On today’s stream: I rant about “Bungo Stray Dogs” Chapter 113.
And read along as well: an initial script for today’s stream is below.
After 12 PM Eastern, a recording of the stream will be shared on YouTube.
An audio-only version will be available as soon as possible wherever you get your podcasts.
Pre-Recording Talk
Hey, everyone. I’m Derek, my pronouns are he, him, his. This is the 61st episode of Sunday Morning Manga.
We’ll get started in a moment, with a long rant about Chapter 113 of Bungo Stray Dogs.
While I’m setting up, feel free to drop some questions in the chat. I’ll answer them in between recording and at the end of the stream.
Disclaimers
And speaking of submitting questions, some disclaimers:
Anti-Bigotry Disclaimer
This is an anti-bigotry space: I oppose and denounce any form of bigotry, discrimination, or intolerance, as these are threats to the safety and well-being of every single person on this planet, especially people marginalized because of their identity, and these threats run counter to what my country, the United States, claims it cares about: diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Any audience comments that express hate, prejudice, intolerance, or discrimination against any individual or group (on the basis of, but not limited to, their race, ethnicity, religion, nation of origin, gender, or sexuality) will be deleted by me from the comments section.
None of this is at all to say that I don’t have prejudices and biases, especially unknowingly having them or practicing them due to how bigotry can be ingrained in institutions. And this isn’t to say that I don’t have areas where I can improve at practicing anti-bigotry. I welcome remarks that point out how I am practicing bigotry, so that I can improve at not practicing bigotry. I am interested in using this platform to engage in work to put into practice equity, diversity, and inclusion.
(And speaking of: I’m still looking for alternate platforms to host this livestream and podcast. Seriously, I don’t want to be using social media whose owners are bankrolling that fucking orange fascist, and I don’t want to be using a streaming platform that is doing union busting. In case I’m not making my point clear enough: fuck that shitty bird app, fuck Google, fuck Amazon. So, if you have alternatives where I can host video streams and podcasts, please message me.)
Onto the next disclaimers:
Ownership Disclaimer
Sunday Morning Manga is intended for information and entertainment purposes only. It is not endorsed by any companies mentioned, any persons mentioned, or any financial contributors mentioned.
All names, pictures, and sounds are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of their respective trademark and copyright holders.
All original content is the intellectual property of the speaker unless otherwise indicated.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any other persons mentioned in this episode.
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Aside from the names of Patreon and Ko-fi contributors, other persons, businesses, organizations, or entities mentioned in this episode are not sponsors of this episode. My remarks about those persons, businesses, organizations, and entities are not paid endorsements.
Music
And I’m going to record the musical credits for the podcast earlier, as I have been behind on getting new credits recorded on recent podcasts.
Music today included the tracks:
“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction.
“Sunshine” by lemonmusicstudio.
And “For You” by nomaBeats (Hyeon Yeong Jeon).
These tracks are royalty-free and available at Pixabay; links are in the description.
Starting the Recording
With all of this out of the way, let me cue up to record today’s livestream. I’ll read from the script, then we can get started. And as I keep recording, feel free to jump into the chat with questions, and I’ll respond to them along the way.
Okay, starting recording now.
Intro
This is Episode 61 of Sunday Morning Manga for Sunday, March 10, 2024. It is not safe for work.
Let’s get started. Welcome to Sunday Morning Manga. I am Derek S. McGrath, my pronouns are he/him/his.
Accessibility and Links
You can find a transcript and links from today’s episode at dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com.
Contributions are appreciated at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath. Purchases from my Amazon wishlist are also appreciated.
And you can email me at derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com.
Livestream and Podcast Info
I livestream on Sundays at 11 AM Eastern on Twitch and YouTube, @dereksmcgrath. A podcast version is then available on a later Sunday wherever you get your podcasts. (I apologize for not finishing podcast versions yet.) Early access to the podcast and other works in progress are available at patreon.com/dereksmcgrath.
Next Weekend: RuriDragon Chapter 9
The next episode will be a live reaction to RuriDragon Chapter 9. You can listen to that episode live on March 17 at 11 AM Eastern.
Today’s Rant: Bungo Stray Dogs Chapter 113
Until then, today I’m going to be talking about Chapter 113 of Bungo Stray Dogs. The series is written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa, with English translation by Kevin Gifford and lettering by Bianca Pistillo. Bungo Stray Dogs is licensed by Yen Press and can be read at yenpress.com.
RIP Akira Toriyama
And there is no proper place to discuss the passing of Akira Toriyama. And I’m not going to pretend that what I have to say will be a sufficient eulogy to Toriyama, so much as me just talking about what I have appreciated in Toriyama’s work.
