#and dazai isn't The Main protagonist

[aconfusedkitten]

on soukoku and shin soukoku

so @stardreamerl0ve and i were talking about bungou stray dogs and various things about it, and it eventually ended up with us talking about why we think soukoku has so much more content than shin soukoku, despite sskk arguably being the main duo in the series, and this is what we settled on.

for reference, skk currently has over 20k fics, while sskk is just barely above 5k.

obviously, there are multiple reasons, but when it comes down to it, both of us agreed that it came down to their dynamics, and the amount of room there is in canon content for various interpretations and fics.

skk and sskk both have a similar dynamic, but there are quite a few differences. they're both enemies to lovers ships, and each of them have their own appeal.

shin soukoku is still figuring things out, and they don't have that same trust in each other quite yet, so their dynamic is constantly shifting and growing. as the audience, we get to watch as all of this happens, and see them go from enemies to people who can, to whatever extent, work together.

on the other hand, soukoku has a very set dynamic, and it involves a lot of things that fandom has a history of being invested in and enjoying. you have rivalry, codependency, insane levels of trust, as well as things like 'friendly' banter, interesting (however sparse they may be) interactions, and a shared history.

and really, that shared history is where we said a lot of the popularity gap comes from.

while shin soukoku have plenty of interactions during canon, we're seeing their entire relationship play out, from their meeting to whatever way it might end. and it's great! we get to see that development, and create content based on all of the scenes that we're give for them.

when it comes to soukouku though, there's seven years worth of time to write about. unlike sskk, almost all of their relationship happens where we can't see it, and because of that, there is a lot of room for interpretation. and that room gives them an advantage when it comes to comparing them against every other relationship in the fandom.

shin soukoku is absolutely a delightful ship, and skk isn't even the main thing i write in bsd, but soukoku has so many different parts of them that fandom loves (rivalry, complicated pasts, opposite personalities, i could go on), that it doesn't quite surprise me anymore how much more popular it is than shin soukoku, and even the rest of the ships in the fandom.

#cheshire rambles #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs meta #bungou stray dogs analysis #kind of? i think the tag still applies #skk #soukoku #sskk #shin soukoku #honestly it all started because i was checking the top tags in all the categories #and saw that skk literally has 15k more fics than sskk #despite the fact that chuuya rarely shows up #and dazai isn't The Main protagonist #while atsushi and akutagawa are constantly at the forefront #anyway this probably isn't coherent #because its 3:30am as im posting this #but honestly who cares? #dazai osamu #chuuya nakahara #atsushi nakajima #akutagawa ryuunosuke

[lxikobsd]

It hurts that it feels like the way Kunikida was created to be a bit more of an important character but the plot constantly shafts him

You're telling me we have a character who was introduced in the very beginning of the story, who is the main mentor to Atsushi our primary protagonist, and current partner of Dazai our secondary protagonist, so important roles to both characters who kinda share the spot of being the main protagonist.

You're also telling me that we are constantly told that he's the person who embodies the values of the ADA the most, the main organization of the manga and is one of the things that we as the audience are supposed to care the most about. So we have the character who is the human embodiment of the beliefs of the ADA, who is the character that is going to be the next leader of the ADA, and is the character that was specifically targeted to be broken first because of these reasons.

so not only all that, but Kunikida's Matchless Poet has arguably some really strong parallels to The Book. We've got:

An ability that allows the user to create anything they want by writing it into a special book.

A special book that allows anybody to create and change reality into anything they want by writing in it.

Obviously there is a massive difference being the scale, The Book being able to change reality, and The Matchless Poet only being able to create notebook sized objects to our current knowledge. I don't genuinely believe there's gonna be any relation between the two but the parallels are still there and we also don't know the full strength of Kunikida's ability due to Fukuzawa's ability and lack of a proper backstory for Kuni showing what it was like before the ADA. There is a very good chance that The Matchless Poet is stronger than what it's shown to be but its purposely kept to such a small size because of practicality.

I'm not saying that he isn't important at all, but it definitely feel's like he's been shafted the most out of the ADA, except for maybe Tanizaki. At least give us a backstory please.

#bsd kunikida #kunikida doppo #bungo stray dogs kunikida #bungou stray dogs kunikida #I need to do a full evaluation of his ability some day bc I feel like there's a bit to unpack there #Also backstory when please #his ideals had to have come from somewhere #nobody comes out the womb being that obsessed with trying to create a perfect world to that extent #the extent of him seeing himself as a tool to achieve his ideals and tries to sacrifice himself for the sake of it and his friends

[n04s]

OK here's my "isekai can be anything. and good sometimes" post:

Isekai Uncle - I LOVE this one, mostly comedy but the protagonist and side characters are quite charming, plus it's unique in that the isekai'd person is already back home at the beginning.

Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored - Despite the long name it's cute and interesting, about meeting people from all over and making bonds when you're an immortal being!

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - Sure the protagonist is a little OP, but it's an interesting story about willpower and camaraderie. Also the fighting is pretty cool.

Eminence in Shadow - LOVE this one, this has the magical effect of the main guy being a doofus so all of the supporting cast of women are basically the main characters. Feminism win. Also it's fucking funny.

Disqualified from Otherworldliness - A depressed Japanese author from the 1920s (a real guy actually, Osamu Dazai) gets isekai'd and ends up teaching people lessons while trying to kill himself (and failing comedically).

I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated - What it says, a guy is reincarnated as a sword and has to navigate life. As a sword. No romance because he's literally a sword. He kind of adopts a daughter tho

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill - A guy doesn't have any OP powers except he can summon cooking gadgets, so of course he attracts a lot of people and animals that want to hang out and eat good food. A cooking story with a REALLY cool wolf

RECOMMENDATIONS that I like but realize aren't objectively good:

Survival in Another World with My Mistress! (AKA Minecraft Isekai) - Guy gets isekai'd and can manipulate the world like it's minecraft. Hilarity ensues. There's boobs but this one ISN'T a harem which is nice.

Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs - It's a strange setting (reverse misogyny? regular misogyny too?) but I enjoy it cause I enjoy protagonists that everyone rightfully hates haha

#isekai

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Maybe we’re getting a protagonist switch. Maybe Dazai will be Chuuya’s Oda

Hm well. They don't have that kind of dynamic (and Chuuya doesn't really need that kind of push that Odasaku gave Dazai) and Dazai isn't the protagonist... but it would be kind of interesting if injuring Dazai (if not outright killing him) would be the event that would kickstart more focus in the main manga on Chuuya and the whole "his will not be an easy path". I previously thought something would have to happen with Mori (I still kind of think that) but this might just be enough to get the ball rolling.

