Psychologist Analysis to Bungo Stray Dogs Season 1 Finale - YouTube
Jesus, when Ed (the psychologist) proposes that since both Mori and Yosano are the only characters that wear like doctor/teacher so there might be some bad blood between them THAT is not just the fact that theyre mafia and detective, my jaw almost dropped.
Oh God.
God the reveal that Mori was the Port Mafia boss was so fucking hype.
There were hints sprinkled around that something was very off about him. But oh man watching this awkward and well meaning doctor walk into an alleyway where the entire Port Mafia are all crowding around a corpse.
And you think oh he’s dead but then immediately without a word all of them just begin kneeling at his feet, it’s just so good I loved that.
The reveal also adds another layer to the Anne’s Room situation because Mori was giving Atsushi advice on how to defeat Lucy. He wasn’t standing there helpless like we all thought he was watching him.
Seeing how this new addition to the Agency, someone Dazai’s taken a shine too would respond to this scenario.
Mori wanted to see what Atsushi would do he wanted to see what he was capable of.
It’s also the example Lucy brings up later to Atsushi about the possibility of the Agency and the Port Mafia working together. Cause well he helped you than knowing who you were maybe he can help you now.
Which Atsushi sees with his own eyes when he jumps off the Moby Dick and sees the Port Mafia helping the city. And Fukuzawa says it himself to Mori that he would never have proposed such an alliance if not for Atsushi.
So it’s just so interesting to see how that paid off and what that means for both of them. That Atsushi learns later on that oh that was the Port Mafia boss and what he gets out of that is we have the same goal of protecting this city.
Like it’s wild that in one meeting Atsushi comes out understanding Mori and the Port Mafia better than most people. To the point he can ask propose for an alliance to be made cause he knows they will help to protect the city.
Which is Mori’s whole deal that’s his entire thing first and foremost.
It also just proves Dazai’s point that Mori always makes the first move. He saw they were all trapped by Lucy’s ability and used that to his advantage.
Atsushi’s target was Lucy and Mori’s target was him.
OK I GOT SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW YOUR TAGS. For the longest time I have also thought that his 58 requirements are his excuse to avoid vulnerability because of how easily he could get hurt in a relationship but I’ve never seen anyone else share the same idea like literally word for word… I would love to read your deeper dive into his ideal requirements :)
OMG hello!!! Thank you for dropping in I'm such a huge fan of your art!! :D💕 Bless your heart for constantly feeding us amazing Kunikida art 🙏✨
I haven't seen anyone talk about this before as well so I guess now's my opportunity!
I've had this idea on my mind for a long time that Kunikida uses his ideals, particularly his list of 58 requirements for his Ideal Woman, as a sort escape from getting into an actual relationship.
I'm going to try my best to piece my thoughts together, mostly by using references from the Entrance Exam novel! I apologise in advance for the terrible snaps I took from my camera 😭
The first thing we learn about Kunikida and is clearly established by Kunikida himself, is that his notebook is his guide to life.
It's not just a notebook where he writes in his daily tasks or future plans. He goes so far as to call it his "personal prophecy", which gives the impression that everything must or will happen as preordained by the notebook.
He uses the words "control of my future", which in a way this reflects the most important thing to him, order and stability. Kunikida is someone who thrives on structure.
But the thing about love is that it's messy. It isn't something that can be planned and fit neatly in his notebook. That aspect of uncertainty that comes with it is exactly the reason why he may try to avoid it, whether intentionally or not.
So in order to establish at least a semblance of control, to feel like he knows what he's doing, he designs a list, detailing all of the qualities he would want in a potential partner.
This list, described as, "A voluminous work consisting of eight pages, fifteen topics and fifty-eight items," has all of three people who laid eyes on it, calling it highly unrealistic from the get go.
The thing about Kunikida is that while he may pursue lofty ideals, most of his actions are still grounded in reality. He is painfully aware that the world is far from ideal, and that despite everything, he needs to push himself in order to find the middle ground, where his ideals and reality can coexist.
So I find it interesting that Kunikida seems almost oblivious to the reaction he recieves, even from someone like Dazai.
He thinks to himself, "Is it really that far-fetched?" as if it's news to him.
Rather than a malicious list of misogynistic demands (as some people like to call it, which i want to remind is not even hinted at from the info we have/do not have), it seems to reflect a sort of naivety or inexperience.
