Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4: Episode 11 Early Access Reaction!
Added 2023-03-16 12:33:40 +0000 UTC**MUSHY TARO HEADPHONE WARNINGS**
After several episodes of heartbreak and trauma, Mushitaro returns to provide some much needed levity, but ALSO some ADDITIONAL heartbreak!
We finally get some much-needed information from and about our Dark Era boy Ango and we not only have a plot in place from the nefarious Decay of Angels, but an actual TIMELINE! Things are heating up towards the end of this season! I don't want it to end, though!
LINK TO REACTION: https://streamable.com/1e8toy
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Oh my gosh, I do that ALL THE TIME – talk about how something is the WORST and then….take a picture of it! HAHAHA! Yes, masochist to the extreme! ^^ I didn’t know what to think about Mushitaro at the start of this series and thought he’d be a one-episode “flavor of the week” villain, but Oh. SO WRONG. I love him! The dynamic of him with Kyouka and Atsushi is so perfect (like a sneaky uncle who wants to get them in trouble but is secretly watching their backs and wants them to have fun?), and then they give us the PAIN to go with the humor. UGH. MY HEART. Mushitaro reminds me a lot of Oda in that he has heartbreaking dynamics with other characters and we see it from HIS point of view. The fact that Mushitaro has this diva outer shell and it reveals a very pained, suffering soul? It’s so heartbreaking. It’s definitely a tragedy, but I feel all the parts and pieces of a romance are there. Like you said, right up there with Dazai and Oda! Maybe that’s why I like his character so much and want him to stick around! “Mushy Taro” all the way! And then we get Ango development on top of it?! I always wanted MORE with his character after Dark Era, so I’m glad we’re finally getting around to it. Ahhhh, and yessss, the fact that he could write those details based on the objects he received from their personal belongings? The heartbreak in that job, right?! OH THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE with those three!!! The trinity! WELP…there we are, right?! I can’t believe I didn’t put that together! And oh yeah, after how Dazai was to Ango in previous seasons, I could SO see him be that way to Ango now with the messages! I do love them shipped together (Mushitaro and Ango) because of how similar their circumstances are but how different their personalities can be – and YES, double-date with RanPoe – I would love that! Ah, thank you for the information and clarification on the timeline and translation in that episode – I was curious about that, so I’m glad it’s cleared up, now. This episode (and this whole season) has been GRAND! And we still have two more episodes to go! Thank you for the kind words and comment!
Romaniablack
2023-03-22 18:49:11 +0000 UTC"I didn't need that pain in my life" *takes screenshot of said pain* ahaha, the life of a masochist, amiright. The life of being a BSD fan 🥲 This episode, as they say, truly had EVERYTHING..... It had Mushitarou cute and funny shenanigans, as well as Mushitarou crippling heartbreak, it had Ango development, Ango crippling heartbreak, fellow bonding over mutual grief, it had Oda/buraiha trio crumbs, the return of my queen Lucy (and my Atsulucy crumbs), plot reveals, an adorable new trio, Kyouka being the absolute peak of deadpan comedy, Atsushi being his usual blissfully innocent and ignorant self, complete with another ass-in-the-air moment.... Could you really ask for anything more in a BSD episode? I think not. It was almost perfect. 🥹 Mushi-kun, my dear, sweet, silly, sad little broken boy.... oh how I love him, and oh how he destroys me and I want to give him a tight hug 🥹💔💚 His goofy and dramatic personality is so endearing and adorable, but the way he uses it to just pile on the denial as hard as he possibly can, but is unable to keep the cracks from showing..... he's such a bleeding heart, it's so devastating to me. The thumbnail image of his face in his hand has to be one of the most striking and powerful images in the entire series for me (they NAILED the manga panel here); his pain is SO palpable and it is SO heartbreaking. He keeps trying to lie to himself that he doesn't miss Yokomizo, that he's fine, yet he keeps hallucinating him and using his memory to help him in situations.... and even the Yokomizo in his /subconscious/ tells him that his life seems much more exciting and fun now without him around