I actually theorized months ago that having Dazai "die" temporarily might be interesting from a story standpoint and for what it means for our characters. If Chuuya believed that he killed him? YIKES. I can't see him handling that well, though no doubt, he'll push his feelings down and soldier on. Perhaps this could set up some Atsushi and Chuuya interactions? Pretty please?

#thanks for the ask! #bsd #bsd dazai #bsd chuuya #storyrambles #soukoku #skk #bsd season 5 #bsd spoilers #oof if you want something evil i just thought of #what if this is what leads into finally seeing how chuuya reacted when dazai left. maybe there was a surety there that he wasn't dead #because dazai wouldn't die. he's like a cockroach etc etc. so chuuya while annoyed and hurt by his leaving at least knew he would be alive #only to be faced with incontrovertable proof of his death. by his own hands no less. #god what a sick perversion of their dead apple scheme. dazai so sure chuuya could fight through the brainwashing. #he fought through corruption after all to punch him. chuuya is strong... but it wasn't enough #chuuya so confident that dazai can't possibly be dead. he'd bet his life jumping out a plane on that. and yet. he is mortal after all.

[marygodwin-bsd]

*sigh* Kunikida, Dazai, and death.

*warning! potential spoilers for season 5, discussion of suicide, discussion of death in general*

i personally dont believe dazai should die during the length of the show... because that would be fulfilling one of his main motivations. Although, his motivation is su!cide and with a woman, so maybe just dying by chuuya's hand isn't fulfilling it. (although it would be cool if part of dazai's end is that he and chuuya end up dying together, thus fulfilling part of his motivation and supporting soukoku)

Anyway, allow me, if you will, to think of Kunikida's reaction if that actually happened

Bro- this man calls dazai every morning to make sure hes okay. He has it in his schedule to make sure dazai eats. its no wonder kunikidazai is popular (from what ive seen, its right under Soukoku and Sigzai at the moment)

dazai? die? no, never. Because kunikida checks on him. he checks him every day. Even if he's angry at him, because thats what you do when you care about someone (and no i dont mean just romantically. Platonic relationships are deep and caring too.)

And Kunikida is very passionate-- thats why he's so strong, he's angry, and he cares a lot, because he doesn't want anyone to die or get hurt. He wants an ideal world where his friends don't get killed, no one does.

I hope, if Dazai does end up dying, that we actually see them reacting. More than just atsushi. I know hes a main protagonist. but he's not the only one who loves dazai. he's not Dazai's only family. His family is his friends.

I hop Asagiri and Bones lets them mourn.

#dazai bsd #bsd season 5 #dazai osamu #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #osamudazai #dazai bungou stray dogs #kunikida doppo #bsd kunikida #kunikida #doppo kunikida #anime #bsd #atsushi nakajima #bsd atsushi #chuuya nakahara #bsd chuuya #soukoku #bsd skk #kunikidazai

[hxhhasmysoul]

Happy holiday.... What do you think that made Yuuji is so likeable as a character? I've only been in the JJK fandom for a year, and I've seen a lot of other JJK characters' stan. But one thing in common, they all love Yuuji and mostly will include him in their top 5 fav JJK charas (including me :D)...

Also, extra kudos cause your blog is anti-gojo. Most of my moots love him and can't stop talking about him. I already tell them that I don't really like him (actually I hate him), they're okay but still so into him. So I'm so happy when I found your blog.

What do you think that made gojo so famous? Is it the pretty face and bad personality (I'm still confused until now)....? I dislike gojo kinda like I dislike dazai from BSD. They're both called "The one who stole the spotlight from the protagonist" (by my animanga group)....

I hope your holidays were nice! And everything best in the new year :D Thank you for the ask.

I think Yuuji is likable because he's very relatable. There's this post about how much we learn about him in the first few chapters and it clearly shows how there are just layers to him from the very start. How it's not easy for him to make close friends he can open up to but he tries. How he deals with family issues. How he is towards strangers.

There's this very strong humanity to Yuuji, he has super powers but he's extremely normal and human about it. He's such a contrast to the jujutsu society he enters where most sorcerers are so detached from the normies. Nanami isn't as detached, neither is Miwa. And Nobara isn't fully detached either. That is probably why Yuuji connects with her so closely, closer than with Megumi who's very steeped into the whole jujutsu ideology.

And as the story progresses we see Yuuji dehumanised, insulted and targeted. We see him trying to constantly reconcile his values with his new reality, we see him try not to lose himself when everyone tries to tell him he's wrong. When actually he's the one sane, the one that hasn't instrumentalised human life.

_

Yeah, this is a safe space for those who aren't in the Gojou cult. I think my main problem with Gojou is the dissonance between who Gojou is and what he actually stands for or does in the manga, and what a lot of his fans think he is. Also the fact that like two times his fans came at me and actively tried to evangelise the cult of Gojou to me. And like, I've never gone to anyone and tried to convince them to love Kenjaku or Sukuna, or even Yuuji XD

I think Gojou's looks contribute a lot to his popularity, something I personally don't understand, I find the white haired blue eyed anime boy ugly. But Gojou also has very flashy powers. And he's shipped with his friend turned antagonist, and it was all very dramatic and sad.

I think in JJK not only Gojou steals not exactly the spotlight from Yuuji... I don't know how to call it. But Megumi and Yuuta do it too.

My experience with this fandom is that a lot of the fans don't get what JJK is about and what kind of story it is. And they want to squeeze JJK into a certain stereotype of what a shounen manga is supposed to be.

So in that stereotype a shounen manga is one where a very special boy fights (sometimes metaphorically because it's for example football XD) his way through progressively stronger opponents to achieve his goal. The goal can be noble and grand or very personal. The boy also accrues friends along the way who help him fight somewhat but like the boy fights against the boss of the arc. And generally the plot revolves around him and happens around him.

Which some shounen surely are, I'm not super well versed in any genre, but from what I vaguely remember from trying to watch Dragon Ball a long time ago it had that kinda vibe... I wouldn't bet money on my memory of that though. Chainsaw Man also had that vibe to me, and Demon Slayer and Blue Lock - as much as I've seem of those titles.

It's just that I don't even know how statistically relevant that stereotype is. Hunter x Hunter isn't like that, neither is Hell's Paradise. Full Metal Alchemist leans that way at times but isn't really that.

