Bungo Stray Dogs Episode 29 Review: My III Deeds are The Work of God

The first episode of the season set in present day, hit us hard with an amazing ‘introduction’ of the re-established villain Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Needless to say that he is just truly terrifying: this calmness and lack of emotion is so unsettling.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 咎与うるは神の業

Plot

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the leader of the Rats in the House of Dead, is being held captive by Ace, one of the Port Mafia’s five executives. Ace has a special power that allows him to make precious jewels out of peoples’ life spans and he also happens to be untrustworthy gambler that wants to bring the leadership of Port Mafia down. Even though Mori trusts him with the interrogation of Fyodor, he plots against him and suggests to Fyodor to become one of his collared slaves, but Fyodor manages to gamble his way to freedom. Thinking that he has the upper hand in this, he underestimated Fyodor’s abilities which ended up costing his slaves’ and his own life.

Episode Highlights

Daisuke Ono is in the house: With the introduction of Ace in this episode, who happens to be voiced by the amazing Daisuke Ono, you would think that he would see more days in the series, but once again Bones managed to surprise us. Despite the fact that Ace looks like something between Sebastian Michaelis from Kuroshitsuji and Decim from Death Parade, you can tell that he is an unstable psychopath from the first time he pops up in our screen. Even though he looks very powerful and highly mental, he is not the most dangerous man in the room, something that made the episode take such unexpected turns.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: This character is just so intriguing. Even though he was in Dead Apple, we didn’t really had the chance to get a sense of him, but with this episode you realize that he is no joke. He is highly manipulative and managed to execute his plan perfectly by feeding his enemies false information about his powers. He made Ace take his own life, killed the entire crew of the ship and managed to get his hands on a list with all the special abilities of the Port Mafia members, without even breaking a sweat. The title of the episode ‘My III Deeds are The Work of God’, could not resonate his character more. Can we also add the fact that his voice actor, Akira Ishida, absolutely nails the menacing quality of his voice?

Themes & Trivia

Ace and the Madness of the Jewel King: The Madness of the Jewel King refers to himself, however, it is likely the title comes from the The Madness of King George III, a play by Alan Bennett. The name of his powers is also kind of self-explanatory, if you think about the fact that he is turning people in jewels.

Fyodor’s powers: His power ‘Crime and Punishment’ is referring to a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. Before the killing, Raskolnikov believes that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds. However, once it is done he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust for what he has done. His moral justifications disintegrate completely as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts the real-world consequences of his deed. I honestly don’t know what I will see this man do in the show.

Comments

Am I the only one that thought that the young red-headed kid with the collar was Chuuya? I spent the first few seconds of the episode wondering why the hell is Chuuya there as a kid and how is it possible for him to be at the same time and place with Fyodor. After he started talking, I realized that he is another character and that my brain was just playing tricks on me.

I have to say I was so impressed with this episode, the direction and soundtrack (especially that ominous violin at the end when Fyodor kills the poor kid) was outstanding. This series just keeps getting better and better in every episode.

I’ll bring the mercy of death upon the evil of this world.

Fyodor is not going to be an easy enemy, and something is telling me that even Dazai is going to have a hard time dealing with him. Can’t wait to see how the plot will carry on from this point.

NEXT TIME: Slap the Stick & Addict

The series is part of our weekly anime previews!