Since I haven’t been posting art on here as much, here are a few pieces I finished and posted to Twitter only. I won’t be posting my goretober pieces on here since some of them are quite graphic but they’re all going to be up on my Twitter @/wangzapper
Author’s note : I actually wrote this on 10/07/2021. I wanted to rewrite it and improve it if I could. I’d recommend listening to this song, as the fic is heavily inspired by it.
Must read: angst, manga spoilers, implied deaths, recalling past trauma, mentions of Dark Era. Implied soukoku shipping, can be taken as platonic too. Also mentions scenes from BSD Wan!
Dazai’s brown eyes found themselves fixed onto a spot in space, with no proper definition. An image of the polaroid back at his apartment flashed in his unusually quiet mind, bringing with it memories of Bar Lupin. And …him.
He remembered the blood on his hands, the terror that flooded through his system when he saw Oda. How pathetic and sickening he was.
“he’s the Demon Prodigy” “I heard he was the youngest executive known to the mafia’s history” “I’ve heard he hollows victim’s hearts out. He really is soulless” “word has been going around is that he’s the boss’s turn-to” “he commands the entire Port Mafia’s hitmen! I thought he was only 15?”
He thought of Oda’s low voice, a ghost of the scent of hot curry filling his nostrils. And of Atsushi. His kind, glimmering eyes. He looked around the small jail cell and his white uniform, and at Dostoyevsky, who was sitting across him.
“people only exist to save themselves”
“I’ll leave the mafia” he did, but at what cost?
“I understand it’s hard Dazai kun, but try not to dwell on it too much’ Fukuzawa dono had told him
He thought of Ango, and wondered whether he would miss Oda at all. And Atsushi. "I’d prefer if you didn’t go at all” he had said. Would he really miss him?
He remembered how excited Nakahara was to go to that movie, and how Dazai had taunted him for it.
The way he dressed as a dog wasn’t just to spite Nakahara, Dazai reminisced.
“I’m sorry, Chuuya.”
THIS FITS WITH CHP 101 OKAY? SO I WANTED TO WRITE IT AGAIN. I’M SORRY
Repost of my old BSD meta post on the 4 main strategists of the series (so far), brought back due to the deletion of my old blog and interest from peeps!!
Plain text version under the cut (thanks to @kaus-quietis):
Dear Bungou Stray Dogs fandom, today I offer you… even more Spotify codes for 4 new playlists I made for: Chuuya,Akutagawa,Angoand our most beloved Decay of the Angel members,Fyodor, Sigma and Nikolai! They all feature hand-picked tracks in a strategic order for higher immersion, so listening without shuffle is recommended.
Soul of Decay! Decay! Decay! (BSD):Sow terror and indulge in peak tomfoolery with the fan-favourite members of Bungou Stray Dogs’ Decay of the Angel group. Step forth, dear soul, alongside Nikolai and Sigma: under Fyodor’s gentle guidance, DESTABILIZE the ENTIRE world!
Soul of Chuuya Nakahara (BSD):Live with FIERCE passion and stand by your choices together with the soul of Bungou Stray Dogs’ Chuuya Nakahara. Playlist for making each kick a poem, each breath a prayer, each step a victory against yourself, and finding inspiration.
Soul of Ryuunosuke Akutagawa (BSD):Honour life and honour death and HOWL with the Hellhound, facing the soul of Bungou Stray Dogs’ Ryuunosuke Akutagawa. Playlist for donning the Coat of blood and razors, embracing elegance and impulse, and finding inspiration.
Soul of Ango Sakaguchi (BSD):Dwell on the fleeting, malleable present and pretend your past choices do not weigh your down with the soul of Bungou Stray Dogs’ Ango Sakaguchi. Playlist for breaking your cruel dark routine, or further fuel it, and finding inspiration.
♫ If you’re curious about my previous playlists, dedicated to Fyodor,Dazai,SigmaandNikolairespectively, you can find their codes in my post here.
The way Xerxes Break (Pandora Hearts) looks at Shelly Rainsworth (ch86) is the way I imagine Fedya would look at the person he loves and chooses for eternity
Dear Anon, It is not a weird question at all, as this scene demands careful inspection indeed, given that the differences between the manga and the anime are significant, especially in pretty much everything related to Fedya. Besides a bunch of other differences I already wrote out in my essay (to be published, hopefully, in June!), it is true that Fedya never breaks his cello in the manga’s ch47, whereas in the anime’s S3ep9we see him looking down to his broken cello at his feet, at the end of the episode. Here is a quick comparison of the last scenes in which the cello is visible in the manga and the anime:
We can see how the anime decided to include an entirely new scene, with a different message. In my opinion, this adds mischaracterization to anime!Fedya, but I shall talk more about that in my essay as well.