And JJK isn't like that either. It's a story driven by its antagonists - Kenjaku, elders, recently Sukuna- and not its protagonist. It actively deconstructs the myth of the strongest Gojou is as much a product and a problem of the jujutsu society as Sukuna is. People talk that loneliness is the theme in JJK because recently Sukuna's fan club was asking him to cure theirs and he did, for all of them. But what people forget that the theme of loneliness as a motivator started with Yuuji. But the loneliness isn't the only theme. There's this huge discussion of what society should be, what is the place of jujutsu in society and in the world and Kenjaku and Yuuji are at the centre of that. There's the theme of the value of human life that Yuuji is the point of view character for, Nanami, Higuruma and Megumi occasionally chip into that but it's always in the context of Yuuji. There's a huge theme of bodily autonomy in JJK that connects many characters but Yuuji is very much central to it, together with Kenjaku and Yuuji's personal foil Mahito.

Also Yuuji isn't what you'd call a stereotypical shounen protagonist, he's much closer to a stereotypical shoujo protagonist and when you realise that, when you realise what the themes of JJK are, you see that there is no other protagonist of JJK. I'm linking to the ask where I outlined that.

So I think people who talk about Yuuta or Gojou being main characters actually just like these guys and are wowed by their super hyper flashy techniques and don't give much of a shit about what most of the manga is about. With Megumi I think it's because he's a pretends he's an intellectual and says these fake deep broody things while the close up is on his lashes. I mean his technique is super strong and flashy too... when Sukuna uses it because Sukuna is a jujutsu nerd and he actually knows how to use it XD

#answering asks #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #yuuji itadori #jjk gojou #my ramblings

[cursedvibes]

Happy holiday.... What do you think that made Yuuji is so likeable as a character? I've only been in the JJK fandom for a year, and I've seen a lot of other JJK characters' stan. But one thing in common, they all love Yuuji and mostly will include him in their top 5 fav JJK charas (including me :D)...

Also, extra kudos cause your blog is anti-gojo. Most of my moots love him and can't stop talking about him. I already tell them that I don't really like him (actually I hate him), they're okay but still so into him. So I'm so happy when I found your blog.

What do you think that made gojo so famous? Is it the pretty face and bad personality (I'm still confused until now)....? I dislike gojo kinda like I dislike dazai from BSD. They're both called "The one who stole the spotlight from the protagonist" (by my animanga group)....

Happy holidays to you to, hope you had a good time

I think it's pretty hard not to like Yuuji. Even if you aren't that interested in his character, due to his friendly personality and plenty of cute moments it's hard to hate him. I think this Pure Sunshine Boy interpretation (that I don't entirely agree with) is the main reason fans are drawn to him. The suffering he has to endure and how he continues to grow from it is quite fascinating to witness as well. What I personally like about him is also how he has a darker side to him, that pure hatred he has reserved for Sukuna and Mahito, but which we also saw when he beat up bullies as a middle schooler. He's not just sunshine and rainbows, he has a quite serious and lonely side to him he often hides from others and that is the reason he used to not have many friends until recently. Fits with his morbid obsession with death and how he is prepared to die and wants to die to pay for everything he's done despite being so young.

Looking at fan interpretations of him, I'm not sure that's why he's in the top 3 of the popularity polls, but it's what I like about him. The main criticism I see of him is that people think he's too weak to be the main character of a shonen series and isn't the centre of attention enough, but I think that's pretty stupid and thankfully it's only a (loud) minority of people who think that. I'm glad he deviates from the shonen formula there.

Now for Gojo, I first have to say that I wouldn't consider myself "anti-Gojo". I often think he's annoying and recent developments in the manga led to me complaining about him a lot, but I don't actually hate him, not the way I do with Geto, Yuuta or at times Choso. His fans can get on my nerves a lot and I think he was written very badly after being released from the Prison Realm, but usually I don't care about him. I like his high school self actually, before he got so overpowered, his faults were more interesting there.

I think the majority of his popularity is because he's a pretty white-haired anime guy with cool powers and part of a popular yaoi couple, i.e. you got some dramatic feels mixed in there as well. That seems to be the gist of what I see online as reasoning for why people like him and what made him famous when the anime started airing. There are deeper reasons too (best ask a Gojo fan for those), but his looks, iconic blindfold design and relationship with Geto seem to be the main things people are drawn to. Things like that are often what's most important in making a character popular.

#asks

[daz4i]

atsushi for the ask game? 👀

thank you!!! <3

First impression: "huh. that sure is a protagonist" (2016. this was in 2016. i had a bad taste back then and automatically disliked protags due to being an edgy teenager)

Impression now: son boy allowed. i have legally adopted him 👍

Favorite moment: any time he ever went sicko mode, best one is probably in dead apple where he has flashbacks and screams about how a tiger will use its claws when cornered. ALSO!!! goncahrov battle using rashomon for the first time, but that's more of a sskk moment than just atsushi 🖤

Idea for a story: atsushi has a good day where he gets to relax and hang out with his friends and no one tears his leg off 👍 amen

Unpopular opinion: i've seen people say he's boring/generic or whiny and i highly disagree. he's not boring he's like one of the most interesting and unique protags I've seen of his character trope (of like, the whole positive inspirational guy who has to save everyone that you mainly see in shonen), like he's bitter and petty and down to fight not to prove himself or w/e but bc someone pissed him off. at the start of the story his main motivator is money and he's not even ashamed to admit it. he roasts people around him and isn't naive or bright-eyed optimistic. AND he's not whiny he's just mentally ill 😭 i'd argue the anime's first season's oversaturation of his flashbacks scenes is what gave off that impression to a lot of people

Favorite relationship: would sskk being too easy of a pick. in that case i'll say 1 his friendship with kyouka, like his refusal to give up on her, his protectiveness over her, spoiling her even when he doesn't have to bc he wants to make sure she has a good time when he only knew her for one day??? and how their bond transcends time and space and they're still so close in beast 🥺🥺🥺 I Care Them 2 yeah i'm biased abt this one, his relationship with dazai. i love that he takes no shit from him but still clearly respects him and sees him as someone safe that he can trust. and i have so many other things to say i might have to make an entire post just about that tbh

Favorite headcanon: oh i have that whole theory about his name that afaik hasn't been debunked yet. you know how in beast the orphanage director refers to him by number? implying all the orphans have a number. i assume, since he was abandoned as a baby, he wasn't named by his parents. or at least if he was, it's not like he had any way to know what name they chose for him. ANYWAY you know how he quotes smth from one of irl nakajima's works. but claims he doesn't remember the name of the author. i think he just took it 👍 he wanted a name, he felt connected to this book. he might've not even realize this is where he saw that name before, and thought he chose a name at random, when the name on the book's cover was already worn out with time to the point of being unreadable yet it was still written in his subconscious!

