Anime Reviews
Bungou Stray Dogs (2016, Bones)
文豪ストレイドッグス
18 year old Atsushi Nakajima is kicked out of an orphanage during a certain incident involving a mysterious tiger that would appear causing chaos. As he wanders around, he saves the whimsical man named Osamu Dazai from comitting suicide. He turns out to be a detective who was part of a team known as the "Armed Detective Agency" that investigated supernatural cases the police couldn't handle and, just happened to be investigating the very same incident. However, Dazai soon learns the tiger was Atsushi himself and after testing him at their agency, Atsushi is given a place in their team. As Atsushi learns to master his powers he finds their firm caught up with another dark organisation known as the "Port Mafia".
You've seen shows with super powers but they are bit weird in this one such as materialising things drawn in a notebook or reviving someone only when they're fatally injured. Interesting original ideas. Battle scenes are short and intense and, characters have some fairly original personalities. You've got Dazai the most powerful member on the team but constantly trying to commit suicide (in comical ways), Naomi Tanizaki whose obssessed with her "older brother" always trying to seduce him. It actually kind of feels like Kekkai Sensen with its Western buildings and giant font move names.
First season is a good intro to each character's background while the second starts to pick up on the main story between the agency and the mafia. The TV series is mainly based on the Manga up to volume 11 with some material from the light novels that got released afterwards. There's a movie that's based on a separate spin-off Manga of the same name and takes place after season two where a "gifted" is seemingly going around making other gifted commit suicide using their own abilities and an apple is always left behind. Not a bad movie although it feels like a filler episode that brings back the gang rather than any significant progress in the main story.
Season three sees no drop in quality as we see more back story for Dazai and other characters, still with the same intense action and comedy.
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