Hi everyone! :D After rereading the BSD novels I noticed a rather interesting pattern and came up with a fun idea!
How about a new impossible drinking game? Take a shot every time you notice Asagiri describing Dazai in the edgiest way possible when you're reading the light novels.
Sounds not so bad at first, however... Well, take a look yourself and have fun:
"I look at the young man. He is just staring at the ceiling. No emotions, no intents. Just a flat expression, like one who is just telling his age. I cannot believe my own eyes. I don’t even feel like there is a human there. If it was late night instead of a refreshing early morning, I would think that he was a ghost or a hallucination".
"His eyes remind me of a burnt black cat, his build reminds me of a burnt black cat, his presence reminds me of a burnt black cat. He has a tone that sinks into the abyss of the spirit, and deep, dark eyes that seem to hold the conviction that the sun will never rise again. He is a man of few words. And his voice has the sound of severance that rejects mutual understanding from the very beginning. No one could understand him. No one ever will. And he himself knows that very well. That kind of voice".
"When Dazai finally says so, his eyes look different from those of any human being. And those of any living things. Those are wounds. A pair of open wounds on his face, from which darkness is peeping out".
"Dazai’s face when he says that reminds me of the end of a culvert, or a black wall at the end of the road that leaves you no way to go".
"Dazai looks at me. Those eyes are like the bottomless see at night. Dark, cruel, quiet, endlessly sucking people in and never letting go".
"Dazai looks down at the opponent. Even people who look at the pebbles on the riverbank would show more interest than that".
"Dazai’s gaze towards Hirotsu turns dark instantly, as though representative of the gravity of his next words. If it were any ordinary person being stared at, they would be seized by nightmares for the next few days. Dazai’s eyes foretell the impending blood and violence about to come".
"I look at Dazai. There is something invisible within that can’t be seen with the naked eye, like a breeding ground for spirits that will raze everything to the ground".
"I look at Dazai intently. Although we have known each other for very long, this is the first time Dazai has spoken about himself. One can see something as sharp as a giant fishhook piercing and gnawing into Dazai’s life".
"“No.” I say. “I don’t think so. At the beginning, I thought you and Dazai were very similar, unable to see the value of your life, hoping for death, hence jumping into a world of violence and fighting. But that’s not the case. That guy is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see”".
""I know. There's a certain anxiety, anxiety about whether the previous boss's assassination was leaked". Dazai's expression was still unreadable. It was quiet as a freezing lake".
"The boy's gaze quietly penetrated Mori. Like a medical device that looked through the human body".
"The doctor and boy exchanged a silent gaze for a while. The Shinigami and the Devil seemed to glare at each other as the room filled with their spirit. In Mori's head, a word that he didn't know flickered many times and echoed like an alarm".
"The nightmarish thoughts Dazai sometimes showed through his observing eye was like an unprecedented, frozen eagle in the mafia's demonic nest".
"His expression returned to his usual Dazai thing. It was a gray expression that wasn't interested in any concept".
"I’m not a person with an excellent observation skill. But even so, just by looking at those eyes, I understand a few things right away. He probably has killed before. Not one or two digits. Hundreds of people. When you have killed that many people, you will reach the other side of the mentality that ordinary humans can possess, beyond the other shore where neither light nor gravity can reach. The spirit of those who have reached that state will be seen first in their eyes, then in their mouth. Their eyeballs become black holes, and the muscles around their mouth become organs to show the depth of their sin, not their facial expressions".
"I ask again. There is no answer. I don’t even know if he is listening. Because the light in his eyes show no reactions to my question. No matter how cold-hearted a person is, if you look at him in the eyes and throw words at him, you can still see some kind of responses. But this young man does not have any of that. Just black eyes looking at where my figure is".
"There is no heart here. Just a heart-shaped emptiness".
"He doesn’t reply. Those eyes are filled with a quiet emptiness. From that, I assume that he is listening. Because if he is deaf, there should be a reasonable amount of confusion and signs of claiming that he cannot hear".
"I say, my words echoing in the emptiness and dropping into the corner of the room, in the middle of nowhere".
"Dazai is standing in the corridor of the bunker, where it is completely dark. The distance between him and Odasaku is more than ten meters. Because of the darkness and the distance, Odasaku and the other guy cannot see Dazai. In fact, they wouldn’t even notice Dazai if he came within an arm’s reach. That is how much Dazai has melt into a dense shadow and become one with the darkness himself".
"Seeing that violence doesn’t even make his eyes move. His eyes are as still as those of a dead man, not showing the slightest flicker of emotion".
"Dazai has become one with the darkness. That is why no one is able to find Dazai".
"There is only darkness. As if no one was there from the beginning. It’s as if darkness has taken the form of Dazai, and has finally turned back to the original darkness and disappeared".
"The voice is intimidating, assertive, and filled with raw danger like a bleeding wound. It is high-pitched as that of a young boy, but it lacks the human-like characteristics a young boy should have".
