Chuuya’s character is an inexhaustible spring. I can’t describe the joy I get out of writing such a deep, intricate character and then having everyone read about him.
- Kafka Asagiri, Afterword, Bungo Stray Dogs: Storm Bringer
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@sulliedsorrow
Chuuya’s character is an inexhaustible spring. I can’t describe the joy I get out of writing such a deep, intricate character and then having everyone read about him.
- Kafka Asagiri, Afterword, Bungo Stray Dogs: Storm Bringer
please tell be i’m not crazy for thinking Chuuya’s hair looks suspiciously similar to Verlaine’s
SKKCANON!!!
I love gay people
WAKE UP CHUUYA NATION !!!!!!!!!! NEW CHUUYA ART JUST DROPPED
Yeah i'm choosing to believe he has that tattoo in canon
GOOD MORNING
NEW CHUUYA OFFICIAL ART FROM HARUKAWA AHHHHHH
Never picked up a pen so fast in my life oh my lord...
it’s soukoku over for me
new chuuya art has left me in shambles all day i’ll be real
“oi, are you hungry?”
dazai and akutagawa are parallels uniquely bound to each other for having had their similarly violent disregard for life displaced by the cunty sparkle in one's eye that comes from watching one's narrative foil wife be swallowed by a singularity only to pop back out carrying both (i) immense compassion for the pitiful man who bore and then became subsumed by such singularity; and (ii) the fierceness of heart and sense of self to wreck that singularity's shit.
that prior to the above, both dazai and akutagawa also fought alongside their narrative foil wives against transcendent skill users driven mad by grief in Fifteen and 55 Minutes respectively is like. another parallel. as was that time in Dead Apple when, within hours of each other, both dazai and akutawa's narrative foil wives exercised marked self possession over their respective abilities to kill two iterations of the same dragon that had cornered them into relinquishing to their abilities as children. and like, fuck it, the way dazai waxed poetic about his narrative foil wife's physics shattering ability to steinbeck as chuuya fought lovecraft and the way akutagawa waxed poetic about his narrative foil wife's physics shattering ability to ivan as atsushi fought ivan — in each case, admitting that their narrative foil wives can only shatter physics when dazai and akutagawa are there to enable them to do so (dazai because chuuya will be physically overwhelmed and killed without no longer human nullifying arahabaki; akutagawa because byakko's claws extend when wrapped in (or stirred by...) rashomon; chuuya and atsushi's divinity, in each case, emitting only when dazai and akutagawa are within reach).
which could mean nothing.
if you fixate too hard on the cyclical trauma in bsd's narrative past, you risk missing a lot of the cyclical healing in bsd's narrative present.
In belated celebration of Nakajima Atsushi's birthday, please have some of my favorite details about irl!Atsushi from Nobuko Miyama Ochner's dissertation, Nakajima Atsushi: His Life and Work:
Nakajima loved his children, sometimes anxiously.
While homesick in Micronesia, Nakajima wrote to his wife that he wished he'd become so sick he'd pass out so that his unconscious body would be shipped home to Japan.
Nakajima became so upset when others were late that it would nearly trigger his asthma— which he kept to himself (except around his wife, for whom he was very much a wet cat).
Nakajima loved gardening immensely and took tender care of his flowers, even asking his wife to hold an umbrella over them to protect their blooms from the rain.
Nakajima also loved animals; he kept birds, befriended the neighborhood pets, and took his eldest son on walks to look at squirrels— each carrying a book in hand, of course.
The US entered WW2 while Nakajima was living in Micronesia. When Nakajima heard his first air raid warning, everyone else in the house at which Nakajima was staying took shelter in the mountains, including his host. But, when his host returned home, he found Nakajima still in the house, seemingly undisturbed and reading a book. Nakajima continued to read even as his host began to dig an air raid shelter under the kitchen floor. When his host (annoyed) asked what Nakajima wanted to do in the event an air raid were to occur, Nakajima calmly replied that he'd die with a book in his hand.
Nakajima loved his life and family in Yokohama very much and pined for them desperately while he was in Micronesia, although he suffered silently—
—except when writing to his wife, for whom he was, as always, her wet cat.
There are many other endearing details about Nakajima, like that he was a strict but cheerful teacher adored by his students, that he married his wife for love while still a college student despite then-cultural norms and their parents' opposition, that he admired a kind of spiritual richness above all qualities— but, I'd rather end on the anecdote that Nakajima once stayed up all night playing nearly forty (40) games of shogi (Japanese chess) with a neighbor, and he won every game. The neighbor did not visit him again.