I have not done any live reactions on Sunday Morning Manga to anything Toriyama created. And I have done very little to point to his influence on those series I have discussed here. What I have appreciated in Toriyama is going to be of limited talk–not because there isn’t a lot, but because the shock of the news, and how I have seen this news affect manga fans, has me second-guessing what to discuss and what I appreciated.
So I’m going to stick to just two points about what Toriyama offered. These are not the most important things he did in art, they aren’t even necessarily the most important influences his work had on me. But they are two of the first things about him that come to my mind.
There was one time I was at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, and I remember being in this communal square where the closing theme music for Dragon Ball Super just kept reverberating through the outdoors. And the music was coming from this giant Shenra inflatable statue. I don’t know why that moment stuck with me. Maybe it was that it was nighttime sky, maybe it was the music blaring–maybe it was the coincidence that there was the one lone Atsushi Nakajima cosplayer I had seen in public, and, hey, doesn’t that tie into this episode’s discussion of Bungo Stray Dogs. I can’t put into words why that moment was overwhelming–the music, the coincidence, the nighttime, all of that may have just hit me how much of the current fandom and industry around anime owed to Dragon Ball and how, like Shenra towering over all of that, we are in the shadow of what Toriyama created.
So, that was the first thing that came to mind.
The second thing that came to mind, and this is me underselling what Toriyama contributed, is the creation of Gohan and Videl. Maybe that’s a narrow focus to have. But there is something so appealing about those two characters, individually and in their dynamic. Yeah, I wish we had more of Videl fighting in the series. But there was something so adorkable about the two of them as a couple, very much a Clark Kent and Lois Lane dynamic, very much two nerds falling for each other, just the fact that Gohan gets to be Saiyaman to try to hide his superpowers from others.
I was never a big fan of Dragon Ball–not until Toonami got to Gohan in the Saiyaman costume, and that goofiness and Videl’s arrival is what made me find the series far more entertaining, and why I appreciated when Dragon Ball Super kept leaning into that goofiness rather than the 20-minute episodes of just loud toilet bowl noises and strobe lights.
I know none of that sounds like a glowing recommendation of Dragon Ball, so that is in poor taste after Toriyama has died.
But it’s also me acknowledging that without Toriyama we wouldn’t have had Saiyaman and Videl and Dragon Ball Super and the same kind of mainstream popularity of manga and anime that has let me have opportunities to talk about it, research it, and teach it.
And I wouldn’t have had those opportunities without Toriyama.
Rest in peace.
Today’s Rant: Bungo Stray Dogs Chapter 113
And now the awkward transition of talking about something far less enjoyable than Dragon Ball Super: Bungo Stray Dogs Chapter 113.
(And not to start complaining too early: for some reason, Chapter 113 was not available on the usual platforms until far later this week. I don’t know whether this was a problem with the platform or Yen Press, but it got fixed, and I hope this problem, which is the first I’ve encountered, doesn’t repeat.)
There Will Be Ranting
And onto another complaint, I’m going to give this disclaimer right now: I have been on a year-long tirade against what I find to be handled poorly in Bungo Stray Dogs, so this is less of a reaction to the chapter than a rant about what I didn’t like. There will be cursing, I am going to be pissed–so, it was either I whine about this chapter, or I start a rant condemning the real-world shit we are dealing with thanks to a corrupt Republican Party–which, yeah, I will be ranting against Republicans at the end of this episode, so, look forward to that.
But if you don’t want to sit through any of my complaints about Bungo Stray Dogs, I completely understand, you can switch this off now, I’ll be back next weekend to talk about RuriDragon Chapter 9, I’ll see you then.
And if you’re still with me, let’s just jump into Chapter 113 of Bungo Stray Dogs.
This Is Getting Annoying
God, I hate this.
Between this and Soul Eater, I’m just going to assume the 113th chapter of any series is always fucked.
I would like to be in a locked (Skype) room with Asagiri, Kadokawa, and Studio BONES to ask one question:
How did you fuck this up this badly?
I hate getting that angry, that mean, over a silly manga, when I tend to decry that attitude when we have bigger problems right now in our world.
But this chapter? God, what a disappointment.
I’m going to bounce all over the place–which, honestly, so does this chapter, as it tries to wrap up Fukuchi’s story while also continuing Sigma’s story and introduce a new wrinkle about Fyodor, and none of this lands, because dividing the focus of this chapter to two different storylines–Fukuzawa witnessing Fukuchi die, and Sigma learning Fyodor may be immortal–means that neither big pivotal moment lands. At best I could say that neither of these storylines have reached closure–we haven’t had Fukuzawa comfort a dying Fukuchi and be forced to keep One Order, and we haven’t seen all the other memories Sigma has accessed…which actually just makes this structure worse, because it means we haven’t wrapped up a plot beat.
