Bungo Stray Dogs Episode 35 Review: Cannibalism (Part 2)

The clock is ticking and the combat between the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency it getting heated. Seeing Fukuzawa fighting Mori to minimize the casualties of their organizations is going to be the most intense fight we have seen so far.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 共喰い(其の二)

Plot

There are only seventeen hours left until the virus starts taking effect, so the Agency decides to go against their President’s will and fight the Port Mafia in order to kill Mori. Kunikida and Atsushi don’t follow the rest as they believe that this is just what the enemy wants and try to discover any leads that Katai might have found out about Fyodor. Unfortunately when they visit his apartment they realize that Katai has been erased by Fyodor. Meanwhile, as Kenji assaults the Port Mafia Headquarters, Rampo picks up a fight with Chuuya and traps him and himself in one of Edgar Alan Poe’s tales. Kyouka infiltrates the HQ and starts fighting Akutagawa, while Yosano, Tanizaki, and Kenji have to face Motojiro and his lemon bombs. Seeing that there is no chance to move further inside, Yosano commands everyone to fall back and retreat into the Armed Detective Agency. At that point, both Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency receive word that their leaders have vanished. Fukuzawa and Mori meet up in an abandoned building somewhere that seems to be of significance to both of them, as it is revealed that they used to work together ten years ago, and so the fight between them begins with the last man standing, becoming the survivor of this cannibalistic curse.

Episode Highlights

Rampo Vs Chuuya: Well, isn’t this an unexpected and interesting development? I would have never imagined these two fighting and even if I did, I wouldn’t think that Rampo would even stand a chance against Chuuya. But to my surprise once more, Rampo acts very cleverly and traps both of them in one of Poe’s stories. This is going to be fun to watch, especially Chuuya getting upset over all the unnecessary detective drama.

Kyouka and Akutagawa: It doesn’t stop surprising me how the Port Mafia members still act softly around Kyouka after everything that happened. Kouyou acts like her mom and now Akutagawa had this super nice and touching speech about how she has finally found a reason to live, like an older brother or something. Akutagawa is such a nice guy: he even thought of Dazai when he mentioned the whole ‘ceased to desire death’ dialogue. Does this imply that he is actually happy for Dazai as well? God damn it, this show makes it really hard to distinguish the good from the bad guys.

The leaders meet: I was expecting this fight with great excitement. There were a lot of hints that these two knew each other from back in the day, but now we will finally be able to get to the bottom of this and learn more about their relationship and their powers. It’s going to be fascinating to see Fukuzawa, an honorable swordsman, fighting Mori, a doctor with some kind of perverted loli powers. I am intrigued.

Themes & Trivia

The Black Cat: It is a short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the 19 August 1843 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It is a study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. In both, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt. Chuuya is not going to enjoy this adventure at all.

Comments

I have a few things to say about this episode. First of all, I feel like their budget run out at this point of the show because the last few episodes haven’t had a consistent quality in all of their scenes. Second, Yosano seems to have ‘a bone to pick’ with Mori, which makes me think if they worked together as doctors before or something like that. And lastly, the guy with the lemon bombs along with his theme song reminds me of the Jet Set Radio characters.

Want to see that it’s like to be crushed by gravity?

Something is telling me that Mii-chan is more important than we think. I also noticed her existence in the opening where we see Fukuzawa and Mori, so that cat is definitely significant to their back story. Another thing that made me really happy was the fact that Tanizaki was reporting to Dazai about the events that occurred. This means that our boy will soon be back into action.

NEXT TIME: Cannibalism (Part 3)

The series is part of our weekly anime previews!