redemption through human connection: an essay about bungo stray dogs

recently i’ve been putting a lot of thought into how it is that the characters in bungou stray dogs regard each other; how their pasts and presents color their interactions throughout the entire story. in doing so i ended up noticing a bit of a trend, so i thought i’d try and organize my thoughts, and this essay just sort of spawned from a bunch of rambling. i tried to clean it up after i finished, but for the most part, it’s unedited. take that as you will, and enjoy!

we see this perpetuated in almost every character — dazai seeking redemption from his past as a mafia executive and realizing that redemption because of his connection with odasaku. we see it with yosano seeking to heal and repent for her past mistakes through her connection to ranpo and fukuzawa. we see this with atsushi and akutagawa seeking redemption from their pasts. it’s these constant threads that connect each and every one of the main characters (blatantly through fukuzawa’s ability, which is symbolic of how forming connections with other people can provide stability and a sense of self and security) which allow them to move on from the agony of their pasts.

this is brought to attention in part by the dichotomy of light versus dark. those that are the most distant from others, shrouded in darkness — those with dark eyes (as asagiri has said that the light in the characters’ eyes reflects their state of mind to some extent), those who do not have meaningful connections or whose meaningful connections have been severed (pm!era dazai, mori, fitzgerald at the beginning of the guild arc) — often suffer and cause the suffering of others. for each arc it is when these characters connect with others (dazai with the members of the ada, fitzgerald with louisa, tachihara with the port mafia) that they begin to turn towards the light. and this redemption is not portrayed as completely pure and altruistic, but rather utilizes the baseline of these character’s personalities, backstories, and traumas to mold their development as human beings.

for example, dazai is seen using manipulative and morally dubious methods in order to work as a member of the detective agency, but he does these things in the service of the people around him. it’s such a realistic reformation of a character — he does not immediately turn to the light and embrace its ideals, but rather uses the dark he has within him to the benefit of the light. as odasaku dies he tells dazai that he will wander the darkness for eternity, yet follows this with a request that he help people; what he means is that dazai cannot separate himself from the darkness — the “dark” itself being both moral and existential; darkness as in a lack of fundamental meaning to one’s existence, as well as in moral corruption and perversion. odasaku means to say that perhaps the greater purpose that dazai seeks will never come to him, but it is better to be worthless and save people than to be worthless and hurt people. and if he must be consumed by the darkness, if moral corruption is all he knows, then he should utilize it in the service of the light. it’s not meant to be a redemption in the moral sense but rather in the existential sense. dazai is not absolved, but his actions have been given meaning through their intent.

“you told me that you might find a reason to live if you lived in a world of violence and bloodshed. you won’t find it. you must know that already. whether you’re on the side who kills people or the side who saves people, nothing beyond what you would expect will appear. nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. you will wander the darkness for eternity … be on the side that saves people. if both sides are the same, then choose to become a good person. save the weak, protect the orphaned. you might not see a great difference between right and wrong, but… saving others is something just a bit wonderful.“

as the story progresses we do not see dazai go through some sort of divine reformation. his connection with odasaku and subsequent loss does not fundamentally change the nature of his existence. it does, however, lead dazai down a path towards a better lifestyle, one where he can use the abilities that he already has to do good rather than bad. in my opinion it’s far more realistic than the sort of moral upheaval that tends to proliferate in redemption arcs, typically with the intention of providing a moral to the story rather than a realistic depiction of change in a deeply flawed human being. and it’s dazai’s connection with odasaku that opens the floodgates for that type of redemption, allowing him to make more connections that each bring their own form of redemption.

yosano’s backstory portrays the same sort of idea. assuming that you’re caught up with most of the manga, chapters 64-66 go over her backstory and her involvement in the “great ability war,” where we see her ability exploited to keep soldiers in constant battle. she struggles to separate herself from what she has done, reanimating soldiers again and again to suffer through war. but we see that when she gets away from her distant, traumatic relationship with mori, comes under the care of fukuzawa, and befriends ranpo, she does not fundamentally change but rather uses her ability for the light. mori pointed out to her that her sins were her own to bear, but ranpo dismisses this, saying that it is her gentleness, not her ability, that gives her a place in the world.

what he means is that what she has done is her responsibility but it is not her fault, and as she forms these connections with the two of them, she takes agency of her own existence and achieves redemption within herself. her faults as a human being may not change but her actions, the way she utilizes and employs those faults, are something within her control now. that is what gives them, and her, meaning. it is a form of personal redemption.

as for atsushi, he still grapples with this concept throughout the entire manga thus far. because of his deeply traumatized childhood, he seeks external validation, wanting his life to have meaning but only if other people can arbitrarily assign it to him somehow. it is something that comes up most often when he’s fighting an antagonist, the best examples being his confrontations with akutagawa.

“do you think that if you put your life on the line fighting for others, someone will stamp a form certifying that you deserve to live?”

"nothing could be more shameful than to have been defeated once by the likes of you. especially knowing that you’re so worthless that you ask others for your own right to live.”

“you have a great special ability and you have the help of your friends. you gained dazai’s approval without having to put in any effort. you don’t know how lucky you are! you’re a fool who keeps dwelling on your past!”

despite akutagawa’s awareness of atsushi’s erroneous logic, it’s a parallel we often see between the two. akutagawa’s motivations are almost entirely centered around needing dazai’s acknowledgment the same way atsushi’s are around needing the approval of other human beings — they both seem to recognize this fault in the other without (at least consciously) recognizing it in themselves. the more we delve into their characters, however, the more this fallacy begins to make sense. they’re both actively seeking to redeem themselves from their pasts, atsushi from the feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness drilled into his head by the director of the orphanage and akutagawa from the same exact feelings drilled into him by dazai. the only difference is that atsushi has chosen the light as his tool and akutagawa the darkness. this is an important distinction, because it’s exactly what keeps them isolated from one another, unable to see their similarities. in akutagawa, atsushi sees nothing but a monster completely succumbed to the darkness. akutagawa, despite being outwardly less interested in the personal matters of his opponents, is the only one of the two to ever question or interrogate the other about his motivations and depth of reasoning beyond wanting to save people or wanting to hurt people. to him, atsushi is an obstruction in his path, one worth both questioning and killing because he’s stumbled his way into a position that akutagawa has been destroying himself for since he met dazai. it’s not a matter of personal hatred, which akutagawa admits in 55 minutes:

atsushi: “did you come to this island to kill me? do you really hate me that much?”
akutagawa: “it’s not hatred. i can’t move on until i destroy you.”

atsushi, however, has separated most of the world into bad or good, abusers or victims. he cannot see akutagawa as a human worthy of nuance and sympathy because in his mind, he is pure malice incarnated. it’s not until chapter 88, after akutagawa’s confession of his disease and ultimate sacrifice, that atsushi even begins to question his intentions, or challenge in any way the notion that akutagawa is an unfeeling, violent psychopath. in my opinion it’s a point of personal growth, and a step closer to the redemption that both atsushi and akutagawa have sought all along, reliant on their ability to see each other and connect as fellow human beings, capable of good and bad alike. it’s when they’re both at their strongest. and i believe it’s what dazai intended when he put those two together. he knew they needed to see each other as human in order to start on the path towards absolution, whatever that meant for either of them.

the rest of atsushi and akutagawa’s story is yet to be told, but i really believe that in connecting with each other, they’ll find peace within themselves, and a reason to keep living. so that’s it from me! if you have any thoughts on this, agree/disagree, just comment and i’ll try to get back to you. most of this was written in the early hours of the morning running on nothing but fumes, so if something doesn’t quite make sense, well, now you know. thanks for reading!