I have been struggling to talk about this arc of Bungo Stray Dogs for months now. I used to do audio commentaries for Seasons 4 and 5–and I stopped with the Season 5 finale, not only because, you know, it was the finale, but also because I hated that finale so much. You can listen to those audio commentaries–a YouTube playlist is in the description, but the Season 5 finale audio commentary isn’t there, but you can listen to it for free at patreon.com/dereksmcgrath.
But one reason I struggled with that finale was the same reason I’m struggling here: when does this end? This arc has been the equivalent of two anime seasons, and even then, the anime rushed the story beats so, really, if this was adapted better, more like three or even four seasons. And the arc still isn’t over. There needs to be finality at some point, even if that means there is still a tease to come. The tease of things to come would have been getting into Sigma’s mind. So, as I will repeat here, please forgive me for circling back to previous moments that I didn’t finish discussing (much as this chapter can’t just pick a moment and finish it already), but if I were to plot out this chapter? All the Fukuchi and Fukuzawa stuff goes here, all the Sigma stuff goes into the next chapter–that’s it, done. If you really need to put out a full chapter and can’t divide Chapter 113 into Chapter 113.1 with just Fukuchi and Fukuzawa, and all the Sigma stuff in Chapter 113.2, then at least do the Fukuchi and Fukuzawa stuff first–and then cut to Sigma asleep and us going into his dreams (and do so without Chuuya giving Sigma 15 concussions–and that’s terrible–but we’ll get to that in a moment).
Stick to One Plotline, Please
There is the problem of having this chapter, this storyline, trying to tackle two different places, two different plotlines: Fukuchi’s battle, and the prison duel.
Why did we need the Fyodor stuff here instead of as a .5 chapter in between the two Fukuchi chapters? Why did we dilute the point of Fukuchi’s death by constantly cutting back to Fyodor? How are these two plots speaking to each other, at all? Is there going to be some twist that Fyodor’s immortality or time travel is what informed Fukuchi through the sword, or that Fyodor is the one who will resurrect Fukuchi’s corpse into that entity battling Atsushi in the Season 5 finale post-credit tease?
I’m not saying this can’t be made sensical in subsequent chapters. But I am saying that, at least right now in the middle of a serialized story, Asagiri is creating this awkward back-and-forth between Fukuchi and Fyodor that mutes the importance of each character’s story: I walk away feeling next to nothing over Fukuchi’s death because it wasn’t given its space to be the focus, and I walk away feeling just annoyed that we’re doing that ridiculous “Fyodor may be immortal” conceit. But we’ll get to that.
Fukuchi’s Plan Still Sucks
Let me try now to divide my complaints into sections.
I already talked in my earlier audio commentaries about how Fukuchi’s schemes stretch suspension of disbelief–I”m not getting into it here, there’s a YouTube playlist of my audio commentaries, link in the description.
Sidebar: Ranpo and Louisa Handle Plans Better
Sidebar: It is bizarre to me that I can get this upset when Fukuchi, Dazai, and Fyodor’s schemes all seem far too god-tier to work.
But I can tolerate Ranpo’s schemes working, because he’s just that smart and the way he saved the Agency members from the government was so comical that I can laugh through it.
And I can also enjoy that Louisa May Alcott is probably the smartest character in the series because she not only can come up with schemes but can come up with multiple schemes to offer to Fitzgerald–and then he picks the one he wants. I think that works better with these two, that Ranpo is still so young, naive, and learning to get more cynical, so his intelligence is balanced with his difficulty dealing with the world as it is, and Louisa can come up with the schemes, but it’s someone like Fitzgerald who prioritizes the one best suited to the given context.
And neither Ranpo nor Louisa needed a goddamn time travel sword to do it–and that means Louisa’s time-slowing ability is less annoying than Fukuchi’s reset sword.
So, yeah, Louisa May Alcott, the superior character.
Okay, sidebar over, back to explaining why Fukuchi’s plan still sucks.
Fukuchi’s Plan Still Sucks, Continued
I really don’t want to get into how Fukuchi’s plan makes no sense. I barely touched upon it in the audio commentary I did for the Season 5 finale–which is still not up on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts but is available for free at patreon.com/dereksmcgrath.
But I will touch upon the pathetic reasons Fukuchi gave to justify his nonsensical plan, not because it’s a bad thing to have a character with a flawed plan, but because the story has continuously presented Fukuchi’s plan as unbeatable, logical, and earning the reluctant praise of other characters as undefeatable such that, when Fukuchi’s plan makes no sense, I think it is fair to criticize the story for not addressing every single problem with his stupid plan.
