Bungou Stray Dogs Episode 8: Teaching Them to Kill; Then to Die

I didn’t know I was watching Jojo.

Okay but really Demon Snow is probably my favorite ability so far. It’s really pretty but also really cool and badass and I JUST REALLY LIKE IT.

Also Dr. Yosano is my queen and I love her. This whole episode was about her and Atsushi, but it was also about the girl Kyouka. Yosano is notorious for her frightening healing abilities. We never know what it is until later and I can understand why the guys in the Agency warn Atsushi to never get injured. Before Yosano takes Atsushi with her on a shopping trip, Atsushi tells Kunikida that Dazai is missing. We saw him before the opening credits come into contact with the red kimono girl, so she had something to do with it. But Kunikida says not to worry, in fact, the others aren’t really worried. It’s then that Yosano arrives and grabs Atsushi to shop with her. While carrying her things, Atsushi walks past the red kimono girl and while being distracted bumps into a rude man. That’s when Yosano shows us how cool and badass she is.

The two get on a train and Yosano checks out Atsushi’s leg and notices how normal it looks even though that was the leg that was ripped off. I still wonder how the hell that even happened.

Important things happen where a bomb explodes in the train and people are killed. The man over the mic tells Atsushi to turn himself in or more people are going to die, so obviously this guy is with the Port Mafia. Yosano tells Atsushi to look for the bombs in the rear while she handles the front, and she encounters the bomber, a famous terrorist bomber. These two have a little bout, but Yosano gets offended at the way this man looks at death like it’s an experiment and something to be played with. She’s a doctor, has seen people die in front of her plenty of times, so of course she’s pissed. Her ability Thou Shalt Not Die lets her heal wounds, but the wounds have to be severe. So the downside is that she can’t heal little wounds, and if she wants to, she has to beat her patients half to death before healing them. Same with herself. Yikes! No wonder the guys back at the Agency don’t want to be injured.

But now focusing back on Atsushi, he runs into the red kimono girl, Kyouka. She’s a young girl, and she likes tofu and rabbits. She’s also killed 35 people in the last six months, and now her orders are to protect the bomb. She uses her ability to fend off Atsushi. Atsushi also has a self-depricating moment of “Oh no more people are going to die because of me again” but then his mindset changes and he wants to protect the innocent people on the train, so he fights back. He turns part werewolf and fends off Demon Snow’s attacks and wins in the battle. Yosano’s voice comes over the intercom and it’s revealed Kyouka should have a remote for the bomb. It’s also revealed…that Kyouka is the bomb! Kyouka looked like a doll, so lifeless and emotionless, and even when she said she had slit the throats of a family, she didn’t have any emotion to her voice. But before she jumps out the train, she repeats she’s killed 35 people, but then with tears streaming down her face she yells that she doesn’t want to kill people anymore. Being moved by this, using a bit of his ability, Atsushi jumps out of the train and rips the bomb apart from Kyouka, and they both safely escape.

The Port Mafia, Akutagawa actually had planned for her to die, just to show how serious the mafia is, but that was ruined. We see Akutagawa was the one talking to Kyouka on her phone and says she was nothing but a pawn. He then turns to someone and asks whether they’re a master, or a pawn ready to be disposed of. And this person, chained to the wall…is Dazai.

Dun dun dunnn! Dazai was kidnapped and now the Port Mafia has him in their clutches, for some reason. Now with Kyouka, it looks like the next episode she’s going to be hanging out with the Agency, namely Atsushi. She can’t return to the mafia now, especially since at that moment when the bomb was about to go off, she knew they never wanted to keep her. So now I hope she’s going to join the Agency, she probably has information that can help the group. Even though we only got a little bit of Kyouka, I’m intrigued and I really want to learn more about her. All in all, a pretty good episode. I love great female characters. Also, the thing with Akutagawa and Dazai, finally!