For weeks, Atsushi Nakajima's orphanage has been plagued by a mystical tiger that only he seems to be unaware of. Suspected to be behind the strange incidents, the 18-year-old is abruptly kicked out of the orphanage and left hungry, homeless, and wandering through the city.
While starving on a riverbank, Atsushi saves a rather eccentric man named Osamu Dazai from drowning. Whimsical suicide enthusiast and supernatural detective, Dazai has been investigating the same tiger that has been terrorizing the boy. Together with Dazai's partner Doppo Kunikida, they solve the mystery, but its resolution leaves Atsushi in a tight spot. As various odd events take place, Atsushi is coerced into joining their firm of supernatural investigators, taking on unusual cases the police cannot handle, alongside his numerous enigmatic co-workers.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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themegamancave
"Stupidity is a talent for misconception" -Edgar Allan Poe We've all heard the famous phrase "I'd rather be a Jack of all trades than a king of one", but what happens when you try to be at Jack of too many trades? Well, that's where you get a show like Bunguo Stray Dogs. The second anime to be produced by bones this season, Stray Dogs is an edgy, ambitious story of an abandoned orphan who finds his place with a detective agency solving crimes and battling the notorious Port Mafia. The synopsis is what really had me hyped for the show, because on the surface it soundslike it has the promise to be something really unique. However, throughout its first season's 12 episodes, Stray Dogs never really discovers what it wants to be. Throw in some sporadic comedy, unnecessary gore along with some of the poorest excuses for detective work I've ever seen and you've got a recipe for disaster.
I truly mean what I say with regard to the promise I had for the show. It loosely reminded meet of the anime Gungrave's synopsis with an orphan joining a powerful agency and excelling through the ranks. I really enjoyed the first episode or two with the introduction of our main protagonist, Atsushi and how he comes into the Armed Detective Agency. I was looking forward to uncovering his past as well as the origin of his mystical Weretiger ability. But after 12 episodes of watching Stray Dogs, I would like to throw a strong disclaimer out there: don't expect anything to be explained in this anime. People use magic abilities, characters appear out of nowhere and mysteries are solved with the level of clairvoyance that would make Nostradamus roll over in his grave. I digress, I can give a pass to the whole magic thing, as I expect this to be explained in later seasons... If I'm even committed enough to make it that far.
After being collected by the agency, Atsushi does his best to fit in. And the man that initially recruited him, Dazai does his best to send Atsushi on meaningless tasks in order to establish himself at the agency. Perhaps it was to lay the groundwork for the characters, but I felt that nothing really happened in the first five or six episodes. At one point I thought the show was a dark comedy, the next a murder mystery, but all of the ideas that it seemed to have fizzled out into one disjointed mess. It's like the kid from your high school that never figured out what he really wanted to do and instead hung around into his 20s and 30s and made attempt after pitiful attempt to be cool. Not to mention the ghastly written comedy. Perusing the forums in hopes of finding out what I was missing to take away from the show, I found statement after statement praising the comedy in Stray Dogs. Has anime become so watered-down that feeble comedy such as the kind found here is passable as funny? The jokes are so forced and random that it made me cringe. I laughed at approximately 0% of it. I know I can't be the only one that feels this way.
Another mute point that was spewed at me was how each of the characters were based off of a famous writer of American, British or Japanese dissent. There is Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie just to name a few. The moment I thought I knew who the writers were portraying, they would do something so out of character that I had no idea who they were trying to emulate. It's almost as though the creators of Stray Dogs were trying to use this as a scapegoat. They probably figured that most anime fans have little knowledge of old literary geniuses, so it didn't matter if their personalities were accurate to achieve the same amount of praise.
Forgive me, for not all the writing is bad. The last 2 to 3 episodes dwarfed The rest of the series in terms of complexity and engagement. There are still the occasional scenes where the character's moods would shift from serious to slapstick, but I felt like overall I finally got some bang for my buck. The main villain even got some backstory and the writers offered a glimmering sliver of hope for next season.
As a main character, Atsushi was one emo moment away from me chalking him up as just another whiny bitch. Honestly it was uncovering his crippled past that drew me to the series in the beginning. I wish someone would've told me how little of an explanation I would get in the long run. His interactions with Dazai at the beginning of the anime were rather entertaining, but again their relationship never really transpired past the same cheesy recycled jokes and forced authoritative delegation by Dazai. Speaking of Dazai, what is with the suicide complex? I'm assuming it has something to do with his personification as a famous writer, but I found his split personality offputting and unnecessary. I mean who could be that bad at committing suicide? His true motives for recruiting Atsushi and acting the way he does haven't fully been explained, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Honestly, Kunikida was my favorite character of the entire show. His methodical personality and antics reminded me a lot of myself, and of course he got berated with jokes on a regular basis. It seemed like he was the only genuinely serious thing in the entire show. The rest of the characters were thrown in to fit various tropes, and that lazy, pompous detective guy Ranpo pissed me off to no end.
The OP is actually rather strong. It punches you in the face both visually and with some ear-splitting metal riffs. It's arguably the only aspect of Stray Dogs I consistently enjoyed from beginning to end. The ED and rest of the soundtrack were forgettable but didn't necessarily detract from the overall experience. I did quite enjoy the artstyle however. There was something about the colors that really caught my eye... I can't explain it but perhaps it was a combination of the bigger budget and flashy fight scenes that kept my senses stimulated. Each character was uniquely drawn, and there was rarely a repeated background to be seen. I loved it.
It goes without saying that my feelings about Bunguo Stray Dogs are relatively negative. I will probably stick with the second iteration launching in October because I've already devoted enough time to it... but only time will tell. Hey, maybe I'll even forget about how much I disliked certain aspects of it and move on. I'd recommend this to fans of more recent series, and people looking for generic battles and a cheap laugh. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of my Spring 2016 reviews!
LeaderTGW
Dramatic, mysterious, & fun to watch. Initially, I wasn't too excited or hyped up about the show because I didn't feel any type of enjoyment. Most of the times the humor felt forced along with most of the drama however during episode 3, that was the biggest turn around for me. Everything after that episode had me completely anxious, and excited to see what's going to happen next episode! Before I knew it the damn show was over. The story itself is really engaging. I think that the biggest part of Stray dogs that I enjoyed most, was the shows well delivered, strong, dramatic andsupernatural story-line. One of the biggest issues that I had, that I also noticed a few others had this problem, was the balance. Sometimes, stray dogs was a comedy, then a drama, and then finally back to comedy. The poor balancing negatively affected my time watching it because it really took away some of my engagement not to mention my enjoyment with the show. That said, the story is actually pretty solid. In terms of the stories supernatural occurrences, it reminds me a lot of both the series Durarara and Baccano. Oh, and I cannot forget the comedy style! although, thinking back I don't remember whether or not both DRRR and Baccano used over the top reaction faces..
That aside, the whole gang warfare, port mafia vs armed detective company reminded me a lot of yellow scarves vs the dollars. Of course Stray dogs version of this is more about justice than revenge. Now I did enjoyed Stray Dogs comedic routines. It is always refreshing to have a bit of comedy and fun after dramatic or serious events have occurred. It really does take your mind off of things for a while. I believe that uniqueness was Stray dogs strong-point overall. It is is one of those titles that's simply fun to watch because of an interesting story with unexpected and exciting new developments.
As far as animation and art style goes, visually stray dogs reminded me a lot of Baccano! even some of the characters looked like they belonged in Baccano. I noticed that Bungou Stray Dogs setting and character designs have a strong 1940s-1950s feel to it. I think that whoever the key animator was, and whoever was in charge of doing the background settings did an amazing job with it. I loved watching the fight scenes occurring in this show. Fights and action scenes are perhaps one of the most noticeable things caught my attention the most. During fights, I noticed that the fast paced animation used greatly increases the intensity of the battles. In addition to that, I also observed that when it comes to fighting, when characters are talking to each other, there is also a sense of build up. I knew that right after characters would finishing talking, there would most likely be some sort of turnover and the quality of the fight would turn out even greater. Character designs were pretty interesting, the eyes were most unique to me. They weren't quite oval shaped nor were they round. For some strange reason male characters features tend to stand our more than the females. I noticed that are drawn to be more "pronounced" so to speak. They did a great job making a good looking main character for the Fujo's to go nuts over too.
Sound was pretty great too. I enjoyed both the soundtrack and voice actors used in Stray dogs... well except Chiaki Omigawa. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. She sounds like a boy going through puberty, that is how bad her voice is. Every other voice actor I had no issues with. The background music was pretty good too. I like that during battles, the music would help intensify the fight. Lastly, I loved that vocals were used in most of the songs, rather than just sticking with instrumentals.
Character growth and development is featured in the show however, it's not really prominent. I feel like the events in season 2 will definitely help characters develop more so that they aren't too.. plain. My biggest issue with the characters is that none of them really stand out. Having a long lasting impression of the characters in stray dogs seems almost impossible due to their uninteresting traits along with personalities.
Enjoyment for the show was pretty strong. I think that this was easily my 4th favorite title airing this season. It does deliver quite a lot of drama, action, and mysterious elements. I do believe that because of the way the show is written and introduced that it doesn't appeal to everyone. My overall feeling for the show is that it felt too incomplete, like they are relying on season 2 to make things even better. Despite that that though, I believe that stray dogs delivered enough greatness to make me want to come back for more. I was impressed with just about everything featured in Bungou Stray Dogs.
Nervin
Bungou Stray Dogs had a somewhat interesting premise, yet was ultimately disappointing. This anime could be easily summarized as an average battle shōnen with arguably sub par comedy: not exclusively because the comedy is bad, which is hit and miss, but because of its implementation in the most inappropriate moments. This does not mean the anime as a whole is terrible, it is simply lacking as hardly any progression was made throughout its airing time making it as a whole just average. The story of Bungou Stray Dogs is centered around the orphan protagonist Atsushi who was kicked out of the orphanage because of mysterious incidentsthat happen around him. Having no idea or clue on how to survive, he aimlessly wanders around, just to coincidently fish out a suicidal detective out of the river, by the name of Dazai. Of course it just so happens he is no ordinary person: he works for a firm of supernatural investigators. Being pulled into this world, the daily life of the protagonist begins with a wacky cast of characters. Not to mention the mystery surrounding the main character.
At first glance it may seem as an endearing premise, which it is, only up to a certain extent: while it treats some of the difficulties the protagonist is suffering, it mostly focuses on the introduction of new characters and their respective powers. Hence, is mostly of episodic nature. The various powers introduced are interesting and varied on its own, which in turn makes it possible to have entertaining battle sequences, although the conflicts are very simple: detective firm versus the mafia. This is combined with an abundance of comedy, which is personally the biggest gripe with the show. The humor is rather basic: suicide jokes, ill-timed situational ones are such examples. What is worse, whenever it is trying to be serious, it is often followed by a gag that hampers the immersion in the narrative significantly.
