Meet the suicidal maniac from the Shonen series Bungou Stray Dogs

Our secondary protagonist in the Bungou Stray Dogs franchise is suicidal manic Osamu Dazai. He is associated with ADA, which carries out objectives that can’t be trusted by any normal agency like police, military etc. These are a group of people with some distinctive abilities. Dazai’s ability is called No More Human. He was once associated with the port mafia, city’s most feared organization. He was the youngest executive at the age of 15, the organization ever had. Having a pure, cheerful and energetic suicide is his moto.

“Success is harder than failure for many things in the world, right? That means I shouldn’t place suicide as my goal, but rather, attempted suicide! It may be harder to succeed at suicide, but to fail at attempted suicide should be easier!”

– Osamu Dazai

Bungou in the franchise name Bungou stray dogs means literary as the characters in the franchise share same name as real-life authors and their special ability is named after their books or other works. In Dazai’s case he was named after Japanese fiction writer Osamu Dazai and his novel ‘No More Human’ paves the way for Dazai’s ability.

These two are quite similar when it comes to suicide. As the writer himself attempted two suicides before the final successful attempt, Dazai keeps practicing new ways to die and his prime desire is to attempt double suicide with a woman. His suicide attempts (no offence) are a comic relief in terms of how he attempts them. However, they are presented in a comedic way, they have to do with his dark past which can’t be erased. He describes these attempts as oxidation. 

“If the scars adorn the man, I must say thank you to life, she did everything to make me handsome”

-Dazai

The most engaging element of his appearance is sealed plaster. These bandages are his constant companion. During his days in the port mafia he used to apply bandages around his right arm and on his right eye. Viewers can witness these bandages over the course of anime all over his body. These bandages remain a mystery with no official explanation but most probably these have to do with his obsession with suicide.

Most of the time he is pulling pranks, cracking hilarious but dark jokes, practicing some pretty funny suicidal attempts. What’s appealing about is character is his dual nature. As discussed, he is overly dramatic at times but can show his dark side at times as well. His true nature is actually a mystery as his friend Oda Sakunosuke have said “It can’t be found”.

Although his ability is somewhat similar to Eraserhead’s but it is considered one of the best in the anime. His ability is no longer human which allows Dazai to invalidate other’s abilities on contact. What it needs is a touch and boom!! Even if he is in bad condition, this ability remains active.   

Dazai is as underrated as his anime is. Bungou stray dogs along with some orthodox shonen elements brings into light those aspects of a world with superpowered beings no other anime has brought. It is suggested to give a shot to this anime even for Dazai alone.