Normalize blaming Dazai for being a dick about everything.
Akutagawa brought Kyouka in to keep her off the streets, meanwhile Dazai brought Akutagawa in with ulterior motives and to use him for his own agenda. Akutagawa did not train Kyouka, but Dazai trained Akutagawa. Kyouka had maybe 2 months at most with Akutagawa as her handler (Akutagawa gave her orders on who to kill) meanwhile Akutagawa answered to Dazai directly for 2 years. Akutagawa was happy for Kyouka when she left the Mafia, Dazai continues to use his influence over Akutagawa, continues to manipulate him, continues to hurt him.
They are absolutely not the fucking same.
It seems his newfound morality extends to everyone but the kid he screwed up for absolutely no reason, despite that relationship possibly having been the easiest to fix (back then and even now) yet he can't be bothered.
Wish that meant Mori beat him with a stick, but nooo. Mori probably only was trying to make him into the next boss. And then, Oda was there taking care of him. He even had friends like Ango and even Chuuya. All the Mafia members respected him despite him being a child (like Hirotsu).
Pisses me the fuck off.
What the frickity frack tickity tack are you yapping about as if Dazai gives a fuck even now 😭 keep that man away from my son, he already got him killed once. So much for his fucking character development.
Part of me mourns Akutagawa’s character everytime someone actually looks at the piano scene and is acting like Dazai actually gave Akutagawa his approval.
For one, that’s literally impossible even with the rules set up in the universe. Two, I feel it’s incredibly obvious that it is Akutagawa’s head(similar to the headmaster with Atsushi) telling him that it is okay and that his life meant something, he did good, and he is allowed to have the peace that he desperately wants.
That’s all there is to it. It’s not some thing about Dazai. It’s entirely Akutagawa’s hallucinations comforting him so that he can have a peaceful death, it’s him giving himself his own approval.
It’s a lovely moment of Akutagawa having a moment of peace with himself and living and dying solely for himself. His life was worth it to him.
If you ask me that is ten times more impactful than Dazai giving him his approval.
Also, lovely reminder that current Akutagawa never got to have that moment of having peace with himself because Atsushi time travels to before that moment happens.
Part of me mourns Akutagawa’s character everytime someone actually looks at the piano scene and is acting like Dazai actually gave Akutagawa his approval.
For one, that’s literally impossible even with the rules set up in the universe. Two, I feel it’s incredibly obvious that it is Akutagawa’s head(similar to the headmaster with Atsushi) telling him that it is okay and that his life meant something, he did good, and he is allowed to have the peace that he desperately wants.
That’s all there is to it. It’s not some thing about Dazai. It’s entirely Akutagawa’s hallucinations comforting him so that he can have a peaceful death, it’s him giving himself his own approval.
It’s a lovely moment of Akutagawa having a moment of peace with himself and living and dying solely for himself. His life was worth it to him.
If you ask me that is ten times more impactful than Dazai giving him his approval.
Also, lovely reminder that current Akutagawa never got to have that moment of having peace with himself because Atsushi time travels to before that moment happens.
An Essay Trying To Analyse Dazai And Akutagawa's Relationship Under An Objective Lens, Let's Go
I am so absolutely fucking done with the way people talk about Dazai and Akutagawa’s relationship and completely misrepresent it. So, here’s an essay about it.
Just a warning before you start, this is an actual, full-blown essay and it's long, so, if you're expecting a typical tumblr rant, uhhhh. Idk, just make sure you got the time for this.
I. Introduction (just reminders of canon, feel free to skip if you don't wanna read quite as much)
Dazai and Akutagawa met in the Port Mafia when Dazai was sixteen and Akutagawa (post-Stormbringer if I’m not wrong) fourteen. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, along with his sister Akutagawa Gin, grew up in the slums, surviving solely on his strength as an ability user, which was a very meagre defence seeing he has abysmal control over Rashoumon. Dazai encountered the siblings on a mission in the slums when Akutagawa, feeling threatened, managed to kill all of Dazai’s men, brutally and efficiently.
Dazai saw his potential and approached him. During the conversation, Akutagawa asked Dazai whether he could give Akutagawa a reason live, and Dazai gave him a choice. Akutagawa and his sister could either be given enough money for a living, or they could join the Port Mafia and Dazai would give Akutagawa a reason to live. Akutagawa decided on the latter and joined the Port Mafia as Dazai’s student/apprentice/subordinate.