The characters presented in the anime are of simple nature, with some endearing ones, while others are rather dull. The main character Atsuchi is a timid boy who does not know of friendship; combined with the fact that he is very insecure of himself and his peers, the protagonist finds himself in a constant conflict. Being labeled as a seinen anime, it does not present an interesting development akin to the genre, rather it follows that of the battle shōnen one. He experiences some character development throughout the series by interactions with the cast, and the events that happen to him. He could be described generally as a wimp in some occasions, while in others he is courageous.
Regarding the other characters, these are rather stereotypical with their own charm in some cases: the excentric airhead, the suicidal enthuthiast, the strict guy, the maniac - just to name a few. Some of these have some mysterious background attached to them, which enhances the narrative, and in exploring their respective personalities. Due to the short span of the anime, most characters remain very basic, as well as the opposing entities of the main cast. Consequently, there is little investment in the villains themselves, which is a bit dissapointing.
The animation of Bungou Stray Dogs was well executed which implemented some great action scenes: fast and fluid, with consistent design. As for the art style, it was remarkable with amusing character designs: although using a similar template as other anime, it is distinguishable on its own, more akin to the likes of Durara. In addition, it makes use of exaggerated facets of the characters for comedic purposes, which were lacking: this was mainly due because of the humor that simply was not fitting for the different atmospheres the anime was trying to portray.
Concerning the sound used, it was a whole well implemented and executed with befitting voice actors, although in some cases it could feel off.This mainly concerns in some cases some transitions of suspense to comedy, and also the protagonist. The soundtrack uses various tunes, jazz included, which is a nice touch to the generic notes viewers are used to. The ending of the anime was well done with a great transition, which was personally a joy to listen to. Unlike the ending, the opening is rather forgettable as a whole.
Bungou Stray Dogs was a show I had some interest in, yet was rather disappointing as a whole, which was mainly because of the ill-timed and arguably bad comedy. The anime falls short of even beginning to expand on the whole mystery surrounding the protagonist, consequently being quite hard to get into. Regardless of said issues, it had some great action sequences as well some interesting background stories to share, which was satisfying. Otherwise this anime is quite average and does not stand out from its competitors. If the jokes are no issue for the viewer, I'd say try it out, otherwise not.
Thank you for reading.
Stark700
What happens when you get together a special group of individuals based off famous literacy authors? The answer is Bungou Stray Dogs. Only this time, they have special abilities in a world where there’s mystery, crime, and all other sorts of dark phenomenon that will take your breath away. Based off the manga of the same name, this is a show that can be easily recommendable to almost anyone. But if you’re a fan of supernatural mystery, it’ll be an exception treat. Bungou Stray Dogs is prime proof that supernatural fiction can still work in attractive fashion. The show stars a group of characters as partof the group known as the Armed Detective Agency, who specializes in missions to solve dangerous cases. It offers a select group of individuals with their own unique talents, traits, and ways that makes us wonder about their everyday life style. Then, we also meet Atsushi Nakajima, the main protagonist who got kicked out of his orphanage and ends up becoming a member of the Agency himself. It’s like fate connected his life together with these individuals in a story of innovative wonders.
If you’ve seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or something along that line, then watching this show will feel a bit familiar. On paper, it’s a pretty cool looking show with a cast of badass characters named after famous literary works. Not only that, their special powers are also based off of their well-known literature. The first episodes establishes a blend between mystery, supernatural, and black comedy. In fact, the show easily crafts a mood that is rather comical with the way Osamu Dazai is introduced. I mean think about it, the guy tries to commit suicide in an absurd fashion until Atsushi decides to save him. Throughout the show, his relationship with Dazai can be viewed as bizarre. This also expands to many other characters because truth to be told, Atsushi really is like the new kid in class. Other characters he gets associated with such as Junchirou Tanizaki, Doppo Kunikda, Ranpo Edogawa, Akiko Yosano, and Kenji Miyazaza also brings the best and worst out of him. Throughout the series, it’s also shown that he is perhaps the most “human” out of all the characters. He is very ordinary and has low confidence in himself from the beginning. The revelation regarding his own powers also makes him feel like he’s a walking curse and that misfortune follows those who he encounters. Now you’re probably asking why you should care. The main factor is that Atsushi needs to realize that not everyone can be saved. Kunikda realizes this and constantly reminds himself and others that it’s a cruel world they live in. And that’s a lot to say about the show. The world setting of Bungou Stray Dogs has mafias, underworld organizations, and crimes that goes beyond imaginations.
The story structure sets up the show nicely with its first two episodes. I will emphasize that as part of the series, comedy also plays a large factor to perhaps decide whether you’d like to continue watching or not. For some, this can be very entertaining in the form of popcorn comedy. For others, it can be distracting and even annoying. Director Igarashi Takuya puts his talent at the table and his previous work with Ouran Koukou Host Club can feel familiar to those who recognizes it. That is to say, the comedy may not be suitable for everyone, in particular the timing. The adaptation itself is also quite faithful with panel by panel. It also brings in the violence that gives the show a darker tone mixed in with the humor and jokes. However, I will mention that the show does go off for two episodes around mid-season (not based on the manga). Also, the plan to adapt the series is split into 2-cours (12 episodes ach) and this review will cover the first half.
As some may expect, the Armed Detective Agency also attracts enemies. This is where the Port Mafia comes in as they are introduced. Working from the shadows with mysterious origins, we also meet Ryunosuke Akutagawa, mysterious member of Port Mafia who seems to have a history with Dazai. Other members introduced in the mafia also shows their ruthlessness and lack of care for human life such as terrorist bomber Momojiro Kaji. The point is that the show makes them the main antagonists for the first cour, an antithesis to what Atsushi believes in. At one point, he even meets a young girl known for the murder of 35 people yet still hopes there’s some redemption for her.
As I mentioned before, Bungou Stray Dogs is a cool looking show, literally. The characters portrays some unique personalities with their own personal powers. From tiger transformation to bringing objects into existence by just writing in a notebook, the show demonstrates the capability of attracting fan of supernatural fiction. Unfortunately, I can’t say that the mystery is very impressive. It’s actually pretty straightforward although sparks quite the curiosity about characters’ background stories. What I mean is more of the cases that is rather predictable and some of them actually feels repetitive by nature.
Bones helms the series and once again shows that they are capable of capturing the magic of supernatural genre. Character abilities not only looks cool but also decoratively presented in fashion that is extraordinary. Speaking of the characters, each of them has some unique appearance that makes them stand out in one way or another. From the carefree expressions of Dazai to the mischievous Akiko, it has something to offer for anyone. There’s also a prominence of male characters with bishounen-like characteristics so female fans may find this series a nice sight to look at. The action speaks pretty much for itself with good amount of violence, choreography, and battle theatrics. I can also confess that most of the character expressions in the anime is done better than the manga.
Soundtrack is a nice way to make the show more entertaining as well. From the OP song by Trash Candy to the battle OST, it gives the pleasure of what supernatural battles are all about. Character voice mannerism can also be praised especially for guys like Akutagawa’s sinister tone or Daizai’s sarcastic personality. Because the show is known for its catchy dialogues, the voice mannerism has to be portrayed with credibility and the voice actors/actresses does just that.
It is what it is. Bungou Stray Dogs is pretty much a show that can be watched by anyone from the beginning without any knowledge about literature. That being said, the comedy can feel like a bit of the hit or miss category. After the introductory episodes, the story does pick up quite a bit so patience is a key to enjoy the show. Luckily, there’s an adequate amount of entertainment provided by the unique cast of characters, themes, and storytelling so be prepared for a wild ride. It’s one that you’ll someday come back and realize how fun it was.
Cauthan
(This is a spoiler-free review adapted for this site) [Synopsis]: Due to a recent string of mysterious incidents involving a great, white tiger, Nakajima Atsushi (Uemura Yuto) is evicted from the orphanage that has served as his home his entire life. Left both homeless and penniless, Atsushi happens upon a drowning stranger whom he rescues from a nearby river. The man turns out to be Dazai Osamu (Miyano Mamoru) who, along with his partner, happens to be searching for the white tiger responsible for Atsushi’s predicament. Dazai himself belongs to the Armed Detective Agency – a group of people possessing supernatural abilities that solve especially violentcrimes and combat underworld organizations. Following Dazai’s lead, Atsushi is quickly entangled with the agency and the menacing Port Mafia as he struggles to find his place in the world.
[Characters]:
Bungou Stray Dogs features a fairly small cast, comprised mostly of the various members of the Armed Detective Agency, the Port Mafia, and a few episodic characters besides. Perhaps the most key feature of the show’s cast is that each character’s name serves as some reference to a renowned author or poet with most of the references stemming from modern Japanese literature. This relationship between author and character is an ongoing element within the show and often certain personality traits or actions associated with the authors are exhibited by their respective characters in varying degrees.
While this aspect of the show sounds both interesting and engaging the manner in which it manifests is very lackluster and sometimes even problematic. The actual depth of reference the characters pull from their real-life counterparts is very shallow with most characters simply borrowing their names with their abilities often titled after their author’s most pervasive work. Beyond this the characters don’t seem to have all that much depth to them and hardly borrow from their referenced authors in either a thematic or intelligent way. What could have been a complex and intricate parallel of ideologies and themes becomes no more than a slew of referenced names. My own familiarity with each author is incomplete and there are occasionally thematic parallels that arise however for the most part the show is quite shallow in how it pulls off this would-be-interesting characteristic.
Though the actual depth of Bungou Stray Dogs’ references is questionable, what issues arise within the show’s cast lie with the characters themselves on an individual level. In terms of characterization and how the character fits into the show, Dazai Osamu is possibly the biggest offender. Whether it’s his passion for attempting to kill himself over and over again and comically failing each time or his desire to find a partner for his ideal double suicide, Dazai presents an incredibly unappealing character. Beyond the fact that paralleling the real Dazai Osamu’s relationship with suicide and its presence within his works by turning it into a poorly constructed gag is the height of insensitivity, the gag itself makes absolutely no sense. The very fact that a character is continually trying to kill themselves yet both fails to actually do so and will fight for their own self-preservation runs completely opposite of whatever poor characterization could be drawn out of Dazai’s ridiculous character. In a number of ways, Dazai is representative of how the show handles its references – in a loose and often unintelligent way.
