedious and frustrating part of the process of making this for me. Hopefully it doesn't ruin the game or break immersion too much if you decide to leave them on (I hope you do, for the rain and clock sounds at least, but again I wouldn't blame you if you can't).

Dark Era is the most faithful light novel adaptation in the anime, but there are still a handful of scenes, mostly fight scenes, that got shaved down significantly. Because of this, there are numerous occasions where I had to simply linger on a black screen or the same screenshot for a long period of time, while tons and tons of narration happens, because there's simply nothing I can show to accompany said narration. This is not ideal, but unfortunately I didn't have much else of a choice in those instances, so I hope it's not too distracting. There are also a few instances of straight-up inconsistencies between the novel and the anime (ex. the fight between Oda and Akutagawa happens in the woods in the novel, but in the anime it's still right outside the art museum), so sometimes what you're reading won't quite match the screenshots I use. Fortunately it's never anything major, but it does happen.

There will sometimes be long, unchanging black screens. Don't worry, the game isn't broken; just wait long enough and it will continue.

Sometimes, a character will get cut off when speaking, and when that happens the dialogue will auto-force to the next line. If you didn't get a chance to see what was said before, check the text backlog/history (in the menu or the H key).

Last but not least, this game was made with the default text speed in mind. Meaning, that when it comes to certain specific scenes, the mood/tone of them, made up of the timing of music, transitions, sound effects, etc, all of it was arranged around the speed at which things progress when using the default text speed. I completely understand if you can't, but if at all possible, please try not to change the text to go too much faster or slower, especially faster, because certain scenes will lose a lot of impact otherwise. If you already know Dark Era, you probably have an idea of some of the scenes I'm referring to. At the very least, during the more high-stakes/intense scenes, please try to play through those all at once without stopping, for the greatest impact based on how I designed the game, and only pause/quit during the slower scenes. There are specific moments that I'm really proud of how they came out, and I'd like for them to have the maximum impact that I intended :') (also note that if you make the text appear instantly, the cut-off dialogue mentioned above simply will not appear at all, and you won't even know to look back for them, so please refrain from making the text instant at the very least)

Ignore the cringe sappy final message

...I think that's everything. With all that out of the way, here are the links for both PC and Mac:

Download the PC version

Download the Mac version

This was a passion project for me for a good many months back in 2022. It started out just as a gift for my friend, but in the end I was really satisfied with how it turned out, despite how tedious and frustrating it was to work on. I've been hesitant to share it with the fandom for all this time because I kinda doubt anyone would really be interested in something like this especially since it's not stormbringer or beast, but someone on discord who tried it told me that I should share it, so here it is. I'm sharing it not just because I'm proud of my work, but because Dark Era is a truly amazing light novel — underrated, in my opinion (yes, I said what I said) — and far better than the anime adaptation, as good as that is, and I want more people to read it. If reading the books is hard for you and you've never read Dark Era before, if I can help just one more person to read it with this, I'll be happy, and consider my job done. 💖

I so desperately want to make more of these visual novels for the other light novels, but sadly, some of them simply aren't possible thanks to how many scenes are missing from the anime, like with Entrance Exam in particular. I've also been waiting with vain, thin hope that Bungou Tales will eventually reach seasons 3 and 4, so I can use their Fifteen and Untold Origins title screens like I did here, if those ever exist. However, I'm also held back thinking about certain scenes that would require some redrawing/drawing additional details to match what's written in the novels. If anyone has any ideas on things I could do to possibly get around these issues, or just thoughts in general about how the other light novels might be tackled, or if you're an artist who can recreate the anime's style and takes commissions/knows someone who does, I'd absolutely love to hear from you! As well as any advice/help on how I can smooth out/improve this project here!

Anyway, sorry for the long wall of text. Thank you for reading all this, if you did, and if you do try the game, please let me know your thoughts; I crave any and all feedback. 💙✨

[i-eat-mold]

This looked very different in my head

[mackerel22]

Ango: They say partners can never be just friends. It's always sexual.

Dazai: *scoffs* That's dumb. Look at me and Chuuya. There's nothing sexual between us.

Oda:

Ango: