I was asked to review Bungou Stray Dogs and so I bumped it up on my to watch list priority. Honestly, I am glad that I did get to this sooner rather than later.
- Genre: Action, Comedy, Mystery, Seinen, Super Power, Supernatural
- Type: Series
- Episodes: 12
- Duration to watch: +/- 4 hours
- Age restriction: R 17+ (violence & profanity)
- Release date: April 2016
- Animation Studio: Bones
- Does it have a manga: Yes
- Kanji: 文豪ストレイドッグス
ABOUT:
Their Synopsis: 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.
My Synopsis: An orphaned boy gets blackmailed into joining an eccentric organisation with special abilities while evading capture and trying to adjust to his new reality.
My Thoughts:
This anime made me laugh a lot. While the antics did borderline over the top it was not too much for this particular anime.
When reviewing an anime, I always watch it twice. The first is just to really enjoy it and get the first feelings and impressions. The second I relook at things that have happened, grab screenshots and see if there are any extras that come together only once the end has been revealed. I am happy to say that some confusing aspects or minor details that seemed out of place make so much more sense the second time around.
The characters are all very unique and have their own beliefs and methods. While the characters seem that they would be conflicting they mesh surprisingly well together. Yes, they have their disagreements but on the whole, they work together to reach their end goal.
The port mafia, a.k.a the main bad guys I found rather enjoyable. They added colour in a creative way without throwing out the balance of the series. They were amusing and interesting to watch and discover. I personally love their flair for the over the top dramatics.
The series did have a number of shock moments and I really enjoyed how they balanced out the suspenseful and the humorous scenes. The animation was fun to watch and vibrant. There was so much colour which was fun without being all in your face or distracting.
I just feel I need to say, their naming sense for their abilities makes no sense to me. It is so out there that at times it can be rather confusing and basically gives no insight into what their abilities actually are.
Favourite Character: Osamu Dazai
Dazai is smart, has amazing fighting skills and cracks me up. He became a fast fave in the series for me and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I just wish he would communicate a bit more. It would lead to less dangerous encounters but everything he does and does not say has a reason behind it.
Would I recommend this anime? Without a doubt, I would recommend this as one to watch.
What did you think of Bungo Stray Dogs?
I’ve only read a bit of the manga, but seeing this review was nice. To defend the odd naming of powers, the primary cast is based on famous Japanese writers, so their abilities are all in fact titles of the authors’ works, as far as I know. “No longer human” is the name of a novel by Osamu Dazai (the real-life author), and “Thou Shalt not Die” is a poem by Yosano Akiko (one of my favourite poets!).
Ah okay, then that makes sense and I can wrap my head around it! It’s not really explained at all in the anime so it was completely confusing. Thanks for shedding some light on this for me 🌸
I guess the anime would assume that its Japanese audience would be familiar with the literary allusions, so it’s only reasonable that some of this would be lost in translation to a non-Japanese audience!
Another anime to enter my watching list! 😛 Nice review 🙂