Do you and Mike plan this shit together? Everyone used to be so on board with shipping Soukoku, but ever since you guys joined this fandom it's gone awry. Of course we are still the vast, vast majority but why do you guys do this? Why do you try to drive us Soukoku shippers mad with your words of hate towards our ship? Is there an anti-Soukoku cult I am unaware of led by you two? Like the KKK, but worse?
im fucking laughing my ass off right now are you legit trying to compare us not liking a ship to the kkk holy fuck you’re a piece of shit lmao
secondly, i don’t really know mike all that well
thirdly “since you guys joined this fandom” WHEN DO YOU THINK I JOINED THIS FANDOM LMAO CAUSE GUARANTEED IT WAS BEFORE YOU DID
y’all is this fucking real life someone literally sat down and typed this out im wheezing
I do not hate Soukoku, I just don't see Chuuya and Dazai in a romantic relationship. I don't think that they were lovers. I don't think that Chuuya needs Dazai to live his life and I don't think that their relationship was as deep as a vast majority of fans want it to be. I ship them platonically.
They were partners in crime. They were in a Mafia organization, not in a Highschool where they had to fight bullies. They fought against men who wanted to see them dead. Men who would have gladly kidnapped them and tortured them to get information. How else would they have survived if they didn't trust each other?
Soukoku – Double Black – was the figurehead of the Port Mafia. There was a war going on in the Underground. Mori had overtaken the Port Mafia fully aware that people would try to dethrone him and destroy the Port Mafia. Many other crime syndicates tried to destroy them and Double Black was their most powerful weapon. Chuuya and Dazai were surely send often to fight against troublemakers. There were enemies in all ends of Yokohama, maybe even from outside of their prefecture! This does not mean that they were in love. They trusted each other with their life, because they had no other choice. This mutual understanding and hidden love that so many people desperately want to see did not exist. Not to that extent.
Sadly many fans don't know enough about crime syndicates such as Yakuza, Triads, Mafia and what they do for a living. How do you think do they earn money? Surely not through honest work. People who are in those syndicates have a darkness in their heart that led them to this path. They were outsiders in the society. In Bungou Stray Dogs we have the fictional Great War that led to a vast increase of orphans. There were so many homeless people who didn't have any other choice but to join these syndicates. For them every day is fighting for their life. Dazai too was obviously treated like a parasite in society and questions whether he is human, questioning his own mind and thoughts. His eyes are dead. He has seen unspeakable things. Things that children shouldn't see. Those things formed the twisted Dazai we know.
Chuuya has lived in Suribachi – the slums of Yokohama – a town that is even closed from the main city. You can't just go in and out. People who live in slums – who are raised in slums – have a far more different world view than people like us. We happily share our memes over Internet and complain about trivial stuff, we have the time and carelessness to argue over anime and fictional ships – while people in slums all too often fight over garbage because there might be something edible.
Of course Chuuya is strong! How else would he have survived?
Chuuya was the leader of a gang, he is/was the main fighter of Soukoku and yet people describe him as cute and depended of Dazai. He already beat up people before he met Dazai. He was a leader and his aggressive demeanour became so bad that even Mori couldn't ignore him anymore. He was so wild that a crime syndicate such as the Port Mafia couldn't ignore him. Let that sink in. He was badass before meeting Dazai and he obviously doesn't have a problem beating other people up. He even hits Dazai simply because he likes it. He has a temper problem, just like the real Nakahara Chuuya who would often get into bar fights and get mad about stupid stuff, especially when he was drunk.
So many fanfictions make him look like a whiny schoolgirl that never wanted to join the Mafia. People seem to think that Chuuya could never hurt anyone! Because he is a sweetheart and so kind at heart – something that never was shown in BSD, not even between the lines. Chuuya joined the Port Mafia out of his own free will. He knew what the future was going to hold for him and yet people make it look like as if he was forced. Even worse: some people seem to think that Chuuya joined the Port Mafia because he loved Dazai. Chuuya enjoyed working for the Port Mafia. He became an Executive and has never even hinted that he wanted to leave. He feels at ease at the Port Mafia, he considers this way of life his choice.