#(i'm sorry i kept the story one for the end and i was already tired of typing after all the others) #(also i def posted that theory before. but still)

[elia-de-silentio]

TENTATIVE ANALYSES: BUNGOU STRAY DOGS

Chapter I: Looking the Gift Tiger in the Mouth

Fourth installation with the Tentative Analyses: Bungou Stray Dogs. A Seinen manga which began monthly publishing in 2012 on the Young Ace magazine by Katodawa Shoten, with a simultaneous English translation by Yen Press. Its authors are known by the pseudonyms of Kafka Asagiri (writing) and Harukawa 35 (drawings).

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

This introductory chapter presents us with settings and characters via a three-act structure.

1. The first act is the introduction of Atsushi and the exposition on his living circumstances. It follows him trying to survive in two ways: first planning to mug someone, and then actually saving an appearently drowning man - Dazai -  and hoping in a reward.

2. The second act is Atsushi, Dazai and Kunikida at the teahouse. Our protagonist tries to summon Shub-Niggurath, and Kunikida answers by giving exposition on the setting, who they are and what they are doing. Namely, in this world there are people endowed with supernatural abilities (through this thing isn't appeatently much known to the general public, please remember this information for the analyses to follow), the two of them are such, and use their Ability for detective work, in an association called the Armed Detective Agency. In this case, they're after a mysterious white tiger that keeps manifesting in the middle of the city area. Atsushi panics at this. Turns out, he is appearently pursued by the tiger: it caused him to be thrown out of the orphanage he used to live in, and it keeps pursuing him. From thus, Dazai gets the idea of using him as bait to capture the beast.

3. The last act is Dazai and Atsushi's adventure in the warehouse. The kid envies Dazai's confidence, expressing how much of the orphanage's abuse he has interiorized. Dazai just stares, lost in thought. Then he reveals that he knows why the tiger is pursuing Atsushi: there are some people who are unaware of their own Abilities ... he turns, and Atsushi has become the tiger. The beast tries to attack Dazai, who dodges its attack with a nonchalance that should not belong to avoiding the claws of a tiger as big as a SUV. Then he reveals his own Ability: that of nullifying those of other people. A simple touch, and Atsushi is returned to normal. The other members of the Armed Detective Agency arrive, Dazai explains the situation, and then proposes what he thinks to do of Atsushi: have him become a member of their organization.

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES

The story is opened by Atsushi's monologue about his current and past circumstances in life; this, along with the fact that he's the only one whose internal thoughts we get, puts the focus of the chapter squarely on him and presents him as the main hero. The others, especially Dazai but also Kunikida, are presented as more mysterious, at least for the time being; they essentially play Atsushi with their plan to capture the tiger. When our hero is kaputt, however, they appear as more relaxed, casually chatting with each other and other members of the Agency, establishing them as a quite consolidated duo - and team.

Speaking of Dazai and Kunikida: the first is the one who gets the most 'cartoonish' expressions in the chapter, as a way to portray him as an eccentric, 'weird' person, along with his continued and casual references to suicide; in this way, his later badassery when calmly confronting the tiger stands out even more (the 'Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass' trope). Also, he is established as another very important character to the story by having a whole panel dedicated only to him introducing himself by name, something the other Agency members don't get even if they are major characters.

The whole chapter builds up slowly towards the climax of Dazai's fight with the tiger, and the reveal that it's actually Atsushi. The suspence is visually created by having Dazai give a calm explaination about how the reasons stated for Atsushi being thrown out of the orphanage don't make any sense, then finding correspondence between the presence of the tiger and that of Atsushi; all of this is interspected by small frames that indicate the looming presence of the tiger and coincidentally a lack of Atsushi's reactions to the animal and the explaination, until we cut to the reveal: the boy and the beast are one and the same.

CHARACTERS

Save for Ranpo, Yosano and Kenji, who receive short introductory panels who reveal the most superficial aspects of their personalities, the chapter focuses on Atsushi, Dazai and Kunikida.

Atsushi, as I said before, is our main hero. He's a little bitch.

Alright, I was banking on a bit of a shock with this, but doing my re-reading, I've found really interesting how much the fandom treats him like a precious little cinnamon roll who is uncapable of even thinking badly on anyone when right in the first chapter he shows himself to be very judgemental and opinionated. His first impression of Dazai isn't a positive one: he was hoping in someone accidentally fallen in the river who would have been a grateful meal ticket for his saviour, not someone complaining about his interrupted suicide. He looks down on Kunikida for falling for Dazai's bullshit about neck stretching. Sure, he tries to act polite and meek, but his thoughts are not so innocent. And this makes complete sense: he was raised under constant abuse, verbal, physical and psychological, he's not going out of that situation thinking everyone is good and nice. So, now that that's out of the way, let's examine the other aspects of his character. Tying into the 'he's not do innocent' argument, there's the fact that he has a violent side, displayed when he plans to attack someone to steal his money. Sure, he's desperate, starving, and this is his only option, but he's still prioritizing his life over the safety of someone else. Someone would have accepted self-sacrifice rather than hurting someone else, but not this boy (mere stating of fact, I'm not saying he's wrong for wanting to do something necessary to his survival). This is the side of him represented by the tiger: the savage animal that thought nothing of destroying properties in order to feed himself.

But this is not to say he's an hearthless bastard: he still saves Dazai from the river, and sure, the hope of getting something out of it played a part, but he originally wanted to just wait for the next person to rob, only to end up using what little strenght he had to rush to save someone. His altruistic instincts won over the selfish ones. Later, we see that his desire for self-preservation mixes with an utter lack of self-esteem: after growing up hearing that he's a parasite, good for nothing, he interiorized that, and admits that he feels worthless, envying Dazai for his confidence despite finding him weird. He initially tries to run away when they mention the tiger, and only accepts to play bait when they mention the bounty for the job. All in all, as of now Atsushi is quite the classical example of an anti-hero: no outstanding abilities and virtues, not exactly brave, with a good helping of personal flaws.

