Bungo Stray Dogs (Season 2) Series Review

Now that’s more like it! In the second season of Bungo Stray Dogs things get way more dark and serious, and frankly that was the most appropriate route that this anime could take. It has great character development, many insights for the events of the past, and introduced many new exciting and unique characters. Bungou Stray Dogs found its balance and finally delivered a story that uses literature figures in a supernatural thriller that meets our expectations.

Synopsis

Diving into Dazai’s past when he was the youngest senior executive of the Port Mafia, we witness the unraveling of a tragic story between him and the lowest ranking member, Sakunosuke Oda, as well as the intelligence agent Angou Sakaguchi who despite their differences have become great friends. However, one day, after the disappearance of Angou, things get a serious turn that ends up in great casualties. Back to the present, the battle between the Agency, the Guild, and the Port Mafia continues but when the lives of everyone in Yokohama are in danger, secret alliances will lead to the survival of the ‘fittest’.

Plot & Story

So this season covers three different story arcs: the Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era the Guild Arc; Double Black; and the Yin Yang. The first arc (which was probably the best out of the three) takes place four years before the events of the first season and acts as a prequel to the anime that shows Dazai’s past from when he was a member of the Port Mafia. We get to see him interacting with already established characters like Chuuya, Akutagawa, Ogai, etc. but at the same time we are introduced to Odasaku and Angou. Now from my point of view, Odasaku is the most important character in the story since he is the reason behind Dazai’s character development and probably the main reason why this season turned to be darker than the previous one. Despite the fact that you can’t help but sympathize with his character, it was his resolve, personality and his relationship with Dazai that made Dazai what he is today. He gave him reason to develop himself and use his skills for the sake of others, which makes Dazai to not look like a comedic character with suicidal attempts but as someone with a strong personality and determination who changed his ways to find inner peace.

The second arc carries on where the story was left off in the first season and things get way more obscure and sinister. There is a war between three organizations: the Armed Detective Agency, The Guild, and Port Mafia where each is trying to annihilate the other two. More action, way more violence and a lot of new interesting characters were introduced here, and it’s worth mentioning that The Guild (that acts a foreign organization) has characters named from a lot of authors that the audience might be acquainted with: Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, etc.

The third and last arc that the anime covers presents how different but yet how similar Atsushi and Akutagawa are in terms of personalities, hence the Ying Yang reference. They do try to achieve the same things but they are also held back by different insecurities about themselves: Akutagawa thinks he is weak and seeks Dazai’s approval while Atsushi thinks he is worthless and cannot let go of his past. And before the season ends, we are introduced to Fyodor Dostoevsky, who seems to be the next main antagonist of the Agency and the Port Mafia.

Long story short, this season was so well-done in terms of storytelling that managed to glue me on my screen

Art & Music

The animation standards were pretty high in the first season, but in the second one it’s pretty clear that Bones invested more of their budget. Animation-wise everything is significantly improved with a lot of more detailing in the characters, action scenes, and backgrounds. The lighting and directing of the scenes were very impressive as well (the many beautiful sun-setting backgrounds of Yokohama), especially the elevator scene in the last episode: the angles used to show Akutagawa and Atsushi during that scene were so smart and manage to highlight the fact that they are the ‘living’ example of the Yin Yang principle. They also used beautiful color pallets that blended in perfectly with the general feeling of each scene. Both the opening and closing of the anime did not disappoint.

The voice acting in this season was so good. The previous season had great voice acting as well, but in this one, it blew my mind. Suwabe Junichi did an amazing job with Oda’s character. His performance was just outstanding. In the scene where the orphans die in front of his eyes and he says the following:

My throat hurt. I couldn’t breathe. I heard someone screaming. I realized, because my throat hurt so much, that I was the one who was screaming

He made me shiver. Plus, we had Takahiro Sakurai as Fitzgerald; what more can you really ask for?

A very notable difference compared to the first season is the soundtrack. They used more jazzy and noir vibes into the instrumentals with mellow tunes and even some classical opera music that really gave off a very mafia-like vibe to the show. Very well done. The opening and ending songs were very fitting and super catchy as well.

Themes & Trivia

Read more about The Guild members: In this article you can read more about the names and the abilities of The Guild members. Very interesting insights that make the characters’ psyche much more comprehensible.

Dazai will star in the anime film adaptation of his powers: Dazai’s voice actor, Mamoru Miyano, stars in the anime film adaptation of No Longer Human, which is based on a real book by Dazai.

Comments

Pity yourself and life becomes and endless nightmare.

This season had so many wonderful quotes from the characters that portray their feelings and personalities so well. I think this season showed really well that the characters are based on actual authors and their writing. For example, when Atsushi said: ‘The head may err but never the blood.’, the quote gave off such a powerful impact for the scene and his character.

I really enjoyed all the new characters, but I had a special interest on Lovecraft and Q. Lovecraft was just funny, but Q (aka Yumeno Kyuusaku) really creeped me out. His powers called ‘Dogra Magra’ share the same name with the title of his most significant novel that exemplifies modern Japanese avant-garde gothic literature. In the story, the protagonist wakes up in a hospital with amnesia. He finds out that he was the subject of an experiment by a now-dead psychiatrist, and the doctors are working to bring back his memories. It is not clear whether he was a psychotic killer or the victim of a strange psychological experiment, but it is told that he killed his mother and wife and that he inherited his psychotic tendencies from an insane ancestor. I mean can you imagine how f*cked up this character actually is?

People exist to save themselves.

Plus:

Great story arcs with meaningful character development
Nice dialogues and quotes
Amazing action scenes, quality animation and character design
Nice soundtrack
Interesting and unique characters

Minus:

I didn’t like that Dazai was being an asshole to Akutagawa all this time. I mean I understand why he did it, but again when he hangs up on him after asking to talk to him, I was like: ‘Dazai, bruh, that’s not cool.’

The first season of Bungo Stray Dogs came off a bit dry with its attempts to include black comedy and its lack of good storyline, but the second season came in strong and focused in all the right things.

I cannot hold my excitement to see all the wonderful characters back into action in the third season (Spring 2019)!