Kafka AsagiriCríticas

amazing (⌒▽⌒)☆

It's almost sort of interesting that this fantasy manga's characters are based on actual Japanese poets and writers, but the general set-up of super-powered detectives constantly fighting super-powered Mafioso isn't much of a hook for me.

I'm unfamiliar with most of the authors featured here, but it is funny that I was totally unaware of Osamu Dazai two years ago, but now here's the fourth book I'm reading about him. And this one tastelessly has him constantly trying to commit suicide as its comic relief.

Unless I learn that this gets truly awesome as it goes, I don't think I'm going to bother trying to get through this 23-volume series.

This is more of a 3.5 rating than a 4 star. The writing for these kind of wavers between okay, enjoyable (mostly coasting off decent plots), and cringe, and this one was at least funnier than the series light novels tend to be. I genuinely laughed relatively often with the first short story in it, about how Atsushi's entrance exam was picked.

The second short story, which takes up the majority of the book and is about how the agency began, is honestly a bit boring overall. It's interesting to see how Fukuzawa and Ranpo met, and the plot is relatively entertaining as BSD light novel plots go, though far less compelling than Storm Bringer, Dead Apple, or Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen. Part of the issue is that I don't like Ranpo very much, at least compared to other characters. He's fun, he can be funny, and it's interesting to see him solve things. The story does handle him interestingly, and to be fair, he is 14 in this, so it's unsurprising that he's a whiny child. He's just... also whinier than he usually is when he's in his 20s and that's not all that enjoyable.

The art was all right. I don't know if I'm in the minority of folks who prefers the anime art over the manga art, but I definitely prefer it over the light novel art, at least for this one. Other light novels had much better art, or at least depicted more interesting scenes by and large.

Overall it's another light novel. It's currently/has been animated by Studio Bones for season 4, so if you'd like to just see a visual version rather than read this, you're going to be able to very soon. As of this writing, Episode 1 has been out for a number of days. There are definitely differences in the animation, with callbacks to things later in the manga story, as well as what looks like some very economical cutting for time of character backstories and descriptions, which are normal in the process of adapting books to anime. It's not necessarily worse, though you do get more informative backstory by reading the book. If you're curious, reading the novel isn't a waste of your time. But it's not the best of these by a long shot, unless you really love Ranpo and Fukuzawa. The short story to start with isn't even that thrilling because it's mostly Kunikida melting down and Dazai being annoying, even if he's sometimes funny. But generally it's an interesting addition to the anime.

Honestly the writing and characters are boring and the art is pretty bad. Minor spoilers I guess: if you're looking for Chuuya, he's not actually in this. He is technically in one panel, but it's just a general reference to ability users. He's not actually in the story.

Rereading this has been a pleasure! The art is beautiful, the story is fun and wonderful. Another great novel in the series. Really hoping we see this animated soon (and I wouldn't look askance at a manga adaptation).

So happy to finally have this! It's a nice addition to what we got to see in the anime, since we get to see some of the characters' thoughts and more elaboration on events.

I was actually really happy with part of the ending where Chuuya actually walks away from the Sheep attack for a time and finds Dazai, rather than Dazai was just sitting under the cliff for the Sheep attack, waiting for him, everyone posed dramatically. It makes more sense visually to save time with what happens in the anime, but the novelization version works more, logically.

It's still a great story, and Chuuya and Dazai get up to a lot of funny hijinks. The internal art is also quite lovely. The cover is gorgeous. And I love the preview of Verlaine.

My one criticism is probably Chuuya's dialogue. It's incredibly cringe-worthy and uncomfortable to read when they try to make him sound... I don't know... uncultured? Not as refined as Dazai or most other characters? I imagine they're trying to accurately reflect whatever Japanese dialect Chuuya is using that differentiates him from Dazai in particular, and this is the closest they got, and it's just... kind of strange.

Overall, a great light novel in the series.

The plot thickens! This has some really good action and really good moments of tension. Really enjoying where it's going.

