Title: Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 24
Author: Kafka Asagiri (Story), Sango Harukawa (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 172
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: August 20, 2024
The Story
Dazai and Sigma are still making their escape from prison, when they reach a small room, we learn that Dostoyevsky is still alive and well. I mean, of course, he is. You didn’t think a little water would finish him off… especially when he had Chuuya with him! He turns the tables on Dazai and sets him up with the very same trap with some added features. They escape but it means that Dazai and Sigma go their separate ways.
Meanwhile, Atsushi escapes… or, more accurately, is allowed to leave. He discovers the location of Bram and Aya; however, when he approaches, Aya calls out to Atsushi and tells him it’s a trap. Here, he has to do battle with a mind-controlled Akutagawa! As that battle rages on, Fukuzawa announces that he will launch the end times in just five minutes so Aya tries to find a way to pull the sword out of Bram so that he can use his full powers.
Sigma ends up finding Dostoyevsky and while he is played by him, he does offer him a reward… to touch him and learn everything about him!
The truth about Dostoyevsky, the imminent destruction of the world by Fukuzawa, the battle between Atsushi and Akutagawa, and the fate of Dazai are all left unresolved as our volume comes to a close!
The Characters
This seemed like a filler volume… but not in a non-story-related way as most fillers are known for. In this instance, it’s a filler for character development as next to none was had. It focused heavily on pushing the story forward but did plant plenty of seeds to blow the doors open on the series’ main antagonist… unless, of course, that was a part of his super-calculated plan and we’re going to get fooled.
Sigma did get a little development, though. Mainly through conflict. All he wanted was a home and even though Dazai never offered it, Dostoyevsky stated that he could see that Sigma wanted to join the ADA. This makes him wonder what he truly wants… just something for him to think about. I’m sure that will sprout later on but it’s just another one of those aforementioned seeds.
Aya, on the other hand, did get a brief moment to touch upon her past. She trained in karate from a young age but her father scolded her because she was never as good as her dead mother or her dead sister. She was constantly put down and frowned upon and that became the basis for her feelings of uselessness but it’s also giving her the strength to prove her father wrong by attempting to pull the sword out of Bram and use him to save the world.
Final Thoughts
I went from “Wow… that’s a lot of character development” in the last volume to “Wow… that’s a lot of things happening!” in this volume. You can tell that this arc has hit its climax as everything is going south all at once. Typically, in a story setting, this is what happens right before the tides get turned and the arc resolves itself. Despite how this story arc has gone, it almost feels like the ending to the series when, in reality, it’s not as we still have a long way to go with so many different paths that the story can take.
But when you look at it, we’ve got Fukuzawa trying to end the world, we have Dostoyevsky still enacting out his master plan, the Decay of the Angel playing their parts, plus we still have the original issue between the Port Mafia and ADA that’s completely unresolved along with the history of each group’s respective leaders. For an arc that screams “final battle,” knowing that this is just another stop on the overall path of this series is what truly makes this one of my favorite modern manga.
I think it was the right call to focus heavily on the story. All of the different aspects of it all coming to a head simultaneously delivered HUGE on the drama and tension. It makes you want the next volume. The only painful feeling is that we’ll probably have to wait another ten months to get it.
I hope not.
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
