As bad as this sounds, I really don't want bsd to blow up or at least gain popularity to the extent mha has. Here me out, I find popular animes start to get backlash from haters who target anyone who has enjoyed the show. Unfortunately with fame comes hate, stans ect. Overall, I would just hate it if this fandom became toxic. If it weren't for chaos that often occurs with fame, of course I'd like it to blow up as it's well deserved.
Yeah, I honestly love this fandom the way it currently is and i really don't want it to change. The editors on tiktok might love angst a little _too_ much, but besides that it's pretty chill and fun
Not to sound pretentious, but I feel BSD isn't the type of show for casual viewers. A lot of big bsd fans are huge literature nerds who see the literary references as the highlight of the story. Bsd doesn't have the instant gratification of other shows and instead pulls you in for the long hual, which I love
What are your favorite references because I’ve read almost none of the books and authors referenced, except for the guild which I’ve read most of and Poe who I love and who I think they got surprisingly accurate
Im very much a casual viewer, a shounen person for sure and I enjoyed Bungou Stray Dogs so much, granted i did watch it late and don’t understand any of the references but it was so good
Also I think the reason bsd fans aren't recommending it like bnha fans is because it's a lot easier to say "hey watch this show about superpowered teens"" than "hey watch this show about classic literature authors in a superpower AU and also a detective/mafia AU and also the main character is a giant cat"
its a bit sad that atsushi is being overshadowed by dazai even if i absolutely love both of them because i find atsushi's backstory so god damn heartbreaking. im pretty sure that they reveal a lot more in the manga (which i haven't read so pls dont put spoilers lol) but in the context of the anime it just makes me bawl my eyes out knowing that atsushi only values his life if he's being used to protect people. he doesn't allow himself to just exist and be content. he _needs_ to have someone to protect to be able to see worth in himself and it makes me so sad that its a product of being abused so much as a child
Chise from Ancient Magus' Bride is like that too; someone who doesn't know their worth but wishes to help others in the expense of their own lives. In terms of Dazai overshadowing Atsushi, I don't really think that is true. I am a manga reader, so I'll do my best to avoid spoilers. I see him more like the Jin in World Trigger--someone who sees impending danger and therefore he acts behind-the-scenes by influencing characters to prepare for it. Atsushi is just one of those important chess pieces. I'll leave it at that. Season 4 is gonna be nuts.
@@daifukurinnouh yes he does seem a bit like chise! what i meant about atsushi being overshadowed by dazai is that some fans tend to dismiss him and even claim that dazai should be the main character instead of him. makes me mad as someone who absolutely loves atsushi ive caught up a bit with the manga and im honestly so excited to see some characters in season 4 !! istg i rmb seeing some spoilers of it and going vam??? pires?????
@@chuvst3r Gotcha. Honestly? I like Dazai too. Lol. Is he my favorite character? Nah. Oda gets my #1 and Fukuzawa my #2 (it's more appropriate for me to fangirl over a 45 yo at my age). And I guess I have a thing for "bad boys" with the good heart. I just finished vol 20 (it's all I have at the moment), and yes to vamps. I feel like it's all over the place in terms of craziness atm. Lol.
Everyone is overshadowed by dazai ,unless ur chuya, who is reduced to being the guy that dazai like by the fandom,despite the fact that dazai is a toxic person to him and everyone around him,hey it's Okay too like dazai ,but the fans should acknowledge that other characters exist (yusano my beloved)
I adore Bungou Stray Dogs for multiple reasons, and one of the main ones being how creative the idea of the show is. These literature fans just took some of their favorite authors, gave them super powers that correlate to their writing, and put them into a detective mafia plot. That is the most creative thing I have seen, and I go to an art school.
BSD is very underrated, but at least, is the the healthiest fandom I have ever saw, like everyone I have ever talked to about something we didn't agree in BSD was a normal conversation, joking about it and everything, and BSD also has so many other novels that show things that we didn't knew in the manga, it's really cool, I just discovered BSD fifteen two days ago! And after reading just some chapter it changed a lot of my opinions in the serie. Also, I don't watch so many animes, I like to read more novel and mangas, thats why I don't know so many things of what is happening in the anime
I loved your analysis. For the most part, I'd say the BSD fandom is pretty chill as long as you avoid ship wars, which is funny since it's not even a romance anime. And about Dazai's popularity, I think it's also partially due to his lengthy screen time. He's an interesting character, no doubt, but so are the many other ones who get much less attention in the plot. If we spent more time with Ranpo, for instance, & less time with Dazai, I don't think that would decrease Dazai's fans, but may bring characters like Ranpo closer to Dazai's level of appreciation. I hope the possible season 4 will stay true to the manga & deliver some of that Ranpo content. I know BSD is pretty popular in Japan, but not as much in other parts of the world. I do want for more people to appreciate it though, & it makes me happy when someone gets into it. I have a feeling it's slowly gaining more popularity, especially after the new Wan spin-off. But I don't want an overwhelmingly large fandom, like how AOT is, because that makes room for toxicity. My main reason for spreading this anime is simply because it's a treat to watch. I feel bad for those who haven't seen it. Sure it has it's flaws, but its unique vibe, complex plot, & interesting characters make up for it.
thank you!! this is such a thoughtful comment. I'm glad we're in agreement the fandom is fairly chill. I haven't encountered any ship wars personally, even as a shipper myself I tend to avoid those types of online interactions. I dislike it when people attempt to police shipping. Ship whoever the hell you wanna ship, and don't argue about what other people ship because it isn't any of your business lol, every person as different personal tastes (idk how this is hard for anyone to understand, if you don't like something, just don't engage with it instead of leaving terrible comments) sorry i went on a rant there lol. Yes! Dazai's screen time is obviously a main factor to his popularity! so glad you mentioned this! and I defintiely agree that the reason people may not find faves in other characters is because the manga/show does not put much attention on their developments. For instance, like you said Ranpo will get more screentime if there is a season 4, as will Yosano because I believe she gets more development as well, so I'm excited for that!! I do think there a lot of people who already appreciate Ranpo tho even from the first two seasons (obviously not as much as Dazai), mainly due to the fact his personality is eccentric and a lot of his scenes have great humour to it, but my personal bias to liking Ranpo's character may be showing there lol. and you're correct that the dazai fans wouldn't diminish from more screentime for other characters, because dazai stans will consistently be dazai stans (tho they may appreciate the character development for others). Yes, I also don't want it to become uncontrollably large fandom like the one you mentioned AOT (tho I'm not in that fandom, nor have i ever bothered finishing that show so I wouldn't know how the fandom is lol). I wouldn't want us to become toxic and fighting with one another all the time. Though I do believe criticism is always great to have about the media you consume, as long as it's civilized and not hurtful/rude to others! I love bsd and there may be tiny nitpicky things i can occasionally critique, but that doesn't mean i don't love the show either, it is one of my many comfort shows, and I love rewatching fave episodes of mine! 😊😁i agree with you on all those points you made about the strengths of bsd as a show and for me, recommending it to others who haven't watched it is always a treat to do!
@@casualfandomview I totally agree with the shipping issue. And yes, I knew Ranpo had some fans already, but I guess he was the first I thought of being my favorite & all 😅. But I'm definitely hyped for Yosano's backstory & I'm open for other characters to be in the spotlight. If there's one thing about BSD, it's that there's no shortage of interesting characters. New sub here & thanks for reading my comment :)
I think it's pretty sad to see shippers fighting each other. Personally I always had a good experience with them. I'm in the French community so it might differ. But even when I wasn't shipping the same ship. People were like "yeah too bad we don't have the same ship. I'm sorry people bothered you. Let's make jokes about it."Or changes the subject. But maybe it is because it's tiniest than the English one. Another issue is that people want their ship to be Canon, but it doesn't have to. I even prefer ship when they fanon. It's fun and a lot of people won't take it too much seriously. The media isn't our we are not supposed to decide about scenarios or anything. We're fan, only that.
I think people Feel that Atsushi is a bit “boring” just because we know a lot about his past and feelings. They tend to flash to the same scene of Atsushi’s abuse in the orphanage. Where as Dazai is very mysterious and we don’t know to much about him before port mafia and more major flash back/ big moments in his past that affect him now other than Oda which we don’t see as many flash back Oda moments. Where atsushi has a similar one that is a big more constant. I love Atsushi and Dazai they are both amazing and complex characters we just see Atsushi’s complexity more and maybe people get bored of it?
Something I like about this anime is not only you get information about the main characters but you also get information about the side characters, You can see this with all the side stories they have, and like one of the villains is one of the most loved characters🍊
something i’ve noticed is that fans of bsd tend to be seasoned anime fans. fans of other more popular shows (mha comes to mind) might not regularly watch anime aside from that one main show, but when it comes to bungou stray dogs, a lot of the fans have watched/do watch a lot of anime in general. this means that their interests would be divided overall. like you said, it’s rare for someone’s favorite anime to be bungou stray dogs. i know this isn’t always the case though! i mean for me personally i can pretty much count on one hand the number of animes i’ve watched and bungou stray dogs is my absolute top! i’ve also got a friend into it who doesn’t regularly watch anime. but yeah i mean overall, you brought up some really really good points!
this is very true! i can probably count more than one hand the amount of anime I've watched, and there are likely many bsd fans who are similar. But there was a period where I didn't watch very much new anime and I'm still quite picky on what shows I get into lol. So I wouldn't exactly call myself a consistent anime watcher (like a person who watches a bunch of new shows when new anime comes out), I'm more of a chill one with many shows i love a lot! It's interesting to hear how differently everyone watches depending on their personal tastes and interests tho thank you for sharing! and it's great you got your friend into bsd too even though they don't often watch anime, super impressive :)
@@casualfandomview Huh, I am also familiar. I know a lot of anime, but only 10% of those anime that I watch first hand. I am quite picky at what anime I will watch, and even more pickier at which one I love. BSD is just so happen to be one of those 10% and part of the 5% that I love.
I have watched so many big ones like jjk, demon slayer and tr but still bsd is my favourite. I kind of have an obsession to it now I watched it in starting of may now I can't think of a day without bsd it's just that the characters are so well written and plot
You know what is funny for me? I know the existence of BSD first before BNHA. Like, I only know BNHA even exit a year later. I already had a plan to watch BSD but forgot about it until last year. And I can say, even thought I watch some episodes of BNHA before BSD, I like BSD more.
wow, it's very interesting you heard of BSD before BNHA !! I understand why you prefer BSD, I also prefer BSD over BNHA personally. I always forget about BNHA, and get bored of it fairly easily, while BSD has always consistently kept me capitvated by its interesting plot, conflict and characters!
the duo protagonist is actually what kept me with bsd the story is about dazai, but having him being the one to tell the story wouldn't be good, because he already knows all about everything: the other characters, port mafia, the enemies' plans, all of that. seeing things from his perspective would only make the viewer confused bc he already has all the previous knowledge we still don't, so trying to catch up with backstories while also trying to understand his brain that goes 10000mph would be a nightmare, organizing the pace while keeping the story moving would be almost impossible, and make a sloppy storytelling. on the other hand, we have atsushi, who doesn't know anything about nothing, just like us. as he learn about the world and people, we learn with him, so it organizes stuff and give the writers a timeline to work with: "when atsushi learns something, so does the public, and based on that, we get into more detail when it's fit." and also a opening to explore other characters, because that's also atsushi's first impression of them that's a constant tool in the history too atsushi in the main story kunikida in dazai's entrance exam even oda in dark era is telling dazai's story too
One of my favorite animes. I’ve done a school project on it before and got to look at the biographies of lots of the real life counterparts for the characters and even read some of their stories and poems. Atsushi’s story was by far my favorite and it’s pretty easy to find online. It’s about a man who turns into a tiger physically but stays human mentally. With every day, more of his consciousness becomes that of a tiger then, finally, he sees his friend one last time before being consumed by his instincts. The show is just so pretty and combines the darker port mafia parts, like Q, but also has goofy parts. Like Dazai constantly trying to ruin Kunikida’s perfect day schedule.
It’s kinda funny because I actually dropped BSD after finishing the first season since it just feels like a basic shounen anime at first. I did try going for the manga, however, and end up getting hooked with the novel eventually. This is the kind of show that doesn't go out of its way to be over the top or original or anything. Instead, it lets you have time to enjoy whatever there is on screen and slowly grows on you the more you actually learn about its world and characters. Really love how you analyze the show being underrated. ❤️
I noticed that thing you pointed out as well, how the pace and intensity of the series picks up instantly whenever Akutagawa shows up to the conflict. I think Atsushi's refusal to see the good in Akutagawa and trust him is Atsushi's greatest character flaw. It highlights his simplistic "there's only good and evil" worldview ingrained in him by the headmaster. Basically, it's a CHARACTER FLAW. Flaws make characters more interesting (Dazai is a very flawed character for example), and Atsushi kind of lacks that EXCEPT when he's around Akutagawa. So whenever the two of them DO interact, his character is enhanced just by Aku's presence. I guess this is why Akutagawa is my favorite character. The series just gets better whenever he is around. No spoilers for season 4 but some might say the Decay of Angels arc disproves this since Aku is absent from a lot of intense stuff but... ohhhh boy when he does show up again... let's just say things are gonna go wayyyy down.
I love your analysis, and I agree with many of the points you brought up! But imma be honest, when I heard you say that it was 17+, I had to actually think about that before going "Holy crap wait". That actually surprised me XD
yup i kinda forget sometimes too. but ya a lot of other Seinen are probably also 17+, bsd included. Even though it might not seem like it needs that high of rating lol.