He is highly idealistic even in the way he perceives relationships, as if it were just another aspect of his life. It's like love is meant to be something that aligns within his world view, rather than something organic, something that would just happen. As if he were thinking on the lines of "This is what an ordinary adult must do–" as if trying to imitate one.
When the topic about dating and relationships comes up, he even has a clear answer:
Now having a timeline for big life decisions like marriage isn't exactly bad or unrealistic, but here Kunikida almost describes it in a way like finding love is like a schedule in itself.
So this brings us to his list. We can only speculate about what it exactly entails. But regardless of what opinions those who have seen it, we can conclude even without knowing the contents that it's simply impossible to find any person who can match all of the 58 requirements.
So isn't it meaningless for him to have this highly unrealistic list of requirements at all?
This seems to contradict Kunikida, who at his core is very much in touch with reality.
It could be a way of distancing himself from the pursuit of love. To avoid the pain and vulnerability that comes with it whether consciously or sub-consciously.
Because the truth is that despite trying to appear indifferent and tough, Kunikida feels deeply. He cares and deep inside, he feels guilty for not being able to save someone, takes every loss as a personal failure, and struggles to reconcile with these emotions and so he tries to close himself off.
Despite this, he still ends up caring, only to find himself hurt in the process.
When he heard about all the police officers who died in the Azure Terrorist incident because of the intel he had provided, he admitted to having a breakdown so terrible, he couldn't even call in at work.
He tries to help a young 16 year old Rokuzo, being a young 20 year old himself, only to see him killed right before his eyes. The death of Sasaki, believing that her heart still could have been saved, haunts him even after 2 years have passed. He's ridden with the feeling that his inability to help them caused their demise.
Everyone in the agency mean so much to him, his ideals would simply cease to exist if he were to lose even one of them.
This kindness he possesses and emotions he feels for others, what should have been his strength, is repeatedly used to test him, and as a device to tear him down mentally. It's why Fyodor goes after him by blowing up that little girl right in front of him.
This is exactly why in the beginning, he distances himself from Atsushi to protect himself from the pain. He wants to avoid being involved, for the fear that he would be unable to save them and struggle with the grief and guilt once again.
Somewhere deep down, he has perceived that the emotions he feels would only make him weak, and vulnerable, despite his best attempts to be strong.
Being involved in a real relationship means exposing one's most vulnerable side. And while it's obvious that he craves to be understood and find someone to rely on, he's also mentally distancing himself from it.
As mentioned in the previous post, there isn't a single moment when Kunikida sat down, checking out the requirements a person matched or not, even when it's clear that he was developing feelings for Sasaki. So it possibly doesn't even mean that much to him to begin with, as if he knows somewhere that it's pointless.
But at the same time, he doesn't do anything to act on said feelings as well, probably not even realising it, until it's too late.
With how rooted his life is in his ideals, the "list" he has in his notebook, what he considers his personal prophecy, only becomes a convenient excuse for him to avoid dealing with the complexity of emotions that would come from a relationship.
If he can convince himself for the time being that he hasn't met the ideal person, or even dismiss any developing feelings as not meeting his requirements, he can delay the inevitable heart break he thinks would come with it, whether it's the possibility of them choosing to walk away from the relationship, because of his shortcomings, or if something happens to them because of him.
Kunikida is extremely hard on himself and is unable to truly let anyone in, and the list somewhere could serve as a solace for him to avoid worrying over something completely unpredictable and full of uncertainty.
This is highly subjective to interpretation (and I might even be self-projecting at this point lol), but I also like exploring the idea of him being aroace, because he sometimes doesn't catch the romantic implications in certain actions. There's been subtle hints like that in the canon material.
(From Kunikida and Katai's Magnificent Days)
(From BSD Twitter Valentine's special)
That or it can be interpreted as being truly a romantic at heart (and a silly awkward goose at it most of the time lol). I also love that in both instances he's immediately shut down by Yosano (lol), which really serves as a confirmation to me that his requirement list cannot possibly be utterly misogynistic.
That's all for my thoughts and I'm sorry this took a while and turned out so much longer than expected!!
I want to add in that Kunikida never thought about forcing his ideal on any other human. In a way that makes me think, he believe someday he will meet his ideal woman, and no one needs to be compliant to his list in order for him to deem her as "ideal" in general. He never judges a woman for not meeting his ideal. If we think about it, it kind of like how we ourselves also have our own standard for a lover, but his is more detailed and extreme.
