Season 5 of Bungou Stray Dogs continues to directly build upon the events of Season 4, though in a much less character driven way this time, which paved the way for a more fast paced, action packed season that also had many twists. That comes with the positive of keeping me at the edge of my seat in suspense for what was to come, but gave me less to think about after each episode ended, as it wasn’t as full of depth as the previous season was. It also did what few anime do nowadays, pass the current chapter of the manga to the point of having a finale episode that covered scenes not seen in the source material. Seeing the fact that no one knew what the end had in store was definitely an exciting time, and it was overall once again another thrilling season.
The plot builds upon the finale of Season 4 at the Sky Casino, and continues with the Detective Agency trying to clear their name, with the Hunting Dogs hot on their tail. Their goal was to capture Kamui, the leader of the Decay of Angels, but it turns out a familiar face is the one behind it all. The thing that impressed me the most with this season was that the stakes felt higher than ever before, with the fate of a lot of the characters genuinely uncertain, and with that uncertainty, it does a great job in creating that feeling where I was actually scared if a character would be killed.
The one thing that was the source of some frustration to me was the one of the villain’s ability, as it was so overpowered that no one could stop him. However, as these stories tend to go, it would seem like he would have to be defeated at one point, and I felt however way the protagonists ended up winning would be through a deus ex machina. That said, I really liked the villains, as they were very crafty (especially Fyodor), and twisted enough to make things very interesting to watch. The story might not always be written at a very high standard, but it gets the job done in an immensely entertaining way, despite the flaws.
Production wise, much like the previous seasons, it was very consistent, and the soundtrack continued to be solid, along with an excellent opening and ending song.
The focus on the characters was not that balanced this time around, with some characters being virtually absent for the entire season, but the cast of characters that were present were about as good as before, though this time around, it wasn’t as emotional as last season, which had numerous backstories that really fleshed out the characters. Like I mentioned before, it was more of an action packed season, along with a lot of mind games in the form of twists. It was great to see the return of Aya though, as she was a nice character that appeared in one of the OVAs before.
Overall, another extremely thrilling, enthralling roller coaster that had me looking forward to each subsequent episode, and while it was less emotional, with some notable negatives and some poor tonal shifts, it still got the job done. We likely won’t see another season since the anime has passed the recent manga chapter, but whenever a sequel happens, I’m sure I’ll be there yet again to witness it.
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