Bungo Stray Dogs (Japanese: 文豪ストレイドッグス, Hepburn: Bungō Sutorei Doggusu, lit. "Literary Stray Dogs") is a Japanese manga series written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa, which has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's seinen manga magazine Young Ace since 2012. The series follows the members of the "Armed Detective Agency" as they try to protect Yokohama. The show mainly focuses on the weretiger Atsushi Nakajima, who joins others gifted with supernatural powers to accomplish different tasks including running a business, solving mysteries, and carrying out missions assigned by the agency.
Multiple light novels have been published. An anime television series adaptation by Bones aired in 2016 in two parts, the first part aired between April and June 2016, and the second part aired between October and December 2016. An anime film, Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple, was released in March 2018. A third season aired between April and June 2019. A fourth season has been announced.
A spin-off television series adaptation of Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! aired from January to March 2021.
A live-action film, Bungo Stray Dogs The Movie: Beast, was released in Japan on 7 January 2022.
Plot
The story focuses on a young adult named Atsushi Nakajima. After being kicked out of his orphanage, Atsushi accidentally stops the suicide of a detective named Osamu Dazai believing he was drowning in the river. During his interactions with Dazai, Atsushi learns he is gifted with a supernatural ability capable of transforming him into a berserker white tiger in the moonlight; this made the orphanage torture him and kick him out in the past. Dazai recruits him into the Agency and there he meets many other ability users as they tackle various cases and events taking place within the city of Yokohama, a place teeming with individuals with Supernatural Abilities. Atsushi becomes the target of the Port Mafia members Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, as there is a bounty on his head on the black market.
During Atsushi's fights against the mafia, he also meets Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, the leader of the Fellowship of the Guild who placed the bounty on his head. Fitzgerald reveals there is a supernatural book capable of changing reality linked with Atsushi's tiger, hence putting a bounty on the black market. Fitzgerald disregards any superficial damage the Guild might bring to Yokohama in exchange for the book, having an airship named "Moby Dick" destroy the city. However, he is nearly killed by Atsushi and Akutagawa once joining forces while former mafia member Kyoka Izumi stops Moby Dick.
Another man known as Fyodor Dostoyevsky appears wishing to obtain the book too in order to erase all gifted people. He arranges a mortal fight between the detectives and the mafia but the true leader behind this organization, Natsume Soseki, stops the fight. While Atsushi and Akutagawa corner the virus' originator, Dazai manages to arrest Dostoyevsky with Fitzgerald's help. However, Dostoyevsky is later revealed to have orchestrated his own imprisonment in order to lead his followers. Pages of the book are later found by Dostoyevsky's group The Decay of Angels who uses its powers to frame the Agency for a murder case. Dazai is imprisoned alongside Dostoyevsky and the government sends its military forces known as the Hunting Dogs to execute the members from the Agency. As the Agency faces defeat, they form an alliance with Fitzgerald and the mafia in exchange for one of their followers. Across the multiple fights, it is revealed there is another person above Dostoyevsky and that person must be stopped. During an encounter with one of Fyodor's allies, Sigma, Atsushi discovers that the leader of Decay of Angels is a person codenamed Kamui. Ranpo Edogawa then manages to gather the Agency and prove their innocence to the law. After this, he uses his skills to determine Kamui's identity: Ōchi Fukuchi, the leader of the Hunting Dogs. Upon being found, Fukuchi tries to kill Ranpo but is stopped Atsushi. Having realized Atsushi would not be able to face Fukuchi alone, Dazai had requested Akutagawa to aid. However, both Atsushi and Akutagawa are defeated by their enemy with the latter sacrificing himself in his last moments to let Atsushi escape.
Development
The manga originated from Kafka Asagiri's idea to gather multiple famous late authors and poets and draw them as young adults and teenagers with supernatural powers. Sango Harukawa provided Asagiri with designs which helped the writer write the stories easier. Asagiri stated that the designs of Atsushi and Dazai were done to contrast each other although there were some revisions done in the making of the series. Besides the common narrative produced through the manga, Asagiri also wrote light novels which would be aimed for casual readers. The light novels were also written with the idea of having more books released per year. The lives of more writers inspired Asagiri, most notably the friendship of Osamu Dazai, Ango Sakaguchi and Sakunosuke Oda.
Characters—Abilities and Literary References
Osamu Dazai
- Named after Japanese author Osamu Dazai (1909–1948)
- Ability: No Longer Human
- Nullifies other gifted people's abilities through touch
- Literary reference: Dazai's novel No Longer Human
Atsushi Nakajima
- Named after Japanese author Atsushi Nakajima (1909–1942)
- Ability: Beast Beneath the Moonlight
- Weretiger transformation
- Full-body or partial transformation into white tiger
- Increased stamina
- Increased healing rate
- Literary reference: Nakajima's story The Moon Over the Mountain, alternatively titled Tiger Poet
- Weretiger transformation
Media
Manga
Written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa, Bungo Stray Dogs began publishing the manga in Kadokawa Shoten's seinen magazine Young Ace in 2012. Kadokawa has compiled the series into twenty-one tankōbon volumes as of August 2021. The series has been licensed for North America by Yen Press with the first volume being released on December 20, 2016. The English translation is by Kevin Gifford. As of September 2021, 20 volumes of the main manga have been published.
A manga based on the light novel Beast, which is illustrated by Shiwasu Hoshikawa, debuted on December 26, 2019 in the February 2020 issue of Monthly Shōnen Ace. This spin-off manga features Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who joins the Armed Detective Agency, and Atsushi Nakajima as a subordinate of the Port Mafia.