Dazai introduces himself using his cheery mask as a façade for his cunning, but this chapter tells us a lot about what kind of person he is. He's the one who proposes first feeding the starving Atsushi, and then hiring him at the Agency to give him a place to stay: he is interested in helping people in need. He chides Kunikida for his rough manners with Atsushi, but as we'll learn later, he has been capable of doing worse: in that scene, he was basically exploiting his partner's natural brashness to play good cop. Lastly, there is the latter part of the chapter, where his intelligence really comes to light: he explains to Atsushi, or rather to the audience since the kid is transforming, the reality about the tiger, and the little clues that had led him to this conclusion. He had got it right at the teahouse, slipping Kunikida a note to tell him what to do.

Speaking of Kunikida: here he appears as an almost parodistic by-the-(note)book cop, overly concerned with rules and very quick to jump at the throat of suspects; but we also see glimpses of his better character (he did pay for Atsushi's food, despite his complaints) and of the amount of trust involved in his dynamic with Dazai (the note said simply to build a perimeter around a precise area where the tiger would have manifested; Kunikida took for granted that Dazai knew what he was doing enough that he would have been right, but also took the precaution of calling for some backup).

This introduction gives us a first impression of their characters, while hinting very well at the depths to come.

THEMES

The first panels bring out two thematics that will be extremely relevant for all of the manga: abuse (and its consequences) and the value of life.

Our hero comes out from an abusive orphanage. The abuse was both physical (we see here that they starved him), verbal/psychological (telling him that he was worthless and he should just die) and financiary (they were his caretakers, but they threw him in the streets without giving him any source of support). Atsushi reacts to this with both rebellion (his resolve to do anything to survive, to their ugly face) and interiorization (his comments about his desperate situation and how maybe he should let himself die). These reactions are both normal for the situation: Atsushi has quite a strong innate will to live, but these insults are what he heard growing up all of his life so far, they literally shaped his formation. A contrast is quite natural.

The particular verbal abuse the orphanage put him through (telling him that he was 'a strain on the world' and he should have just died in a ditch) brings us to the other theme: the value of life. We see the orphanage personnel calling Atsushi like that, but it's not shown why, the incidents that prompted them; we can infer from the chapter (and later have confirmation in the following) that it was because he was the tiger. But the tiger represents Atsushi's will to live: they were trying to shoot down his desire to survive for the mere fact that he had one, and he didn't express it in ways they didn't approve of. The value of the life of the victim, in the eyes of the abusers, stays in how much it can bend to their demands.

Atsushi, as said victim, is in a complicated position: disagrees, but he fears that they're right. The orphanage personnel had their """reasons""" for abusing him, but they never explained them to him, so from his perspective he was starved and yelled at for absolutely no reason. But the human mind doesn't do well with 'no reason', so he gave himself an explaination: he was a particularly, inherently worthless person. He has interiorized this, but of course he dosn't like it; so he decides to prove them (and himself) wrong by fighting for his life at all costs; hence his resolution to rob someone at the river, to put his needs above those of a faceless stranger.

Atsushi's life-affirming resolution is immediately contrasted with the epythome of no longer seeing value in your life: a suicide. Now, it's doubtful how much Dazai's attempt was serious, given how casually both him and Kunikida treat the accident; but this on the other hand could reinforce the point, as in 'Dazai sees so little value in his own life that he treats it with indifference rather than hatred'. Or it could just be black comedy. Dazai is a complex character, 101 chapters and I still haven't figured him out entirely.

Back to the point: thematic contrast. It's interesting how, near the end of the chapter, Atsushi expresses his feelings of inferiority and temptation to let himself be killed by the tiger to the very person he has seen attempting suicide. Praising him for his confidence, to boot, so seeing him as somehow superior to himself, more worthy of living. We are treated to an entire panel exclusively for Dazai's response: ... no words and a serious expression. We then cut to fight in the tiger pit, put he repeats the same expression just after nullifying Atsushi's power and before giving a big delusion to the mlm fans encountering the rest of the Agency. We are then treated to a rare delicacy: a glimpse into Dazai's thoughts, and it's precisely a flashback to that particular phrase by Atsushi. It's at this point that he proposes hiring him in the Agency. So, while he stays a very mysterious character, we can infer that his reaction to another suicidal person was to help them. There are other factors that we'll know later about this decision by Dazai by which we'll revise this information; just like how we'll revise those other factors by this scene. As for now, we can say that the chapter closes on a life-affirming note.

SYMBOLISM

• Food: this is literally the first thing that's talked about in the manga, as Atsushi gives a detailed description of the chazuke he made himself and likely was his last 'proper' meal. Food is the element that keeps us alive: taking it represents accepting life, giving it represents care. The orphanage underfed Atsushi, another element to add to their general abuse, and that famous bowl of chazuke was made on the sly by the same Atsushi, representing how he was the only one to take some care for himself and had to do so without his abusers noticing. Then, when he turns into the tiger, he ravages crops: he's doing what it takes to survive no matter what, a survival instinct completely overriding him. Lastly, when he's finally given some food, it's by the Detective Agency, which will end up taking him in. Notice how Kunikida, despite acting annoyed, lets Atsushi order all the chazuke he wants, and only mentions 'payment' when it turns out that he could have relevant intel for their case.

• The Tiger: an enormous beast who appearently lacks any glimpse of Atsushi's human mind. It represents his 'eros', which in psychoanalytical terms is the drive towards life (not the sexual impulse, mind you), contrapposed to the 'drive towards death' represented by his visions of the orphanage personnel. The tiger ignores all of Atsushi's moral compunctions and feelings of inadeguacy to just take what it needs and wants for its survival; with this, it also acts as Atsushi's 'shadow', which in Jungian terms is the ensemble of the parts of the self that the individual denies or represses (see how our hero wasn't even aware of being the tiger).

• Eyes: Harukawa has stated that they use this little trick, of showing the eyes of the characters as light or dark to show how 'tainted' they are. So all the fandom played the game 'how are the eyes of a character' in particularly important scenes. I'd like to notice how, in this chapter, the eyes of Atsushi and Kunikida are always clear, while Dazai's are worse than a traffic light. They are rarely completely black, though, there is always at least some inkling of light. To try and seek a pattern, I've noticed that Dazai's eyes are dark when he's talking about suicide or questioning Atsushi about the tiger's whereabouts, signifying that he's bluffing: in the first case to seem more vapid than he is, in the second because he has already figured out everything and is only baiting our hero. And remember when I talked before about his reaction to Atsushi's thoughts? As he observes him, likely deciding internally what to do about him, he first has his eyes light in a couple panels, then dark; when he proposes the Agency takes him in, his eyes are ...!

