*comes out of my writing-induced mania clutching my mochis and in need of some water probably*

Bungou Stray Dogs And How It Saved Me (And Maybe How It Saved You Too) [BSD ANALYSIS] https://twitter.com/eu_gi_oh/status/1265217600251785216

Thank you to everyone who sent in their reasons + arguments for why they love BSD! I tried to keep you guys’ words/quotes as accurate to your writing as possible, but I took the liberty to fix some of the grammar/spelling errors to fit the essay. I hope you guys don’t mind

I’ve discussed this topic before: https://twitter.com/eu_gi_oh/status/1243834135115739137

Bungou Stray Dogs, though having many mistakes and problems, is fundamentally a hopeful story which has saved me and was there for me through many hardships and problems in my life. You don’t even have to be an English major or an avid reader to understand how important +

special this story is, but I’ve been wanting to elaborate from my literary perspective on just how incredibly beautiful even just the /idea/ of BSD is.

What initially piqued my interest in the story is the title:

Once you’re ensnared in the story, you realize that, essentially, it was created to bring honor and renown for some of the world’s greatest writers:

We know very little about Asagiri himself, but we do know that he did not /at all/ sprout from literary beginnings. Before he became a writer, he was a manager for an automobile company with a background in physics (you can see this scientific, technological expertise in the

recent manga storyline). Though unknown, there was a pivotal reason in his life that made him decide to be a writer, and it’s been largely implied that, before starting BSD, he was at a point of intense dejection and apathy. When he started reading 18th-21st century literature,

he started feeling less alone, which is a very common experience in a lot of readers. Surely almost anyone can think of a time when a story really affected them, even if it was through a movie. Or a song.

Readers and writers are intertwined: they understand each other on a very intimate level through the words and emotions conveyed on paper. It’s become a universal stereotype for authors especially to carry misery and loneliness -- the Tortured Artist is a conventional caricature

that the world both romanticizes yet socially avoids. Asagiri even acknowledges this inherent melancholia attributed to the arts and literature -- even going so far as to consider it when designing his story:

In his despair, Asagiri sought out reprieve from the most unlikely of people -- most of them long dead, faraway, and impossible to talk to in this lifetime. You can’t have a cup of tea with Natsume Sōseki. Or ask Margaret Mitchell what her favorite color was (Probably pink, tbh).

But literature surpasses these boundaries: a poem, a play, even just two lines of a sentence written over a century ago can still touch a person’s soul now. And, like in Asagiri’s case, they can inspire you to make your own stories that’ll influence others too. Like a legacy or a

tradition passed on over time, writing is timeless. It is one of the oldest human gifts -- and you can see this notion reflected in the series as well.

BSD is an extended metaphor that shows writing -- the act of storytelling -- can be a superpower: That’s why the characters’ Ability names are inspired by their respective authors’ most famous and influential work. They’re called “Gifted,” “Ability Users,” and wielders of

“Supernatural Powers” -- with some having abilities that can literally defy gravity (For The Tainted Sorrow), change the environment around them (The Grapes of Wrath, The Precipice, etc.), alter corporeal reality (Light Snow), etc.

Like writing, the Abilities can also heal (Thou Shalt Not Die), maim (literally all of the combat-based Abilities like Rashōmon or Be Not Defeated By The Rain), provide companionship (sometimes unwelcomed, like Demon Snow or Anne of Abyssal Red), disarm + make vulnerable

(No Longer Human), and even kill (Crime and Punishment). Writing can and /is/ a great force with endless, transcendental quality: it allows humans to overcome mortal boundaries and explore otherwise unreachable ideas:

Reading someone’s work is a sort of interaction with them. You get a glimmer of what kind of person they used to be in the most human way possible. Asagiri understood that and wanted to share it with others in a more accessible platform.

Because not a lot of people read nowadays! Especially not classical literature. Don’t get me wrong, there are /many/ valid reasons—books are expensive, the prose is heavy, time is an issue in such a fast-paced world, etc. A lot of the plots are also outdated, boring, and *ahem*

have been disproven to be realistically unfounded (Jules Verne, you crazy bitch). Don’t even get me started on how problematic /all/ of these authors were because of their time periods (Seriously, I have /so much/ tea on these people.

You would’ve all cancelled them by now if I do an exposé on them).

But still, I would argue, along with many others like me, that there is still some value and beauty to reading these works again. I am in no way justifying or apologizing for any of what the authors have done,

said, or believed in (especially you, Lovecraft, you xenophobic cunt), but I can’t deny that some days they were my only saving grace in a world that made me feel so lonely. I think, “Someone else has felt this way and put it into words. Even if they lived a long time ago and

are long gone, at least they understood me. Even just for a page, they’re by my side through what I’m going through.” Humans need that validation. Humans need to be shown someone loves them, understands them, and won’t leave them all alone in the dark.

