I Should Post These Here As Well That's A Good Start

These glasses made me cry.

Usually, whenever fanatism and admiration become too much to the point of wanting to turn yourself into your idol, you end up forgetting yourself. She begins the short by dressing exactly like Nami (no glasses despite needing them and sandals to walk Nami's steps) and complaining about how she could pretend to be a better Nami than the fake one.

She thanks Nami for inspiring her to be adventurous and live an intrepid life, to the point where it seems she wants to be her in order to do so.

And yet, at the end of the day, it's herself (with her glasses, barefoot and far from the perfect ideal she has of Nami) the one who saves the day and gets to live her own adventure.

Bungo Stray Dogs Harukawa Sango Art Collection cover. Releases on March 10th.

Since Teruko's story was revealed, I've seen some people saying that she wasn't twelve years old in the present day, but in the Great War, and since that was my first impression when I read the chapter, I wanted to talk a little bit about why this wouldn't make sense if we take into account the timeline that had already been established by the manga up to that point.

Because of Yosano's backstory, we know that the Great War began fourteen years before the current timeline, assuming that Mori recruited Yosano at the beginning of the conflict. (It's said that she was eleven years old when she entered the war, and as she is currently twenty-five years old, it is safe to assume that the war began, at least, fourteen years ago. Mori's age also agrees with this assumption.)

Back to Teruko's backstory, we are told that she started fighting in the war in her first months of life, as her ability meant that she could mature her body and mind, so she was already considered fit to be a soldier even though he was literally a baby. Just like Yosano, it's never stated that she was there from the beginning, and the chapter itself refutes this later, somewhat.

At the beginning of her flashback, the narrator talks about how Teruko's only childish characteristic is her appearance, which imply the idea that she is an adult today, and even the speech that she is only twelve years old, that she really is a child, can also be ambiguous as the scene changes to show Teruko during the war, giving the idea that during the war she had a childlike appearance because she was a child, but that now she uses that form for convenience, or any other unspecified reason.

However, if we consider everything we know about the war and when it occurred, it's possible to see that Teruko couldn't have served in the army while she was only a few months old and be over fourteen/fifteen years old, and we also know that the the war didn't last long enough for Teruko to have joined it when she was a few months old, and be twelve years old when it ended, at least according to what was shown in the manga.

Of course, she could be thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen, but the manga itself states that she is twelve, despite her ability being able to change her physical and mental age, so I see no reason to believe she isn't that age.

Also, the fact that she is twelve now only adds to the tragedy. She is a child who has only known war all her life and who died (as far as we know) to avenge the person who saved her life when she was just a few months old and had already seen people dying, already had to kill enemy soldiers, and was almost killed by them. It was supposed to be something sad, her life was destined to be a fight until the end, and not by her choice, because she had no choice to be here, to begin with.

I feel very conflicted with my opinions on Dazai. He is not my favourite character, he never was. But I feel a weird sympathy for him at times when he is seen as a total villan?

He is not evil. I don't know how people mischaracterize Dazai as evil.

With the recent chapter 122, there are a lot of people who hate Dazai and want him to die for what he did to Akutagawa. For a second, I felt like that too. I can't see children being abused, not that anyone wants to see it, but I feel very emotional whenever I see hurt children. My first instinct was to hate Dazai too.

But Dazai isn't a responsible adult. Dazai himself was a 16 year old, trying to find meaning in life, guiding a 14 year old into the dark side. This isn't an older, experienced, manipulative man who knows what he is doing but a teenager who thinks he knows everything. Dazai himself ran away from home and was suicidal already at the age of 14, just the same lonely child as Akutagawa. But he found "meaning" in the Port Mafia, or at least trying to. When he gave his word to Akutagawa that he'll "certainly" find meaning in life, I don't think it's manipulation, Dazai himself believes in it. An adult putting you in a dangerous climate is very different than when your cousin tells you to smoke because "it's cool, dude"

I am NOT defending Dazai's abuse of Akutagawa, as I said before, I am not some Dazai superfan (which, Dazai being portrayed as completely innocent also irks me!). I want there to be balance in the conversation surrounding it.