Ma vai a cagare.

As I said, a difficult character, and the art does little to help.

REFERENCES

• The title of the chapter (translated literally as 'Losing a tiger might be a blessing in disguise') is a wordplay on a Chinese folktale, 'The Lost Horse: A Blessing in Disguise' (the real life Atsushi Nakajima had a great interest in Chinese culture). It's about a horse breeder who one day loses his best horse. He is unconcerned by this, saying that it might as well be a favourable event. The lost horse returns on his own, and brings a valuable mare with him; everyone cheers, but the owner, who worries this might spell disaster. Some time later, the only son of the horse owner tries riding that very animal, but it rebels against him and sends him in a terrible fall that leaves him limping from the rest of his life. The boy's father is again unconcerned: who can't say this might not be actually a good thing? Cue little time later, and a war breaks out, a disastrous one with lots of casualties; but the young man is exempted from the draft due to his disabilities. The moral is that an appearently unlucky event might turn out to have good consequences in the long run; here, it refers to Atsushi's bad predicament at the start of the chapter, that resulted in him meeting the Agency.

As everyone knows, characters are named after authors, and their powers after their major work. I'll put here some information about the three main characters in this chapter:

• Atsushi Nakajima (1909-1942) was a Japanese author famed for the themes of self-doubt, questioning on the meaning of life, isolation, and fate present in his works, most of which matured during an early life spent constantly travelling due to his father's job. Self-doubt is present in BSD!Atsushi, alright.

• The Ability 'Beast beneath the Moonlight' takes its name from Sangetsuki, translated as The Moon over the Mountains, a short story derived from a tale of the Chinese Tang dinasty. It tells about a man that, after hearing rumors about a man-eating tiger, has the good luck of meeting that very same beast. It starts talking to him, and reveals that it's actually a former classmate of his, one who dreamed to become a poet but failed, and was stuck at an unsatisfying job as a government official. He reacts to this with a sense of wounded pride, because he feels superior to other people, but at the same time also shame, because he feels that his literary talent doesn't live up to his own expectations. This contrasting feelijgs make him turn animalistic first in his behaviour, and then in his actual physiology. He goes away after complaining that as a tiger, now he cannot even hope to become a poet.

• Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was a Japanese author known for his semi-autobiographical style and stories with heavily flawed heroes. He was also famous for his 'decadent' lifestyle, to which he put an end by suicide, committed by throwing himself in a canal. He had previously made several failed attempts; a situation that is referenced here in a decisely black comedy way. He's considered an exponent of the 'I-novel' (Watakushi Shotetsu), a Japanese current which works depict fictional events that have correspondency to those in the life of the author.

• The Ability 'No Longer Human' is named after what's probably Dazai-sensei's most famous work and the second best-selling ever in Japan. Its original title, Ningen Shikkaku, translates more literally as 'Disqualified from Being Human' (e infatti in italiano lo trovate come 'Lo Squalificato'). It tells the story of Oba Yozo, a man who feels, from early childhood, a sense of alienation from others, which he tries to cope with by presenting a buffoonish persona (much like the one of the Dazai we see here). Growing up, he fails to have meaningful relationships with others, goes through a string of affairs, becomes an alcoholic and has troubles in his career as an artist because of it. Eventually, he's committed to a mental istitution, and after he's released he ... lives out his life, no better than before.

• Doppo Kunikida (1871-1908) was a Japanese poet and novelist. Initially  a romantic, he later moved to the Naturalism corrent. His life was plagued by financiary difficulties and he died of tubercolosis.

• The Ability 'Doppo poet' ('Doppo Ginkaku') is named after an anthology of Kunikida-sensei's poetic works.

And this is all for this Tentative Analysis. Thanks to anyone who read this long.

If you liked my writing, could you please consider offering me a ko-fi?

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd meta #bsd analysis #bsd atsushi #bsd dazai #bsd kunikida #tentative analyses #tentative analyses: bungou stray dogs #kafka asagiri #harukawa 35

[lavendertea-withhoney]

Some "No Longer Human" quotes explained.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai is 177 pages worth of a very well written suicide note. I know that may be controversial to call it that, but I do intend to explain myself in the coming posts as to why I called it a suicide note, but for now I want to explain some of the quotes I find to be very interesting.

All the quotes will be red while my explanations will be the default color of tumblr text.

"The head is shown quite large, and you can examine the features in detail: the forehead average, the wrinkles on the forehead average, the eyebrows also average, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the chin... the face is merely devoid of expression, it fails even to leave a memory. I have only to shut my eyes to forget the face."

This quote can be found on page 16.

The prologue of No Longer Human is roughly the first 17 pages of the book. In these seventeen pages, a lot is thrown at the reader; whether they realize it or not is a different story.

The narrator of the prologue is an unnamed character and they describe three pictures of the main character(you will never see me refer to him as the 'protagonist'), which is Oba Yozo. The first of the three pictures is of Yozo as a child, the second is from his adolescent years, and the third is of him roughly in his twenties. All three pictures deeply unsettle the narrator, although it's not made immediately clear as to why that is. At the same time though, the narrator's descriptions of Yozo does make it seem like he isn't fully human, especially when describing him as a child:

"Indeed, the more carefully you examine the child's face the more you'll find an indescribable, unspeakable horror creeping over you. ... No human being can smile with his fists doubled like that. It is a monkey."(14)

But in the original quote I wanted to discuss, our narrator is a little more tame, only saying that his "head is shown quite large," almost as if his physical proportions are slightly askew. This, in turn, hints at the narrators sense of disgust and curiosity when it comes to Yozo, as they look at him like he's a completely different and unrecognizable being.

And yet, the narrator goes on to describe a very normal-looking person, they used the word "average" a total of three times in reference to Yozo's face.

It's clear, then, that what unsettles the narrator about Yozo isn't, in fact, some physical attribute. Rather it's the blank expression on his face, which perhaps gestures toward Yozo's inability to fit in--unable to manipulate his face in a way that might appeal to others, he comes off as strange and somehow unhuman.

