10 Second Anime - Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 28

Dazai and Chuuya confront Randou. Chuuya officially joins the Port Mafia.

Episode 28 - "Diamonds Only By Diamonds"

Hmm.

There was a bit of translation error in the title of the episode from the official subtitles. Last week, the preview of this episode translated the title as "Diamonds Are Nothing But Diamonds," which is not quite right. This week, we got "Diamonds Are Only Polished By Diamonds." This is also not right, since it was Mori at the end that gave us the verb "to polish" at the end of the vague construction at the end of this episode. This is a quirk of the Japanese language where so much depends on context that people can play on that by not supplying the context so that it's satisfying for the reader or the listener to finally understand the relationship between the topic of the sentence (diamonds) and how they are "something-something" only by diamonds. It's kind of like Germans waiting for the verbs at the end of their very clause-dependent sentences in the German language.

So, that bit of cultural context was necessary to see why Mori would want to team Dazai and Chuuya together as Port Mafia Executives. They're both diamonds, but only by working together can they polish each other into better versions of themselves. It's also related to how Mori described leadership to Chuuya. I'm so glad that this theme actually became really important to how Chuuya was recruited into the gang. A leader, according to Mori, has to develop his underlings so that he can also use them in the best places and times for the benefit of the organization. Fostering Dazai's and Chuuya's working relationship is just one of the duties Mori has to fulfill as the Boss of the Port Mafia.

Chuuya himself was quick to recognize how much he had to learn from Mori about being a leader. Mori described a leader as the Master and Slave to an organization. He had to be the most accountable, but he also had to be the most ruthless in using the organization's resources and people to keep the structure growing and healthy. Chuuya realized he was only acting as the Sheep's slave, not its master, and that's how things fell apart.

Chuuya's development and recruitment in this backstory was a nice way to see where's he's come from and answers questions on how Dazai and he treat each other in the present story, but I also saw clues for how these first three episodes tie into the rest of the season. The first is that Chuuya was part of some "artificial gifted" program where Arahabaki was implanted into a seven year old child. This implies there were other children and other "aragami" (violent gods) that may be around today. Another clue is how Randou described Dazai as having no peer in the West for anti-gifted powers. This implies we may meet some of these guys! Randou claimed that he killed his spy partner who wanted Arahabaki for himself, but according to Ango's report, he survived. This might mean we get to meet him, find out why he changed his mission, and maybe Chuuya and he will have an important encounter.

I have ideas about where that part of the story may go, but I want to see if they actually bring him in first. Chuuya received Randou's spy documents from the Arahabaki incident, so those things might be the outline of the present plot line too. We may have gotten a red herring with the introduction of Kyuusaku when he was first brought to the Port Mafia. He was unleashed on the Guild in the last season, but there might be relation to Chuuya's artificially gifted background. Ango closed his report about Chuuya entering the Port Mafia with how he tracked down Randou's spy partner, but that's a story for another time. Is the rest of the season this other time? We'll have to see next week.

Heh.

Chuuya only remembers the last 8 years since the incident.

Randou unleashed Chuuya to escape the Japanese forces after he and his spy partner fought over Arahabaki, and well, Randou survived because of his subspace power and believes his partner died in the blast. Sure he did.

Randou had amnesia and was named through improper reading of the name in his hat.

Yeesh. Randou can control corpses in his subspaces, but only one at a time. He really wants to kill Chuuya to replace the former Boss.

The Boss has a real scythe, which could be a problem for Dazai since his power only affects other powers, not real items.

Chuuya uses his hands to fight at full strength.

Damn, Dazai! Thinking so far ahead! He had a fake cast with armor in it to protect against the Boss's scythe! Terrifying intellect! Literally making him eat his fist.

And there's the scene for the yaoi fans. Dazai and Chuuya need to hold hands to break Randou's box. It's like a metaphor, or something!

Dazai is starting to have fun in the Port Mafia with death. He wants to observe it up close because it's not the opposite of life, but just another process of it. He thinks we can't capture the full meaning of life without knowing about death too. The Port Mafia will give him lots of chances to observe death. Even Mori said that violence is only one of the tools to be used by the Port Mafia, and definitely not the only one.

The suicidal maniac now believes it might be worth trying to live. He hasn't made much progress in the last seven years, though.

Chuuya says he put a limiter on his powers so he could enjoy that rush of needing to survive to appreciate his humanity.

And Randou dies. Contrary to convention, he did not feel cold as he slipped into death.

Chuuya's recruitment into the Port Mafia is complete with the betrayal of the Sheep teaming up with GSS to kill him.

Damn, Dazai! He saw and maneuvered this too, which is why he played that arcade game with Chuuya out in public like that.

He won't kill the kids because a "peer" in the Port Mafia asked him not to. And there it is.

I'm digging this film noir background music during Chuuya's betrayal scene.

Epilogue time - Port Mafia tradition for recruits to get an item from their elders. Dazai got Mori's coat and Chuuya got Randou's hat. Inside the hat was Rimbaud, as in Arthur Rimbaud, the French poet who influenced surrealism. Naturally.

Aw. Kyuusaku was so cute back then. And Dazai and Chuuya were bickering ever since.

Next time, back to the future, or the present, whichever.