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Bungo Stray Dogs, Chapter 105.5 Thoughts.
Late. Late. Late. Meta on the newest Bungo Stray Dogs chapter. Dostoevsky easily turning around Dazai’s death trap and then setting each up a death trap Dazai is a twist that many people saw coming. In honesty Dazai and Dos-kun have a relationship much like L and Light Yagami where they are constantly one upping each other and going “I planned this all along…” and then “No, you fool! I knew what you were planning, and I planned this!” It’s even likely that Dazai is probably going to turn the tables on Dostoevsky and set yet another death trap for him.
However, this quote in the chapter caught a lot of people’s eyes, especially fans of the Soukoku dynamic. Dostoevsky blames Dazai’s failure to kill him on the shallowness of the bond between Dazai and Chuuya. A lot of people are predicting that Dostoevsky is underesimtating the depth of their bond and that’s what is going to make them lose, and others think Dostoevsky is right on the money.
My thoughts are under the cut.
Keep reading
BUNGOU STRAY DOGS, CHAPTER 127 THOUGHTS
There are some incredibly interesting parallels in the Akutagawa vs. Atsushi fight, and the standoff between Dosteovsky and Sigma going on this chapter. Especially in regards to how three of them are related to Dazai. Let's look at the parallels and the potential future for these characters under the cut
1. Dazai-san, Dazai-san, Dazai-san!
One of the most interesting parallels in this chapter is the relationship to Dazai that all three of these characters have. Akutagawa who Dazai recruited to the mafia, Atsushi who he recruited to the Detective Agency, and now Sigma who he chose as his item to escape from the prison and it looks like if they get out alive together he will invite to join the agency.
More specifically though, I want to analyze it in terms of Dostoevsky's statement to Sigma. That Dazai preyed upon Sigma's desire for a home, and then waved becoming a member of the detective agency over his head in order to get Sigma to do what he wants.
While it seems to be a pretty transparent ploy on Dostoevsky's part in order to get Sigma to question his alliance with Dazai, after all Sigma has him at gunpoint and apparently cornered. He would say or do anything to get out of the situation, and it's not like Dostoevsky is against manipulating people.
At the same time, I think it's Dos's statement is more along the lines of a half-lie, and half-truth. Dazai is, after all, not someone who goes around adopting orphans out of the goodness of his heart. He's not also someone who's so selfish that he only views people as tools for a larger objective. Dazai's character lies in the nuance between those two extremes.
Which is why I want to say there is a half-truth to Dos's statement. Dazai himself even confirmed this earlier, he had two reasons for recruiting Sigma, the first is that his ability will be useful, and the second is that he knew Do would kill him if he didn't choose Sigma.
The nuance lies there, you can both genuinely want to save or even care about someone, and you can also go so far as manipulate them. In general, my interpretation is that Dazai tries to manipulate people into doing what he thinks is best for them. After all, Sigma needs a place to stay, and the detective agency would be a home and a happy ending for him.
However, dirty methods for a good result doesn't always get the result you intended. Before returning to Sigma I want to briefly talk about the Atsushi and Sigma parallels. Atsushi is clearly set up as a foil to Sigma, Atsushi even goes out of his way and is especially compelled to try to save Sigma while he's falling.
Atsushi at first only saves Sigma because of the page, but then he starts to empathize with him after hearing the utter bleakness of his dying words. At which point he is personally trying to save him, causing Sigma to call him kind. Atsushi obviously also relates to those words, because he's so desperate to have a greater purpose in the world, to be an extraordinary hero rather than a nameless orphan.
Atsushi, Akutagawa, and Sigma are all orphans who have essentially had Dazai sweep into their lives and recruit them into an organization, giving them a home when they previously didn't have one. The detective agency is also, a much healthier environment for Atsushi obviously, because he's in a better place than say Akutagawa who was left behind in the mafia and spent a lot of the beginning of BSD bitter and spiraling because of that.
However, there's a pretty serious downside to the way Dazai recruited both Atsushi and Akutagawa. Akutagawa's strained relationship with Dazai is pretty obvious, so rather than dwell on that let's talk about Atsushi for a second.
Atusshi's extreme indecisiveness has been highlighted this arc over and over again. An Atsushi removed from the detective agency, and more particularly Dazai is constantly struggling to make decisions for himself. I don't believe in this case though, that Atsushi's upbringing in the orphanage is entirely to blame for this.
