Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4: Episode 6 EARLY ACCESS Reaction!
Added 2023-02-11 14:00:02 +0000 UTC**JESTER HEADPHONE WARNINGS - I AM LOUD**
HOLY SMOKES, I haven't felt this feral, this shocked, or felt the need to yank Whiteboard-kun out like I have before in this series!
Introduced to a member of The Hunting Dogs, who's "hounded" Dazai, Nikolai reveals some DEEP demons he's harboring, and the gore was straight-up GROTESQUE as Bungo Stray Dogs pulls out the stops to let things get WILD this episode! Guard your ears, I am FLABBERGASTED!
LINK TO REACTION: https://streamable.com/mpcwnp
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
There was definitely a lot set up in this episode that I'm going to be excited to see play out in the future! But yes, how are we getting out? MANGAKAAAAA, hahaha, I'll be excited to see where it goes! Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2023-02-15 22:15:17 +0000 UTCHaving Dazai's list of crimes confirmed gives Dazai's talk to Kyouka at the end of season 2 also more weight, because she was like "I killed 35 people" and dazai said "so what" already implying his kill count goes higher but now it also puts even more weight on his words. Just found it interesting and credit to the decay of angels, because acting this all out so that the power of the book can be used, and I find it good that it has this kind of "has to follow a coherent storyline"esque limitaion so it isn't that powerful. But now I'm gonna go cry and wonder how they are gonna get out of this situation haha
alessia_collie
2023-02-15 21:39:34 +0000 UTCOooohhh, I had always heard that this series was a Seinen and I didn’t quite “see” it until the Dark Era, but NOW. Now definitely makes sense! I am ALL for this series transitioning into what the mangaka has meant it to be - the style has always been somewhat grisly, raw, and “creepy,” in the manga, so glad the anime is matching up tonally! I agree, Nikolai takes what we think is going to happen or what his character represents and throws us in a tizzy with it! I would argue too that Mushitaro’s character did that but to a more…innocent degree? I guess? I love when antagonists have moral grayness, deep layers, psychological complexes, and BSD is built AROUND nearly ALL of its characters being that way, so…fun times, right?! :) Ooohh, I stopped reading your third and fourth paragraphs with that first line, because I DO NOT want ANY hints, clues, clarifications, or spoilers to the plot. I want to be surprised, and if I’m confused, I’ll be confused. I can handle that (it’s a feeling I’m used to, haha). 🙂 Same with the theory of Oda; I’m not reading any audience theories for the show so I’ll be happy to be surprised when we find out more. I do feel really bad for Ranpo – we’ve established this season that he has a connection to the deaths that have happened, FEEL for them and those involved, and is actively working to make amends or atone – it’s a different side of Ranpo than the seemingly carefree self we’ve seen so far, so that’s interesting. And I agree, Dazai getting arrested, you can tell his heart probably aches having his past brought up so brazenly in front of him – his hard work to live up to his promise to Oda thrown back in his face. :( He needs a hug! And ooooooh, that is a GREAT observation about Tanizaki and the activation button connecting back to season 1! I love that! I hadn’t thought of it, so thanks for bringing that up! And thank you for the awesome comment and kind words! I’m excited for the next episode!
Romaniablack
2023-02-15 16:11:34 +0000 UTCI feel like this part is a major turning point in BSD, a sort of a wake-up call for what kind of series it really is, what it intends to be; showing that, as you put it, it is willing "to go there". Up to this point in the manga, and especiallyyyyy in the anime, it for the most part feels pretty shounen, with all these quirky characters and their special powers, a gung-ho main protagonist and his rival, and a lot of slice-of-life/one-off arcs and mysteries. Not that there aren't hints up to this point of more complex ideas and topics, of course, like with Dazai in general and Atsushi's complicated feelings towards his past abuse, among many other things, but for the most part it feels like pretty standard anime/manga fare. Fitzgerald, as much as I love him and think he's interesting, is still a pretty one-and-done typical anime villain, and even the stuff in the cannibalism arc introducing Fyodor feels like it resolves itself pretty quickly and easily? But it's in the light novels, and starting with this arc here, that you really first get a sense of how deep BSD intends to go, of the complexity of the worldbuilding, and the psychological, philosophical, political and even religious ideas it wants to explore, which makes sense for a series inspired by classic literature, right? I was absolutely floored just like you are when I first read this part (and I shouldn't have been, after seeing/reading Dark Era, and yet lol) -- BSD is NOT playing around anymore, it is a seinen through and through; gone are the days of mystery of the week and typical ADA shenanigans, now we have GRUESOME CULTISH MURDERS and REALITY ALTERING. It feels like it comes out of nowhere, in a good way, and I absolutely love it. :' ) And Nikolai is the perfect set piece for this, and almost feels like he's calling out the audience (represented by Atsushi) for our preconceived notions/simpleminded views. Like we talked about, Fitzgerald and Mushitarou are great examples of characters in BSD that appear to be shallow or surface-level but are actually much more