The protagonist of the show, Nakajima Atsushi doesn’t fare much better than Dazai in terms of characterization. From the beginning of the story it is quite clear that he has themes of rejection and belonging after being tossed out of his orphanage. He feels out of place wherever he goes and undeserving of anybody’s interest or compassion. This is a decent start and he does develop over the course of the show, slowly coming to terms with his place within the agency and accepting his coworkers however this is not achieved without some hitches. For one, a certain flashback of his dismisal from the orphanage is often queued whenever the show attempts to discuss the themes surrounding Atsushi and its over-usage quickly becomes tiring. The same exact sequence plays multiple times an episode for more than half the series and its pervasiveness gives insight into the show’s complete inability to characterize Atsushi outside of paralleling his predicament at hand with the scene in question.
Though I’ve highlighted Dazai and Atsushi specifically here, the rest of the cast isn’t a whole lot better. Atsushi doesn’t really play off of his coworkers at the agency as much as he predictably reacts to them in given gag scenarios. The Port Mafia, despite their initial introduction, is continuously undermined as an antagonistic enemy as their plans are foiled relatively easily which cuts the tension surrounding them considerably. And lastly, the show’s cast is chronically over-involved. Bungou Stray Dogs tends to shy away from introducing new characters once each story gets rolling which causes the subsequent events to feel extraordinarily coincidental and predictable at times when the same characters keep wrapping around into relevance.
[Art/Animation]:
Bungou Stray Dogs’ animation is perhaps its only worthwhile attribute. Though it fails in various ways elsewhere, the art style is crisp and unwavering while Bones presents beautifully animated action scene after action scene. The fight sequences are very high quality though they are actually rather sparse for the greater part of the show – growing far more frequent after around episode 8 and on. Despite its subject matter, a lot of the show features slapstick, physical comedy and various gags which utilize a slightly more cartoonish aesthetic. Though these gags still look good visually, they are rarely funny and often only serve to disrupt the scene at hand.
[Story]:
The first episode of Bungou Stray Dogs is fairly slow paced as it introduces the viewer to Atsushi, Dazai, and Kunikida as well as the existence of the Armed Detective Agency and their supernatural powers. It isn’t a bad introductory episode but it doesn’t present much of a hook into the show either. The shock comes with the arrival of the third episode as it features the show’s first real action sequence. The episode as a whole is surprisingly bloody and ruthless despite the two proceeding episodes of mostly repeated gags between Atsushi and Dazai. This episode was actually a pretty good introduction into the brutality of the Port Mafia which would later be undermined repeatedly however its the show’s earliest insight into Bungou Stray Dogs’ biggest, critical problem.
After the early introductory episodes, the show plays out in somewhat of an episodic fashion – featuring Atushi as he tries to find his place within the agency and one of the various detectives that work there as they team up to solve various mysteries and cases. There isn’t much of an overarching plot though the Port Mafia’s interest in abducting and selling Atsushi is a recurring part of the story for most of the show. The stand-alone episodes aren’t terribly interesting and the featured mysteries leave a lot to be desired as their outcomes often felt predictable or coincidental.
The major failing of Bungou Stray Dogs is in how poorly it marries its two establishes tones as its subject matter involving murders and underground crime organizations clashes against its style of comedy giving way to very polarizing scenes. The show undercuts whatever real drama or tension it is able to conjure up with its rampant character gags. A police woman is shot in cold-blood and washed away by the river and her senior and subordinates are visibly torn up about it. Dazai then cuts into the scene, mourning the loss of her beauty and says she should have committed a double suicide with him instead. Not only does it continuously set precedent for generally tension-free scenes but it does so by utilizing the stupidest gag in the entire show. One second the show pokes fun at Kunikida’s ideals and Dazai imbibes hallucinative mushrooms and the next moment people are being forcibly drowned, gassed to death, and killed as products of a black market organ trade.
The extremes are too huge and the comedy is too gag-oriented and dumb to allow for the viewer to take any of the more gruesome scenes seriously. The show tries wholeheartedly to be dramatic but completely fails due to its cast of primarily comedic characters who simply aren’t capable of executing a serious moment either because of their exaggerated nature or comedic tendencies.
[Music]:
The soundtrack didn’t stand out to me very much and mostly served to reinforce the two prevalent atmospheres of the show. The music supported the show’s comedy and action from the background without ever becoming too prominent or memorable itself.
[Final Thoughts and Rating]:
Looking at Bungou Stray Dogs as a whole, I would warily say it has potential to be more than what it is. The show element of referencing various authors and imparting various attributes from them and their works into the characters is a very compelling idea at face-value and if it could make better thematic use of the technique I think it could yield very interesting results. With the next season already around the corner I have to wonder if perhaps the show would do better outside of the format of exploring individual members of the Armed Detective Agency each episode and instead attempted to tackle something a bit grander and more comprehensive. With these hopes in mind, the show has to find a place for its comedy and I think if it cut it entirely it would have a fair chance at becoming something worthwhile however I doubt this will come to pass.
To add a quick note about whether or not it’s worthwhile to be familiar with the referenced stories and authors beforehand – I don’t think there is much benefit to it currently. I was familiar with probably over half of the authors mentioned and a moderate amount of the literature alluded to and outside of a few shallow comparisons between characters and how the show aesthetically designed their abilities, there wasn’t much extra benefit to the knowledge so I wouldn’t urge prospective viewers to familiarize themselves unless they wanted to.
Rating: 4
I gave Bungou Stray Dogs a 4 because its cast had either poor or uninteresting characterization, its story had a variety of problems, and it was very conflicted tonally causing. Its later action sequences and slight movement away from the rampant comedy of its earlier episodes improved its second half by a small margin along with the overall quality of its animation.
[Recommendations]:
I would recommend Bungou Stray Dogs for its action sequences and animation above all else. Though it has its fair share of narrative issues and a cast of problematic characters, its visuals are quite strong all throughout. I didn’t enjoy the comedy of the show however one can tell whether or not it appeals to them by the time the first episode finishes.
MozillaFennekin
Before I settle into my oh-so-riveting review of Bungalow Stray Dogs, let’s clear two things up. 1. Atsushi got kicked out of an orphanage. 2. Kyouka killed thirty-five people. I know this is a little confusing, but let me just break this down. 1. Atsushi got kicked out of an orphanage. 2. Kyouka killed thirty-five people.Now, let’s move on.
While Bungee was a pretty fun show to come back to week by week, it kinda overstayed its welcome. With some interesting ideas came a rather formulaic, and otherwise inconsistent plot, that was only held up so much by the surprisingly comedic nature of the anime, as well as the good production values. Speaking of values, what is the value of 7 x 5? It’s thirty-five, the amount of people Kyouka killed! She killed thirty-five people, everybody! WOW!
What I liked right off the bat is how Stray Dogs quickly reassures the audience that this isn’t gonna be some edgefest. Atsushi gets kicked out of his orphanage (this is important, remember it) and a dark tone is set, but comedy kicks down the door by introducing Dazai after his failed attempt at suicide.
Yes, you read that correctly. A character’s running gag is that he contemplates and even attempts suicide pretty much constantly. That’s a thing and it’s easy to accept.
Then the love-hate relationship between the drowning fool and his partner, Kunikida, is established, a little bit of investigating and exposition later, and a small fight at the end perfectly label this as a mystery/crime action show with some good laughs and a few dark undertones. Is that what defines the following eleven episodes? Yes. But… not exactly in the optimal way.
In several places, the show seems to want to be a comedy more than anything, no matter what’s going on. One episode is spent building up an intimidating enemy… only for them to be swiftly defeated. Off-screen. Wow. Or, a dark scene could potentially come up, like the middle of episode six, and immediately follow with Dazai goofing around in the office. Consistency is a little nice to have…
But you know what IS consistent? The fact that Kyouka killed thirty-five people! It never changes! AND, Atsushi was kicked out of his orphanage!
And even though I probably found this to be funnier than a lot of other people did, the comedy did get stale after a while. There are a lot of quirky characters and the art’s shifting styles made it enjoyable for me, but after a while, you get the picture. It’s generally the same jokes, the same gimmicks, especially since most of it is centered around Dazai. He’s suicidal and loves women. Oh no, I probably spoiled like three entire episodes worth of material…! And comedy in general is a huge hit-or-miss. Some are obviously gonna love it while others will hate it. If the first episode didn’t get you interested, the rest will be a torturous gauntlet of strange humor.
Beyond that, the conflicts in general are interesting, and the supernatural abilities of each character make for some good battles; most take a couple minutes, but some can be pretty long, as in, half an episode at least. The powers are pretty unique and suit their characters, either fitting their personality, or the general theme of the character. (All the characters and their powers relate to literature, most of it being Japanese.)
But one of the most frustrating things is the lack of involvement with the main character, Atsushi, who got kicked out of his orphanage. Sushi-man doesn’t learn how to control his power until late in the series, and doesn’t do so with training or anything, it just… happens. Before this, he almost never uses it at all… in fact, he has such little involvement with -anything- that one might question his role in the story. For the time being, he just gets dragged around by the agency he’s in.
Part of the reason for this lack of sushi is because, for some strange reason, Bongo’s light novel spinoff, which focuses more on Kunikida, was adapted in the very middle. It’s a very strange couple of filler episodes that turned me off pretty quickly. It feels weird that I’m saying this to Studio Bones, but guys, there’s a much better way to adapt this… it’s called an OVA, and you put them after the series is finished.
You know who else is finished? The thirty-five people that Kyouka killed!
And a little predictably, the first cour of Oingo Boingo ends with a very unceremonious episode, even though it had one of the best fights. While Stray Dogs was planned for a split-cour release from the beginning, it’s not catered to that sort of release very well, given the nearly aimless first season. If this is supposed to be a preview, it’s quite a long one, and the second cour has a lot of making up to do.
So, did you know that Atsushi got kicked out of his orphanage? Just a quick reminder on that, because that is indeed true. Bunko really wants to get this point across, for some reason, so they show the very same flashback of Atsushi getting kicked out of his orphanage whenever possible. I guess they just wanna repeat everything in this show a thousand times? Whatever. I feel like Atsushi could be interesting… being the self-insert that questions things that are happening and the people around them, he’s a bit like an audience member, but not self-aware or witty in any way. Plus, he’s the typical unconfident but powerful protagonist with an insanely OP ability that the bad guys wanna capture because they’re bad guys. I think there’s a lot that could’ve been done with him, but instead, a mixed bag of “eh” was created.
