Bungou Stray Dogs Episode 6: The Azure Messenger

Well, this was definitely the better episode. It was very much a Kunikida-centered episode. We saw him like we always saw him, being punctual and very by the book. Like wanting to be arrive in places right on time, like standing in front of the door of the Agency’s office and not stepping in because he’s ten seconds later. We know that Kunikida holds his little ideal notebook dear, and in it are plans, schedules, his goals, and other personal things, but we never actually get to see what’s inside it. I feel like we didn’t learn too much more about Kunikida than the stuff we already knew, but seeing as how he felt guilt for the hacker boy’s father’s death just shows how overly responsible he can be.

Arriving to work and ignoring Dazai being high on mushrooms, Kunikida gets the job of investigating a string of disappearances that have been occurring in Yokohama. He got a tip from one of their informants, and his partner Dazai, and Atsushi rookie-in-training, are with him as well. The informant is a young man who’s a hacker that was given the job to try to uncover the person’s identity who gave the tip, someone named The Azure Messenger. But all they got was that the location of these disappearances would be an abandoned hospital. Getting a ride from a taxi driver, who is also another informant that works with the Agency, they head to the hospital. Once the boys arrive, they hear the yell of a woman and run to a room to find her drowning in a tank. They get her out and question her, but she says that she does not know who abducted her, and that she fainted before she could see them. She then tells them that there’s more people in the hospital. But when they find them, the people are trapped in a gas room. The gas turns on, and they’re killed right there.

The next day, the newspaper announces that the victims of the serial kidnappings have been found, but those that died in the gas chamber only died because the Armed Detective Agency was there. So the newspaper made it sound like it was their fault, and they figured it may have been the motive of the people behind the kidnappings to possibly frame the Agency. They question Sasaki about what happened but there are still no answers other than the reason she fainted was because of her anemia.

Banter of Kunikida’s ideal woman later, Kunikida suddenly figures out the person behind the kidnappings. Apparently it was the taxi driver, who would drive these people around. But he would knock them out, take their clothes, and dress up as them to make it seem they were okay and so his taxi would never be checked, and then he would take the victims somewhere. And it’s all true, as its explained that the driver would use these victims for the black market’s organ selling. The driver confesses, but he requests protection because one of the people he kidnapped was someone from Port Mafia. And then we got a short bout with the Mafia.

Akutagawa was only there for about…two minutes. Oh well. Police arrived soon after Atsushi called them. The three head to the building where the organ traffickers used for their business, but they’ve already left and destroyed all evidence. Kunikida also tells of someone called the Azure King, who was behind terrorist attacks, who had blown himself up in that very building. Kunikida had actually worked on that case of capturing the Azure King and he had found the location, but because the police, public safety bureau, and the military all worked together, it was a mess. Five detectives arrived to the hideout and when they went inside, they were killed in the explosion that the Azure King detonated which also killed himself. And one of the men that died was the hacker’s father, and Kunikida feels responsible even though it wasn’t his fault at all. But that’s just who Kunikida is.

At the end of the episode, Kunikida gets news of a new job for them. A job request from the Azure Messenger. And the job is to disarm a bomb. If they don’t, many people are going to get killed.

I don’t know what to call this, Kunikida’s Character Development arc? Anyhow, I liked this episode and thought the kidnapping case to be interesting, and now we’re going to learn more about who this Azure Messenger is, and whether or not they connect with the Azure King. But after this episode, I think I have a good hunch of who the Azure Messenger is. Next week it’s time to disarm a bomb! I think it’s still going to center around Kunikida, and now I wonder…

Just what is Kunikida’s ideal woman, and what did Atsushi read in the notebook that freaked him out?