I feel like it doesn't even is duo protagonist, like... My opinion is the story is Dazai's but it has like a witness narrator, which would be Atsushi... Kind of what happens in Great Gatsby, Atsushi is the protagonist but is not his story the one he's telling (obviously he does, but it would be impossible to not tell his story at the same time)
Am I the only one who thinks Atsushi’s past is more interesting than Dazai’s ? Atsushi is literally my favorite character ever!! I can’t understand why he is so underrated...
Frrr thooo! Ppl need to give him more appreciation as they do it to Dazai and people nowhere this close to know who is hell the actual mc of the anime like mc appeciation guys. 😟🤞
As a bsd fan getting caught up this month after coming across it two months ago the dual protagonist aspect of the plot seemed like a idea I thought people would really get into, it surprises me how 'lax the fanbase is and that after the anime adaptation especially it isn't a more talked about story considering we can assume the more Dazai's character progresses soon after so will Atsushi's and I don't think Dazai's or Atsushi's character overshadows the possibility of other protagonists, I can see a flashbacc arc for Fyodor with world building to whatever Gide meant by "the last great war" during his final fight with Odasaku . Fyodor's desire to erase all gifted abilities may have history ties with it imo. btw when you said " a lot of my videos will be like this where it's unscripted, it's basically me yelling into a microphone about how I feel" I felt that lmao
Yeah, i'm a fan of duo protagonist shows as well and usually gravitate towards shows with them, but i assumed there must be folks out there who prefer super stereotypical 'main lead' anime shows where the entire series revolves around one character. I'm not surprised about how lax this fandom is because i've been in it for awhile and i'm probably just used to its chiller nature (tho i would argue in recent years we are definitely getting bigger and rowdier when more people get into this show!). Fyodor's motivations (as in his past and why he's doing what he's doing) and what he's up to are definitely something that i'm hoping the future series will expand on and is a definite expectation i have as well! I'm glad you enjoyed the unscripted nature of this video lol, i wasn't sure everyone would vibe with it because i could be a little disorganized in my thoughts!
"The fanbase isn't as intense" Listen listen the bsd fandom is so angry about everything all the time. Everyone's just. So angry. Idk I don't follow what the fandom does and I'm not into shipping, but every time I try to search any bsd thing on social media everyone's just. Intensely angry about ships and characters and who knows what
Bungo stray dogs is honestly one of the best animes I’ve ever watched.even if it might get slow at first,it really gets intense once u understand the plot.c’mon,this has so many life lessons to learn from,and odasaku’s death legit made me cry.The outro songs are amazing and the character designs are just so good Hot take,there are no villains in this anime.just people with different morals Oh and this show is 17+?? I watched it when I was 12 this year lol one of my friends too. Overall,bsd is in my top 3 list of animes
Whats really special about this show is that ALL THE CHARACTERS whethere male OR female are SO well written. Even the most hated characters despite being a bad human being are a good written character. The relationship with one character to another and how you can relate to atleast one character at some point is amazing. I love this show.
I've been following this show for 2 and a half years now and still on board with it. I agree, I wouldn't want to blow up to the point where, kids sending death threats, because their ship isn't canon. But I still want it to be appreciated more, but not too much, it's still bit rare to see ppl talking abt it. But if they do, it's either mostly abt dazai or chuuya.
I think it's becuz this anime is more abt suspense so it's not typical Shonen like just fighting randomly. So most fans r just shippers, simps and all in animes like mha and all. It's underrated. Except dazai and chuuya all others r underrated especially ranpo, poe, kunikida and all cuz they don't rely entirely on fighting but also having high battle iq.
It's October of 2024 and I've been a bsd fan for a really really long time. Needless to say, the fandom has blown up, I think, and all the cons with blowing up has appeared. I don't think it's all necessarily bad though, because there is a community of people within the fandom who appreciate the plot, characters, literature, analyses, etc., and a lot of people are still chill and nice. That being said, there are also crazy people out here. 💀
i started bungou stray dogs after i read "no longer human" "for the tainted sorrow" and "crime and punishment" (i was astonished by the plot and writing in these)(100/10 recommend reading these) and imagine my absolute surprise when i found out there was an anime for it it has been my top anime usually the fans i see in the fandom are huge book nerds who try to break down every chars personality more than shipping chars with each other the bsd fandom is comprised of ppl wiritng thesis about dazai , chuuya, fyodor and the way they act and why they do so after reading their books honestly pretty refreshing to see among all the other toxic fandoms, so i hope it remains that way
i only just finished watching the show and i feel like this anime is gonna be what manages to get me back into reading b/c as one of those kids who used to inhale novels i am obsessed with the fact its characters are based on literary references also i totally agree with the dazai overshadowing atsushi thing. im gonna be honest it happened to me too lmao,, atsushi's not a bad character or anything and i do find him v relatable and to have a really interesting character arc but. idk i just got really sold on dazai lmao
aw it's so nice to hear the show might get you back into reading again. as a person who once used to read a lot and doesn't do much of it anymore (besides a few manga of course and fanfics if that even counts), it makes me happy to know bsd has a positive influence on people's interest to read :) it's hard not to be enraptured by dazai's character lmao 😂
Just to add a bit to this, I heard of Bungou Stray Dogs when it first came out in 2016 but the popularity of it turned me away (lol ik hipster). I kept hearing about it over and over again so years later I decided to read the manga first to see what the fuss was about. Honestly, the first 50 chapters or so were pretty boring to me and I almost dropped it. It was just so reminiscent of earlier edgy manga/anime that were really popular like early 2000s-2010s (Durarara!! at the top of my head), it felt a little chiché, and I think that added to its unpopularity bc it was also animated almost way past that era. It wasn’t until the Cannibal Arc that I actually felt invested, and I thought the conflicting ideas between Atsushi and Akutagawa was really intriguing and very well written. But it DID take awhile to get there lol. I noticed this when I watched the anime too, that they actually added a lot of light novel filler episodes. I think this was a great idea bc it seemed the light novels really fleshed the characters out and made the anime more interesting than the beginning of the manga. In fact, it was the Dark Era from season 2 that actually made me like Dazai as a character, before that I really disliked him for a good year or so lol. I also think anime Dazai is a bit more funny and lovable to an audience than manga Dazai is, haha, so that might have something to do with his popularity. I think there’s a whole seiyuu culture in Japan too, and Dazai’s VA is pretty veteran. It also seems to me that BSD was the first manga series Asagiri-sensei wrote, which could explain the pacing and character development issues early in the manga. He was also the writer and not the artist, and so several panels looked a bit awkward to me and I wondered if Asagiri-sensei had trouble conveying certain things to the illustrator, Harukawa Sango, at the time bc I DO thing that kind of communication in an artistic process can take awhile if not already established from a previous project. This isn’t to say Asagiri-sensei is a bad writer AT ALL, I actually think he’s quite brilliant bc I think he added one of his short stories early on about Dazai and Akutagawa’s first meeting, and it was honestly pretty good. But I do think he might have preference for the Dark Era, considering how important and complicated Odasaku’s character arc is and that impacts all the other characters including Atsushi. Honestly if I were him, I’d never shut up about Dark Era just bc it was written SO WELL and seems to involve a lot of worldbuilding. But I also haven’t read beyond the Cannibal arc yet, so we’ll see. (Also want to add that Dazai’s character progression is ALSO important to Atsushi’s, it’s just that Atsushi’s doesn’t seem to have that much risk involved yet?? Like Dazai is someone who is so close to giving up on life but trying not to, and he’s going head to head with FYODOR of all ppl. So far Atsushi is confirmed to have something to do with ‘the book’ and is Dazai’s chess piece as half of the new double black. In the anime, not much has been developed about that, especially ‘the book’ and why Atsushi? Hopefully the manga fleshes that out) I also want to add that I think the Japanese fandom is still going strong. Especially shippers, particularly Soukou/SKK shippers. I think that despite the shaky season releases, SKK still remains among the top 10 popular pairings in Japan, which to me is feat itself lol. That’s probably why there’s so much SKK content and merch being released by BONES- literally look at Dead Apple and the anime official art 👀. Queer baiting for the fujoshis is something think a lot of studios are doing right now, and I think that’s part of why Asagiri-sensei has been more involved in writing for the stage plays and the new live action BEAST movie instead of doing another animated movie bc it might be truer to his artistic vision (not to mention the other story issues the Dead Apple movie had- sorry, not trying to make SKK seem like it’s the main issue, but I do think it has impacted how the studio promotes the anime since they’re a more loyal fanbase.) And to talk more about the more chill fanbase, it’s probably the literary aspect and how important the Japanese language is to the series. Like, it’s a show that really forces you to think and find nuance to get the most out of it, plus learning and respecting the culture and the famous writers it’s inspired by. Translators are pretty serious and involved in the fandom, as well as literary/history geeks. A lot of them a pretty respected in the Western/English speaking community from what I’ve seen. Someone else said the shipping part of it can get really intense, and I agree but I think it’s only bc of the recent pro shipping/anti thing that’s been going on in recent years- many popular fandoms like BNHA also get a lot of vocal ppl like this too. It’s also the general canceling/callout culture that leads to content creators getting bullied online in the West too.
BSD is the show that I watched to completion, compared to BNHA which I abandoned halfway and only caught up with it in 2020 when there's nothing much on going... I am in my late 30s and probably that is why, since my first hobby was reading before I got into anime... Having characters named after famous literary authors (and their actions corresponds to the actual persons) is a draw for me.
I would say the complexity of the narrative and how they have so many side character may be part of why some ppl may have dropped the show because tbh when i first stsrt watching the show, it was quite confusing to be able to grasp the storyline and development of the show and at certain parts, i would get lost. However, I do find it quite enjoyable to watch 😀
Atsushi is my absolute favourite :D he was interesting to me, like I didn't like him at first either i just cringed alot but then as I got to know more of him, I just got a lot more intrigued by him. as of now, I'm hyperfixating on ranpo but Atsushi still holds a special place in my heart. BSD was introduced to me when i was 11 and honestly it was really hard for me to get into it (it happens a lot to media that I end up loving because I mean to get into it I tend to forget) but when I was 14 I finally finally sat down and got into it like really get into it and i enjoyed it so much (i love classical literature like ask any of my irls i have super long lists of books i want to collect even though I've read them already and a long list of books i want to read and books i recommend) i was actually originally told that it would rip my heart into pieces and as someone who is really invested in angst, who wouldn't love a series that would make you cry out in pain. seeing the comments, they're right it's way easier to get someone to watch BNHA than BSD i know because it's easier to give someone something like BNHA which isn't as complexed as BSD it's easier to stomach and simpler to understand, it does have its complexities but it isn't as deep as BSD. it's easier to tell people to watch a show about a young boy growing up to be the world's greatest hero than to tell someone to watch a show about this boy who was thrown out of an orphanage who now has to survive. it's way easier to relate to the first one than the second one too.
When I watched the first season, I felt like there’s a lot of weird jokes and slower than normal shows. I ALMOST drop it. I stopped for a few weeks, then pick it up and try again (after I finished a show and got nothing to watch). Then I got hooked onto the second season. The first few episode of flash back in season 2 shock me! It was actually very well done! Then I just keep watching for the rest. It’s getting better and better. I like the argument and their logic. Now it becomes one of my favorite anime. I can’t wait for season 5 this fall!
my friend, who is a fan of bsd, is (mostly) the reason i watched the show. before that, i understood certain references (mostly dazai being a sui bastard) and knew a few characters already. my dad watched the show before me so i thought since it's a show that can keep my dad's attention from start to finish, why not try it out too? ... i ended up falling into a rabbit hole- i'd say dazai plays a major role in keeping me hooked (he's charming and i relate to him a lot), but the plot itself is nothing to look down on either. all the characters are unique in their own ways that make you want to root for all of them. the plot is suspenseful enough that they can allow a few breathers in between before catching you completely off guard the next second. all in all, it's a really great series and although it's sad it doesn't reach the astronomical fame of bnha or kny, it has a relatively big fanbase that's enough to bring audiences together.
Bungou Stray Dogs is really popular in Japan, fortunately, giving it a healthy chance for more seasons. It has a bit of a more difficult stance in the west, especially in the USA and I think some good reasons have already been mentioned. The recommended age is a big deal, because in the USA anime is still viewed as for children and teens by mainstream media. The themes are also very difficult to market in the USA. The references to Japanese authors are for the most part lost on western viewers. The specific manga and anime recommendation sites of course cover bungou stray dogs and rate it high, but to gain mainstream recognition, you have to get mainstream media on board. Of course My Hero Academia is more well known, if it's airing on Adult Swim. But mainstream media is scared to burn their fingers. You have a show that starts openly in your face making suicide themed jokes and there are other interesting topics down the line like an open loli worshipping character. On top of that, three of the American authors appearing are semi-cancelled on social media today: Lovecraft, Mark Twain and Margaret Mitchell.
