Saturday, December 24, 2016

[Ended] Bungo Stray Dogs 2 - More Greatness

Small Stories of My Life.

Pros: Still Amazing Characters
-Dazai was a mysterious character last season, he was fleshed out this time, along with Akutagawa some more, and it didn't damage them in the slightest
-There is now a Grand Plot, and the story still moves forward wonderfully
-Lovecraft shows up.

Cons: Few.
-Once again, the beginning is a bit jarring. They don't resume where the first season stopped, they jump backwards in time to fill in Dazai and by extension Akutagawa. It gets back into it, and it is important that we saw Dazai's past, but still. They could have had a little bit of a lead in to that.
-I am emotionally displeased with how weak Cthulu ended up being.

My Opinion: I had no idea the characters and powers in this show, were each individually based on famous authors and books. Not until bloody H.P. LOVECRAFT HIMSELF, steps on screen and is introduced in the shows usual artsy lettered manner! Of course, his power has to be 'The Great Old One' which promised just the best things to me. They were just as good as promised, but I had too much emotional investment, and how things turned out with his main scene let me down. Personal Problem.

After that, things kind of clicked into place. I'd actually read The Scarlet Letter in high school, apparently Gone With the Wind was a book before it was a movie that my Mother has. Who could miss Edgar Allen Poe? Or Mark Twain? It blew my mind. Of course, that also means every other character is a famous author and book as well. Which means that this show could unintentionally(or very probably intentionally) be a source of future reading suggestions. Certainly, I'd never have so much as heard of, let alone been interested in, what I'm sure is a bevy of Japanese authors. Having seen the Movie Gone With the Wind, and read the book Scarlet Letter, and recently being obsessed with consuming Lovecraftian Mythos literature, I can report:
The Powers are in fact strongly based on the core essence of the books they pull from, or at the minimum, those are. Lovecraft's is basically a straight pull, while the other two are more along the lines of a logical extrapolation, and an interpretation of the impression given. No, I'm not going to be more specific than that, this blog is suppose to be spoiler free and I've been pushing the bounds since I started this post.

Impartial Opinion: Go watch the first season. The second doesn't fill you in at all to allow for skipping it, so you will need both. Other than that, this is a superbly made show. The unique art style they use with it, and the way they introduce all the characters all makes an almost magical level of sense now.

What's more, the second season successfully resolves the story, giving us a tasteful and fulfilling ending, but leaves the plot open to continue, with a foreshadowing that more trouble yet lays on the horizon for the characters. Given that we got a second season already, I have no reasons at the moment to doubt that we'll get a third. Take some time and catch up if any of you passed on this one, it only got better, and probably will continue to do so.