Title: Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 17
Author: Kafka Asagiri (Story), Sango Harukawa (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
The Story
Volume seventeen of Bungo Stray Dogs sees Atsushi and Kyouka continue to on their mission to clear the Armed Detective Agency’s name after being framed. This leads them to Mushitarou who is being held captive in a prison cell inside of a bank. They free him; however, they are discovered by Ango Sakaguchi, a member of a secret government crime faction known as the Seventh Agency. As if we didn’t have enough factions to worry about, there’s a new one standing in Atsushi and Kyouka’s way!
Or so we thought!
While the Seventh Agency is a real thing, Ango is not a member of it. His true intentions were to aide Atsushi and get them to unite with Montgomery who will use her Anne’s room to aid them in finding out the location of the page. The Decay of the Angel’s plan is a 4-step process and, right now, they are on step 3. The fourth step will be the destroy the land… not overtake it. They are going to use the page and write on the other side of it to accomplish that in 10 days’ time. The first side of the paper was written on to frame the ADA for their crimes.
Since the Hunting Dogs are still after the ADA, they find out where Kyouka, Montgomery, and Atsushi are heading: The Sky Casino. There, it is run by the Casino’s manager who is simply known as Sigma. The Hunting Dogs, the ADA, and The Decay of the Angel all clash here at this spot as our volume comes to an end.
I left out a LOT of details because there is just SO MUCH going on in this volume… but in a good way! We are also treated to more of the mind games between Dazai and Dostoevsky, a reuniting between Fukuzawa and his childhood friend, the leader of the Hunting Dogs, Genichirou, and then some! To say that this was a loaded volume from a story perspective would be an understatement!
The Characters
While our main characters didn’t really get much development, we have a couple of characters that did!
First up would be Montgomery. She helps out Atsushi and Kyouka because she feels indebted to them for helping her out. At the same time, Atsushi feels indebted to her for her own assistance. It was a cute moment that makes you want to ship them but I already have Atsushi getting together with Kyouka, getting married, and bearing tons of children! Still, nice to see Montgomery truly accepting this new life post-Guild!
Tachihara of The Hunting Dogs gets a little bit of development. As he’s checking things out, he’s having conflicting memories of his time spent undercover with the Port Mafia. He remembers a lot of the advice that Mori gave him and what the rules of the mafia are and he got them confused with his own orders as a member of The Hunting Dogs. If anyone was a candidate to turn on The Hunting Dogs, it would be Tachihara; however, I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. Perhaps later on down the line but not now. This series loves to plant seeds so I wouldn’t bet against this being one of those seeds for a future plot point!
We have our new character Sigma who believes that The Sky Casino is as important as life itself. When the Hunting Dogs tell him to shut it down for a month, he fired back and wondered how it would feel if someone told you to stop your own heart from beating for a whole month? That’s how much the Casino means to him. Given the fact that the Casino itself is a de facto state with its own laws, this makes Sigma akin to the President of a country. There is something else about Sigma, though, that could put everything in jeopardy but I’ll let you discover that on your own!
Final Thoughts
This arc is nothing more than just one giant game of chess. Fitting how Dazai and Dostoevsky are playing that exact game in the confines of their prison cells! Pretty nice symbolism there! Still, with so many factions coming together, it feels as if this arc is coming to an end in the next couple of volumes or so. The end goal was pretty simple from the start but it’s extremely difficult to obtain. All they have to do is find the page… get it… and write that the ADA is innocent on the other side and it will undo everything that has been done.
Of course, there are The Hunting Dogs, The Decay of the Angel, and Dostoevsky all standing in their way. This makes it extremely tricky to pull off but it’s something that must be done. The only piece missing from the puzzle right now is The Port Mafia; however, I’m not sure if they will take much of an active role in this. You could also argue that The Guild can come back in full force since Atsushi did seek out Fitzgerald’s help; however, The Guild is in shambles and there’s not much one man can do but you never know!
Needless to say, this continues to be one of my favorite manga! The intricate weaving of the story plots keeps things fresh and interesting each and every time! Can’t wait for Vol. 18!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
