“And In Another— In The Original World, You And I Were Friends.”

drowning in a sea of stars

Dazai analysis

I think people tend to forget that Dazai is actually a depressed burnt out genius who has a problem with alcohol (whiskey) and probably smokes to numb the pain or even forget how numb he actually feels sometimes or so he started and then became addicted.

Dazai is basically a young adult, after all, and has a shit ton of trauma.

He's known in the Port Mafia as Demon prodigy and was raised by Mori himself.

When talking about him, the Mafia says "your blood is black. Mafia black, more so than anyone else in this country, "

And yet, we can see glimpses of hurt. We can deduce Dazai is hurt by everyone brushing off his suicide attempts. We can tell he doesn't actually want to form bonds with others because he knows he'll end up leaving and it's better to be hated than to have people crying his death.

He could have just left the Mafia, after all, and yet, he blew up Chuuya's car. Why do you think this is? Because Dazai knows Chuuya cares about him.

Dazai is scared of feelings and scared of even the idea of being loved and doesn't find himself worth it. This is the truth.

Even more, looking at how much he cared about Oda, we can deduce that at some point he believed he could be loved or accepted. But Oda died and I'm sure Dazai blames himself. He probably thinks that people who do stick to him will not end up well. He probably finds himself to be like a black cat—a misfortune.

"The greatest misfortune for Dazai's enemies is that they are Dazai's enemies"

He craves death—or, better said, he craves being free. Some might not understand it, but when you are suicidal, you don't necessarily crave death itself. No, death is too simple and too easy. You crave liberation. You crave the chains to be ripped apart, you crave freedom, from yourself, from people, from feelings. From everything that is considered life and actually brings you nothing but sorrow.

Someone who finds themselves in such situation doesn't think on a too long term. The moral compass is broken beyond limit and, as he said:

He wants to feel human. He wants it so bad and yet he's ingrained into himself and was even encouraged in more or less known ways that he is not human, from quotes like Demon prodigy to mafia black blood and we could go on.

Even more: Dazai respects Yosano and Fukuzawa. Yosano, who had to deal with Mori, just as he had to. It's quite of a bonding over the trauma, even if different. Fukuzawa is like an actual proper father figure he probably never had and seems to understand him yet trusts him. Fukuzawa gives Dazai a stability he probably never had, not in the proper way.

(as someone who studies the development of people, I can tell you that a kid who's not given stability by the important figures in their life ends up insecure)

We are given hints of him being a womanizer and yet only in the context of commiting double suicide with him. He's rather flirtatious if anything else and with how manipulative he is, he could make someone double suicide with him, but he wants a "clean suicide". I am indeed sure that he is probably a womanizer (yes, Dazai bisexual king in my opinion) and is indulging into such things to feel something other than numb or guilt or hurt.

Because Dazai does feel guilt.

He acts like a clown to entertain people, loves nagging at Kunikida, told Kyouka 35 people are nothing and people not being able to change is bullshit with Oda in his mind.

Dazai is complex and I'm not negating that he's bad. He is bad. He is toxic. He is everything you wanna call him. But he's also a heavily traumatized kid who became an adult and you gotta keep that in mind.

Dazai is relatable in the way most of BSD characters are. He's morally grey at best and the Mafia days haunt him.

Like it or not, Dazai is an amazing and very influential character.

i know nothing about miraculous ladybug but i think transfemininity would save the cat one

Us Marichat truthers in season 5

dont play defense

A compilation of Dazai having some *cough* extremely questionable *cough* intentions towards Chuuya: 

Bonus from the Light Novels: 

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the (almost) complete Bungou Stray Dogs reading list

as a dostoyevsky fan i first discovered bsd by being very confused whenever i saw pretty anime boys in the crime and punishment tag, so now i’m using bsd to discover more classic literature, and you can too!

this is my personal list straight from my phone notes app, of the most significant works mentioned in the series. italized titles are those that i really couldn’t find an english translation of but they’re there for completeness (if you’ve found one please comment!)

i’ve also got links to the french text of all works that are originally in french, because i read french and as said this list is just adapted from my personal notes hahaha

special shoutout goes to @bsd-bibliophile and their website from where i got many of the links, especially the works of the japanese authors, as well as the bsd recommended reading list ❤️

links are pdfs unless otherwise specified

the armed detective agency:

no longer human by dazai osamu

the moon over the mountain by nakajima atsushi (beast beneath the moonlight)

an encouragement of learning by fukuzawa yukichi (all men are equal)

o brother, you must not die by yosano akiko (thou shalt not die)

kunikida doppo’s works

the makioka sisters by tanizaki junichirou (light snow) [epub]

naomi by tanizaki junichirou

be not defeated by the rain by miyazawa kenji [online]

demon pond by izumi kyouka (demon snow)

edogawa ranpo’s works

i am a cat by natsume souseki

futon by tayama katai

the port mafia:

rashoumon by akutagawa ryuunosuke (link includes o-gin that akutagawa gin is based on)

this soiled sorrow by nakahara chuuya (upon the tainted sorrow) [online]

golden demon by ozaki kouyou

falling camellia by hirotsu ryuurou

the dancing girl by mori ougai (elise)

vita sexualis by mori ougai [epub]