Every conversation between Chuuya and Dazai – people see romantic interaction. And if you don't agree with their view, you're automatically a hater. (Honestly, I love writing platonic Chuuya/Dazai because they are interesting, but you can write about them without seeing sparkling little hearts everywhere.)
I don't think that Soukoku is a bad ship, it's a poorly presented/written ship.
It's this kind of presentation of the majority of fans that has ruined this ship for many other fans. It's not like a “sudden” cult against it, it's the mass of fanworks in this fandom of this ship with this out of character-portrayal that make people more and more furious. They disrespect the characters, write them poorly and fight against other fans who don't agree with their ship.
And it gets worse.
Looking for fanfiction? Something about Dazai? Since he is a interesting character that keeps many secrets to himself and where you can interpret a lot? Let's take a look at Archive of Our Own. Oh. Mostly Dazai/Chuuya. No problem! Let's filter the results and make Chuuya as a character disappear, but... once again. Still mostly Dazai/Chuuya. No panic. We simply filter this ship out and holy moly, there are still so many stories for this ship? Although I have filtered it multiple times? How is this possible?
People happily abusing the tag system~ don't we all love it? There are way too many people who either don't use tags, refuse to write a summary of their story or are too lazy to add characters. It's this behaviour that makes people angry with other shippers and the ship itself. Play fair. Don't abuse the tags and be honest with your works. Don't add other ships like “Kunikida/Dazai” if you already know that your story is not about them! It's just unfair and distorts the results.
A fan who always encounters a ship that he already filtered out multiple times, will get annoyed over time.
“Everyone used to be so on board with shipping Soukoku, but ever since you guys joined this fandom it's gone awry.“
It's not true that everyone was on board with this ship. People who didn't care simply didn't look up any fanworks and didn't say anything. Ship and let ship. Personally, I never was into Soukoku, so whenever it appeared on my dashboard or was recommended to me, I ignored it and moved on. It's not my ship, so I'm not going to waste my time getting into it. I have other things in life to do. I follow and support the writers and artists that make the content I want to see. That's what fans should do. Supporting each other.
HOWEVER.
More and more Soukoku fans are cocky and comment on other works just to mention that they hope for Soukoku although Chuuya isn't even mentioned as a character. Although the story clearly isn't about their ship. Yet they leave comments like that, trying to subtly change the opinion of the writer just to get their ship. I don't know when it happened or why, but there are many fans who seem to think that Soukoku actually happened and that their ship is the default ship for everyone. (Spoiler: it’s not!)
That one thing that made me write this, is the fact that Soukoku shippers even dare to comment on Japanese artworks and insult foreign artists for not drawing Soukoku! This is the worst! It's despicable and makes my gut twist. Several of my Japanese favorite artists received very inappropriate comments from Soukoku shippers.
If you dislike Mori/Dazai – okay! That's fine. But going out of your way, stalking Japanese artists who sell their doujinshi and live from their art just to insult them because they draw the “wrong” ship, even threatening them to hurt them just because you can't deal with people not sharing your interests? Even telling them that you have to wash your eyes with bleach because you saw their art? That's going too far. Stop ship shaming others.
You show disrespect not only towards a ship, but against an entire culture. You don't know how fandoms in Japan work and yet you have the audacity to mend in and even dare to demand from people overseas to change their artworks because you don't like it? Because you view it as problematic? This bad behaviour came mostly from American (!) Soukoku fans. If you don't want to learn Japanese in order to connect with fans in Japan, do not comment their artworks at all. There are quite a few cultural differences and there is a comment etiquette you are not aware of. There are Do's and Don'ts when it comes to Japanese fandom societies and if you're too lazy to learn about it, stay away.
It's not a sudden cult, Anon. It's this behaviour that make even silent shippers stand up and become angry at you. You even go so far to compare fans who are not into your ship with the Kukuxklan. Do you even have the slightest idea what those people were? What they did? You even say that people who are not into SKK are worse?
I'd like to tell you to go out in the world and see where actual problems are. See how many people are starving. How people all over the world are being abused, sold and forced to work. See how people in slums live. How people living in/near disaster areas fight every day. You have too much time. Expand your horizon, Anon, before you complain about people not sharing your ship interests. You clearly need a break from Internet.