"The cop can feel cold sweat squirting from his whole body. This young man is not lying. It shows in his eyes. That this young man is only seeing him as a fly in his kitchen".
"The cop’s body trembles in fear. This is the fear of pain, the fear of his imagination. But the most frightening of all is the young man in front of him, the king of the Pain land, the one who creates pains and controls pains".
"When Dazai finally opens his mouth after a long pause, that voice completely lacks emotions. No mockery, no cruelty, not even a carnivorous smile, nothing. A complete hollow".
"“You really don’t listen to others.” There is nothing left in Dazai’s voice, not even the ruthlessness. There is nothing in there. Not even a sign of someone holding a gun, nor talking to a human being".
"Suddenly, I feel like someone who got lost in the freezing cold weather at the top of a mountain, with only his underwear on. Having nothing to cover for myself, nor a way to escape. Far beyond the pale darkness, a mysterious monster is waiting to tear me into pieces".
"That voice had the dignity of a king and the mercy of the devil at the same time".
"When he saw that cold look heavier than a hundred eloquent words, Atsushi tensed his back".
"From the main office you could see the sunset of the city. In the middle of the room, Dazai was sitting alone at the desk with his arms crossed. He had a thin smile on his lips, and in his only visible eye the light darkness of the world".
"Because in the depths of his eyes lay a jet-black darkness deeper than any of the nights found at the disposal site".
"Dazai’s expression didn’t change whatsoever, and he spoke in a gritty voice devoid of any emotions".
"“It’s simple.” Dazai smiled faintly. His voice was low, as if it were the sound of a growl in a nightmare".
"Dazai smiled after he said that. It was like you could hear the sound of his broken soul with that smile".
"Dazai smiled and held out his hand to help me stand up. He saw through everything with the eyes of a sage, seeming to stare at a place that wasn’t anywhere on Earth".
And etc.
*reads all this through*
*tries to proceed the information properly*
*inhales*
Hair all tangled this morning - Shall I smooth it With spring rain Dripping form the jet-black Wings of swallows?
- Yosano Akiko, “Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from Midaregami”
THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS!
Why don't more people know about the wonderful interrobang‽‽
It's so sad smh
Literally furious that a ‽ symbol exists and just never caught on. You’re telling me there’s a more streamlined way to ask exclamatory questions than this, and it just never caught on?!?!?! I’m so mad. English has the worst punctuations, I swear.
You wait and wait for happiness, and when finally you can't bear it any longer, you rush out of the house, only to hear later that a marvelous happiness arrived the following day at the home you had abandoned, and now it was too late. Sometimes happiness arrives one night too late.
Dazai Osamu, Schoolgirl
In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine per cent is just living in waiting.
Dazai Osamu, The Setting Sun
How I imagine Chuuya feels every time he says Osamu instead of Dazai (bc there's no way he doesn't from time to time)
— Emery Allen, “Soft Human” (via lunamonchtuna)
『𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚛 𝚞𝚗𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜.
𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜.
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚑 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚝𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚍𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕.
𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜.』
“When I describe Dazai to the staff, there is a phrase that I always use, “an unworldly being with a mental age of two thousand years.” Dazai has far surpassed the mental dimension that human can reach, thus no-one can even tell if the emotions he shows are the real things or not.
There are rare moments when that Dazai shows his very “human” side. That is when he talks to another superhuman who is on the same level with him. The other is when he talks about his old friend who has passed.
This is the scene when Kyouka wondered “Maybe I’m, after all, just a murderer at heart.” and refused to be saved. And Dazai’s reaction to that. When he said “Don’t give me any of that!” here, he really meant it. That was an outburst from Dazai, as a 22-year-old boy, in this scene.”
(Bungou Stray Dogs Chapter 35 - Easygoingscan’s version)
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TN: I went to the BSD exhibition in Ikebukuro today and they have Asagiri’s comments on each character and their important scene, that I find very nice so I’m gonna find time to translate them little by little.
that feeling when youve written down 2k+ words and havent even got CLOSE to the main part of the fic yet </3
Mistaken again! I thought, for just a moment, I saw my lover’s face- but mischievous, capricious, all the little gods of love.
Yosano Akiko, River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko
I craved desperately some great savage joy, no matter how immense the suffering that might ensue…
Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human
✎𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚢 𝚟𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛.⚰︎ ⚠︎𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭⚠︎ ⧼ᴀᴅᴜʟᴛ⧽ ➳ ℑ 𝔩𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔞 𝔤𝔬𝔬𝔡 𝔟𝔬𝔬𝔨 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔞 𝖉𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝖙𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫 𝖉𝖆𝖗𝖐𝖊𝖗 𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊 𓆩🥀𓆪 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗪𝗜𝗣: "𝙃𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪, 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪" [Soukoku ║ Shin Soukoku] ⛓⛓ 『𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜.』 - 𝙳𝚊𝚣𝚊𝚒 𝙾𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚞, 𝙽𝚘 𝙻𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗
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