higuchi ichiyou’s works (no ability specified yet, but see for example encounters on a dark night)

midwinter memento by tachihara michizou

lemon by kajii motojirou

dogra magra by yumeno kyuusaku [website, incomplete translation] 

madness of george III by alan bennett (madness of the jewel king) pretty sure this one’s still copyrighted, hence why they couldn’t use alan bennett’s name for ace, and why i can’t find any pdf copies

the guild:

the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald (the great fitzgerald)

little women by louisa m. alcott

the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck [online/pdf/epub]

the scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne

gone with the wind by margaret mitchell [online/pdf/epub]

anne of green gables by l. m. montgomery (anne of the abyssal red)

moby dick by herman melville

the adventures of tom sawyer by mark twain (huck finn and tom sawyer)

the adventures of huckleberry finn by mark twain (huck finn and tom sawyer)

the black cat by edgar allan poe (the black cat in the rue morgue) [online]

the murders in the rue morgue by edgar allan poe (the black cat in the rue morgue) [online]

the call of cthulhu by h. p. lovecraft (the great old ones) [online]

the rats in the house of the dead:

the house of the dead by fyodor dostoevsky [online/epub]

crime and punishment by fyodor dostoevsky

a feast in time of plague by alexander pushkin [online/pdf/epub]

the precipice by ivan goncharov (this is an abridged translation please buy the new 2020 unabridged translation titled malinovka heights please it’s one of my all-time favourite books please thank you for your attention)

the perfect crime by oguri mushitarou

the decay of angels:

the decay of the angel by mishima yukio [online]

the overcoat by nikolai gogol

dracula by bram stoker [online/pdf/epub] (bram’s ability isn’t named yet but come on who are we kidding)

sigma has been speculated to be a reference to russian writer and journalist sergey nikolayevich syromyatnikov, or possibly sigmund freud

the hunting dogs:

mirror lion by fukuchi ouchi (online summary)

gasp of the soul by ookura teruko (see bewitching shadow which is the only work of anyone from the hunting dogs with full english translation!)

priceless tears by jouno saigiku

plum blossoms in snow by suehiro tetchou (wikipedia)

special division for unusual powers:

discourse on decadence by sakaguchi ango

hail in the begging bowl [online/pdf] (an essay by james abrams on the life and poetry of taneda santoka, from which the ability name is derived)

order of the clock tower:

and then there were none by agatha christie

dark era:

strait is the gate by andré gide (french original, online)

flawless by oda sakunosuke (see his other works from the stories of osaka life collection that has been translated into english, which can be found on the @bsd-bibliophile website)

55 minutes:

the time machine by h. g. wells

the mysterious island by jules verne (french original, online/epub)

matasaburou of the wind by miyazawa kenji [online] (atsushi’s alias)

johann wolfgang von goethe (mentioned)

william shakespeare (mentioned)

victor hugo (mentioned) les misérables french original 

fifteen + storm bringer:

illuminations by arthur rimbaud [online] (french original, online/epub)

paul verlaine’s poetry [online/epub] (french original, online/epub)

frankenstein by mary shelley (adam frankenstein)

gaiden:

another by ayatsuji yukito (volume 1, volume 2, volume 3)

the summer in the ubume by kyougoku natsuhiko (an inherent drop)

yesterday’s shadow tag by tsujimura mizuki

dead apple:

shibusawa tatsuhiko’s works (referred to collectively as draconia, see fish scales which has been translated into english)

chapter titles and other references:

franz kafka’s works (our man asagiri) metamorphosis [online/epub] the trial [online/epub]

the setting sun by osamu dazai (have you seen all those dazai sunset scenes in the anime)

the black lizard by hirotsu ryuurou

the case of murder on D hill by edogawa ranpo (murder on D street, ch 6)

poems of days past by nakahara chuuya (back in the day, ch 11) see poem collection

light, wind and dreams by nakajima atsushi (even if my head be mistaken, ch 29)

if you’re gonna read the above you should probably be acquainted with robert louis stevenson’s works, like the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde [online/epub]

tower of silence by mori ougai (the silent tower and the raven’s feast, ch 30)

husband and wife by nakajima atsushi (cherrirs, ch 43)

dreaming of butterflies by hagiwara sakutarou (ch 65-66)

the sheep song by nakahara chuuya (the chant to activate chuuya’s corruption)

les sœurs de charité by arthur rimbaud (the chant to activate verlaine’s corruption) french original

this is all the main works i could find, but naturally bsd is chock-full of literature references so please feel free to add to this list if you have anything! again i have to direct you to bsd-bibliophile’s online library for more complete resources and relevant authors that are not directly mentioned in bsd + a bunch of other useful content, i swear that page is one of my most-visited websites hahaha

other great resources for free books that have entered the public domain, where i got most of the links to the western books on this list:

project gutenberg

free editorial

planet ebook

planet publish

happy reading!

Elias Walker father of the year

Favorite thing about the Red Note shenanigans: Mongolian ranchers suddenly gaining a rabid following of American horse girls and being like "we knew you had cowboys but we didn't know you value and love horses as friends like we do, this is excellent"

Mongolian rancher 🤝 American horse girl synergy I guess