If there is anything I’ll say, Fukuchi’s plan still makes no sense. I get that the point is that he has good intentions but awful methods: he wants to end war, but he has just this tiresome stupid plan that he can stop war by making everyone fall in line as citizens of one united state–which not only is grounds for civil war but also reinforces just the dumbest people online who fall for every stupid lie about some imaginary “one-world government” and use that to attack the UN, NATO, and anything not for maybe being governmental overreach and maybe failing at protecting the human rights they claim to want to protect and instead is just falling for the stupid shiny bait of conspiracy theorists promulgated by nitwits and pretty much antisemitic jackasses.
But also, Fukuchi flat-out says, “I locked up Fyodor, so he won’t be a problem”–when anyone with a time travel sword would know he would be a problem, and if he knew Fyodor was really centuries old he would know this.
Also, now the story is claiming this plan was devised by Fyodor. What the hell? I thought this was Fukuchi’s plan. And instead it was Fyodor’s? And Fukuchi’s went along with it? God, this just pisses me off more–now it’s not Fukuchi’s plan, so he’s not that smart to come up with this plan, but also, this is a dumb plan anyway, so now we can pin that blame on Fyodor, which makes so-called god-tier genius Fyodor also look dumb. Fuck. And all of this makes Fukuzawa killing Fukuchi even more pointless, because Fukuzawa would have to execute the actual mastermind, Fyodor, not Fukuchi. And no, I don’t assume Fukuzawa has learned yet that Bram and Ranpo already killed Fyodor–maybe, maybe not, who freaking knows, I’m tired, let this damn plot end already.
And Fukuchi acts as if the coin bombs wouldn’t kill people–when there is no way those bombings did not kill people–and that the vampire plague wouldn’t kill people–when he already killed Akutagawa and likely killed Jouno and Tachihara to turn them, and when we still don’t know whether getting the vampire plague does indeed kill or whether canceling the plague will restore the ones who weren’t technically killed and whether it will restore Tachihara’s vision and restore Akutagawa’s life.
I know this is nitpicking the story in terms of lore and in-story science rather than characterization and plotting–but when the story is inviting me to hear Fukuchi say, “These things didn’t kill people,” when the story has already shown that they do kill people–like, what am I to take from this? I can accept that this is the story admitting Fukuchi is a liar and not to trust him–so, cool, how about you not let him talk, then? What is the point unless you put it into obvious relief and have Fukuzawa knock down those obvious lies? Because if you don’t, you make Fukuchi look like he’s correct (and suggest Asagiri didn’t think this through), and you make Fukuzawa look ignorant…which, given how Mori of all dumbass people managed to talk circles around him, yeah, I don’t think Fukuzawa is the brightest guy out there…which should have been apparent when he sold such an obvious lie to pretend Ranpo had a superpower, but, hey, Ranpo was desperate, young, and in denial, so that at least it worked long enough for Ranpo to really believe that, so…I really hope I didn’t just talk myself into accepting that of course Fukuzawa just agrees with what Fukuchi says because Fukuzawa is just not that smart.
Fukuchi and Fukuzawa
Let’s move onto Fukuchi’s death.
This chapter rushes Fukuchi’s death. The anime rushed Fukuchi’s death. Neither of these work.
Why are we having Aya witness Fukuchi’s death here in the manga? That’s not what happened in the anime–it was Ranpo.
Granted, yes, we still have to get to Ranpo showing up here, handing One Order to Fukuzawa and witnessing Fukuzawa’s rage scream–and even that moment failed for me, because, as I think I say in the audio commentaries, there is a good chance Ranpo knew way back at Standard Island on the cruise ship what Fukuchi was actually doing and that Ranpo did all he could to make sure Fukuchi would die and hand over One Order to Fukuzawa (otherwise, why would Ranpo have Poe write a book about Fukuchi and Fukuzawa’s childhood unless he knew this would be the outcome?). Don’t get me wrong, Ranpo setting all of this up does not work well at all: it is letting him be far smarter than the story can handle–and not as a gag like how Ranpo helped rescue Fukuzawa, Yosano, and Kunikida from the government. But still, even with how bad the anime was for having Ranpo be the one to witness Fukuchi dying, still, how is it that Ranpo being there in the anime is somehow better than Aya being here in the manga?