Dazai, the not-so-desperately-needed comic relief of the anime, is definitely the most enjoyable character, at least until you get tired of his gimmick and his otherwise unbalanced personality. Here’s a question, why does this guy always try to kill himself? And why is he happy about it? ...And why is he otherwise a serious character? Unlike Atsushi, who has room to develop, I think the author wrung out everything this character had and shaped him into a walking question mark.
Eventually, my favorite character became Kunikida, because his personality wasn’t much of a gimmick and the laughs generated from him were often due to his interactions with others, specifically Dazai, who irritates him to no end. Plus, he has some super weird ideals and relationship goals. Whatever levitates your Gengar, man. He’s a cool guy.
Should I talk about the villains? Because aside from Mr. Edgy Bad Guy with the Rash, who ust comes off as a typical, edgy bad guy who tries his best to be intimidating and only does so for the first episode, villains just come and go with each episode. Pretty much everything they do is just kill a bunch of random passersby, because that’s always sure to rev up the tension! ...Not.
Later on, you’ll meet Kyouka, who killed thirty-five people. ...This actually isn’t repetitive beyond her introductory episode, I’m just memeing you.
Studio Bones crafted a predictably impressive-looking show, particularly with its gorgeous, vintage-themed character designs. My favorite aspect isn’t their clothing, interestingly enough, but their diamond-shaped eyes. It’s very simple but has a lot of character. They also do their best to keep the comedy alive by shifting the style to a simple, more cartoonish vibe which only animate between a couple frames and show some brilliant character faces and reactions.
Coupled with this is a fantastic voice cast; @sushi is unfortunately weak with a rookie seiyuu, but superstars Hiroshi Kamiya and Mamoru Miyano knock it out of the fucking park as Ranpo and Dazai. They sound like they had a ball with their roles. The soundtrack, though, is just… weird. I didn’t like it, but it’s certainly an interesting bag of… well, all sorts of things, really. At one point, I heard a bunch of screeching and then some quiet rapping, if that’s any indication. I like the OP, though. It’s a pretty solid hard rock song with an interesting vocal hook and some great instrumentation. But the melancholic ED is even better, being a mellow track that transitions very well at the end of each episode.
And so, Bumble Stray Dogs is done for now, but will be back in the future. I’ll come back to greet it again, because I do think the series has a lot of potential for improvement, but it needs to get the ball rolling fast, before Kyouka kills another thirty-five people and Atsushi gets kicked out of another orphanage.
Story - 5/10
Art - 8/10
Sound - 5/10
Characters - 5/10
Enjoyment - 5/10
People killed by Kyouka - 35/10
Overall - 5/10
Favorite character - Kunikida
Favorite episode - 1
Recommendation level - Medium-high
Sukamii
Bungou Stray Dogs desperately attempts to be a quirky anime that tries to tell a "dark" and "gritty" story about organized crime, detectives and their interplay with a little bit of magic sprinkled in. However, the writing, whether it be the main characters, or any of the antagonists, or even the beats of the entire plot are at best generic (not inherently a bad thing) and at worst (which is the majority of the time) pedantically annoying and annoyingly melodramatic. It so badly wants you to empathize with the main character that every 2-3 episodes it flashes back to our protagonist Atsushis backstory, to thepoint it becomes overplayed and hard to care about. There's no nuance or subtlety with the character or how his tragic upbringing really affected him outside of these flashbacks, and a moment early in the season that feels empty due to its immediate resolution. It feels like a surface level justification that has little to do with the characters growth, struggles and life. For a show that's about detectives, psychology, and understanding the human being- its delivers nothing but shallow analysis and conclusions. It's boring and unentertaining.
Speaking of boring and unentertaining, the "Gifted" systems implementation feels like a half baked idea to me. On one hand, I totally understand the desire to add some degree of a power system to a story like this as it has some noteworthy potential- but this suffers from a similar issue as to what I felt like the Imperial Relics from Akame ga Kill did- there's no real cohesion with what's being chosen for gifts. It's just a power system but for detectives, with some having interesting implementations, with strengths and notable weaknesses like Kunikidas- and others feeling entirely haphazard like Akutagawa or Nakajimas. They don't seem to fit in the overall narrative cohesion of the story, and are more akin to "cool superpowers that we wanted to include" with there being no real precedent for what being "Gifted" actually is outside of apparently being magic that is somehow extremely prevalent but simultaneously not relevant in the public sphere.
A note about the characters, their designs, etc. While this may be more of a personal preference, I don't think any of their designs were all that interesting or memorable. It's a situation where each of the characters were meant to fill a specific aesthetic, but also be designed in a way that they reflect their personalities but often come off as strangely uninspired and uninteresting. I feel like I've seen all of them in another anime, whether it be the archetypes and rolls they fill, their personality, and even their powers- each one of them feels so bland I don't really expect to remember them outside of the names of the authors they stem from. Which is another fairly strong point of contention I have in regards to one character.
Osamu Dazai, the pen name for the author Shūji Tsushima, was a Japanese author who died in a double suicide via drowning in 1938. How does this anime interpret the tragic death of a real human being? By relegating much of the characters dialogue, and near every single one of his gags, to be how badly he wants to participate in a double suicide with a pretty woman. His character was first introduced attempting to kill himself via drowning in a river. It's so unabashedly tasteless, and frankly speaking its gross and was a horrible note to begin this series off with- and it set the precedent for the standard of humor and overall writing this show was to present.
Much of the show persists on an episodic format, introducing characters steadily that have a mild influence or importance to the story on the whole, and are relegated to importance later on- which I can only assume to be in its following seasons. If a character is introduced in an episode, then its more likely than not their arc will be concluded in that same episode. there's nothing inherently wrong with an episodic format, some of the greatest stories ever told have been done so in this medium. Stray Dogs, however, doesn't tell any interesting stories, or build the mystique of the world through this format. It wants to leave little crumbs of information that build towards a grander narrative, but that narrative is paper thin and I just don't think its good.
So far as positives I think the animation quality is fine, same with the directing of action sequences (however the lows for the action scenes are just rock bottom, like the gunfight in early episode 11). They're plenty punchy and tight, with the comedy scenes (while I don't think there's much humor to be found in the show) do a plenty fine job at conveying the attempts at humor and stylization that befits them- but that's not enough to carry the show, or even really do enough to help overcome the shows weaknesses.
Bungou Stray Dogs really doesn't care about its story or its characters, or even the real people they draw their names from. It's embarrassingly unfunny, bland, uninspired, and a slog to watch through. It was a struggle to force myself to watch this show, which is an utter shame as the premise was interesting- I wouldn't have considered it if there wasn't something I thought was worth my time. But the execution of the already struggling story results in a bad season. I'll more likely than not give the subsequent seasons a shot to see if they were able to redeem itself, but my hopes for what follows have plummeted.
Waser
The reason why I disliked this anime was because it was too goofy and had way too many "joke moments", it took away from the action that was supposed to be going on. The art is good and looks well designed but because the show lacks plot and character it throws the whole show off balance. I think this anime is more suited for a younger audience than a 18+ one, at least in my opinion. Plus I felt like the plot was all over the place for my taste! If it was more fighting and less jokes I would have liked it way more.
Kadrian
The anime is overall very great and attracted my attention. It had just the amount of mystery, suspense and funny moment to make the show entertaining and interesting. The Main Character is likable. He had very heroic moments like wanting to protect his friends, but what he didn't realized is that his friends are just so OP that he is the one needing protection. Wondering if this anime is for you, then see my below list of what I enjoyed form this anime: 1) Action 2) Mystery/Detective 3) Funny moments 4) No Harem/ Reverse Harem / Ecchi 5) Without a lot of female characters 6) No pathetic highschool squealing girls thatfaint a lot
7) Great fighting scenes
8) Art and Graphic are pretty good
One thing I have to point out is that: the main character, Atsushi, is well..........Very Abnormal Looking. Heed my warning in mind. He is not your average looking anime males. No, he is not a spiky hair guy. Just heed my warning ...... :)
Over all, this anime is definitely worth your time if what I said above is your taste.
ktulu007
Bungou Stray Dogs is an anime from 2016 based off of an ongoing manga from 2012. The anime version was brought to us by Bones. The same studio behind Soul Eater, Boku no Hero Academia, Kekkai Sensen & Mob Psycho 100. So, sometimes I enjoy their work and sometimes I don't. Only a viewing will determine what the case is here. Story: We open with a young man named Nakajima Atsushi who's starving to death when he happens to go to the rescue of someone he sees drowning in the river. Only to discover that the man was trying to commit suicide. This results in Nakajimabeing taken to an Agency that solves cases using their supernatural abilities.
There are a couple issues with the narrative. The first is that it gets downright tasteless with the way it uses its characters. Here's the thing, all of these characters are named for writers from the early 1900s, late 1800s. Which would be fine, but then they have the character named for Osamu Dazai, a man who died fairly young after committing double suicide with his lover, and the series constantly uses him for suicide jokes. This would be a bit tacky under normal circumstances, but when the character is named for someone who actually lost his life to suicide it just elevates it to an exceptionally gross level of tackiness. I also find it bizarre that they give their version of Tanizaki Junichirou a fictional sister to be incestuous with. Yes, the man did have younger sisters in real life, but the character in question isn't named for any of them.
Putting that aside, the writing just isn't that compelling. I've seen quite a few works about agencies made up of people with super powers in my time. And this one doesn't really offer anything new in that regard. Besides the extra dose of tastelessness. It doesn't help that all of the twists are really obvious way before they come into play because the series telegraphs them in really obvious ways.
Characters:
If these characters weren't named for real people, I'd say they're a bunch of dull archetypes and leave it at that but because they're named for real people, I find myself more disturbed by their lack of complexity and, of course, the aforementioned tacky parts than I would be normally.
Art:
The anime does look pretty good. The character designs are pretty normal but the action sequences are really strong and look good. Bones also does a good job with the backgrounds. They've got some nice details.
Sound:
The acting is perfectly passable. It's one of those where they got some good actors like Miyano Mamoru, Hosoya Yoshimasa and Morohoshi Sumire, to name as few but the characterisation doesn't give them much to work with. The music is fine. Not great, but it works.
Ho-yay:
There isn't really any.
Areas of Improvement:
1. If you're going to name your characters after real people, you need to treat the legacy of those people with some respect. Unless you're naming them after a nazi or otherwise terrible person. So, don't be making light of someone's suicide. It's just not cricket.
2. If you're going to be writing something similar to a lot of other stories out there you need something to set it apart. Generic story-telling and dull archetypical characters aren't sufficient.
3. Put some more effort into your characterisation. Archetypes are fine for a starting point, but you need to build off of them and make the characters unique in some way. Especially if you're going to be naming those characters after real people.