There are two reasons I would lay the blame for Atsushi's total indecisiveness at Dazai's feet more than anyone else.
First is, Dazai's habit is to manipulate people for their own good, but also to take away decisions from them. Second is when Dazai helps people, it's always with the unwritten implication that they now owe him for his help. Even if he doesn't directly say it, Atsushi obviously believes that he has to EARN his place in the detective agency.
This is Dazai. He nudges them in the direction that he thinks is best for them. Sometimes this takes the form of everyone just following Dazai's plan, because he's the machiavellian scheme r of the group, just Atsushi going where Dazai wants him to go, and fighting who Dazai wants him to fight. Or, like the scenes where Dazai deliberately staged a test to let Kyouka join the agency that would also make her overcome her death wish.
Sometimes, this takes the form of Dazai pitting Atsushi and Akutagawa against each other, two people who might have gotten along a lot earlier and sympathized with each other, if Dazai hadn't made them fight each other because HE THOUGHT that was the best way to make their individual abilities stronger.
Like, yes Akutagawa was in the mafia and murder is a big no-no for Atsushi, but Atsushi was able to sympathize with a murderer like Kyouka from very early on despite being aware of all her crimes. There wasn't really any reason for Atsushi and AKutagawa to fight, until Dazai made one.
However, this isn't to question the morality of Dazai's actions in making people's choices for them, but rather to point out the results. There's a reason that every. single. time. Atsushi cannot make a decision for himself he pictures Dazai suddenly showing up and telling him the answer.
By positioning himself as Atsushi's savior, and even giving Atsushi a home, Dazai's basically put himself in a position where number one Atsushi believes in a pretty idealized version of Dazai, and number Atsushi thinks he OWES Dazai. These things make Atsushi pretty obedient to Dazai in general. There's a reason that in Beast which is the darkest timeline for Atsushi, Atsushi is so paralyzingly afraid of making his own decisions he has a mental breakdown unless Dazai gives him orders to follow. He literally wears a collar that Dazai gave him.
Now, for Atsushi in the main story, aren't we witnessing him go through something similiar? Sure, he's not massacring people and breaking down in tears like White Reaper Atsushi, but every time someone throws up a roadblock on his path he literally begs Dazai to show up, and when he doesn't he imagines Dazai magically telling him what to do.
All of these subtle manipulations have made Atsushi pretty obedient to Dazai, and also, doubtful of his stability in the detective agency and left with the idea he has to earn his keep. Now in an arc where Atsushi is separted from the detective agency for a long time now, and also separated from Dazai and unable to follow his plans we are watching him continually choke underneath the pressure.
Which is where we get the results of Dazai's dirtier methods, Dazai isn't really raising Atsushi into a strong, independent adult, he's making Atsushi into a tool. I don't think his intentions are fully to use Atsushi as a tool, but rather his methods end up with that result.
There's a difference between the way Dazai takes in orphans, and the way Oda does. He says as much in Dark era.
"I have this friend who's supporting several orphans all on his own, you see," he continued his weapon still drawn and aimed at the boy. "Akutagawa, I'm sure Odadsaku would've been patient enough to give you the guideance you needed had he been the oe who found you on the brink of starvation in the slums. That would've been the "right" thing to do. But "righteousness" doesn't sit kindly to me. And there's only one thing that people like me do to useless subordinates."
Obviously, Dazai's undergone character development since then, but just compare the orphans Dazai takes in to the ones that Oda does. Oda's orphans don't have any special abilities or talents, they're just kids that he raises and supports with money. Atsushi, Akutagawa, and even Sigma all have an ability that benefits Dazai in some way.
In fact, in the AU where Oda does take Akutagawa in, despite having an incredibly overpowered ability, Akutagawa doesn't get to join the agency until he's undergone personal development and spent time with every single member to learn how to be a better person first.
Which is what Akutagawa needs, he's constantly stuck in survival mode and believes everything is a vicious battle for his life, much like Atsushi he's never been allowed to be a normal kid for a single second in his life. Beast allows Akutagawa to develop as a person rather than a Beast fighting to survive.
Dazai skips a pretty important step in their personal growth for all three of them, focusing more into shaping what he needs them to be for a greater mission.