I get the point–Aya is a child who hero-worships out of idealism, who sees Kunikida as uncompromised, who probably has zero knowledge about how he got arrested wrongly for failing to save that child from the grenade, who thinks her physically abusive police officer father is a hero. I get it–she is the last person to call Fukuzawa a “hero” for killing Fukuchi, not only because, you know, he didn’t kill him, but because there is no joy in his childhiood best friend dying, that there is no catharsis when we know Fukuchi was not simply a mustache-twirling villain (he still is) but is also a misguided person trying to do what he thinks will make the world better (when it won’t).
And maybe this is my fault, but you know who should have been here to witness Fukuzawa cradling the dying Fukuchi?
Not Ranpo, not Aya.
Yosano.
Yosano was the major force driving this manga arc for so long–before she just disappeared. I get it, if she shows up now, she can heal Fukuchi of his dying injuries. Or, you know, don’t have Aya show up, don’t have Ranpo show up (yet), and instead have Yosano arrive–too late to help Fukuchi, long after he is too dead to save him. The light novel 15 Minutes already established that Yosano has only so much time to heal someone before they are gone forever, so it is not as if she can’t be the one to witness this. And I want her perspective on this: Fukuchi pulled the strings to divide her Agency, Fukuchi forced Fukuzawa to be on the run and have to seek Mori for help which now has Yosano likely to be impressed into the Mafia, Yosano is the other veteran of this war along with Fukuchi and Fukuzawa who suffered from that war–and yet, this story has dropped her entirely. And not to get into a feminist tirade, because, hey, Aya being here helps, but we have Yosano who has been victimized by others, so maybe we can turn back to her as she is a part of this situation and deserves more interiority and, you know, is a doctor, so we have the angst that she is again failing to fulfill her oath as a doctor to save lives and once again failed to save someone, and someone who is close to Fukuzawa.
Fyodor Is Immortal?
Let’s transition–awkwardly, as I don’t have any smooth transition for talking about this.
Fyodor being immortal…
(And, disclaimer: any time I say “Fyodor may be immortal,” go ahead and substitute that phrase with, “Fyodor may be immortal or a time traveler.” I’m not going to go back over my script to replace it every time, and I don’t feel like saying that either/or phrase every time. So, if it turns out Fyodor isn’t immortal and just a time traveler, or a cloned body, or resets his body every time he dies–I don’t care, just say “immortal.” We’re moving on.)
I’m not acting like the anime didn’t telegraph earlier that Fyodor may be immortal, as his character model has stayed the same age in the Dead Apple flashbacks, in the Fukuzawa and Ranpo flashback, and now here during the freaking Crusades.
But the reason I don’t like this, is that it does nothing to inform the original works by the real-life Dostoyevsky and Stoker.
I get it, by that rationale, Atsushi, Dazai, and others shouldn’t be in this setting because that’s not when they wrote their works. The difference is that the current setting of Bungo Stray Dogs has enough aspects that mash together enough time periods that, while contemporary with ours, has enough futuristic tech, pseudo-steampunk aesthetic, jazz-infused music, that this doesn’t feel like it has to be any one time period right here right now.
But to place Dostoyevsky and Stoker explicitly in a Crusade-era time period is prompting too many questions about this story. (It’s not helped by the fact that using real-world people, places, events, and dates for setting this story was already compromised once Ayatsuji name-dropped shitty person Richard Dawkins, and Mori name-dropped that piece of shit Henry Kissinger, so, I’m overlooking that conundrum for a moment.)
Stoker mentions King Matthias, so I assume that’s referring to the mid- to late-15th-century king of Hungary and Croatia. And I think Matthias is mentioned given that he arrested Vlad the Impaler and subdued a rebellion in, say it with me, Transylvania, so, Bram Stoker and Dracula references. And with the references to “the Sultan,” Rome, and the Crusades, this would be during the Crusades of the 15th century, likely when Turkish sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople and referred to himself as the caesar of Rome.
(I had to read Wikipedia articles–not the best sources, I know–to get these dates and references about the Crusades, Matthias, Vlad the Impaler, and Mehmed II. And then after I skimmed those Wikipedia articles, I saw Tumblr account ritequettenoire also researched those same dates and references, including explaining that Mehmed II was the one who dethroned Vlad the Impaler–so, hat-tip to ritequettenoire for researching these dates and the Vlad reference. And adding to it, sad-emo-dip-dye pointed out that the castle in this chapter is Bran Castle in Transylvania, which has minimal connections to the actual Vlad the Impaler.)
But if that is the case, that Bram here is mentioning that Mehmed II is trying to dethrone him, then that means Bram here is just a stand-in for the historical Vlad the Impaler–and I kind of hate it.
Not to out people if they don’t want to be outed, but I have been working with a friend on their excellent Bungo Stray Dogs fanfic story that does a better job weaving together details from the real-life Stoker and the fictional Dracula into something that isn’t just “Bram is actually Vlad” and instead “Bram is Bram in the real-life Bram Stoker’s point in history but also happens to have Dracula aspects.” I won’t name my friend right now as they are working on this story, but that is better than what we have here.
