Bungo Stray Dogs 4 ep. 48 – A Closed Room

Posted on by Irina

What, they’re just not going to tell us what happened to Yosano? Like that’s in any way o.k? I’m just supposed to sit here and let the story go on not knowing what happened? This is a rhetorical question, you don’t have to answer that.

And despite all of that, this was a fun episode, right? I liked it a lot!

Since the members of the Armed Detective Agency are all divided now, we get to follow independent storylines as they crash together. And so far, Atsushi and Kyouka have managed to avoid most of the other big players. Atsushi met the Decay of the Angel once when he grappled with Gogol in that hallway but otherwise they’ve mostly ignored him. I’m not even sure he knows about the Hunting Dogs yet and the Mafia doesn’t seem interested in what he’s doing either. In fact, it seems he’s the one that needs to actively seek out other factions, like the guild. That’s sort of relaxing all things considered.

And can I say that I love that they brought Oguri back. First I simply enjoy him as a character but second, his ability is very interesting and he had such a nice build-up that it seemed a shame to see him go so quickly. Having Atsushi seek him out like that is something I would never have thought of. And maybe, something Fyodor hasn’t bet on either. If there’s one thing Atsushi has going for him right now it’s that the Tiger is strong but he is weak. And weak people get underestimated. There’s no need to bother too much with the weak now is there?

Already from the opening sequence, we get reintroduced to the type of person Oguri is. And we know this episode is going to be different from the last few.

Because Oguri is not a bad character at all. He’s a little selfish and occasionally cowardly but he’s also had a pretty rough life. And he’s a bit of a goofball. That fits in nicely with the rest of the characters on the show. Maybe he can join the Agency when this is all over? I don’t actually know, the manga hasn’t gotten that far yet.

The recurring acupuncture gag was cute. I openly giggled every time. And Oguri’s escape plan was great. I remember when I first saw it and it does seem ridiculous, like something that would never work but also, if I really think about it, if I,m chasing something in a video game for example, and out of the corner of my eye I see a door close up ahead, I am 100% checking that room first. I’m not going to go start checking the seemingly empty open rooms around. And even if I did, I would start by the end of the hallway, not in the middle. I’m saying that I think this might be a viable escape plan. It could have gone wrong in dozens of different ways but I’m willing to believe that it could have gone right as well. And that’s impressive!

I already said I was glad they brought Oguri back. I was downright thrilled to see Ango again. For reasons that I do not know myself, I’m always very excited when Ango makes an appearance. It’s not even character design reasons you guys.

Ok so Ango is on their side – YAY! And he’s working with Dazai… more on that later. And he knows the Agency is innocent. Now, this wasn’t all that clear in the manga either but you could infer it pretty easily. Ango’s power is to read the “memory” of objects. Basically, he can touch an object and relive the scenes that object was present for. Pretty freaking amazing, right? I bet the Mafia were pissed to see a power like that slip through their fingers. I think that because of that power, Ango got some conflicting information. The altered reality from the book and the scenes of things that happened before reality got altered from touching an object. After all, these objects don’t have actual memories like people do, so the book won’t work on them in the same way. At least that’s how I understood it.

And I’m o.k. with that. The book has a few limitations, we’ll learn about them eventually. And that’s a good thing. It’s already way too powerful as it is. You need some wiggle room to make things interesting.

Let’s get back to Dazai for a minute. Dazai has always been the type of character you need to suspend absolutely all disbelief for. He’s a bit of a magical element in a show full of people with superpowers… But how do we feel about the fact that he’s sending some type of morse code by controlling his heartbeat? Don’t get me wrong, it’s kind of cool and I think borderline possible. Some people can control their bodies in that way. Not enough to have heartbeat morse code but you know, it’s an anime. But there’s also something annoying about giving Dazai yet another improbable skill that hasn’t been foreshadowed in any way. So I’m torn between thinking it’s cool and thinking it’s lame.

I wonder how Fyodor is sending messages out. Is it the same? If it is, who is relaying the messages for him?

On the other hand, Lucy’s room has been plenty foreshadowed and I love that they can just have this little ultimate safe house as long as they can get to Lucy. It’s been used three times by the Agency since the character has been introduced and each time it made perfect sense and really helped the story along. They’re making great use of this power is what I’m saying. And they still manage to not make it too convenient by having Lucy be an outsider who is not always available and not entirely reliable.

We found out a bit more about the Decay of the Angel. Still, their goal seems pretty vague at the moment. Destroy the state? That could mean a lot of things. But essentially, they are good ‘ol terrorists. We also learned yet a bit more about the book’s powers and limitations. I particularly love the idea that the power only works if there is narrative consistency. But that makes this single-page thing confusing. Since it’s been torn out, does it just have to have independent internal consistency, or is what’s happening now somehow consistent with everything that’s been written in the book so far? If so, has everything we’ve been seeing since season 1 just been written in the book?

In any case, that’s not why I loved this scene, or this episode really. It was hope. Somehow, seeing Ango distraught and Oguri at the end of his rope just to have Atsushi think this is the best news and celebrate with Kyouka. I dunno you guys. I think maybe I don’t see weakness the same way other people do.

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6 thoughts on “Bungo Stray Dogs 4 ep. 48 – A Closed Room”

  1. Dazai communicating via heartrate is sort of in character. I mean, it doesn’t sound good for his health, and he’s always seemed to toy with suicide but never die. This way of communicating may be silly, but it fits his flavour, I’d say.

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