Favorite Luka screenshots from Round 7 ~
Also isn't it funny how by Ivan's selfish act of kissing Till he publicly created a vulnerability Luka was then able to exploit in the following round, causing Till's death? lol
I'm very sorry this part wasn't included in the anime, it's about the best insight of Naomi's character we've got in the whole manga, of how witty and coolheaded and resourceful she is. The āIf you had a special skill I bet you'd outclass your brother as a detectiveā line is so interesting...
And because Laurent's life had been dragged from its course, because he was not the sweet, bookish youth he might have been, but was instead hard and dangerous as cut glass, Laurent was going to take on Kastor's best sword work, and force it back.
Kings Rising, pg. 338, C.S. Pacat
You know, typically I find the phrase 'screaming crying throwing up' only worthy of mockery, but like. I get to this paragraph. And I get it. I reread the paragraph. I get it even more.
It's a strange question, butā¦ Do you think Dazai had ever sex with someone ? He's someone who's don't like being in an vulnerable position and intimity seems inconfortable for him soā¦ SORRY for my english, it's not my first language !
Thatās a valid question and tbh I already thought about that myself. And your English is quite good, I understand you. Itās not my first language either, so ;)
That really depends on how you interpret Dazai, and as always people have different opinions. Therefore different people will also tell you different things.
We must also keep in mind that BSD is not a romance story. So things like who has sexual experiences and who doesnāt, who has a romantic partner/love interest and who doesnāt, isnāt important to the story and its characters, and therefore not mentioned.
I hope you donāt mind that my answer ended up to be longer than I first imagined. But I tend to look at things more closely than to give a simple āyes/no, because I think...ā
~ ~ ~
You can take Dazaiās flirtations at face value and believe his acting. It then really seems that heās the number 1 womanizer.
Chuuya also confirms that Dazai has broken many womenās hearts. But we donāt know how far those interactions went. We donāt know if he only flirted with them, if he had a romantic date with them, or if those were one-night stands.
Maybe itās being left ambiguous on purpose for our own interpretation. Maybe itās going to be revealed in another novel.
However, Dazai is mostly seen flirting with women to:
a) gather information (e.g.: when he put the transmitter in Higuchiās jacket to spy on her, because he already assumed that she was with the PM. Another example is Sasaki, the girlfriend of the Azure King. But more on that later.)
b) get something he wants
(e.g.: when he flirted with the nurse who took away his phone, so he used flattery to change her mind and get his phone back from her. Another example is the waitress he tries to distract, so he doesnāt have to pay his tabs. But she isnāt taking any of his shit and he knows it XD)
c) simply for fun (or out of boredom). He asks random women to commit suicide with him or to kill him, even though he exactly knows they wonāt do it (the waitress is an example for this again).
The anime either left it out or censored it, but the first light novel has some sexual/erotic hints regarding Kunikida. We definitely know that Kunikida finds Sasaki sexual attractive, and he has been asked before if he had a date (explicit in the sense of a one-night stand).
Which then leads to the scene where it looks like Dazai invited Sasaki over to have a one-night stand with her. At least thatās exactly what Kunikida is thinking, because thatās just how he interprets Dazai:
āThank you so much, Mr. Dazai. You... you were very...kind to me last night...ā
Miss Sasaki flushes bashfully for some reason.
āWhatās wrong, Kunikida? Youāve got a really weird look on your face.ā
āDazai... donāt you think thatās taking things a little too fast?ā
āI... I was the one who asked him to let me stay over. I basically forced him.ā
Later on Dazai confirms that he slept in a different room and that he didnāt touch her.
If Dazai truly is the number 1 womanizer heās always playing (or people think him to be), then that wouldāve been his chance. And there is no reason for Asagiri to censor it in any way, if he already made sexual/erotic hints before.
Itās implied that Dazai already suspected Sasaki when he and Kunikida first met her. Just like in the case with Higuchi, Dazai playing a dumb womanizer whoās just flirting with women is his way of gathering information. So, he plays the womanizer and flirts with Sasaki to eventually get something out of her. The problem is that Sasaki is an excellent manipulator and actress herself, and sheās using Dazai and Kunikida for her own plans, too. Therefore Dazai canāt confirm his theory as quickly as he can with Higuchi.
Thereās also this reaction from Dazai, which I think is really interesting:
ā[...] You know thereās nothing going on between Miss Sasaki and me, Ā right? [...] I slept in another room. I havenāt laid a finger on her. Cāmon, do you really think Iād try to seduce a woman who was almost killed earlier that day? Iāve got a little more sense than that. [...]ā
Doesnāt sound like a heartless and selfish womanizer to me.
.
It leads to the question that if Dazai had sex itās when and with whom?
As stated above, he was already flirtatious during his PM time. Unfortunately Chuuya had been the witness of many of these, feeling sorry for all the women Dazai left heartbroken.
