#sorry if you’re looking for stuff on the irl author! this ain’t it

[rainbowplussome]

on dazai’s backstory

okay so!! one of the most prominent mysteries of bungou stray dogs is dazai's backstory prior to his and mori's assassination of the previous boss. i've seen tons of speculation on it, and i thought i'd chip in with my personal thoughts and deductions! please note that for this analysis i'll be using wattpad user darkestjay8686's interpretation of the fifteen light novel, as i do not speak japanese nor have access to the original fifteen light novel. any alterations done to this translation are for ease of understanding (for example, changing "the hand of chuuya" to "chuuya's hand"). any and all of these changes are purely the result of personal preference and are not at all meant to either change the meaning of the passage or insult darkestjay8686. seeing as, once again, i do not speak japanese, i am operating under the assumption that this translation conveys the original intent as well as can be expected. for verification of certain quotes, i cross-checked @looking-for-stray-dog's excerpts of the novel.

with all of those disclaimers out of the way, let's get down to it!

1. on mori and dazai

there has been a lot of discussion on mori and dazai's relationship, and most of what needs to be said has been said. maybe i’ll discuss some things that i feel are often overlooked in a separate post! still, put briefly in a disorganized list, because formatting on tumblr is difficult:

when dazai and mori met, dazai "was nothing more than an attempted suicide patient."

dazai was already suicidal when he came under mori's care.

whatever "broke" dazai happened before mori (assuming that dazai's detached behavior comes from a place of trauma in addition to possible mental/personality disorders).

dazai served as witness shortly after to mori's assassination of the former boss.

mori did not know dazai intimately before PB's demise.

mori remarks that he underestimated dazai's darkness and wisdom, implying that he hadn't known dazai well enough previously in order to gauge these things.

we also know that dazai "was not a subordinate of Mori, nor of the mafia…[nor was] he…an illegitimate child, an orphan mori had picked up, or a medical assistant." their meeting is described as a "fateful encounter."

another interesting thing is that it takes a year for dazai to drop the childish mask we see him keep up around mori, seeing as this scene is where mori realizes that he's made a "miscalculation."

2. on the previous boss and dazai

dazai likely knew the previous boss on a personal level.

A distorted, crimson haze emerged from the other side of the subspace, and a figure appeared.

"There... there is a nostalgic face. Hey, brat... are you in good health? Have you been bullied by the doctor?"

It was the old boss floating in the air, wearing a traditional, black robe.

"Hey, there." Dazai smiled stiffly. "It's been a while. How's your back pain? Your complexion is looking nice. Wasn't it a good thing you died? Boss—no, previous boss."

this implies that the previous boss (thus abbreviated as PB) knows dazai, despite being clearly insane and severely ill in the one moment where we know dazai was present.

see: "nostalgic face"—PB views dazai as someone he's known long enough to view as nostalgic.

see: "brat"—PB views dazai with disdain. as he was clearly not in his right mind during the one time he and dazai are undeniably in a room together, i doubt he even realized dazai was there, and definitely not well enough to actually remember his face.

see: "are you in good health?"—we know for a fact that dazai attempted suicide at age fourteen (though we do not know if this was his first attempt). may indicate that PB is aware of dazai's attempt. >>could also just be a generic greeting that i'm reading into. who knows?

see: "have you been bullied by the doctor?"—the term "the doctor" indicates a sense of familiarity; PB does not need to specify further. this means that PB knows that dazai is in mori's care, or at least in regular contact with him. >>please note that it is unclear how much knowledge PB has of the outside world in death. >>furthermore: while this is more of an interpretational piece of evidence, the phrasing here comes across as mocking. PB is bitter that dazai was complicit in his assassination. one would not be bitter in such a way unless they felt somehow betrayed.

see: "dazai smiled stiffly."—possibly invalid due to translational errors and liberty, but dazai is capable of keeping his cool even in the most dire of circumstances. to intentionally mention that his smile is stiff could indicate one of two things: one, that dazai is pretending to be uncomfortable on purpose, or two, that dazai is honestly uncomfortable and stressed and is attempting to disguise this. as the first does not make sense in this particular situation, the latter must be true. >>please note that dazai was already out of his comfort zone in this scene, as the previous events had clearly taken him by surprise. make of that what you will.

see: "how's your back pain? your complexion is looking nice."—all imply that dazai knew both a) the exact issues of PB's illness, and b) how PB looked before said illness severely affected him, or at least knew him in illness long enough to draw an accurate comparison. >>could also just be generic mocking, as dazai at least knew that PB was in poor health. not necessarily indicative of further knowledge.

see: "wasn't it a good thing that you died?"—this can be taken a multitude of ways, but the way i initially interpreted it is that dazai has a personal opinion on the way PB was running the port mafia. in this interpretation, "good thing" is being applied for the people. however, dazai is explicitly amoral. so what could this mean? dazai may be saying that it is a "good thing" in a purely business sense. maybe he was projecting his own suicidal tendencies onto PB. maybe he was saying that it's what PB would have wanted in his right mind. no particular conclusions to draw here, but i thought it was worth analyzing.

see: "boss—no, previous boss."—dazai instinctually refers to PB as "boss." if he had not frequently referred to him this way in the pass, he would not have made the freudian slip. the correction, too, gives his words a certain level of mocking. you were the boss, but you're not anymore. dazai must have known PB or known of PB long enough to both form an opinion on him and to view him as "the boss."

conclusion: it makes the most sense that dazai knew the boss on a personal level.

thus begs the question: if dazai referred to PB as "boss," why was he not already a part of the mafia? multiple theories:

dazai was a part of the mafia, but mori simply didn't know and dazai did not correct him. extremely unlikely, as dazai says that being in the mafia might be worth a try, which means he hadn't tried it previously, as well as hirotsu claiming that dazai is "unrelated to the mafia."

dazai performed some other duty for PB separate from mafia duties.

dazai was PB's son/ward, and "boss" was what PB insisted he be called.

however: dazai was asked to join the sheep when he was young ("a long time ago" when he was fifteen). as far as we know (or can ever expect to know), the sheep exclusively recruit "down-on-their-luck" youth or homeless kids. this means that dazai must have been defined as one of the two at some point. with our two remaining conclusions (the first having been crossed off an account of unlikelihood), we can justify this in two ways:

if dazai performed some other duty separate from the mafia under PB, it gives him ample time to have a life outside the mafia. we do not know enough to speculate on what that life may have been, just that he was likely homeless at some point when he was very young.

if dazai was PB's son/ward, he must have either run away at some point or simply been out and about enough for the sheep to mistake him as homeless or "down on his luck."

either conclusion is equally likely, and thus equally unlikely!

hence, undeniable conclusions (tl;dr):

knew PB prior to his death.

did not know mori very well, if at all.

traumatized before he and mori assassinated PB (assuming his behavior and outlook is a result of trauma in combination with a personality/mental disorder).

at some point was frequently on the streets.

even if you disagree with these conclusions, please be kind! feel free to add anything if you think there's something i overlooked/misinterpreted.