RegardingVolume 19’s omake, which you reference, it is important to note that the scenes from both pages happen in Sigma’s dream, thus they never happened in the main timeline’s “reality”. The assumption that Fedya shipped his cello to Japan is plausible on its own, nonetheless, while the “for a mission” part remains debatable, as the manga never explained the purpose of the cello recital so far. In my essay, I offer an interpretation in which what I deduced was its purpose becomes clear, so I am rather eager to share it in the future essay post. Either way, I find it very interesting that Sigma dreamed of his co-workers and that this included a reference to Fedya’s cello being transported, because, according to Fedya in ch75, Sigma was born from the Book 3 years prior to the moment he and Dazai ended up in Meursault. That points us to a timeline where both Sigma and Kolya were already working with Fedya during the Cannibalism plan (since its very start), and even before. I think the fandom would be blessed if someone were to make a chronology of the main events and verify this. Also, since Fedya in Sigma’s dream explains to him that his cello was already shipped to Japan, we may ask ourselves where were they? – in Russia? or somewhere else in Europe? – given how it sounds that his cello was shipped to an external place, internationally. Imagine Kolya and Sigma together with Fedya in Russia, then sneaking into the Japanese territory together. Who knows? But then again, speculating on this “info” is like walking on thin ice, because:
As for why exactly Fedya captured Katsura, that too is never addressed directly in the manga, except for Fedya’s own words to Katsura (“I simply wished to ask about our mutual acquaintance. The Detective Agency, that is”), which tell us it’s all about gaining information again (Fedya is an information “trader” after all, besides a million other things). What is more, we as the readers are conveyed the following message by the simple fact that Katsura ended up in Fedya’s basement (yes, basement, not a luxurious room full of stained glass, but this I can forgive because the scene was gorgeous animated in that room): Fedya can easily capture even those freshly arrested by the government (Katsura was arrested in ch40). Does this imply he got his own pawns in the government? An open possibility, I’d say. Or a given fact, at this point, but, until the theories are confirmed kjdsfgnjkf
Thank you for sending me this lovely question, I greatly enjoyed answering it and I hope you don’t mind me answering here, on my main blog! I write my own thoughts / analysis stuff on main.
Bonus info I share again because my love is infinite: Fedya’s song is called “Bird of Death” in the BSD Season 3 OST, and there are two variants of it, which you can find both on youtube and spotify searching by their Japanese titles:
チェロとピアノの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death” for Cello and Piano)
弦楽オーケストラとハープの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death" for String Orchestra and Harp) (((please note I sadly do not speak Japanese, and these title translations are from the BSD wiki)))
/// Anon’s full question is transcribed below the cut:
Adding part of Anon’s beautiful response to share last bits about things I share the opinion on!! <3 <3 <3
This! That scene is of suchsolemnity and importance! I analyze it as an example in one of the sections of my essay, concentrating exactly on what the manga had and the anime took out. Moving on, later in this ask you said “maybe, the anime didn’t need to add a broken cello if it wasn’t in the manga” – now, I think there was no broken cello at all in the manga, and it’s not uncommon that anime adaptations add entirely new scenes to canon material, thus usually a manga is considered the only true primary source of “canon”. I do work with a flexible mindset regarding that (we need to take into consideration Dead Apple in all forms, as well as the other light novels after all), but one of my essay’s conclusions is indeed that the anime mischaracterizes Fedya so far (except for Ray Chase dubbing him, he is a very talented voice actor I heard in many roles, and he already has a good intuition of what kind of character Fedya is, I’d say he nails him 100%; I cannot comment on the Japanese VA since I am not a native Japanese speaker though OTL). Still, manga!Fedya is the real Fedya, all things considered.
And just for the beauty of it, I’ll leave the quote you invoked here:
ch46, Fedya (official EN translation): “Man is sinful and foolish. Even if they know it is all an artifice, they cannot help but kill each other. Someone must purify them for those sins. That is why I seek “The Book”.
