Bungou Stray Dogs (Bungo Stray Dogs)

For weeks, Atsushi Nakajima's orphanage has been plagued by a mystical tiger that only he seems to be unaware of. Suspected to be behind the strange incidents, the 18-year-old is abruptly kicked out of the orphanage and left hungry, homeless, and wandering through the city.

While starving on a riverbank, Atsushi saves a rather eccentric man named Osamu Dazai from drowning. Whimsical suicide enthusiast and supernatural detective, Dazai has been investigating the same tiger that has been terrorizing the boy. Together with Dazai's partner Doppo Kunikida, they solve the mystery, but its resolution leaves Atsushi in a tight spot. As various odd events take place, Atsushi is coerced into joining their firm of supernatural investigators, taking on unusual cases the police cannot handle, alongside his numerous enigmatic co-workers.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

This season adapts chapters 1 through 14 of the manga.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Bungou Stray Dogs, Anime Bungou Stray Dogs Shousetsuban
Sequel:	Bungou Stray Dogs 2nd Season
Spin-off:	Bungou Stray Dogs Wan!

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Dazai, Osamu

Main

Miyano, Mamoru
Japanese

Nakajima, Atsushi

Main

Uemura, Yuuto
Japanese

Nakahara, Chuuya

Supporting

Taniyama, Kishou
Japanese

Edogawa, Ranpo

Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi
Japanese

Akutagawa, Ryuunosuke

Supporting

Ono, Kensho
Japanese

Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

Yosano, Akiko

Supporting

Shimamura, Yuu
Japanese

Izumi, Kyouka

Supporting

Morohoshi, Sumire
Japanese

Kunikida, Doppo

Supporting

Hosoya, Yoshimasa
Japanese

Miyazawa, Kenji

Supporting

Kagura, Kitsune
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Bezerra, Wendel

Producer

Suzuki, Mari

Producer

Simone, Jamie

Producer

Kurakane, Chiaki

Producer

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Opening Theme

"TRASH CANDY" by GRANRODEO

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Ending Theme

"Namae wo Yobu yo (名前を呼ぶよ)" by Luck Life

Reviews

Mar 2, 2024

En-psychopedia

Recommended

The first season is more of an introduction of the characters and the world in which Bungo Stray Dogs is set. Mainly a Detective Agency where ppl have supernatural abilities. There's not much of an ongoing plot and is more episodic for the first season. Not bad but not great... It gets much more interesting by the 3rd season and the 4th season is heads and shoulders above the 1st. It gets into murder mystery detective stories and conspiracies. The special powers are also unique and original, not just ur run of the mill elemental powers or general magic. There are ...

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Feb 5, 2024

Vikorean

Mixed Feelings

Appearance over substance.

Bungou Stray Dogs has the perfect mix to make it a landmark anime: Gorgeous art direction, original setting, sophisticated plot and colourful characters. Many will agree it is in fact a masterpiece and their arguments may be perfectly valid.

However, the issue with the show lies in its obsessive search for sophistication, only to end up taking itself too seriously. BSD constantly seems to be seeking the mature viewers' approval, only to look self conscious and aware.

Every scene, dialogue and characters ' reactions pursue the purpose of showing their elegance, maturity or wittiness. However, such aspects should always be self explanatory thanks to ... clever writing and direction, not explicit triggers.

As a consequence, by wanting to appear edgy or deep, BSD ends up being often goofy and superficial.

The characters suffer from this approach and turn out to be quite one dimensional. Rather than being created for the purpose of the story, they seem to exist to fill out preexisting roles around which the plot was only built afterwards.

Moreover, they keep the obnoxious habit of serving vague and philosophical monologs without getting to a specific point. Characters seem to be listening to themselves and trying to appear as tragic as possible rather than advancing the story.

The result is a mountain of clichés served at every sauce depending on the character's uprising.

The production keeps stressing the viewers about how sorry they should feel for the character. This approach is very reminiscent of a Shrek scene where the executioner tells the crowd how to react with a signboard.

Nevertheless, Bungou Stray Dogs remains a quality show. Such critic is worth because of its potential and undeniable quality. The art is a feast for the eyes, the pace is excellent, the plot is clever and its OP & ED are some of the best in the industry.

This only increases the frustration of witnessing a show trying too hard to achieve a certain image or effect.

BSD would have gained to trust itself more and go fully onward without any compromise. The lasting impression is of a show which found an original idea but could not completely let go of certain codes and tools.

This glass ceiling separates great animes from legendary ones. BSD is an interesting anime, possibly a hidden gem. But as a diamond in the rough, it now needs to be polished. Its narration ironically lacks the sophistication it desperately seeks.

BSD need to understand it will only get this image through a thoughtful and patient story telling.