The ‘reason to live’ that Dazai gave Akutagawa was a goal to reach, that goal being Dazai’s approval. Dazai would train the younger however he wished, and Akutagawa would strive to obtain his mentor’s approval, giving him a constant reason to go on. Dazai’s treatment of Akutagawa included heavy physical attacks such as punching and kicking and even shooting him point-black multiple times, as well as verbal mistreatment such as belittling and denigration. This continued until Dazai left the Port Mafia around two years later.
When Dazai was revealed to still be alive to the members of the Port Mafia four years after that, Akutagawa, still heavily emotionally dependent on Dazai, still considering Dazai’s approval his reason to live, develops an odd mix of hatred and subservience towards Dazai, and a complex over Atsushi, Dazai’s new (beloved) student.
II. Fandoms and Abusers
Abuse by a character is, depending on the context, taken very differently by the fandom. Most commonly, abuse of any kind is treated extremely harshly by fans, especially if it’s of a character the fandom likes. Even ‘mild’ abuse (such as a toxic relationship dynamic that does not go beyond ‘unhealthy’), emotional abuse (such as emotional blackmail, gaslighting, manipulation, straight up blackmail), forms of grooming (child soldiers, for ex.) are treated extremely harshly, and for good reason. Although, people do like to make those cases ‘worse’, such adding actual intent to harm in situations where there was none (for example a toxic dynamic with parents who unknowingly became emotionally abusive), adding physical abuse where canonically there was none or even sexual assault. But that is another question entirely.
In other cases, especially cases where the abuser was themselves abused, particularly young or for other external/internal reasons, the reaction can differ greatly from that.
In on its own, this is not problematic at all. In fact, it’s quite normal and even very much natural that a grown adult will not be treated the same on abuse as a child, or a person with severe trauma or mental illnesses compared to a person who has no such underlying reasons. However, sometimes, fandoms take this simply too far or even applies this milder reaction to abusive characters simply because they are well-liked.
If, just as mentioned above, the abuser of this scenario happens to be an extremely well-liked character – often because they have been ‘reformed’ or the abuse was treated as a relatively irrelevant or minor part of the character’s backstory – the judgement of this character and its liability for abuse gets blurred. In those cases, people will find a variety of inane, inappropriate or immoral, or simply incorrect excuses to diminish the character’s fault and criminality. Sometimes people go so far as to completely excuse or ever justify the abuse to defend their favourite character.
It’s generally very hard to judge a canon character appropriately, and there will always be people who will cross lines with the excuse that ‘it is fiction’ or ‘it doesn’t matter’ or because they just don’t care, so that alone is not all that problematic. Sadly, it is also the case that often these situations happen because of a lack of media literacy or a lack of critical analysis of the situation in favour of superficial enjoyment of the content. And when those people begin to claim to have an opinion rooted deeply in canon or to have the moral or intellectual high ground, it begins to become problematic.
III. Applications of This Phenomenon to Akutagawa and Dazai
It just happens to be the case that Dazai is an extremely well-liked character. In fact, his is the undisputed number one favourite character of Bungo Stray Dogs, and the above-mentioned phenomenon does very much apply to him. Specifically, to his dynamic with his former student, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke.
Their dynamic was very much an abusive one. And although many representations or perceptions of it are dissatisfactory, it is uncommon to see anyone truly deny this. It would be quite hard to do so anyway, seeing canon showed many examples of Dazai physically and verbally harming Akutagawa a fashion demonstrating a notable power imbalance in the way typical of abuse. Akutagawa is never showed to have defended himself – in fact, he seems to welcome all Dazai’s acts with a twisted sort of gratitude, because they are directly entangled with his ‘reason to live’.
And there we directly have the first point that is often brought up in defence of Dazai – the fact that he was ‘giving Akutagawa a reason to live’. In an extremely twisted a cruel sort of way, this is even true – Akutagawa did accept this chase for Dazai’s approval as his reason to live, and he did set up on a chase that would cost him much but would drive him forward.
However, this is not and never will be enough to pardon or forgive any of what Dazai did to Akutagawa. And the problem that can be seen in many BSD fandom spaces, is that it excuses nothing, not even a little bit. Not even the tiniest of itty-bittiest bits. It is an empty excuse, a promise that might even have been fulfilled, but does that change anything? No. There is no such thing as a reason that could pardon actions so grave – and the problematic part is, many people attempt to do so anyway, hoping to at least shave some of the blame off the top. But it simply does not. Not in any sort of way. It might make Dazai’s character more tolerable to think that he might have had some sort of good intention with his actions, but even this is neither an excuse, nor does it accurately represent the character.