I met a new friend. we exchanged top 5 animes but since I just returned to binge watching animes so i just said that I was relatively new to BSD. He said the plot was inconsistent and that hurt me ;__; -- that eventually fueled me to read between the lines to prove him wrong but then I found a ray of light from an underground treasure of what-the-heck-is-really-going-on-in-this-world-of-ability-users which the anime has barely scratched the surface 🤩 It’s true that the anime has just introduced us to a lot of characters from 3 different groups and eventually an introduction of the 4th group then i heard there’s another group of characters being introduced in the manga(?) and are also being developed. We have puzzle pieces [subtle mentions] of the big plot, that i think is coming soon, through Dazai’s backstories (Entrance Exam & Dark Age), Origins of ADA, how the Port Mafia transitioned to the kind of organization we know now (Fifteen) and recently with Chuuya’s recently released backstory (Storm Bringer). I really think Dead Apple is reminding us that Atsushi *is* the main protagonist because of Fyodor’s awareness and Shibusawa’s fascination of his tiger ability that cuts through anything. P.S. im not sure yet about the Entrance Exam bec i haven’t read it ✌🏻 I’m really looking forward to the future of this anime- i know the manga is now around 40 chapters further from the 3rd season but i really like the overall animation production, not to mention this also has such a *great* cast of actors both voice and stage. This is the only anime that really got me hooked to get to know as much detail as I could to the point that I found myself buying Fitzgerald, Fyodor & Poe books 😂 I suddenly miss being a book reader and I’m currently waiting for restocks for BSD Light Novels. 😆 I don’t mind reading the manga years after the anime officially and hopefully reaches to its end, at least BSD will always be with me 🤣 -- sorry for such a long comment, i really think this anime is worth discussing about the individual characters, their relationship with other characters and even how they contribute to the main plot. I really think there’s a lot more that these characters have been carrying behind them. **Dakishimete hanasazuni intensifies**
I love the series but I’ve read all the manga apart from the last volume (21) which I think is the last volume and while I love the direction they took in terms of world-building and backstory’s we don’t really get much of either, maybe I just haven’t seen the extra material but I was disappointed in that one aspect
@@iangonzalez4661 reading the light novels actually help. and other mediums that Asagiri is directly involved such as in Dead Apple anime movie & stage play, plus the recent BSD Beast live action adaptation released exactly last month.
I just watched Bungou Stray Dogs recently even though I did heard of them way back when I've heard their anime has been released yet I've never thought I'd be so interested with the characters, in every story of theirs are very interesting too! I wanted to read their light novels but I had no idea where to find them but seeing this anime got me hooked up with it's story :')) I kind of regret that I haven't seen it before but I'm glad that today I was able to! What really made me hooked and love the characters are their back stories, the aspect of how much their attitude grew and how did it happened and what was the reason why they acted as they were in the present. Atsushi's character development really grown a lot even from the manga perspective. What made me interested further is Akutagawa and Chuuya, these two- URgH, I just can't, I love those Characters. I don't want to say anything about them because I don't want anyone to get spoiled because of me hehehehe (If my grammar isn't really that good, sorry about that,. English is not my first language)
This series has come to mean so much to me. In my honest opinion idc if it blows up or not. Sure I want it to go well, because hell...the creators of both the manga, anime and the Voice Cast and everyone else involved deserve it. But at the same time, this is literally my number 1 comfort show. I've come to cherish these characters so much, especially the main 4 (to me). And this franchise has a huge place in my heart: However I wouldn't really say it's underrated, sure it might not get the attention more popular anime gets. But to me at least, it seems that the people that do decide to watch seem to love the series too and really apprechiate it. Thus...it definately is held in high regard by it's audience. Now I'm waiting excitedly for the 5th season to start soon 🖤
What you said about the dark era is pretty much what it was for me lol. I watched those episodes coming off of season 1 and was like, "Wow, this is so good now" and then we went back to the present and it just wasn't as good anymore. Season 2 was definitely a step up in comparison to 1, but I just don't care much for the actual protagonist of the series. I only just now came back to the show and watched season 3, and am watching season 4, and it's the same issue. I can't even really think of much that Atsushi had in season 3 outside of the final fight that was even that interesting in comparison to the other characters.
I love Atsushi’s character, and seeing how the way he thinks and acts correlated to how badly he was treated in the past, because he feels like he doesn’t deserve to live if he doesn’t save people. He’s always haunted by the headmaster’s voice and feels he can’t escape his past. But I think that the anime didn’t show it very well, because in the first season, the number of times they flashed back to the same scene of the headmaster saying the exact same thing - multiple times in some episodes - is pretty frustrating. That downplays a lot of Atsushi’s suffering, especially when the viewer starts to get annoyed when there’s a lack of creativity in the repetition. Then, putting that next to the way Dazai’s past is presented, it struggles to compare, so it’s just a shame how much Atsushi gets pushed to the side in that matter.
I'm not even a literature fan. But Ive watched and read BSD when I saw that it has season 3 and I've run out of good animes to watch because some animes now are either too overhyped with dry plot and dry character writing. But after season 3, my whole heart became something for BSD as I've enjoyed both story writing, plot, character analysis, and the animation itself. The build up of the plot is really a cherry on top and side characters are given justice as well and not just NPC's with flat reasoning. It's quite sad and wonderful at the same time that this anime has progressed quite a lot of seasons but not given that quite attention
It was recommended to me on Crunchyroll, and I binged watched it in 2 weeks. So I’m a big fan now! It’s very different than other anime I have watched, and I love that.
I think people could be more interested in Atsushi if only Bones didn't throw away his past to give Dazai more screen time, because it's obvious they make more money with him. I was super excited to see his past animated, it could last a whole chapter or even 2, but bones said "naaa we give you half a chapter, we tell it wrong and we summarize all your traumas in a 6 second scene that surely half of the public will not see right". I almost dropped the anime, this was THE moment of atsushi, of introspection, of everything that had happened in his life, of understanding, and the anime paid no attention to THE PROTAGONIST. DAZAI CAN RECEIVE ALL THE CHAPTERS HE WANTS BUT ATSUSHI CAN'T? It's still my favorite anime (I already watched it like 12 times) but I will always suffer that injustice.
Tbh I was very confused when I first got into BSD on why it was so underrated and not acknowledged at all but from my perspective The anime was awesome ( many people are saying It's not as popular or interesting to others cuz It's for nerds or stuff but nah I hate literature and I'm not a nerd at all *failed each and every subject*) I was even more confused since the animation wasn’t bad or anything and Bungou Stray Dogs has light novels / mangas etc even a on stage show but still not many people even heard the name before when I recommended it to them. This video helped me understand alot thx, I think either nerds or simps or shippers will be more likely to be into this anime. at first I was getting bored of the akutagwa hunting atsushi thing cuz I'm not really into fighting/violence type of anime but c'mon the whole anime is full of fight scenes which I did expect I got used to the fights though I didn’t like it alot I still watched all 3 seasons OVA Movie. I'm being honest I only started watching bsd because I love BL and I shipped chuuya x dazai before starting the anime but I kinda forgot that I only watched it for dazai x chuuya scenes ( I obviously knew there won't be any ship scenes before starting to watcg but I still watched it slowly I kinda forgot why I started the show since chuuya appeared a bit later in the show I gradually just started to like watching the series) Tbh the ship fan base is kinda toxic ik anyway I Didn't really like the anime but it was awesome still one of my fav animes ever, I know what I just said didn’t make sense at all :') But yeah anybody who IS into supernatural/fantasy anime should watch it. I'm still surprised that I finished it cuz I just like bl not supernatural fantasy or action. I want more seasons rn! what I said Didn't make a single bit of sense at all srry for making anybody read my bs opinion
I have to be honest, the first time I’ve heard about BSD and watched random clips of the show on TH-cam, my first impression was that it looked corny and that this show probably had too much going on for my own liking. I then decided to give it a chance because a lot of my favorite seiyuus are in this show (Kamiya Hiroshi and Yuto Uemura who seriously impressed me in Vinland Saga as Thorfinn) and now it’s one of my favorite shows ever. I also overlooked the fact that Studio Bones is animating this show, and they’ve worked on a bunch of my favorite anime that I watched in the past. I’m also going to eventually look into the actual literature works that the real life authors worked on as well.
Gatekeeping is a topic I felt people talk about this show but personally having a bunch of 9-13yo toxic edgelords teens on Twitter(usually BNHA, SU, AOT, etc) is something any fandom never wants. I do want this show to be popular but it’s nice having a little secret to ourselves, it makes us different cause like you said, this show is like the underdog or my interpretation “that cool relative that lets you drink alcohol”, alcohol being my metaphor for the absolute awesome shit this show got that something a younger anime viewer may never know about. Ship wars are another thing I wanna point out, they’re always inherently toxic but in the BSD fandom it’s pretty chill, we all agree you can never escape soukoku and ranpoe. Also last thing I wanna point out is that the animatics, edits/AMVs and godlike shitpost are glorious.
it probably helps that bsd is way more overtly adult in it's scenery and visuals. it's way easier for a teenager to justify mild gore to their parents than poker and mafia stuff
I just stumbled across your video and I must say it's very interesting. Indeed I do think it's underapreciated and I would like to see more people aknowledge it and talk about it, but not the extent where it becomes a fanbase as BNHA's... I personally apreciate the fact that it deep-dives into so many characters backstories since a story isn't the same without its characters and love the concept itself of the show. Some say that the story is difficult to follow, but I honestly don't see that much the difficulty? I mean, I tend to prefer more complex stories, but BSD is generally easily understandable, you just need to pay a little attention to what's happening. But I think this point is rather that a large part of the anime community enjoys more light-hearted/ easy-to-follow-without-paying-attention series, at least from what I've seen so far and my personal experience with other anime fans. If I may also add, I think that some other things that make people drop the show is the darker themes it adresses so "lightly" such as suicide (Dazai), incest (the Tanizaki's), pedophilia (Mori) and so that are more "shown" towards the start of the show. I feel like someone watching BSD for the first time and watching the first episodes with Dazai constantly commenting suicide in a way that seems comic and the Tanizaki sibling being them could be weird and off-putting for some.
thank you! So glad you enjoyed my anime analysis on BSD. Sorry, but I don't plan to ever watch AoT so I won't ever do an analysis or commentary for that anime. I lost interest in the show and don't have any motivation to watch it anymore. (It's not really the type of show I'm into these days really) Sorry to disappoint!
@@casualfandomview Hey, whatever floats your boat! No denying however that 91 days is easily one of my favorite anime ever, you did a great job dissecting the ending, keep doing what you do best!
@@scoutscaptain9563 thank you!! :) so glad you also enjoyed my 91 Days video, it took a long time to finish it. I'll keep up the anaylsis videos thanks!!
Tbf, the actual character foil and narrative parallel of Atsushi, the one who balances him, is Akutagawa, not Dazai. It's also interesting that both of them have been under his wing (Love this video. I'm a manga only fan and it's great to see more people talking about BSD. I love practically all the cast, everyone is so interesting in so many different ways. And as an Atsushi stan, I love Asagiri's aproach to the whole "main character who wants to do good". And his kindness is super devastating in so many levels. He deserves all the happiness)
I think the main thing with BSD is that it’s just. Harder to get into for the mainstream anime community. Think about it. It’s generally rather odd as despite being a seinen it still feels a bit shonen-y but still noticeably “grittier”, without ever really fully leaning into that aspect? At least not with the anime. And it’s a lot more complex than other shows like MHA which can be pretty straightforward with their themes and characters. Not to mention that the majority of certain character establishment/development for BSD is hidden in most of the light novels. I’m reading Stormbringer right now and it’s literally changing my entire viewpoint on Chuuya as a character and even the series as a whole. An anime only, especially a more casual BSD fan isn’t going to have that. There’s also a lot to work through to even understand the story at some points, some of the most hardcore fans struggle to grasp certain storylines, and with how mainstream anime is becoming, there will be an influx of more casual viewers who just won’t want to dedicate that much time in to understanding wtf is going on in BSD. Also, I don’t know if it’s just a translation issue or what, but the anime is kinda weird in the sense that the way they adapted certain storylines from the light novels and manga…made less sense than they originally did. Like reading the light novels for certain storylines feels way more coherent than their anime adaptations.
I will say this and I don't wanna sound sexist here. I'm a guy and I love this series (and the manga) but I've seen BSD being way more popular among women than with men. The person who introduced me to BSD was a girl, and I've seen way more girls talk about it than guys. Maybe that's another reason (cuz i feel there are way more guys watching anime than girls).
I got pretty intrested in bsd after the 1st season but prolonged watching season 2 due to it not being on netflix until I used a different streaming app and suddenly it has taken over my life
For me, the main reason why I didn't watch it at first was because Taboo Tattoo. I head that series was bad and seeing this made me think it was the same all over again and because the same people sad it was bad. It wasn't until I believe anime geek girl or a channel that named that along the lines saying how great season 2 going to be that I ended up watching it and loving both the first and second season ( When 2nd was airing.)
I wouldn't mind if BSD got more famous but it would be really sad if the writers didn't know how to stop and start making more and more seasons just because it's popular and in the end they start to lost the characters and the story. Basically I would love this show became more popular but I would hate if the creators get lost in the story.
I've only read the manga but by now I actually got addicted so once I finish some anime that I'm currently watching I'm going to watch bsd I asked a friend of mine if she watched it but then she told me that she watched only 2 episode before she didn't watch it anymore which means that she quickly jumped to the conclusion that it was boring but she also told me that she will continue watching it when she gets a break from her studies she's my senior by the way. so I think the reason why bsd became underrated was that people jumped to conclusion that it was a boring anime or that it didn't catch their attention as an interesting anime for me I don't like jumping to conclusions if I find that an anime is boring for me I take a break from it for some time and then I come back to it because then I become more interested in the anime and actually complete it while enjoying it at the same time
Most of the episodes where Dazai is the main focus (Like the start of season 2 and the start of season 3) are all taken straight from the novels rather than the manga. Which is something I like about the anime, cuz it gives manga readers a fresh view on the anime. Dazai feels like a protagonist because he shapes the world, while Atsushi is just living in that world. But I would say Dazai is more of a plot device. Atsushi wouldn't be where he is right now without Dazai, but; This is Atsushi's story that we're following. We're seeing Atsushi grow as a person. Even though Dazai is the one shaping the world, the main focus is Atsushi's reactions and actions towards the world he lives in. Atsushi is also presented to be more relatable than Dazai. Not many can relate to a super badass suicidal character that gives no sh#ts about what others think of him while being super charismatic to the point that he can manipulate everything and everyone around him. However, that's more interesting as a character than some orphan who's dwelling on his past and is learning to move on and become more independent with his actions. Specially with how well laid out is Dazai's backstory in the anime. Idk where I was going with this, I just personally don't see Dazai as a secondary protagonist.
