(ex-posted from my tumblr)
Dumping more BSD-related thoughts onto here because I can’t get them out of my head. This time it’s purely about Dazai and how I personally think it’s really interesting how people view Dazai as a character in the general “Bungo Stray Dogs” universe and how he actually is portrayed as a character within the manga itself. This is all just word vomit btw and some free-flow thinking so sorry in advance if it doesn’t make sense and seems disjointed.
Dazai is an interesting character to me in the sense that… a large part of why I like him definitely comes from how Miyano Mamoru voiced him in the anime, and also because of all the backstory we get of him from the anime. So imagine my shock and confusion when I decided to read the manga (after S4) and realized none of that backstory is actually IN the manga. It actually made me pause and re-think a lot of Dazai’s character, as he is, in the manga, and whether I would have liked him as much without the extra info we get. I genuinely don’t think I would have. I’d certainly be curious about him, but I don’t think i would’ve necessarily liked him as much just as an individual character.
A manga-only reader actually know so little about Dazai. He really is just the mentor figure who appears to somehow know everything and shows up to drive the plot/motivate Atsushi, while also clearly hiding a million and one secrets in his trench coat. And manga-only readers do not get access those secrets.
A manga-only reader would literally know nothing about Oda, why Dazai left the Port Mafia and joined the ADA, the majority of his history with Chuuya besides the fact that they were ex-partners and clearly do have an extensive history, or even why Ango basically bends over to help despite Dazai being an absolute dick to him and getting him HIT BY A CAR. But knowing these things is so important to people’s understanding of Dazai and is what helps clarify and contextualize so many of his decisions. His speech to Kyouka becomes your typical mentor speech, the way he mentored Akutagawa goes unquestioned, his interactions with Mori and Ango are clearly loaded - but with what? Manga readers don’t know! (It’s actually Dazai’s first interaction with Ango that got me thinking about this post because without any Dark Era context it’s actually kind of wild to just assume Dazai is perfectly fine severely injuring a government official to get him to cooperate).
Whenever people talk about Dazai’s character or his development or his motives within the current manga plot, it’s always backed up with light novel information - which is fine! It makes sense. The information is out there and it makes sense to want to take it into consideration because Asagiri-sensei probably does it have it in the back of his mind as well, and if you do know, you clearly get a lot more out of the story than if you don’t. But it does beg the question, how is Dazai actually meant to be perceived within the story?
The BSD Manga is the core plot of the story and is presented in a specific way, and tries to present it’s characters - like Dazai - in a specific way. Basically, manga readers aren’t supposed to know Dazai’s backstory. Not that they can’t, but they’re not supposed to. Not really. As manga readers, we are meant to take all the information we get about Dazai from the manga as is and use that to guide our understanding of whatever else Dazai does in the manga. I feel like this also means that when people try to predict how the manga is going to go - especially in regards to Dazai’s supposed “character arc” (I say supposed because I don’t really think Dazai is meant to have one in the manga. He certainly does have an overall story arc gathered from all the material, but within the manga itself it’s debatable) - there can only be so much folks are drawing from the light novel before it’s irrelevant. We shouldn’t have to know what happens in the light novels to be able to understand something in the manga. But unfortunately, most of what we know about Dazai is from the light novels, so unless Asagiri actively starts incorporating light novel stuff into the manga (like the flashback panel with Chuuya), we’re in a bit of a bind regarding any actual clear development for Dazai.
Like, I know BSD is a seinen and theme-wise it definitely is, but it’s also really obvious how Asagiri also low-key wants BSD to actually be a shounen when it comes to plot and character tropes. Dazai, as he is in the manga, is absolutely the stereotypical untouchable shounen mentor with a “questionable past”.
BUT, to be fair, Asagiri has actually been very transparent about purposely making Dazai this way. I will try to find the interview but he has explicitly stated that he actually designed Dazai to be “unknowable”, and I think also mentioned that Dazai has already completed his growth as a character by the time Atsushi meets him so I don’t really see this as a failing on Asagiri’s part. It just is, and I feel like this doesn’t get acknowledged enough.
Why am I saying all this? I dunno. I don’t really have a clear point and I’m not trying to pass judgment on how fandom views Dazai, but I just genuinely find it interesting how different Dazai comes off as a character if you really were JUST a manga reader. I often see people say they feel like Dazai is more the main character than Atsushi but, again, just from the manga’s plot and perspective? It’s very obvious that is not the case. Dazai is absolutely just the mentor and very clearly a deuteragonist. The anime adapting the light novels, while a perfectly fine choice, I think does do a disservice by elevating Dazai’s character a bit too much and does end up overly affecting how people see him within the grand scheme of the plot despite what his actual purpose in the manga is.
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