10 Second Anime - Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 37 [END]

Atsushi and Akutagawa combine their powers to take down Fyodor's lieutenant Ivan G. and stop his plot to destabilize the balance of powers in Yokohama. Season Finale.

Episode 37 - "ECHO 回向"

Hmm.

There were a couple of fun things introduced in the final episode of the season. First was the episode title. Written as ECHO, which is evocative in itself considering what happens in this episode, but 回向 (ekou) is the word for a Buddhist memorial service. This was a way to make the viewer think someone goes to die during the endgame of this fight against Fyodor. Since Akutagawa and Atsushi did get infected with Pushkin's virus as an "echo" to what happened to Fukuzawa and Mori, surely one of them would have to die to escape the virus, regain full power, and defeat crazy Ivan. That's a nice way to build suspense with Japanese word play.

Another fun thing was how Akutagawa remembered more about Atsushi's abilities than he did himself. One of the markers of being the strongest leader of the Armed Detectives is having an Gift that negates others' powers. Fukuzawa's power acts like a volume knob for anyone he considers on his team. This is kind of bad for Mori and the Port Mafia, because Mori used to be his partner, so Fukuzawa has nothing to fear from them, or anyone in the Armed Detective Agency. Dazai, of course, is a full circuit breaker for anyone he touches. The reason he's scary is because he can handle anyone without powers too.

And then there's Atsushi, who doesn't yet know how powerful his Tiger is. Dazai saw it firsthand when he first met him as a fully transformed Tiger, that its claws could actually cut through the strands of anyone else's power, even his own negation power. Akutagawa forced Atsushi into a desperate situation to access this part of his ability. That's where the suspense with the memorial service wordplay came in, because it looked like Akutagawa was going to kill Atsushi to escape the virus, but then their new catchphrase was born, "How many times do you think we've we tried to kill each other?" That's certainly an ECHO of Mori and Fukuzawa, Chuuya and Dazai, and now Akutagawa and Atsushi.

Heh.

This bandaged guy is listening to the radio and drinking tea. His name his Ivan, another Russian author, probably.

Dazai gives Akutagawa and Atsushi some virus information a little late. Don't even get grazed! Yeah, I think Akutagawa got that part.

Ha! Akutagawa rides Atsushi like a horsie. Says he's an uncomfortable ride! I guess we know who top and bottom is now as fujoshi swoon.

Oh ho. Pushkin got away because of this Ivan guy and his earth fist.

Ivan G., with ability The Precipice. This is Ivan Goncharov, a Russian novelist from the mid-1800's, who's last novel "The Precipice," featured a main character who rejected nihilism. This was pretty unpopular in Russia during the late 1860's and '70's. What this has to do with earth golems, I don't know, but controlling stone in all its forms makes him the absolute master of this abandoned mine.

Akutagawa and Atsushi show off their teamwork again. Akutagawa has to laugh at Ivan's use of the phrase "even the ground you stand on is your enemy," since he uses that one all the time to hide his Rashoumon as he's about to stab someone. Too bad Ivan used a stone golem.

Ready round 2, this time with both Atsushi and Akutagawa having Pushkin's virus. They're weakened and being forced into the same situation as Mori and Fukuzawa. Someone has to die so the other may live.

Akutagawa needed to confirm something before someone dies, why does Atsushi fight? Atsushi can't rid the words of the Headmaster echoing (!) in his head to "Do what is right!" but the heart of his motivation is justifying his life from the phrase "those who can save no one don't deserve to live." That was the Headmaster's harsh way of making a Gifted orphan like Atsushi be a good person, like Uncle Ben from Spiderman saying, "those with great power have great responsibility," but tied to all the torture, Atsushi has issues.

So, now that Akutagawa has confirmed that Atsushi isn't a blessed person with friends, but someone even more messed up than he is, he comes to an understanding with Atsushi. If Akutagawa calls himself a wretched dog (cur), Atsushi is a stray dog. Yasss! Dazai's whole scheme with these two is to get a new version of the Stray Dogs together.