Overall a really nice analysis, it's quite what I figured out, except for the duo protagonist thingy (I mean it's smt I didn't think of as a reason why it is underrated) I also think that the fact it didn't get popular right at its release is also cuz Bnha (which was released at the same time but you said it) has (a bit) the same power system, and so pp reading the resume of Bsd would be like "well it's just mha" even if that's absolutely not the case, but you can't know it if you don't watch it, right? Ps: you have a funny way of always saying the word "like" when speaking, it made me smile ☺
thanks!! i definitely agree with you how some might assume the power systems are the same as mha upon first glance lol. and yeah saying 'like' is a habit of mine so when i don't have a script to stick to i say it loads 😂
It’s such an underrated anime. So much so that on the fucking crunchyroll channel I can only the first episode. Same with the Wan. Also I did not know that it’s a 17+ anime, not that my parents will care that I’m under 17.
I like BSD but I admit I dropped it halfway coz anime is finished (s3 back then) and manga is monthly update. BSD wan and the s4 update is the reason I pick it up again. You're right, the duo protagonist is one of the reason. I think the author, put much hype for Dazai that leaves atsushi so plain. I get that the latter is not genius, but I hope he will be the one who moved the plot someday. Coz right now, atsushi acts more like a pawn tho he has lot of screen time. While Dazai has less screen time ( his presence is noticable lol). Atsushi's connection with the book is the only thing I hope make his character more famous. Another reason is lot of struggle here are not explicitly shown. That's why it's more of seinen than shounen. The themes are morally grey that's not interesting for young viewer.
Also think it is because it seems like one of them things which seems like it’s just for girls who like pretty boys so most guys don’t even consider watching when in reality it’s actually a good show..
BSD is weird, I like it but I don’t think it has the hype peaks a lot of other shonen have. And when looking at season 2 it didn’t start with the guild stuff but with a flashback which could have put people off. However to me the flashback arc is the peak of the show which might lesser the rest of the show for some, the relative lack of stakes doesn’t help. After seeing characters get shot and lose limbs you expect the show to keep that energy only for the good guys to have a healer that can fix literally any injury, so characters don’t feel like they are in danger (And the death fake out in season 2 doesn’t help) Especially since season 2 started with a dark more down to earth story that had a lot of death only for the main show to be really different in tone. The season 3 flashbacks were fun (if a bit confusing) but maybe the show just can’t live up to the idea of “starving orphan who wants to prove why he deserves to live” he is a kinda cliche at times and I never felt like any characters was ever in danger no matter how much damage they received since it would be followed with a comedy scene where they get healed. I only really loved the flashback stuff since i liked all the characters there a lot more and when it comes to the series the main thing I want to see is Dazai in the port mafia not Atushi in the ADA with Kyouka (another character I don’t really like)
Idk but for me I don't want my all-time fav. show (manga/anime) to blow up to extreme level like AoT or MHA. Cause' knowing that only some people know this gem including myself makes me feel weirdly happy. Lol Like I'm the only one who found this diamond.
Bungo stray dogs is prob my number 1 favourite anime. In my personal opinion the anime is less interesting than the manga. The manga (in my opinion) is an absolute masterpiece. In the anime they overshadowed many details which made a big difference (e.g Atsushi and his orphanage flashbacks replaying the same clip over and over again, which hardly happened in the manga. Or when ango visited Odas grave, which meant he cared a lot for oda but yet people hate him cuz they didn’t know this detail). Although these are just mistakes it doesn’t make me hate the anime. ALL the characters have their own complex morals, we really do see a journey of self-discovery and what the reasoning of living is. The Eds are an absolute banger (I cried when I heard the first ed for the first time). Overall I adore this anime/manga, it’s really an underrated gem
bungou stray dogs isn’t that underrated anymore. according to myanimelist, the popularity had been ranked at 100, and its the 12th most popular anime studio “bones” published. and i’m not going to ignore the fact that dazai almost has 30,000 favorites. most people in the fandom is surprisingly chill nowadays (probably like 86% tho) and doesn’t fiGhT over which character is the best. people have their own opinions, and i do think dazai is a very interesting (in every way) character but that doesn’t stop my love for all the characters. (except mori because yes) i’m proud to be part of the bsd fandom, wether this anime is underrated or not, i still love everything about it. (p.s same for the manga too, of course)
you're probably right to say it isn't quite underrated anymore. I didn't check myanimelist list of top animes for this video. I was mainly talking about the intial experiences of being in the fandom after season 2 had long already finished airing (which is when I discovered bsd). maybe it's because out of my friends irl that are anime fans as well, most people haven't watched bsd. *i've only met one other person who watched bsd that i didn't recommend the show to them myself lol* but that's solely my personal experience.
@@casualfandomview ah, i haven’t met anyone in real life who watched bsd, they only heard about some of the characters..made me kind of upset because of the fact that im a huge fan of this anime ;-;.
I was convinced I would love this animé and I really wanted to, and I've watched until saison 2.... I was so bored all along. And I'm really frustrated I didn't like it.
My guess that a part of the reason for that is the fact that the first season of BSD (especially before Kyouka was introduced) doesn't have the "main goal". Up until this point it's either a bunch of short stories about each member, with some Akutagawa here and there. Yes, there is the the danger of Port Mafia but... idk if it was just me, but it never really felt that serious? I mean, we know that Akutagawa can very much be defeated by Dazai (and maybe even Atsushi) and the Black Lizard squad get their ass kicked by the Agency, despite being "the most dangerous group in port mafia". It just feels like nothing is really at stakes. Lost a leg? Regenerated Almost died? Yosuno will get you back together It's only when Kyouka and the Guild are intoduced does it feel like there is an actuall looking threat over not only the Agency, but also the Port Mafia (and also we worry about Kyouka because we don't know what will become of her). It sometimes feels like the show actually starts with season 2, which for many is fine, but for people who watch only a few episodes of anime and either continue or move on this might be a pretty big commitment. That said, once BSD starts? Oh boy does it go *hard*
Yeah season 1 is more of an introduction of every character and organization. Season 2 is where it actually starts, and then it just keeps getting better
Yeah, i think it was a problem. The way of how each character was introduced was somehow strange. The first season we have the feeling of "empty" becuase of this. We have Akutagawa, i though the Tanizaki brothers will die but no. Then, the Black Lizard appears and nothing big happens later. So yes, your analises is correct
I wanted to get into this anime and possibly cosplay from it. But I'm not sure anymore :( It seems like not many people have seen it or think it's gross.
I definitely say you should cosplay for bungou stray dogs if you're really passionate about it & want to do it! If you care about a certain character enough to cosplay them, don't let others' dumb opinions stop you from doing what you love. Personally, i was planning to cosplay yosano at a con before the pandemic and i still haven't finished getting all the items together lol. Some characters might be hard to cosplay tho because their outfits are fairly fancy which can mean it's exspensive to buy/make all the components.
I would say the reason why Bungou Stray Dogs didn't became as popular outside of Japan was how the premise wasn't used well enough to atract audiences. Main characters with powers based on writers and their most famous books? Sounds great. Almost all of them are japanese writers? Not so much. The lack of famous authors people are familiar with is a big drop out for many. It should had start with giants like Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), Lovecraft (Cthulhu's Mythos), Cervantes (Don Quixote), Wu Cheng'en (Journey to West) and many others so they could hook up more viewers. You would be lucky to find someone who read the book "Not Longer Human", but is a huge stretch for a medium even otakus and anime fans aren't familiar with. Kinda of a miss opportunity here.
Commenter: Bungou/Bungo Stray Dogs is an Anime that 20 or older ages would appreciate. Me at the age of 15: hold my coffee for me please Edit: (that was just for jokes) Anyways, i do agree, i think alot of people I hear from why they never heard or drop BSD was due to how hard (?) it is to understand due to the mind games like in the manga (if u read it) or dead apple or any of the seasons or episodes you watch, but i find it interesting and it isn't that hard to understand at all, and easily, it definitely is my favourite anime, like yeah, mha is nice and all, but in mha, i prefer the villains more than the heroes for some reason. I definitely put mha below bsd cause mha isn't as deep other than bsd!!
In short, it feel like why high arts, classical music, orchestral music and the like, as well as media referring/ based on these types of art, would be less popular compared to comics, pop music, etc. It's all about the targetted audience (what they are likely to be attracted to) and what is required to access and better/ fully enjoy the art/ entertainment form. The wider and more general the scope the targetted consumers are, the more popular/ common the product is. As long as there is a sustainable niche, there will be a form that fit. The demographic of BSD is seinen, targeted at young adults or older males; thus, a more mature and smaller in scope than shounen aiming at male teens (as examples in the videos are overwhelmingly shounen). Therefore, being less well-known is already by default from the drawing board.
I didn't enjoy Bungou Stray Dogs. I couldn't find a reason to continue watching it past episode 6. I didn't find myself attached to the characters, and I don't even fully remember what the plot was. It was overall quite forgettable to me. I was drawn in by the character designs, the art style, and the internet's obsession with Dazai, but it wasn't enough to keep me.
I also stopped watching BSD at first when i was a teenager. But when i got adult and season three was started i decided to give a try again and is now my favourite anime. You can not like it of course, but BSD for me was the situation where i need to "grow" and have New percepctives in general anime to watch again and have a new opinion.
Well, sucks to be you, I guess. Like someone else said, this show isn't for everyone. If its themes of absurdism and existentialism aren't your thing, I totally understand why you wouldn't be interested.
Considering the number of pretty boys this anime has. Im surprise thumblrites hasnt sunked their teeth into this show. The season starter flashback kinda drags. The whole Dazai and Fyodor being super geniuses thats 20 step ahead of everyone didnt help. Also Atsushi gets overshadowed by Dazai on most case. I actually prefer Atsushi more cause he has the heroes journey and he is the audience surrogate seeing the world.
5:45 sorry just wanted to say that the anime adaptation of the azure messenger arc was awful 😭 it’s supposed to be set two years prior, and it’s dazai’s entrance exam. atsushi isn’t even there in the light novel and he was just jammed in for no reason just felt like such a waste of potential, esp with dazai and kunikida’s development and teamwork sorry i get really heated when things are adapted badly 😔✊
Tbh I wouldn't say BSD is underrated at this point but definitely before. By now I would say it's grown enough of a large audience from Japan and the west to were it definitely aint underrated. It definitely isn't talked about as much compared to other manga or running anime but, as you said I think the large distance between seasons 2 and 3 and now 4 cause that but don't hinder its popularity. Considering the manga in 2016 was at like 4 million it definitely past underrated just never something you see constantly on social media but even then you could find groups on Twitter or discord etc dedicated to BSD. The only reason I think it doesn't see as much talk outside those circles is what you had brought up with what other animes it had to run against like My Hero Hero, Mob, Yuri etc had definitely put it under people's radar. Overall I think it's not underrated anymore especially after the reaction and support seen for S4 announcement and the fact it got the live action movie in Japan, by now BSD has made its own bubbles that are big enough to support it self that the anime and manga definitely aren't underrated. Also great video the casual feel to it was definitely enjoyable to hear, keep up the nice work
Don’t wanna make this sounds weird but I think that people seeing it have a predominantly female fandom but packaged as an “action” anime might have made it a turn off for some fans? I put it in the same category as something like owari no seraph- not something that blew up but has a steady fanbase Anyway i think this is a josei anime more than anything :) which is why it is a bit less popular
As bad as this sounds, I really don't want bsd to blow up or at least gain popularity to the extent mha has. Here me out, I find popular animes start to get backlash from haters who target anyone who has enjoyed the show. Unfortunately with fame comes hate, stans ect. Overall, I would just hate it if this fandom became toxic. If it weren't for chaos that often occurs with fame, of course I'd like it to blow up as it's well deserved.
Don't worry, I get it too.I also kind of want the same.I don't want the fandom to become toxic either.
Same here
Yeah, I honestly love this fandom the way it currently is and i really don't want it to change. The editors on tiktok might love angst a little _too_ much, but besides that it's pretty chill and fun
Finally,someone who has the same thought as mine.
YOU ARE SO RIGHT I-
Not to sound pretentious, but I feel BSD isn't the type of show for casual viewers. A lot of big bsd fans are huge literature nerds who see the literary references as the highlight of the story. Bsd doesn't have the instant gratification of other shows and instead pulls you in for the long hual, which I love
What are your favorite references because I’ve read almost none of the books and authors referenced, except for the guild which I’ve read most of and Poe who I love and who I think they got surprisingly accurate
@@iangonzalez4661 I like ranpo because I've been meaning to read ranpo edogawa for the longest. He's so important to Japanese murder mystery
@@popcultureoverdosed well I’ll try to read it too
AGREEE!!!
Im very much a casual viewer, a shounen person for sure and I enjoyed Bungou Stray Dogs so much, granted i did watch it late and don’t understand any of the references but it was so good
Also I think the reason bsd fans aren't recommending it like bnha fans is because it's a lot easier to say "hey watch this show about superpowered teens"" than "hey watch this show about classic literature authors in a superpower AU and also a detective/mafia AU and also the main character is a giant cat"
true
That... honestly makes me want to watch it.
