I Have A Theory About Why Chuuya Goes By His First Name, As Opposed To Most Other People. Because Even

I saw a video once that tried to claim that Chuuya accidentally became popular, and I actually laughed. Like no. Nobody gives a character a hat, gloves, red hair, and a choker without at least expecting they'd be popular. No one makes a character short, a wine lover, loud, and a Mafia executive if they didn't suspect they'd be popular. you don't make a character the ex partner to the other most popular character and have them bicker like children if you thought, "eh, no one cares about this guy." No one gives a character the power of gravity manipulation and the power to create black holes when they go feral if they thought, "yeah, pretty mid-tier character" NO ONE MAKES A CHARACTER JUMP OFF A PLANE AND FIGHT A DRAGON—

Ok so this isn't really stupid, but I do wonder if Dazai took the time to explore the world and people a bit.

Like Odasaku wants him to help people, but he's spent so much time entrenched in darkness, so he needs to start small by helping old ladies cross the street and listen to them talk about their grandkids.

Maybe he helped out at a school to learn a bit more about children.

Volunteered at a soup kitchen to observe those in need in a much different way than he's used to.

Would just sit in a park to watch parents playing with their kids, couples walking together, etc.

He's always said he wants to die, but this is different. Sort of like what he said about observing death up to close to understand what it truly means to live, but the opposite. Observing life up close to understand what it truly means to die.

And finding that maybe, he doesn't want that. Maybe, living in the light won't be so bad.

what's your stupid thing you think Dazai learned during his two years in hiding while keeping himself busy

I like to think that, the first time Dazai met Chuuya, he made fun of Chuuya's height without realizing from his position on the ground that he was only five centimeters taller. And when he did find out, he went "ah. well, in too deep to stop now, ima just go with it" and kept up the short jokes, despite the fact that they were practically the exact. same. height.

I know I already made a post about this, but I wanted to expound on it a bit, because I'm still obsessed with the idea of Dazai being a bad person on the good side, and Chuuya being a good person on the bad side.

Because in essence, the fact that Dazai's in the Agency helping people is because he's selfish, and Chuuya stayed with the Mafia because he's selfless. Contrary to what a lot of people say, Dazai didn't leave the Mafia for Odasaku. He never promised him, never said "I'll do it for you," never did it because Odasaku wanted him to be good. He did it for himself. Odasaku tells him that he'll always be alone, something Dazai fears and knows deep down, and asks what he's supposed to do now. Odasaku then gives him advice, tells him that being on the side that saves people will make his world a bit brighter, and so Dazai agrees to leave the Mafia for himself. And once Dazai agreed to this, then Odasaku says "Man lives to save himself..." Further cementing the idea that Dazai is doing this for his sake and his sake alone. He wants his own life to be better, and if helping people will make it a bit brighter, then he's willing to try doing that.

Chuuya, however, would never leave the Port Mafia because he's the opposite. He cares more about other people than he does his own self. From youth, he became the leader of a child gang in order to protect them, because he felt he was fulfilling his duty as someone with power to protect those who took him in. And even after they betray him, Chuuya still joins the Mafia in order to protect them. To protect the kids who just stabbed him in the back because he would never betray those who did good to him. And the Mafia did that. They took him in, gave him a place to live, a job, a purpose, a family. He actively seeks to make connections with those around him, and once they have his loyalty, it never leaves. In Stormbringer, the detective wanted him to betray the Mafia, and he wouldn't do it, yet later, when the detective dies, Chuuya mourns his death and the loss of opportunity for him to leave the Mafia. It shows that he did, in fact, wish to leave, but he never would. Because why would he hurt those around him who've done good to him? It's very obvious that he's selfless and self-sacrificial, as seen in Fifteen, Stormbringer (where he gave up ever knowing if he was human in order to protect the city), and Dead Apple where he risked his own life to protect the city. The fact that he's still with the Port Mafia, still actively being a bad person, is because he never would and never could leave them, and would do anything to protect them, no matter how bad they'd treat him. Because he cares more about others than his own happiness.

And it's because of that their dynamic is the way it is now. Dazai's one of "the good guys" and Chuuya's one of "the bad guys," but the lines become much more blurred when they're together. Who's the better person in the dynamic? Someone who's doing bad for others or doing good for himself? Either way, both are morally gray characters who blur the lines of morality when they're together.

I would say that bsd gets so many people into classic literature but to be fair I think it attracts the type of people who would get into it anyway and just needed an excuse.

If I had a nickel every time one of Dazai's partners shot him in the head leading to Dazai's "death" only for it to be an elaborate plot to fool the enemy that could only have been achieved with an insane amount of trust and a little bit of luck tbh-

I'd have two nickels.

Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

This is beautiful. Omg. I want to stare at this forever. What the heck??

you cannot save a past that you cannot remember...

but maybe you can learn and accept that it will always be a part of you… somewhere within.

close up shots :

Concept: After the Guild arc, the news wants to do a live interview with the people directly responsible for stopping the Moby Dick from crashing and saving the city.

AKA. Atsushi and Akutagawa

It takes a bit of deliberation on both parts, but the Agency and Mafia eventually agree, because they feel it will be good PR.

They both get trained, as well as doing some join practices, for how to speak on live tv and not sound like they want to kill each other.

On the actual day of the interview, Atsushi and Akutagawa are there on screen, Dazai and Chuuya are behind the camera to guide their respective orphan's and get them to smile more (or in Akutagawa's case, look a little bit less like he wants to murder the camera), and Mori and Fukuzawa are there as the leaders of the organizations.

So. Three generations of skk under roof while the tv is live? What could possibly go wrong?

(hint the answer is everything)

I really like how the unwritten message of Beast is that anyone could become anyone given the circumstances they were put into. Atsushi could become a murderer, Akutagawa could learn to tame the beast inside of him when surrounded by good people. It questions the idea that people are innately good or innately evil. Because while yes, Atsushi is a murderer burdened by guilt and fear, and Akutagawa is a detective who lacks a drive for helping people and has no qualms resorting to...unsavory methods to get results, at the end, we see that despite Akutagawa being told he's meant to be evil, he STILL wants to try to learn. To learn how to live a good life, learn how to tame the beast. And at the end of the day, while Atsushi still wants to protect people, he learns to kill them without a moment's hesitation. The only person he can protect is Kyouka, and he is almost TOO protective of her. I just think it's really cool that you can take these characters, one who is "innately good" and one that's "innately evil" and switch their circumstances, and you can see how they'd really end up. How a good person can become a murderer when surrounded by evil, how a bad person can quench the thirst for vengeance inside of him when surrounded by good people.

OK I'm probably not the only one who noticed this, but I was watching the epic livestream, and in My Goodbye, Athena goes "one day you'll understand, but not today for after all you're just a man." And you know what? One day, he does understand. When he's no longer a man, but a monster. Only then, when he (believes) he's lost his humanity, only then does he understand what Athena was telling him. But he can't, not while he was a man.

And of course then there's the whole cruel irony of Athena becoming more empathetic but that's a different post.

Anyway, I think Epic is pretty neat