Bungou Stray Dogs Episode 7: Love For the Disease Called Ideals

When I saw that they had skipped the opening, I knew that this would be a serious episode. And I’m conflicted about the ending. Also, I was wrong about the Azure Messenger’s identity. The show actually fooled me, and then showed us the real person.

Even though I felt like a lot happened in this episode, at the same time there wasn’t a lot and I can easily summarize this in one paragraph. The Agency talks over what they’re going to do. They have a little comedic moment with Sasaki and Dazai and then they get a call from Rampo, and he tells them where the location of the bomb is. The military find it and the guys drive to where they stop the bomb. They run into some trouble, but with some awesome teamwork from Dazai and Kunikida (with Atsushi helping a bit), the guys are able to stop the bomb before it went off. We then see Kunikida at a cemetery leaving flowers for someone, who I’m guessing is the taxi driver that was killed? Or it could have just been anyone. Sasaki comes by and speaks with him, and talk whether meeting their graves would relieve the spirits of the dead. She then leaves and Kunikida gets a call.

And this is the part that was most important. It turns out that Dazai had sent an email to the person who he thought was the Azure Messenger. Just then, Rokuzou walks in. AND I THOUGHT HE WAS THE AZURE MESSENGER! But he wasn’t! Rokuzou just hacked the email and came to check out the identity of the person, but all of a sudden he gets shot and the real Azure Messenger is actually Sasaki. Which completely fooled me.

She was actually the Azure King’s lover. She looks up to people who follow their ideals and that’s what she loved most about him. We also saw that it kind of looked like that she liked that about Kunikida as well, and it was obvious that Kunikida had taken a liking to her as well. And last week when someone commented that Sasaki was the name of the real Kunikida’s wife, I thought they were going to form some sort of relationship! Nope! Dazai had his gun pointed to her, but when she lowered her weapon, he didn’t want to shoot her and be charged with brutality. So he dropped his gun. But because he was also holding Rokuzou’s wounded body, Rokuzou was actually still conscious. Wanting revenge for his father, Rokuzou grabbed the gun and shot Sasaki dead. I’m actually not too sure whether Rokuzou died after that, but he was shot badly.

And this is where I’m not happy. Kunikida was shocked and angry at what happened, because Dazai dropped the gun in front of Rokuzou on purpose, so he could shoot her. To him, this was the only solution. But Kunikida didn’t think so, and neither did I. Yes, she helped with the terrorist bombings, but…I don’t know, this whole vengeance thing sits weird with me. Like, I’m conflicted because it was right and it was wrong, but I mostly didn’t like it.

And I felt that this episode was also about Dazai and Kunikida’s team dynamic. We see how different they are when it comes to their personalities and Atsushi always asks himself why and how they’re even partners. But in the fight that we saw, they actually complement each other very well. But when it comes to their ideals and thoughts, it’s different. Dazai thought that Sasaki’s death by Rokuzou’s hands were the only way, while Kunikida is tired of this senseless violence. Dazai actually warns Kunikida to not get so crazy about wanting to achieve his ideals, like the Azure King. This moment showed how different their ideals are. Kunikida repents and wants to save as many lives as he can, Dazai is the opposite of that. It’s interesting that these two are a team with such polar mindsets, so I can assume that this moment is going to put a strain on their relationship.

This mini arc is now over and we’ll be moving on with the pretty female Agency member whose ability is called Thou Shalt Not Die. I enjoyed these last two episodes. Exciting, and they did well on showing us Kunikida’s character. Also, I understand his ability better now. I had thought he could just make anything with his ability, but he can only make objects that he has seen with his own eyes where he understands their function, shape, etc. Also, they are only objects that fit within the size of his notebook. It just makes his notebook even more special.

Like seeing his ideals come to life in front of him.