Something I Find Really Beautiful About This Chapter Is Atsushi Subconsciously Finding His Tendency To

talent is something you make bloom

His heart is my sword

having long distance friends is so fucked. do you wanna come over to my house and play (it will cost us 1 william dollars)

thinking about atsushi’s hallucinations as things he has to overcome- with the headmaster, he obviously has to accept his trauma instead of hiding from it, which is symbolized in the last scene of ch 122 when atsushi lets the headmaster help him open the door..

the dazai hallucination tho- yes it was the headmaster hiding between a person atsushi trusts but i don’t think that’s all it is-

atsushi has to overcome his idealization of dazai, of his all-knowing-ness to trust himself more, and that happens by him seeing how pm dazai treated akutagawa. i’m not saying atsushi is naive, he knew that dazai has a dark past but seeing it with his own eyes is different, which is why then the headmaster hallucination came back bc he and the trauma attached to it are his next obstacles.

and he gets past them.

atsushi character development for the win.

(i hope this made sense)

見ざる | 聞かざる | 言わざる see no evil | hear no evil | speak no evil i finished this a while ago and then forgot to post it (￣-￣|||)

its ya boi, anxiety author Poe

Seijoh 4!!

To the two people who wanted to see Makki and Mattsun in my style (I genuinely didn't know what to draw for them) so I hope this is fine LMAO

my first actual post on here just to say that bsd ch. 121.5 was everything i’ve been waiting for for MONTHS! thank you asagiri.

sskk fans (me) really won with this chapter i will never get over it.

“And then… and then…” AND THEN WHAT AKUTAGAWA? YOU FELL IN LOVE??

Why was Kunikida against rescuing Kyouka?

Will mention some minor spoilers for Dazai's Entrance Exam light novel.

The way Kunikida reacts to Atsushi trying to save Kyouka is so so important to his character and how he has developed (even before the series actually starts).

The way he acts about Kyouka (discouraging Sushi from helping her) feels conflicting with his ideals. We see him trying to help kids in bad situations so often. I’m talking partially about Aya and kids with bombs literally strapped to them, but I’m also talking about kids going down a bad path. I mean, the whole reason that bomber guy in the Aya episode was obsessed with getting revenge on him was that years ago Kunikida saw this high schooler who was hurting and being very fucked up about it (I think he was planning to bomb his school?) and tried to help him in the way he knew how (pushing his ideals onto him).

But the more direct example is Rokuzo, the hacker guy in the Azure Apostle/Messenger arc. I think it’s more clear in the light novel, but the kid was going down a bad path after the death of his father, he was hacking the ada, getting into illegal stuff, and instead of getting him in legal trouble, Kunikida lowkey blackmailed him to use his skills for them. But this was because this gave him a connection to try and help him!!! To be a figure in his life and lead him right! (He specifically says he had no intent of actually releasing the evidence on him.) That was his whole goal there! And we all know how that went.

The whole Azure Apostle/Messenger arc was designed to make him question his ideals (as are many of Kunikida's best moments), and it certainly does.

"Was it right for her to be shot and killed?! Is this the ideal world I seek?!" Pg 172, Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam

"Miss Sasaki is dead, and so is Rokuzo. 'All I've found in my search for righteousness within myself is a sense of hopelessness.'" Pg 173, Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam

And then, after that, after his ideals fail him and lead to that kid's death, Atsushi, the new hire that he must feel at least a little (maybe unwillingly) responsible for (because who else is gonna be responsible for him, Dazai?), meets Kyouka. And Kunikida knows how this goes. Atsushi is naive. He will throw so much of himself into saving this kid, just like Kunikida did. It will end in tragedy and it will break him. Kunikida went through this already and he doesn’t want that for Atsushi.

In the anime, we meet Kyouka so soon after the Azure Apostle/Messenger arc. In general, I think changing the timing of Azure Apostle/Messenger ruined a lot of the adaptation, but in this specific instance, it adds something because it makes Kunikida's reaction to Kyouka feel more like a direct result of what happened there.

So we see Kunikida trying to protect Atsushi, the kid who he can help, and sort of try to go against his ideals. He is actively struggling to go against what he feels is right, and in the end, he succumbs to it anyway. We have seen Kunikida try not to follow his specific ideals or general moral code in the name of being logical and it doesn't work. In the end, he lets Atsushi's hope infect him and power his ideals once again, and it pays off!

I adore him <3