Skk's Entire Relationship In A Single Frame:

For those of you who may not be too familiar with the manga, during ch39: Portrait of a Father, Akutagawa shows up, as Dazai's informant, to give Atsushi documents about who the orphanage headmaster was and what happened to him.

At that moment, Akutagawa shows an uncharacteristic clemency towards Atsushi, saying that "Atsushi's master died today", and compares this to his own relationship with Dazai.

This was a long time ago now, and a lot has happened since. The Cannibalism arc is right after this, where they are very antagonistic towards each other, and includes this scene:

Akutagawa, despite his bitterness towards Atsushi for who he is to Dazai, has seen how similar they are in this sense. Atsushi hasn't, because his gratefulness towards Dazai prevents him from seeing that Akutagawa's experience was completely different with this same person. (he's also not given any time by the narrative to wonder about it)

but then just came along chapter 122!!!

Atsushi gets to see, 1:1, the relationship between Akutagawa and Dazai. For the first time, Akutagawa is relatable to him.

And of course, at the end, Atsushi calls out the illusion as being the headmaster wearing Dazai's face because we are closing this loop! We are forcing Atsushi to see Akutagawa the same way Akutagawa has been seeing him!

Ok so I just read chapter 119 and aside from the fact that I will need extensive therapy after this, why is no one talking about the parallels from when Akutagawa showed up in this chapter and his first appearance???

When he is first introduced, it's as a murderer, a villain. He's come to kill, and he doesn't have any qualms about it. He doesn't care about life, not that of others or his own.

But-

Now, he's a savoir. He's essentially saying the same thing (translation differences, I'm pretty sure it's meant to be the same thing), but now he's not a heartless murderer. He's a hero, a protector. He's telling his enemies to fear death, because he will fight for the innocent souls. Honestly, the parallels are so genius (and quite frankly, one of the only parts of this chapter that doesn't make me want to sob in a corner). He's GROWN. He's not the same Akutagawa he used to be. Here's to fight for life and to protect it.

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 :

Every so often Ashihara makes it abundantly obvious that Borders fighting force is purely made up of teenagers and young adults. And I Love It.

They're all so goofy...

a redraw from a different pov of the manga panel ⬇️

smth smth bsd’s recurring theme of your past not defining who you are but facing your past being necessary to move on anyway. the symbolism of atsushi’s abuser being the one to push him forward despite atsushi’s dislike for him—you cannot get rid of him. you cannot stop caring. you will cry when your father dies and you will hate him for it. you will never get rid of the ghost that haunts you but sometimes acknowledging it is the first step to healing. can anyone hear me

Dazai really does just like to recruit people into organizations, doesn't he.

Like, what's that? A fifteen year old with a toxic relationship to the group that's supposed to be his friends? Have his friends betray him so he joins the Mafia!

What is it, you say? People are after you because you used to be an assassin? Have him join the Mafia!

You're a depressed orphan living in the slums who wants a reason to live? Why don't you join the freaking Mafia.

And this pattern only continues in the ADA, like:

An orphaned dangerous Weretiger sought after by the government? Join the detective agency!

Said Weretiger finds his own orphan girl who is kind of wanted for manslaughter at the age of fourteen? Help her join the detective agency!

He seriously has a savior complex, and this needs to be acknowledged. Don't even get me started on Sigma-

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.

Hi! Please pay for my next therapy bill.

Rest of the comic is under the cut, because LONG :0

Also! Content warnings for body horror, guns, blood(although in black and white) and just...horror in general tbh

Operation "Fall of the Hooded Hawk": For situations where one half of skk has to shoot without having clear vision, and relies on the direction of their partner. In this case, Chuuya was giving Dazai coordinates of where to fire by tapping against his ear. (It's kind of like a trust fall)

I scripted a whole followup conversation with more explanation of what exactly the mirror was, and just general context, but this comic has gotten so long that I'm gonna write that as a short scene in prose, because it's mostly dialogue and if I try to draw it all then I think my hands will secede from my body lol — I'll probably be able to get that done in the next couple of days. But in the meantime, thanks for reading! :D

(3/5/24 edit: Followup convo is done!)

One thing I love about bsd is the fact that you can have multiple pairs of the "hate each other but trust each other" trope, and they all feel different.

Fukuzawa and Mori are exes, Dazai and Chuuya have an on-off again relationship, and Atsushi and Akutagawa are in middle of their enemies to lovers arc.