BSD 105 thoughts

 MY THOUGHTS ON BSD CHAPTER 105

[REPOST FROM THE ACRHIVES, JANUARY 6 2023]

The newest chapter released only a day ago and I know by now that releasing something is going to be considered late but it takes me a while to wrap my head around things so I’m approaching this chapter now with the intent on reifying and grounding my thoughts regarding it. If you have anything else to add on and etc, I would enjoy reading it. My thoughts are very whimsy and I believe that how I interpret things is pretty loose, but solidifying it helps concrete everything for me so I am able to process more of the nooks and crannies of BSD content. 

The quality of the chapter despite the paucity of pages we received:

I’m impressed with Asagiri and Harukawa’s writing abilities to compact a considerable amount of details within perhaps the shortest chapter released within the franchise. I don’t have much to comment on it, however, considering that I am writing something out like this should speak within itself. So many layers and I’m looking forward to how this chapter will serve for the snowball of events I am expecting to come. (And an out of topic comment, I wonder how the Haikyuu fandom dealt with their monthly chapters. I read somewhere in which they were waiting every month for a singular receive? Man.)

Atsushi’s Hallucinations: 

[First and foremost, Atsushi. You need help. Here we have Atsushi having a complete mental breakdown and then we cut to Dazai and Sigma playing silly rounds of paper, scissors, rock. While I do appreciate and find it wonderful that Atsushi’s hallucinations are shifting from the orphanage director who abused him to Dazai, having hallucinations is still not exactly healthy! Anyways.]

One can interpret Atsushi’s sequence as two different things—whether this is Atsushi assorting through his external environments plethora of possible decisions or in an overwhelming influx of such that it’s less of him thinking of these possible decisions, but rather, a degrading chastisement with the paranoia of disappointing those around him and of being judged. For this thought dump, I’m going to be preening through these two possibilities and leave it up for personal preference of interpretations as I haven’t really thought about it any further to come to a solid conclusion behind the scene itself. I am open to any thoughts, objections, or anything please don’t consider this as a solid analysis LOL. 

The variety of characters featured within this chapter coming to Atsushi in characteristic advice is striking with the seemingly random appearance of Fitzgerald, however I would like to believe that this is a sign of growth for Atsushi’s character, despite how miniscule it may appear at first. This variety of seemingly out-of-nowhere characters (in order: Ranpo, Kunikida, Kyouka, and Fitzgerald) reminds us of the detail in his character that he is still learning how to think on his own, rather than having morals and decisions established and preset for him. Perhaps this could also stem from his fear of disappointing others and his lack of self-development, therefore, his reliance on other people as it would at least give him the security of structure. 

A human trait we do is copy and absorb, whether it be in the form of donning traits from parental figures, friends, our environment, etc, learning how to evaluate how we arrive at certain decisions. While everyone critically assorts through various conclusions and frameworks of thought borrowed from our objective relations to a rudimental degree, it’s especially imperative for Atsushi’s character development in order to flourish from his black-and-white morals that have been beaten into him by his abusive orphanage director. In this arc, instead of having the decisions and morals chosen and concreted for him, Atsushi has been isolated from the rest of the cast—ultimately stripping him of the structure of other people and completely bare on his own. Therefore, if this possibility is proven true, this organisation and evaluation of thoughts help give him more structure and certainty in his personal decision making in the long run.

Though, regardless of whether this scene was this or that, it’s good to perceive this arc as one that has been challenging Atsushi’s schism-like morals; tracing back to when Nikolai explained the genesis behind the reason as to why he kills at the beginning of the arc; learning and adapting to live in a realm of a grey-reality. It’s just a matter of time to see how the following events will impact Atsushi and how he continues to grow throughout the rest of this narrative.

