The Main Four [& Knuckles Voice] And Hyuse

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

I wanna talk about Odasaku for a second, and his character arc in Dark Era

I love Odasaku, and one of the things I love about him is that he's not just there to be the friend Dazai loved and lost, he's a really deep character who grows over the course of the Dark Era novel, and he learns how to speak up.

I feel like his arc is mitigated in the anime, and I'm not going to be blaming it necessarily, it's just that a book written in first person POV is able to achieve a lot more depth to the MC over the anime , which is forced in nature to take a more third person, observational take to the character.

Dark Era spoilers, obviously.

The first thing I would like to bring up is Oda's personality, and for that, I'm actually going to start this analysis off with using a quote from Beast, of all things, because this was honestly the best description of Odasaku ever.

The best way to describe Odasaku's personality is obliviously perceptive. He's really smart, and somehow a complete airhead at the same time. When you read either Dark Era or The Day I Picked Up Dazai, you can sense this in an instant. How this pertains to his relationship to Dazai in particular is that he sees things. He knows that Dazai is hurting deeply, he's one of the only people who sees past the dark exterior and the child deep within, but at the beginning of the book, he won't say anything. He puts Dazai on this pedestal in a sense, and doesn't believe that his input is warranted, and he says nothing, even when Dazai is a walking cry for help. After listening to Dazai casually admit to a suicide attempt via banging his head against a hard tofu block without batting an eye, that's when Ango arrives and tells him off.

However, the conversation quickly shifts, and the matter isn't brought up again.

The next time someone tells Odasaku to speak up when he's summoned to Mori's office, and is greeted with a rather...bizarre scene. Still, he's a low-grunt of the Mafia, and Mori is the boss, so he lets whatever stuff is going on fly, until he eventually interrupts, ignores whatever was going on, and announces his presence. Which prompts the following conversation:

Still, it's apparent he doesn't take these words to heart, and continues to perceive almost everything, but never comments. However, something soon happens which brings to the surface just how deeply ingrained Oda's reticence truly is.

After Oda was chased by the enemy snipers, most of them had enough holes in them never to rise again. Until one picks up a gun and aims it at Dazai, the enemy executive, all other backup too far away to offer any aid. Instead of trying to avoid it or stop it, Dazai walks right up to the enemy and says , paraphrased "shoot me, please shoot me." The whole time, Odasaku's desperation is palpable, and unlike the anime, he attempts to stop Dazai from this blatant self-destruction by calling his name and then screaming it, thinking that he felt they were a million miles apart. After the ordeal, when Dazai faces his friend again, he offers all his excuses, how he knew the sniper would miss, but Odasaku wasn't satisfied. And this is where we get the first hint at how Oda really feels about this:

He wants to say something. He wants to punch him for the stunt Dazai just pulled, because he sees the truth. He sees the child inside of him. But once again, he's restrained by the apparent gap between them in rank and mind. Another important thing to note is that throughout the novel, Odasaku considers their difference in rank a bigger barrier than Dazai does. He makes comments about Dazai helping him, the low runt in the Mafia, but the executive doesn't care. Here once again, Oda is inhibited by this apparent gap between them, but this scene is also growth for him in the sense that he understands that there's a problem here. Earlier, he passively listened to Dazai speak of suicide, but faced with a barely disguised attempt, with the true demons inside of Dazai's mind, he wants to stop him, to reach out, to tell him that it's not ok. But he can't. Not yet at least.

After a later incident, we're given a flat-out description of Odasaku's philosophy, and why he chooses to remain silent. When the two of them are at the restaurant, discussing the enemy, and when Dazai realizes they might actually be a formidable opponent, he laughs, elated with the notion that perhaps he might be beaten. And that's when we get perhaps the clearest look into Odasaku's mindset:

There's a lot to unpack in this interaction: first, we see how much Odasaku truly cares for Dazai, how much he wishes he could rid his heart of the darkness buried deep inside. But the problem is, he believes he can't. He doesn't think he could do anything, at first, he's not sure what to say to him because what could he say? He doesn't think he can reach him. And then the all important line "What we see is everything, and everything we see, we ignore. All we can do is stand before the deep ditch between us and others and keep silent." The thing is, not everyone sees everything. He doesn't realize this. He's so oblivious, he can't even comprehend that he's more perceptive than others, almost like Ranpo when he was younger. He doesn't know what to do with the information he receives but to ignore it, as he says, to see the distance and remain silent through it. But still, he makes a halfhearted attempt to reach out, but is interrupted when Dazai's phone rings, and doesn't bring it up again.

The biggest turning point is the kids and Gide. Gide, who drags Odasaku, a character who seemed to have the healthiest will to live, into the darkness. By removing all his hope, his proof that he could one day write a novel and give up killing forever, he brings Oda down into the pit of despair that he lives in, the pit that Dazai lives in. Where the sun won't shine again, and all that's left is revenge and then death. This is where the tables turn, and now Dazai is trying to save Odasaku from that darkness that he knows all too well. He tells him useless platitudes, cliches that must have been uttered to him over and over that he knows won't work, but Dazai is desperate to save the one he's on the verge of losing. But Odasaku won't let himself be consoled, and he goes on the suicide mission to fight Gide. And only now, now that he's about to die, now that he's in this place of solitude and despair, that he reflects on Dazai and their relationship.

