Dazai Really Does Just Like To Recruit People Into Organizations, Doesn't He.

Literally. The second the finale aired, the whole arc suddenly turned from tragedy to comedy. And suddenly, Chuuya was very justified for shooting Dazai an extra few times.

EXTREMELY funny Chuuya frame in retrospect

"Akutagawa is Atsushi's foil" yeah but you know who else is?

Dazai.

Atsushi and Dazai are really good parallels in a way that doesn't ever get talked about. Atsushi saved Dazai from dying in the moment that he decided he was going to live. Everything Atsushi does, everything that drives him, is his utter desire to live. Sure, sometimes he may doubt his own right to do so, but to him, life is the most beautiful thing he wants to be worthy of.

Dazai, on the other hand, is driven by his desire to die. He searches for a way out, even if he never goes through with it. He doesn't see the value of life, not in him and not in most others.

That's one of the things that attracted Odasaku to him, and now Atsushi. Because as much as Dazai never valued life, he values people who value life. Chuuya, Odasaku, Atsushi, even Ango he chose to befriend when learning that he was writing the names of all the dead. That's why Atsushi is so precious—it's someone he could learn from, maybe to find his own will to live.

The boy who desires life while his mentor desires death. And their relationship is somehow one of the most wholesome in the whole series.

Beast is seriously insane from Akutagawa's perspective because like. Imagine a man showing up in your darkest moment of revenge, only to completely call you out on all your deeply sensitive flaws and everything that's wrong with you, kidnap your sister, and ask for a rematch without actually leaving a way to find him again and you're just like, "hello do I know you??"

And then some four and half years later you actually find him again only to learn he's like actually the Mafia boss, he for some reason deeply wants you to fight this other guy who you barely know, you get completely wrapped up in his ridiculous scheme for some reason or another, he compliments your fight with said stranger by comparing it to another fight with said stranger that has never existed in your mind, casually reveals the most crazy, existential crisis inducing information, appoints you and stranger who you just met to be "guardians" of something you barely understand when all you want is to find your sister and be a detective, and then you're forced to watch as the man who again, you've met exactly one (1) time before in your life, casually throws himself off a roof and you're just like. "ok???"

Asagiri said it himself: he intentionally left out the core of Dazai's character and we never really see his internal monologue ever, because as Asagiri says, it would seem like two different people the minute Dazai opens his mouth to speak.

He's a really, really complex character, and it's really cool how so many different people come to view him so differently. Including the fandom, ironically.

The only thing I'll say is that it's funny so many people hate him for the acts he's done and insist he hasn't changed at all when the entire theme of bsd is overcoming oneself and that you can be bad and choose to do good anyway, and Dazai, though still manipulative, is meant to be an example of this. Just interesting.

the strangest thing to me about the BSD fandom is the fact that the vast majority of people in it are dazai fans, while also consistently assuming the absolute worst of him, disregarding the circumstances around his actions and giving him no grace or consideration of his situation whatsoever.

there's no doubt dazai is a bad person in many ways. he did plenty of unjustifiable, inexcusable things. he's pathologically manipulative with a totally skewed moral compass, most of which was undoubtedly brought on by his upbringing in the mafia. but at the same time, i see such a huge number of people taking that and somehow ending up with - and vehemently defending - this idea that he's a remorseless, indifferent, innately cruel person by nature?

are we forgetting this is the same dazai who was forced to false-witness a murder at fourteen years old? the same dazai who already wracked up numerous suicide attempts barely out of his pre-teens?the same dazai who was referred to by everyone around him as a 'demon' at fifteen years old? the same dazai consistently described as having grief-filled, empty expressions and detached, vacant reactions to practically everything when he was so young? the same dazai that oda described as "a child crying in the dark, alone, left to fend for himself with a hole in his heart as large as the world itself"?

that dazai is an indifferent, heartless, innately psychopathic person? really? i'm not convinced.

I just wanted to know the fandom's opinion on this, because while some people, like Danny Motta, seem to think it was the worst season by far, others, including myself, really enjoyed it and don't understand the hate. So I just wanted to know what the overall fandom opinion is on this season. But personally, I don't get the hate. The finale with the fusion was great, and I loved the filler/slice of life parts, even if the anime did certain chapters dirty (Read chapter 39!! It could have been a whole episode, and the anime gave it, I counted EIGHT minutes). And the 15 arc is one of my faves. But what do you guys think?

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)

like if you want Jorge to pay for your therapy bills

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!)

While I'm grateful bsd doesn't do the "As you know..." type of exposition, it's crazy how much worldbuilding there is like. in the shadows of everything. Like, what's up with the Great War? This isn't even so evident if you don't read the light novels, but there was literally a world war that ended less than fifteen years before the start of the main timeline. It's because of the war that there are so many orphans in the universe. It's because of the war that ability users have faded into a myth, and why they have to get special permits to work and usually gravitate towards underground organizations. It's because of the war why world relations are so shaky, why the government strictly monitors all ability users, and yet all of this is sort of like...in the background? Season four is the first time we ever even get a real flashback and actual exposition about it in the anime, even though it's been vaguely referenced as early as season two with Mimic. They literally did experiments on children, hence Chuuya. So much of the world and the violence and the tripartite framework all came into existence because of the war. And until the most recent arc, where it's being brought to the forefront with both Fukuchi and Fyodor's plan to eradicate ability users, it's sort of just in the background.

And don't even get me started on the lore behind the Dragon Head Conflict because like-

Me, in real life: I really hope I didn't say anything to offend them I mean I don't think I did but maybe when they looked away they were hurt god I hope I didn't make them feel the least particle of sadness.

Me, as a writer: Is this emotionally damaging enough? I really hope I can completely and utterly wreck this random person, make them ugly sob into their pillow, absolutely ruin their day in as little words as possible.