So, I don’t like Bram now being in the 15th century. But I can appreciate that placing Bram here in the 15th century would be suitable when the real-life Vlad the Impaler was from the 15th century as well.
Why Is Fyodor Here?
But what does Dostoyevsky have to do with the 15th century?
This is me showing my ignorance of literature–all the more embarrassing when I have a PhD in the field. (In my defense, I didn’t specialize in 15th-century culture or Russian literature.) But Dostoyevsky was a nineteenth-century writer, not a fifteenth-century writer. Granted, neither was Bram Stoker–except, as I pointed out, I can trace back his Dracula to the 15th century. I struggle to place any of Dostoyevsky’s writings to the 15th century.
This feels like the same sloppy slippage of Asagiri’s other references–similar to how he oversimplifies, say, Nathaniel Hawthorne into a Catholic priest, when, first, even as Bungo Stray Dogs emphasizes, he’s not Catholic, and second, that seems to be lazy superficial surface-level writing only, to just say, “Hawthorne wrote Dimmesdale, just make him Dimmesdale without the underpinnings of the bi-directional tension put onto Puritan hypocrites like him who both have to enforce Christo-state expectations and hold to their own personal truth with a monotheistic all-knowing God who knows he is lying.”
At least Fitzgerald being reduced to a Gatsby joke still tinged that character with aspects of the real life Fitzgerald, starting with the trauma he and his wife went through, and at least Fitzgerald in Bungo speaks to the same dangers of greed and American exceptionalism inherent to the original Gatsby novel–whereas nothing of the rich details from Hawthorne or Dostoyevsky’s works feel like they are at all relevant to their Bungo counterparts, that they are their authors and their works in name only, not in any characterization.
(Also, before anyone asks, “But Edgar Allan Poe was poor in real life, so how come you’re okay with Edgar in Bungo Stray Dogs having a ton of money?” First, that is literally doing the opposite–which means this still works, thematically and logically: it becomes irony, that the real-life Poe was denied wealth for so long, while Bungo Edgar comes into money so easily. Second, it feels right: real-life Poe wrote about aristocracy, put on the trappings of prestige and noble lineage, that of course you can forgive popular culture conflating what he wrote about with what the guy was actually like. See also just about any writing I have done on the pop culture afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe. And as a third point: because Poe having money actually serves plot reasons to give Ranpo what he needs for some of his schemes, makes sense as he was on Fitzgerald’s payroll, and leads to an actually funny moment of Ranpo not knowing any of this so being surprised by it, making for a joke that is far and away funnier than Chuuya giving Sigma 15 concussions–and that’s terrible. And we will get to Chuuya giving Sigma 15 concussions and how that is terrible in a moment. But moving on…)
I’m getting exhausted already getting through all of this chapter, so I’m going to point to people who have a better grasp on what works and doesn’t work with Fyodor in this chapter.
Tumbler account creatorbiaze has a good summary about why the Fyodor revelation feels off–and given how much Fyodor lies, it wouldn’t shock me if this turns out to be one more lie he told Sigma, although that would make this exercise completely pointless if Sigma is just seeing lies by Fyodor, even if they tell us some truths about Bram.
But otherwise, I’m going to elide just what is Fyodor–why he is alive this long, whether he is the embodiment of divine judgment who shows up at important points in time and space to judge and punish like some DC Comics character like Metron, Pariah, or the Phantom Stranger because, honestly, I don’t care. Just get on with revealing who he is already so that we can wrap this story up.
(And if, fans online have theorized–and I apologize for not having links to all of their comments–that Fyodor is the Jesus figure here…You know, making Fyodor akin to Pariah from Crisis on Infinite Earths would’ve been fine, but laying on the Christ imagery doesn’t work, if just because you’re attaching way more meaning beyond “immortal and arbiter of justice,” you’re adding on way too much that I don’t think you can do a good job of using to speak to Christianity, including, you know, a lot that Christianity gets fucking wrong. I think at a time of Christo-fascism in the United States, suddenly acting like Fyodor is your Christ figure has a ton of problems.)
There are already the angel motifs, and Tumblr account t4t-dazai already considered whether Fyodor could be a literal angel. If the most foreshadowing we get is “Decay of the Angel” for how Fyodor is an angel, that is some paltry foreshadowing.
Is Bram the Bad Guy?
About the only revelation I enjoyed in this story is Bram, because just about anything done with that character lends greater complexity to him–including the suggestion here that maybe Bram is a bad guy. I mean, I get it, the story already established Bram as being a feudal lord–that’s evil enough.