It's only at the end does Odasaku wish he would have said something. When he understands the darkness, he sees Dazai for what he truly is - a lonely, sobbing child. And it's only after this realization that he should have invaded the solitude does he speak up when Dazai arrives, and tells him to be a good man. Because he realizes that the darkness is going to overwhelm him unless something changes, and with his dying breaths, Odasaku gives over the advice that changed his life, not a way out of the darkness, but a way to brighten it just a little, and make living a little more beautiful. Something only he could understand, having tried to walk that path for himself. It can't be that it never occurred to him earlier that Dazai's mental health may have benefited from a...change in vocation, but he never thought it was his business to say anything before. But now that the darkness has consumed him, that's the final push for him to finally say something and reach out to his friend at the last moment before it was too late.

And though I don't think the anime did all of this justice, the parallels between these moments will always kill me.

Ok ok I'm going to scream. I was rewatching a scene from the third episode, right after Atsushi tries to shoot Akutagawa, and then Akutagawa says, "blah blah blah, unfortunately for you, I keep my promises" and then proceeds to cut off his leg, as one does.

AND IT'S THE FACT THAT AKUTAGAWA KEEPS HIS PROMISES THAT'S THE REASON ATSUSHI IS ALIVE AFTER THE FIGHT WITH FUKUCHI HE INTRODUCED HIMSELF AS SOMEONE WHO KEEPS HIS PROMISES AND THAT ENDED UP SAVING ATSUSHI'S LIFE AND ANDLFIDSNLFNA—

I would like to make my contribution to the Chuuya has reading glasses headcanon:

Chuuya calls Ango "Doc glasses." This started when he just got reading glasses, and was insensitive about needing them.

But one day, there's a joined meeting between the division and Ango sees Chuuya with reading glasses—

He opens his mouth to speak. Chuuya sees him, realizes the situation, and before Ango can attempt to tell him that he no longer has the right to call him "Doc glasses," Chuuya very calmly looks down at what he's reading, glasses remaining, and says, "if you make one single comment, then you won't need glasses anymore." He looked Ango in the eyes. "Ever again. Got it, Doc Glasses?"

Ango has enough self-preservation to agree. And thus, the nickname remained.

Bsd is really just a blend of every genre like you got detectives powers mystery guns violence trauma (lots and lots of trauma) war "rivalry" mafia book vampires and one time a character fought a dragon.

Dark era vs Beast

"This story is a tragedy because it didn't have to end this way."

vs

"This story is a tragedy because it was always going to end this way."

Hope I'm not too late, have some Pi Day memes.

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???"

So we know that Chuuya complained about his fangs getting stuck, but in the newest chapters, it doesn't seem like he has them in anymore.

Which means that the order of events between the finale and chapter 113 (I believe that’s the number) went like this:

First, they walked back inside the prison, with Dazai still holding the antidote. Chuuya says, “don’t you think you oughta take it by now?”

Dazai shrugs. “I’ve got time.”

Chuuya nods. They make their way more into the prison. “Hey, don’t you think you better—"

“It’s fine,” Dazai assures him. Chuuya frowns.

“You aren’t just waiting until it’s too late, are you?”

No response.

“Dazai? Hey, Dazai, answer me—"

“I think I better go now—"

“TAKE THE STUPID ANTIDOTE—“

“No! I don’t wanna HEY WAIT—" Chuuya jumps onto Dazai sending him sprawling to the floor, and they have a long struggle and frankly ridiculous struggle, which involves Chuuya trying to inject the antidote while Dazai fights him. Eventually, Chuuya manages to restrain Dazai's arms with one hand, and shoves the syringe into Dazai's neck with the other. He’s sweating and panting as he throws it away and lets go of Dazai's hands. Bitter at having been defeated due to his lack of strength that tends to happen when you narrowly escaped death more times than you can count within the past half hour, Dazai comments, “you know, with that expression on your face and those fangs, you really DO look like a vampire.” Which reminds Chuuya of his current predicament. He gets off of Dazai and they seek out a bathroom where Chuuya spends a good deal of time in front of the mirror, trying to get the fangs off without hurting his real teeth. He attempts to google it, but complains about the lack of service and good wifi. Dazai reminds him ever so kindly that it’s a prison, idiot. So they trek all the way up to the first floor and Chuuya stands on the roof, above the wreckage and pile of blood, holding his phone up until google loads and provides him with solutions. They found a way, but in order to get the ingredients required, they’re forced to raid the cafeteria, much to Dazai’s delight. All the required ingredients are eventually collected, but Chuuya spent an extra half hour trying and failing to pull Dazai out of the cafeteria as he scoured places including but not limited to: the fridge, the freezer, every cabinet, all the pantries, and the so called “hidden pantry” where all the sweets were. They finally make it back to the bathroom, where after much bickering and pulling and coaxing, Dazai finally manages to yank off the fangs, causing Chuuya to emit a high pitched sound not unlike a girl’s shriek. Finally, they make it back to the room where Sleeping Beauty is, still quite unconscious.

“I just don’t get it,” says Dazai. He crouched down and stares Sigma thoughtfully. “Why hasn’t he woken up?”

Chuuya frowns. “Do you think it might have to do with the stab wound—?"

“Nah, couldn’t be. Not in this series.”

“Oh, right.” Chuuya examines him again. An idea comes to him. He turns to his partner, his expression perhaps a little too gleeful. “May I…?”

Dazai waves a dismissive hand. “Go for it.”

Which is how we arrive to the state of affairs in chapter 113. Dazai’s no longer self destructing or hungry, Chuuya’s fangs are gone, and Sigma will find himself with a SEVERE back pain when he wakes up.

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)