OK I GOT SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW YOUR TAGS. For the longest time I have also thought that his 58 requirements are his excuse to avoid vulnerability because of how easily he could get hurt in a relationship but I’ve never seen anyone else share the same idea like literally word for word… I would love to read your deeper dive into his ideal requirements :)
OMG hello!!! Thank you for dropping in I'm such a huge fan of your art!! :D💕 Bless your heart for constantly feeding us amazing Kunikida art 🙏✨
I haven't seen anyone talk about this before as well so I guess now's my opportunity!
I've had this idea on my mind for a long time that Kunikida uses his ideals, particularly his list of 58 requirements for his Ideal Woman, as a sort escape from getting into an actual relationship.
I'm going to try my best to piece my thoughts together, mostly by using references from the Entrance Exam novel! I apologise in advance for the terrible snaps I took from my camera 😭
The first thing we learn about Kunikida and is clearly established by Kunikida himself, is that his notebook is his guide to life.
It's not just a notebook where he writes in his daily tasks or future plans. He goes so far as to call it his "personal prophecy", which gives the impression that everything must or will happen as preordained by the notebook.
He uses the words "control of my future", which in a way this reflects the most important thing to him, order and stability. Kunikida is someone who thrives on structure.
But the thing about love is that it's messy. It isn't something that can be planned and fit neatly in his notebook. That aspect of uncertainty that comes with it is exactly the reason why he may try to avoid it, whether intentionally or not.
So in order to establish at least a semblance of control, to feel like he knows what he's doing, he designs a list, detailing all of the qualities he would want in a potential partner.
This list, described as, "A voluminous work consisting of eight pages, fifteen topics and fifty-eight items," has all of three people who laid eyes on it, calling it highly unrealistic from the get go.
The thing about Kunikida is that while he may pursue lofty ideals, most of his actions are still grounded in reality. He is painfully aware that the world is far from ideal, and that despite everything, he needs to push himself in order to find the middle ground, where his ideals and reality can coexist.
So I find it interesting that Kunikida seems almost oblivious to the reaction he recieves, even from someone like Dazai.
He thinks to himself, "Is it really that far-fetched?" as if it's news to him.
Rather than a malicious list of misogynistic demands (as some people like to call it, which i want to remind is not even hinted at from the info we have/do not have), it seems to reflect a sort of naivety or inexperience.
He is highly idealistic even in the way he perceives relationships, as if it were just another aspect of his life. It's like love is meant to be something that aligns within his world view, rather than something organic, something that would just happen. As if he were thinking on the lines of "This is what an ordinary adult must do–" as if trying to imitate one.
When the topic about dating and relationships comes up, he even has a clear answer:
Now having a timeline for big life decisions like marriage isn't exactly bad or unrealistic, but here Kunikida almost describes it in a way like finding love is like a schedule in itself.
So this brings us to his list. We can only speculate about what it exactly entails. But regardless of what opinions those who have seen it, we can conclude even without knowing the contents that it's simply impossible to find any person who can match all of the 58 requirements.
So isn't it meaningless for him to have this highly unrealistic list of requirements at all?
This seems to contradict Kunikida, who at his core is very much in touch with reality.
It could be a way of distancing himself from the pursuit of love. To avoid the pain and vulnerability that comes with it whether consciously or sub-consciously.
Because the truth is that despite trying to appear indifferent and tough, Kunikida feels deeply. He cares and deep inside, he feels guilty for not being able to save someone, takes every loss as a personal failure, and struggles to reconcile with these emotions and so he tries to close himself off.
Despite this, he still ends up caring, only to find himself hurt in the process.
When he heard about all the police officers who died in the Azure Terrorist incident because of the intel he had provided, he admitted to having a breakdown so terrible, he couldn't even call in at work.
He tries to help a young 16 year old Rokuzo, being a young 20 year old himself, only to see him killed right before his eyes. The death of Sasaki, believing that her heart still could have been saved, haunts him even after 2 years have passed. He's ridden with the feeling that his inability to help them caused their demise.
Everyone in the agency mean so much to him, his ideals would simply cease to exist if he were to lose even one of them.
This kindness he possesses and emotions he feels for others, what should have been his strength, is repeatedly used to test him, and as a device to tear him down mentally. It's why Fyodor goes after him by blowing up that little girl right in front of him.