Still, I kind of hate that we’re just making Bram now a “villain,” although it’s probably more like Bram was doing awful things to invaders into his nation for the sake of protecting his nation–and yes, we can debate whether national sovereignty somehow justifies what is not justified for Bram to have done–but heaven fucking forbid I get into politics about real-world problems with nations trying to defend themselves and nations doing absolute overkill to obliterate entire groups of people in a foolhardy idiotic attempt to stop terrorism when all they are doing is just perpetuating terrorism–but let’s not get into that right now.
My point is, we already saw complexity to Bram: he holds to an outdated notion of chivalry, he admires Kenji for his agricultural acumen, he admires Aya for her bravery, she reminds him of his lost daughter–we get through all of this a sense that there is a person here full of regret. The flashback lends to that complexity.
But all of this assumes what Sigma sees is an accurate historical record. How did we go from Bram, who almost seems to boast to Fyodor that he is indeed a demon, to Bram in the present day, who is resigned to his fate? Is this atonement? Has centuries of reflection changed him as a person? Or, is the modern Bram the authentic Bram, and what we see in the past was just a front he put on for his soldiers and Fyodor? That wouldn’t change that he is insisting on murdering Fyodor on flimsy suspicions, but it’s more engaging to have this character actually still be the same person throughout–but definitely needing to atone for shit he did wrong.
This only makes me enjoy Bram more as a character–not justifying his actions as a person, but much in the same way I enjoy how Deep Space Nine made Odo the same throughout his time, just teasing out other dimensions to his character, while not making us forget the dude is a fascist, is a collaborator, is a traitor, is despicable, is a cop. But I digress.)
Other Complaints
What else can I whine about in this chapter?
Damn, Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill were really so much better at Fukuchi’s time travel bullshit.
To borrow something from Tumblr account sad-emo-dip-dye, if Bram knew Fyodor already, that would explain why he helped Ranpo kill him–but also, THAT WOULD MEAN BRAM ALREADY KNEW THAT WOULDN’T WORK ANYWAY, SO WHAT THE FUCK?!
We rushed an entire season to have a lackluster ending, when we could have saved this stuff for Season 6, and have the episodes not contradict what the manga shows with Aya witnessing Fukuchi dying and with Sigma getting Fyodor’s memories, or, you know, add more stuff for anime-only viewers that would help set up the manga and make people watch the anime to understand the manga, like an original episode about Fyodor’s past–and instead, we got this mess.
People work hard with limited time and budget to appease other creators and corporations–I’m not overlooking that. But I also can express frustration with poor choices and how I wish, ideally, with all the time and money in the world, these stories could be improved at getting across their point.
What other quick complaints do I have?
Chuuya picking up and dropping Sigma 15 times…That’s not funny. “But Dazai would totally let Chuuya do something like this for the laughs!” We already had Dazai being presented as a god-tier genius and promising to get Sigma out of this–letting Chuuya bash Sigma’s head 15 times is undermining all of that. What would have been funny is Chuuya suggesting it, cut to imagine spot of it happening, cut back to reality, and Dazai just telling off Chuuya that he’s being stupid, a la when Carl in Pixar’s Up imagined dropped Russell from the house. But nope, we get Chuuya acting stupid–because he is. God, I do not like “dumb Chuuya” as a characterization.
Another complaint: if I wanted to read Servamp or Seraph of the End…I would read Servamp, and then just read a summary of Seraph, because hell if I know what is happening in that manga right now. It’d be more entertaining than trying to figure out how Fyodor ends up in the Crusades. Hell, Blood Blockade Battlefront did this idea better with the character Black, someone who witnesses travesties of historical significance.
Final point: I don’t know what to make of Dazai not being in Fukuzawa’s imagine-spot. What do you think, is that a sign of anything about how Fukuzawa views Dazai, or foreshadowing Dazai will be returning to the Mafia? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
Wrapping Up
Anyway, I’ll stop there. Thank you for listening to another episode of Sunday Morning Manga. I think it’s apparent I’m way too close to Bungo Stray Dogs to be fair to the current arc. What do you think? If you’ve read Bungo Stray Dogs, how is this arc better than I’m giving it credit? And if you haven’t read Bungo Stray Dogs, does the bat-shit bizarreness of my summary get you more interested in the story? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section, or email me, derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com.
Other People’s Awesome Stuff
And if you like what you heard–or didn’t like what you heard–check out other people’s awesome stuff! A blogroll of recommended people to check out is at my site, dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com.
And here is where I get all political again.
