Some More Commonly Confused Words

The BEST line from Stormbringer:

I mean...he's not wrong...

Hey students, here’s a pro tip: do not write an email to your prof while you’re seriously sick.

Signed, a person who somehow came up with “dear hello, I am sick and not sure if I’ll be alive to come tomorrow and I’m sorry, best slutantions, [name]”.

I always find it funny how the Port Mafia was introduced like they were the ultimate evil and at this point, they're practically the good guys. The Agency and Port Mafia's relationship truly is the embodiment of "The enemy of my enemy is my Thematic Parallel™"

Dark era vs Beast

"This story is a tragedy because it didn't have to end this way."

vs

"This story is a tragedy because it was always going to end this way."

Also now that we have the context, Akutagawa's comeback “do we need any more” is so much funnier. He was really racking his brain to come up with another citation from their earlier fight that would have resulted as equally iconic

I just learned about the Untold Origins getting a manga, and while I'm not complaining, I just have to ask like...how. How in the world does Asagiri have so many people making manga of his works like????? I have no idea how mainstream bsd considered in Japan, but what is this, manga number seven? Eight? Every day it gets harder and harder to introduce new people into this fandom.

I'm trying to prove a point.

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-

Thinking back to that interview with Asagiri a bit ago, where he mentioned how Chuuya slowly overtook Kunikida as Dazai's partner since he became so popular, and it got me thinking. Because while I love skk as much as the next person, Chuuya on his own is such an interesting character that I don't think his interactions need to be solely limited to Dazai. One thing I love about Stormbringer is how many new, different characters we got to see Chuuya interact with, apart from just Dazai. I don't want to see him replace Kunikida, I want to see him interact with Kunikida (not just that one scene). I want to see him team up with other members of the Agency, like Atsushi, or Kenji. I want to see him with Akutagawa, since despite how much people assume things about their relationship, we've only ever seen them interact with each other in one freaking scene. And it wasn't even the manga, it was the movie (there are the drama cds, of course, but those are questionably canon). It's possible for anime onlys, there may not be as much to his character outside of Dazai, but as someone whose read the lns, I just feel like his character is interesting enough on his own, and I hate that he's always reduced to being one half of skk, as opposed to Dazai, who is seen as more than that. Basically what I'm saying is, let Chuuya interact with the rest of the cast! Screw Dazai! (with love)

beast dazai is considered a tragic character for all the obvious reasons: carried the weight of the memories of his other selves and using that knowledge to save oda from his fate even if it meant dying/killing himself in the end. This sympathetic narrative allows you to ignore the utter selfishness and immaturity of beast dazai and how he runs away from grief and pain, and I mean this in the best way possible.

The real tragedy of beast is that unlike all the other dazais, beast dazai never got the chance to meet and know oda, thence allowing him a new perspective to grow. In The day I picked up Dazai , dazai shows personal growth by the end of the novel, hence why he respects oda a lot. He is treated as a human being who still doesn't know much, and that brings comfort to someone deemed a demon prodigy. In side b of the same novel, beast dazai makes an effort to not know or bond with oda; yes this is because he wanted to ensure his survival by steering him away from the port mafia, but that event is what fundamentally changed dazai- gave him a better understanding of his own humanity.

Despite having all that knowledge of his other selves, of how each universe's timeline will play out, beast dazai didn't seem to grasp that it is grief that allowed the other dazai to grow and be a better person. He didn't understand that in the end, it is the time he (the other dazai) spent with oda that made living worthwhile, not his life. His state of living, the state of perfection in beast dazai's eyes, will still cause him more suffering than the act of losing a good friend.

Because if he had only wanted him to live, then he wouldn't have been so shocked when oda refused to indulge in a friendly conversation, not when he clearly went out of his way to antagonize himself in oda's eyes in tdipud. It's because the realization hit him: he wanted his time with oda to not be cut short.

Having memories of another oda is clearly not enough, he needed his own intimate friendship with his own oda. But with this elaborate plan and his reaction to being rejected, it's clear that beast dazai was trying to avoid pain. He could not accept the grief and pain of loss that he's seen and felt in his other selves, ignoring what came after: growth and satisfaction of ever having oda in their lives at all.

Pain is inherently human and by ignoring and rejecting it, beast dazai rejects his own humanity. Or runs away from it, because it catches up to him regardless. He still ignores it throughout the rest of the story, especially in other characters.

Beast dazai, as we all know, eventually takes his own life. While there is a reason as to why he did it, but it was still part of his plan from the beginning. Meaning, he knew this near fruitless pursuit would still have him unable to handle grief. It's an inherently selfish goal with an inherently selfish way out under the guise of "leaving the rest in atsushi and akutagawa's hands"

(Note: I do not mean in any way that suicide is selfish, but rather the narrative and character of dazai in beast alludes to this. Both concepts can co-exist in a fictional setting)

Despite seemingly helping other characters, beast dazai also trampled on both akutagawa and atsushi's self worth. This made them easier to manipulate for his grand plan, but ignores the damage he's done to them and other characters after his death.

For akutagawa it is the loss of his sister and convincing him of his monstrosity due to Dazai's meddling. For atsushi, someone he conditioned into severe fear and dependency on him, was left alone watching the person he cared so much for fall from the building. And yes, he left him in mori's care afterwards, but dazai should know more than anyone the damage the death of a loved one has, unless it doesn't apply to him.

In the epilogue, mori openly mourns dazai's death along with atsushi. Due to being free of his rigid responsibility as the pm boss, he had the liberty of finally being the caretaker he's always wanted to be but at the cost of the person he considered his son (in comparing dazai to atsushi, who he then calls his son + all the other stances where mori treated dazai like a son etc)

The thing that beast dazai, or dazai in general, tends to not fully understand or accept, is that he is also loved, and his death will cause others pain as well. I am by no means saying he should've thought of others before dying, but it is the lives of others that dazai from the main manga also cherishes after oda's death. Beast dazai made it his entire life goal to essentially protect oda, realize its not the only thing he's wanted from him and gave his raison d'etre a flimsy excuse of meaning in life. It's inherently selfish.

Selfishness is a common theme in bsd, and beast dazai fits right in. Atsushi's selfish desire to save people to give himself a justification to be alive, Sigma's inherently selfish nature of self preservation and identity and so on.

I've probably ranted for much longer than anticipated, but the point is: beast dazai's purpose is a selfish desire to escape pain and loss when it's crucial to the human experience. Dazai in the main manga seems to grasp this much better than beast dazai, it's something the latter is "missing", refusing to grow out of his selfishness and it makes his character more of a cautionary tale.