Dazai is canonically considered a genius, a genius beyond what exists in the real world, a genius bordering on supernatural. This leads one to believe that, even at sixteen (a minor, but legally from the age of sixteen and onward children are generally considered to be entirely capable of understanding the consequences of their actions and thus carry them appropriately), he was fully aware of this. He knew fully well what he was doing was wrong, and he never appeared to show any regret for his mistreatment of Akutagawa. To make-believe that ‘giving Akutagawa a reason to live’ was done out of good faith is a stretch, and for the fans to use this as an excuse to forgive his actions does a disservice to both his character and the dynamic of the abuse between him and Akutagawa.
An additional point that has been made is the choice Dazai gave Akutagawa before the latter joined the Port Mafia. That Akutagawa was ‘prepared’ or ‘willing’ to endure the pain for his own gain – his reason to live.
In criminal law, there is no such thing as giving someone permission to cause one severe bodily harm – under no conditions, neither as a child nor as an adult, never. Also, a child of fourteen, in a desperate situation like Akutagawa was, could never make a decision that could excuse any actions – mild or severe physical, mental, etc… harm. Neither legally (which I hope is obvious to everyone), nor morally. Dazai’s offer of simply helping the siblings does not constitute as any form of alleviation to the actions he committed, especially because of his other offer, to ‘give a reason to live’, which could possibly count as emotional blackmail, or simply no choice at all depending on which philosophy is applied.
The largest and most common excuse of the fandom, which for many seems to be the begin-all, end-all of the dispute, is the concept of the ‘Cycle of Abuse’.
The theory of the ‘Cycle of Abuse’, also alternately referred to as the ‘Web of Abuse’, consists of the idea that someone who was abused will in turn harm and abuse someone else, forming an endless ‘cycle’ of abuse. The theory goes hand in hand with the idea of ‘breaking’ the cycle by refusing to pass on any further harm. It is extremely prevalent in the BSD fandom, typically used to refer to the ‘cycle’ consisting of Mori Ougai —> Dazai Osamu —> Akutagawa Ryuunosuke —> Izumi Kyouka, the cycle being broken at Kyouka when she joins the ADA and enters Atsushi’s care.
It is by far the most common point brought up in defence of Dazai in his actions against Akutagawa, and that to an almost disconcerting degree. In parts, this is understandable. It is also the only point that could hypothetically alleviate Dazai’s fault, his guiltiness, for his actions concerning Akutagawa. Trauma, especially in people – children – who have never known anything else, who might think to know physical harm an appropriate tool to get results, one could argue could constitute as an actual, philosophically and morally justified explanation or even excuse for caused harm.
However, Dazai was never canonically harmed by Mori. Headcanons and AUs may be used at everyone’s discretion, but unless it was said or shown in the original material, it simply isn’t canon, and no one should argue as if it were. And canonically, Mori never physically abused Dazai. It’s actually hard to even pin down what Mori and Dazai’s dynamic looks like at all. Some points that seem obvious but are hard to truly back up with material are grooming (not of the sexual kind, no matter how loud some of the fandom might be about their headcanons) and pushing Dazai to commit criminal actions (his work in the Mafia in general). One could debate certain forms of emotional or psychological abuse, but the material for that is sparse, even though it would fit neatly into canon.
It is important to note that it is relatively irrelevant to the argument being made here whether Dazai was abused prior to joining the Port Mafia, even though that is an interesting aspect to study. This essay will only use canon, and even that is somewhat irrelevant to the current point. The point is, fans will use a multitude of points and arguments and things to attempt to make their beloved character (in this case Dazai) more appealing or less offensive. And one of those talking points, the most notable one even, is that Dazai was abused, which excuses or negates his own fault in the harm he caused Akutagawa, which it simply does not. Dazai is a complex character in his own right, arguably far more complex than Akutagawa even, and to reduce his character with straight-up headcanons, claiming for them to be canon, is both offensive to the way he was written and the representation of abuse shown in BSD.
A second-to-last (minor) argument is that ‘Akutagawa would not have survived the Port Mafia had Dazai not trained him the way he did’. With no knowledge of the mafia this is hard to prove or disprove, but in connection with the argument of the ‘reason to live’, this does not excuse anything. Even if hypothetically it were true (which is dubious), it would constitute an odd and morally refutable argument, especially seeing Dazai was the reason Akutagawa joined the mafia at all.