@@swordkirby7512 same ngl-
honestly that just makes it sound a lot better
true but..... guys that worked I convinced my friend to watch BSD and he loves it sm, watch it rn!!!
its a bit sad that atsushi is being overshadowed by dazai even if i absolutely love both of them because i find atsushi's backstory so god damn heartbreaking. im pretty sure that they reveal a lot more in the manga (which i haven't read so pls dont put spoilers lol) but in the context of the anime it just makes me bawl my eyes out knowing that atsushi only values his life if he's being used to protect people. he doesn't allow himself to just exist and be content. he _needs_ to have someone to protect to be able to see worth in himself and it makes me so sad that its a product of being abused so much as a child
Chise from Ancient Magus' Bride is like that too; someone who doesn't know their worth but wishes to help others in the expense of their own lives. In terms of Dazai overshadowing Atsushi, I don't really think that is true. I am a manga reader, so I'll do my best to avoid spoilers. I see him more like the Jin in World Trigger--someone who sees impending danger and therefore he acts behind-the-scenes by influencing characters to prepare for it. Atsushi is just one of those important chess pieces. I'll leave it at that. Season 4 is gonna be nuts.
@@daifukurinnouh yes he does seem a bit like chise! what i meant about atsushi being overshadowed by dazai is that some fans tend to dismiss him and even claim that dazai should be the main character instead of him. makes me mad as someone who absolutely loves atsushi
ive caught up a bit with the manga and im honestly so excited to see some characters in season 4 !! istg i rmb seeing some spoilers of it and going vam??? pires?????
@@chuvst3r Gotcha. Honestly? I like Dazai too. Lol. Is he my favorite character? Nah. Oda gets my #1 and Fukuzawa my #2 (it's more appropriate for me to fangirl over a 45 yo at my age). And I guess I have a thing for "bad boys" with the good heart.
I just finished vol 20 (it's all I have at the moment), and yes to vamps. I feel like it's all over the place in terms of craziness atm. Lol.
@@daifukurinn OUH YES FUKUZAWA we love our favourie cat man dilf
Everyone is overshadowed by dazai ,unless ur chuya, who is reduced to being the guy that dazai like by the fandom,despite the fact that dazai is a toxic person to him and everyone around him,hey it's Okay too like dazai ,but the fans should acknowledge that other characters exist (yusano my beloved)
I adore Bungou Stray Dogs for multiple reasons, and one of the main ones being how creative the idea of the show is. These literature fans just took some of their favorite authors, gave them super powers that correlate to their writing, and put them into a detective mafia plot. That is the most creative thing I have seen, and I go to an art school.
It good to know the someone sees that BSD is underrated and why it didn't get popular
thank you! i thought it'd be a fun video to make, and I had a lot of thoughts! thanks for watching
Sadly it is
BSD sorta underrated compared to other more popular shows
BSD is very underrated, but at least, is the the healthiest fandom I have ever saw, like everyone I have ever talked to about something we didn't agree in BSD was a normal conversation, joking about it and everything, and BSD also has so many other novels that show things that we didn't knew in the manga, it's really cool, I just discovered BSD fifteen two days ago! And after reading just some chapter it changed a lot of my opinions in the serie.
Also, I don't watch so many animes, I like to read more novel and mangas, thats why I don't know so many things of what is happening in the anime
"To bring the good out of things" *shows Chuuya.
Me: ah, yes, the good 🛐
I loved your analysis. For the most part, I'd say the BSD fandom is pretty chill as long as you avoid ship wars, which is funny since it's not even a romance anime.
And about Dazai's popularity, I think it's also partially due to his lengthy screen time. He's an interesting character, no doubt, but so are the many other ones who get much less attention in the plot. If we spent more time with Ranpo, for instance, & less time with Dazai, I don't think that would decrease Dazai's fans, but may bring characters like Ranpo closer to Dazai's level of appreciation. I hope the possible season 4 will stay true to the manga & deliver some of that Ranpo content.
I know BSD is pretty popular in Japan, but not as much in other parts of the world. I do want for more people to appreciate it though, & it makes me happy when someone gets into it. I have a feeling it's slowly gaining more popularity, especially after the new Wan spin-off. But I don't want an overwhelmingly large fandom, like how AOT is, because that makes room for toxicity. My main reason for spreading this anime is simply because it's a treat to watch. I feel bad for those who haven't seen it. Sure it has it's flaws, but its unique vibe, complex plot, & interesting characters make up for it.
thank you!! this is such a thoughtful comment. I'm glad we're in agreement the fandom is fairly chill. I haven't encountered any ship wars personally, even as a shipper myself I tend to avoid those types of online interactions. I dislike it when people attempt to police shipping. Ship whoever the hell you wanna ship, and don't argue about what other people ship because it isn't any of your business lol, every person as different personal tastes (idk how this is hard for anyone to understand, if you don't like something, just don't engage with it instead of leaving terrible comments) sorry i went on a rant there lol.
Yes! Dazai's screen time is obviously a main factor to his popularity! so glad you mentioned this! and I defintiely agree that the reason people may not find faves in other characters is because the manga/show does not put much attention on their developments. For instance, like you said Ranpo will get more screentime if there is a season 4, as will Yosano because I believe she gets more development as well, so I'm excited for that!! I do think there a lot of people who already appreciate Ranpo tho even from the first two seasons (obviously not as much as Dazai), mainly due to the fact his personality is eccentric and a lot of his scenes have great humour to it, but my personal bias to liking Ranpo's character may be showing there lol. and you're correct that the dazai fans wouldn't diminish from more screentime for other characters, because dazai stans will consistently be dazai stans (tho they may appreciate the character development for others).
Yes, I also don't want it to become uncontrollably large fandom like the one you mentioned AOT (tho I'm not in that fandom, nor have i ever bothered finishing that show so I wouldn't know how the fandom is lol). I wouldn't want us to become toxic and fighting with one another all the time. Though I do believe criticism is always great to have about the media you consume, as long as it's civilized and not hurtful/rude to others! I love bsd and there may be tiny nitpicky things i can occasionally critique, but that doesn't mean i don't love the show either, it is one of my many comfort shows, and I love rewatching fave episodes of mine! 😊😁i agree with you on all those points you made about the strengths of bsd as a show and for me, recommending it to others who haven't watched it is always a treat to do!
@@casualfandomview I totally agree with the shipping issue.
And yes, I knew Ranpo had some fans already, but I guess he was the first I thought of being my favorite & all 😅. But I'm definitely hyped for Yosano's backstory & I'm open for other characters to be in the spotlight. If there's one thing about BSD, it's that there's no shortage of interesting characters.
New sub here & thanks for reading my comment :)
I think it's pretty sad to see shippers fighting each other. Personally I always had a good experience with them. I'm in the French community so it might differ. But even when I wasn't shipping the same ship. People were like "yeah too bad we don't have the same ship. I'm sorry people bothered you. Let's make jokes about it."Or changes the subject. But maybe it is because it's tiniest than the English one. Another issue is that people want their ship to be Canon, but it doesn't have to. I even prefer ship when they fanon. It's fun and a lot of people won't take it too much seriously. The media isn't our we are not supposed to decide about scenarios or anything. We're fan, only that.
@@mayayuki5032 I totally agree! Shipping should be fun and shouldn't be a cause for conflict.
I think people Feel that Atsushi is a bit “boring” just because we know a lot about his past and feelings. They tend to flash to the same scene of Atsushi’s abuse in the orphanage. Where as Dazai is very mysterious and we don’t know to much about him before port mafia and more major flash back/ big moments in his past that affect him now other than Oda which we don’t see as many flash back Oda moments. Where atsushi has a similar one that is a big more constant. I love Atsushi and Dazai they are both amazing and complex characters we just see Atsushi’s complexity more and maybe people get bored of it?
Something I like about this anime is not only you get information about the main characters but you also get information about the side characters, You can see this with all the side stories they have, and like one of the villains is one of the most loved characters🍊
something i’ve noticed is that fans of bsd tend to be seasoned anime fans. fans of other more popular shows (mha comes to mind) might not regularly watch anime aside from that one main show, but when it comes to bungou stray dogs, a lot of the fans have watched/do watch a lot of anime in general. this means that their interests would be divided overall. like you said, it’s rare for someone’s favorite anime to be bungou stray dogs.
i know this isn’t always the case though! i mean for me personally i can pretty much count on one hand the number of animes i’ve watched and bungou stray dogs is my absolute top! i’ve also got a friend into it who doesn’t regularly watch anime.
but yeah i mean overall, you brought up some really really good points!
this is very true! i can probably count more than one hand the amount of anime I've watched, and there are likely many bsd fans who are similar. But there was a period where I didn't watch very much new anime and I'm still quite picky on what shows I get into lol. So I wouldn't exactly call myself a consistent anime watcher (like a person who watches a bunch of new shows when new anime comes out), I'm more of a chill one with many shows i love a lot! It's interesting to hear how differently everyone watches depending on their personal tastes and interests tho
thank you for sharing! and it's great you got your friend into bsd too even though they don't often watch anime, super impressive :)
@@casualfandomview Huh, I am also familiar. I know a lot of anime, but only 10% of those anime that I watch first hand.
I am quite picky at what anime I will watch, and even more pickier at which one I love. BSD is just so happen to be one of those 10% and part of the 5% that I love.
I have watched so many big ones like jjk, demon slayer and tr but still bsd is my favourite. I kind of have an obsession to it now I watched it in starting of may now I can't think of a day without bsd it's just that the characters are so well written and plot
im literally the opposite of this but i'm proud lol. before bsd I only watched sailor moon a bit and komi can't communicate which just came out so
Guess I'm rare lmao.
You know what is funny for me? I know the existence of BSD first before BNHA. Like, I only know BNHA even exit a year later. I already had a plan to watch BSD but forgot about it until last year. And I can say, even thought I watch some episodes of BNHA before BSD, I like BSD more.
wow, it's very interesting you heard of BSD before BNHA !! I understand why you prefer BSD, I also prefer BSD over BNHA personally. I always forget about BNHA, and get bored of it fairly easily, while BSD has always consistently kept me capitvated by its interesting plot, conflict and characters!
Same, Idk what BNHA was until 6 months later from when I first knew about bsd.
the duo protagonist is actually what kept me with bsd
the story is about dazai, but having him being the one to tell the story wouldn't be good, because he already knows all about everything: the other characters, port mafia, the enemies' plans, all of that. seeing things from his perspective would only make the viewer confused bc he already has all the previous knowledge we still don't, so trying to catch up with backstories while also trying to understand his brain that goes 10000mph would be a nightmare, organizing the pace while keeping the story moving would be almost impossible, and make a sloppy storytelling.
on the other hand, we have atsushi, who doesn't know anything about nothing, just like us. as he learn about the world and people, we learn with him, so it organizes stuff and give the writers a timeline to work with: "when atsushi learns something, so does the public, and based on that, we get into more detail when it's fit." and also a opening to explore other characters, because that's also atsushi's first impression of them
that's a constant tool in the history too
atsushi in the main story
kunikida in dazai's entrance exam
even oda in dark era is telling dazai's story too
One of my favorite animes. I’ve done a school project on it before and got to look at the biographies of lots of the real life counterparts for the characters and even read some of their stories and poems. Atsushi’s story was by far my favorite and it’s pretty easy to find online. It’s about a man who turns into a tiger physically but stays human mentally. With every day, more of his consciousness becomes that of a tiger then, finally, he sees his friend one last time before being consumed by his instincts. The show is just so pretty and combines the darker port mafia parts, like Q, but also has goofy parts. Like Dazai constantly trying to ruin Kunikida’s perfect day schedule.
It’s kinda funny because I actually dropped BSD after finishing the first season since it just feels like a basic shounen anime at first. I did try going for the manga, however, and end up getting hooked with the novel eventually.
This is the kind of show that doesn't go out of its way to be over the top or original or anything. Instead, it lets you have time to enjoy whatever there is on screen and slowly grows on you the more you actually learn about its world and characters.
Really love how you analyze the show being underrated. ❤️
I noticed that thing you pointed out as well, how the pace and intensity of the series picks up instantly whenever Akutagawa shows up to the conflict. I think Atsushi's refusal to see the good in Akutagawa and trust him is Atsushi's greatest character flaw. It highlights his simplistic "there's only good and evil" worldview ingrained in him by the headmaster. Basically, it's a CHARACTER FLAW. Flaws make characters more interesting (Dazai is a very flawed character for example), and Atsushi kind of lacks that EXCEPT when he's around Akutagawa. So whenever the two of them DO interact, his character is enhanced just by Aku's presence.
I guess this is why Akutagawa is my favorite character. The series just gets better whenever he is around. No spoilers for season 4 but some might say the Decay of Angels arc disproves this since Aku is absent from a lot of intense stuff but... ohhhh boy when he does show up again... let's just say things are gonna go wayyyy down.
I love your analysis, and I agree with many of the points you brought up! But imma be honest, when I heard you say that it was 17+, I had to actually think about that before going "Holy crap wait". That actually surprised me XD
yup i kinda forget sometimes too. but ya a lot of other Seinen are probably also 17+, bsd included. Even though it might not seem like it needs that high of rating lol.
I feel like it doesn't even is duo protagonist, like... My opinion is the story is Dazai's but it has like a witness narrator, which would be Atsushi... Kind of what happens in Great Gatsby, Atsushi is the protagonist but is not his story the one he's telling (obviously he does, but it would be impossible to not tell his story at the same time)
Am I the only one who thinks Atsushi’s past is more interesting than Dazai’s ? Atsushi is literally my favorite character ever!! I can’t understand why he is so underrated...
Frrr thooo! Ppl need to give him more appreciation as they do it to Dazai and people nowhere this close to know who is hell the actual mc of the anime like mc appeciation guys. 😟🤞
same same same-
Ikr!