and when he's not focusing on him, as if deep down Mushi himself is terrified of the possibility that he could ever reach a point where he might not need Yokomizo anymore, because he can't bear the thought of that right now 😭💔 but at the same time he can't acknowledge his grief, either, or he'll completely drown in it. He's struggling so much, and that moment where Atsushi asks him where he learned the locked room trick from, you can just /see/ his mind and heart suddenly catch up with reality in the middle of his bragging as he stops cold and realizes -- "Oh. Oh right. I learned it from him, back then. And now he's not here anymore." And Mushi is so distraught that he can't even bring himself to tell Atsushi anything more, or even speak Yokomizo's name. Because as soon as he mentions him out loud, he'll also have to acknowledge out loud that he no longer exists in this world. Cue the meme "you can see the exact moment his heart rips in half" 🥹🥲💔 Whether you think Mushi and Yokomizo were in love with each other or not, their story is practically some kind of Shakespearean tragedy; there's something so romantically heartbreaking about it, and how it all ended. Out of all the friendship duos in BSD we're introduced to, these two knew each other the longest, I think -- they've known each other since they were in school together, which makes it even sadder. We see so little of them, yet their bond is developed so well and is /so/ emotionally impactful, right up there with Oda and Dazai's bond for me, like I said on discord.... I truly love how Oda and Yokomizo's presences continue to be felt and continue to guide Dazai, Ango, and Mushi, even after they're gone. And I'm so happy that Mushi wasn't just a one-off character in the Perfect Murder arc, because his story was already so well done in that arc alone, but these particular chapters in this episode elevated him to a god-tier character for me; I simply adore him so so much, my sweet silly little green gremlin man Mushy Taro. 🥹😭💚💔 Ango makes me so sad too though, cause he really is constantly forced to play roles and work jobs and live a life that he'd rather do anything but -- he, too, is so sentimental and caring, but the nature of his work forces him to suppress all that, and constantly be the one doing the dirty jobs. The poor man has juggled so many organizations, between the Special Division, the Port Mafia, Mimic, the Seventh Agency once, and now he's betraying the Special Division in a sense for the Armed Detective Agency, when he'd probably rather just be at home sleeping. 😭 💔 But he cares so, so much about Dazai and Oda, and never stopped.... it hurts 🥹💔 and I'm so glad you realized what his ability means!!! All those reports he made about the deceased mafia members, and how miraculously detailed they were about each of their lives just based on a few random belongings of theirs he collected -- that was because Ango could read the memories of those people and see what they were like from their belongings with his ability!!! He did that for each and every one!! His ability to see into the past is SO fitting for Ango, as someone who /is/ so sentimental and /did/ so desperately long to one day be able to drink with Oda and Dazai again like normal once they were all free men, as he says in Dark Era.... and he still longs for that. He's still stuck in the past, just like his ability encourages, and he /represents/ the past -- Oda's ability, meanwhile, was to see into the future, just as he himself was constantly looking to the future of the life he wanted to live as a writer, the future that he never got to have. Dazai, meanwhile, is right in the middle -- he represents the present, the here and now that he is trying to live, even if he doesn't really especially want a future nor has any expectations for how it will go. I loveeeee how the trio are represented as past present and future like this....... and it's bittersweet that Ango and Dazai are working together now. Because Ango is still fond of Dazai, of course, but Dazai still hates Ango for what happened, we all know he does, and is probably only working with him out of necessity to help the ADA..... I have this headcanon that Dazai will sometimes add a little passive aggressive note to the end of his heartbeat messages to Ango lol, like "Hey can you do this? Thanks. Bitch" or "btw I still hate u lol" 🥲💀 they just make me saaaaaaad Mushi/Ango is the perfect ship though, both sad suit boys stuck in the past