Kunikida analysis!

Kunikida is much more than "hehe haha angry detective and former math teacher!! LMAO!!!".

He's a complex, meaningful and important character, with his own goods and flaws.

First to get it off my chest, I HATE THE FORMER MATH ANGRY TEACHER SHIT SO MUCH ACTUALLY. like did you read BSD with your eyes closed??!??!?? the fandom is so ignorant when it comes to Kunikida as a person.

like, no, he's not anger issued. did you know? he's actually depicted as a pretty calm and composed man. he's just the no nonsense type. he's just pissy when someone ticks him off, which makes complete sense btw. he's always tense and stressed so OF COURSE HAVING SOMEONE SPOUT NONSENSE WILL GET HIM MAD AND HAVE HIM LOSE IT.

Kunikida is so mischaraterized it hurts.

like what do you mean he's emotionless, hates Dazai, is abusive and probably traumatized children when he was "a math teacher" - actually a part-time teacher that worked in the institute twice a week.

Emotionless? he's the most feeling man I've seen! He feels too deeply, that is, quite literally the point of his character? How his idealistic views clash with reality and even though he knows it's obvious it'll happen he still breaks every time? We've seen him cry, scream, breakdown and spiral.

He doesn't hate Dazai AT ALL. Come on, the man calls him every morning as a check up to see if the dude's still alive. Not only that, he constantly asks things like "Did you sleep properly?" "Have you eaten?" canonically. He has COOKED for Dazai as we saw in the BSD anthology which counts as a canon side thing. He TRUSTS Dazai deeply, not hesitating to leave Dazai take charge in certain missions as Kunikida himself is basically the ADA President's, Fukuzawa, right-hand man and next to be president if something happens to the current President. 

Traumatized children. Are you insane? Have you not seen how this man is with kids? He HATES seeing a child crying or in distress. He tries to comfort and be there for them. 

The Aya and Kunikida scene broke me..

Aya's crying and wlling to die so the others don't have to die and Kunikida instead of letting her face the fear by herself goes up to her and kneels down to her level, taking her into a gentle embrace. The tender caressing of hair and the soft apology GOD. 

He's literally a father figure I don't know why people think he's aggressive with children. He has the fatherly instinct to protect youth. With Rokozou, he knows he can't replace his father, but still tries to be there like one. Even with that child that killed themself with the attached bomb in front of him, he immediately softened and tried to help them.

Then, the infamous "Kunikida has no trauma!"..

he has seen children die in front of him and implied to have been SA'd.

I suppose I can excuse not knowing about the sexual assault since it's only in a light novel but you can clearly see all those moments he's seen a child die in front of him in the manga AND IN THE ANIME, which in the anime they take out a lot of shit yes but they didn't take out the deaths of the children.

 The thing with the sexual assault is tricky. of course I and many more will take it seriously, but in BSD it's not taken seriously. it's just a "casual" drop in the novel and it's never mentioned again. But it is mentioned that Dazai made him drink too much to the point Kunikida ended in another person's bed. Since BSD itself doesn't take it seriously there isn't really anything to work with.

Kunikida's idealism.

Kunikida's idealism is both his biggest strength and biggest flaw.

He is stubborn on his ideals, not wanting to ever falter. This is a great strength, he's someone not willing to give up on them.

There is a certain irony, however. Kunikida himself admits he finds having ideals useless and idiotic. And yet? He stubbornly clings to them. There could be many reasons to this, but I do believe this is the main one:

A reason to live.

It gives him purpose, something to fight for, something to cling to.He says it himself, if it were to put in an exaggerated sense, his mere future was written in the pages of his notebook as some form of prophecy. He has clinged so tightly to these ideals that it's part of his character - literally. We all know Kunikida for his strong idealism. It has become part of his identity, and here's where I think the flaw forms: Strong disappointment whenever he fails said ideals.

 This is where things get tricky. Kunikida is aware that an idealistic world is impossible, yet, for some reason, he still fights for one. And every time he's reminded of reality, deep disappointment in himself forms. He thinks about ways he should've been better, trying to see what went wrong, trying to find something or someone to put the blame on.

Each time he fails, he feels more and more like a failure - he failed them, he failed the people, he failed as a detective, he failed his ideals. It is something that slowly worsens the more reality hits him, as it's breaking him further. That is what Dazai means, he tells Kunikida that his ideals only break him, in other words. Kunikida just scoffs and plays it off, "Do not underestimate my ideals."

We see how it paid off.

He genuinely can't bear not having things in control. Not having things go the way he wanted. And he knows it's unrealistic, but he can't help but lean towards this ideal world, despite his awareness.

And he hates having his beliefs challenged by anyone, too.

Kunikida clearly has some deep rooted trauma with having someone else's blood on his hands and it is not talked about enough. He gives his all for things to not give into bloodshed, as killing an opponent is never his first option.

He feels too deeply. He cares too much. To the point he will give his life away without a thought behind. Hell, with Aya, sure, an OVA, but it adds to his character. Immediately running to the child even if the bomb was doing its work. Having to choose between a train passing through a rail with bombs, train full of people or Aya, with a bomb strapped to her. Aya willing to let herself die for the other people and Kunikida going to her and embracing her, running fingers through her hair as he softly tells her he's sorry, apologizes. He was willing to die with her - once more, throwing his life away.

That's also a problem. He is too self-sacrificial. It's almost like he doesn't care about his life if it means he'll save someone else. It's almost suicidal, how he throws his life away, constantly trying to sacrifice himself, it's a pattern at this point, don't you think?

I think it is worth mentioning how he literally let himself get arrested for the child's death. He felt THAT guilty.

He thinks it should've been him, every single time, that he should've died if it meant for them to still live.

Despite all mentioned, his willingness to fight against truth and seek the ideal world while being aware of the pain that comes, being aware and still getting hurt, that passion itself is admirable, making it his biggest strength too.

"You're right. I can struggle until I cough up blood, and people will still die. Cruelly and mercilessly, without even a shred of ideals… that is how the world works. But even if the path I seek is a parched desert of thirst and suffering, I will continue to seek my ideals!"

That stubbornness is what we know him by after all, is it not? Stubborn idealism, stubborn fighter.

His ideals will always be his most remarkable feature, sure, and that is both a flaw and strength on its own.