Bungou Stray Dogs S3 – Episode 4

With the backstory episodes, we step into season 3 with surprisingly very little of characters we are familiar with. Instead, opting to take some time to develop our villain for the season. A character you would recognize as Fyodor Dostoevsky if you’d watched the Dead Apple movie.
He has been captured by the Port Mafia, a gambler in employ of the Port Mafia. Ace, offers to interrogate Dostoevsky and you know from almost the moment the episode starts that Ace is going to die. If only because, you’ve never seen him before and looking at all promotional material, you never see him again. I mean, it’s fine really and Mori probably even expected it. There was nothing trustworthy about Ace, if Mori can use you and dispose of you to gain even the slightest bit of knowledge, he’ll do it.

Honestly, I have to say. The only thing I ‘liked’ about Ace was just how brutal his special ability was. The ability to turn anyone in his service (marked by a color) into jewels valuable to equal their remaining lifespan. I have to admit, it gave me a chill to see him demonstrate it.
Though in the end, Ace was no match for Dostoevsky. He led a false trail, saying that his ability warped consciousness. Leading Ace to think he’d been trapped in Dostoevsky’s own mind, he’d also left a false tip with the kidnapper that captured him in the first place on how to escape such an ability.
The way that he laid out? Was to kill yourself in the mind scape.

A majority of factors went into tricking Ace. Such as breaking the clock in the room they were in, so it looked as if no time was passing. Memorizing the scratches on the playing cards so he could win the game that Ace proposed with ease. It  was honestly a very cunning set up.
As of the end of the episode, the true nature of Dostoevsky’s special ability remains unknown. However, he does kill someone by merely placing his hand to their head. It’s no real hint, but it’s something I suppose. I can’t recall if he says the name of the ability in the episode or not, or if my knowledge of that is entirely from outside sources.
However, if you are familiar with Dostoevsky’s works. It’s not hard to figure out which one they would choose to name his ability after.

After killing Ace,  Dostoevsky goes to gather the documents that Ace had been gathering on the special abilities of everyone in the Port Mafia. Including apparently, information on the top secret ability that Mori is hiding. He expresses intent not only to wipe out the Port Mafia, but also, the Armed Detective Agency.

This was a pretty good episode, nothing too exciting and it was certainly lacking in characters that we have any sort of familiarity with. However, it was a very good way to establish our villain for this season and his motives. To show how cunning and smart he is, he’s not a normal kind of evil. As observed by the boy that was in Ace’s service that Dostoevsky killed to keep his silence and release from his pain. He’s not a normal kind of evil, but a special kind of evil that you only see a few times in your life.
A true demon.

I still don’t have a lot of framework to go on from here. I have a manga reader that I watch with, but aside from the fact that she tells me all of ‘The Rats’ aka the Russian authors have very overpowered special abilities. She won’t tell me much about what to expect in the future. We’ll just have to find out.