And finally, there is a last argument that has been made by fans, and that is the retroactive idea that, if Dazai were to give Akutagawa his approval, Akutagawa’s reason to live would fail, leaving him once more to flounder for a purpose. This is used less to excuse Dazai’s initial actions but instead used to trivialize Dazai’s continued belittling and mistreatment during the actual canon timeline of the show (that is, Atsushi’s time). Dazai repeatedly puts Akutagawa down and uses his psychological and emotional hold on Akutagawa to use him for his own purposes.
In this scenario, claiming once more that Dazai is ‘doing it for Akutagawa’s own good’ is a long stretch, albeit less of one now that Dazai has undergone his ‘character development arc’. It is also, again, just an empty excuse and an explanation at best. Neither does it explain why Dazai needs to put Akutagawa down instead of simply not interacting with him or ignoring him.
This last argument however is resolved and falls apart when Dazai finally acknowledged Akutagawa as strong, so the point is moot anyways.
To summarize this section: this essay criticizes almost exclusively people who claim to use canon to explain/justify/trivialize Dazai’s abuse against Akutagawa and completely miss the mark. This can happen in good faith of course, if one simply isn’t certain on canon topics, but very often it comes across as malicious, especially if the arguments are used in a way that excuse horrible actions in a morally corrupt way and dismiss the fact that this is also very real representation of an emotionally and physically abusive situation where the abuser held the abused in emotional and psychological captivity. Nothing can excuse that and people should not be trying to.
IV. Subjective Analysis of Dazai's Behaviour
It might be of note that something that can rarely be found is a true analysis of Dazai’s stakes in the situation. Why did he make the offer of help in the first place? Why would he want to train Akutagawa at all, when he seems to hold nothing but disdain for him?
The simplest explanation is that Dazai could be doing this for his own gain. It is clear that PM Dazai cares little about morality or other people at all. In general, his outlook on life seems to be very self-centred, something quite typical for child geniuses who deign others to be below them. So the idea that Dazai would be doing all of this out of a true interest in Akutagawa is dubious.
Dazai himself is a child in this scenario, and it is not the biggest leap to make to assume he has suffered in the past (he is, after all, heavily suicidal). This leads to believe that Dazai could very well be using Akutagawa as a way to escape his own nihilism.
On a surface level, Dazai seems to think to himself that this is amusing. A challenge, to himself perhaps, on what he can achieve. On what he can mould Akutagawa into. This could very well be his outlet for what Mori is doing to him – a form of grooming. Where Dazai is competing against Mori to find out who does it best, to prove to himself that he is better than the man he knows is manipulating him, using him, and whom Dazai is letting. One, because he is a child, and no matter how much he may be intellectually aware of what he is happening, he doesn’t have the independence to act on it and two, because his apathy is great enough that he doesn’t care. At least someone has use of him.
So on a superficial level, Dazai is using Akutagawa as a challenge, however much he is aware of the deeper implications this has. But on a much deeper level, one he likely isn’t even aware of, there is a relatively high probability that Dazai is doing this out of much more emotional reasons. Because he hates himself, because he feels small, because he is a child no one ever wanted to love, he wants to hurt someone, someone who makes it as easy as him. Someone he can manipulate, someone he can irredeemably hurt.
Both of these (the superficial and deeper) reasonings would explain why Dazai is doing this ‘training’ the way he is. After all, pure violence and fear have never been the best tools for teaching. Ever. And it can be presumed that Dazai is aware of that; it would make no sense of him to beat Akutagawa down, to destroy him both mentally and physically in the way he is if it was purely out of a desire to make Akutagawa stronger, because that simply does not work like that. Oh, it might to a certain extent. But it never was and never will be the best way to do it.
What he is doing is more akin to punishing Akutagawa for existing. Maybe punishing him for being too similar to Dazai.
One of the more interesting things to look at from this lens of Dazai as an immature child striking out is the lack of ‘giving his approval’. Because Dazai, at that age, would never have been able to approve of anyone or anything. Nothing could ever reach his standards. Not even necessarily because they were so high; no, it’s because if someone were to measure up to them, he would have to face that he doesn’t measure up to them. That he hates himself. That he feels small and abandoned, and that ‘surrounding himself with death’ – which was his reason for joining the Port Mafia in the first place – was never going to change that fact. It was never going to give him a reason to live.
Dazai joined to Port Mafia at the age of fourteen, and no matter that Akutagawa only met him two years after that, because Dazai was never able to emotionally mature. Never could have, in the mafia, because that would imply he’d have to acknowledge his emotions and insecurities first, which he could never have done, because it would have destroyed him back then. His childish, immature pettiness is what drove so many of his actions, small or great, including his abuse of Akutagawa.
