10 Second Anime - Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 12

The North American Guild targets the Armed Detective Agency. Season Hiatus.

Episode 12 - "Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past"

Heh.

I thought this was the North American Guild, not just the American Guild.

Was it originally just American until someone pointed out that Lucy M is supposed to be Canadian?

That's right, the nice Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables, is a braces-wearing psychologically damaged red-head.

Her power puts people into her separate dimension.

We met F. Scott Fitzgerald, oh, I mean, Francis F., last episode, and he played the filthy American to a tee. I liked his response to the idea that there are things money can't buy: the mantra of the poor. I'm sure the Great Gatsby himself might have a few ideas about that...

It turns out that the bounty they set on Atsushi was just to get the Port Mafia to crush the Detective Agency so the Guild could scoop up its Gifted Business Permit. I suppose these things are like taxi medallions or liquor licenses?

Francis F. found he couldn't bribe the authorities into granting him one, so he decided to try and take somebody else's. Too bad the Port Mafia was underpowered against the Agency. Now the Guild has to do things itself.

It's not just people that Lucy M can disappear. She made a whole Port Mafia building disappear too. I guess the Guild is pretty confident in itself so that it can attack two fronts at once.

The Tanizaki's reminded the audience of their "special" relationship while they were out searching for Kenji, who was taken first.

Always pay attention to the extra with a speaking role. This doctor was carrying a picture of the creepy crayon girl in the last episode. Was this guy looking for someone the Port Mafia kidnapped too?  That appeared to be the intention, but I was skeptical.

The good doctor gave Atsushi a nice pep talk and Lucy M a healthy amount of blood lust. Yeah, he wasn't just some dude that got sucked up in the attack on the intersection.

I don't know how I feel about Anne being some huge superfast puppet in this separate dimension.

Atsushi is getting the hang of his powers. Good. Also, nice teamwork with Tanizaki.

Uh oh. Atsushi continues to build his harem.

He did the same thing with Kyouka. Make them cry and show he cares and that he's just like they are: a poor orphan taken in by a new loving family.

Kyouka didn't object.

I wonder if Atsushi is going to work his orphan harem magic on creepy crayon girl Elise.

We had some quick hints about who the doctor was before he was revealed in all his glory as the Port Mafia Boss. Besides the same voice actor as last episode, I mean. Elise called him Rintarou, but his introduction card said Ougai Mori whose special power is Vita Sexualis.

Well, the real life Ougai Mori was a surgeon in the Japanese Imperial Army whose birth name was Rintarou and later became a poet and novelist. His first big novel was Vita Sexualis, erotic fiction that was semi-autobiographical. In one of his earlier works, Maihime (Dancing Girl), he describes an affair between a Japanese man and a German woman. Named Elise, perhaps? Kinky.

Kyouka's reaction to seeing Mori was some good stuff. Mori had described himself as an ex-doctor who was now just a middle-aged guy trying to keep a small group of people in line. I can totally see how he and Dazai would have gotten along. Kyouka recognized him.

This was a good transition point to the hiatus. The Guild had shown itself. The Mafia Boss decided to take a more active role in its operations after the defection of Dazai and the injury of Akutagawa. It's going to be three-way war and I'll start recognizing a lot more English literature references too. But I'll have to wait until the Fall Season before that happens.