The unfortunate downside of Fukichi abandoning his search for Aya is that he can now aim his attention elsewhere. And that ‘elsewhere’ turns out to be the Detective Agency members. To be more specific, Tanizaki and Kunikida are in big trouble. But it seems like Atsushi is in even bigger trouble. He’s being held captive by Teruko and is about to be tortured for information. We’re starting off hot.
We move to the long awaited meeting. Ranpo and Fukuzawa come face to face with Fukichi, who has Tanizaki and Kunikida hooked up to what is basically a discount saw trap. I’m guessing he wants them to play a little game or something. I don’t like these kinds of convoluted methods, but they’re really your only option for suspenseful storytelling if you’re not willing to outright kill important main characters. As much as I love Bungo Stray Dogs, one of its fatal flaws – and this is true for many for my favorite shonen – is that it’s unwilling to kill off any of the interesting characters. I can understand that desire, but it does take away the tension if you know everything is going to be alright in the end. Of course the good guys always win in these stories, but it’s more interesting if there’s a cost. I digress, we’re only three minutes in and I’ve written two whole paragraphs, I should just shut up and keep watching.
It looks like Teruko is in a difficult position. She still works for her Captain, but she’s also aware that her captain is a terrorist. Regardless of her hesitation, this makes it very clear that she’s choosing to be a villain. I can understand her being torn at this moment, but she really is just aiding terrorists for no reason other than she’s a fan of the terrorist.
Fukichi and Fukuzawa clash and it’s a brutal clash. They both take damage, but Fukuzawa definitely comes out worse, being stabbed in the stomach by a dagger. And here we finally get the long awaited flashback. The two have known each other since they were very long. More than 20 years, from what Fukuzawa has said. They trained at the same dojo and after years of training they were still friends. Where Fukichi agreed to go to the battlefield, Fukuzawa didn’t go. That’s where the two ended up splitting. And of course, that’s where his PTSD turned him into a demon.
Atsushi has been told the Decay of Angels true goal, but we as viewers haven’t yet. I’m guessing he wants to kill everyone involved with the government or something. It’s Fukuzawa’s turn to guess, I’m betting his guess will be better than mine. Good thing I’m not a betting man, since Fukuzawa was also wrong. Atsushi gets let go by Teruko and we go back to the prison escape duo. Remember how Chuuya and Fyodor drowned in the last episode? I wonder when we’re going to find out what actually happened to them. Meanwhile Sigma still wonders what he’s done wrong to get here. I still really like Sigma and his struggle as a person. He comes from nothing and has been abandoned again and again, only to hear how Dazai really cares. I really hope he comes out of this well.
Fyodor and Chuuya have made their way to the time stopping gifted and brutally kill her. This seems to have been outside of Dazai’s plans, since he’s surprised and he truly seemed to plan to use Sigma to read Fyodor’s memories. After the two of them played idiot for so many episodes it’s easy to forget just how much of a complete sociopath Fyodor is. Even though Fukichi is the leader of the Decay of Angels, I think Fyodor is probably the scarier one when it comes to the way they think. I wonder if he’ll somehow get out of all this trouble alive at the end of it all. He did at least predict the flood and had Chuuya bend the wall. And now at the end of episode 9, Dazai and Sigma are in the same predicament that Chuuya and Fyodor were in at the end of the previous episode.
I’m curious if they’re going to finish the story in the next three episodes, and how they’ll do so. I don’t believe the manga is far ahead of where the anime is either, but I say that having not read it. There’s so many factors and things running around. What happened to Aya? Someone must have saved her, but who? Is Fukuzawa going to die? And lastly, what sort of time bending trick are they going to pull off to win? Dazai wanting information from Fyodor’s corpse about his future plans makes me think he expected Fyodor to die here but be alive again later. It’s all too complicated for me to predict, but I’m still enjoying myself and I suppose that’s all that is really important. Let me know if you have any theories about how this all will conclude (Of course no input if you’ve read the manga and actually know what will happen.) As usual though, thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 