Final Thoughts:
This is, in all honesty, one of the worst anime I've seen from Bones. Even without the tackiness, it would be a pretty sub-par work. With it, it's going to be a 3/10 from me. I can't really recommend it when there are so many things that take the basic concept and do it better.
AgentBishop
i don't like this anime, at all it has no idea wtf is it doing, i hate osama bin dazai, he is pathetic, his mannerism makes no sense whatsoever, he constantly tries to "jokingly" kill himself, but what exactly this manner has to do with the story or the plot? his design is cool but why is he like this? what are the bandages? dazai is a empty character him constantly making fun of his friends and not taking battles seriously doesn't make him cool it makes him cringy, characters in the show don't take the plot seriously! which shows this anime is nothing but a cash grabwho focuses on style
i hate dazai's friend also, constantly yelling at dazai, he reminds me of the tall lunatic loser from hunter x hunter nobody give a shit about
the villians are pathetic as well, AHHHHH I'M GONNA KILL YOU ALL WHILE HAVING A DOT SIZE PUPIL!
the art is okay, so is the soundtracks but nothing special
i started this anime because of dazai, he is really popular in MAL so i thought maybe he is a deep character but i guess in a world where fucking Nezoku who has no personality whatsoever is as popular as she is, i shouldn't count on deepness of a character based on their popularity
crispyn64
All Bite, No Bark? - A Bungo Stray Dogs Review Bungo Stray Dogs is about a detective agency made up of “gifted” and eccentric individuals. Most members of the Agency wield their own unique, supernatural ability, and together they make a mighty force to combat the mafia. Also, only one of them is an actual detective. Now that I’ve filled you in on the basic plot of the show, let’s get right to the heart of the matter. Bungo Stray Dogs is, at times, a mess. Through a series of awful setups that only lead to decent and sometimes good payoffs, Bungo Stray Dogs shows itsinability to make a plausible plot with understandable or compelling villains. Its tone is completely unbalanced, the motivations of its protagonists are often over-explained while still remaining nonsensical, and to top it off, its main character is a total Mary Sue. Whatever there is to like about this show melts away by the time the season reaches its halfway point, and only somewhat returns to form for its finale.
The plotting of individual arcs in this show have been utterly atrocious. While the payoffs are enjoyable, consisting of clever twists and decent one-liners, the setups for these aforementioned payoffs range from pathetic to completely ludicrous. A fine example would be from an early episode, when a client leads some of the Agency into an alleyway. That’s it. They followed a woman into an alleyway and it turned out to be a trap. Not even like a pitfall trap or something. She just pulls out a submachine gun and starts blasting away. And it doesn’t really get better than that.
Tonally, Bungo Stray Dogs seemed to have its footing for a brief second before slipping on a banana peel and falling off a cliff. The wit and comedic timing seen in the first few episode completely evaporates and leaves us with silly chibi faces for no good reason at times not fit for any comedic relief. It’s almost as if the show is desperately trying to make sure it’s not taking itself too seriously, and by doing so only makes it harder for me to enjoy watching. There is a time for humor and there is a time for being toned down and real, and Bungo Stray Dogs has a hard time differentiating between the two.
Villains can be likeable. I’d argue that on some level, they should be likeable/relatable. Without that, we just have an object that only exists to be detested. In Bungo Stray Dogs, that object is Port Mafia. A heinous and ostentatious group of delinquents with quite a heavy reliance on brute force and explosives. Their main goal is to capture the Blue Tiger for reasons completely undenounced to the audience. Other than that, they just do evil things on a daily basis for no apparent reason. They’re as one-dimensional as it gets, and the good guys aren’t much better.
What is the Agency? What do they stand for? How do they and Port Mafia both exist without one destroying the other? All of these questions and more aren’t answered very well, if at all. Their motivation should be simple: To protect and serve. You know, just like the normal law enforcement. Instead they find themselves looking for motivation on trivial things such as: Why should they rescue their kidnapped teammate, and so on. Every moment spent in their office feels like a waste of time, something to fill up the episode’s timeslot before they get to the actual point. Every character in the Agency seems to have a lackadaisical approach when it comes to their job, as if the greater good isn’t enough to motivate them. In this regard, they’re actually somewhat more unlikeable than the villains.
Onto the main character, Atsushi is an orphan. You would know that by watching any single episode in the entire series. It’s apparently integral to his very being, something not to be overlooked, and so there’s a flashback of Atsushi in an orphanage that reoccurs throughout the whole season. It never changes or adds anything new to his character aside from the very first time it is shown. He is an orphan, he has been told he is a waste of space, and he kind of believes it himself. I guess it could be argued that it is an important part of his character, but even so it’s not nearly important enough to bear such incessant repeating. Oh, and as I said early, Atsushi is a Mary Sue. Somewhere along the lines he masters his uncontrollable powers. There’s no episode to explain this, nor is there even a quick training montage. Atsushi goes from having absolutely no control to holding his own in a 1v1 with the most dangerous villain introduced so far.
The Good
At its best, Bungo Stray Dogs is a fun action series that had a strong start and seemingly interesting characters. It managed to pull off some nicely timed twists and one-liners, despite the basic setups that hold it back in the long run. The characters also have some neat historical context for fans of Japanese literature.
The Bad
At its worst, Bungo Stray Dogs is a poorly cobbled together setup for its second season, of which I am not excited for. The cast seems interesting and enjoyable when first introduced, but that fades away with every second spent with them. The villains are un-relatable garbage people with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and the heroes are not much better. The amount of time wasted on the protagonists acting silly and squabbling in their generic office setting would have been better spent filling in the plot holes and leaps in logic that are all too abundant in this series.
Akafection
Written by Kafka Asagiri, illustrated by Sango Harukawa and under Bones studio, Bungou Stray Dogs, an anime filled with supernatural action has totally made it for bring us cool characters and several unpredictable elements through it episode one by one. What can I say? I just sit and watch it with “good hopes” about the anime and believe it or not that hopes really fulfilled at the end. Although, the good hopes I mention in here not all of em are answered by this season, there are several reasons why I give 7 (seven) for this despite the fact of my desire to give itan eight (I wish I could but still my final whole score is 7 (seven)). Well, why the score is 7 (seven) not 8 (eight)? I’ll explain it further below.
(*) Story
Centers on several people who are gifted with supernatural powers and how they use them to do some various activities, for an example like the main characters did for a living as a member of association named Armed Detective Agency. The activities started from problem solving through some cases, catching culprit to bomb disposal. Well, sounds too much? Nope! Because both the writer and the director has succeed to deliver that package directly to the audience without side issue of little importance at the first. I certainly have to admire the creators for not throwing much garbage in the beginning though there’s some episode not fully whole action. But, I liked the story idea very much. I think this kind of story could be a favorite for an anime fans who like an action genre. I don’t recommend this anime to a fans that like full action without background story. Cause this anime show some short explanation about character’s point of view and cases through several event and condition for approximately 24 (twenty four) minutes each of episode. I felt that kind of short but whatever, I still watch the anime though.
For the beginning of the story, I admit it that I quite confused about how the story started. Suddenly, there’s an orphan who complaining in the side of long river about himself after terrible event happened to him. What I confused at that time is that, what kind of action story that the writer want to show with those kind of start? Will it be like an amazing superhero action, an extraordinary magic action or maybe a “boring” one? I added the “boring” one because I thought the good visual is trick from the creators so we can’t denied to watch it. But, after I watched the end of first episode to third episode I’m sorry that I ever thought about this anime that way. Cause especially from the third episode the story suddenly twist into cool and awesome action with little surprise essence from the characters that existed. Indeed, I have to disappointed that near the end the creators still add the introduction one of character which I thought it doesn’t need to. But again, as a matter of fact it well received and paid in the end of the last episode.
I love the creator’s idea to make this story not so serious, added by some little dramatized comedy that makes me giggles several times. For an example like in second episode when one of the main characters got stuck in a barrel for a reason that awkardly ridiculous.
In conclusion, I think for this season the creators did a story focus to introduce the main and the villain caharacters, not focus to main or ideal conflict to it climax or anti climax of the story yet. There’s still a lot of homework for the creators or I’d rather say there’s event that need more to explain and that includes the past of the story and the impact of them to the characters, villain’s true intention, and many other secret that important to known by the audience. And for that, I’m just glad to realize there’s second season for this show.
(*) Art
I love how the creators draw the characters uniquely. My favorite of all is Nakajima Atsushi’s design. I actually didn’t like that type of character but I don’t know, I mean I loved the hair (to me it’s like modern style of fashionista), love from the clothes to the black boots he wore too. And I like the design of Dr. Yosano too. Black short hair decorated with a medium butterfly hairpin, white collar shirt with long black tie, black skirt, black stocking and high heels. Both the design definetely worked to plus the aura of each character and helped improve the personality of the characters. And that condition apply to other characters too, all of the the main and the villains. They made the characters are memorable to the audience and they are different one to another.
The art background is realistic enough. I liked the opening when Dazai fall from a high-buiding by the way. It looked cool despite the fact when his body touch the ground, he will be dead. Fortunately, that kind of event did not exist haha. Well, back to the background, I think that the creator already did best for them. Like places (from side of the river to big shipboard) and the action event that got more intense the longer you watched. The design of character, the background and the story fits and blend to one another. It is a very good job.
(*) Sound
My first confession about this section is that I fallen in love with the ending song. Though through picture of the ending you can see that such event doesn’t existed to the story yet but the song hits the feel. I definetely will keep it in my track list of anime songs and hearing it again and again. For the opening, I guess that fits well to it scene and has rising the air of the battle scene.
For seiyuu part, I think they all have succeed to portrayed their character’s personality. Like several examples, first Uemura Yuto has made it to show how unconfidence Atsushi sometimes whenever he try to do something out of his imagination and afraid others see him as an annoying one that made them hate him till they want to ask Atsushi to get out of their sight. He started with a weak light voice but in some condition when Atsushi believe in himself, Uemura’s voice could change.
Second, that too happened with Dazai who portrayed by Mamoru Miyano that famous and known with his character voice on Yagami Light’s Death Note. He could make a line between when Dazai teasing or playing around with each other and a side when he get a serious one. It definetely improved the seiyuu cause he has succeed to present Dazai differently than other character he has already portray.
And for the third example, don’t forget Akutagawa who voiced by Ono Kensho. I’ve knew that Ono Kensho often portray a character that have soft side or I’d rather say the good one. But in this anime, (wow) it certainly showed that Ono Kensho have a wide ability to “misdirect” his voice into heavy and sounded bad and evil at the same time. I admit it that I was shocked when I realize who is the voice actor of Akutagawa and he unpredictably is Ono Kensho. They did a very good job with this section.
