10 Second Anime - Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 21

The Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia ally themselves against the Guild. Dazai and Chuuya renew their partnership for the alliance's first mission.

Episode 21 - "Double Black"

Heh.

Atsushi evidently convinced the President Fukuzawa to form that alliance with the Port Mafia.

Ougai and Fukuzawa know each other pretty well, even down to their most embarrassing secrets. Like Ougai thinking like a little girl, which explains his "relationship" with Elise, and Fukuzawa talking to cats.

Fukuzawa traded trying to bribe a black cat with a sardine for a moonlit white tiger to talk to. I call that a win.

Any scene with Dazai, especially him complaining about something, is a good scene.

I remember the whole office taking bets on what Dazai did before joining the Agency. This episode, suddenly Kunikida is the only who didn't know Dazai was formerly a Port Mafia executive. Or was he just the last to know?

Dazai, even four years later, still knows how the culture of the Port Mafia works. Having Kouyou present the idea of an alliance softened the surprise of the notion and made it more palatable.

The first order of business for the alliance is to retrieve Q so he and Steinbeck can't mind control the city again. Sending in the big guns was the right idea.

Dazai and Chuuya really hate each other. They make a good team, but they hate each other.

So, what's the deal with Lovecraft? Dazai's nullification power doesn't work on him, but his transformation has the familiar swirling text that we see in all the gifts from the authors' namesakes. There's a wrinkle that needs to be ironed out to make him consistent with the world of Bungou Stray Dogs. Well, at least a bomb to the internals and a couple of black holes flattening him to smithereens was enough to put a stop to him, but I think this Old One will be back.

Dazai's got to be Dazai.

Chuuya and Dazai still remember their old strategies, even down to the code names based on the titles of their respective works.

After they won, Steinbeck asked Dazai, "Who are you guys?" If this were an American story, Dazai would have said, "We're the good guys." But this is a Japanese gangster crime story with super powers and literary references. Thusly, Dazai said, "We're the enemies of the bad guys." That's a tacit confession that they're not "good" guys.

Next time, the war between the Allies and the Guild continues. Edogawa Ranpo is going up against the real Edgar Allan Poe and we're going to see more about Melville's White Whale. Fun times!