The flashbacks as always, are the best moments of the show. Always masterfully written with great direction that makes a solid one-off story. The overarching plotline on the other hand is a mess. Somehow always making a writing misstep after a good scene. You'd think "How is that possible? It's just a backstory, it takes away from the current events." but when you look at the show holistically, the flashbacks existing in a bubble outside the current events is exactly the reason why it's the only parts of the show that has a solid foundation.
This season's exploration of Ranpo and Yosano's pasts, akin to the excellence displayed in Oda's backstory from season 2, and to a lesser extent, Dazai's from season 3, adds depth to the characters and continues to weave into present-day events nicely. For once, the writing felt committed, now that it felt like the events have actual consequences, especially with the impact of Fyodor in the first half. Eventually, after the episode with Nikolai which was fantastic, "The Hunting Dogs" gets written into existence without any real foreshadowing, which isn't the issue. As always, my biggest gripes come with the haphazard introduction of plot points and the neglect of essential story beats. It struggles with tone shifts and trying to make me care for most of the events, specifically because of lackluster worldbuilding. It relies heavily on the viewer filling in very huge blanks by themselves until they decide to actually write later on. And without being hooked in the first place, people would hardly care enough to try and play into this formula. For the same reason, the explanations don't feel satisfactory to me.
I find it difficult to enjoy BSD but highlight its flaws without explicitly spoiling the specific examples, but ultimately it just hinges on the eye of the beholder. How I see it, it's just the horrible worldbuilding that takes away from the smaller scenes. It's wasted potential, really. A bad mesh of good ideas.
Story: 4
Animation: 7
Visuals: 7
Music: 9 (OST) 8 (OP & ED)
Characters: 7
Sound: 8 (Sound Design) 7 (Voice Acting)
Favorite Episode: 9 - A Dream of Butterflies