(*) Character
If the creators have wanted the character of this anime to remember by people who watch it (especially in Japan), then they have made it. First, it because there’s creativity and path that the creators have gives to this anime. And that creativity is to name almost main and villain character from famous literary author’s name in Japan. Which I found that is the brilliant idea to make the introduction of the character more simple and memorable.
Second, the design all of the characters they have made are unique (include their supernatural power) and their personality too. Well, you will find a character that looked weak in the beginning and suddenly he could do something out of beyond and our imagination, you will find a character that looked dumb but have a strong supernatural power, the one who looked innocent but deadful, the one who looked calm but knows everything or the one who looked elegant but in the end get scary as well. You will find many different and unique charactesr in it. My suggestion to describe them all is that, “Don’t judge a book by its cover!”
Despite of two good points I mentioned above, there’s still some shortage though. I have realized that for solution to several conflict that one of the main character through is too simple and fast. Realisticly, that could not happened just for a moment like that, but I’m still happy that after the solution, the next event get surprising feel for the audience. That moment happened for at least one or two times. Luckily, it didn’t broke how slow or the fast story pace is.
Next, as I have explained in the story section that there’s some event that need more description or explanation. It relate to this character section which I realize that there’s character’s emotion changing drastically in one event and the problem is I don’t see any causes or reasons that have been explain previously. Actually, this kind of problem often happened too in other anime that have season per season cross apart. And I don’t blame for the author, the director or any other who’s in it, cause “role” in story will get worked perfectly if you understand the personality of the character, from background story to how “the role” through his or her life in the story. It needs hardwork and it is difficult. Seiyuu in here have role to portray “the existed role” and they have to work together with both the author and the director. If one of them get messed up then “the role” itself could get even messier. I think they have to work this part even more for the next season or project ahead.
And the last part is that the existence of several supporting character (I’m talking about the characters beside the main characters and that includes villains too). There’s several character who get “shadowed” by the other main characters. Actually, it because the story not so focuses on them till comes feeling that I don’t give a crap about what’s gonna happen to them. You will see there’s some poping up character suddenly in the end of final episode. But, the problem is not the sudden poping and I don’t put a conflict about the character that showed up in the last minute. I am actually bothered by some main villain’s character which I found cool at the beginning but “really less-cool” at the end. And for the worse, they have already existed indeed but their role is so small. If i put those character’s existence into percentage, you will find a big hole depends on the main’s role. They are indeed have role to one condition but that condition doesn’t stay for very long, just a little time (like sponsors or something). I tell you, it could make the audience forgot about them. Luckily, their character’s design is easy to remember but I have to tell you again I already forgot their name after I finished watching the last episode. I still did not know how the creators want to put them in the next season. I hoped their percentage of existence will rise up, not drowning to the ground.
(*) Enjoyment
Watching this flowing from the first episode to the last episode just like that. I have to admit that I still have enjoyed watching it though there’s some lackness I mentioned above section per section. Cause the genre that I thought would be heavy, it turns out to be lightier than I ever expected. Plus the comedy from this anime is awkward (I mean rare) but I still giggles and some time laughing cause of it. You may predict several that could happened, but between your guess, you will get surprised and amazed by the characters even more. For the continue, just watch the next season for seek that answer further. In all, I would like to say that Bungou Stray Dogs is recommended for all of you who likes an action anime genre with not so heavy story.
shirley898
SPOILER FREEEEEEE I just finished episode 12 and I just could not stop myself from writing a review. Lets just talk about the character designs and the art style. I try to never judge an anime or manga by its art style but, I gotta say that one of the things that attracted me to watching this series was the unique art style. The eyes, they are just one of the best things about this anime’s art style. It’s very original and soooo pretty. All the characters were designed so well, it suited perfect with the character’s personality. The voice actors? Did a good job, honestly Ihaven’t watched an anime with bad voice actors I mean they suited the character and that all I can say right?
Now the anime is totally worth watching if your into action/comedy/mystery/slice of life and a little bit of blood then I recommend giving it a try. I laughed through the whole series, it is even funny at moments when it really shouldn’t be.
It did had plot armor, but I think they did a good job to not make that too obvious.
I am so excited for the season 2, cuz in season 1 they introduced us to all the characters and got us into the story. So I hope in season 2 that they will be giving us the rest of the story. The sad part is that the main protagonist didn’t master his transformation but I hope he will in season 2.
I loved that the anime actually focused on all the characters and not just on the main protagonist.
The titled of this anime was brilliant too, you’ll know why if you watched the whole series, it actually has a meaning behind it.
Another things is the first episode, I mean that first episode will leave a really impact your view on that anime. It really got me excited for what was going to happen, curious for the story.
Overall I think it was a great anime, and as I said excited for S2
This review was probably very random an unorganized that’s cuz I am writing this real late at night…
But yeah hope that this was helpful to some of u guys !! xxx
Adi
With another season of anime, comes another supernatural-action title that attempts to be unique, different and original while keeping faithful to its genre. Bungo Stray Dogs (BSD, from now on) is most definitely unique arguably ingenious, but has several, painful shortcomings that unfortunately add it to the vast collection of mediocre supernatural-action anime. Before anyone watches this anime, I highly recommend you watch The Canipa Effect’s great video on the characters of Bungo Stray Dogs. You will appreciate the ingenuity of the story and understand the characters better once you learn about the Japanese literarians they’re based on. STORY: Quickly said, BSD is a poorlytold good story. As I mentioned previously, the premise of writing the main characters and their “gifts” based on famous Japanese literarians is ingenious, and due to the limited cultural awareness of the non-Japanese watchers on MAL, this ingenuity has unfortunately gone unnoticed and unpraised. One must be culturally aware of the Japanese literature references in order to fully appreciate the anime’s story, but sadly even so, it remains poorly told. While basing characters on famous literarians is certainly original and unique, it has its drawbacks and limitations. The main characters in BSD all have unique, supernatural abilities (called “gifts”), and these abilities are denominated after their respective literarian’s most famous works. For example, Osamu Dazai’s ability is named after his literarian counterpart’s book, “No Longer Human”. This is where problems begin to arise. Due to the vagueness and obscurity of these ability names, several characters have gifts that are inexplicably overpowered and one can only wonder the weaknesses and limitations of said power. The majority of gifts in the show are so powerful that they almost always bend the rules of the show’s universe, and this results in several plot holes during fights when characters conveniently seem to forget how insanely overpowered their gifts are. The source of the gifts is not explained once, and several abilities are explained with convoluted logic that is hard to digest.
The beginning of the show is extremely typical, the protagonist (Atsushi) is down on his luck and saves a drowning man (Dazai) who was actually trying to kill himself. Dazai and Atsushi are then tracked down by the upstanding, strict supporting character (Kunikida) who is then forced to treat Atsushi to a meal. Attach an unnecessary amount of slapstick comedy and you can already you can see where this show is sort of going, and while the beginning is typical and cliche there’s nothing really wrong with it. The execution of it was pretty good and as a result came off as a funny way to introduce the characters. By the end of the first episode, Atsushi is recruited to the Detective Agency, which is a legal police force where they only recruit members with the supernatural gifts aforementioned.
The plot progression of BSD is driven by several plot contrivances and conveniences, and the source material was adapted in such an odd way that there end up being around 4-6 episodes centered around a bomb and 3 of these are back to back. This results in a tiring, unpleasant and repetitive watch that honestly lost my interest several times. The slapstick comedy in the show was especially annoying and often ruined the tone of several serious scenes. The comedy was often unoriginal and quickly grew repetitive and annoying.
The main antagonist group of the show is the Port Mafia, and if you are to believe that they are going to be the biggest, toughest forces the Detective Agency are going to face you are dead wrong. The Port Mafia is often portrayed as an ever present overwhelming power that threatens the safety of all the civilians and detectives in the city, but in reality, are basically a rival, evil counterpart to the Detective Agency. Several members of the Port Mafia come off as incompetent and weak and sometimes you wonder if they really live up to the dangerous threat that they’re often portrayed as. Towards the end of the series you are briefly introduced to a flurry of characters that are very clearly the true, underlying antagonists of the show and they are much, much more interesting than the main antagonist of this season, Akutagawa. It seems what anyone should take from this season is that it is building a foundation for what is to come this fall, and I would say they’ve successfully (although slowly, boringly and sometimes poorly), built a strong foundation. Hopefully next season uses this foundation to their advantage and is able to be much better.
This is all not to say that BSD is not an enjoyable watch. As I mentioned, BSD is a poorly told good story, leaving the plot to have a few profound and several unpredictable moments that caught me off guard in a good way. The concept behind each character’s gifts and the main antagonist of the show was enough to keep me invested while it was airing and I can honestly say that I enjoyed this show’s run and I’m excited for the next season.
CHARACTERS: BSD has been renewed for a second cour this fall, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that several of the other supporting characters will be developed next season. But for now, most of the characters in BSD are pretty dimensionless and some are just plain stupid. Atsushi and Kunikida are the only characters developed over the course of the show, while the rest are simply background characters. Atsushi is your run off the mill protagonist; a little cowardly, strong-willed, naturally talented and offers a naive perspective due to a lack of experience. At first his backstory was handled maturely, sad yet not quite melodramatic. That is of course until they repeatedly flash back to one scene from Atsushi’s orphanage every single episode. This show brutally beats you over the head with Atsushi's orphanage backstory to the point where it often breaks tense moments out of repetitiveness.
Osamu Dazai is arguably a Gary Stu (No Longer Human ability, hello!?) and that’s perfectly fine and often fitting for his role as Atsushi's “savior”. Dazai is Atsushi's role-model and is what he strives to be a detective from the Agency, and it had (or has, maybe the second season will do this) potential to be an interesting and complex relationship. However, for most of the show the interactions are between Kunikida and Atsushi, as Kunikida is often left in charge of him. Their character dynamics are quite interesting especially considering that they are great foils. Kunikida is studious, prideful and driven by his ideals. Atsushi is often weak hearted, modest, and is driven by his desire to be a human worthy of life. Their conversations and interactions are funny and often very profound.
AUDIOVISUALS: Produced by Studio Bones, the animation of BSD is excellent. The fight scenes are animated with great colours along with great fighting choreography. Some of the character abilities are inherently boring and as a result usually make up for some boring fights, but they are nonetheless animated beautifully. Kept me at the edge of my seat and greatly anticipating several badass action scenes due to the immersiveness of its animation. BSD also has a great opening that gets you hyped for the show every time you watch it, and a great ED that is often extended to the final scenes of several episodes for dramatic effect (similar to JoJo’s roundabout ending extending). All in all a well animated show with very few boring panning frames.