Dazai AND Akutagawa were children, they were both trying to find reasons to live. They grew up in the Port Mafia. We have seen how cruel and unhinged Dazai can be during his time in the PM. We have seen Akutagawa, and his constant internal battle with good and evil. These two are not some heartless creatures, both of them are changing for the better. Dazai found proper guidance in Oda, and taking his words, he became a better mentor to Atsushi. Akutagawa was left in the PM alone, so he grew stone cold and ruthless until he saw the light again, because of Atsushi (in recent chapters his eyes are literally lighter)

Does Dazai feel bad for what he did to Akutagawa? No, at least not now or we don't know what he is feeling, I don't trust anything that comes out of his mouth. But he doesn't HAVE to feel bad. That's what morally grey characters are. If Dazai immediately repented for what he did, it won't be realistic or true to his personality. Yes, he is in the ADA, but he is NOT some great person just because he chose to leave PM, even he himself knows that! That's why he felt so shocked when Atsushi called him a good person. Dazai knows he is not a good person and that's why he doesn't repent for what he did to Akutagawa. We don't accept our mistakes easily, not when we thought of them as means to an end. Dazai truly believed what he did to Akutagawa was a pro and not a con. If he will change that perspective now, is more about his own character arc.

Akutagawa was just a kid, influenced by Dazai. He wanted to impress him, like we do to our parents. Like we fight tooth and nails to defend our parents mistakes and sometimes even abuse. He isn't ready to accept what Dazai did to him was wrong. But when he saw how Dazai treats Atsushi, I am pretty sure he felt like dying. Because imagine your parent treating their step children better than you, that's how I see Aku's jealousy to be like. Dazai was his mentor first, why is he praising and coddling this random guy who just came into his life? But Akutagawa doesn't hate Atsushi in particular, he hates the treatment he gets from Dazai. I think considering what's happening in recent chapters, just like how Atsushi overcame his conflicting feelings towards the headmaster, Akutagawa will do the same with Dazai.

Akutagawa carried the cycle of abuse, doing the same thing Dazai did to him to Kyouka, another 14 year old (she trained since she was even younger). But unlike Dazai, when Kyouka is finally free from PM, Akutagawa doesn't want her to come back to him, he stops abusing her, Dazai still is awful and manipulative with Akutagawa at times. He feels happy for Kyouka, because HE wanted someone to rescue him too. Of all the abused children, Akutagawa was the one who never got rescued. Akutagawa was abusive to Kyouka, it can't be erased because of his own tragic past, he also hit Higuchi and seem to answer everything with violence. This is why the cycle of abuse is so painful, Akutagawa was taught to be this way and he CHOSE to stay this way, until he made the bet to stop killing people with Atsushi. I don't think Akutagawa will ever go back to his own ways after this arc is over. You can't undo your past, you have to move on, keep walking, keep living and trying to do better next time.

I want Dazai to get some good old karma! I want him to face the consequences for what he did to Akutagawa. I want Atsushi to have conflicting feelings towards Dazai but I don't want him to hate Dazai. Atsushi understands people on a deeper level, he's going to try and change people no matter of their pasts. Akutagawa and Dazai aren't going to be on good terms ever, that can't happen. I want Dazai to stop treating Akutagawa like shit and I want Akutagawa to stop wanting validation from Dazai.

Now the final verdit from me, is Dazai evil? No. Is Dazai a good person? No. Can Dazai change? Yes. Did Atsushi have a huge impact on both Dazai and Akutagawa? Yes. Is Akutagawa already changing? Yes. Can Dazai be vile? Yes. Can Dazai be soft? Yes. Does Dazai deserve to die? No.

Morally grey characters cannot be good or evil. They are grey. Let them be grey. We shouldn't erase their bad sides and we can't act like they didn't do good. BOTH Dazai and Akutagawa are morally grey characters. They are just different types of grey. Akutagawa is speed running to the light and Dazai is stuck in the middle of the grey. People have the ability to change for the better or worse, no matter who they are.

No matter what Dazai did in the PM, I can't hold a child to the upmost standards. There's a reason why Juveniles have a seperate court. Juveniles shouldn't get death penalty. Dazai committed heinous crimes as a child. But he is NOT the only child who did this. Everyone in PM has committed several crimes. It's a fictional story after all. Because of that I can't HATE Dazai. I believe all children deserve to be saved, to be given a second chance. Dazai went to the ADA and started to use his dark sides for the good. I can't call him evil for his past, when he was a suicidal kid, mentally ill, having a god knows what tragic backstory. Yes Dazai was smarter than an average teenager, but if you have read "The Day I picked up Dazai", you know despite all that; he was just a kid.

