Preview Gif Anime - Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 1

Bungou Stray Dogs (lit. Literary Stray Dogs) comedically tells the story of members of an armed detective agency with specifically strange powers. The narrative concentrates on new member Atsushi as he learns to fit in with the others who all have the names of famous writers. Season Premiere.

Episode 1 - "Fortune is Unpredictable and Mutable"

First Thoughts.

I didn't expect this to be a gag comedy! We first meet our narrative guide Atsushi starving and convincing himself to rob someone so he can eat, but his tone and his pragmatic reasons for avoiding his prospective victims revealed not only his moral character but the tone of the series as well.

This was a true introductory episode, set up to insert Atsushi into the strange collection of detective agents, so I don't know what a regular episode's style and structure will be. I'm pretty confident the gag reactions and jocular banter will take up a lot of the time, but so long as the jokes are topical and reveal character development through the characters' interactions, things should keep being interesting.

I want to see how the show treats the "authors." For example, the lead detective, Dazai, is based on Osamu Dazai, a Japanese writer famous for his many suicide attempts.

I haven't fully committed to reviewing this show weekly because, as I mentioned, I don't know what a regular episode looks like, but the first episode's execution along with its curious premise made it interesting enough to write about.

Heh.

Like I said before, I wasn't expecting the show to be this type of funny. Sure, wry humor and situational banter, but no straight out gag reaction shots and chibi forms. I'll have to see how they mix in these styles of animation with a real plot.

The story appears to be set in modern times, but the dress style of the agents is decidedly old-fashioned. I suppose this is a nod to the fashion of the day for each of the authors the characters are based on.

I wonder if the source the anime is adapted from isn't some big literature commercial. I say that jokingly, but it appears that each of the specific powers of the agents are actually titles of one of their works. Dazai's nullification power is called No Longer Human, which is Osamu Dazai's most famous book.

Nakajima Atsushi was an author who wrote one major novel and a collection of stories titled The Moon Over the Mountain. One short story is called The Tiger Man, set in Tang Dynasty China, and now you know why his tiger transformation power looks like that and why he dresses like a Chinese peasant. Gah! I love this stuff!

I'm in an expectant mood for what the next few episodes look like. From the opening and closing credits, there is a villain or rival of sorts who may end up being the big bad for this split cour show. Also, even though Dazai says he's not interested in men, the end credits play up a whole yaoi angle I wasn't expecting either.

So far, I'm impressed by the background and action art. The premise is intriguing, the character designs tickle my search engine curiosity, and the humor clicks with me. I just have to see if the story interests me enough to write about weekly. We shall see.