Name: People need to be told they're worthy of being alive by someone else, or they can't go on.
Item: Bungo Stray Dogs
Rating: 65
Author: Kaito67

Waifra

People need to be told they're worthy of being alive by someone else, or they can't go on. · Waifora

Director: Takuya Igarashi (Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club) Character Design: Nobuhiro Arai* (Chaika -The Coffin Princess-)* Director of Photography: Tsuyoshi Kanbayashi (Soul Eater, Josee, the Tiger and the Fish) Art Director: Yumiko Kondou (SK8 the Infinity, Gosick) Animation Producer: Mari Suzuki (Bones Studio D)

On the surface, Bungo Stray Dogs is an enjoyable, exciting, and quite humorous series that uses the names of famous Japanese writers for its characters to explore supernatural mystery plots. Below that surface, it’s a story of strays who feel abandoned and lonely in a world that has no place for them.

That not only applies to our protagonist, Atsushi, but also to antagonists of the series such as Kyouka, Anna, and Akutagawa. The summary of this review is a quote from episode 10 when Atsushi fights Akutagawa, and it feels like a thesis statement. Human beings are social creatures: in some way or another we need a place to belong, and we need to feel validated, especially growing up. For those who grow up in families and in a loving home, they don’t need a reason for living because they don’t know what it’s like growing up without these necessities. But the orphans and strays of Bungo Stray Dogs know. They question their existence all the time, are suicidal, develop an irrational level of hatred and jealousy towards those who don’t suffer like them, are willing to commit crimes just to belong, or trap themselves in a self-imposed worldview, like Akutagawa did, in order to feel like they have a reason to exist just like everyone else.

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Having said all that, even strays can be saved, and it can take only one person to make a difference. This story only began because Atsushi was saved by Dazai and found his place in the agency. It inspired him to save Kyouka, and it inspired her to find the agency to fight for herself and for Atsushi in the face of Akutagawa’s terror. It’s the counter to Akutagawa’s assertion that people have clear roles attached to them according to their talents, and if they don’t live up to them, such as Kyouka being a killer, they are worthless. But in reality, no matter what kind of person you are, you are a person first and foremost, so regardless of your talents and background, you deserve to live. And the true power of that is shown with how it inspired Atsushi, and then also Kyouka, to be there for others just like how someone ended up being there for them.

There is also the side story arc with Kunikida that I enjoyed a lot (I wrote up some thoughts for episode 7 here), even though it feels awkwardly placed in the series in hindsight. I read somewhere it was supposed to be a prequel arc, and that makes more sense.

To sum it all up, I’m intrigued. I think the series blends humor and heavier themes mostly pretty well, and there are still a lot of characters to explore (particularly Dazai), so I’m looking forward to where this series intends to go from here. As of now, I don’t love it; I’m not attached enough to any character, and none of it so far tugged my heartstrings, but I enjoyed it, and I think it’s a solid setup for more.