Buzz Burbank News & Comment
I will again recommend the podcast called Buzz Burbank News & Comment. I am asking you to listen to one of the final episodes of Buzz’s podcast, that being the episode from December 17, 2020.
I am just talking at a brick wall right now: I see where things are under Biden right now, and I appreciate that things under Biden are magnitudes better than they were four years ago. Four years ago was COVID, was a fascist in the White House, was a fascist promising to get rid of abortion rights, was a fascist praising literal Nazis.
Go listen to Buzz’s December 17, 2020, episode, and remember why we are voting for Biden so that we don’t go back to December 17, 2020.
One More Thing
And one more thing before I wrap up:
I said it last weekend, I get to say it again this weekend: fuck the Supreme Court.
I want to focus on talking about all the good Biden and other Democrats have done: taxing the rich over the poor, diversifying government-appointed positions including judgeships on courts, protecting the Affordable Care Act and Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid while Republicans campaign on eliminating those programs, executive orders to expand access to contraception and abortion after the fucking Supreme Court took away those rights.
But if you need me to talk up how good Biden has done to get you to vote, I don’t know whether you were ever reachable, because this orange sack of shit and his Supreme Court taking away your rights should be all the motivation you need to vote for Biden and Democrats.
I should not be surprised that the illegitimate justices are supporting the Republican candidate–who is a a literal insurrectionist and who is literally bragging that he will be a dictator on Day 1–that these illegitimate justices are supporting keeping an illegitimate Republican candidate on the ballot. All of those justices do not deserve to be seated and should be removed by law, and their insurrectionist, sexual assaulting, bigoted dictator of a Republican candidate should be held without bail right fucking now. Seriously, the dude promised he would be a dictator on Day 1–he should be in fucking jail without bail right fucking now.
But back to the Supreme Court: not one justice on that court deserves to be there–the rightwing justices who do not recuse themselves from cases related to the orange shitbag who appointed them, not the rightwing justices who aided W in stealing an election, not the rightwing justices who ignore the Constitution so that they can keep a goddamn insurrectionist and traitor on the ballot, and not even the leftwing justices who went along with that bullshit decision.
I do not say this expecting it will happen, I say it as what needs to happen: when Biden is re-elected and has a Democratic Party-controlled Congress (because you better fucking vote for Biden and Democrats), Biden needs to balance the court by appointing more Supreme Court justices, or he needs to demand right now the immediate resignation of current justices–all nine of them–because not one of them deserves their seat when they permit a fucking insurrectionist to be on the ballot against the self-executing rules written into the Constitution and when, oh yeah, he’s a fucking insurrectionist who shouldn’t be permitted to run, not least of which permitted to run to avoid being held responsible for federal and state crimes he did commit (or, if you’re a fucking dumbass like Kristin Welker, “allegedly” committed).
Fuck the Supreme Court, you need to register to vote, you need to vote for Biden and Democrats, and you need a Democratic Party-controlled Congress to restore the rights we have lost to this illegitimate Supreme Court. We need to voe for Biden and Democrats to retore our rights to privacy, our rights to bodily autonomy, and our rights to an abortion (which, by the way, Biden said he will make Roe the law of the land, so stop repeating fucking lies about Biden and abortion). And we need to vote for Biden and Democrats to restore our rights to an education, our rights to health care–all of those rights gone or compromised by this illegitimate Supreme Court.
Fuck the Supreme Court, fuck that orange sexual assaulting Republican insurrectionist fascist wannabe-dictator.
Vote for Biden, vote for Democrats.
Goddamn, wake the fuck up and vote for Democrats–it’s not this difficult.
As always, if you can legally vote where you live, check your voter registration at vote.org (because Republican groups are trying to take away the right to vote from registered voters), vote for Democrats, and campaign for Democrats at postcardstovoters.org.
Next Time
That’s all for this weekend. Next time, a live reaction to RuriDragon Chapter 9.
Schedule updates will be posted at youtube.com/dereksmcgrath.
Until next time, stay safe out there, people: make sure to mask up, get vaccinated, install adblockers, prevent artificial intelligence from stealing your work, register to vote, campaign against fascism and against war and against ethnic cleansing and against genocide and against terrorism, and learn and practice anti-bigotry. I’ve been Derek S. McGrath. You have a good afternoon. Bye.
Links from Today’s Episode
Support My Work
My previous writings about the pop culture afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe
Series and Films Discussed
Wikipedia Pages
Others’ Thoughts about “Bungo Stray Dogs” Chapter 113
Other People’s Awesome Stuff
Buzz Burbank News and Comment: Episode for December 17, 2020
Other Links
Postcards to Voters: https://postcardstovoters.org
Music
“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction
Derek S. McGrath 