they/them (I am a minor!!) Welcome to my personal blog where I mostly yap about BSD right now… I also like writing, world building, and media analysis tho!
244 posts
This ^^^
[So a large portion of this is left over from when I was revising sociology for my alevels, which were done over a month ago now (wow). So I hope there's people out there who find this interesting, it's nice to post this since it goes back to my roots of what started me on tumblr in the first place (sociological analysis, but of MTP). Also this has Stormbringer spoilers.]
Sociologists agree that childhood is a social construct (a concept in society with no fixed definition). The definition of childhood changes depending on culture and time, so it is not universal or 'natural'. Bungo Stray Dogs portrays a definition of childhood much different to many of our own cultures, and part of its presentation is something I want to look into.
The main idea to look at is Jane Pilcher's idea of 'separateness' - childhood as a clear and distinct stage of life in which children are considered physically and psychologically incompetent and unable to run their own lives. This idea of separateness often leads to childhood being considered a 'golden age' of play and having a lack of responsibility. In BSD, the idea of childhood as a separate stage is not as clear - many children 16 or under are seen working in (or looking for) employment much like adults would do. For example, in Stormbringer Shirase (who is 16) works in a car factory, Yosano at age 11 is said to work in a confectionery store (we don't know if this was family owned or not though), and Ranpo in Untold Origins (aged 14) looking for a job when he meets Fukuzawa. With this information we can gather that children have to take the responsibility of work from a younger age than many cultures (for instance where I lived children have to be in education until 18) and that from as young as 11 they are able to employment.
Consider the other children present - the Akutagawa siblings living on the streets for many years without parents or financial support, Kyouka and Q (as well as teenagers like Dazai and Chuuya) being part of the mafia from a young age, Kenji in his village, Chuuya and Mary Wollstonecraft in Stormbringer, and Atsushi living in the orphanage. All of these have different notions of childhood attached to them.
The Akutagawa siblings learnt to support themselves from a young age. Their group of fellow homeless children act as proof of a wide child poverty issue, one which represent the effects of a lack of child welfare support by the government or the effects of the many casualties in the Great War (leaving many without parents). The lack of child welfare support may show a general lack of the idea of separateness, since specialist support for children is not available.
The abundance of children in the mafia, especially those who reach the higher ranks of executives like Dazai and Chuuya by the age of 16, show a distinct lack of recognition of childhood as a separate stage. Those who are children don't seem to be treated much differently to the adults, which is especially apparent in Q and Kyouka's missions (where Kyouka in her first mission we see being considered disposable by the mafia).
Kenji's childhood on paper seems the closest to many farming cultures in our world. He works on a farm from a young age, as many people in his village and in real life farming families do. The recruitment of him to the detective agency however, suggests that (despite his youth) his ability makes him fit for the job. This somewhat leads on to the idea that children with abilities are seen as more mature and subjected to more adult activities and topics from a younger age, with their allowance of separateness smaller than that of non-ability user children.
A few other Stormbringer examples - Mary Wollstonecraft is only 10 years old as of Stormbringer, and yet she is working for the European governments and making robot agents for them. Young children working for governments is a clear example of a lack of separation between child and adult. Another, and arguably much worse example, is Chuuya and Verlaine - both experimented on by scientists/the government and infused with singularities via force. Chuuya is also canonically cloned. Verlaine and Chuuya, in their experimentation, are not treated much differently, despite Verlaine being an adult and Chuuya being around 5 at the time of his kidnapping/start of experimentation. This suggests a lack of seperateness yet again. There is a lot more that could be said about the whole 'cloning/made into a weapon' part of their story, but this is not the post for that.
A more recent one - Teruko. Because of her unique ability to change her age means that within the first few months of her life she was forced to fight in war. She's actually forced to bypass her own childhood for the war effort, and therefore her childlike demeanour during the Decay of Angels arc may be to try and harness what she missed out on. Her ability in itself could also play into the 'old age is a social construct' argument too maybe but again, not the post.
Atsushi's childhood in an orphanage at first seems to match the ideas of childhood as a separate stage dependent on others. The purpose of orphanages is to raise children without parents and help them prepare for the world, but Atsushi's experiences of abuse shows that his ability, to the orphanage director, makes him undeserving of this separate stage. Instead he is abused and eventually kicked out with no real support. This being able to go on unchecked alongside the other examples brings me to my conclusion about the definition of childhood in Yokohama/the surrrounding villages/possibly the world are not being considered a separate 'golden age' to the same standards as our world.
As mentioned earlier, children who are ability users are less likely to have this construct of seperateness include them. In sociology, labels and constructs are assigned by people and society, and so in this universe there are many adults who have removed this construct from ability users' lives in their childhood. Yosano is the clearest example of this - Mori takes her away from her experience of childhood and places her in a war zone, where she, despite being 11 years of age, is treated like an adult and (because of her ability) is placed on a pedestal by the solders. She's stripped of her childhood through not only the standards placed upon her, but the trauma she endures in the war zone - leaving her to spend what remained of her childhood in a psych ward until Fukuzawa is able to take her in.