Atsushi's still working to earn someone else's praise, Akutagawa's still ready to die for Dazai's sake because he believes that will give his life meaning, Sigma is still desperate to do anything that will give him a home. Mori, of all people in the Beast Epilogue, points out that this is the wrong way to raise a child, because you don't raise a child to be what YOU WANT THEM TO BE. You raise them so they can grow up and figure out what THEY WANT TO BE, and grow into their own person.
To give Dazai the benefit of the doubt, he's probably not doing this intentionally, but the result of it is that both Akutagawa and Atsushi are very, very compliant with his orders. After all, if they were like, free thinking adults they might disagree with him or tell him no.
Which is why while it is a good thing for Sigma to join the detective agency, and is probably the best ending for him, at the same time Dazai just dangling joining the detective agency out there to Sigma as bait to get him to do what he wants is not starting out on the right foot.
Because Dazai doesn't save people out of the goodness of his heart, he takes people in and then they owe him something back. Which is what Dos is trying to get at when undermining Sigma.
The detective agency is a much better place for Sigma, but if Sigma joins the detective agency because he think he owes Dazai, or the agency something for giving him a home, it's essentially a repeat of the way that Dos used him. Atsushi has the same desperation to continually prove himself to the agency, as Sigma once did to try to protect the casino.
2. SAVE ME!
Now to finally focus on the Sigma and Akutagawa parallels, both Akutagawa and Sigma are characters who are most likely going to finish their arcs by joining the detective agency. They are also both orphans who need to be saved.
A particularly strong parallel between the two of them is that they were both initially taken into a harmful organization, only because of their ability. Akutagawa is a starving child in the slums, but he so happened to be born with an insanely strong ability to turn his clothing into weapons which causes Dazai to fish him out of the slums and bring him into the mafia which is his current "home" so to speak. Though, a home where he has to earn his keep and is considered disposable if he's not useful.
Sigma was literally created by the book, and then found, and given a place to call home by Dostoevsky, implicitly because his ability was useful. He also once agan, put Sigma into a position where he had to earn his keep. He took advantage of the fact Sigma came from nothing and had no home, and was terrified of going back to having nothing to make him willing to risk his life and everything else to defend the sky casino.
They are both deceived into thinking they have been saved or taken in, when really they are still fighting for their own survival. It's what stunts their growth so much as people, if you're continually in survival mode, and completely insecure in your living situation and attachment to other people then how are you supposed to grow and develop as a person?
They are also essentially people who come from "nothing" though the nothing is poverty in Akutagawa's case, they're also people who were victimized by crimminal organizations, Sigma by human traffickers, and Atsushi by the port Mafia, until they were rescued by their not-so-benevolent "saviors."
They are also, both in a way resigned to their own deaths. Sigma accepts falling off of the casino to his death, and thanks Atsushi for simply TRYING to save him (please get higher standards Sigma). Akutagawa's accepted that he's going to die soon for his illness, so he's willing to put everythig on the line in a final gambit to pass Dazai's "TEST" and then make Dazai's promise that he will give meaning to Akutagawa's death.
Sigma: I never understood what I was born for.
Akutagawa: I want you to find a reason.. a meaning to my life."
They're also looking for someone else to give them the answer to themeaning of their life, and the person who promises that they feel indebted to. Sigma is of course, a little more aware than Dos is using him than Akutagawa is towards Dazai, but they both end up ultimately doing what Dos and Dazai wants them to do.
They've been taken in by someone, but they haven't been saved, which is why both of them are so easily resigned to their death. This is also where Atsushi comes in for both characters. Yes, it's Atsushi's bad habit to play hero. He saves people because he wants someone to protect, because protecting someone makes him feel like he's needed and worthy to live.
However, while Atsushi may have self-interested reasons for saving people that he doesn't seem fully aware of yet, I also believe he's more capable of relating to their personal feelings as a fellow victim than Dazai is. The moments when Atsushi truly saves someone is when he relates to them, when he exposes his own scarring and vulnerability to them in a way of saying "Hey, I'm suffering through this too that's why I want to help you."
That's why say, Atsushi's bond with Lucy just feels more natural and less codependent than his bond does with Kyouka. Atsushi didn't start with Lucy by thinking (Hey, if I protect her does that mean I'm a good boy and earn good boy points???) Also, Atsushi explicitly did not show up and save Lucy despite the fact he promised to. Because his moment of saving her wasn't showing up as a hero and rescuing her as a damsel, but relating to her feelings.