This is exactly why in the beginning, he distances himself from Atsushi to protect himself from the pain. He wants to avoid being involved, for the fear that he would be unable to save them and struggle with the grief and guilt once again.
Somewhere deep down, he has perceived that the emotions he feels would only make him weak, and vulnerable, despite his best attempts to be strong.
Being involved in a real relationship means exposing one's most vulnerable side. And while it's obvious that he craves to be understood and find someone to rely on, he's also mentally distancing himself from it.
As mentioned in the previous post, there isn't a single moment when Kunikida sat down, checking out the requirements a person matched or not, even when it's clear that he was developing feelings for Sasaki. So it possibly doesn't even mean that much to him to begin with, as if he knows somewhere that it's pointless.
But at the same time, he doesn't do anything to act on said feelings as well, probably not even realising it, until it's too late.
With how rooted his life is in his ideals, the "list" he has in his notebook, what he considers his personal prophecy, only becomes a convenient excuse for him to avoid dealing with the complexity of emotions that would come from a relationship.
If he can convince himself for the time being that he hasn't met the ideal person, or even dismiss any developing feelings as not meeting his requirements, he can delay the inevitable heart break he thinks would come with it, whether it's the possibility of them choosing to walk away from the relationship, because of his shortcomings, or if something happens to them because of him.
Kunikida is extremely hard on himself and is unable to truly let anyone in, and the list somewhere could serve as a solace for him to avoid worrying over something completely unpredictable and full of uncertainty.
This is highly subjective to interpretation (and I might even be self-projecting at this point lol), but I also like exploring the idea of him being aroace, because he sometimes doesn't catch the romantic implications in certain actions. There's been subtle hints like that in the canon material.
(From Kunikida and Katai's Magnificent Days)
(From BSD Twitter Valentine's special)
That or it can be interpreted as being truly a romantic at heart (and a silly awkward goose at it most of the time lol). I also love that in both instances he's immediately shut down by Yosano (lol), which really serves as a confirmation to me that his requirement list cannot possibly be utterly misogynistic.
That's all for my thoughts and I'm sorry this took a while and turned out so much longer than expected!!
Bungou Stray Dogs does not follow our timeline! Its an entirely separate universe. So the question "what year is BSD set in?" doesn't have an answer.
This is one of the most common questions I've seen about bsd, "What year is it set in?" or people saying stuff like "Why do the guild dress so old timey?" or "Why do the characters have flip phones but such advanced technology?" etc...
And the truth is, the series is set in a completely different world then ours, some series like Jujutsu Kaisen or Harry Potter are set in our world, and (mostly) follow our history.
But the BSD universe is just fundamentally different, There was a war, heavily modelled after world war 1, less than 20 years before the present. There are loads of references to huge political events that simply didn't happen. in fact, it seems like the technology of bsd is many decades ahead of its politics. For instance, the Guild all being dressed like great depression era Americans fits if you consider that the great depression happened just after ww1 IRL.
Another difference is that In BSD Europe is described as the centre of global power instead of America, which might be explained by Dazai saying Europe has a high number of powerful skill users.
Maybe Abilities accelerated the growth of technology, they probably also changed the balance of politics.
What im saying is there is so much different in the bsd universe, that trying to match the story to a real life year or time period will never work, its like trying to find out what kind of wood a rock is made of, they have similarities but are just fundamentally different.
Actually, I'd argue that Bungou Stray Dogs is set in a timeline that very much parallels our own!
You're not wrong that Bungou Stray Dogs is its own timeline, but there are actually WAY more indicators of period inspiration than only World War I and closer connections between Bugnou Stray Dogs' timeline with ours. Rather than a completely separate world, Bungou Stray Dogs seems to be set in an alternative timeline in which the existence of skill users dramatically changed the global geopolitical landscape. And I know that because it's actually possible to roughly, and with several exceptions, trace the current Bungou Stray Dogs timeline to the 1930s. (Hence the Guild being dressed like 1930s Americans!)