(…) And I will use that Book to make a world free of sin and skill users”.
*edit*Forgot to add: me and you caring hardcore about Fedya’s cello emanates the same energy as that ??? time I wrote my “calculations” of his cello’s height here. I have no excuse, but it was too much fun. What a time it was.
Dear Anon, It is not a weird question at all, as this scene demands careful inspection indeed, given that the differences between the manga and the anime are significant, especially in pretty much everything related to Fedya. Besides a bunch of other differences I already wrote out in my essay (to be published, hopefully, in June!), it is true that Fedya never breaks his cello in the manga’s ch47, whereas in the anime’s S3ep9we see him looking down to his broken cello at his feet, at the end of the episode. Here is a quick comparison of the last scenes in which the cello is visible in the manga and the anime:
We can see how the anime decided to include an entirely new scene, with a different message. In my opinion, this adds mischaracterization to anime!Fedya, but I shall talk more about that in my essay as well.
RegardingVolume 19’s omake, which you reference, it is important to note that the scenes from both pages happen in Sigma’s dream, thus they never happened in the main timeline’s “reality”. The assumption that Fedya shipped his cello to Japan is plausible on its own, nonetheless, while the “for a mission” part remains debatable, as the manga never explained the purpose of the cello recital so far. In my essay, I offer an interpretation in which what I deduced was its purpose becomes clear, so I am rather eager to share it in the future essay post. Either way, I find it very interesting that Sigma dreamed of his co-workers and that this included a reference to Fedya’s cello being transported, because, according to Fedya in ch75, Sigma was born from the Book 3 years prior to the moment he and Dazai ended up in Meursault. That points us to a timeline where both Sigma and Kolya were already working with Fedya during the Cannibalism plan (since its very start), and even before. I think the fandom would be blessed if someone were to make a chronology of the main events and verify this. Also, since Fedya in Sigma’s dream explains to him that his cello was already shipped to Japan, we may ask ourselves where were they? – in Russia? or somewhere else in Europe? – given how it sounds that his cello was shipped to an external place, internationally. Imagine Kolya and Sigma together with Fedya in Russia, then sneaking into the Japanese territory together. Who knows? But then again, speculating on this “info” is like walking on thin ice, because:
As for why exactly Fedya captured Katsura, that too is never addressed directly in the manga, except for Fedya’s own words to Katsura (“I simply wished to ask about our mutual acquaintance. The Detective Agency, that is”), which tell us it’s all about gaining information again (Fedya is an information “trader” after all, besides a million other things). What is more, we as the readers are conveyed the following message by the simple fact that Katsura ended up in Fedya’s basement (yes, basement, not a luxurious room full of stained glass, but this I can forgive because the scene was gorgeous animated in that room): Fedya can easily capture even those freshly arrested by the government (Katsura was arrested in ch40). Does this imply he got his own pawns in the government? An open possibility, I’d say. Or a given fact, at this point, but, until the theories are confirmed kjdsfgnjkf
Thank you for sending me this lovely question, I greatly enjoyed answering it and I hope you don’t mind me answering here, on my main blog! I write my own thoughts / analysis stuff on main.
Bonus info I share again because my love is infinite: Fedya’s song is called “Bird of Death” in the BSD Season 3 OST, and there are two variants of it, which you can find both on youtube and spotify searching by their Japanese titles:
チェロとピアノの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death” for Cello and Piano)
弦楽オーケストラとハープの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death" for String Orchestra and Harp) (((please note I sadly do not speak Japanese, and these title translations are from the BSD wiki)))
/// Anon’s full question is transcribed below the cut:
Anon to @kaus-fangirlis (my sideblog):“Weird question: does Fedya break his cello in the manga? I saw that scene in the anime but I can’t find it in the manga :( I mean,, yeah, Fedya sent it to Japan for the sake of a ‘mission’ (if the omake can be taken as canon) and it’d hella funny if he played it once and smashed it to pieces (why did he even kidnap that guy lmao) But I think he must attach a lot of importance to it and sent it on before he left for Japan,,, so he must have kept it somewhere safe before he went off to prison, broken or not….
tl;dr, if the cello-breaking scene is in manga please tell me in which chapter,,, it’s very /important/ information I need to know ＞﹏＜”
Love that this panel implies that Sigma finds both Fyodor and Fukuchi more enjoyable to be around than Gogol. Like, that would not be my preference, but ok.