Atsushi also explicitly fails at saving Sigma. He goes the extra mile to try to save him, but Sigma falls anyway. Yet, Sigma remarks that Atsushi is kind because he empathized with the part of Sigma that believes he didn't mean anything to anyone in the world and was ultimately disposable. Which shows underneath this big hero persona that Atsushi puts on, he is genuinely someone who wants to help people who are lonely and scared just like he is.
So, Atsushi's approach to saving both Akutagwa and Sigma is different from Dazai's approach. I'm not going to say because Atsushi is more empathic and Dazai is low-empathy that Atsushi is a better person.
No, I think it's more like Atsushi tries to approach them as equals. At least, when he doesn't see them as a damsel in distress to earn good boy points, Atsushi is capable of exposing a part of himself to these people and showing them they're not alone in their suffering. Dazai is so distant to other people, he doesn't know how to relate to them on their level. Which is why he always takes control in the relationship.
Which is where we get to this chapter, Dazai isn't Akutagawa's savior. Atsushi is. This is the great narrative challenge that has been set up for Atsushi.
Atsushi and Sigma are both stuck in a situation where someone they don't udnerstand has just selflessly tried to save them for reasons they don't understand. (I won't dwell on this too long, but I think Dazai was genuinely willing to risk his life and put Sigma's life above his own, not just because Sigma's useful to the detective agency but because he's an innocent).
Atsushi doesn't understand why Akutagawa would selflessly sacrifice himself to save Atsushi. Partially, because Atsushi has been trained to see the bad in Akuatagawa rather than the good in him (hello there, Dazai).
However, on top of that I think geuniely Atsushi doesn't really understand that someone would go out of their way to save him without asking him something in return. It's not just the selfless action coming from Akutagawa that baffles him, but the selflessness of the action itself.
As for speculating for Akutagawa's reasons for saving Atsushi, I think it goes back to Atsushi's reasons for helping Lucy, there's something similiar about the wounds they've suffered in the past and Akutagawa sees that in Atsushi and relates to his pain. A lot of the attempts to connect have been on Akutagawa's part.
He comforted Atsushi the day that the orphanage headmaster died. When Atsushi challenges him not to kill people, Akutagawa genuinely keeps his end of the bargain. Akutagawa does attempt to take care of the people he sees himself in in his own way, he did it for Kyouka in a twisted way, and was genuinely happy for her when he saw she no longer wanted to die.
Atsushi tells Lucy that just letting innocent people in the street die as a part of the guild's plan, would be the same as letting the childhood versions of themselves die. It'd be repeating what was done to them. Atsushi, Akutagawa, Lucy they've all been wounded because the people in their lives who were supposed to take care of them didn't. Now, despite those wounds, all three also attempt to reach out and take care of others, because they know what being abandoned is like.
Akutagawa probably just saved Atsushi because he relates to him, coupled on top of the fact that Akutagawa knew he was going to die soon, so if one of them was going to live might as well be the one who has a life to live and a chance at happiness.
Akutagawa has also, due to the vampire's power in him, basically become a dark and twisted version of what Dazai intended him to be. Dazai scouted him for his ability, and then made his ability strong without really caring about who Akutagawa was or what his needs were as a person.
He also made Akutagawa into someone willing to die to earn his praise. Now we have Akutagawa as a literal undead zombie, that just violently attacks everything near him. He doesn't even bother to defend himself, just like Akutagawa has no regard for his own life. He just attacks, regenerates, and attacks, he's a living weapon of violence. He's a mindless zombie too, just like in his previous life he was pretty obedient to Dazai's orders.
Which is exactly the narrative challenge that is being set up here for Atsushi. Akutagawa saved Atsushi because he saw something of himself in him, but also because he believed he was going to die anyway and he was less worthy of salvation. Now it is time for Atsushi to return the favor to Akutagawa. Akutagawa won't save himself, and he won't get better with outside help, so he needs someone else to convince him that there's more to life than what he's currently seeing.
It's a narrative challenge especially because killing him would be the easier option here, Akutagawa is already dead technically, and a mindless zombie that will keep attacking everyone around him until someone puts a bullet in his brain, and then another one to double tap.
