Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 1: Fortune Is Unpredictable and Mutable

It's time for a new season of The Animes! This Spring there was really only one thing I was looking forward to: "Bungou Stray Dogs". This is a brand-new anime series by Studio Bones, based on the bestselling manga by Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa. "Bungou Stray Dogs" centers on characters based on real-life authors such as Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Yukito Ayatsuji, Dan Brown, and Agatha Christie. The main characters are part of a group called the Armed Detective Agency. The ADA is made up of private investigators who have supernatural abilities, and as such are called upon to solve cases that the police and military can't solve alone. As each character is named for an author, their abilities are also named for well-known works by their real-life counterpart. The art and animation is great, as to be expected from Bones. The music is great too, having an opening song I INSTANTLY billed as an abingdon boys school song (I learned afterwards that it's actually Granrodeo song, and the groups just have REALLY SIMILAR vocalists).

If you want my opinion without spoilers, skip down to the end. I promise it's well-marked.

Opening Theme: Granrodeo - Trash Candy

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SPOILERS

The story opens on Atsushi Nakajima, an orphan on the brink of starvation. Atsushi was kicked out of the orphanage where he lived and is now looking for somebody to mug for cash. When he sees a man floating down the river, Atsushi jumps in and inadvertently saves the man's life while trying to steal his wallet. The man is Osamu Dazai, an ADA detective with suicidal tendencies who tried to drown himself in the river. Over time we're introduced to Dazai's short-tempered partner Doppo Kunikida, who has an obsession with order and timeliness. Their mission is to hunt down a giant tiger which has been terrorizing the area. Atsushi immediately tries to book it out of there, having been affected by the tiger himself. The tiger had been following Atsushi everywhere, and he assumes he was kicked out of the orphanage because they saw him as bad luck.

As it turns out, Atsushi himself IS the tiger; he has the supernatural ability to transform into a tiger, though he doesn't know about it and has no control or memory of the ability. Dazai shows off his own ability, the power to cancel out other abilities with physical contact. Pretty overpowered. And actually not very useful in a lot of cases, right? Is that just me? Like, what if he ran into just some bog-standard criminal without any kind of powers? Anyway, Kunikida went through the trouble of assembling the A̶v̶e̶n̶g̶e̶r̶s̶ other ADA detectives for a false alarm, Dazai takes out the "tiger" on his own, and Atsushi is invited to join the ADA. Cue opening song (???) and then ending song. To be continued.

Quick note on the other ADA detectives, they are... SUCH anime characters. They're so predictable and I LOVE them. First we have Akiko Yosano, the 3edgy5me "What, no casualties? How boring" formal dress goth girl. She's my favorite of the three already. Then there's cool detective shadowy face hat guy Rampo Edogawa, complete with Sherlock Holmes coat thing. Finally we have Kenji Miyazawa, who I'm pretty sure is literally Huckleberry Finn.

END OF SPOILERS

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I'm really loving this series so far. Even based on a single episode, it's so much fun. The characters are instantly likeable and memorable and the plot is pretty interesting as well. It's a little bit predictable but I don't even care. I'm looking forward to seeing where the show goes, as somebody who has never read the manga. Hey, maybe I'll even read it. Someday. I'm a big fan of supernatural mystery. "Bungou Stray Dogs" airs on Crunchyroll every Wednesday, and will have a mid-season split. The first half of the season started this week and will have 12 episodes. The second half will begin in October.

-Justin