Enjoyment 7/10: Despite my qualms with the show it kept me invested for the most part and I enjoyed watching it. I was excited for every episode when it aired and I readily await the second season.
Overall 5/10: The show is not bad, but not necessarily good. The quality of the story and characters is very mediocre and all the supernatural abilities could have been the shows saving grace but end up being poorly explained and ridiculously overpowered. I’d recommend this show to anyone who isn’t overly picky and unnecessarily analytical and simply prefers to be entertained by their anime.
Bersemburit
By all means this show can't be compared to the greatest ones you've seen, however i believe it's pretty damn solid and i can easily recommend you to watch it, considering you're interested enough to read a review of it. Now, lets break the whole thing down in parts: Story - 7 The whole world setting is pretty simple - some ppl have superpowers, god knows why - doesn't matter. The story is pretty interesting, so if you might like the combination of genres 'Action, Comedy, Mystery, Seinen, Supernatural', then you won't be disappointed. Altough i would call this show a Shounen rather than a Seinen (the factthat characters are working adults instead of being highschoolers doesn't make a series a seinen imo). The comedy is at most places pretty juvenile and won't make you laugh out loud most of the times, however it should reduce the distance between you and the characters
Art - 8
The animation/art isn't extraordinary nor anything new , however it doesn't fall short in comparison to other shows of the season. I also liked the character designes of most of the characters (especially Kyouka's).
Sound - 7
I don't recall any ost from the show that i loved, it was ok though. The opening and ending did not catch my ear all that much either. However the music does work well with everything that happens on the screen and will make you more involved with the action, so i can say it's good.
Character - 9
I liked them, simple as that. Dazai & Kunikida duo is pretty damn entertaining to watch, other main characters are pretty interesting as well, i surely hope i will get to know them better in the next season of the show.
Enjoyment - 8
Got nothing to say in the subject, simply seems like a cool show to watch.
Overall - 8
The show is interesting and fun to watch, it's a strong position among this season's anime, deserving to be in top 5 in popularity ranking of the season.
To summ up, it's a show worth watching, you will surely enjoy it, if the humor dosn't end up irritating you or scaring you away. Cheers!
scy318
The first review I wrote for Bungou Stray Dogs was so low effort and awful, when I rediscovered it, I had to delete it out of shame. Now that five seasons have been released, I feel like now’s a good stopping point to organize my thoughts about Bungou Stray Dogs as a whole. Bungou Stray Dogs is a mystery action adventure anime that follows an orphaned boy who is recruited to be part of a superhero task force. Almost every relevant character has some sort of superpower, dubbed ability users. The characters and abilities themselves are modeled after real life writers and their works, whichwas quite interesting. The worldbuilding is kind of iffy, but generally ability users will gather together in groups to achieve some purpose, and that’s where the conflict in Bungou Stray Dogs (from now on referred to as BSD) comes from.
BSD fans will celebrate the anime for having such a huge ensemble cast with varying personalities, creative abilities, and most of all, moving character dynamics. Well, what I can say for sure is that if you ever meet anyone who says BSD characters are well written, just nod your head and quickly shuffle away inconspicuously (BSD fans are VERY passionate, I know since I used to be a hardcore glazer). The main characters have an inordinate amount of plot armor. They will literally never die. This isn’t even that much of a spoiler since it gets to a point where you can start predicting fake out deaths like clockwork.
In the main police task force (called the armed detective agency), there are two super geniuses who dictate all the action. Now, one would think a single super genius is enough, but BSD is all about crazy, inhumanly smart people playing 5D chess with each other. Hell, one of these such characters can solve murder cases in under a minute. How can BSD function with all these plot defying characters, then? The answer is to shoehorn in more super geniuses and have them fight a war of attrition. They will pull solutions out of thin air just to say “haha I outsmarted your outsmarting!!!”. It was fun the first few times, but it just drags on and on and on and finally nothing is resolved since the writer doesn’t have the guts to kill off characters. I mean, the current arc STILL hasn’t finished despite starting at the end of season 3… (Recap, five whole seasons have been released and a sixth is probably on the way).
That’s not to say BSD characters are cardboard cutouts. They’re not, exactly, but it’s like the author took stereotypes and boosted that certain trait 1000%, and then lightly sprinkled some other side stuff like garnish. The writer, like the fans, is way too attached to his own characters, and as a result, to have these characters develop would be equivalent to overhauling everything established. There’s a good example of this in one of the main characters and I’ll put an explanation at the end of this review which will 100% be spoilers*.
The writing in BSD is very messy and convoluted, but the reason I stuck around for so long is because it’s actually pretty fun. The BS 5D chess can get boring, but once the fun wears off, BSD is still okay fodder. It’s not bad to watch, and if you’ve got nothing else to do, it’s fine. The animation is average, but the fight scenes are interesting. If you’re like me and have the patience to watch this “anime fast food”, by all means, Bungou Stray Dogs is a good time.
Final Rating: 6 (For all the seasons)
*Dazai is an interesting character because even though he’s one of the superhuman geniuses, there’s more than meets the eye with him. In season 2 (I think), he gets some backstory which introduces a really intriguing concept in regards to his intelligence. BSD’s writer takes the idea that very smart people are less happier than other people and runs with it. Apparently, Dazai’s nigh-omniscience renders him completely isolated from everyone else, therefore making him “empty”. It’s like he can’t empathize or form genuine relationships with anyone else since his traumatic Mafia past and skills let him read people like a book. Dazai would know instantly just from looking at you if you’re lying, what you want, and what you’re scared of. This gives him so much leverage that any relationship is fundamentally imbalanced. There’s no push or pull, which is essential for a moving, impactful, relationship. Anything that Dazai does will be perfectly successful, and he knows this, so nothing can truly excite him. As a result, he has no purpose in his life, and coupled with the lack of real relationships, it makes sense that he feels suicidal.
In situations where he meets a character who has intelligence that rivals his own, there’s a mutual distrust and wariness between them since they both know each other’s capabilities. With other smart characters, Dazai can feel the thrill and exhilaration normal people feel, but it's still very insubstantial. I guess this is the reasoning behind his ability name, “No Longer Human”. Dazai is the furthest possible thing from a human, lacking all capability to be sympathetic or empathetic by virtue of his own mind. I haven’t seen Monster, but from what I’ve heard, this is very similar to Johan Liebert. Dazai is an inhumane monster devoid of true feeling.
This is the best interpretation I could come up with given the backstory we got, since everything else about Dazai is shrouded in layers upon layers of mystery. There are points where it's uncertain if Dazai's inner ideals and motivations are changing, but they're still too inconsistent and vague to draw any conclusions. I've often wondered what BSD would end up looking like had the author decided to explore Dazai's conflicts and inner self loathing. A potential storyline would be to start off with Dazai as this monster, and have some event limit his capabilities so self doubt, peer pressure, and meaningful introspection can occur. Then, BSD would be about rediscovering what it's like to be human, to feel the myriad of emotions that people do and to connect yourself with others. The thing is, the author is so preoccupied with maintaining this mystery that Dazai can never truly develop as a character. Even the author himself has confessed that he cannot imagine writing Dazai’s POV. This is the pedestal he has placed his characters on, and exactly why they can never be more than just an interesting concept.
SixZeroSeven
The Lord of anime has graced us yet again with a no more than average creation.Same ol',same ol',I could say.For even if their powers are fairly refreshing,the plot is still ordinary. Story(7/10) *I more or less summarize some aspects of the story because I don't want to have to rewatch it again later to remember I will have mercy in this area because the idea of super powers named after different japanese books and their use appeared curious.But it still managed to dissapoint quite a bit.I can't even remember the characters' names except Dazai and Kyouka so I will look on the info to refresh my mind.Atsushi didn'tstrike me as an too inspiring protagonist.The story begins when he gets kicked out of the orphanage he was in because he was an eyesore and they didn't want the burden of one more child after so many strange attacks at night.After,when he was on the riverbank,he tries to save a drowning man but surprise!He was actually a suicide maniac who would love to die in a double suicide with a beautiful woman.As a reward for ''saving'' Dazai,the MC is given a meal and because he didn't have any place to go to,his future coworker gives him the offer to help at their detective agency.The protagonist was reluctant at first but after some incidents where it proved his worth and that he wouldn't trouble his comrades he decided to stay.But of course things aren't so easy,for he has a huge bounty on his head because of his previously discovered tiger power and the Port Mafia(and some other guys) are hunting him.A few other events lead to another and there are all kinds of cases to solve but the quarells because of Atsushi's power are the center of it all.Oh,and there aren't any particular plot twists so that's a let down...
It ends with the revealing of a quite a peculiar possible villain so I'm wondering if the other season will ultimately save it or destroy it for good because till now it's way too ordinary.
Art(8/10)
The art reminded me of Durarara a bit and I like that.It gets a passing grade from me,even if I love art like the one in Grimgar or Kabaneri more.Their expressions are funny and some of the characters look familliar.For example,Kenji reminds me a lot of Finnian and the girl from the last episode of Grell,both from Black Butler.
Sound(9/10)
This is probably my favorite thing from this show.I just love the way the opening opening starts with Dazai and then introduces the characters and some cool fight scenes.The ending changes in a more tame and sad tone and I could swear there is something going on between Dazai and Atsushi besides the coworker thing.Oh,and I love Ranpo and Dazai's seiyuus.
Character(7/10)
Atsushi has not a such unusual backstory:he has no parents(orphan) and was rejected by the people around him.He doesn't have any big aspirations,just to help the ones in need(like he did with Kyouka) and it's haunted by the same scene over and over again.Dazai is a total mystery besides his weird suicidal tendencies and his later revealed ex-place of work.The others are kind of alright,I like the ''nurse'',she has the most intriguing power in my opinion.But of course I dislike those frickin clingy Tanizaki brothers because of their obvious show of love,incest not being really my thing.And Akutagawa is another one of those disciples thet want to be noticed by senpai but end up with lots of screws loose.
Enjoyment(6/10)
I'm not proud to say this however this has astonished me in any way.My sense of comedy has become Gintama-leveled so nothing less than weird and unbelievable shit can amuse me.As for action,I've seen a lot of it and much of it and this is only acceptable for me.