Wondrous tags by @beautifulbisexualqueen hath summoned me to gush :3
I adore every single one of those so much. I never knew this man was so unbelievably wholesome in so many ways, and it all stems from the love for his family. To quote myself from when I was gushing with the sskk gangTM:
asagiri saying he's not going to make bsd characters completely off their irl counterparts because "they'd all be depressed drunkyards"
*makes atsushi a canonically lovable wet cat who loves his family who is also unintentionally hilarious and pathetically adorable*
(the wet cat analogy is still cracking me up)
It's crazy how much we look up to and idolize those famoue people, only to realize they are just normal humans like the rest of us, with their own silly antics and little imperfections.
It was also so important for me to learn that he had asthma because: 1) self-projection comfort go brrrr, and 2) it's very interesting in the meta play of author-character because Akutagawa was the one chosen to reflect his real life counterpart's illness and not Atsushi.
Oh that note, my dearest friend @gothicmatter is craving a deep dive medical (and i assume story significance too) analysis on Aku's sickness so umm if any professional in the field sees this - chop chop!
Awwwww!!!! I'm glad that you liked my tags @dancing-dawn! Sorry it took me too long to respond! I ran out of reblogs! Lol! You are soooo right about BSD Atsushi having so many similarities to his real-life counterpart! Both are lovable, unintentionally hilarious, and people who love their families deeply. I also find it fascinating that he married for love at a time when that wasn't common. But man, does it show through how much he loved his wife and how she was clearly his person. Also, as someone who comes from a family of asthma, I love that the real life him struggled with it! Having asthma isn't easy to deal with!
Yeah!!! Real historical figures that people idolize are also people, and it's sooo fascinating to see their humanity in their imperfections! It's one reason why I love history sooo much! People have been people since the beginning. It shows through our art, our writing, our own words, and more. We humans are so complex and can be sooo silly, too! But doesn't that make life worth it? People never fail to amaze me whenever I look at the lived experiences of people in history. People will never not fascinate me with our ability to survive even in less than ideal odds.
Interestingly enough, the real-life Akutagawa had mental health issues (like visual hallucinations and insomnia) that are similar to the BSD Atsushi (Akutagawa had a mother who had mental health issues like him). It actually influenced his sucide at the young age of 35. He was scared that he was sick like his mother. So interestingly, their real-life authors' health issues were switched between the two of them in BSD. Man, the real him is fascinating to examine. He is sooo messed up as a person, but sooo tragic at the same time! He died so young, and it's so clear that he needed more support for his mental/physical health issues at a time when a lot of those resources weren't available to him.
That analysis of Akutagawa that your friend is making sounds like it will be amazing! Definitely will check it out when it comes out! Also, that drawing with Atsushi and monopoly that you are planning to make sounds like it will be glorious! I look forward to seeing it! I trust your vision!
To clarify, @dancing-dawn and @beautifulbisexualqueen, bsd!Akutagawa and bsd!Atsushi's medical difficulties aren't switched.
bsd!Atsushi's hallucinations likely have significantly less to do with irl!Akutagawa's hallucinations, and more to do with bsd!Atsushi's implied CPTSD and irl!Atsushi's own philosophy and past (including his intense anxiety and vivid visualizations). They may also relate to the role of apparitions in Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari.
Also, while bsd!Atsushi doesn't have asthma like irl!Atsushi, Asagiri likely didn't just give irl!Atsushi's asthma to bsd!Akutagawa. According to irl!Akutagawa's doctors, he was chronically ill with pleurisy, which is a lung disease marked by shortness of breath, chest pain, and (sometimes) a cough; and which is caused by other, often more serious underlying conditions--details that Asagiri seems to have taken inspiration from for bsd!Akutagawa's terminal and chronic illness(es).
I've included details about (1) irl!Atsushi's philosophy and past, (2) the role of apparitions in Tales of Moonlight and Rain, and (3) irl!Akutagawa's health conditions (ft. a linked retrospective study on his health and suicide) below, along with some analysis of how each may relate to Asagiri's choices for the characters in bsd.
This chapter just proves that Asagiri had to give Atsushi anxiety and self esteem issues because he would be too powerful with confidence.
this is so important actually. the image and voice of dazai, one of the smartest people atsushi knows, manifested by atsushi's mind telling him that he knows something dazai doesn't. he can do what dazai can't. he's smart enough to save everyone, despite his doubts about himself. and he knows it, even if he needs a voice that isn't his own to say it to him.