Ability user children, via circumstances or adult intervention, do not get to experience childhood in the way other children do because that label is stripped away from them. This is most usually because they pose some asset to an organisation or campaign - and this can include the ADA too. Just because the ADA offers a more healthy and safer environment for the children than other organisations, it is still putting children into work and treating them the same as adults. How ethical this is, is in itself another question that I don't think I can give an answer to. But I could honestly talk about how ability user children are treated differently in a whole other essay.
[I do not have much else to say now about this specific area but it's probably better to post than just to let sit in the drafts as it has done for a while. So no proper conclusion sorry.]
Hello, 👋
My name is Abdul Rahman and I am from Gaza 🇵🇸. The war destroyed my life. I lost my home, my job, my education, and my ability to support my family. My family and I suffered serious injuries.😔
I am desperately asking for your help to protect my family, evacuate them from Gaza, and continue my studies and work abroad.
Your donation of just €10 can make a huge impact on our lives and help ensure the safety of my family. My campaign is verified, and you can ask for any details to confirm my story. I promise I'm a real needy person and not a robot or a scammer.
Please consider donating and sharing our story. "My family is waiting and needs your donations." 🙏🙏
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.
This lovely person has reached out and their account is vetted! So if you could donate even just a little it would help them out immensely!! I wish you best of luck on hitting your goal!
Don’t be like Ranpo, kids.
ASAGIRI. TELL US HOW JOUNO BECAME BLIND AND MY LIFE IS YOURS.
thinking about how stormbringer makes a point to emphasise dazai being unpredictable and no one knowing how he works or what hes thinking. even adam, who is a literal robot with predictive analysis shit going on, cant figure out what dazai is doing. but chuuya looks him straight in the eye, says, "I know how you work." and proceeds to nail exactly what dazais thinking with almost no indication of it at all.
My partner and I are having a debate over this so I just want to know what you all have to say
(Click here for Part 2).
(06/19/2024)
Divider by: @cafekitsune
“what if kids identify with something and it ends up just being a phase-?” good. stop teaching and expecting kids (and adults honestly) to formulate permanent traits and ideas of themselves. everything in life is a phase. that doesn’t make it any less legitimate while you experience it. let people explore themselves and know it’s okay if what you think about yourself changes.
Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is pretty Young Fukuzawa is-
Maybe I am reading too far into things, but I was just rewatching bsd season 3, and something stood out to me.
In this scene, Chuuya refers to the Sheep as children when telling Dazai not to kill them.
It’s the fact that he calls them children as if he is not a child himself.
Yes, there probably are people younger than him in the Sheep, but he is not exclusively talking about those kids. He is talking about the Sheep as a whole.
He didn’t say, “leave them out of this” or “don’t kill my friends” or even “don’t kill the Sheep” or anything else.
It is straight proof that Chuuya has had to put himself in a role of protecting others. Much like a parent, or older sibling. He’s had to force himself to grow up faster. He doesn’t get to be a kid.
And he’s far from the only one.
Dazai too, calls them kids. Dazai too, when he first meets Chuuya, calls him a kid.
In fact, as far as I know, Dazai is the only one who ever points out how young Chuuya is. (Again, I could be wrong, and if I am, please correct me.)
And Chuuya is the same in return; he also sees Dazai as a kid.
They see each other as kids when they do not see themselves as kids. And that’s probably why they can act like the stupid, petty teens they are when they’re around one another.
When one falls out and tries to act like the other is below them for being a kid, the other simply reminds them (often rather aggressively) that they are also a kid.
It’s a reminder I’m sure they both need.
Sometimes I just think it would be so funny if they actually gave the BSD characters creaky, high pitched teenage voices for the sequences where they are young teens.
Can you imagine Dazai trying to say some edgy shit and he has a voice crack? Or suddenly their voices sound much deeper in one episode?
Honestly I really think it would help hammer home just how young these characters are as well. Like-these children are not okay please get them some help.
“Is it okay if I draw fanart of your fanfic?👉🏼👈🏼”
My brother in Christ we shall have a spring wedding
If we as a fandom are going to yap endlessly about Chuuya, can we at least acknowledge the fact that when this man uses corruption he moves around like a literal cryptid goblin thing?
Why he jump like that?
What are you, a skinwalker?
It’s worse in the manga y’all.
Yea no, this is spooky behavior.
This art is literally adorable we don’t see enough sleepy Chuuya in this world
sleepy heads ♡
I feel like a vampire or something wrote this. But also, they might be onto something.
"immortality sucks because all your friends die" all your friends die anyway. those we do not mourn are those who mourn us.
"immortality sucks because you forget who you are" we always forget who we are. do you remember who you were at four years of age? who you were at fourteen? "who i am" is a shadow cast on the wall.
"immortality sucks because" skill issue. skill issue. skill issue. give me your liver
ive found that partially treated mental illness can sometimes look to uninvolved onlookers like faked mental illness.