Anime series
An anime television series adaptation produced by Bones was directed by Takuya Igarashi and written by Yōji Enokido. Nobuhiro Arai and Hiroshi Kanno served as the chief animation directors, while the former also served as character designer along with Ryō Hirata. Taku Iwasaki composed the series' music. Kazuhiro Wakabayashi was the series' sound director at Glovision. Additionally, Yumiko Kondou was the art director, Yukari Goto was the anime's color designer, Tsuyoshi Kanbayashi was the director of photography and Shigeru Nishiyama was the editor. Granrodeo performed the anime's opening theme, titled "Trash Candy", and Luck Life performed the anime's ending theme, titled "Namae wo Yobu yo" ((名前を呼ぶよ, I'll call your name).
The series was split into two halves: the first half, containing twelve episodes, premiered on 7 April 2016 and ended on 23 June 2016, being broadcast on Tokyo MX, Teletama, Chiba TV, tvk, GBS (Gifu Broadcasting), Mie TV, SUN, TVQ Kyushu, and BS11. The second half, also containing twelve episodes, premiered on 6 October 2016 and ended on 22 December 2016. The series has been licensed for streaming by Crunchyroll. As for the second half, Screen Mode sung the opening theme titled "Reason Living" while Luck Life once again sung the ending theme titled "Kaze ga Fuku Machi" (風が吹く街, lit. "The city where the wind blows").
An OVA was bundled with the 13th limited edition manga volume, which was released on 31 August 2017.
On 21 July 2018, it was announced that the series would receive a third season. The cast and staff would reprise their roles from the previous two seasons. The third season premiered from 12 April 2019 and ended on 28 June 2019, being broadcast on Tokyo MX, TVA, KBS, SUN, BS11, and Wowow. Granrodeo performed the third seasons' opening theme "Setsuna no Ai" (セツナの愛 lit. "A moment's love") and Luck Life performed the third season's ending theme "Lily". Funimation released the simuldub on May 17, 2019.
On 7 November 2021, it was announced that the series would receive a fourth season.
The anime is licensed in North America by Crunchyroll with home video distribution by Funimation, and in the United Kingdom by Anime Limited.
In June 2020, Kadokawa announced that an anime television series adaptation of the spin-off manga, Bungo Stray Dogs Wan!, was in production. Satonobu Kikuchi directed the series, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu handling series composition, Hiromi Daimi designing the characters, and Bones and Nomad handling production. The main cast members reprised their roles. The series aired from January 13 to March 31, 2021 on Tokyo MX, BS11, MBS, Wowow.
Theatrical films
At the Mayo(w)i Inu-tachi no Utage Sono Ni event on 19 February 2017, a film project based on the manga series was announced. Titled Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple, the film premiered on 3 March 2018 with the staff and cast from the anime series returning to reprise their roles.
A new live-action film was announced in July 2019. It will be based on the stage plays from the series.
Video game
An action role-playing game titled Bungo Stray Dogs Mayoi Inu Kaikitan has been announced and is set to release on iOS and Android. The game will include character side stories that were not found in the anime series as well as new game-exclusive scenarios.
Stage plays
A stage play based on the events in the first season of the anime was realized starting at the KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre in Yokohama from December 2017, with the play moving through major cities in Japan. It was also shown at the Morinomiya Piloti Hall in Osaka on January 12–13, and at AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo from January 31 to February 4. Starting in September 2018, a second stage play was done based on the light novel Dazai Osamu and the Dark Era and its anime adaption in the second season of the show. It was first shown in Tokyo at the Sunshine Gekijō from September 22 to October 8 and then moved to Osaka where it ran at the Morinomiya Piloti Hall on October 13–14. A third stage play based on the rest of the second season, thus excluding Dazai's backstory at the beginning of the season, was performed from June to July 2019 in Iwate, Fukuoka, Aichi and Osaka, and in July in Tokyo.
Reception
Manga
Bungo Stray Dogs was well received in Japan. As of late 2016, the manga sold 4.1 million books. The series also appeared in the Da Vinci's magazine poll from Kadokawa Shoten, while the franchise combined sold 1,878,804,092 units in 2016. By 2018, the series reached 6 million copies. It came in at number 11 for the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2014". Author Dan Brown was attracted by the manga when the author created a fictional version of himself to promote the story. Brown stated he was pleased with the result.
Critical reception to the series has been positive. The Fandom Post said ever since its start the series has had potential to be an entertaining manga, citing the characterization of Atsushi and the power he has, later leading to interesting mystery arcs when more characters from multiple parties become involved, such as the reclutant alliance Atsushi and his rival Akutagawa form to defeat another group. The artwork was praised by UK Anime Network for how detailed are fight scenes while also praising the balance between dark and light plot storylines. Nevertheless, he found a common commentary within fans that the series suffers from a slow pace.
Anime
The anime series and its film have been popular, appearing in multiple polls, involving its style, cosplay among others. Atomix listed it as the fifth best anime from 2016, praising its premise, designs and references to writers. In the Newtype Anime Awards 2016–2017 at the Machi Asobi Vol. 19 event, the anime series took the second place in "Best television series" behind Fate/Apocrypha. Rebecca Silverman from Anime News Network listed the third season of the anime as one of her favorite anime from early 2019. The home media releases of the series were also popular in Japan, achieving good sales. The film Dead Apple was also the winner of Newtype's "Theatrical Film Award" in 2018. In 2019, the series once again took second place in the best television series award behind Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba in the same magazine's awards.
External links
- Official anime website (in Japanese)
- Bungo Stray Dogs at Kadokawa Corporation (in Japanese)
- Bungo Stray Dogs (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