unironically it is all just whatever it’s time to go back to psychoanalyzing bsd characters and tearing apart bsd’s thematic messages again. anyway does it make anybody else feel crazy that so many of bsd’s character parallels revolve around living in the “real world” versus just living in one’s head and trying to influence the real world from there. Remember when dazai said “we are all just stray dogs trying to find our own place in the world” to atsushi and then proceeded for the next 50 chapters to absolutely refuse to accept the fact that he’s human and has a place in the world next to his friends because he’s afraid of both trusting the world (to be kind) and himself (to be human) and even though he’s trying to teach this exact same message to fyodor he can’t accept that humanity for himself which is why he’s doomed to self-isolation and a feeling of constant inadequacy. Remember that dazai’s ability is called “no longer human” because he doesn’t trust anybody else to understand him and his actions and so he only gives parts of himself to others when he tries to make their lives more “beautiful” but a complete, total understanding and willingness to trust in whoever it is that understands him is what can restore his own sense of humanity
yes! there’s actually two very plausible interpretations of dazai’s character both of which have plenty of textual evidence to support them. the first one which you have outlined where dazai is seen as a tragic figure of sorts. we have witnessed odasaku give parts of himself to others in an attempt to make their lives beautiful and complete without opening himself up to them or truly being vulnerable in their presence. since oda was the one whom dazai modelled his moral compass after leaving the mafia, he could be seen to adopt the same pattern with characters such as atsushi. in this way, he truly is doomed to a life of self-isolation and constant feelings of inadequacy because to some extent, the darkness can never meaningfully be escaped.
alternatively, and this is the interpretation i tend to adopt quite transparently as much as i enjoy both of them, there is a hopeful reading of his character too. one that i believe fits into the broader theme of redemption present throughout bsd quite comfortably. as you stated really well, dazai is afraid of trusting the world (to be kind) and himself (to be human). however, he has witnessed kindness in the world through odasaku and expressed vulnerability in the presence of odasaku, the only human being who truly understood him. in other words, he knows the world has the potential to be kind and he knows he himself has the capacity to display humanity and be treated as a human being.
oda played an impactful yet devastatingly short-lived role in dazai’s life. it’s only natural for dazai to stumble upon entering the world of the light that was introduced to him after oda’s death. it’s only natural for him to model himself based on the only source of kindness the world had granted him. it’s also only natural for doubt to overshadow his belief in oda’s words, to repeat them without acknowledging that they hold true for himself. this is why the connection you pointed out between dazai and fyodor becomes especially important. when dazai is showing fyodor the truth of oda’s words, that human beings (those who are disqualified such as himself included) are deserving of light, he is also reinforcing their truth to himself by extension. he is also convincing himself there is still a place for people like him on the side that protects people rather than pains them.
put differently, when dazai is sharing the last gift he received from oda, the message that everybody has a place in the world of the light regardless of their sinful past, he is doing so not just to save the world or ability users or even fyodor but also in the hope that he can save himself.
i always thought fyodor and hawthorne would get along well because of their obsession with the concept of sin but then fyodor just had to go ahead and brainwash the poor priest. typical.
fyodor is either going to receive some character development or be contrasted with dazai by the end of bungou stray dog’s story line. arguably, this has been done so already. in order to understand exactly how, the best source is none other than the brothers karamazov wherein dostoyevsky’s namesake writes “brothers, have no fear of men’s sin. love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of divine love and is the highest love on earth.” and “at some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. always decide to use humble love. if you resolve on that once for all, you may subdue the whole world.”
for fyodor, ability users are the very embodiment of the sin he seeks to purge. what he is doing by meeting them with force rather than love or a radical form of acceptance is far from what the author he was based off of suggests he should do. either this means fyodor will come to realise he is at fault and redeem himself which is in line with bsd’s overarching themes about overcoming one’s dark past and atoning for one’s mistakes, or his failure will serve a lesson for the reader.
fyodor worldview can also be contrasted against dazai’s who has come to terms with the bad that he, and by extension the people like him, are capable of committing. this couldn’t be better expressed than with dazai’s own words. after taking a bullet to his chest he says “certainly people are sinfully stupid but what is so wrong about that?” which is a line that cuts to the core of fyodor’s conflict with the world at large. his answer to this question, should he choose to grapple with it at all, is what will ultimately determine his fate.