In another anime he would be my favorite but in BSD we have Dazai, chunya, augtagawa, and dosesvky who are all really interesting
FR
As a bsd fan getting caught up this month after coming across it two months ago the dual protagonist aspect of the plot seemed like a idea I thought people would really get into, it surprises me how 'lax the fanbase is and that after the anime adaptation especially it isn't a more talked about story considering we can assume the more Dazai's character progresses soon after so will Atsushi's and I don't think Dazai's or Atsushi's character overshadows the possibility of other protagonists, I can see a flashbacc arc for Fyodor with world building to whatever Gide meant by "the last great war" during his final fight with Odasaku . Fyodor's desire to erase all gifted abilities may have history ties with it imo. btw when you said " a lot of my videos will be like this where it's unscripted, it's basically me yelling into a microphone about how I feel" I felt that lmao
Yeah, i'm a fan of duo protagonist shows as well and usually gravitate towards shows with them, but i assumed there must be folks out there who prefer super stereotypical 'main lead' anime shows where the entire series revolves around one character. I'm not surprised about how lax this fandom is because i've been in it for awhile and i'm probably just used to its chiller nature (tho i would argue in recent years we are definitely getting bigger and rowdier when more people get into this show!). Fyodor's motivations (as in his past and why he's doing what he's doing) and what he's up to are definitely something that i'm hoping the future series will expand on and is a definite expectation i have as well! I'm glad you enjoyed the unscripted nature of this video lol, i wasn't sure everyone would vibe with it because i could be a little disorganized in my thoughts!
"The fanbase isn't as intense"
Listen listen the bsd fandom is so angry about everything all the time. Everyone's just. So angry. Idk I don't follow what the fandom does and I'm not into shipping, but every time I try to search any bsd thing on social media everyone's just. Intensely angry about ships and characters and who knows what
Bungo stray dogs is honestly one of the best animes I’ve ever watched.even if it might get slow at first,it really gets intense once u understand the plot.c’mon,this has so many life lessons to learn from,and odasaku’s death legit made me cry.The outro songs are amazing and the character designs are just so good
Hot take,there are no villains in this anime.just people with different morals
Oh and this show is 17+?? I watched it when I was 12 this year lol one of my friends too.
Overall,bsd is in my top 3 list of animes
I’m currently reading the manga right now
Whats really special about this show is that ALL THE CHARACTERS whethere male OR female are SO well written. Even the most hated characters despite being a bad human being are a good written character. The relationship with one character to another and how you can relate to atleast one character at some point is amazing. I love this show.
I’m saying this now and I might say this again: *Atsushi is underrated*
Edit: *And his hair is also underrated*
he washes his hair with a bar of soap🗿
His hair r weird tho-
silver haired protagonist never fail to amuse me btw
despite the gender
I've been following this show for 2 and a half years now and still on board with it. I agree, I wouldn't want to blow up to the point where, kids sending death threats, because their ship isn't canon. But I still want it to be appreciated more, but not too much, it's still bit rare to see ppl talking abt it. But if they do, it's either mostly abt dazai or chuuya.
I think it's becuz this anime is more abt suspense so it's not typical Shonen like just fighting randomly. So most fans r just shippers, simps and all in animes like mha and all. It's underrated. Except dazai and chuuya all others r underrated especially ranpo, poe, kunikida and all cuz they don't rely entirely on fighting but also having high battle iq.
It's October of 2024 and I've been a bsd fan for a really really long time. Needless to say, the fandom has blown up, I think, and all the cons with blowing up has appeared. I don't think it's all necessarily bad though, because there is a community of people within the fandom who appreciate the plot, characters, literature, analyses, etc., and a lot of people are still chill and nice. That being said, there are also crazy people out here. 💀
i started bungou stray dogs after i read "no longer human" "for the tainted sorrow" and "crime and punishment" (i was astonished by the plot and writing in these)(100/10 recommend reading these)
and imagine my absolute surprise when i found out there was an anime for it
it has been my top anime
usually the fans i see in the fandom are huge book nerds who try to break down every chars personality
more than shipping chars with each other the bsd fandom is comprised of ppl wiritng thesis about dazai , chuuya, fyodor and the way they act and why they do so after reading their books
honestly pretty refreshing to see among all the other toxic fandoms, so i hope it remains that way
i only just finished watching the show and i feel like this anime is gonna be what manages to get me back into reading b/c as one of those kids who used to inhale novels i am obsessed with the fact its characters are based on literary references
also i totally agree with the dazai overshadowing atsushi thing. im gonna be honest it happened to me too lmao,, atsushi's not a bad character or anything and i do find him v relatable and to have a really interesting character arc but. idk i just got really sold on dazai lmao
aw it's so nice to hear the show might get you back into reading again. as a person who once used to read a lot and doesn't do much of it anymore (besides a few manga of course and fanfics if that even counts), it makes me happy to know bsd has a positive influence on people's interest to read :)
it's hard not to be enraptured by dazai's character lmao 😂
Just to add a bit to this, I heard of Bungou Stray Dogs when it first came out in 2016 but the popularity of it turned me away (lol ik hipster). I kept hearing about it over and over again so years later I decided to read the manga first to see what the fuss was about. Honestly, the first 50 chapters or so were pretty boring to me and I almost dropped it. It was just so reminiscent of earlier edgy manga/anime that were really popular like early 2000s-2010s (Durarara!! at the top of my head), it felt a little chiché, and I think that added to its unpopularity bc it was also animated almost way past that era.
It wasn’t until the Cannibal Arc that I actually felt invested, and I thought the conflicting ideas between Atsushi and Akutagawa was really intriguing and very well written. But it DID take awhile to get there lol. I noticed this when I watched the anime too, that they actually added a lot of light novel filler episodes. I think this was a great idea bc it seemed the light novels really fleshed the characters out and made the anime more interesting than the beginning of the manga. In fact, it was the Dark Era from season 2 that actually made me like Dazai as a character, before that I really disliked him for a good year or so lol. I also think anime Dazai is a bit more funny and lovable to an audience than manga Dazai is, haha, so that might have something to do with his popularity. I think there’s a whole seiyuu culture in Japan too, and Dazai’s VA is pretty veteran.
It also seems to me that BSD was the first manga series Asagiri-sensei wrote, which could explain the pacing and character development issues early in the manga. He was also the writer and not the artist, and so several panels looked a bit awkward to me and I wondered if Asagiri-sensei had trouble conveying certain things to the illustrator, Harukawa Sango, at the time bc I DO thing that kind of communication in an artistic process can take awhile if not already established from a previous project. This isn’t to say Asagiri-sensei is a bad writer AT ALL, I actually think he’s quite brilliant bc I think he added one of his short stories early on about Dazai and Akutagawa’s first meeting, and it was honestly pretty good.
But I do think he might have preference for the Dark Era, considering how important and complicated Odasaku’s character arc is and that impacts all the other characters including Atsushi. Honestly if I were him, I’d never shut up about Dark Era just bc it was written SO WELL and seems to involve a lot of worldbuilding. But I also haven’t read beyond the Cannibal arc yet, so we’ll see. (Also want to add that Dazai’s character progression is ALSO important to Atsushi’s, it’s just that Atsushi’s doesn’t seem to have that much risk involved yet?? Like Dazai is someone who is so close to giving up on life but trying not to, and he’s going head to head with FYODOR of all ppl. So far Atsushi is confirmed to have something to do with ‘the book’ and is Dazai’s chess piece as half of the new double black. In the anime, not much has been developed about that, especially ‘the book’ and why Atsushi? Hopefully the manga fleshes that out)
I also want to add that I think the Japanese fandom is still going strong. Especially shippers, particularly Soukou/SKK shippers. I think that despite the shaky season releases, SKK still remains among the top 10 popular pairings in Japan, which to me is feat itself lol. That’s probably why there’s so much SKK content and merch being released by BONES- literally look at Dead Apple and the anime official art 👀. Queer baiting for the fujoshis is something think a lot of studios are doing right now, and I think that’s part of why Asagiri-sensei has been more involved in writing for the stage plays and the new live action BEAST movie instead of doing another animated movie bc it might be truer to his artistic vision (not to mention the other story issues the Dead Apple movie had- sorry, not trying to make SKK seem like it’s the main issue, but I do think it has impacted how the studio promotes the anime since they’re a more loyal fanbase.)
And to talk more about the more chill fanbase, it’s probably the literary aspect and how important the Japanese language is to the series. Like, it’s a show that really forces you to think and find nuance to get the most out of it, plus learning and respecting the culture and the famous writers it’s inspired by. Translators are pretty serious and involved in the fandom, as well as literary/history geeks. A lot of them a pretty respected in the Western/English speaking community from what I’ve seen. Someone else said the shipping part of it can get really intense, and I agree but I think it’s only bc of the recent pro shipping/anti thing that’s been going on in recent years- many popular fandoms like BNHA also get a lot of vocal ppl like this too. It’s also the general canceling/callout culture that leads to content creators getting bullied online in the West too.
BSD is the show that I watched to completion, compared to BNHA which I abandoned halfway and only caught up with it in 2020 when there's nothing much on going...
I am in my late 30s and probably that is why, since my first hobby was reading before I got into anime... Having characters named after famous literary authors (and their actions corresponds to the actual persons) is a draw for me.
I would say the complexity of the narrative and how they have so many side character may be part of why some ppl may have dropped the show because tbh when i first stsrt watching the show, it was quite confusing to be able to grasp the storyline and development of the show and at certain parts, i would get lost. However, I do find it quite enjoyable to watch 😀
THIS.
omg bro
it felt soo proud when I understood the whole story
it was just soo complex
I feel like its really under appreciated by the ppl who don't watch it, but literally EVERYONE that I know that's watched it absolutely loves it.
Atsushi is my absolute favourite :D
he was interesting to me, like I didn't like him at first either i just cringed alot but then as I got to know more of him, I just got a lot more intrigued by him. as of now, I'm hyperfixating on ranpo but Atsushi still holds a special place in my heart.
BSD was introduced to me when i was 11 and honestly it was really hard for me to get into it (it happens a lot to media that I end up loving because I mean to get into it I tend to forget) but when I was 14 I finally finally sat down and got into it like really get into it and i enjoyed it so much (i love classical literature like ask any of my irls i have super long lists of books i want to collect even though I've read them already and a long list of books i want to read and books i recommend) i was actually originally told that it would rip my heart into pieces and as someone who is really invested in angst, who wouldn't love a series that would make you cry out in pain.
seeing the comments, they're right it's way easier to get someone to watch BNHA than BSD i know because it's easier to give someone something like BNHA which isn't as complexed as BSD it's easier to stomach and simpler to understand, it does have its complexities but it isn't as deep as BSD. it's easier to tell people to watch a show about a young boy growing up to be the world's greatest hero than to tell someone to watch a show about this boy who was thrown out of an orphanage who now has to survive. it's way easier to relate to the first one than the second one too.
When I watched the first season, I felt like there’s a lot of weird jokes and slower than normal shows. I ALMOST drop it. I stopped for a few weeks, then pick it up and try again (after I finished a show and got nothing to watch). Then I got hooked onto the second season.
The first few episode of flash back in season 2 shock me! It was actually very well done! Then I just keep watching for the rest. It’s getting better and better. I like the argument and their logic. Now it becomes one of my favorite anime. I can’t wait for season 5 this fall!
my friend, who is a fan of bsd, is (mostly) the reason i watched the show. before that, i understood certain references (mostly dazai being a sui bastard) and knew a few characters already. my dad watched the show before me so i thought since it's a show that can keep my dad's attention from start to finish, why not try it out too?
... i ended up falling into a rabbit hole-
i'd say dazai plays a major role in keeping me hooked (he's charming and i relate to him a lot), but the plot itself is nothing to look down on either. all the characters are unique in their own ways that make you want to root for all of them. the plot is suspenseful enough that they can allow a few breathers in between before catching you completely off guard the next second.
all in all, it's a really great series and although it's sad it doesn't reach the astronomical fame of bnha or kny, it has a relatively big fanbase that's enough to bring audiences together.
the fact that this was my first anime, it truly is a wonderful anime despite the fact that Atsushi go his leg cut off that early in the anime.
Bungou Stray Dogs is really popular in Japan, fortunately, giving it a healthy chance for more seasons. It has a bit of a more difficult stance in the west, especially in the USA and I think some good reasons have already been mentioned. The recommended age is a big deal, because in the USA anime is still viewed as for children and teens by mainstream media. The themes are also very difficult to market in the USA. The references to Japanese authors are for the most part lost on western viewers. The specific manga and anime recommendation sites of course cover bungou stray dogs and rate it high, but to gain mainstream recognition, you have to get mainstream media on board. Of course My Hero Academia is more well known, if it's airing on Adult Swim. But mainstream media is scared to burn their fingers. You have a show that starts openly in your face making suicide themed jokes and there are other interesting topics down the line like an open loli worshipping character. On top of that, three of the American authors appearing are semi-cancelled on social media today: Lovecraft, Mark Twain and Margaret Mitchell.
I met a new friend. we exchanged top 5 animes but since I just returned to binge watching animes so i just said that I was relatively new to BSD. He said the plot was inconsistent and that hurt me ;__;
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that eventually fueled me to read between the lines to prove him wrong but then I found a ray of light from an underground treasure of what-the-heck-is-really-going-on-in-this-world-of-ability-users which the anime has barely scratched the surface 🤩
It’s true that the anime has just introduced us to a lot of characters from 3 different groups and eventually an introduction of the 4th group then i heard there’s another group of characters being introduced in the manga(?) and are also being developed.
We have puzzle pieces [subtle mentions] of the big plot, that i think is coming soon, through Dazai’s backstories (Entrance Exam & Dark Age), Origins of ADA, how the Port Mafia transitioned to the kind of organization we know now (Fifteen) and recently with Chuuya’s recently released backstory (Storm Bringer). I really think Dead Apple is reminding us that Atsushi *is* the main protagonist because of Fyodor’s awareness and Shibusawa’s fascination of his tiger ability that cuts through anything. P.S. im not sure yet about the Entrance Exam bec i haven’t read it ✌🏻
I’m really looking forward to the future of this anime- i know the manga is now around 40 chapters further from the 3rd season but i really like the overall animation production, not to mention this also has such a *great* cast of actors both voice and stage.