Overall(7/10)
If you don't have high standards for comedy and action like me and don't mind the absence of plot twists and stuff too deep then I invite to give it a go.Even if only for the awesome op and ed,and boredom it would be a good choice.I sincerely hope the second season will raise to my standards and not let me doze off in my chair
PyraXadon
When it comes to studio specialties, Bones is definitely one of those companies who specializes in creating story-based action and excels at doing so, being one of the companies with a relatively consistent track record on the quality of their work in this genre. So, in comparison to Fullmetal alchemist, Soul Eater, Noragami, and Hitsugi no Chaika, how does their newest adaptation, Bungou Stray Dogs stack up? Story: Atsushi is...a very unfortunate individual. After being thrown out of his orphanage because they needed to cut costs and so that they would have one less mouth to feed, he is left homeless, penniless, and virtuallyleft to the vultures due to having nothing to eat for a good many days. After contemplating suicide, he finds a man just dangling in the river he's sitting next to and decides to save him out of the goodness of his heart, only to try and rob him later. This man named Dazai is an agent for the Armed Detective Agency, a group of individuals with special powers who act sort of like a special police force for the city and solve cases for various events and going-ons in the city. And with Atsushi being one of these 'special power' wielders, he is taken in by the Agency to then be thrusted into what sums up to be a mob fight in the city.
Bungou stray dogs, or Straydogs as I'll be calling this show for the rest of the review, runs on an arcic setup where every few episodes runs with a certain storyline that progressively moves the story forward. What makes this so beneficial to the story is the fact that the show manages to fulfill a lot of the criteria that is needed in order to aid the audience in knowing what is going on. Every new story provides movement so the anime never loses momentum, each arc focuses on a specific character in the story that also provides a bit of development to their character, and there is always an aftereffect so that the story will then continue to pick up its pace. Additionally, there're always more comical moments where the characters show less serious and wacky sides to themselves that adds more to the character and qualities of these characters. (Also, the action is really well done. Classic gunfights and street brawls were very visually appealing.)
However, Straydogs does have a few bugs in the mix. The first of which is with the comedy, where the transition from comedic to serious and vice versa are sometimes extremely choppy and doesn't really flow all that well. And the second, and biggest problem of Straydogs is Atsushi's backstory. The show consistently in every arc reminds you that Atsushi was a thrown out orphan, even having a dedicated 2-3 minute scene of Atsushi's internal thoughts that details his internal struggle with finding a place in the world. And they use this WAY too often. It's fine that the show expresses Atsushi's internal struggle, but the show hammers it in a bit too much to the point that I was shouting at my screen saying "I get it! Atsushi was abandoned and thrown out for being unwanted. Jesus, let's get back to the gunfights and street brawls already!" Every arc has some portion of it dedicated to this aspect of our main protagonist and while it does diminish as the series goes on, and Atsushi does grow as a character, they still do it regardless where in the series we're in and it's just a bit annoying.
Overall, Straydogs's story is more or less just a lead-in to the second season coming in the Fall. The series excels at having the classic gang-like setting with the Agency's rival, the 'Port Mafia' acting as the main antagonist for the series and uses this setting to its advantage by having its mini-arcs feature some gritty and well developed stories that impact our characters with every new episode. Aside from the constant usage of Atsushi's background information, the story didn't really have many flaws. It wasn't exactly an extremely compelling story, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
Overview:
+ Good use of setting
+ Episodes were more or less a perfect blend of both character and story development
- Kinda leaves us hanging with the ending (Cause hey look, Season 2)
- Overuse of Atsushi's orphan backstory
Characters: The characters of Straydogs are actually quite...interesting. Every single character who has powers has a very unique name for their respective powers, where each character that the series shows us is a reference to a different novel that exists in the world that depends on the character's nationality. That being said, onto the analyzations.
Atsushi Nakajima is the main character of Bungou Stray Dogs with the power 'Beast beneath the Moonlight' (A reference to The Moon over the Mountain) who has the ability to turn into a white tiger. That's...basically all he can do. Of course he gets added physical ability when he goes tiger but in a nutshell, he turns into a tiger. Anyway, Atsushi serves as the 'new kid on the block' kind of character as he, like the audience, gets introduced to his coworkers at the Agency and every few episodes or so while also being thrown into various situations that show him the kind of cruel reality the world is. As mentioned before, his backstory is that he was thrown out of an orphanage (is me repeating this starting to get annoying yet?) and more or less left on the streets to die. As the series progresses, you can see Atsushi's constant self-victimization die down with every new case he's involved in, which while is more or less a plot device to keep the series going, is nice to see cause it moves his character along and helps him grow with every new case that does get progressively harder with every new situation. The issue I see with Atsushi's character is not with his character himself, but with what he does to the people he's against. The entire series tells us that everyone and I mean EVERYONE wants Atsushi cause he's so special or he's so good. This sparks so reasonable rage to some of the other 'main' antagonists to the story that sorta just want to see him drop dead. My problem with this is because literally everyone he fights has basically the same reason for hating him specifically, it just sorta feels hollow.
Then there's Osamu Dazai, who has the ability 'No longer human' (a reference to an actual japanese novel called 'No Longer Human') who can negate any ability with a single touch. Dazai is...an interesting individual. His character is that of an overzealous person who finds it his duty to commit suicide, but only the most graceful or beautiful suicide, before promptly deciding that he wants to commit a double suicide with a beautiful woman too. Safe to say, Dazai serves as not only Atsushi's main mentor in the series, but also as the series' comic relief while possessing a decently cunning and intelligent individual underneath. Despite being one of the more core characters in the series due to his role in the series and his backstory, there really just isn't much to say about Dazai. He's more or less just...there, and really doesn't add a whole lot to the series' plotline as a whole. Sure he has his moments, but compared to other characters, he's just not as important story-wise.
Then there're the other characters in the series. Because of the way the series structures itself, these characters aren't necessarily background or side characters, but rather characters that belong to different factions. As such, I'll be going them by faction.
The Armed Detective Agency has quite a...colorful cast. By colorful, I mean REALLY...WEIRD. As the main faction of characters that we follow, these are the characters that we follow the most. Each story arc has Atsushi follow or learn from one or more of the Agency members where we get to know them a little more as characters with the arcs that they are involved with as well as understand their sense of humor cause this group of strange individuals definitely have a lot of different kinds of funny bones.
Then we have the Port Mafia, the most prominent antagonist in this season. Believing in strength and to use their powers to get what they want, the Port Mafia acts as your stereotypical gang group with lots and lots of murderous intent. Does that mean they're generic? No. The series focuses on a select few members of the Port Mafia for a few episodes and/or focuses on their members (Akutagawa specifically) during certain arc in the series. While their lack of screentime due to the main brunt of the series focusing on the Agency members kinda hampers on knowing everything about how this organization works, there certainly is a great deal of information that the series was about to give us about our antagonist characters that only helped to serve the series.
Finally, we have The Guild, the third and final faction that only appears in the last few episodes in the series. Because of Season 2, this faction and its agents were only revealed at the very end of the series so there really isn't much to go off of. But hey, they seemed interesting.
All in all, the characters of Straydogs were while interesting, have a very...clear flaw to them. At least to me. I for the life of me cannot remember at least 90% of the cast. The show has a lot of characters that they throw into the spotlight during certain arcs and moments in time, and while they are all enjoyable and quite memorable as characters, the show doesn't really do a good job at hammering in their names so, at least for me, I cannot recall many of their names. (Maybe it's due to the fact that I don't read enough to constitute me knowing the authors that these characters reference...)
Overview:
+ Colorful and diverse cast
+ Character development
- Atsushi is sort of a plot device for some characters
- I cannot remember most of their names despite knowing more or less everything else about them
Art: The direction that Bones took for this series is leaning towards a sort of dulled out color scheme and simple yet crisp and concise look on the animation. The majority of the color scheme is either beige or various colors of white and such. There's no real pop to the color and is pretty monotone to give this sorta big city sort of look. (And while I say it's monotone, the muted color scheme actually helps give off that gang-filled city feel.)
The action for the series is pretty fluid and the street brawls and such are only elevated by the various powers and abilities that the character wield and use. As the series takes heavy inspiration from various books and novels, the series uses a series of rings with text on them to dictate the usage of a power or not. Effects like these and many other involving the usage of powers make the street brawls even more visually appealing to look at and improved the look of the series overall.
Overview:
+ Dulled color scheme that fit with the series's setting
+ Fluid action
+ Good effects to bring more life into the action sequences
Sound: The OP known as 'Trash Candy' (Weird name, I know) is an rock song that brings a loud and rambunctious tone akin to the city and action theme that the series brings a lot of throughout its entire runtime while the ED, "Namae wo Yobu yo" is a mellow and quiet slow rock piece that pertains more to the metal thoughts and internal conflict with the characters in the series. Both tracks fit with different aspects to the series and are very well made. Despite that, these tracks don't...really resonate with me personally. They're good, don't get me wrong, but just personally, I just don't find these songs to be memorable or worth listening to in my down time unlike a lot of other tracks.
Overview:
+ Good OST
- Not really memorable (to me)
Personal Enjoyment: Bones gave me a show a few seasons ago that I absolutely despised. That show was called Concrete Revolutio. Because of that, I was actually scared to watch this show because of how similar of a concept that series had with this one. Nevertheless, my friends tried to convince me that it was nothing like that trash pile and that I would actually see more worth in this series than that one. So, after finishing this show, I can safely say, dear god they were right.
Did I like this anime?
To say I loved this anime is...a bit overstating it. This show really isn't the kind of thing I like all too much, but I definitely did enjoy it. It was consistently interesting and I always appreciate an excessive amount of real life references even if I myself don't get/know of them. Also, I really like Kyouka. She's adorable.
What didn't I like about this anime?
My one and only complaint with this series was how much they drove in the fact that Atsushi or other characters were abandoned by something or someone and were taken in by one of the three factions. Like seriously, there are an excessive amount of characters that were just recruited off the streets. It makes sense to have similar backstories so some character can relate to each other, but when you have 3 or more characters like that, well now that's just being a bit excessive, especially with the amount of screentime the show was dedicating just to make sure that you knew that Atsushi was thrown out by the orphanage. (If I'm saying that too much, the series uses the same 2-3 minute scene at least 5-8 times in the series alone. Just think about it, about 1/2 episode's worth of screentime is the exact same scene.
Would I recommend this series?
If you want a series that's about gangs and/or gang-related stuff than this series might fit the bill. The show is largely story-based so there's not a shortage of interesting stuff happening on-screen, and there're enough comedic moments and serious moments to create a good and reasonable balance on both tones of the show. Overall, Bungou Stray Dogs was a good show that delivered mostly on what it wanted to do. With a second season coming, the sort of 'read the manga' ending feel doesn't really have any shortcomings as there will be more animated material coming soon, so it also does will in that aspect too.
