文豪ストレイドッグス シーズン1＆2 {Wk 7}

 { ⚠️ Warning: Talk of Suicide }

Bungou Stray Dogs is an ongoing anime series that follows Atsushi Nakajima as he encounters Osamu Dazai, a member of the Armed Detective Agency. This agency is an organization occupied by people with special abilities known as "gifted" who solve crimes that the normal police cannot. They are not the only organization present and the viewers watch as Atsushi develops his abilities, makes friends, and fights for the safety of the city. The first two seasons consist of the Port Mafia Arc and the The Guild Arc in order. These first two seasons are absolutely amazing both for their animation style and character building but also for the world building that takes place in the anime. I was really interested in the inspirations behind each name after watching this series for a second time and come to learn that these names are all based on Japanese authors as well as their abilities being tied to the real life author's work in some shape or form. One of my favorite characters from these two seasons is Osamu Dazai who is this tall character with suicidal tendencies and bandages wrapped all around his arm and neck. He is a very comedic character but also a very smart and handsome character that I really adore watching as he mentors Atsushi and protects the city and Agency.

Related to my Japanese studies, I watched the series with an ear out for recognizing familiar phrases and reading any Japanese signs or text with the anime. It was really helpful to see how much of the grammar, hiragana, katakana, and Japanese culture I better recognized on this time watching it again. Furthermore, I was able to practice my listening skills and my understanding of the language. Aside from the linguistic practice, I recognized a lot of cultural relations with the anime and Japan's literary history. Each character's abilities was connected to a title of the Japanese author's work and even related to the information of the story to some degree. The characters were mainly Japanese but the The Guild Arc involves characters from America which not only incorporated the literary work from America but even Kafka Asagiri's , the author of BSD (Bungou Stray Dogs), perspective or artistic take on American mannerisms and their culture.