I would also like to bring attention to Akutagawa’s hallucination serving as a state of clairvoyance, paired with Dazai, with the simple instructions to ‘Go Outside’ (memes aside). Akutagawa appearing to Atsushi, and not coming forward as the volatile murder-on-my-mind Akutagawa in which Atsushi perceives, could serve as a resemblance for the subtle shift of perspective on Akutagawa. And perhaps Akutagawa appearing after Fitzgerald’s hallucination is resemblance of shinsokokou’s first villain in which they took down as a team. I have not really expanded my thoughts on this sends tweet. 

Dazai’s transparent behaviour with Sigma: 

In contrast to perhaps the pinnacle of Atsushi’s decision making (or maybe the first of many to come) in the previous panels, the chapter cuts to Dazai and Sigma playing rounds of paper, scissors, rock where poor Sigma keeps failing to win. Meanwhile, in the unforeseen background, Chuuya and Fyodor are drowning. Nikolai’s location remains unknown. Lovely. While it is a rather more calm situation than we expected, there are still enough tid-bids to pick here and there to develop some thoughts on. 

Once Dazai reveals that the game is no more than silly little ordinary tricks of time and tension, Sigma comedically (and rightfully lol) comments how they are glad that Dazai is not a guest at their casino (we adore you, Sigma. Number one priorities while Dazai is trying to hint his true intentions! [Affectionate]).  

Dazai’s transparency and semi-candidness with Sigma—or rather, tracing back to when Dazai chose Sigma as his ‘weapon’ for the prison game, really—has been intriguing me since. This entire section has allowed me into a spiral of the intangibility of Dazai’s character, however, that…discussion is for another day.

Considering Dazai’s style of manipulation (if you will), it’s a plausible probability that Dazai is going to utilise Sigma for a bigger-picture-plan that is yet to be revealed to us while simultaneously offering Sigma the chance to make a choice. In retrospect to Dazai’s previous techniques, in comparison to Fyodor, he always offers a sense of free will and individuality. While Dazai is highly likely doing some kind of manipulation tactic paired with this, it’s still a valid detail to take note of when contrasting the differences and similarities between Dazai and Fyodor. I had to reread a couple of general Dazai analyses posts throughout the internet to confirm my thoughts, and I do agree with the aspect that his style of strategy is a mixture of gambling (bearing similarities to Fyodor and Mori, a reflection of his days in the Mafia) as well as a lackadaisical-esque ‘trust’ (and if we are perceptive enough, trust is akin to gambling, really) in those around him to execute his plan which is simply his innate preference in terms of planning and strategizing.  If we compare Dazai to Fyodor, Dazai has a very human approach to his style of manipulation, which brings me to my next point that Dazai will offer Sigma free will concerning in action with the opposition of The Decay of Angels, Fyodor, and their goal of wiping out all ability users.

What I am looking forward to, if this possibility proves true, is seeing how Sigma would react and come to a decision through this decision, as Chuuya had once quoted that you cannot necessarily decline Dazai in those kinds of situations (I will look for this specific quote and return to this little post once I rekindle with BSD in its entirety). And perhaps a little bit of a stretch, but I won’t be surprised or taken aback either if Dazai is also intent on recruiting Sigma into the Armed Detective Agency, as he is resembling someone who is in need of saving in one way or another, therefore executing a sort of ‘killing two birds with one stone’ strategy because that is Dazai—the current Dazai who still carries the downpour of his Mafia days as well as the light leak of influence from Oda who took him by his shoulders and perceived him as no more than a human beneath Dazai’s Demon Prodigy persona.

It’s no doubt that Dazai and Fyodor were posed as foils ever since the two were introduced—right down to the colour palette of their character designs and their relationship being a direct reference to the conversation between Horiki and Yozo in No Longer Human in which Yozo comments on Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. With that literary detail in mind, it would be interesting if how Dazai perceives Sigma contrasts to Fyodor’s perception of Sigma, as well. I have not looked too much into this, but I will perhaps come back with a few extra thoughts to offer in addition to this possibility.