#no longer human #writeblr #writing #my writing #writing blog #writers block

[cerinelle-stellarium]

Looking at Yuuchi Nakamura's (Ryou's VA in Tokyo Mew Mew New) other roles of note, he's been cast as a single father type during the late 2010s as Kouhei Inuzuka from Sweetness and Lightning plus Souta Tawara from Poco's Udon World (the latter series isn't listed on his TV Tropes page as it's incredibly underrated). He's also best known for the following characters after the jump:

Mumen Rider on One Punch Man (which has been greenlit for a 3rd season)

Osamu Dazai from Bungo Stray Dogs

Satoru Gojo on JJK

Shigeru Soma in Fruits Basket (remake)

Grizzly in Polar Bear Cafe

Umetaro Nozaki of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun

Tomoya Okazaki from the famous tearjerker series CLANNAD!

On the more controversal end of the spectrum, in Nakamura-san's younger years, he voiced the main protagonist in brother-sister incest related anime adapted from light novels including Ikuto Tsukiyomi from Shugo Chara which has aged terribly when you realize it's an age gap romance between a teen and a minor (seriously, who the fuck ever thought putting these kinds of romances into a series was even remotely okay?!?).

#tokyo mew mew #tokyo mew mew new #ceri talks tmm #ceri rambles about stuff

[elaemae]

I'M LAUGHING-DYING RIGHT NOW HAJDHCHBDJSNSJBXJSKSBXJ—

• • • •

So I was explaining the skk ship to a friend of mine that hasn't touched any bsd material yet but is a fan of Dazai because of tiktoks, I told her how I find it funny that 30k+ stories out of the 70k+ bsd ffs in ao3 has the soukoku ship tagged in it.

Me: –It's so hilarious to think that their ship is so much more famous even though none of them are the main protagonists—

Her: Wait, Dazai isn't the protagonist?

Me: Kh– Wait wait wait did you think that Dazai was the main protagonist?!

Her: Yeah! Everytime I see bsd in tiktok, its always Dazai in there

I then had to go to the official wiki to prove that Dazai isn't the main protagonist even though at this point he might as well be.

Her: But if it's not those two then who's the protag then??

Me: Omfg– it's Atsushi! *Googles a picture to show her* This one!

Her: Ohhhh.... I thought this guy was a side-side character..

I just covered my face with my hands because the disrespect for poor sushi is so funny to me, not even just a side character but a side-side one😭

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungou gay dogs #bungo stray dogs #skk #soukouku #soukoku #bsd dazai #bungou stray dogs dazai #dazai x chuuya #bungo stray dogs chuuya #bsd chuuya #bsd atsushi #atsushi

[char-writes]

hello! I'm curious what you like about osamu dazai's writing? is it the style or ideas or themes? been wanting to check out some, which would you recommend as easier to start with (easier in the sense of understandable)

Hi! When I'm reading Osamu Dazai's works, I find myself most interested in the way he explores the themes in his writing and the different ways those themes manifest. There are some consistent themes that will always show up-- insecurity in the protagonist, for example-- but they aren't always presented exactly the same; it's just the same enough that a reader can recognize it without feeling like it's already been done a hundred times by the author. Continuing the insecurity example, that is a core theme that I, personally, feel is in a lot of his stories-- however, he changes whether there's a reality for that insecurity or not by the way other characters react to the main one. After a while, there sort of becomes a mental checklist of "Oh, yeah, there's another one of his go-to things" and I think that's fun.

I also find some of his ideas rather relatable, particularly a few quotes from No Longer Human. That's a story popular for a main character drowning in his poor self-image and trying to fit himself into the world despite his mental state telling him he doesn't belong. I've met quite a few people who have found something to relate to in that character, though he isn't the most moral person (like, at all. I've seen discourse around the main character and his thoughts/actions towards others). And even for the parts I can't relate to, at all, it's still so interesting to be so in the head of that character.

I read The Setting Sun first and I think that was a good introduction to the style of his writing, if nothing else. Storywise, it's not too much like his other plots, but it will let you get used to the way his characters will just slip into sudden mental narration for several pages. I also feel like it was rather pretty straightforward in terms of understanding. Once you finish with that, I'd recommend No Longer Human. Those two are his most popular works, so maybe you'll enjoy one of them!

Let me know if you end up reading any of his writing! I'd love to hear other thoughts people have!

#asks #answers #osamu dazai #i hope this all makes sense! #thanks for the ask!

[dungoubaystrogs]

Me overanalysing BSD WAN again? Me overanalysing BSD WAN again.

So this scene takes place after a huge bodyswap ordeal, but for context the main feature to note is that Atsushi is in Dazai's body and Dazai is in Ranpo's body at the moment.

I found it interesting that even though Dazai is essentially referring to himself in this scene, he says "you still don't look like him" instead of the more fitting "you still don't look like me." What also caught my attention was how Dazai openly suggests that Atsushi ought to "seem more chill" and "smile more."

So, I've read No Longer Human, which is arguably the main book that the character of Dazai was based on. As well as this, the novel is actually semi-autobiographical; meaning that the protagonist of the story is also largely based around the real life Dazai Osamu, his way of thinking and his own experiences; which perhaps results in Dazai having the closest resemblance to his real life counterpart (only close, of course not 100% accurate.)

The first part of the book centres primarily around the protagonist, Oba Yozo, and his early years and experiences with the world. He is presented from the beginning of the story as an outcast, and having a very elaborate and isolated mindset even since childhood. If you know anything about the book itself, you probably know that Yozo often compares himself to a "clown."

"This was how I happened to invent my clowning.

It was the last quest for love I was to direct at human beings. Although I had mortal dread of human beings I seemed quite unable to renounce their society. I managed to maintain on the surface a smile which never deserted my lips; this was the accommodation I offered to others, a most precarious achievement performed by me only at the cost of excruciating efforts within." (p26)

Because this account is told in a first person narrative, it is typical that we gain access to the main character's inner thoughts, and certain things they leave unspoken, which also enhances the authenticity of the "autobiography". Here, Yozo is extremely self-aware, admitting to much of his initial personality to merely be a sort of deception; an attempt to appeal to society despite his very distant true nature as essentially a human reject.

Linking this back to this WAN scene and Dazai's character as a whole, it explains why he (albeit in a different body) still dissociates himself with his own face, referring to the image in third person as if it's just a fleeting object he is unfamiliar with or does not recognise (perhaps even refuses to), and consciously providing "tips" for Atsushi to imitate him more convincingly as if he is fully aware that he's presenting himself this way; because Dazai's light-hearted and relaxed personality is based on one that isn't real; which possibly implies that it isn't completely real in the series either, particularly his behaviour around the Armed Detective Agency and Odasaku; he wants those characters to like him; whereas he seems much more genuine towards characters like Mori or Chuuya; there's something a lot more genuine about what he says to them - snide and malicious but more genuine nonetheless - because that's who he truly is and that's what he's truly like.

