Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 3: Really is Adult After All

Well, apologizing for the lack of content this week, as it was hectic. Anyway.

If the title does not give the contents away yet, I would quickly say that Bungou Stray Dogs, which was labeled as seinen or adult (on the level of Tokyo Ghoul) would finally deserve to be called as such. While the first half would squeeze the last drops of laughter, the main bad guy is out, and everything's going to be hard from now on.

And if the title does not give it out yet: please watch for some more bloody depictions. Also for spoilers, intentional or otherwise.

We start straight off with laughs. And plenty of it, when Atsushi guessed the other members' jobs in a cafe.

One thing that needs to get  out of the way: the very nearly mature scene that unfolded in front of Atsushi; the Tanizaki siblings being real creepy. Now, is there a point to all of this, really? Thank goodness for at least some decency there.

Anyway, I didn't expect this to turn into something more than just giving some background to the characters, but actually this little game that Dazai made, to guess his job before being a Detective, turned into something big for the show. Perhaps this is Bungou, where backgrounds do matter for the story.

Then, they have a client, who wanted them to find proof of smugglers in the port. 

Pretty hard to focus while Dazai was screaming as he was getting knocked off his feet, behind closed doors, by Kunikida, for womanizing said client...

However, we then learned the name of the most dangerous man in the Port Mafia: Akutagawa.

That was when all laughter stopped for the episode. After the scene above, a bloodbath ensued: the first truly cruel one for three episodes.

Perhaps my mind skipped, but I didn't catch there being a trap by the client. It was nicely put by the Tanizaki Junichirou, though, when they were led to a dead end where no smuggler could escape.

And then, the woman grabbed two SMGs and fired away.

What I didn't expect, though, was that Naomi protected her brother, ending in a bloody mess. And for one, they didn't shy away from showing it on screen.

Definitely angered by this, to have his lover/sister taken away, Junichirou activated his ability, supposedly not for combat: Light Snow.

His ability was... I think, a much more epic display than those Kinikida's and Dazai's. He disappeared--tense moment for the woman, that is--and grabbed her by the throat from the back, almost making the trachea burst open, then...

He got stabbed by Akutagawa from the back. Two major losses in one episode. That's something. But perhaps they won't die, or else Junichirou won't be in the opening, lest I was wrong.

Nicely performed by Atsushi upon looking at someone he wasn't supposed to face: utter panic. Perfect stuttering... and even more so when he thought back to his time in the orphanage that, perhaps, he was meant to cause harm to people around him such as the siblings.

But, (un)expectedly Atsushi ran past the conjured demon and grabbed an SMG, and opened fire.

It was then revealed that Akutagawa has the coolest power: to manipulate space-time to protect himself. By the way, it seems all their abilities were based on space-time manipulation, aren't they? invisibility, summoning a wire gun, etc.

As promised, Akutagawa ripped Atsushi's leg.

As expected, perhaps once more drawing a parallel to Attack on Titan, his leg regrew as he transformed back to the tiger, attacking the mafias... with the help of Junichirou. Seems he'll survive.

Now, that was a mystery. How did he turn without a moon? Perhaps on due time?

And then, Dazai appeared and put on a light show bu stopping both powers.

It seems that he's quite powerful; on a different level than Akutagawa, that even he was forced to retreat. Perhaps this could be very interesting...

For after that, we learned that Dazai was an ex-member of the Port Mafia. Nice use of the quiz on his prior work at the start of the show. Well, after those tense, bloody scenes, the story seems to get even more interesting, with backgrounds overlapping with the current story, making this one may be worth my while. until next week.