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Forum - View topicThe Real Authors of Bungo Stray Dogs
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1052 |
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The thing is with Dazai, the humor in the show isn't that far off from his own autobiographical writings, in which he portrayed himself as a figure of pathetic humor. It's easy to look at his life and imagine him as some brooding goth who was never happy, but his writings present someone far more complex, a cynic who sees himself as the butt of the universe's joke and is willing to laugh about it.
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Roxas4ever
 Posts: 152 |
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Very interesting! Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is the only author who has shown up so far in the show that I've actually read before, so I'll have to check the others out
I don't read the manga, but I hear tell that spoiler[Fyodor Dostoyevsky] shows up at some point, and I'm super excited to see that (if it makes it into the anime), since he's one of my favorite authors. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5528 Location: Mexico |
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This was really interesting! I was already generally acquainted with most of these people since I've done some academic research on Japanese literature -Particularly Dazai and Akutagawa and did a school paper comparing male-female relationships in short stories by Higuchi and Tanizaki- but reading Rebecca's conjectures about how the characters tie in with the historical person is cool. I also didn't know at all about Akiko Yosano, so that bit was particularly interesting.
I'm glad you brought up the possible connection between Akutagawa's suicide and Dazai's first attempt. The characters seem to have a sort of history in the anime, so I wonder if we'll see something akin to that real life connection -Dazai's idolization of Akutagawa in particular- down the line. I'm really looking forward to see what they do with that. I hope you'll do a part 2 with the Port Mafia members once we discover more about them and their powers |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16963 |
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A very informative article for sure. Honestly it's one of the most informational, or should I say educational, pieces I've read in a while here in regards to a show. Not that the rest are bad or I don't enjoy them. My gf had mentioned this show to me so this was very nice to get some perspective and insight into the actual real life people the characters are based off of.
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harminia
 Posts: 2049 Location: australia |
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Having known about a few of the authors beforehand (thank you, Book Girl series), and particularly regarding Dazai, I'm one of the people who feels uncomfortable with BSD.
I admit I laughed pretty hard upon hearing the name of Dazai's ability in the show, but I feel like the jokes about suicide (especially the fact you first meet him when he's floating in the river, aka how he died) are just a bit too much (even as someone who enjoys shows like Zetsubou Sensei). But I think the show is one that you'd appreciate a lot more if you know about the authors (and can get past the who real life authors as bishie magic people thing). The obvious dramatic link between Dazai and Akutagawa implied in the ED sort of raised my interest (and, again, made me chuckle), so I think it'd be fun to pick up on all the links and references to history. Of course, I think the other way to enjoy it is to absolutely know nothing about the original authors and therefore just enjoy the rollicking adventure without knowing that half the cast actually either killed themselves or died from some horrible disease at a young age. |
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 250 Location: Philippines |
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Thanks for this very informative article!
 I'm also curious whether other popular authors like Soseki and Kawabata will make an appearance in the show, but I'm not too motivated to check out the original work...
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2654 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I almost brought up Book Girl in the article. I wish YenOn would go back to publishing light novels like that and Kieli...
More on topic, while Utsuro no Hako is right, and Dazai did take a fairly humorous, cynical approach to his own depression which could be read as being completely in line with the jokes in the show, it is still a difficult style of humor for a lot of people. The fact that he keeps using the word "shinju" adds, I feel, to the discomfort - it specifically refers to a double suicide by two people in love who somehow can't be together. His casual use of it in the show is doubtless meant to be funny, but when you look at his past, it seems much more pathetic (as in causes pathos), because he seems to have associated death with love. For me, that adds to the discomfort of making fun of what were clearly serious issues in his life, no matter that he coped with them using humor himself.
