Bsd Rambling - Blog Posts

Not Fyodor fooling Google's AI overview in the real world despite not even existing... Man is just that smart lol. And AI is just that stupid.

Would be super interesting to see an analysis on your top 3 favorite characters. If you want to of course!

My top 3 favourite characters huh? Honestly my favourite characters tend to very depending on my mood but if I had to pick a top 3 I guess it would be....

Chuuya

Akutagawa

Fyodor

Not necessarily in that order. I'd love to write an analysis for all three but at the moment the only one I have ideas for is Fyodor so I'll stick with him for now. Honestly this man is a big question mark to me, we don't know anything about his background or what made him the way he is. We don't even know if he's human. All the same I'll see what I can do.

Before you read this analysis though I would like to make it very clear that I DO NOT CONDONE THE PHILOSOPHY EXPLAINED IN THIS ANALYSIS.

Spoiler alert: This analysis contains spoilers for chapters 120.5 and 46 of the BSD Manga as well as Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky inspired by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky and his well-known work Crime and Punishment is one of the principal antagonists in the multimedia series Bungo Stray Dogs written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. Arguably the only intellectual rival to Ranpo and Dazai, Fyodor’s plans often cause the Agency and Mafia alike quite a bit of difficulty ostensibly for the purposes of creating a world without sin and ability users. However, upon closer inspection this goal doesn’t really make sense given Fyodor’s behaviour. That is, unless the reader takes into account a particular section of the novel Crime and Punishment, the namesake of Fyodor’s ability. This essay aims to explain how this section of Crime and Punishment informs Fyodor’s behaviour and goals in Bungo Stray Dogs. This will be done by first exploring Fyodor’s motivations based on what he says in the manga series, second by analysing the section of Crime and Punishment in question and third by explaining how these link together. For clarity Fyodor Dostoyevsky the character will be referred to as Fyodor, while Fyodor Dostoevsky the author will be referred to as Dostoevsky.

The first instance where Fyodor talks about his goals and what he wants with the book takes place in chapter 46 of the manga, The Masked Assassin. During his conversation with Dazai, Fyodor states, ‘Man… is sinful and foolish. Even if they know it is all an artifice, they cannot help but kill each other. Someone must purify them for their sins. That is why I seek the “book,”.’ Then again in the same chapter he states, ‘And I will use that book… to make… a world free of sin and skill users.’ Once again in chapter 120.5 Fyodor talks about his goal saying, ‘I, his humble servant, shall take up his dream… and go on to build a truly lasting peace.’ If what he says is taken as fact—Fyodor has lied even to the audience before—then it makes his goal quite clear. His goal is to create a world without sin, specifically it seems the sin of killing each other given he talks about creating world peace and what he says about humanity being unable to help killing each other. He also seems to want to create a world free of skill users. This is a fairly straight forward goal. However, there is one key problem. If Fyodor were to succeed, he himself would be unable to live in this world for two key reasons. Firstly, Fyodor is a skill user. Secondly, his methods to achieving world peace and a world free of sin have caused countless deaths as any reader will know. Additionally, on being asked by Fukuzawa during chapter 120.5 how he will go about creating world peace he states, ‘By triggering a world war.’ Arguably, what he means is that instead of uniting the world through virtue and goodness as Fukuchi was going to, he is going to unite the world against the common enemy of skill users. He himself says in the same chapter, ‘I will build a millennium of peace. Not with “good” and “virtue” but with the ugliness inside every man. And I will build it atop the corpses of skill users.’ Now given that Fyodor is telling the truth about his goal, the question is raised: how can someone as intelligent as Fyodor not see the contradiction behind what he is doing. He is going to cause suffering and blood shed, cause humanity to commit a multitude of sins, in order to eliminate suffering and bloodshed and sin. The answer is that he can see this contradiction but according to his philosophy what he’s doing is ok and not contradictory to his goal at all.