Given the fact that Dazai apparently only has contact with Chuuya during missions and not in private, itās a high possibility that all these interactions Chuuya knows about was Dazai flirting with women for ulterior motives (gathering information etc.) and that he just interprets them the same way Kunikida does.
Since Dazaiās mindset during his PM time was more depressed and dark, I doubt that he honestly was in the mood for sexual encounters. Itās also nowhere stated in the Dark Era novel that he had an encounter anywhere like this before. It isnāt even mentioned that he once flirted with someone out of personal interests. And since he sees Ango and Odasaku as his friends, those two wouldāve been the ones to know about.
.
All in all I interpret Dazai as someone whoās acting most of the time, playing someone who he truly is not and hiding what he truly feels. And that includes his flirts with women. Itās easier for him, if everyone around him just assumes heās shallow and selfish, when he in reality longs for something honest and is even afraid of getting hurt in the end. Ā
[Dazai saying A and then doing B deserves itās own meta, but that would be too much, and my answer already has gotten way too long.]
As soon as he gets from the women he flirts with what he actually wants (be it his phone or information) he dumps them. He doesnāt need to place himself in an intimate position with them, because heās just that good with manipulation, which includes flirting. I also think having Dazai really have sex with any of them takes away his genius, because then it seems that he HAS to do A in order to get B. In other words: He HAS to use his body, his mind and words alone arenāt enough. But thatās just my opinion.
Therefore I believe that Dazai actually didnāt have a sexual encounter before, not even for gathering information. He knows how to act like a smooth womanizer and he knows how to win over a womanās heart:
āAnd from my experience, it takes only a smile and some kindness to get a woman swooning over you when sheās fallen on hard times.ā
Iām sure he whispered some erotic things in the nurseās ear, maybe purposely leaving her with an outlook for something more. But thatās all just make believe and pretend. Ultimately, it doesnāt tell if he has actual sexual experiences or not. Heās just playing along.
[Translation] Asagiri Kafka's afterwords for The Day I Picked up Dazai novel
Normally, afterwords would be the last thing I read in a novel, but as there are not many changes to the published novel this time compared to the movie bonus version, I was able to skim through the text quickly and get to this. And to be honest, despite not being a writer myself, I was so moved by Asagiri's views about writing and his characters that he shared in the afterwords, that I had to sit down and translate it right away.
This is just my crappy translation, as usual, but I hope it gave you a short, interesting look into the author and the characters. And please do not forget to buy the novel if you have the chance.
The translation is under the cut, thank you!
It has been a while. This is Asagiri Kafka.
Have you been enjoying Bungou Stray Dogs?
This novel, āThe Day I Picked up Dazaiā, is a compilation of the first weekās bonus novel āThe Day I Picked up Dazai ā Side Aā and the second weekās bonus novel āThe Day I Picked up Dazai ā Side Bā for the screening of āBungou Stray Dogs BEASTā movie (hereinafter referred to as āBEASTā).
Normally, it is difficult to publish a bonus like this, but since "BEASTā and āFifteenā that were published earlier by BEANS Bunko were originally bonus novels too, "The Day I Picked up Dazaiā was also published in the same way, thanks to the efforts of all parties involved in the Bungou Stray Dogs series.
It is the story of Dazai and Odasakuās first meeting, where Dazai who wants to die, collapsed in front of Odasakuās place, who is neither a mafioso nor a hit man.
Why are there two different stores, Side A and Sode B? Regarding this question, please read the novel and see for yourself. If you keep in mind that this is the bonus for the BEAST movie, I think you will be able to understand it better.
Let me reminisce a little bit here.
This story was actually suggested to me by Igarashi Takuya, Director of the Bungou Stray Dogs anime.
Shortly before BEAST movie premiered, I was struggling. It was because I was asked to write a bonus novel for movie-goers again. I said āagainā because, as I mentioned earlier, BEAST itself was a bonus novel for the Bungou Stray Dogs DEAD APPLE movie. I remembered having a hard time writing it, because I let myself run wild and wrote a total of 190 pages instead of 50 pages as requested.
But I had learnt my lesson after the last rampage. I canāt just write whatever I want anymore. I have to wrap the story in a reasonable length, like a pro should do.
A proper, professional story.
Huh?
My pen stopped right there. I stopped, looked around, feeling lost.
What is a proper story?
The act of writing novel is quite different in character compared to other types of media such as writing manga, anime scripts, or game scenarios. You can say it is almost a different thing. Writing novels, rather than narrating an event, is more like putting the flow of emotions into specific sentences. You use the sequence of letters to create rhythms, create flows, and create emotions. If anything, it might be closer to composing a song than writing a story.
Therefore, you have to decide āwhat kind of emotion will be put in this novelā from the very beginning, or you canāt start writing. That is the only and absolute rule.
Now, however, that is where the condition of a āproper storyā hung over me.