The older characters in Bungou Stray Dogs are based on Meiji-era authors (namely Natsume, Fukuzawa, Mori, and Hirotsu). The Meiji era of Japanese history extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912, and was characterized by Japan shifting from isolationist feudalism to modernization and industrialization based on Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. (Otherwise, Japan was at risk of colonization by Western powers; it was a transition undertaken under duress.) That's why Fukuzawa is aesthetically a rōnin (the actual Fukuzawa was born in 1833, decades prior to the Meiji era), why Mori rattles off Western foreign political strategies with which Fukuzawa is unfamiliar (the actual Mori was born just six years prior to the Meiji-era), and, most importantly, why Yokohama is sometimes referred to as the Yokohama Settlement, and why it is implied that there are national powers in Yokohama. (For example, in 55 Minutes, an antagonist declares, "If the Yokohama Settlement and the various nations' military parties within it are wiped off the face of the earth, there will be no way for their governments to hide the truth.")
The Yokohama Settlement was established in 1858, through treaties with the US, England, France, Russia, and the Netherlands that opened several cities and five ports to those Western powers. Although the treaties were abolished in 1899, the influence of those treaties appears to persist in Bungou Stray Dogs' current timeline, implying that they did exist, but perhaps not with those specific powers, and perhaps not within the same time frame. (This is further supported when Chuuya debuts in the story's current timeline; he mentions to Dazai that he had only just gotten back from quashing trouble in the West, which may be referencing the western section of the Yokohama Settlement.)
The younger characters (such as Chuuya, Dazai, Atsushi, Kunikida, Ango, etc.) were all part of literary and poetry scenes characterized by the impacts of World War I and World War II on Japan. Although their ages relative to each other and the older characters are NOT the same as their real-life namesakes, they roughly correlate with the generational differences cultivated by Japan's transitions from feudalism to industrialization to post-World War I.
Further, World War I was called the Great War, which is also what Bungou Stray Dogs calls the ability-based war that transpired 15 years prior to the current canon timeline. Like the real-life authors, the Bungou Stray Dogs characters are consistently and constantly grappling with the impacts of the Great War, which created orphans (like Atsushi and Akutagawa), traumatized soldiers (like Mimic and Fukuchi), advanced and unprecedentedly destructive methods of warfare (in WWI, it was chemical warfare, in BSD, it's ability-users), and which prompted multinational treaties and organizations that sought to prevent such devastation from happening again (Standard Island in 55 Minutes; in the manga and anime, it's implied the United Nations exists, although the logo is just slightly different from the real-life United Nations, which was not formed until after World War II).
As you've pointed out, there are still SEVERAL differences between the real-world and Bungou Stray Dogs' timelines. Many of these can be explained by the existence of skill users, such as the mixed technology in the series, which ranges from the 1980s to the current day. Others are analogs, such as Verlaine and Chuuya, who were both created in response to the Great War, such as how WWI rewrote how wars and war technology were approached. Others are less easily explained by anything other than the butterfly effect, such as the seeming continuation of Japan's port treaties and, as mentioned above, how instead of the League of Nations, the aftermath of the Great War in Bungou Stray Dogs led to the creation of the United Nations, decades before the United Nations formed in our timeline. Further, in Bungou Stray Dogs, France, Germany, and Japan were allied in the Great War, with Japan withdrawing early due to Fukuzawa's intervention (France and Japan were allied against Germany in WWI). The most inexplicable difference is that one of the Western foreign policy strategists cited by Mori is Henry Kissinger, who was only a child in the 1930s. So on, and so forth.
However, that it parallels our timeline explains exactly what you've noted above, which is the reason why Europe is the center of geopolitical power. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, that was still very true, especially in the aftermath of World War I (and which would continue to be true if Europe had powerful ability users). It also explains why the most powerful ability user group, the Order of the Clock Tower, serves as the Queen of England's personal guard-- while the monarchy isn't Britain's head of government now, it was in the early 1900s. It also adds context to Season 5, Episode 61 of the anime, in which Fukuchi reveals that his actions were spurred by his learning that there would be another global war, one much more destructive and violent than the prior. In other words, Fukuchi sought to prevent the Bungou Stray Dogs' version of World War II.
And so while you're right that Bungou Stray Dogs exists in its own timeline, it's not fundamentally different from ours, and in fact, follows the same patterns and themes that the real-life character namesakes explored in their bodies of work. Following the logic of Bungou Stray Dogs existing in an alternate but parallel timeline, it roughly takes place in the early- to mid-1930s. However, it's a version of the 1930s in which skill users exist and have existed for long enough for their skills to shape the course of human history. Thus, the timeline in Bungou Stray Dogs is a sandbox of alternative history that nevertheless honors the ideas, traumas, and eras of the authors whose lives and literary works inspired the series.