A kid abusing another kid cannot be any less tragic. There is not one childhood loss. It's TWO childhoods lost.

(ps: I was scared to post this lol 😭😭😭😭)

The silliest father-son duo ever!!

I just saw someone say that Luffy, Ace, and Sabo aren't brothers because they're not biologically related, and I'm just... speechless. How can someone watch One Piece in its entirety and think this way?? I can't even express myself properly about this because it's just so obvious that the fact that they're not related by blood just... doesn't matter. Like, that's the whole point of their story, to show that even though they have different origins they still love and consider each other as brothers, that your blood doesn't matter, and that the people you choose as your family are your real family. How can you watch them become sworn brothers, their shared childhood, Ace and Luffy's grief when they are told that Sabo is dead, Luffy and Sabo's pain when Ace dies, their reunion, and how much effort they make to inherit Ace's will and honor him, and still believe that they are not brothers?? Found family is literally one of the biggest themes of One Piece??? I just can't understand how someone managed to simply not understand the most important part, not only of the story of these three, but of the story of One Piece as a whole.

Dance like a Sun God! ☀️🎵

A detail that I always found curious in bsd is how in fifteen Dazai needs to consciously activate his ability, but in the current time of the story he doesn't. At first I just thought Dazai had trained his own ability to the point where he could keep it active all the time, but Dazai's ability doesn't really seem very important to his work in the mafia, because we only see him using No Longer Human a few times during the light novels that take place during the time he was in the Port Mafia, so I don't believe this was something trained by Dazai, but rather the effect that All Men Are Equal has on him.

We know that Fukuzawa's ability is a suppression ability that influences the abilities of ADA members, allowing the agents themselves to adjust and control their powers, so it makes sense that joining after the ADA, Dazai made No Longer Human always be activated, so he couldn't be affected by abilities attacks even if he was caught by surprise.

The fact that the agents themselves can adjust their abilities with the help of All Men Are Equall made me think about the other ADA members, and how they are affected by Fukuzawa's ability. In Yosano's flashback, it's never said that she can only heal people with fatal wounds, and when Yosano refuses to heal Tachihara's brother (who Mori says is not seriously injured) she says that she doesn't want to heal him, not that she can't, so I believe that after everything Yosano went through in the war and with Mori, she herself chose to only be able to heal people who were almost dying, so she doesn't feel like she was reducing the value of the lives of those she heals, and so that others detectives of the agency understand the value that their lives and wounds have, and don't end up like the soldiers in war.

In Kenji's fight against Tetchou, we have a flashback of a conversation between Kunikida and Atsushi, and Kunikida says that Kenji's ability is driven by his anger, the angrier he gets, the more powerful he will be, however, his hunger can calm him, and I wonder if that might have something to do with Fukuzawa's skill. Kenji is a very calm person, and Kunikida says that this prevents his monstrous strength from coming out, so creating a way to calm him down so that his ability doesn't go out of control may have been Kenji's own choice when he joined the agency.

Kunikida only using his ability in his notebook of ideals may also have been his own choice. We know how connected to his ideals Kunikida is, and he says that all of his future and ideals are written in that notebook, so it makes sense that he would want his ability, an important part of his life, to be in his notebook too. On the other hand, All Men Are Equal could be the reason why Kunikida can only create objects the size of his notebook, but I can't see a specific reason for this choice.

I don't see many ways in which Fukuzawa's ability can affect Tanizaki's Light Snow, other than limiting the area in which he can use his ability. We know that Tanizaki can be very aggressive if provoked, so the fact that his ability can only be used at a short or medium range may be to prevent him from doing more damage than necessary when angered.

I believe all of these assumptions make a lot of sense, based on what we've seen of the influence of Fukuzawa's ability on Atsushi (forbiding him from fully transforming into a tiger, and from losing his mind while using his ability) and Kyouka (allowing her to control Demon Snow without her phone), and I really hope this topic is explored at some point during the manga.

So I just realized everyone's horny for Shanks' evil twin except me. I have never felt more like a lesbian than I do now

They're gonna be ok right? They're just little guys, they'll be fine, Right????? :)))))