I don't know about them, but I do know that spoiler[there's apparently an equivalent western agency, so authors like Agatha Christie, L.M. Montgomery, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky all show up later.] I'm glad you all enjoyed the article! It was a lot of fun to write. |
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shosakukan
Posts: 333 |
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Actually, the real name of Edogawa Ranpo is Hirai Tarō. (Tarō Hirai, in Western order.) In a talk, Professor Hirai Ryūtarō, the son of Edogawa Ranpo, said, "父の同級生が、こんなことを書いていらっしゃいます。 「平井太郎が云うのに三人で一つ探偵小説を作ろうじゃないか、そしてそれを印刷して小学生に売ることはどうであろうかと。そこで忽ち賛成して、さっそく三人合作になる変なものを作り上げ、それにどんなものだったか写真版まで挿入してゲラ刷のようなものを作った。（略）それを各小学校の退校時間を見はからって門前に待っていて小学生達に売ったものである。その時の事である。平井太郎はそれの広告を自分で書いて、そいつを電柱だの小学校の塀だのへ、ベタベタ貼り廻った」（「熱田中学創立三十年協讃会紀要」） 雑誌をつくっただけではなくて、いわゆる販売促進運動までもやっていたわけです。"
Actually, the family name of the author 梶井基次郞 is Kajii. Not Kaji. |
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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I thought it would also be best to mention what some of the authors' works were about. For example, Yosano Akiko's "Thou Shalt Not Die/Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare", was written for her brother, who was then fighting in the Russia-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The poem bewails the brother’s conscription, hopes for his safe return, and senseless loss of life in war as the Japanese casualties increased. http://www.home.ix.netcom.com/~kyamazak/lit/_Jpoet/yosano_kimishini.htm
Although celebrated as an anti-war poem today, in Akiko’s time critics claimed her work was unpatriotic and went against the Imperial Rescript on Education (a citizen should sacrifice their private interests for the nation)and the Imperial Declaration of War. Similarly, Tanizaki Junichirou's "Light Snowfall/Sasameyuki" revolved around the lives of 4 sisters from the wealthy but declining Makioka family of Osaka. Although the main story revolves around the family’s attempts to marry off the 3rd sister before she grows too old and unavailable, the real meat of the story is their daily lives, and their adherence to old family traditions in the face of their family’s decline. Sasameyuki's published in English under the title "The Makioka Sisters". It actually got banned by Japan's old military government, claiming it was weak, feminine, and contributed nothing to the war effort. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2654 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Thank you, zztop! Definitely something I wanted to put in the article but left out due to already running long.
Yosano's poem is exquisite, and it's worth noting that many of the authors in the show had trouble with the government thinking their works were too this or too that at some point; Edogawa's Boy Detectives were in part a way to counter that suspicion.
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OtherSideofSky
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Edogawa Rampo was born Hirai Tarou, not "Hiro Tarai."
Additionally, Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination was the title given to the earliest collection of his short stories in English translation. The title is a reference to Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a title often given to a collection of works by Edgar Allan Poe. While Rampo (still living at the time) did collaborate on that translation, it is an error to present the categories proposed in its introduction as in any way definitive. These are minor errors, however, when compared with a description of Nakajima Atsushi that makes no reference of his lifelong engagement with classical Chinese works. A large portion of Nakajima's writing (including Sangetsuki, available in English as "The Moon Over the Mountains") consisted of retellings of Chinese material. Although his longest single work, Hikari to kaze to yume, was on the death of Robert Louis Stevenson, it is extremely misleading to ignore Nakajima's place in Sino-Japanese literary tradition. |
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SaneSavantElla
Posts: 250 Location: Philippines |
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One of my favorite auhors will be among the cast? Woot! (Kinda exciting and scary at the same time  )
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harminia
Posts: 2049 Location: australia |
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Most of what I know about classical authors is what I learned from Book Girl  And me too! (One day I'll finish Kieli...)
That sounds interesting... I hope they appear in the anime. Have they appeared in the manga? I'm curious as to their designs and powers... spoiler[What would Agatha Christies be? The power of Miss Marple where an old lady appears and pokes her nose in your business? Or maybe the power of Poirot, causing everything to rearrange itself in an orderly manner.... Anyway...] |
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+ 光
 Posts: 226 |
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spoiler[L.M. Montgomery] should appear at some point in the second season, and have an important role just before the climax of it (if the second season gets that far in the arc I'm thinking about). It would be interesting if they got someone from spoiler[Gekidan Inu Curry (the animation troupe behind Madoka Magica's witch realm)] to animate her power. Make with that what you will. As for spoiler[Agatha Christie and Fyodor Dostoyevsky] they should make a teaser-like appearance at the end of season 1, but spoiler[Agatha Christie] does not have a role beyond that yet, while spoiler[Fyodor Dostoyevsky] is the latest focus in the manga, but I suspect the second season won't get this far. |
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