Raskolnikov, the main character of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment sets out this philosophy during his conversation with Porfiry in Chapter 5 of Part 3 of the novel. The conversation they have is about an article that Raskolnikov had written in which ‘a certain hint is presented that there supposedly exists in the world certain persons who can…that is, who not only can but are entitled to commit all sorts of crimes…’. At first glance this seems like a totally illogical idea, but this is simply Porfiry’s ‘forced and deliberate’ distortion of it. In his article Raskolnikov has stated that he believes that people are divided into two categories: the ordinary, and the extraordinary. ‘The ordinary must live in obedience with the law […]. While the extraordinary have the right to commit all sorts of crimes and in various ways transgress the law,’ Porfiry summarises in Chapter 5 Part 3. Raskolnikov states that this is almost correct but that he doesn’t think that all extraordinary people must break the law or commit crimes. What he believes is that an extraordinary person has the right to break the law or commit crimes if it is for the sake of benefiting humanity. The example he gives is as follows, ‘If […] Newton’s discoveries could become known to people in no other way than by sacrificing the lives of one, or ten, or a hundred or more people who were hindering the discovery, or standing as an obstacle in its path, then Newton would have the right, and it would even be his duty… to remove those ten or a hundred people, in order to make his discovery known to all mankind. It by no means follows from this, incidentally, that Newton should have the right to kill anyone…’. What this means is essentially that Raskolnikov believes that an extraordinary person, as he defines it, has the right to commit crimes if the end goal is the greater good of humanity. He goes on to explain that he believes that all ‘lawgivers and founders of man kind’, one of the examples he gives is Napoleon, have spilt sometimes quite innocent blood in their path. He states, ‘It is even remarkable that most of these benefactors and founders of mankind were especially terrible bloodshedders. In short, I deduce that all, not only great men, but even those who are a tiny bit off the beaten track—that is who are a tiny bit capable of saying something new—by their very nature cannot fail to be criminals…’. With this philosophy in mind, Fyodor’s actions and motivations start to make a bit more sense.

It is likely then, that Fyodor not only believes this philosophy but also sees himself as one of these extraordinary people and therefore believes that he has the right to commit crime because creating world peace and a world without sin would be a benefit to all of humanity. That is why to him, his actions and goals are aligned and do not contradict each other, to put it simply, to him, the ends justify the means. Because he is benefiting humanity, he has the right to commit crimes, at least in his mind. With this in mind his actions make a lot more sense. The way he sees it, he is simply carrying out his duty to humanity as one of these ‘extraordinary’ people. Therefore, he is not committing any crimes and were he to succeed he would be able to live in the world he had created.

To conclude, Fyodor’s actions and goals are aligned if one views them through the philosophy set out by Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. If it is assumed that Fyodor believes this philosophy then in his mind, he is simply carrying out his duty and is therefore not committing any crimes, thus he would be able to live in the world free of sin that he intends to create.

Verlaine and Dazai: Two Sides of the Same Coin of Loneliness

As anyone who has read Storm Bringer will know, Verlaine dislikes people telling him he's human. So, that got me thinking, if you were friends with Verlaine and aware of his situation, what could you say to him that wouldn't hurt him more? Eventually I concluded that what you could say is that you know he isn't human and that's ok, he doesn't need to be human. But even that probably wouldn't bridge that gap he seems to see between himself and others.

Verlaine describes the loneliness he feels quite vividly. This is how it's written. This takes place in the English version of the Storm Bringer light novel on page 58. 'True loneliness...,' began Verlaine in an elegant tone reminiscent of a violin solo. 'True loneliness is the comet travelling alone through the universe, surrounded by vacuous space and nothingness at absolute zero,' (p. 58). This is quite the striking metaphor. He is, I believe referencing the philosophical idea that if a comet is travelling in space away from any other object there is no real way of determining that it is moving or even if it is even there, since nobody is there to observe it. Incidentally a similar idea is put forward in George Orwell's novel 1984 in that if no one is aware of what the past truly was, does is it even exist? This, I think is what Verlaine is getting at with this vivid depiction of loneliness. So I thought to myself, what if rather than having a companion comet, which is what Verlaine seeks through Chuuya, what if, someone was observing that comet. Put more clearly, although Verlaine might not have someone exactly like him, especially given that Chuuya turned out to be the original rather than the clone, he might have someone who doesn't understand exactly what he is going through but is willing to stay by him all the same, as Rimbaud was. An observer of the comet, if you will. And I think Asagiri does explore this idea, through Dazai.

In Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era Odasaku desribes Dazai's state of loneliness in a way which I personally found strikingly similar to Verlaine's description, at least in terms of imagery. He states, '...nothing beyond your own expectations will happen. Nothing in this world can fill the hole that is your loneliness. You will wander the darkness for eternity,' (p. 160.). This takes place on page 160 of the English version of Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era. While not exactly referencing comets or space, the idea of wandering (or floating like a comet) in darkness is similar. It is my personal belief that even though most of us are no Dazai in terms of intelligence and no Verlaine in terms of being skill based life forms, no one can truly understand exactly what our life experience is like. Even if they love us, no one can truly know what our experience on Earth is like. But that's ok, because they don't need to. This is because we can still have meaningful relationships that cure us of loneliness without this level of understanding, of course a measure of understanding is needed, but in my opinion the level of understanding Verlaine was looking for in Chuuya, of being the same, is not necessary. And this is shown both through how much Rimbaud cared for Verlaine and through Dazai's relationship with his colleagues at the agency.

