Bungou Stray Dogs (Season 3) Series Review

If you read anything related to Bungo Stray Dogs in the anime community, the first thing you will probably see are the following words: ‘This show is so underrated’. Partially I agree with this, because honestly there are far worse shows out there that have way too much attention compared to this one. And frankly, it deserves it. I am sure that by now, you know what Bungo Stray Dogs is all about: the anime version of utilizing various famous writers with their works acting as special abilities. Did I also mention the spectacular animation by BONES? No? Well, now you know what it’s about.

Synopsis

The season begins with the narration of a story that occurred before the events of the first season, eight years ago. Dazai is sent to examine some strange rumors of the Predecessor’s revival within Suribachi City where he meets the fifteen-year-old Chuuya as the leader of the Sheep. After battling with each other they are forced to work together by the Leader of the Port Mafia in order to find more about the rumor of ‘Arahabaki’. Back to present, Fyodor makes his move and initiates his plan to destroy both the Port Mafia’s and the Armed Detective Agency’s leaders by inflicting them with a virus that drains their lifespan, controlled by a gifted user under his command. Although he tries to turn the organizations against each other, he fails as they start working together instead in order to infiltrate into the Rats in the House of the Dead’s hideout and capture him.

Plot & Story

This season has been a mixture of things in terms of plot. The major story arcs and the most important are probably the ‘Arahabaki’ and the ‘Cannibalism’. Bungo Stray Dogs knows how to add good flashback stories that complement the relationships and the events of the present. In this season we get to learn more things about Chuuya and Dazai: how they met, what is Chuuya’s power all about, how they became partners and started working together and the reason for their strange dynamic. After this arc we are presented with some disjointed backstories that give us more information about Fyodor as a villain, the introduction of a new character, Katai, who is also a member of the Armed Detective Agency, some insights about Kyouka and Atsushi’s past and how Fitzgerald is still alive and is slowly rising back to power. Which brings us to ‘Cannibalism’, an arc that follows the actions of Fyodor and the Rats in the House of the Dead against the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency. As they share the same problem this time, they work together and we get to learn a lot of lore regarding Yokohama and the history of its ‘older’ cast.

You can’t really help but love most of the cast in the series, including the villains, but sometimes and especially in this season, it is really difficult to assess them individually when everything is so rushed out. Even the short stories that are meant to give more depth to the characters are passing so fast that it kind of takes away the magic and I find that to be quite underwhelming. Other than that, I think this season lacked a little bit of solidity and could have tied things together a little bit better. It’s so unfortunate to see important arcs being so rushed without giving the appropriate amount of attention, for example Fyodor and his desires regarding ‘The Book’ . With that being said, it’s quite clear that we haven’t seen the last of him as the main villain, that’s for sure!

Art & Music

No one can really argue that the art in Bungo Stray Dogs is anything less than immaculate. BONES gives this series the necessary amount of love that it deserves when it comes to artwork and animation. It is consistent with impressive and fluid action sequences that look amazing. I do think however the art style can look a bit derpy at times. There are a lot of scenes where the characters’ faces are not painted in the background as well as some lack of movements and some designs that can look quite weird, especially in some close-ups where the characters looks like they are facing simultaneously in multiple different directions, which is kind of hilarious at the same time.

The soundtrack is great as always and once again the opening ‘Setsuna no Ai’ is performed by GRANRODEO, whose lead singer is also voicing Chuuya.

Themes & Trivia

The anime is almost caught up with the manga: So after reading about this season a little bit, it seems like it was just one part of a really major arc in the manga and also, apparently the anime is almost caught up with the manga so that’s why they expanded this season with some light novel material and one filler episode.

Fun fact: Natsume-sensei is transforming into a male calico cat which is very rare to find.

Comments

I think the first story in this season was held together quite well but as for the rest of them I have a variety of minor complaints: I didn’t like how they handled and how fast they ended a lot of the protagonists’ arcs such as Atsushi’s father issues with the orphanage’s headmaster, Fyodor’s reasoning and hate behind everything as well as Mori’s and Fukuzawa’s backstory. They just briefly threw some information at us and then they were like ‘Welp, the season is over, that’s all, folks. We are the stray dogs, cheers!’ And might I add that I call bullshit once more on the ‘Fyodor was shocked’ part? I will never let this go. There is no way he didn’t calculate the odds about Dazai working with Fitzgerald and using the Eyes of God to his advantage.

Anyone that doubts Dazai falls into a cognitive prison.

Plus:

Nice story with fun humor
Interesting and mysterious villain
Great artwork and soundtrack

Minus:

The disjointed rushed out story arcs

Bungo Stray Dogs is definitely worth the watch and although I might not be showering it with praise, it is a good and solid production with an interesting plot and engaging characters. The root of its problems is caused because of how much the anime industry is pushing content creators to summarize huge stories into a twelve-episode season and not with its original plot and choice of storytelling. If you have watched the previous seasons, you don’t have to think twice about watching this one!