10 Second Anime - Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 11

Higuchi seeks to rescue an injured Akutagawa. Atsushi goes on a case with Kenji.

Episode 11 - "Part 1 - An Unsuitable Profession For Her"

"Part 2 - An Ecstatic Detective Agency"

Heh.

This episode felt like a pure interlude that offered continuity, character development and character introduction. It was just fun!

First, Kyouka seemed to be a big hit with the other Agency staff.

Why a maid outfit?

Why not?

Even Ranpo the stickler was enchanted. Atsushi was worried whether they would keep her around because of her body count, which I think was a little bit of Kunikida rubbing off on him, but he really shouldn't have been.

This was an office run by a guy who took in Dazai, then Atsushi and showed the lengths of what that means in the rescue operation for Atsushi. The President is just as whimsical as everyone else, except Kunikida. Kyouka became an official member of the Agency.

There was continuity and character development on the Port Mafia side too. Higuchi met with the Big Boss because of her delicate position now that Akutagawa was incapacitated.

His daughter, or whatever, looks pretty creepy. Her crayon drawings on the floor and the table cloth not only hint at her having a special power, but also the doting relationship she has with her father and her probable spoiled nature. She's going to be some kind of crazy trouble in the future.

The Boss made an interesting explanation of how the mafia works to explain why it was a big deal for her that Akutagawa was in a coma. The mafia trades in money, obviously, to finance its operations, but it also trades in violence. The threat of violence can be considered interest or a loan taken out on the value of violence. Akutagawa's worth in terms of violence was a staggering amount, but Higuchi's personal worth to the Mafia was much less.

Her terms of value work not only against competing gangs but also within the organization and a visit from the Black Lizard reinforced that.

However, there was an unspoken currency in the gang that matters too. Loyalty. Higuchi's audacious expression of that loyalty to Akutagawa after he was taken by the rival gang Karma Transit spurred the Black Lizard to rally to her in support.

The heart of Higuchi's tale was why she was so loyal to Akutagawa. The melodramatic music pointed toward old-style romance of an unrequited love. Her words said she was just doing her job, but her eyes said something else entirely and with much more feeling.

The second part of the episode was pure farce with Kenji Miyazawa's official introduction. We didn't get an actual name for his power, but super strength activated when he's hungry seemed to fit his farm boy persona.

The real life Kenji Miyazawa was a poet who lived during the early part of the 20th century, dying in 1933 from pneumonia. He is most famous for his children's literature and trying to live as a farmer even though he came from a rich family. His poor health came from his rigid devotion to vegetarianism.

The fictional version relies on his child-like naivety to elicit confessions and the use of his super strength to get out of trouble. Kunikida thought it would be a good idea to group Atsushi with Kenji and Tanizaki to get more detective experience, but he ended up alone with Kenji.

Ha! I got a kick out of Atsushi's retching noises when he learned there was nothing left of some bodies to identify.

Innocent Atsushi trying to learn from naïve Kenji's methods didn't seem like a good idea and even Atsushi could tell when people were lying to Kenji. They were just lucky that Kenji got hungry right before they were attacked.

There was one more nod to continuity.

Dazai obviously made it safely away from the Port Mafia last episode, but he hasn't gone back to work yet. Oh no. It's vacation time for him, drinking sake, eating canned crab and reading about more ways to commit suicide. He said he'll report back to work "tomorrow."