According to page 100 of the English version of Storm Bringer 'Nobody could understand how Dazai worked.' Which probably means that no one can understand Dazai. During the Dark Era light novel when Odasaku is dying we see Dazai realise how well Odasaku knew him, but even here Odasaku wishes he knew Dazai better. And yet we still see Dazai have meaningful relationships Odasaku and with his colleagues at the agency. They care about him and, I think, he cares about them. They know that even though he's a slacker he will be there when it really counts. When the agency is in trouble after the incident with Nikolai and the chainsaw (I forget what the arc was called) it's always Dazai that Atsushi pictures telling him what to do and giving him advice. It's clear how much Atsushi cares for Dazai given what he goes through to save his life during the 55 Minutes light novel and given Kunikida's reaction at the end of said light novel it's pretty clear how important Dazai is to him too.

To conclude, in my opinion what Verlaine needs is, I think, to recognise that people do not have to be the same as him in order to have a meaningful relationship with him, to stay by him and to cure him of his loneliness. This is something he realises at the very end of Storm Bringer but unfortunately by that time it's already too late.

An Analysis of Dazai's Reactions to Death

Disclaimer: I haven't actually finished reading the manga yet so all information in this post is taken solely from the light novel and anime.

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from 15, Storm Bringer, Dark Era and the anime of BSD

Warning: This post is about Dazai so naturally it contains mentions of su*cide and death.

This is my first analysis of BSD, so please be kind. That said, any constructive feedback is welcome. If you have any further questions about my perspective, please feel free to ask!

Then without further ado...

Bungo Stray Dogs written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa is a multimedia series which explores the complex nature of the human mind through its characters. One such character, Dazai Osamu, inspired by the 20th century Japanese novelist of the same name and his well-known work No Longer Human, is a character known for his eccentric behaviour and fascination with suicide. Often times his behaviour may come off as bizarre on first sight and one might think it is purely for comic relief. This essay aims to explain the reason behind his strange reaction to the sight of the murdered woman in episode five season one of the anime, or this scene.

This screenshot was taken from timestamp 6:27 of Season one episode 5 of Bungo Stray Dogs.

This will be done by exploring first Dazai’s reaction to death between the ages of 15 and 18 or during Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen and Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era, second by exploring the fact that Dazai is aware that he is different to other people, and finally by exploring the way he deals with this difference and with strong emotions during the present of Bungo Stray Dogs or at the age of 22.

Dazai’s reaction to death was unusual to say the least when he was the age of 15 and it continue to be so at the age of 18. There are three main instances where the audience watches Dazai react to death at these ages. In consecutive order from Dazai’s perspective—rather than the order they were published—is first, during the seventh light novel, Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen just after the fight before Dazai and Chuuya go to meet Randou. This scene takes place from page 53 to 54 of the English version of the light novel. There are several unusual points during this scene. But first it should be made clear that the audience has no real way of knowing what kind of experiences Dazai had been exposed to in his early life which could have a bearing on why he behaves this way at this age. There are plenty of theories but at the time of writing this Asagiri had not revealed what Dazai’s early life was like. Now, back to the point at hand. First it is unusual that a boy of 15 when faced with a dying man would ask him if he would like him to ‘end your suffering with this gun,’ (p. 53) however this may be disregarded considering that Dazai although not a part of the mafia seems to have been with Mori for some time at this point. What is more strange however is what Dazai says next ‘…But you’re showing me something extremely valuable—your death—so I want to pay you back,’ (p. 53). He then proceeds to repeatedly shoot the dead body while laughing. This could be chalked back to some sort of love for seeing others in pain if it wasn’t for what Dazai said before. He states that he sees the man’s death as valuable. There is no way of knowing how often Dazai had been exposed to death before but the fact that he views it as valuable suggests that at this point perhaps he had not been desensitized to it. Viewing death as valuable though is, decidedly, an unusual perspective for a 15-year-old boy to take.