Yet, Atsushi isn't doing that. He doesn't even considering it an option. He jumps straight to trying to reason with Akutagawa even in mindless zombie mode. It's already been hinted last chapter that Akutagawa might still be in there because he didn't immediately go after Bram Stoker. Now, not only does Atsushi believe that he can reach Akuatagawa, he's actively trying to reach out for him.
Which really is just tremendous character growth on Atsushi's part. He's finally learning to see Akutagawa as a person and trying to reach that person. To do otherwise would be to abandon the child he used to be.
Birthday gift ;-;
Fem chuuya
i feel like people are forgetting some stuff about skk...
the whole point of skk is that they're both brains and brawns. that's how they survived alone for so long before becaming the double black. they don't complete each other perfectly, they suplement each other perfectly, that's why they're so strong.
chuuya is extremely smart and emotionally inteligent. at the age of 15 he was already the leader of the sheep, he got to rimbauld on the same time as dazai did. he can use his ability with crazy versatility, BUT he can still be fine without it.
and dazai can hold himself on a fight pretty well thanks. literally on the first episode he was alone against an out of control tigersushi. kicked the guy's face with a handstand from a sitting position while handcuffed. literally leaped out of the water like a flying fish holding his weight with just one hand.
chuuya could be on the same level as dazai and fyodor, but he's too human for them. he has empathy, and wear most of his feelings on his sleeve. and dazai could be as straightfoward as chuuya, but humans are so very interesting for him that he prefers observing, planning, picking apart the minds of everyone.
but
at the same time chuuya gets drunk with half a glass of alcohol and dazai bantered with a dog and ate dog food and both of those things happened on the actual main manga not on wan they're both weak and stupid and fucking pathetic i want to put them on a blender until they turn into juice.
I’m on a very silly grind
Ik I haven’t drawn in a while and I will I promise…but look !! (I took this ss yesterday ignore the date)
Ik I haven’t drawn in a while and I will I promise…but look !! (I took this ss yesterday ignore the date)
can i just say how much i adore how Nao-chan's gender is treated so casually in skip to loafer
like, as a white cis woman who is also quite tall and havent read the manga i didnt even realize she was trans until this scene in ep2:
and i didnt even have the time to get nervous how they would handle this as they already moved on, ignoring the comments (just like queer people learn to do so) except for Mitsumi's comforting touch (implying she also heard the comments):
and there were no sad words or anything about this either, it was just handled so.... normally. which should not be something worth highlighting, but, well, you know. also on that note, special shoutout to P.A. Works for casting a woman as her voice actor as well.
she's shown being the supportive and lively aunt and like seconds later in this scene she's back to being her usual self again:
in conclusion
"he's so pathetic that it gives me hope" is like the funniest way to interpret denji
“The desperation of an ordinary man”
Honestly speaking, Asagiri the author loves Sigma. I am truly happy as a writer to be able to create such an enemy character. I like him so much I ended up putting him in Mersault, which is not my original plan. That I feel a little sorry. Anyway. “If I become desperate, I wonder what I could do?” - is there anyone who has never once thought about that? No one. I’m sure we all have that thought. “Maybe if I put my mind into it, even someone with no talent like me could break through all the walls of this world.” Sigma is the one who took on this statement and faced a huge wall by himself. As a character on the enemy side on top of that.
<Bungou Stray Dogs Chapter 75 - Translation by akai-koutei>
If Sigma had been a protagonist on the side of justice, it would have been a beautiful story that ends with something like, “That’s right. Even an ordinary person can defeat a huge enemy.” However, since Sigma is an enemy character, it is possible to dwell on the question “What is the actual truth?” in the end. The brutal truth. I want you to see what lies at the end of the path he has shown us, and the outcome of his vow to “definitely win” here. And I want you to try and think about the “desperation” that will gush out of you one day and about how it will end.
<Asagiri Kafka’s comment on Sigma’s character in the BSD expo 2023>
She omniscient on my viewpoint till i become a reader
Anyways i also think that Chuuya SHOULD NOT be the Port Mafia boss to be totally honest witchu. If his entire experience with the Sheep, and the way he cracked under pressure as the interim leader during cannibalism, and like, THE BEAST EPILOGUE, had anything to say it's that Chuuya's not fit to be the leader of an organization such as that.