That being said, it's a fictional universe subject to the author's purposes, so nothing is certain unless indicated by Kafka Asagiri. But understanding the historical parallels certainly explains a lot, and provides a nifty guide for understanding the underlying literary references.
okay, absolutely. so, 55 Minutes features kunikida at his very best, most loving, most anti-authority batshit behavior.
as a small sampling of things we either learn about kunikida, see displayed in kunikida, see happen to kunikida, or see kunikida do in 55 Minutes:
one time the weather report was wrong, so kunikida "had to break into the meteorological bureau." to quote atsushi's narration, "Without even batting an eye, Kunikida had admitted doing something criminal."
Kunikida calls Standard Island, the ostentatious sailing territory governed by Germany, England, and France as part of the treaty that ended the Great War, "literally... a joke."
Kunikida is SO weak to Atsushi; he loves Atsushi so much. He tries to lecture Atsushi about overpacking, but Atsushi says something very orphan about it, and Kunikida pivots to extending his bedtime.
Kunikida taught Atsushi how to choke people out without crushing their trachea.
The French military police aim submachine guns at Kunikida and tell him to leave a restricted area and Kunikida slams his massive dick on the table so hard, they try to recruit him over it: "The submachine guns' black muzzles had a dull gleam to them. The dozen fully armed soldiers were pointing them at Kunikida so they could respond as needed. It felt like sticking one's head in a lion's mouth. Nevertheless, Kunikida didn't flinch. His tone remained calm as he declared: "This is my last warning as well. Move. We are detectives given orders to catch the thieves. This island may have extraterritorial rights, but don't you dare think you can threaten civilians at gunpoint on my watch."
Despite being hyped up by the French military police, and attempts to recruit him, Kunikida refuses because he fucking hates authority and has no respect for these people.
Kunikida notices when Atsushi is scared and conflicted, and immediately steps in to support him without needing him to explain himself.
Kunikida trusts Dazai so much, that he wholeheartedly believes Dazai will know what to do about whatever Atsushi is grappling with.
Kunikida acts so certain around Atsushi, but catastrophizes a bit around Dazai; i.e., Kunikida puts on a brave face for his kouhai, but leans into seeking comfort from Dazai in his own way, which Dazai gives him. Because, again, Kunikida loves and trusts him SO much.
When Atsushi is maimed into unconsciousness, Kunikida is by his bedside, reading, for when Atsushi wakes up— just like he always is.
Kunikida not only created a protocol for reviving Dazai with Yosano's skill should he ever nearly die, he meticulously briefed the other Agency members on the protocol.
Kunikida was cool, calm, and collected while triaging Dazai's near death experience, and as soon as he sees Dazai is alive and well, he throttled Dazai while proclaiming Dazai has lost his human right to die. This is because Kunikida loves SO much and is so silly and cute about it.
When Kunikida receives written requests/orders from the military police that he doesnt care for, he just rips them up and pretends he didn't.
Anyway. 55 Minutes is about how breedable Kunikida is.
their “hatred” is just an exaggeration. it’s not real hatred based on specific events - it’s just a type of dynamic. it’s their “tradition” to hate each other.
this isn’t platonic or romantic love, which is why it’s easier for people to slap the label of “rivalry” on them instead of digging into all this messy complexity. i love canon soukoku. i love the way they subtly show their attachment to each other. i love analyzing all those little details. we should respect soukoku for what they are
Chuuya has people he can genuinely hate - people who have hurt him and those close to him (hi, Verlaine). but out of all those people, he chooses… DAZAI?!?
NO.
it’s just a way to single Dazai out from everyone else. they’re both just traumatized teenagers whose relationship turned out this way. this isn’t hatred - it’s about what each of them personally lacks. if Dazai is mostly cold and emotionally empty, then Chuuya is pure emotion. he’s a bomb, a hurricane that destroys everything around him - exactly what Dazai lacks. and it works the other way around, too. that’s exactly why they complement each other so perfectly
and here’s another point people rarely mention
in chapter 130 of BSD Wan! Chuuya directly says that he doesn’t hate Dazai. he himself acknowledges their complicated, ambiguous relationship, shaped under the weight of everything that’s happened before. there’s nothing “simple” or “easy to understand” about their relationship - it’s a much deeper, more complex level of connection