The second time Dazai experiences death is also in the same light novel when Randou passes away. Those who have read Storm Bringer will know that’s not precisely what happens but at this point there is no evidence to show that Dazai has any idea Randou isn’t really dead and so it will be treated as another experience of death. There is a marked difference in Dazai’s behaviour in this instance compared to the one highlighted above. This scene takes place in Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen on pages 118 and 119 of the English version. Whether this difference in behaviour is to be attributed to the fact that Dazai probably knew Randou to some degree or to the fact that Chuuya had earlier highlighted to him the fact that his behaviour in the earlier scene was abnormal is up to interpretation. However, while his behaviour is more normal than before it is still rather unusual. During this scene Dazai seems more aware of the sensitive nature of what is happening because he asks Randou if he has any last words and continues by saying, ‘…If you have any final wishes, we’ll see what we can do to—’ (p. 118). This shows that he is sensitive to what’s happening and that it requires a certain type of behaviour, but it is still rather unusual given that this man is dying because of Dazai’s doing and the fact that Randou was trying to kill the former and Chuuya a few moments ago. Additionally, after Randou explains about what happened between himself and Verlaine before Verlaine betrayed him Dazai goes off on a tangent about the ‘inevitable destruction’ caused by ‘a fight between two skilled spies’ (p. 118). While Asagiri may have chosen to have Dazai say this in order to make it more clear to the reader why Randou tried to absorb Arahabaki, it is still a strange thing to do at somebody’s death bed. This being said, it is clear that Dazai is a lot more respectful at Randou’s death than he was at the G.S.S. officer’s death in the scene highlighted before as Asagiri states, ‘Both Chuuya and Dazai quietly listened as if there was something in what Randou was saying that they couldn’t allow themselves to miss,’ (p. 119). While it is possible Dazai is simply imitating Chuuya’s behaviour here in order to seem more normal it seems more likely that Dazai knows how to react better to the death of a person he knows and this idea is reinforced by his reaction to Odasaku’s death in Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era, which will be explored shortly. It is clear, however that Dazai is affected by Randou’s death in some way when the novel states ‘Some things, however, would not return to normal: the body of a man who no longer felt cold, and the hearts of the two boys who stood rooted to the spot, staring at him,’ (p. 119). This shows that Dazai is affected by death, but he seems to interpret it and deal with it in unusual ways.

The final example of when Dazai experiences death takes place three years later during the second light novel, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era, when Dazai is 18 years old. At this point he has been in the mafia for three years, so he has probably experienced death quite a bit between now and when he was 15, however this is the death of the person who is probably the only one who ever understood Dazai—with the exception perhaps of Chuuya—and who cared for him in a way which was arguably like a father. This scene takes place from page 159 to 161 of the English version of the light novel. This scene is arguably the most interesting in terms of Dazai experiencing death for several reasons. One of those reasons is that while the scene deals with Dazai’s emotions, it does not deal with his reaction to Odasaku’s death but rather with his reaction to what Odasaku says, which causes a dramatic shift in his world view and which, as any reader will know, ultimately causes Dazai to leave the mafia and strive to become a better person. While the scene does start by dealing with Dazai’s reaction to Odasaku’s death the majority of the middle of the scene is spent on Dazai’s reaction to what Odasaku says to him before returning to his reaction to his death. The scene begins with Dazai rushing into the room, calling Odasaku’s name. This is pretty normal behaviour for anime and manga characters on seeing someone close to them dying. But Dazai then proceeds to say, ‘You’re such an idiot, Odasaku. The biggest idiot I know,’ (p. 160). That is arguably an unusual thing to tell your friend on his death bed, but compared to other things Dazai has done it’s not that abnormal. The scene continues with Dazai saying that Odasaku didn’t have to die. Which is standard behaviour. Then Odasaku says he wants to tell Dazai something. He proceeds with his statement about Dazai stating that he’s looking for his reason to live in the mafia and telling him that he won’t find it. The scene then proceeds to explore the idea that Dazai has finally realised how well Odasaku knows him. The rest of this scene is spent exploring this idea as well as Odasaku’s advice to Dazai. It only actually returns to Dazai’s reaction to Odasaku’s death at the end. By stating ‘Dropping to his knees by Odasaku’s side, Dazai looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes. His tightly shut lips faintly trembled. The smoke from the cigarette rose straight up to the top. Nobody said a word,’ (p. 161).  The strangest thing about this scene is arguably, that Dazai doesn’t cry. It’s possible that he was holding back tears, based on this description but the fact that it is only implied and left up to the readers interpretation suggests that Asagiri didn’t want to explicitly state that Dazai was crying. In the anime version of this scene as can below there is no hint of Dazai’s eyes being shinier than they usually are when he has lights in his eyes.

This screen shot was taken from time stamp 21:33 of episode 4 of season 2 of Bungo Stray Dogs.

After that the scene zooms out so that Dazai doesn’t have a face as can be seen here.