Yes y’all I know I’ve hardly written any but I’m cooking right now I swear
YESSSSS
This person reached out for help, and I am here to help spread their message. I wish you best of luck on gaining support!
My Family
The Beginning of the Crisis
Daily Challenges
hope and Prayer
A Call to Humanity
Thank you,
Being a former evemy of the Port Mafia must've made Chuuya's early years as a member a little awkward.
Mori: Excellent work as always Chuuya.
Chuuya: Thank you Boss.
Mori: Although, I am intrigued by how it is you knew about that particular blind spot in our security.
Chuuya: Ex King of the Sheep... I'm gonna need you to be cool with a bunch of stuff real quick before I explain.
I have a three (3) month cat called Soba and he is a menace. He has opinions about everything he must make known to me at all times and he complains when he cannot properly sprawl out on top of me. He also really likes digging and burrowing for some reason?
He is my idiot son and I love him
desperately need to know about peoples’ pets. please tell me about your pets.
My family is still staying in half of the church that wasn’t affected by the bombing because there is nowhere else to stay other than tents. They are limited to one small meal a day and one shower a week. They are sleeping on the floors, but no one can sleep since there is bombing everywhere around them. Even when there is no bombing, they can still hear the loud buzzing sound of the military planes above them, which would keep anyone who hears it awake. Along with everything, My grandma has diabetes and osteoporosis, so she can’t walk. She has to take her insulin medication along with many others; however, she has run out of many of her medications.” Am on my knees requesting for donation. Target $450
The account here is vetted and verified, so please, if you have the means please donate!!
I hope you manage to reach your goals and help your family!
I know for sure that you can't help all families from Gaza that want to be evacuated from here but at least you can help those who come across your life. You have no idea how mentally and emotionally tiring this is. Asking for help is not easy. But when thinking that the price is my family's life and getting out of here safely, it just pushes me more and more to do this until i reach my goal, be able to attend my university abroad and achieve my doctoral degree dream after awarding prestigious PhD fellowship. Please donate and share to support us standing at this hard time. https://gofund.me/d597b8e2
I give best of wishes on reaching your goal and bettering your life!
Please if you come across this and have the ability, please, please donate.
Hello guys
I am Rozan Ayman Fathi, 24 years old
I ask you to read these lines and help me so that I can save my family
Consisting of 7 individuals
I live with my beloved family in the Gaza Strip, specifically in Gaza City. When the war began, we were displaced from our dear home and dearest to my heart to tents in the city of Rafah (we do not know whether it is still standing or whether it was demolished by bombings and shelling). We were always moving from one shelter to another seeking shelter. For protection, and when Rafah was invaded, we were displaced and moved again to tents in Mawasi Khan Yunis. We were very tired, especially my mother, as she is sick with diabetes and gallstones.
Life in a tent is torment, pain, and oppression, a life without the minimum necessities of life, where there is no bedding, no flooring, sand surrounds you from all sides, no sanitary facilities, no water, whether for bathing or cleaning, and no drinking water. There are no detergents. Canned food is scarce and of poor quality
We miss fresh food,
Very high temperatures inside and outside the tent
The spread of dangerous infectious diseases, insects, toxic organisms, and other difficult matters of life, in addition to the danger of bombing and death that lurks around us every minute..
https://www.tumblr.com/rozanallidawi/755540158900846592/donate-to-in-you-we-hope-to-escape-from-the?source=share
From crisis:
to help my family evacuate in Gaza, organized by rozan Ayman
Hello everyone , My name is rozan Ayman.
I am,24 years old . needs your support for From crisis:to help my family evacuate in Gaza.
Hey everyone, this lovely person reached out, and I unfortunately have no money to give but I can spread the word. It would mean a lot to Rozan if you could donate or further share so they can reach someone who can!!!
And then he tumbled to the floor....hehe
Yeah, so fast sketch
These people are just as important.
Please oh great citizens of tumblr.com, bestow upon me your BSD headcanons
This is an emergency actually
"Report: 2.5 millions Sudanese could die from starvation by September."
The RSF -a genocial militia- is mass starving Sudanese people. They are cutting off or denying food access to many through inflation of necessities and it's beyond horrific to see.
This is 5% of the population, and extends to interrelated issues. It has also been reported that roughly 80% of Sudanese people are not able to farm their lands adequately. So please continue to keep eyes on Sudan. Educate yourself, stay informed, and continue to share and donate to GFM's of Sudanese families. I post them on my page as I see them here, as well as when I come across them elsewhere. And as always, free Sudan.
Higuchi: I sleep with a gun under my pillow. Gin: I sleep with a knife. Dazai: You two are pathetic. Gin: Oh, yeah? What do you sleep with? Dazai: Chuuya
We could create a list of things bones robbed us of.
Like Fukuzawa claiming Kyouka is his granddaughter to hide her from the police and people actually believing him.
Bones robbed us of Dazai literally laughing out loud at Chuuya's rich girl act.