Bc Chuuya's good at adapting, he's good at spur of the moment decisions. He's good with battle tactics. We see his actual leadership abilities shine when he's commanding the mafia troops to protect the city during the guild arc. In cannibalism, his plan to rush the ADA with a full frontal attack was a SOLID idea. But he loses his advantage as soon as he hesitates and opens the table for negotiation instead.
BECAUSE Chuuya's not good at playing the long game like Mori or Dazai. He's reactionary and it's his nature to get overwhelmed by his emotions. He takes on too much responsibility but loses focus due to personal reasons. That what happens in 15 where he blows off the Sheep to go on a life changing field trip with Dazai. That's why he was taken out of the picture so easily to go on a life changing field trip with Ranpo in Cannibalism. (Damn maybe this is why he's on a life changing field trip with Fyodor as a vampire currently).
Essentially even though Asagiri has been really tying Chuuya's character with the themes of leadership, we've mostly been shown why he wouldn't be a good fit. Either this plot point will trend towards Chuuya actually learning how to be a good leader OR he won't end up as one. IN ANY CASE what we know abt Chuuya makes me really think that being the Port Mafia's boss is a terrible idea. He's not fit for the role and frankly, I think he'd hate it.
I love bsd au’s so much bc the fandom gets so creative. Like who would make a whole au based entirely on Dazai not being suicidal? And yk what?? It was such an eye opener, like DAMN so much of the plot of bsd would just have not happened if Dazai WASNT mentally ill. Like it was due to a suicide attempt he met Mori, so without meeting mori he wouldn’t have joined the mafia to find a reason to live, he also wouldn’t have saved Akutagawa and Gin bc he had no reason to as he wasn’t in the mafia, meaning he wouldn’t have met Oda, maybe Ango along the lines depending if he joined the agency in the au or not. He also wouldn’t have met Chuuya nor would he had forced Chuuya to join the mafia, so Chuuya would still be in sheep. He probably would’ve met Atsushi through more NORMAL means (aka not drowning in a river)
SO BASICALLY , my point is thank you Dazai for being the mentally ill freak you are, bc without you we wouldn’t have met nor known any of our favs 🤞❤️
Credits; https://youtu.be/xtQ5mYqirmo
And yes, this is a gacha reaction video. You have to admit they’re kinda entertaining…
This whole Sigma will join the ADA by the end of the Decay of Angels arc is a lovely wholesome idea but hold on. lets be real for a sec. Is the ADA going to even be a THING by the end of this arc? How the hell do they recover from this arc?
They've been framed as terrorists, they're on the run, reality has literally been altered so that no one will believe them, their members are scattered, 3 actively dying, FUKUZAWA likely wont make it out of this arc. And, its definitley not just the ADA that won't recover, the Port Mafia's actively falling apart right now too! Nearly all the members we know save for Mori, Kouyou, and Verlaine have become mindless vampire puppets! The Hunting Dogs unit will be disbanded once it's known that 2 of it's 5 members are actively involved in a world domination scheme. Not to mention the Special Division is in such a tight bind considering Taneda's out of commission and they have to take responsibility for this ENTIRE situation!
Ending the vampire outbreak might be an immediate solution but golly these groups have been so thouroughly destroyed. Natsume's Tripartite Framework is in shambles! And it's been a mess since the very beginning! The ADA and Port Mafia were at odds all the time and the Special Division stood complacently aside! The framework is a disaster! Is it just going to go back to the way it was?
Will they just get their hands on the Book and undo all the damage that's been done? Because that would be imo an AWFUL way of handling things. It would be so unsatisfactory. It would be actively erasing so much of this deveopment by just undoing what went wrong. Do we really want things to go back to the way things were? Where the ada was good and the mafia was evil and they were at odds all the time or we'll just say they're in an "alliance" and let that be the end? No! I want these people to suffer as humans and that mean things cant just go back to how they were.