V. Minor Misrepresentations
This section is short, and it’s just to address a few misrepresentations that are quite common in the fandom.
Firstly, is that what Dazai did to Akutagawa was never ‘just mafia training’. It was never standard mafia training, not even close, but that is something that is often heard in BSD fandom spaces for some reason. Akutagawa was the personal mentee of an executive, and his training was specifically tailored by Dazai to ‘make him the strongest’. Dazai was not just following standard procedure, the ‘training’ was specifically designed for Akutagawa, and it was always designed to hurt.
Another small thing is that the scene where Dazai shoots Akutagawa with a firearm is often stated to be ‘training’. It was not; it was a punishment for Akutagawa’s lack for care during a mission, which got multiple men killed.
Finally and most importantly, the very important point of Rashoumon that has no come up at all until this point. It’s a very delicate subject to dissect, but essentially, much of the brutality of the training supposedly came from the fact that Akutagawa had little control over his ability, and that needed to change and stat, otherwise he would not only be useless, but he would become a liability, effectively making him a thorn in the side of the Port Mafia – not exactly the best place to be.
Does this excuse anything? No. Can this even be aptly studied and analysed? Also no, seeing it’s very hard to know anything about supposedly sentient magical powers and how that affects the way they need to be trained. However, it is not to be supposed that this could in any capacity truly excuse any of Dazai’s actions or that it was truly necessary to train Rashoumon through so much pain, so it will remain a footnote to this essay.
VI. Summary
To summarize this essay:
The author is of the opinion that many people misuse canon and make morally corrupt arguments in an attempt to excuse something that just cannot be excused for simple fact of trying to make their favourite character more appealing
A (subjective, possibly wrong) analysis was made of Dazai Osamu and his reasons behind his training and abuse of Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, studying Dazai under the lens of an emotionally immature child, whether he is aware of this or not
A few minor reminders were given on canon and common misrepresentations of it
Author has not been abused and has not made any research on the subject outside of some law, philosophy and general knowledge
Author has never been in the mafia
Please, please, please, tell me any counterarguments and anything you disagree with in the comments, as you can see I'm quite passionate about this subjet
Tell me if agree with any of this too, really, I did spend a couple hours of my study time on this, might as well know if I did something right
If you notice he’s the only one different when it comes to his eyes his eyelashes are long and thick, his beauty is unreal I’m honestly scared for him to get envied.
akutagawa is presented as an antagonist but then they show you he used to take care of a group of children. he recognizes hatred as the first thing he's ever felt—but actually i believe he felt love before, too. (he loved the children. he took care of them. when he lost them, he didn't mind dying too, if only he could take the life of the ppl who killed them. he loved his sister. he wanted to keep her safe, even if he didn't make the most intelligent decision, being a kid blinded by grief). he feels, he feels, he feels. he wears his heart on his sleeve. he's honest, too, with the good and the bad and everything in between. when the headmaster died, he spared atsushi's life. when atsushi confessed he has hallucinations, he didn't judge him. he trusted him and atsushi's bond when not even atsushi himself was sure about its strength (do we need any more?). he confessed his illness to him. he died for him, too, with no retribution except for keeping him alive, because he's a protector at his core, it doesn't matter how much he tried to force himself to erase that part of himself.
they present him as an antagonist but, you know how he's one of the few characters to ever apologize? how his impression on atsushi was so strong it was enough to keep him going, even after death?
As you can imagine, those who had fallen this far had been so worn down by their tortures in the seven other hells that they no longer had the strength to cry out.
"Oh, abuse cycle, Dazai was hurt too," believe me, much as I wish Dazai was somehow beaten black and blue by Mori, I just don't have that kind of luck. Knowing Dazai, Mori gave him free rein to do whatever the fuck he wanted. At most, Mori might have stuck a few needles on him because when he supposedly found Dazai, because bro probably had rabies.
There ever comes a day I learn Dazai was abused and your abuse cycle is real (it's not, but okay) then I will personally throw a pizza party for the entire fandom.
I was smiling so hard my face hurt. I always felt like she was basically me in another form, and then I did the test and it turns out we really are alike.
I feel ridiculously lucky right now. The happiness I felt is impossible to explain… turns out my intuition about Higuchi was right all along.
@chuuakux I don’t know why I imagined your result would be Kouyou, but when I thought about it more, I felt like no… not Kouyou, it’s another character. Show me what result you get.
Maybe because you looked so pretty in your Kouyou cosplay 🤏🏻✨️
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