Bungo Stray Dogs

Episodes 1-2

How well do you know your 19th and 20th century Japanese authors? Because Bungo Stray Dogs is all about them, after a fashion. Like Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace and Utakoi before it, Bungo Stray Dogs takes established literary works and reimagines them for a contemporary anime audience, in this case by casting great Japanese authors as superpowered detectives in a sepia-toned version of Tokyo. These two episodes introduce us to Osamu Dazai, Doppo Kunikida, Jun'ichi Tanizaki, Edogawa Ranpo, Akiko Yosano, Kenji Miyazawa, Yukichi Fuzawa, and our point-of-view character, Atsushi Nakajima. While you don't strictly need to know who they are or their most famous works, there are little Easter eggs hidden within the story and their character designs if you do. For example, Edogawa Ranpo is dressed like some illustrations of the character Kobayashi from his Boy Detectives series, and Fuzawa wears traditional clothing in tribute to being the oldest (in terms of time period) author in the cast. Tanizaki is plagued by the office part-timer, a girl named Naomi, which incidentally is the name of his 1924 novel about a woman who takes over the protagonist's life. I could argue that Yosano's short hair, making her the only short-haired female in the cast, is an homage to her status as one of Japan's early feminist writers, but even I think that might be going a bit too far.

In terms of Dazai, however, the symbolism takes a more obvious and darker turn: author of novels such as No Longer Human, Dazai was a talented young author who was deeply affected by the suicide of his idol, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, in 1927. His first suicide attempt came in 1929 while he was in college; he continued to attempt suicide until finally succeeding in 1948 at the age of 38. This becomes the basis of his character in Bungo Stray Dogs – Dazai in the show is obsessed with different methods of committing suicide. In fact, we first meet him floating upside-down in a river attempting to drown himself. To call this black humor might not be taking it quite far enough, given that the real Dazai's actual death due to drowning. Throughout these first two episodes, he continues to contemplate suicide methods, and his character design incorporates bandages wound around his wrists and throat, as if covering wounds or scars.

So how is this not the most depressing show ever? That's a decent question, given that a good number of the authors featured in it died young, either from illness or suicide. Basically, these characters are merely suggestions of the actual authors, goofy detectives who call the actual people to mind but don't dwell on the sad or bad stuff, at least not in these two episodes. So Dazai's suicide mania is played as a joke (which may not work for everyone), Tanizaki is totally creeped out by Naomi, and Atsushi, who died in exotic Palau, is a weretiger. The interactions between Dazai and Kunikida are very much in the manzai tradition, with Kunikida playing the straight man to Dazai's antics, which again works for the author: Doppo Kunikida was a Naturalist. (Naturalism is an offshoot of realism where humans are seen as passive victims of the natural world and society, so it's generally a very serious type of literature.)

Those two are definitely a highlight of episode two with their back and forth dialogue, but also in terms of excellent performances from both Mamoru Miyano as Dazai and Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kunikida – the flexibility of their voices is terrific and Hosoya does some pretty amazing impressions. Their banter and the generally lighthearted (yet exasperated) way that characters handle Dazai's obsession helps to keep things much less dark than they could be, although the ending theme certainly suggests that things could go in that direction later.

Both of these introductory episodes are basically setup for the rest of the story. In episode one, we meet Atsushi (the only character consistently called by his first name besides Naomi) while he's on the run from a weretiger that turns out to be himself, and Dazai uses his nullifying power “No Longer Human” to save him. Dazai basically takes Atsushi under his wing and wants him to join the Armed Detective Agency, although Atsushi is reluctant. As a combination trick/test, Dazai and Kunikida arrange for Atsushi to defuse an apparently dangerous situation at their offices, basically forcing him to join the group. It really isn't much of a trick for the audience – only the main characters have any color on them or distinctive clothing, so when the bomber has bright orange hair, that's a bit of a giveaway. But it's still a fun episode to watch, if only for the interactions between Dazai and Kunikida and the disgusted faces Atsushi keeps making.

The general stylishness of the show is nice to look at, even if the sepia tones begin to feel a little stifling after a while. Everyone is lanky and gorgeous, with a vaguely yaoi aesthetic played up in the opening and ending themes, although I suspect that's just there to encourage fantasies. Body language is particularly well done, although there are some definite issues with anatomy; in episode two it looks like Dazai's legs aren't attached to his body while he's folded into the oil barrel. The slight uncertainty about the show's time period works well – there are cars and cell phones, but there's also this air of the past about everything that gives these episodes a time-out-of-time feel to them, and I'm interested to see if that factors into the actual story.

Now that these two episodes have established Atsushi is going to join the agency (and that there are two people lurking about up to no good in the shadows), I suspect that Bungo Stray Dogs is going to get truly started on the story next week. These aren't slow episodes per se, but it is a disappointment to realize that episode two isn't really advancing the story, since it was a given that Atsushi would join the team. Once this show gets itself off the ground, it stands to be a lot of fun and very possibly exciting, so let's hope that the story really gets going next week.

Rating: B

Bungo Stray Dogs is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.