Look. I'm Sure Dazai Acts Like The Most Annoying Person Alive To Everyone He Works With So They'll Push

Was in Barnes and Noble today, and I found a collection of Dazai's works titled "The Real Osamu Dazai." And this was on the back:

Like....why. How. I understand if you just see edits and stuff you'd think he's the main character, but like, watch one episode, read one chapter, and anyone with basic media literacy could tell that he isn't the main character. Even google could tell you that. Why does this keep happening??? My boy Atsushi deserves more than this.

"Oh my math teacher on the news wanted for mass murder. Who said math teachers are boring?"

I have a new headcanon that the reason why Tachihara stabbed Kenji with the sword back in season four (not that they knew it was him at the time), was payback for the time when Kenji threw all of the Black Lizard out a window.

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

Dead apple really fits in perfectly with bsd, because we know and love this movie, but ask anyone who watched it and they couldn't tell you what the hyuck it was about.

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.

People really don't take into account how much Atsushi suffered in that orphanage, or how much it affects his character. I mean, I hate his backstory that it had to happen to him, and he deserves all the hugs and sunshine in the world, but one thing I like is that it's not just a Tragic Backstory™ for the sake of being a Tragic Backstory™ like so many protagonists have. It's because of the abuse that he grew such a will to survive. He has to live because the world doesn't want him to, and yet at the same time, he still hates himself and feels he needs to earn the right to live, hence why he's so desperate to save people. It's not out of the goodness of his heart, though I believes it becomes more like that later on, at the beginning, it's just to earn the right to the life he so firmly desires. He's really not just a typical shonen protagonist with a sad orphan backstory because why not, but it really became a core part of who he is as a character.

Also, the next arc of bsd had better be reserved for every ada member giving Atsushi a hug and throwing him a birthday party because the way this arc is going and Fyodor like please just give him a break and let him eat chazuke please.

Tw child abuse

The earliest memory we have of Atsushi at the orphanage where his age is mentioned is 11 years old.

Atsushi doesn’t leave the orphanage until he’s 18. At minimum he’s been there for 7 years.

To put that into perspective that’s the same amount of time between Dazai and Chuuya meeting each as teenagers to reuniting in present day.

That’s a long arse time.

And we don’t even know the full extent of the the abuse Atsushi suffered.

Including but not limited too….

Having his foot nailed to the floor and then having to hold that position and “reflect on his actions.” (chapter 39.)

Kids cutting his hair as a prank (Omake 6. Yes that’s why it looks like that.)

Being subjected to a “point system” where other kids would get him in trouble to gain points (chapter 39. It’s also noted that losing points meant no food.)

Almost being killed twice as a child (chapter 35.)

Being burned to the bone (chapter 28. Atsushi compares his experience to Lucy’s who said she was burned by a hot poker. But we don’t know if that was the same thing used on him.)

Shibusawa torturing him for his ability (Dead Apple.)

Being locked in a cage for days (chapter 39. In this specific incident it was his 3rd day of imprisonment.)

Flashback of someone holding Atsushi’s head down in a bowl of water (chapter 35.)

Being held down and injected against his will, which both painful believed to be poison (chapter 39. Atsushi does later wonder if it was nutrients but it’s never confirmed.)

Having his ribs kicked to the point they broke (chapter 35.)

Not confirmed that the Headmaster ever shot Atsushi. But Atsushi believed the Headmaster bought the gun with him to punish him with it (chapter 39.)

Being told he’s nothing but a burden on the world and should vanish from the earth forever (chapter 1.)

Being kicked out the orphanage for causing wreckage with an ability they were purposely keeping from him that he had no control over (chapter 1.)

This poor boy. And who knows what else he went through in that place. And this was after being abused and then abandoned by his parents.

I cannot put into words how much this line from the fifteen light novel means to me.

One hundred matches. They played close to a hundred games against each other. Because they're both just fifteen year old boys. Fifteen year old boys who were forced to grow up way too fast in a world that only dealt them trashy cards. Two boys who claim to hate each other...who found an equal in each other. Someone else they could be a child with. And in middle of a dangerous mission, a mission that involves Chuuya believing he's a god of destruction, a mission that involves Dazai searching for the old boss because he was forced to false-witness his murder, in middle of all of this, they played a hundred games at an arcade. Because they were just kids.

chuuya’s role in bsd is so funny to me. you’re watching this show and every 10 episodes or so this pretty guy drops in, and he’s the coolest most OP guy in the show so he can really only hang around for a few minutes before he makes any conflict obsolete. and he’s supposed to be part of the villains but he never really does anything that evil and is mostly helpful? he just appears and does something badass and fucks off again. and this is all already really weird but also every time he shows up it’s clear that he and one of the other main characters have like, definitely fucked, which adds a whole other layer of absurdism. and the best part is he accomplishes this in maybe 11 total minutes of screen time.

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