People Really Don't Take Into Account How Much Atsushi Suffered In That Orphanage, Or How Much It Affects

The BEST line from Stormbringer:

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

A cute detail I love about the Agency's office is that everyone else's desks have files and laptops on it while Ranpo's just has a singular phone because it's the only thing he needs to do his job; get calls and go detective. And then come home and snack

(Ranpo's desk is the one in the center)

FOUND FAMILY COMMITING WAR CRIMES FOR EACH OTHER.

Seriously, how are there people who don't see them as a found family? They're literally the most wholesome part of the series. They better be reunited soon, and I want an entire episode dedicated to the afterparty.

"Kunikida is alive. If he died, there's no way I wouldn't have sensed it. Not just Kunikida either. As long as at least one agency member remains alive... They will never stop resisting. This battle will be won by my team."

Chuuya's wardrobe and how it changes over the years truly is everything to me. He's on the streets, he wears a hoodie, a biker jacket covering the hoodie, and jeans. He joins the mafia and gets a hat. He immediately gets a fancy outfit to accommodate said fancy hat. He loses the hat, and then he wears the standard suit, but different, cuz he's Like That™. Then it's back to the hat, but also back to the biker jacket. Then it's the fancy outfit. Then it's a fancy biker jacket. Seriously, his wardrobe is such a perfect representation of his character. I love him.

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™"

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a common misconception that's been permeating the fandom, even on the official wiki, that's just...not true.

Dazai met Akutagawa when he became an executive, which happened when he was 17-18. In both The Heartless Cur (the short story written by Asagiri about how Akutagawa and Dazai met) and Beast, which follows the original timeline, albeit with some changes, it flat out states that the interaction was only four and a half years prior to the main story. Which means Akutagawa knew Dazai for six months. He was already either fifteen or sixteen when they met, and they haven't known each other for that long. Not fourteen.

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.

We talk a lot about the cycle of abuse, but we need to discuss the savior chain more because, aside from being one of the most wholesome concepts in the entire series, it's also way more direct than the cycle of abuse and it's what breaks it.

Odasaku begins to save orphans because a man told him to write fanfiction and that led to him to stop killing. He told Dazai to become a good man because he knew for himself that yes, this is a more beautiful path, this makes life just a little bit more worth living.

Dazai saves Atsushi because he sees what Odasaku told him: a traumatized, helpless orphan. He saves him (at first) because of the promise he made to Odasaku, and the opportunity given to him on a silver platter to help out an orphan and give him a home (properly this time).

And on Atsushi's end, that means everything to him. The fact that for the first time in his life, he has someone who didn't give him up on him. That he now has a home, a place where he belongs.

And it's for that reason that he chooses to save Kyouka. He doesn't give up on her because Dazai never gave up on him. Because he feels empathy for her, and wants to bring her over to this new light he's discovered because someone was kind enough to show it him.

Dazai helps Atsushi because Odasaku helped show him the light.

And Odasaku told him to become good because a man once showed him the beauty of saving lives instead of taking them.

And it's this cycle that ends up breaking the cycle of abuse, this generation mistreatment of orphans because they see their own darkness inside of them. Instead, this cycle sees the light inside of others and it brings others to save another.

I love how every time Fyodor opens his mouth to speak in the last few chapters Atsushi's face is just like "No no no no shut up shut up SHUT UP-"

Unfortunately, he does not.