This is the only anime that really got me hooked to get to know as much detail as I could to the point that I found myself buying Fitzgerald, Fyodor & Poe books 😂 I suddenly miss being a book reader and I’m currently waiting for restocks for BSD Light Novels. 😆 I don’t mind reading the manga years after the anime officially and hopefully reaches to its end, at least BSD will always be with me 🤣
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sorry for such a long comment, i really think this anime is worth discussing about the individual characters, their relationship with other characters and even how they contribute to the main plot. I really think there’s a lot more that these characters have been carrying behind them. **Dakishimete hanasazuni intensifies**
The moment when you add the lyrics in the end breaks me ಥ‿ಥ
I love the series but I’ve read all the manga apart from the last volume (21) which I think is the last volume and while I love the direction they took in terms of world-building and backstory’s we don’t really get much of either, maybe I just haven’t seen the extra material but I was disappointed in that one aspect
@@iangonzalez4661 reading the light novels actually help. and other mediums that Asagiri is directly involved such as in Dead Apple anime movie & stage play, plus the recent BSD Beast live action adaptation released exactly last month.
I just watched Bungou Stray Dogs recently even though I did heard of them way back when I've heard their anime has been released yet I've never thought I'd be so interested with the characters, in every story of theirs are very interesting too! I wanted to read their light novels but I had no idea where to find them but seeing this anime got me hooked up with it's story :')) I kind of regret that I haven't seen it before but I'm glad that today I was able to!
What really made me hooked and love the characters are their back stories, the aspect of how much their attitude grew and how did it happened and what was the reason why they acted as they were in the present. Atsushi's character development really grown a lot even from the manga perspective. What made me interested further is Akutagawa and Chuuya, these two- URgH, I just can't, I love those Characters. I don't want to say anything about them because I don't want anyone to get spoiled because of me hehehehe
(If my grammar isn't really that good, sorry about that,. English is not my first language)
@@benjaminnebenjamin6033 yeah I might check out the light novels
Just got into bsd and it really is one of the better animes coming out rn.
This series has come to mean so much to me. In my honest opinion idc if it blows up or not. Sure I want it to go well, because hell...the creators of both the manga, anime and the Voice Cast and everyone else involved deserve it. But at the same time, this is literally my number 1 comfort show. I've come to cherish these characters so much, especially the main 4 (to me). And this franchise has a huge place in my heart:
However I wouldn't really say it's underrated, sure it might not get the attention more popular anime gets. But to me at least, it seems that the people that do decide to watch seem to love the series too and really apprechiate it. Thus...it definately is held in high regard by it's audience.
Now I'm waiting excitedly for the 5th season to start soon 🖤
What you said about the dark era is pretty much what it was for me lol. I watched those episodes coming off of season 1 and was like, "Wow, this is so good now" and then we went back to the present and it just wasn't as good anymore. Season 2 was definitely a step up in comparison to 1, but I just don't care much for the actual protagonist of the series.
I only just now came back to the show and watched season 3, and am watching season 4, and it's the same issue. I can't even really think of much that Atsushi had in season 3 outside of the final fight that was even that interesting in comparison to the other characters.
"I feel like most viewers are more mature"
Me an eleven year old who finished watching it: yeah... totally...
I love Atsushi’s character, and seeing how the way he thinks and acts correlated to how badly he was treated in the past, because he feels like he doesn’t deserve to live if he doesn’t save people. He’s always haunted by the headmaster’s voice and feels he can’t escape his past.
But I think that the anime didn’t show it very well, because in the first season, the number of times they flashed back to the same scene of the headmaster saying the exact same thing - multiple times in some episodes - is pretty frustrating. That downplays a lot of Atsushi’s suffering, especially when the viewer starts to get annoyed when there’s a lack of creativity in the repetition.
Then, putting that next to the way Dazai’s past is presented, it struggles to compare, so it’s just a shame how much Atsushi gets pushed to the side in that matter.
I'm not even a literature fan. But Ive watched and read BSD when I saw that it has season 3 and I've run out of good animes to watch because some animes now are either too overhyped with dry plot and dry character writing. But after season 3, my whole heart became something for BSD as I've enjoyed both story writing, plot, character analysis, and the animation itself. The build up of the plot is really a cherry on top and side characters are given justice as well and not just NPC's with flat reasoning. It's quite sad and wonderful at the same time that this anime has progressed quite a lot of seasons but not given that quite attention
Two reasons I have trouble recommending BSD to friends: Mori/Elise and the Tanizakis.
It was recommended to me on Crunchyroll, and I binged watched it in 2 weeks. So I’m a big fan now! It’s very different than other anime I have watched, and I love that.
I think people could be more interested in Atsushi if only Bones didn't throw away his past to give Dazai more screen time, because it's obvious they make more money with him.
I was super excited to see his past animated, it could last a whole chapter or even 2, but bones said "naaa we give you half a chapter, we tell it wrong and we summarize all your traumas in a 6 second scene that surely half of the public will not see right".
I almost dropped the anime, this was THE moment of atsushi, of introspection, of everything that had happened in his life, of understanding, and the anime paid no attention to THE PROTAGONIST. DAZAI CAN RECEIVE ALL THE CHAPTERS HE WANTS BUT ATSUSHI CAN'T?
It's still my favorite anime (I already watched it like 12 times) but I will always suffer that injustice.
Tbh I was very confused when I first got into BSD on why it was so underrated and not acknowledged at all but from my perspective The anime was awesome ( many people are saying It's not as popular or interesting to others cuz It's for nerds or stuff but nah I hate literature and I'm not a nerd at all *failed each and every subject*)
I was even more confused since the animation wasn’t bad or anything and Bungou Stray Dogs has light novels / mangas etc even a on stage show but still not many people even heard the name before when I recommended it to them. This video helped me understand alot thx, I think either nerds or simps or shippers will be more likely to be into this anime. at first I was getting bored of the akutagwa hunting atsushi thing cuz I'm not really into fighting/violence type of anime but c'mon the whole anime is full of fight scenes which I did expect I got used to the fights though I didn’t like it alot I still watched all 3 seasons OVA Movie. I'm being honest I only started watching bsd because I love BL and I shipped chuuya x dazai before starting the anime but I kinda forgot that I only watched it for dazai x chuuya scenes ( I obviously knew there won't be any ship scenes before starting to watcg but I still watched it slowly I kinda forgot why I started the show since chuuya appeared a bit later in the show I gradually just started to like watching the series) Tbh the ship fan base is kinda toxic ik anyway I Didn't really like the anime but it was awesome still one of my fav animes ever, I know what I just said didn’t make sense at all :') But yeah anybody who IS into supernatural/fantasy anime should watch it. I'm still surprised that I finished it cuz I just like bl not supernatural fantasy or action. I want more seasons rn!
what I said Didn't make a single bit of sense at all srry for making anybody read my bs opinion
I have to be honest, the first time I’ve heard about BSD and watched random clips of the show on TH-cam, my first impression was that it looked corny and that this show probably had too much going on for my own liking. I then decided to give it a chance because a lot of my favorite seiyuus are in this show (Kamiya Hiroshi and Yuto Uemura who seriously impressed me in Vinland Saga as Thorfinn) and now it’s one of my favorite shows ever. I also overlooked the fact that Studio Bones is animating this show, and they’ve worked on a bunch of my favorite anime that I watched in the past. I’m also going to eventually look into the actual literature works that the real life authors worked on as well.
BSD is underrated in the US, but popular in Japan.
Gatekeeping is a topic I felt people talk about this show but personally having a bunch of 9-13yo toxic edgelords teens on Twitter(usually BNHA, SU, AOT, etc) is something any fandom never wants. I do want this show to be popular but it’s nice having a little secret to ourselves, it makes us different cause like you said, this show is like the underdog or my interpretation “that cool relative that lets you drink alcohol”, alcohol being my metaphor for the absolute awesome shit this show got that something a younger anime viewer may never know about. Ship wars are another thing I wanna point out, they’re always inherently toxic but in the BSD fandom it’s pretty chill, we all agree you can never escape soukoku and ranpoe. Also last thing I wanna point out is that the animatics, edits/AMVs and godlike shitpost are glorious.
it probably helps that bsd is way more overtly adult in it's scenery and visuals. it's way easier for a teenager to justify mild gore to their parents than poker and mafia stuff
I just stumbled across your video and I must say it's very interesting. Indeed I do think it's underapreciated and I would like to see more people aknowledge it and talk about it, but not the extent where it becomes a fanbase as BNHA's...
I personally apreciate the fact that it deep-dives into so many characters backstories since a story isn't the same without its characters and love the concept itself of the show. Some say that the story is difficult to follow, but I honestly don't see that much the difficulty? I mean, I tend to prefer more complex stories, but BSD is generally easily understandable, you just need to pay a little attention to what's happening. But I think this point is rather that a large part of the anime community enjoys more light-hearted/ easy-to-follow-without-paying-attention series, at least from what I've seen so far and my personal experience with other anime fans.
If I may also add, I think that some other things that make people drop the show is the darker themes it adresses so "lightly" such as suicide (Dazai), incest (the Tanizaki's), pedophilia (Mori) and so that are more "shown" towards the start of the show. I feel like someone watching BSD for the first time and watching the first episodes with Dazai constantly commenting suicide in a way that seems comic and the Tanizaki sibling being them could be weird and off-putting for some.
You're really good at anime analysis, possibly consider doing aot?
thank you! So glad you enjoyed my anime analysis on BSD. Sorry, but I don't plan to ever watch AoT so I won't ever do an analysis or commentary for that anime. I lost interest in the show and don't have any motivation to watch it anymore. (It's not really the type of show I'm into these days really) Sorry to disappoint!
@@casualfandomview Hey, whatever floats your boat! No denying however that 91 days is easily one of my favorite anime ever, you did a great job dissecting the ending, keep doing what you do best!
@@scoutscaptain9563 thank you!! :) so glad you also enjoyed my 91 Days video, it took a long time to finish it. I'll keep up the anaylsis videos thanks!!
Tbf, the actual character foil and narrative parallel of Atsushi, the one who balances him, is Akutagawa, not Dazai. It's also interesting that both of them have been under his wing
(Love this video. I'm a manga only fan and it's great to see more people talking about BSD. I love practically all the cast, everyone is so interesting in so many different ways. And as an Atsushi stan, I love Asagiri's aproach to the whole "main character who wants to do good". And his kindness is super devastating in so many levels. He deserves all the happiness)
I think the main thing with BSD is that it’s just. Harder to get into for the mainstream anime community. Think about it. It’s generally rather odd as despite being a seinen it still feels a bit shonen-y but still noticeably “grittier”, without ever really fully leaning into that aspect? At least not with the anime. And it’s a lot more complex than other shows like MHA which can be pretty straightforward with their themes and characters. Not to mention that the majority of certain character establishment/development for BSD is hidden in most of the light novels. I’m reading Stormbringer right now and it’s literally changing my entire viewpoint on Chuuya as a character and even the series as a whole. An anime only, especially a more casual BSD fan isn’t going to have that.
There’s also a lot to work through to even understand the story at some points, some of the most hardcore fans struggle to grasp certain storylines, and with how mainstream anime is becoming, there will be an influx of more casual viewers who just won’t want to dedicate that much time in to understanding wtf is going on in BSD.
Also, I don’t know if it’s just a translation issue or what, but the anime is kinda weird in the sense that the way they adapted certain storylines from the light novels and manga…made less sense than they originally did. Like reading the light novels for certain storylines feels way more coherent than their anime adaptations.
I will say this and I don't wanna sound sexist here. I'm a guy and I love this series (and the manga) but I've seen BSD being way more popular among women than with men. The person who introduced me to BSD was a girl, and I've seen way more girls talk about it than guys. Maybe that's another reason (cuz i feel there are way more guys watching anime than girls).
Atsushi stan here
I got pretty intrested in bsd after the 1st season but prolonged watching season 2 due to it not being on netflix until I used a different streaming app and suddenly it has taken over my life
Because only Geniuses can truly see the beauty of this Animation. Period
For me, the main reason why I didn't watch it at first was because Taboo Tattoo. I head that series was bad and seeing this made me think it was the same all over again and because the same people sad it was bad.
It wasn't until I believe anime geek girl or a channel that named that along the lines saying how great season 2 going to be that I ended up watching it and loving both the first and second season ( When 2nd was airing.)
bungo stray dogs is a 17+ anime , i'm 12, this is my favorite and my mom knows
it’s crazy that now S4 is gonna air along side JJK S2, AoT S4 Part 3, and Chainsaw Man lmfao, this show can’t catch a break.
Plus bleach tybw
Just more shows to watch until or with tokyo revengers in the winter(January)
I wouldn't mind if BSD got more famous but it would be really sad if the writers didn't know how to stop and start making more and more seasons just because it's popular and in the end they start to lost the characters and the story. Basically I would love this show became more popular but I would hate if the creators get lost in the story.
I've only read the manga but by now I actually got addicted so once I finish some anime that I'm currently watching I'm going to watch bsd I asked a friend of mine if she watched it but then she told me that she watched only 2 episode before she didn't watch it anymore which means that she quickly jumped to the conclusion that it was boring but she also told me that she will continue watching it when she gets a break from her studies she's my senior by the way.
so I think the reason why bsd became underrated was that people jumped to conclusion that it was a boring anime or that it didn't catch their attention as an interesting anime for me I don't like jumping to conclusions if I find that an anime is boring for me I take a break from it for some time and then I come back to it because then I become more interested in the anime and actually complete it while enjoying it at the same time
Great video, couldnt have out it better myself
Most of the episodes where Dazai is the main focus (Like the start of season 2 and the start of season 3) are all taken straight from the novels rather than the manga. Which is something I like about the anime, cuz it gives manga readers a fresh view on the anime.
