So You Know What I Just Found Out That Suddenly Makes Things Make More Sense?

Dead apple really fits in perfectly with bsd, because we know and love this movie, but ask anyone who watched it and they couldn't tell you what the hyuck it was about.

Asagiri said it himself: he intentionally left out the core of Dazai's character and we never really see his internal monologue ever, because as Asagiri says, it would seem like two different people the minute Dazai opens his mouth to speak.

He's a really, really complex character, and it's really cool how so many different people come to view him so differently. Including the fandom, ironically.

The only thing I'll say is that it's funny so many people hate him for the acts he's done and insist he hasn't changed at all when the entire theme of bsd is overcoming oneself and that you can be bad and choose to do good anyway, and Dazai, though still manipulative, is meant to be an example of this. Just interesting.

the strangest thing to me about the BSD fandom is the fact that the vast majority of people in it are dazai fans, while also consistently assuming the absolute worst of him, disregarding the circumstances around his actions and giving him no grace or consideration of his situation whatsoever.

there's no doubt dazai is a bad person in many ways. he did plenty of unjustifiable, inexcusable things. he's pathologically manipulative with a totally skewed moral compass, most of which was undoubtedly brought on by his upbringing in the mafia. but at the same time, i see such a huge number of people taking that and somehow ending up with - and vehemently defending - this idea that he's a remorseless, indifferent, innately cruel person by nature?

are we forgetting this is the same dazai who was forced to false-witness a murder at fourteen years old? the same dazai who already wracked up numerous suicide attempts barely out of his pre-teens?the same dazai who was referred to by everyone around him as a 'demon' at fifteen years old? the same dazai consistently described as having grief-filled, empty expressions and detached, vacant reactions to practically everything when he was so young? the same dazai that oda described as "a child crying in the dark, alone, left to fend for himself with a hole in his heart as large as the world itself"?

that dazai is an indifferent, heartless, innately psychopathic person? really? i'm not convinced.

The BEST line from Stormbringer:

I mean...he's not wrong...

Was in Barnes and Noble today, and I found a collection of Dazai's works titled "The Real Osamu Dazai." And this was on the back:

Like....why. How. I understand if you just see edits and stuff you'd think he's the main character, but like, watch one episode, read one chapter, and anyone with basic media literacy could tell that he isn't the main character. Even google could tell you that. Why does this keep happening??? My boy Atsushi deserves more than this.

I know that every chapter does tend to feel a little bit like "OMG WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HECK IS GOING ON" and that especially this month, it does feel a little like a contradiction from last chapter, but I don't think it's Asagiri being inconsistent. Nothing he's ever done so far in the past suggests that he doesn't know what he's doing and that he doesn't have a plan, and especially that he would forget what he wrote ONE CHAPTER AGO. I think there's something going on here that's going to make sense when this arc is finished.

Until then, we freak out.

The thing about skk being a "brain and brawn" duo is that I feel like a lot of people put them in a box and refuse to acknowledge that just because they are one half of the duo does not mean they are incapable of being the other.

Chuuya is obviously the powerhouse behind skk, but the amount of people who think he's stupid when he's not stupid, he can be emotional but that's not all there is to him. He figured out that Randou was lying almost as fast as Dazai did, it says in Stormbringer that everyone was surprised that a sixteen year old was managing the gem trade so easily but he was. You'd think they'd have someone incapable in such a high leadership position? I will truly never understand why someone people think he's dumb when like, he may not be a genius like Dazai or Ranpo, but he's pretty dang smart on his own, his highest level of education was preschool, mind you.

And Dazai is not the best fighter, but he is pretty capable. He was able to completely pummel Akutagawa (whatever you want to say about that), and Akutagawa had spent a lot of times in the slums fighting to survive. He's not the most capable fighter, but I think he'd handle himself pretty well in a fight if he had to. He kept up with Chuuya after being away from him for four years, and yeah Chuuya was definitely going easy on him, but he isn't helpless.

tl;dr: skk are more than their stereotypes.

I bet Chuuya was terrified of dentists when he first joined the Mafia.

Because like. He grew up on the streets. I doubt any of them ever exactly got health insurance.

So the first time Mori informed him what a dentist was and how often he was required to go, he actually freaked out.

Chuuya: what do you mean you sit in a chair and let a stranger tamper around inside of you?!

Mori: It's just your teeth, Chuuya, and it's required.

He won't refuse an order, so he goes, terrified. And the second he enters and sees the chair he immediately starts "Oh grantors of dark disgrace-"

Only for Dazai to show up because Mori made him tag along in case Chuuya tried to get out of it. He had to stand there the whole time, because if he let go, Chuuya's power would destroy the office on its own.

And even though he's become used to it by now, Dazai will never. ever. stop making fun of how terrified he was that first visit, nor will he ever let him live it down.

They're on a mission, and Chuuya's trying to be intimidating. Only for Dazai to tell the enemy, "oh, don't be scared of this chibi. He peed his pants the first time he went to the dentist." (he did not. or at least, he claims he didn't. We'll never know the true story).

Needless to say, Chuuya made sure that any enemy who Dazai told didn't live to share the info. Which may have been Dazai's plan all along, it's hard to say. Either way, no matter how much time has passed, Dazai still can't resist making fun of him for him once in a while.

And after the mersault arc, when Chuuya couldn't get the fangs out, he may or may not have said "Oh no, perhaps you should go to a dentist-"

Chuuya kicked him in his broken leg.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a common misconception that's been permeating the fandom, even on the official wiki, that's just...not true.

Dazai met Akutagawa when he became an executive, which happened when he was 17-18. In both The Heartless Cur (the short story written by Asagiri about how Akutagawa and Dazai met) and Beast, which follows the original timeline, albeit with some changes, it flat out states that the interaction was only four and a half years prior to the main story. Which means Akutagawa knew Dazai for six months. He was already either fifteen or sixteen when they met, and they haven't known each other for that long. Not fourteen.

I just wanted to know the fandom's opinion on this, because while some people, like Danny Motta, seem to think it was the worst season by far, others, including myself, really enjoyed it and don't understand the hate. So I just wanted to know what the overall fandom opinion is on this season. But personally, I don't get the hate. The finale with the fusion was great, and I loved the filler/slice of life parts, even if the anime did certain chapters dirty (Read chapter 39!! It could have been a whole episode, and the anime gave it, I counted EIGHT minutes). And the 15 arc is one of my faves. But what do you guys think?