That's enough of sitting in a drowning pool so, gattai! Akutagawa made Atsushi cut his Rashoumon cloak off him and wear it on his Tiger body. Ivan didn't like that development at all. Crazy Ivan!

Atsushi is already borrowing his boyfriend's clothes. Fujoshi swoon again.

And, blammo.

Oh, there's Pushkin thinking he escaped. Not hardly.

While trying to find Fyodor, Atsushi and Akutagawa feel their virus break. But then it turns out, Fyodor was never there. He and Ivan communicated by classical music requests on the radio as their code.

I'm not seeing what the importance of Fyodor removing the grief center from Ivan's brain is. Maybe he was too depressed to work with Fyodor before because of all the nihilism, but now he's a happy camper.

So, if Fyodor wasn't there, and they communicated by radio song requests, how is Dazai going to find Fyodor? Well, there was a reason we saw that episode with Francis and that tech company, right?

Ha! Nice reaction from Fyodor seeing Dazai say hi. And there's Francis confirming Eyes of God found him. It's not like he needs the Guild's money returned from Fyodor, it's just the principle of the thing.

We're still leaving the season with a mystery to how Fyodor's Crime and Punishment works, but Dazai knows not to touch his skin. He'll have to be careful if he has to use his own power on him.

Party time! On that boat Fyodor was on after the flashback episodes.

Young'uns all hunkered down whispering. They're worried they're going to get in trouble for fighting the Port Mafia. Tanizaki thinks they'll be "axed." Kenji is excited because he's never been "axed" before. Kyouka says she's seen people "axed." Cleaning up afterwards is very messy. Tanizaki thinks both of them are too pure for this world, in their own ways.

Ranpo got out of Poe's novel. He and Naomi don't seem sorry to have fought the Port Mafia.

Fukuzawa has a kind smile. Where has that been?

Dazai knows Akutagawa and Atsushi make the perfect team. But Akutagawa still wants to kill Atsushi. For rivalry purposes... Atsushi agreed to the death match if Akutagawa didn't kill anyone for six months.

Atsuhi thinks Akutagawa will learn from not killing certain things, like how to gain Dazai's approval, how weakness and strength are not so obviously what they seem, and that Akutagawa is way more capable already than Atsushi himself. Akutagawa seemed skeptical at that last part. Dazai can only smile at his protege.

A Port Mafia member who doesn't kill? Dazai had a friend like that.

So, a toast to the Stray Dogs!

Final Thoughts.

It's hard to have final thoughts on a series that is continuing straight on from where they left the previous season, but we have to remember that the previous season was almost three years ago. Thankfully, the same studio, writers, and directors kept the same style and color palette, so there was no jarring continuity issues from back then. It just felt so comfortable to find oneself immersed in this world again.

One thing I'll have to remember about "Bungou Stray Dogs" is that the movies are not essential to the plot, but the characterization is. Similarly, the OVA's are absolutely essential to the plot, but are just fun extra moments for the characters. This particular season saw a lot of character development and revelation, especially for Chuuya and Dazai, in their prologue episodes. This was nice to have. The second season started off with a flashback prologue to how Dazai left the Port Mafia and showed us the origin of the Stray Dogs. Here, we see how Dazai and Chuuya got dragged in because of the new Boss' actions in killing the old Boss. This was all fun stuff to see and learn about.

As for the other characters, we didn't get to spend too much time with them because the prologue, Fyodor's episode, Atsushi's episode, and Francis' episode ate up half the season. After that, it was a mad dash through Fyodor's plot to destroy both the Port Mafia and Armed Detective Agency at the same time. We still had moments, but there was hardly any of the fun slice of life comedy bits that give "Bungou Stray Dogs" its goofy charm. I hope a next season gives us more of that and it comes sooner than three years from now.