Dazai feels like a protagonist because he shapes the world, while Atsushi is just living in that world.
But I would say Dazai is more of a plot device.
Atsushi wouldn't be where he is right now without Dazai, but; This is Atsushi's story that we're following. We're seeing Atsushi grow as a person. Even though Dazai is the one shaping the world, the main focus is Atsushi's reactions and actions towards the world he lives in.
Atsushi is also presented to be more relatable than Dazai. Not many can relate to a super badass suicidal character that gives no sh#ts about what others think of him while being super charismatic to the point that he can manipulate everything and everyone around him. However, that's more interesting as a character than some orphan who's dwelling on his past and is learning to move on and become more independent with his actions. Specially with how well laid out is Dazai's backstory in the anime.
Idk where I was going with this, I just personally don't see Dazai as a secondary protagonist.
Overall a really nice analysis, it's quite what I figured out, except for the duo protagonist thingy (I mean it's smt I didn't think of as a reason why it is underrated)
I also think that the fact it didn't get popular right at its release is also cuz Bnha (which was released at the same time but you said it) has (a bit) the same power system, and so pp reading the resume of Bsd would be like "well it's just mha" even if that's absolutely not the case, but you can't know it if you don't watch it, right?
Ps: you have a funny way of always saying the word "like" when speaking, it made me smile ☺
thanks!! i definitely agree with you how some might assume the power systems are the same as mha upon first glance lol. and yeah saying 'like' is a habit of mine so when i don't have a script to stick to i say it loads 😂
It’s such an underrated anime. So much so that on the fucking crunchyroll channel I can only the first episode. Same with the Wan. Also I did not know that it’s a 17+ anime, not that my parents will care that I’m under 17.
I am lucky to love Atsushi and Dazai, they are perfect 🤍💙✨
the duo protagonist thing can be put as dazai and kageyama being deuteragonists but idk if that is really correct
17+. I've watched and I'm a fan at 14, lmao.
I like BSD but I admit I dropped it halfway coz anime is finished (s3 back then) and manga is monthly update.
BSD wan and the s4 update is the reason I pick it up again.
You're right, the duo protagonist is one of the reason. I think the author, put much hype for Dazai that leaves atsushi so plain.
I get that the latter is not genius, but I hope he will be the one who moved the plot someday. Coz right now, atsushi acts more like a pawn tho he has lot of screen time. While Dazai has less screen time ( his presence is noticable lol).
Atsushi's connection with the book is the only thing I hope make his character more famous.
Another reason is lot of struggle here are not explicitly shown. That's why it's more of seinen than shounen. The themes are morally grey that's not interesting for young viewer.
Also think it is because it seems like one of them things which seems like it’s just for girls who like pretty boys so most guys don’t even consider watching when in reality it’s actually a good show..
bungo stray dogs is my favorite anime of all time
BSD is weird, I like it but I don’t think it has the hype peaks a lot of other shonen have. And when looking at season 2 it didn’t start with the guild stuff but with a flashback which could have put people off.
However to me the flashback arc is the peak of the show which might lesser the rest of the show for some, the relative lack of stakes doesn’t help. After seeing characters get shot and lose limbs you expect the show to keep that energy only for the good guys to have a healer that can fix literally any injury, so characters don’t feel like they are in danger (And the death fake out in season 2 doesn’t help)
Especially since season 2 started with a dark more down to earth story that had a lot of death only for the main show to be really different in tone.
The season 3 flashbacks were fun (if a bit confusing) but maybe the show just can’t live up to the idea of “starving orphan who wants to prove why he deserves to live” he is a kinda cliche at times and I never felt like any characters was ever in danger no matter how much damage they received since it would be followed with a comedy scene where they get healed.
I only really loved the flashback stuff since i liked all the characters there a lot more and when it comes to the series the main thing I want to see is Dazai in the port mafia not Atushi in the ADA with Kyouka (another character I don’t really like)
"Atsushi and Dazai are dual protagonists"
Season 4: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT? (bc there are even MORE protagonists)
Idk but for me I don't want my all-time fav. show (manga/anime) to blow up to extreme level like AoT or MHA. Cause' knowing that only some people know this gem including myself makes me feel weirdly happy. Lol Like I'm the only one who found this diamond.
Bungo stray dogs is prob my number 1 favourite anime. In my personal opinion the anime is less interesting than the manga. The manga (in my opinion) is an absolute masterpiece. In the anime they overshadowed many details which made a big difference (e.g Atsushi and his orphanage flashbacks replaying the same clip over and over again, which hardly happened in the manga. Or when ango visited Odas grave, which meant he cared a lot for oda but yet people hate him cuz they didn’t know this detail). Although these are just mistakes it doesn’t make me hate the anime. ALL the characters have their own complex morals, we really do see a journey of self-discovery and what the reasoning of living is. The Eds are an absolute banger (I cried when I heard the first ed for the first time). Overall I adore this anime/manga, it’s really an underrated gem
bungou stray dogs isn’t that underrated anymore. according to myanimelist, the popularity had been ranked at 100, and its the 12th most popular anime studio “bones” published. and i’m not going to ignore the fact that dazai almost has 30,000 favorites. most people in the fandom is surprisingly chill nowadays (probably like 86% tho) and doesn’t fiGhT over which character is the best. people have their own opinions, and i do think dazai is a very interesting (in every way) character but that doesn’t stop my love for all the characters. (except mori because yes) i’m proud to be part of the bsd fandom, wether this anime is underrated or not, i still love everything about it. (p.s same for the manga too, of course)
you're probably right to say it isn't quite underrated anymore. I didn't check myanimelist list of top animes for this video. I was mainly talking about the intial experiences of being in the fandom after season 2 had long already finished airing (which is when I discovered bsd). maybe it's because out of my friends irl that are anime fans as well, most people haven't watched bsd. *i've only met one other person who watched bsd that i didn't recommend the show to them myself lol* but that's solely my personal experience.
@@casualfandomview ah, i haven’t met anyone in real life who watched bsd, they only heard about some of the characters..made me kind of upset because of the fact that im a huge fan of this anime ;-;.
I was convinced I would love this animé and I really wanted to, and I've watched until saison 2.... I was so bored all along. And I'm really frustrated I didn't like it.
My guess that a part of the reason for that is the fact that the first season of BSD (especially before Kyouka was introduced) doesn't have the "main goal".
Up until this point it's either a bunch of short stories about each member, with some Akutagawa here and there.
Yes, there is the the danger of Port Mafia but... idk if it was just me, but it never really felt that serious?
I mean, we know that Akutagawa can very much be defeated by Dazai (and maybe even Atsushi) and the Black Lizard squad get their ass kicked by the Agency, despite being "the most dangerous group in port mafia".
It just feels like nothing is really at stakes.
Lost a leg? Regenerated
Almost died? Yosuno will get you back together
It's only when Kyouka and the Guild are intoduced does it feel like there is an actuall looking threat over not only the Agency, but also the Port Mafia (and also we worry about Kyouka because we don't know what will become of her).
It sometimes feels like the show actually starts with season 2, which for many is fine, but for people who watch only a few episodes of anime and either continue or move on this might be a pretty big commitment.
That said, once BSD starts? Oh boy does it go *hard*
Yeah season 1 is more of an introduction of every character and organization. Season 2 is where it actually starts, and then it just keeps getting better
Yeah, i think it was a problem. The way of how each character was introduced was somehow strange. The first season we have the feeling of "empty" becuase of this. We have Akutagawa, i though the Tanizaki brothers will die but no. Then, the Black Lizard appears and nothing big happens later. So yes, your analises is correct
I wanted to get into this anime and possibly cosplay from it. But I'm not sure anymore :( It seems like not many people have seen it or think it's gross.
I definitely say you should cosplay for bungou stray dogs if you're really passionate about it & want to do it! If you care about a certain character enough to cosplay them, don't let others' dumb opinions stop you from doing what you love. Personally, i was planning to cosplay yosano at a con before the pandemic and i still haven't finished getting all the items together lol. Some characters might be hard to cosplay tho because their outfits are fairly fancy which can mean it's exspensive to buy/make all the components.
It's 17+?? All the bsd fans I know are like 13 years old
I would say the reason why Bungou Stray Dogs didn't became as popular outside of Japan was how the premise wasn't used well enough to atract audiences.
Main characters with powers based on writers and their most famous books? Sounds great. Almost all of them are japanese writers? Not so much.
The lack of famous authors people are familiar with is a big drop out for many. It should had start with giants like Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), Lovecraft (Cthulhu's Mythos), Cervantes (Don Quixote), Wu Cheng'en (Journey to West) and many others so they could hook up more viewers.
You would be lucky to find someone who read the book "Not Longer Human", but is a huge stretch for a medium even otakus and anime fans aren't familiar with.
Kinda of a miss opportunity here.
This Show Would've Been Perfect For Adult Swim/Toonami!!
Commenter: Bungou/Bungo Stray Dogs is an Anime that 20 or older ages would appreciate.
Me at the age of 15: hold my coffee for me please
Edit:
(that was just for jokes)
Anyways, i do agree, i think alot of people I hear from why they never heard or drop BSD was due to how hard (?) it is to understand due to the mind games like in the manga (if u read it) or dead apple or any of the seasons or episodes you watch, but i find it interesting and it isn't that hard to understand at all, and easily, it definitely is my favourite anime, like yeah, mha is nice and all, but in mha, i prefer the villains more than the heroes for some reason. I definitely put mha below bsd cause mha isn't as deep other than bsd!!
Thanks u make me happy
Can you make a video on erased
In short, it feel like why high arts, classical music, orchestral music and the like, as well as media referring/ based on these types of art, would be less popular compared to comics, pop music, etc. It's all about the targetted audience (what they are likely to be attracted to) and what is required to access and better/ fully enjoy the art/ entertainment form. The wider and more general the scope the targetted consumers are, the more popular/ common the product is. As long as there is a sustainable niche, there will be a form that fit.
The demographic of BSD is seinen, targeted at young adults or older males; thus, a more mature and smaller in scope than shounen aiming at male teens (as examples in the videos are overwhelmingly shounen). Therefore, being less well-known is already by default from the drawing board.
The Stray Dog is an Underdog
I didn't enjoy Bungou Stray Dogs. I couldn't find a reason to continue watching it past episode 6. I didn't find myself attached to the characters, and I don't even fully remember what the plot was. It was overall quite forgettable to me. I was drawn in by the character designs, the art style, and the internet's obsession with Dazai, but it wasn't enough to keep me.
too bad s2 and s3 are really good, it's the kind of anime/manga where the story keeps getting better and better by each arc
I also stopped watching BSD at first when i was a teenager. But when i got adult and season three was started i decided to give a try again and is now my favourite anime. You can not like it of course, but BSD for me was the situation where i need to "grow" and have New percepctives in general anime to watch again and have a new opinion.
@@DudaMeras I was an adult when watching it, and just didn't find it very gripping. I doubt I'll change my mind, unfortunately.
Well, sucks to be you, I guess.
Like someone else said, this show isn't for everyone. If its themes of absurdism and existentialism aren't your thing, I totally understand why you wouldn't be interested.
@@phrinus I didn't mention the themes as the reason. I didn't find the plot memorable, and the characters weren't endearing to me.
Considering the number of pretty boys this anime has. Im surprise thumblrites hasnt sunked their teeth into this show.
The season starter flashback kinda drags. The whole Dazai and Fyodor being super geniuses thats 20 step ahead of everyone didnt help. Also Atsushi gets overshadowed by Dazai on most case. I actually prefer Atsushi more cause he has the heroes journey and he is the audience surrogate seeing the world.
5:45 sorry just wanted to say that the anime adaptation of the azure messenger arc was awful 😭
it’s supposed to be set two years prior, and it’s dazai’s entrance exam. atsushi isn’t even there in the light novel and he was just jammed in for no reason
just felt like such a waste of potential, esp with dazai and kunikida’s development and teamwork
sorry i get really heated when things are adapted badly 😔✊
Tbh I wouldn't say BSD is underrated at this point but definitely before. By now I would say it's grown enough of a large audience from Japan and the west to were it definitely aint underrated. It definitely isn't talked about as much compared to other manga or running anime but, as you said I think the large distance between seasons 2 and 3 and now 4 cause that but don't hinder its popularity. Considering the manga in 2016 was at like 4 million it definitely past underrated just never something you see constantly on social media but even then you could find groups on Twitter or discord etc dedicated to BSD. The only reason I think it doesn't see as much talk outside those circles is what you had brought up with what other animes it had to run against like My Hero Hero, Mob, Yuri etc had definitely put it under people's radar. Overall I think it's not underrated anymore especially after the reaction and support seen for S4 announcement and the fact it got the live action movie in Japan, by now BSD has made its own bubbles that are big enough to support it self that the anime and manga definitely aren't underrated.
Also great video the casual feel to it was definitely enjoyable to hear, keep up the nice work
you said akutagawa's name wrong
look at the episodes in both sub and dub where they say his name
ep 3 9:10
Don’t wanna make this sounds weird but I think that people seeing it have a predominantly female fandom but packaged as an “action” anime might have made it a turn off for some fans? I put it in the same category as something like owari no seraph- not something that blew up but has a steady fanbase
Anyway i think this is a josei anime more than anything :) which is why it is a bit less popular
bungo stray dogs' real storyline starts from season 4 imo
this anime has that refine taste and not for many people.
absolutely right! all your arguments.
fortunately the show is big in Japan, now studio BONES is realising season 4 in january 2023.