A proper novel, of a proper volume, with a proper content for a bonus.
In other words, a proper emotion.
I searched through the drawers inside my head. For a proper emotion that is waiting to be brought out.
There was nothing but emptiness there.
A professional story teller is one with the skill to move the readersā emotions. When people find the chance to move their own emotions, they will happily be paying for it. Human-being is that kind of creature.
And writers are ones who create and sell those kinds of emotions: the fear, the excitement, the heart throb etc., those that make you think. It is that kind of job.
It is supposed to be that kind of job.
Yet I became unable to move forward.
A good story is a story that moves people. I know that. Then what kind of emotion I should put in the story to make it "proper"?
How do I find that emotion?
I mean, how did I even write novels until now?
I stood still. My legs stiffened, my knees froze, unable to take even a step forward.
I then tried to at least pretend that I was moving forward, by listening to music, by taking a walk around the neighborhood at night. But as good as the night breeze felt, I didnāt manage to reach a single story that I needed to write.
What if I stayed like this forever, what would I do?
I felt a chill plunging into my back.
Then I realized, that stories, or probably emotions too, are not things you can search for or come up with. You have no choice but to patiently wait for it to come your way. You have no choice but to humbly and earnestly sit and wait for the storyās visit.
I got that, but the "proper 50-page storyā still refused to come.
It was not long before one week passed. Then two weeks.
I was doing other work, while keeping my heartās door open, waiting for the story to come to me.
At that time, I had an online meeting with the anime staff. I casually asked Director Igarashi, āDo you have any story you want to see?ā
The Director gave it a little thought then told me, "I want to see the story of Dazai and Odaās encounterā.
At that very moment, the story rushed in through my door, like a bang. I could hear that sound very clearly.
Two stories. Odasaku, and the two Dazais. A story where they met, and a story where they couldnāt meet. A story of gain and a story of loss. If I can portray the gain and loss side by side, the amplitude of the heart will be doubled and rise up in front of us.
That was a momentary event. Rather than pushing my way forward, I felt as if something was pulling my hand. Before I noticed, I have already finished the stories.
I came to realize.
It is not the writer who searches for the story. It is the story that chooses its writer, and at some point it will come our way. A professional writer is no more than someone with the ability to catch that call.
Also, this is the most important thing: there is no such thing as a āproper emotionā. Because after all, the feelings of other people belong to them only. That is why there is no guarantee that a novel can move others āproperlyā. However, you can move your own emotions. You know what kind of novel can and how it will move you. If you do, you can write just that. Thatās the only way. That is the truly professional attitude. Thatās what I thought.
Well then.
It is a little bit off topic, but as we are talking about āstories that come our wayā, letās talk about Odasakuās first-person narrative.
Odasaku is a special character. For me, he is exclusively a novel character, and I have never portrayed him in the manga.
He first appeared as the narrator in āDazai Osamu and The Dark Eraā, then āBEASTā and now this āThe Day I Picked up Dazaiā. All are novels. Thatās why for me, Odasaku doesnāt live inside the pictures, he lives inside the first-person narrative passages.
He is an eccentric guy. Even if you prepare the place and tell him to speak, he wonāt speak to you that easily. His way of thinking is rather unique, that if I write his narrative after writing other charactersā first-person narrative, I would stumble for sure. Odasaku doesnāt speak. He just sits there in silence, while I can do nothing but sitting in front of my blank manuscript paper, trying to talk to him, like āWhatās up?ā, āHere, hereā. However, he is a guy who wonāt speak when it is not necessary. Sometimes it goes days or even weeks without him saying a word. Why did such a character come to me...?
During such time, there is only one thing I can do. That is, of course, to stay with him, sit patiently, and simply wait.
Finally he will start speaking. In his unique rhythm, word by word. His words have the power to cut through the world from a certain angle. That special cross-section is full of things I have never seen before and it never fails to surprise me.
And then when he finishes telling his story, he will swiftly disappear. To a dark and quiet place somewhere ā probably, I can only imagine, somewhere like a bar. He will sit there calmly and keep his own time to himself. After that, it will be hard to call him again. It is a backbreaking task to me, but in the end, that is the type of guy Odasaku is, and if I am allowed to sound self-conscious, that is Odasaku's charm.
This story was written in such a way. There is a chance that he will come back again. And when he does, I will patiently listen to his voice again.
This story was completed and published thanks to the help of many people: in the Bungou Stray Dogs BEAST movieās Production Committee, the anime staff, Young Aceās Editorial Department, BEANS Bunkoās Editorial Department, and the many people who were involved in the publication of the book. Thank you very much. It is all thanks to you that the book was published without any problem this time as well.
BSD Beast movie screenshot redraw bc yeah
Sab posted on tumblr bc instagram's quality made her cry (will i come back and post more of my old art?? who knows i will probably forget)
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