multi-faceted when you peel back the layers, and Nikolai takes that a step further by challenging what we /want/ to see in an antagonist versus what might actually /be/ in reality. We /want/ to see him as nothing but a deranged, psychotic clown who takes pleasure in killing and has no more depth than that, because that's expected, and easy to cope with, and someone you can arrest or even kill without losing much sleep over it. But in reality, things are not so black and white, people are much more complex than that, even killers (I mean, Dazai, our secondary protagonist, is LITERALLY proof of that, someone who ACTS like a clown as well, on purpose), and it's much harder to grapple with the concept of a killer who feels guilt and has sympathetic motives and is, well, /human/. Obviously Nikolai's whole speech about birds and why he's obsessed with freedom is impossible to really understand without further context, but the fact that Atsushi rejects what he says is just proof that he's not ready to come to grips with the reality Nikolai presents to him, of a grey morality world. It'd be easier if Akutagawa was nothing but a heartless killer, instead of someone with low self-esteem and suffering just like Atsushi is. It'd be easier if the orphanage headmaster had been nothing more than a heartless abuser, instead of someone who had been trying to prepare Atsushi for the outside world through a sort of twisted care for him, perpetuating the cycle of abuse that was inflicted upon himself, and who had been intending to praise Atsushi for his efforts with the Moby Dick before he died. But the real world, and real people, aren't that simple, and that even includes the people who are doing seemingly terrible things (Mori, as much as I loathe the abusive pedo piece of sht, is no mustache-twirling one-dimensional evil, but a much more grounded, realistic evil, which makes him all the more terrifying honestly). It doesn't mean we have to forgive or even sympathize with them all, but we shouldn't fall into the trap of viewing people in such black and white, narrow-minded ways, either. I love how Nikolai presents this idea here, especially after seeing what happens to him later -- it's very chilling, sad, and quite effective. I do want to clarify with the page writing though, that it's heavily implied (or at least that's how I interpreted it here) to be happening concurrently, in real time, to the events going down. So if that's the case, Nikolai couldn't be the writer, because, well, we see him in the room the whole time. I think it makes a lot more sense that way and is much more tragic for Nikolai, because rather than him being the actual writer, it means he was just a willing puppet in the plan in order to achieve his "freedom" via death... the irony of that being that he's being controlled through the reality rewriting this entire moment leading up to said death, and not free at all. :' ) ouch. Eren Jeager parallels? Something something birds, something something believing one has freedom while not really being free at all? Idk lol there's some parallel to be made there I'm sure. Regarding your endgame theory with Oda..... There's actually some evidence backing something like that up so far in the anime. In the Untold Origins arc, Fukuzawa asks Oda about V, and it's heavily implied that Oda knew them and was involved with them in some way..... and now in this episode, just like Fyodor did in episode 3, Ranpo pretty much spells out that V was the Decay of Angels. So... there is indeed a chance, however slight, that Oda was involved with the DoA and Fyodor in some way back when he was still a child assassin, so even though he wasn't wanting to be a writer yet back then, it's still possible he could have some involvement in how things go with Fyodor in the future, from beyond the grave, whether that be with the Book or not. I've also thought about this for a long time and I think you're right on the money in believing that Oda will somehow be the key to everything by the end... it would certainly be fitting, for him to be the end, since he's the start of everything, as well. :' ) 💖 It makes me emotional seeing Ranpo insistent on them not taking the job because he wants Mushitarou's, whom he believes is dead, final efforts to warn them to not be in vain. But it's also kind of hilarious seeing him call him his friend, considering that Mushi is the guy he, in one afternoon, completely ruined all of his plans to escape the country, exposed his crime despite Mushi's ability, and then tried to blackmail him with his dead best friend's dying wish in order to get him arrested, like 😭😭😭 Ranpo acquires friends after ruining their entire plans, he did the same with Poe, and it's so funny alsdjgjfkds 😭 Don't get me wrong, Mushi and Poe are better off being his friend, I love the idea of them as a trio, but the context of how Ranpo befriended them both so quickly in hindsight will never not make me laugh (then again, I guess this could apply to how he adopted Fukuzawa as his dad, too. Kid just has unconventional ways of forming new bonds...!) Dazai getting arrested hurts me. I don't think he was coping well at all hearing all his crimes listed out to him, just a verbal reminder in his mind of how he can never truly escape his past and be the good man Oda wanted him to be, no matter how hard he tries :' ) 💔 Lastly, if you'll notice at the end, Tanizaki is the one holding the chainsaw activation button, which is a callback to him playing the role of the bomber and holding the bomb detonator during Atsushi's entrance exam, which I thought was a neat touch.
Dana
2023-02-15 01:24:49 +0000 UTC
