whose team work do you prefer, chuuya and dazai's or kunikida and dazai? i just read the latest chapters bc it was a while since i caught up to the manga and the anime but i saw their team up against the guild, and i remembered the anime episode that revolved around kunikida and dazai's teamwork through atsushi which apparently was based on the light novel and just wanted to know your thoughts on the two contrasting teamwork :)
Since you’re asking for personal taste, I would have to go and say soukoku. Admittedly, I was influenced by Chapter 31 which was the latest chapter out when I was just starting reading BSD. But if I have to be objective, I think Dazai’s partnership with Kunikida is a little bit more balanced.
While it may have taken years for soukoku to learn how to cooperate and coordinate, Dazai and Kunikida managed to be in sync the first time they worked together. The anime messed the timeline up, but what we saw in Episode 7 was basically how it went down in the light novel anyway. They knew they had to exchange opponents automatically with just a quick look of the other’s situation. They were efficient, and wrecked their respective opponents after doing the old switcheroo.
To be fair to both Dazai and Chuuya, they were probably each other’s first (and sole?) mission partners back when Dazai was still in the mafia. They had to learn a lot of new stuff by themselves, failing and succeeding and then failing some more.
In a way, Agency!Dazai benefits by using his experience to come up with strategies/tactics he may have developed back when he had Chuuya as a partner.
But in fact, these two men are the Agency’s favorite pair for solving cases. Ever since Dazai joined two years ago, the Detective Agency has boasted its best rate of success for solving high-difficulty cases. To outsiders who don’t know about their personalities or bad relationship, Dazai and Kunikida are often described as a well-coordinated pair. — excerpt from “The Untold Story of the Detective Agency’s Establishment”
Of course, we have Kunikida to thank for picking up the slack because Dazai doesn’t like hard work.
However, the moment Taneda-sensei’s namewas said, my breathing stopped.
If we’re talking about the Ministry ofInternal Affairs’ Department of Special Force’s Taneda, there’s no one whodoesn’t know him in this line of business; he’s the executive of the SpecialForce Unit. His work is managing and regulating all ability users. Even whenthe President was building the Armed Detective Agency, he often depended onTaneda-sensei’s helpful influence.
No matter what a bigshot the President is,he can’t turn down a person recommended personally by Taneda-sensei.
“I’ll be under you care, senpai.”
I don’t know if he knows about the unrestin my heart or not, but our new employee showed his white teeth while smilingwidely. — excerpt from “Dazai Osamu’s Entrance Exam”
Another thing I would want to point out is how Kunikida is actually Dazai’s senpai~~
Dazai acknowledges Kunikida as Fukuzawa’s successor, so there’s a level of respect in there at least. With soukoku, they’ve started out equals more or less, then at one point Dazai was promoted faster than Chuuya. I can’t imagine Chuuya bowing down to Dazai but one of the mafia rules was to always listen to the one who is in the higher hierarchy so he may have swallowed his pride and begrudgingly took orders from Dazai.
Oh wait, that’s how their partnership works anyway lol. What I mean to say is, Dazai is more likely to hear Kunikida’s input and follow whatever suggestion or plan he comes up with. Now compare this to his scenes with Chuuya where he refuses to make concessions. Chuuya says one thing, and then he either counters or makes fun of him. For Dazai, being wrong equals to Chuuya being right, and we can’t have that can we?
Another reason why #StopDazai2K16 should be a thing: Dazai exercises his knowledge of both men’s pet peeves and weaknesses and what makes them tick in ways that that would aggravate even a sane Dazai-free person.
Again, the difference is, Dazai’s jokes and pranks with Kunikida are more lighthearted, but with Chuuya it’s suddenly Serious Business™.
Also, Dazai knows Chuuya more intimately since they’ve grown up together, leading to bold proclamations like the ones above. It’s almost witchcraft.
Both partnerships have Dazai as the brains of the operations, with Kunikida and Chuuya doing most of the grunt work. No matter which partnership you prefer, you gotta applaud these two since they have to put up with Dazai’s childlike antics and many eccentricities.
(cr: EGScans, DazaiScans)