Like i was taking abt this nawy(hiiiii) but now i really do feel like the ADA and PM will be done soon.
see, like, sometimes i see bsd fans commenting about how it's weird for asagiri to make the tanizaki siblings incestuous or the whole lolicon gag with mori and elise but the thing is both of those things are based on the real life tanizaki junichiro and mori ougai's works
naomi is, of course, based on the novel naomi, a story about a man who groomed a young girl into a westernized woman and it ends up with her turning the table by dominating his life. which is why the junichiro in the manga is unable to say no to his sister. while the irl work is mostly a commentary about the cultural change in taisho period, the siblings in the manga focuses on the unhealthy relationship of the protagonist jouji and naomi. you might find it disgusting and that's okay. but the character dazai is also created based on the real dazai osamu's uncomfortable depiction of humanity's ugliness. it just doesn't make sense to allow one depiction but not the other.
elise is named after the love interest in the dancing girl, but the power that creates her is named after the real mori ougai's erotic novel that is secretly about his own sexual experiences. you can argue that there is no need for elise to be a child because the character in the dancing girl isn't one, and vita sexualis itself is more about the author-slash-protagonist's struggle with having sexual desires in a society that champions moral purity.
but the thing is elise isn't even a fanservice character. she isn't depicted as someone the audience should find desirable for one. when it comes to lolicon fanservice you can expect either excessive depiction of innocence or at the very least elise getting jealous when mori gives attention to someone else. but even her mocking is just that, mocking. we were never shown her returning mori's affection even in a tsundere way.
the biggest hint is actually the fact that in beast au, a timeline where mori gives up his position as the mafia boss, elise is an adult. it shows that the child form of elise is symbolic of mori's desire to control those with the power he wants to obtain i.e. dazai and yosano. it's so much easier to gain power over other when they're a child and you're the authority figure, after all. so when he no longer chases after that ambition, elise becomes an adult.
tldr; asagiri didn't necessarily make tanizaki siblings and elise for the sake of fanservice but it's definitely because he actually pays attention to the literature that inspires him
Some important lines from stormbringer about Chuuya's feelings on Dazai at the time.
Please read fully before getting angry. This isn't just Soukoku hate I promise.
"I told you, Chuuya."
He looked up in the direction of the sudden voice. It was a familiar voice, one that belonged to the person he hated most in the world.
"Your birth itself was a mistake. We're the same. Is there really a point to suffering through all that pain for a life that isn't even real?"
This isn't Chuuya talking to someone else here, this isn't pride or embarrassment making him hide his hidden affection, its a description of his genuine feeling. Verlaine who just killed his friends, N who is currently torturing him, neither of them are as hated by Chuuya as Dazai is.
but it isn't that simple.
Chuuya wanted more than anything to slice off the ear the voice was whispering into. He could see Dazai's wavering shadow by his side, and he wanted to gouge out his eyes.
This visceral anger to his vision of Dazai feels...too strong of a reaction. I know Dazai has done some fucked up things to Chuuya, but none of them should be so bad that he would hate him this much. and that what made me realise Chuuya doesn't hate Dazai, he has tied Dazai to what he hates most about himself.
A crippling feeling of isolation, being so far above everyone around you it feels like your a different species (Dazai in intelligence, Chuuya in combat)
Dazai gave into that, and let it swallow him. So to Chuuya, who fights so desperately to stay alive and connect with people despite his origins. He seems like the worst person in the world.
This line really cements this
"Thats just proof that you at least somewhat believe what I'm saying. because deep down inside, you're the same as me."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! I'm me! I'm not some piece of shit like you!"
Dazai is everything Chuuya has tried to suppress in himself for years and years.
I firmly believe Chuuya grew to care for Dazai after years of working with him, its just the kind of person he is, but I fundamentally disagree that he never hated Dazai.
Ultimately , this post was to point out how their dynamic changed and shifted over time, and how there's more to them then some people think
“Wtf are you wearing?” “The agency helped put in money for my casual wear…as you can see they all have their own sense of style.”
I can't even lie, I've been
Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely
They say the loudest in the room is weak. That's what they assume, but I disagree, I say the loudest in the room is prolly the loneliest one in the room. /Lyr
Do you guys remember this loser, freak?
Ima be so real this was supposed to be a simple doodle as a JOKE
I hc atsushi likes white bread (I’m self projecting)(I don’t feel like coloring
I like to forget bsd is full of silly little orphan murders with trauma sometimes
Lain is omnipresent existing everywhere
This is the first genuine interactions I’ve ever had with my dad(he’s never texted me before)
I like drawing requests from people bc then they compliment me a lot . Regrettably bakugou’s hair could’ve been drawn better
I may or may not be locked out my discord account 🪪