Since i'm too reserved and i barrely talk to anyone that aren't my friends, i want to rant about how obsessed i've been with Kunikida Doppo lately, the bungou stray dogs character. (If there is any Kunikida fan out there, PLEASE, PLEASE, I beg you to send a friend request ).

 Doppo Kunikida 

He had become like a coping mechanism for me lately. I think about him 24/7 and that just comforts me. And, to be honest, I don't exactly remember how he became my favourite character. Since the begining, I always admired how comitted he was to his ideals, and, even if I didn't understand at first what an ideal was -I had to reasearch a bit about philosophy and idealism- i could sympathize with him. 

He was everything that I longed to be. He had a motivation to wake up every morning, he had this strong moral compass wich always leaded him to to the good and never question it, he was organized, hard-working. At that time, I was at a quite difficult moment of my life, my tendency to question everything and find a logical reason or meaning behind anything had led me to a dark abyss of nothing, just pure emptiness. I had no path in life or ambitions. Everything for me it was pointless. 

I was fascinated by his character, and as time passed by, I could understand his ideals even more. They were a guide for him, a book of rules that teached him how to live. He knows pretty well that his ideals were no more than that, ideas; and, despite all the frustration he always had to deal with, he didn't gave up.

(from here i just used the translator cuz i'm lazy to keep writing in english, so yea, it's gonna be different)

One thing that a youtuber mentioned in a video analysis, is his suicidal behavior and how it is easily comparable to Dazai's. Clearly, their motivations are parallel opposites, and it's something simply fascinating, as their duo is one of my favorites (#1 kunizai shipper). While Dazai never found a real reason to go through the complex experience of life, finding in death the only escape, Kunikida always clung to his ideals in such a way that he is willing to die in order to fulfill them.

Perhaps it requires a more detailed observation to realize it, since it is not shown so explicitly, but Kunikida really is in a way suicidal. Several of the missions he has to take on throughout the manga/anime are a matter of life and death; and yet, he doesn't hesitate for a second to risk his life in order to accomplish them. Why? Because that is what his ideals dictate. He lives and dies to fulfill them.

One of the clearest examples of this (I don't remember the scene very well) is when the ADA, known nationally as terrorists, were being chased by the hunting dogs. When they were hit by Tecchou while escaping by helicopter, it was thanks to Kunikida's feat of jumping out of a helicopter in mid-flight with a bomb and using his and Tecchou's body to mitigate it, that his colleagues managed to escape unharmed. Simply suicidal.

And not to mention the scene of his death (I swear I'm not crying as I write this) where - quoting him - he says: “Even if I die, my ideals will live on”.

Finally, this is the conclusion part, of which I don't have much to say if I'm honest. Kunikida really is a very admirable and well written character. In the future I would like to read and learn about the real life author and make a blog entry about him and his works. 

One thing that I found really sad is that Doppo is so underrated, and reduced in the anime to a simple “hot ass man”. Yes, he is physically gorgeous in anime or manga and -I don't want to sound cliche- but there is always more behind someone than just a pretty face.

Hopefully this entry has inspired you to dig a little deeper into this character and at least admire him a little more if you don't already. My goal is not to make him anyone's favorite character, I just want him to be taken more into account.

Sending hugs to anyone who read the whole thing, thank you sm.