There is elegance in simplicity, it may not be too late to level dialogues and characters and leave them more freedom. It could offer a nice contrast with the already complexed and well written plot.

As it is BSD have solid foundations and obvious passion poured in its story. It is already a promising start.

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Apr 27, 2023

Sukamii

Not Recommended

Bungou Stray Dogs desperately attempts to be a quirky anime that tries to tell a "dark" and "gritty" story about organized crime, detectives and their interplay with a little bit of magic sprinkled in. However, the writing, whether it be the main characters, or any of the antagonists, or even the beats of the entire plot are at best generic (not inherently a bad thing) and at worst (which is the majority of the time) pedantically annoying and annoyingly melodramatic. It so badly wants you to empathize with the main character that every 2-3 episodes it flashes back to our protagonist Atsushis backstory, to the ... point it becomes overplayed and hard to care about. There's no nuance or subtlety with the character or how his tragic upbringing really affected him outside of these flashbacks, and a moment early in the season that feels empty due to its immediate resolution. It feels like a surface level justification that has little to do with the characters growth, struggles and life. For a show that's about detectives, psychology, and understanding the human being- its delivers nothing but shallow analysis and conclusions. It's boring and unentertaining.
Speaking of boring and unentertaining, the "Gifted" systems implementation feels like a half baked idea to me. On one hand, I totally understand the desire to add some degree of a power system to a story like this as it has some noteworthy potential- but this suffers from a similar issue as to what I felt like the Imperial Relics from Akame ga Kill did- there's no real cohesion with what's being chosen for gifts. It's just a power system but for detectives, with some having interesting implementations, with strengths and notable weaknesses like Kunikidas- and others feeling entirely haphazard like Akutagawa or Nakajimas. They don't seem to fit in the overall narrative cohesion of the story, and are more akin to "cool superpowers that we wanted to include" with there being no real precedent for what being "Gifted" actually is outside of apparently being magic that is somehow extremely prevalent but simultaneously not relevant in the public sphere.
A note about the characters, their designs, etc. While this may be more of a personal preference, I don't think any of their designs were all that interesting or memorable. It's a situation where each of the characters were meant to fill a specific aesthetic, but also be designed in a way that they reflect their personalities but often come off as strangely uninspired and uninteresting. I feel like I've seen all of them in another anime, whether it be the archetypes and rolls they fill, their personality, and even their powers- each one of them feels so bland I don't really expect to remember them outside of the names of the authors they stem from. Which is another fairly strong point of contention I have in regards to one character.
Osamu Dazai, the pen name for the author Shūji Tsushima, was a Japanese author who died in a double suicide via drowning in 1938. How does this anime interpret the tragic death of a real human being? By relegating much of the characters dialogue, and near every single one of his gags, to be how badly he wants to participate in a double suicide with a pretty woman. His character was first introduced attempting to kill himself via drowning in a river. It's so unabashedly tasteless, and frankly speaking its gross and was a horrible note to begin this series off with- and it set the precedent for the standard of humor and overall writing this show was to present.
Much of the show persists on an episodic format, introducing characters steadily that have a mild influence or importance to the story on the whole, and are relegated to importance later on- which I can only assume to be in its following seasons. If a character is introduced in an episode, then its more likely than not their arc will be concluded in that same episode. there's nothing inherently wrong with an episodic format, some of the greatest stories ever told have been done so in this medium. Stray Dogs, however, doesn't tell any interesting stories, or build the mystique of the world through this format. It wants to leave little crumbs of information that build towards a grander narrative, but that narrative is paper thin and I just don't think its good.
So far as positives I think the animation quality is fine, same with the directing of action sequences (however the lows for the action scenes are just rock bottom, like the gunfight in early episode 11). They're plenty punchy and tight, with the comedy scenes (while I don't think there's much humor to be found in the show) do a plenty fine job at conveying the attempts at humor and stylization that befits them- but that's not enough to carry the show, or even really do enough to help overcome the shows weaknesses.
Bungou Stray Dogs really doesn't care about its story or its characters, or even the real people they draw their names from. It's embarrassingly unfunny, bland, uninspired, and a slog to watch through. It was a struggle to force myself to watch this show, which is an utter shame as the premise was interesting- I wouldn't have considered it if there wasn't something I thought was worth my time. But the execution of the already struggling story results in a bad season. I'll more likely than not give the subsequent seasons a shot to see if they were able to redeem itself, but my hopes for what follows have plummeted.

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Poll: Bungou Stray Dogs Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 6, 2016	368 replies	by Devonnius »» Apr 14, 11:19 PM
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Bungou Stray Dogs

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Dazai, Osamu

Nakajima, Atsushi

Nakahara, Chuuya

Edogawa, Ranpo

Akutagawa, Ryuunosuke

Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Yosano, Akiko

Izumi, Kyouka

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Bungou Stray Dogs

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Synopsis

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