So often picking up a book and getting through a story is likened to having a conversation with the author, or walking around in the innermost recesses of their soul. If a story is good, you put down the book somewhat changed. Affected and touched in a way you couldn’t have been

if someone just told you the bare facts. BSD after all can be summarized with only a few sentences: It’s about a lot of dead authors reinterpreted into anime characters. Some are friends, some are enemies, and most are a little bit of in-between. And so forth.

But we all know it’s so much more than that. Like Ango said in the Dark Era:

This notion can be extended to the rest of the series as well. These are not just bygone authors, thoughts, and numbers on a page. Asagiri is channeling their /breath/. We’re encouraged to take BSD as more than its base components. Yes, it’s funny and doesn’t take itself too

seriously sometimes (Who’s crackhead idea was it to give Kaji Motojiro lemon bombs?!?!), but, all in all, Asagiri just wanted to honor his favorite authors by crafting a story of his own -- which is such a noble tribute to the people who would appreciate it the most: the writers.

BSD gets a lot of criticism for not being historically accurate or because of the many artistic liberties the creators have taken, but I would argue that such critique isn’t exactly fair. For one, /numerous/ renditions + interpretations of Western/more popular authors have been

put on the media + big screen /years/ before BSD came out, and nobody complained about it despite a lot of them being factually inaccurate (I’m looking at you The Raven 2012 movie by James McTeigue). And two, Asagiri /never/ promised historical accuracy:

BSD studies the essence of the authors and their works. Their lives and the little details inform the story, yes, but not completely. If you want historical accuracy, read their autobiographies. Watch documentaries. Consult primary sources.

BSD, with resounding clarity, is not a history lesson. It is a love letter.

Since the story is a mixture of the actual authors’ lives, beliefs, and works, not a lot of people catch the subtle references and small acts of kindness Asagiri affords his characters. Trust me when I say he’s both hilariously ironic yet thoughtful in the changes he’s made in a

lot of these authors’ anime counterparts. As mentioned before, a lot of these people lived melancholy lives and never got the chance to even meet each other and feel less alone.

But in BSD, they do. They interact, make friends with each other, bicker, and observe. They make jokes, confess their feelings, and stand together despite many differences. It’s monumental that, at least in this universe, Osamu Dazai gets to play the role model and Akutagawa is

the fan. Edogawa Ranpo looked up to Edgar Allan Poe, but they never met. Until now. The little changes are Asagiri’s way of granting these authors chances they never could have had.

There are changes that carry even more meaning as well, such as BSD Arthur Rimbaud being allowed to be buried near the seaside in the Fifteen light novel -- a wish IRL Rimbaud wanted for his own burial, but was not granted. IRL F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edgar Allan Poe went through

extreme bouts of poverty and financial stress, but in BSD they’re really rich. IRL Atsushi Nakajima died -- alone and so young -- less than a year after he made his writing debut in Japan, but Asagiri made him the main character and allowed Atsushi to tell more stories: stories

the world was robbed of all those years ago when Nakajima passed from pneumonia. The Buraiha trio got to meet in that bar and have a few drinks together again, just like they did almost a century ago. They’re given /time/. A second chance at happiness.

And we as their readers get to love them all over again.

In a way, BSD is both a tribute and an atonement. A source of reprieve as well as an act of kindness. A sense of peace afforded to authors who for so long have not received the praise and renown their lives deserved.

So, as someone who loves these stories + writers and wished more people read + knew about them, I’m eternally grateful to Asagiri for paying tribute to these people. Overall, I would say the story worked: it’s inspired a lot of ppl to write, create, and look into the literature:

The very raw truth is that Japanese literature, though rich and has a longstanding history, is very rarely explored outside of academic settings in the West. And, like it or not, the West and what it considers “good literature” makes up most of the dominant literary arena and

influences people’s reading choices. You’re more likely to read Hawthorne over Yumeno Kyūsaku. And even then, The Scarlet Letter isn’t exactly flying off the shelves. Trust me, there’s an element of elitism in literature. There’s already so little of us who still bother to read

this old, dusty stuff, so what you read matters—and the more “niche” yet “well-known” works you read, the better standing you have in the academic food chain. Because I’m Asian, I personally sought out dominantly Asian works and that’s how I got to learn about Akutagawa, Dazai,

and Jun'ichirō -- but nobody in my literary circles have ever heard of Falling Camellia or Vita Sexualis. Some of my professors who have been at this subject for decades have never extended beyond the world of Agatha Christie or Herman Melville.