More Sigma, and some fun stuff with Atsushi. The story continues to be pretty interesting. The "I guessed you would do this so I did this but actually I guessed you'd guess that I'd do that, etc" is getting to be a bit much, but overall I still like what the characters are up to.

It's all right. The art is kind of terrible. It's nice that these chapters were adapted mostly fully for the anime, since they're actually nice that way.

Sigma's introduction. Some past about Fukuzawa. Montgomery returns (which is great). And Ango is fun. Dinging a star for the stupid "Hebrew name of Aldebaran" and weird use of kabbalah. Aleph is a letter, not a name.

The art's either getting or scenes are more interesting. Story is developing in an interesting way, and this has some nice backstory with Dazai and Akutagawa. Some great fight scenes, too.

I think this is the one with the authors who are in love.

CHUUYA IS BACK!!!!!

I still don't really like the art, though they do draw Dazai and Chuuya and a couple other characters well. The plot is a bit overwhelming, and it just works better when animated. Here it seems weirdly too slow or too fast.

We have graduated from bizarre chess moves back to funny superpowers, and I'm loving the heck out of it. Time swords? Vampires? Bring it on. This is amazing lol

Mostly the stars are for Chuuya, but the story in this volume is just really great. There's a lot of great character interactions and reveals, and a lot of wonderful fight scenes. It's still better in the anime, but overall this is really good, and a lot of fun, and I'm glad it gave us the story that was later adapted.

3.75/5

You know, what's sexy? It's Dazai's brain.

What’s it about?
This is the second book of the manga series about a group of detectives with supernatural powers. They are all named after famous Japanese authors, and embody powers in relation to the authors’ books and stories.
After having found a new family and new group of friends in the first book orphan Atsushi has to help out in different cases of the Armed Detectives. They hunt e.g. a murderer and a bomber.

How was it?
I am usually not a big fan or reader of manga comics. This series was recommended by a co-worker to me – and I enjoyed the first two books a lot. I liked the concept of “literary” superpowers, the characters are fun, and the stories are very adventurous. The perfect brain candy for when you don’t want to read anything demanding.½

Extremely clever, Bungo Stray Dogs' characters are all named after accomplished writers (or their works) from the Japanese Meiji and Taisho literary canon, though their personalities tend to be either hyperbolic recreations of their namesakes or else bare little resemblance to the historical named writer. Most amusingly, the character's supernatural powers are either taken from their namesakes' most famous/best work (finally a shounen attack I can wrap my brain around!), or else based on having an unnatural ability to survive what actually killed the named writer. Brilliantly, the story is set in time-skipping construct that features the historic appearance of Yokohama of that day, where writers, Westerners and the ill-repute abounded, but advanced to modern times technology (although I swear at least one image is based on a Yasukuni-Dori in Jimbouchou). Steeped in Meiji and Taisho historical happenings, much of the jokes featured in Bungo Stray Dogs will fly completely over the heads of a Western readership (unless one happened to major in Japanese Literature, and even then a good deal of the named writer's workers simply don't exist in English translation). Nevertheless, if you spend enough time researching every reference on Wikipedia, Bungo Stray Dogs can be quite funny. Highly recommended for the Japanese scholar, but I doubt the average teenage manga-lover would actually get anything out of it.

Additionally, the mangaka's penname, Asagiri Kafka, is an homage to the accomplished contemporary Japanese author Murakami Haurki's work, Kafka on the Shore (in this case "Kafka of the Morning Mist") that features Murakami's trademark alternating setting/protagonist trade-off style. Similarly, two of Bungo Stray Dogs characters, Akutagawa Ryounosuke and Higuchi Ichiyou work together as members of the mob in this volume, but in actuality they didn't even live during the same time periods.

Finally, one thing I particularly liked about this edition is that Yen decided to retain the under-obi gag strips that usually appear on Tankoubon's covers hidden by the dust jackets. They're usually never brought over into English publication except as extras in the back of the book. That Yen has decided to retain them on the inside covers of the book actually makes the experience feel a lot more like reading a traditional Japanese manga. Ironically, however, if you're reading a library-owned copy, the inside covers will probably be bound over. ;)½