Bsd Season Four Spoilers - Tumblr Posts
RIP that scene where Fukuzawa imagines just chucking Ranpo into the sea. You will be sorrowfully missed.
not coherent enough to write meta rn but. The moment when Ranpo says "it went all according to plan" like a typical detective at the end of a mystery. Like how Dazai and Dostoevsky say at the end of their schemes working out and it *works* for them in character. Especially for Dazai, on whom we have more information, who puts himself into dangerous situations as well and still makes a plan that works out in bonkers ways. He was brought up in an environment that ENCOURAGES this behavior, the Mafia cultivates his worst side, and that's Dazai behavior. Which is similar for many characters of this specific trope.
Except it's different for Ranpo. He gives his grand "it went all according to plan" (he doesn't get injured, the surface level boss is defeated at the moment) line but Fukuzawa immediately slaps him for that and rebukes him for risking his life on a whim. Just to challenge the culprit and capture it, just because he was sure that Fukuzawa would magically be able to follow along like everything was all scripted perfectly and wouldn't meet obstructions. Fukuzawa reminds Ranpo that he's just a kid, a kid who shouldn't be risking his neck this way....and that's when everything hits and Ranpo starts crying and apologizing.
"I am sorry" is what he says and hugs Fukuzawa desperately.
Bungou Stray Dogs is certainly an anime where teens do fantastic things but I believe that this is one of those moments that really humanizes these characters for me, where the "mentor" type shows genuine panic and reminds the character and by extension the audience that they are just a kid, a defenseless little kid thrust in a dangerous world— a dangerous world that's unfair to them.
And that's what makes the moment hit, honestly.
(and that's what makes Ranpo such a good foil to so many of these Dazai-type characters in BSD)