And even with my English degree, I struggled with the Japanese text. Finding good translations and readable copies is just one of the many problems you have to go through if you want to read the BSD authors: There’s the cultural gap, the language barrier + things being lost in

translation, not knowing the histories + contexts that inform a work, the different writing style, etc.

I still retained my reputation as a “smart English student,” but only because I was able to read Western works that earned me that title in the first place. My position was a

privileged and blessed one. “Exotic” or “foreign” writing is extremely type-casted as “lower” literature -- and I could go on and on about how the history of colonialism, white hegemony, and the merciless destruction of cultural stories are the reasons for that, but I digress.

The point is, is that there’re numerous obstacles you need to cross to even hear about these authors, but Asagiri managed to bypass them and bring them to life:

Even if you’re not very articulate or savvy with words, a lot of people—from all ages and backgrounds—agree it’s just a generally /nice/ story. There’s something for everyone because it covers a lot of topics and has such a vibrant cast of characters. As its popularity shows (it

ranked #2 in NewType Magazine’s best television list awards for 2016-2017 and 2019 when Season 3 came out -- Not bad for a show about old, dead authors), the masses /want/ to consume this kind of media for a myriad of reasons:

I’ve met people in middle school who like the show or the manga, and it’s really beautiful to see younger generations engage with ideas and literary themes I had to wait until college to explore. Even though it’s really goofy and light-hearted a lot of the time, BSD, essentially,

educates people and has a lot of valuable lessons derived from the texts that inspire the story. One of the best examples is Atsushi Nakajima’s “The head may err, but never the blood” quote. Or Dazai’s philosophies on human emotions:

BSD also deals with a lot of hard to swallow themes -- /especially/ for Asian media. Even though the story doesn’t have any romance or love interest plot lines, there are characters who subvert gender stereotypes and binaries (Yumeno Kyūsaku, Gin Akutagwa, The Architect, etc.).

Authors notorious for having differing sexualities (Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Edogawa Ranpo, etc.) -- reputations Asagiri most definitely knows about -- also exist and are given attention to. I want to elaborate more on this in a different analysis thread, but the WOMEN are

also phenomenally designed and presented. On top of these topics, BSD also discusses issues like the cycle of abuse, the effects of trauma, mental illness, the aftermath of grief, family, the process of healing, political corruption, violence against minorities, etc. Honorable

belief systems and ideals are also presented through the characters and ideologies of Fukuzawa Yukichi, Yosano Akiko, Oda Sakunosuke, and Kunikida Doppo.

Yet even with these virtuous ideas and themes, Asagiri doesn’t advertise his story to be on some moral high ground. As is often talked about in this fandom, his characters inhabit a liminal space of moral grayness -- neither good nor bad, light or dark, but a combination of both;

which, in all honesty, is a better reflection of humanity than any rigid binary the world imposes on morality and ethics:

Speaking of their complexities, Asagiri’s characters are also very relatable in unconventional ways. I’ve talked about how extremely well-written and elegantly explored Dazai’s character is, but you needn’t look further than Atsushi to see my point:

As Atsushi grows, we grow with him. And he’s not the only one we follow either! Like I said, I think BSD has a little bit for everyone because it manages to reflect so many aspects of the human condition and life experience. Even the villains like Shibusawa and Gogol struggle and

wrestle with universal questions. Atsushi’s relatable, yes, but I’ve seen people relate to other characters too, and at the end of the day, whoever you identify with matters so much more than any discourse on who’s the most important or valid character. There are no certainties,

nor does Asagiri point to any specific directions or concepts instructing us to fully believe or trust in them. We are quite literally left in an ambiguous miasma of contradictions, subversion, and confusion -- words that can easily be used to describe everyday life.

BSD is beautiful because it acknowledges that there /is/ a reason to live while also being content with the fact that one may not know theirs yet. It eradicates the pressure of /knowing/ what to stay alive for and instead replaces it with a comforting uncertainty. It grants its

characters, along with the story’s readers, the literal “right to wander. Like stray dogs who have hit rock bottom.”

You are allowed to be where you are and not have everything figured out yet. You are not alone. You are not running behind or missing out on life. You are understood. And you are cherished. And you are loved. Always and completely loved.

// END

Thank you to my contributors:

@katsusheep • @miitzwrites • @zettai_azen • @Dark_Faerie • @Izuzai • @ev_2425 • @icyhotarahabaki • @artsyassy

I couldn’t have done this without you