This screen shot was taken from time stamp 21:38 of episode four of season two of the anime.

This suggests that the decision to not show if Dazai was crying was deliberate. Given how much Odasaku means to Dazai, and that he had just realised how well Odasaku understood him it seems unusual that he would not cry.

The combined evidence of these three scenes suggests that Dazai behaves rather unusually in regard to death but that he seems to process it more normally when the person is closer to him than when it’s a stranger, where his behaviour is decidedly strange. Regardless of his closeness to the person however, evidence would suggest that the way Dazai deals with death is different to other people to a greater or lesser degree.

Now, how does all this have a baring on Dazai’s behaviour many years later in episode 5 season 1 of Bungo Stray Dogs? It has a baring on it if one accepts the fact that Dazai is aware that his behaviour towards death is rather strange to other people. It is never explicitly stated that Dazai is aware of this, however based on his behaviour it is clear that Dazai knows he is different to other people. This is highlighted in a particular instance in the seventh light novel. This scene takes place in Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen on pages 53 to 54 of the English version. In this scene Chuuya stops Dazai from repeatedly shooting the dead body of the G.S.S. soldier. The scene commences with, “‘Quit that, you idiot […]  He’s already dead,’ said Chuuya, ‘Quit shooting his corpse,’” (pp. 53-54). However, it is Dazai’s response to Chuuya’s statement which shows that he knows his reaction is unusual. Dazai responds with ‘You’re right. When you’re right, you’re right. That’s the most normal reaction to have,’ (p. 54). Then as he walks away from the body after dropping the pistol he laughs. This is the scene as it’s written, “‘Ha-ha. ‘Normal.’ Ha-ha-ha.’ Dazai’s hollow laughter filled the cluster of trees, vanishing into thin air,” (p. 54). The fact that Dazai reacts by stating that what Chuuya says is normal and the way he laughs about it shows that he knows that he is not normal. If the idea that Dazai knows he is not normal is extrapolated, then it is implied that he also knows that his behaviour towards death is abnormal. If it is taken into account that Dazai realises his behaviour, particularly around death is odd it makes sense that as an adult he would want to hide that.

All of the above scenes took place when Dazai was still a teenager. However, it seems that even as a young adult he doesn’t know how to behave around emotionally charged situations. This is shown in episode one of Bungo Stray Dogs where Atsushi and Dazai are in the warehouse waiting for the tiger to show up. During this scene Atsushi is amazed by Dazai’s confidence and he states ‘You’re really confident, I’m kind of jealous. They called me a good-for-nothing at the orphanage. And now I don’t know where I’ll sleep tonight or whether I’ll be able to earn my keep tomorrow. […] No one’d care if someone like me were to die in a ditch somewhere. Yeah, I may be better off eaten by a tiger…’ this happens at 13:30-13:57 of episode 1 of season 1 of Bungo Stray Dogs. To Atsushi’s statement Dazai does not reply. He is silent for a beat with a neutral expression as shown here.

This screenshot is taken from timestamp 13:58 of episode 1 season 1 of Bungo Stray Dogs.

He then proceeds to state that he thinks the tiger will come soon. This is an unusual reaction given what Atsushi just said, and it would make more sense for him to comfort the boy. But he doesn’t. This is arguably because Dazai doesn’t know how to react in what would be considered a normal way in an emotional situation like this. If he doesn’t know how to react normally here it is unlikely he knows how to react normally to death. Now, it has been made clear above that he recognises his behaviour as abnormal, and it is likely that since his instinctive reaction is abnormal, he is unable to fake a normal reaction as he doesn’t know what this would be. Hence his unusual reaction in episode five season one. He reacts with such melodrama because he knows that his instinctive reaction isn’t normal, but he doesn’t know what a normal reaction would be, and he can’t just not react either thus he opts for this melodramatic reaction which, although isn’t normal still shows a rather dramatised version of sadness at the woman’s death which is perhaps more normal than what his instinctive reaction would be. And although the others at the scene who don’t know him are rather confused at his reaction it attracts less attention than if he were to react in a similar vein to his reaction to the G.S.S. officer’s death.

To conclude Dazai’s melodramatic reaction to the murdered woman in episode 5 season 1 of Bungo Stray Dogs it not just comic relief, there is a deeper meaning behind his eccentricities. He reacts this way because he is self-aware enough to know that his instinctive reaction to death is unusual and in order to not shock other people at his behaviour, he opts for the melodramatic response he gives since while still unusual it is more similar to the way a normal person might react being a rather melodramatic version of it.