I'm not calling him an outright monster or saying he's better off in the Port Mafia (despite how that seems to be a reccuring debate within this fandom every once in a while) nor am I saying that everything he says and acts towards the ADA and Oda are completely fabricated. In my personal opinion, the Detective Agency is actually a better place for him because his instinctively ruthless nature is either discouraged or used in a way that both benefits himself as well as other people. We also get to see glimpses of his more authentic side in how he messes with Kunikida and to some extent Atsushi, however comparing his treatment of them to how he treated Chuuya and Akutagawa in his Port Mafia days, there's still quite a difference (Akutagawa and Atsushi's case is much more obvious but with Chuuya and Kunikida, Dazai's remarks and actions seem far more tame and less psychologically manipulative with the latter than they used to be with Chuuya; I could go into it more but the bottom line is that Dazai messes with Kunikida more or less for the hell of it whereas he sees Chuuya as more of a rival or threat that he needed to constantly prove himself better than).

This change in attitude towards figures that more or less fulfill roles he has encountered before proves that working on the opposite side than he was before is largely benefitting him; he's in general a much better person, and it is only with time that this change in attitude will gradually become less of an act.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs wan #bungou stray dogs dazai #bungou sd #bungou stray dogs #bsd dazai osamu #bsd dazai #dazai osamu #osamu dazai #bsd osamu dazai #bsd wan #dark era #dark era dazai #dark era bsd #no longer human #character analysis #dazai character analysis

[leonawriter]

Reminder that BSD is not a shounen anime. Shounen refers to anything like MHA, Naruto, and so on. Anything aimed at teenagers - those aged between 12 and approximately 18 or so. Those older than 20 are actually outside of the target audience.

BSD is Seinen, which is basically Young Adult, aimed at those approximately between the ages of 18 and 22, or thereabouts.

That's not precise, but a good estimate at who a series is aimed at is usually the age of the protagonist(s). In Shounen it tends to be between 14 and 16 on average. There are exceptions, yes, but they're exceptions. (Yugioh 5Ds had Yuusei, who's at the older end of the spectrum. Fittingly, 5Ds fits between the Shounen and Seinen lines in some ways.)

The protagonist of BSD is 18 (Atsushi). The deuteragonist(s) are 20 (Akutagawa) and 22 (Dazai, Chuuya and Kunikida if you want to include them too).

The younger characters tend to be around 14, which is the *average* for a Shounen series; in a Shounen, they would be shown as having problems on their shoulders and the story would be about their coming of age. In BSD, however, Kyouka and Kenji are the children of the group. They're treated as kids by the narrative. They're allowed to have power and complicated stories, but they're also allowed to be children.

Shounen series focus on simple ideas such as "save the world from the big bad evil" and there may be many things to complicate that, but at the end of the day the morality is that the bad guys are bad, for the most part.

In Seinen - BSD, especially - we get to see a nuanced narrative that treats the world as it is, with grey morality and asking existential questions. We team up with characters who aren't fully - if at all - redeemed, and that's not just not problematic, it's okay. Characters are allowed to be messy and unhealthy in the ways they cope.

Think about how many people talk about how [x] character or relationship is "toxic" or "abusive". BSD isn't meant to let you box things up into easy labels like that. The labels just *don't work.* Because the characters are meant to reflect the way that real people live and feel and act, rather than fun characters who are cool to imagine yourself as, who are like superheroes.

Shounen has superheroes. BSD has Kunikida saying early on that they aren't, and that any one person has to look out for how much their own boat can carry, and know that if they take on too much they won't help anyone. It has people saying "Yes, but we have to try and help anyway." It's a less naive outlook on the world, from the point of view of ones who've experienced more.

And, yeah, expecting it to always bring you comfort when the main theme is "how does one find a meaning in their life" and the current arc is ongoing is only going to make you unsatisfied and upset. So just... see it as it is. That's all.

#bsd stuff #I'm just salty at so many expecting it to be shounen and act like one #and for it to follow shounen rules of how things work #it is not and it will not

[hamliet]

Thanks for sharing your top 10 fave ships, Hamliet....I'm quite surprised that a one of your top 10s are shin soukoku (I thought you'll ship soukoku, cause you like Dazai) and zutara (need to rewatch that series again)....Do you mind if I ask why you ship them (atsushi/akutagawa and zuko/katara)? Also I'm surprised that you'll put chezou above wangxian and hualian (can I ask why?) Sorry for the long ask, please ignore it if my ask is already answered by you before....Thanks so much for your tumblr, Hamliet.....You writings and answers are inspiring and beautiful....Have a nice day.....💐🌷

Oh, I love soukoku, but I've been upfront since Day 1 that shin soukoku is my OTP from BSD. Look at my avatar, even, haha!

I tend to be drawn more to child-coded characters than to adult/mentor coded ones, if only because I tend to fear the mentor ones will die (they usually do, but Dazai shouldn't). I love Dazai too and I do think he's the stealth protagonist even over Atsushi, but the pure raging antagonism of Akutagawa and Atsushi's relationship with the obvious hints that they will end up working together and fulfilling everything all the past double blacks did not--even if I think soukoku isn't tragic obviously--well, that's my jam.

As for Cezhou, well, MXTX's three novels are some of my favorite novels of all time, creeping into my top ten list with the likes of Hugo and Dostoyevsky and Turgenev. QJJ is excellent and probably would make a top 20 list for sure (if we're talking danmei only, it'd be #4), but there's a kindness to MXTX's themes and stories that isn't present in other writing, and MXTX's thematic depth and exploration in all of her novels (even SVSSS) is at an unparalleled level. I think each ship in each novel--Bingqiu, Wangxian, and Hualian--work really well for the actual novel itself, I ship them like FedEx, and I've written countless fanfics for them. The main romance is the thematic heart of each story.

But to return to shin soukoku--I kinda have a personal taste thing for mutual antagonism. I like enemies to lovers when both hate each other.

It's just my personal taste, and so Cezhou hits all the right spots for that for me (also probably why Hexie has potential to be my favorite of Meatbun's ships if it is pulled off well in the end).

Zutara for the same reasons lol. Mutual antagonism, redemption weaved in--yes, please. Plus, the actual canon romance was not executed well.

#ask hamliet #shipping