struggling with grief over their lost loved ones who can help each other heal. They can talk about their respective situations together and also nerd out over occult things and antique things. And Mushi's friends Ranpoe can join on the side with Karl and it can be a double date. Yes please 🥹💖 This isn't that important, but Mushitarou wasn't actually involved with the Seventh Agency when Ango used it to clear Dazai's criminal record -- Ango did that four years ago, at the end of Dark Era, but Mushi was freed from the Seventh Agency by Fyodor around two months prior to now. So unless he was held captive by them for four years (which is all but impossible since Yokomizo told him he only had a year left to live and Mushi killed him before that year was up), he wasn't there when Ango utilized it that one time, so his ability wasn't involved then. The Seventh Agency in general exists to cover up government crimes, scandals, etc, as Mushi and Ango explain; it's just likely that eventually they found Mushi and realized that they could exploit his ability to make that work even easier, and captured him to use him. But that was long after Ango used them to help Dazai. Also I think you got the order of events between Ango and Tachihara backwards -- as they talk about in Dark Era, Ango joined the Port Mafia /first/, and he was told to do so originally by the Special Division in order to monitor the mafia's activities. Then, he left because of the events of Dark Era, and Tachihara was the one to fill that empty spot in the mafia. Ango never had anything to do with the Hunting Dogs, just the Special Division, and the mafia just needed someone to fill his spot when he left, and it worked out nicely for Tachihara because of his personal revenge quest on Mori and Yosano. The German words that Mushi says at the beginning translate to "I won't tremble at the seal on that blade", and is a line from real-life Mushitarou's mystery novel "Black Hall Death Murders". Similarly, the "Kabbalah" he talks about in the hallway is a type of esoteric Jewish mysticism sometimes used in astrology, also mentioned in the same novel, which of course bsd Mushi would know about because he's obsessed with the occult. This was such an amazing episode, I'm still overwhelmed by it, just like I originally was in the manga 🥹💖 can't believe we're almost at the end, but this is definitely shaping up to be my favorite season, even with Dark Era always being #1
Dana
2023-03-22 00:44:28 +0000 UTCI love that we're finally getting Ango in all this! The trio stories are all coming together! :3 Thank you for the comments!
Romaniablack
2023-03-17 14:47:18 +0000 UTCYESSSSS, I LOVE THAT! <3
Romaniablack
2023-03-17 14:46:54 +0000 UTCOooh yessss! I love it! We definitely needed the levity from this episode to balance out the TRAUMA of the last few episodes! <3 Thanks for the comments!
Romaniablack
2023-03-17 03:51:31 +0000 UTCOh you are FINE - it was just one of those situations where we would have found out anyway! But like you said, it wasn't a spoiler - technically - since it was information we already knew!
Romaniablack
2023-03-17 03:39:12 +0000 UTCp.s. As an anime-only, I didn't know Ango was going to pop up so soon again in the story, so ya know... lol sorry for reminding you that he was Sakaguchi XD
brianna a
2023-03-16 21:47:48 +0000 UTChahah I saw a comment somewhere about this episode where someone said "bungo stray dogs is finally bungo stray dog-ing again" XD it was just nice to see the silly antics and the anime-ish reactions that were missing in the past few episodes ^-^
brianna a
2023-03-16 21:13:24 +0000 UTCOda: You should be a good man. Dazai: I will be a good man. Ango: Let me help you be a good man.
Stace
2023-03-16 19:53:10 +0000 UTCIn Dark Era, we only see Oda and Dazai, while Ango's just part of the trio and we never see any of his feelings towards his friends. Now we do
Stace
2023-03-16 19:51:42 +0000 UTCOOH! Nice! Thank you! I will definitely go back to season 2 and find it so we can talk about it next week! You're awesome -- thanks for the comment and info! :D
Romaniablack
2023-03-16 13:46:51 +0000 UTCActually, Ango's ability name has already mentioned in season 2 when they introduced Buraiha trio. If you looked back in the first ep of ss2, you'll find the name :))
Darkmoon_b
2023-03-16 13:42:52 +0000 UTCPatreon accidentally posted this! I made y'all wait last week, so we will just have it early this week! :)
Romaniablack
2023-03-16 12:43:46 +0000 UTC
