It’s Bungo Stray Dogs day. I had my first day of teaching at a new job yesterday and one of my students asked about One Piece (I showed off my bookshelves in some pictures like a proper nerd) and I answered her question of “do you watch One Piece” with “Yes, and I have been watching it since before you were born.” I can use a distraction so my bones don’t continue evaporating. I also read an interview with the author about his process and there seems to be a lot more cool stuff coming up. Let’s get started on this week’s episode though.
We’re starting off with a far too lengthy explanation of the prison’s defenses. I’m sure the two have some sort of weird trick to circumvent all of it. Either way, this prison sounds like the most unbelievable thing in this universe so far, and that’s a universe that had a massive flying casino. I’m staunchly opposed to the death penalty in our world, but in a world like Bungo Stray Dogs I would probably be in favor of just killing the prisoners instead of wasting the GDP of several planets on imprisoning them. Unfortunately, Dazai, Nikolai and Fyodor are all completely insane. Poor Sigma. And things don’t get better from here on out. Instead of one of the four items provided in Nikolai’s twisted escape room, he picks Sigma as his item. I suppose he was technically created through the book, so is he an item? Let’s not look at it too deeply, this isn’t a trolley problem, it’s insane detectives doing even more insane things. I love Bungo with all my heart, but I have to remember to leave my common sense at the door before I come in. Let’s roll the opening credits!
Speaking of remembering things. For some reason I thought Aya was a young woman in her late teens. Anime’s warped display of age has definitely changed the way I see characters. Turns out she’s only 10 years old. Why she was alone in an airport picking up a friend at that age in a world as dangerous as Bungo’s is beyond me, but it makes her dealings with Bram all the more impressive. She quickly gets circled by vampires. She’s also aware of how important Bra-chan is. Luckily the Armed Detective Agency is there to save the day.
Let’s check in on Dazai and Sigma, it turns out they’re still insane. At least Dazai is. Sigma is just trying to find his place in the world and the word home resonates with him extremely strongly. I hope he gets out of this, terrorist or not, he was abandoned and used by everyone in his life. Now that he’s in charge of his own destiny he’s finally shaping up to be a more decent person. I wonder if he will end up joining the Agency. Also, I’m much more confident now that I was right! It has to be Chuuya we saw last week. Chuuya being here would be an incredible game changer. I got what I wished for, in a sense. It’s Chuuya alright, but he’s been turned into a vampire. That’s bad. I repeat. That’s bad. I am still incredibly curious about what the timeline looks like. Is Aya meeting up with Kenji here while Dazai is breaking out of prison, or is Dazai about to show up at the airport.
Uh oh. It’s one of the two remaining Hunting Dogs, or Wolves as Kenji refers to them. Atsushi joins the fray and budget Tanya Degurecheff tricks him into thinking she’s Aya. I love how Bram instantly has respect for Kenji because he’s a farmer. Real recognize real. Atsushi was trying to tell Teruko that Tachihara had uncovered Fukichi’s schemes. Teruko wants to meet up with Ranpo, which is understandable. As much as the Hunting Dogs are terribly hungry for blood, they have to start listening to reason at some point, right? They can’t just blindly follow their leader while everyone around them is telling them they’re wrong. The episode ends with Kenji getting defeated. I’m almost hesitant to predict this, since I’m more often wrong than not about this show, but I want to say this was an illusion created by Tanizaki’s powers. He’s not been seen in action for a while, after all. Either way, things are ramping up on all fronts. I wonder what Dazai’s plan is to escape prison and I wonder if the Hunting Dogs are going to be convinced soon. Either way, it’s been a great episode once again and I can’t wait to see next week’s. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 