Hey so somebody once insisted that Dazai was lawful neutral and I would like to politely hecking disagree because… I’m not going to try to figure out the mess that was his morality pre-Dark Era, but post-Dark Era and after Oda’s influence Dazai literally asked for a job where he could be a good person “and on the side that saves people.” So like idk where you’re looking if you think in any way he’s neutral??? One person even said he was neutral evil (and they definitely meant Agency!Dazai and not Mafia!Dazai) and like… Okay I’m not going to stop you from deciding what morality you interpret this character as being because we all view the same media/character through a different set of lenses but he is to me, no bout a doubt it, 100% chaotic good. GOOD because he’s ??? side that saves people and he’s been doing it and adopted Atsushi and Kyouka and is just ??? doing his best for the Agency and Yokohama but the CHAOTIC part because (and this is likely the reasoning that led the others to neutral/evil tbh) he does things like make Akutagawa feel inferior to Atsushi and oh you know, had Ango get hit by a car to land him in the hospital, and once shoved Atsushi in the line of bullet fire, and all these little morally frowned upon things but since he’s doing it for the greater good… That makes him a good guy that likes to work outside of the set rules. Chaotic Good, by definition! (of course feel free to politely hecking disagree with me as well, but know there’s no way I’m changing my mind pfpff)

shout out to the one time I played with Akinator the web genie and when I tried to see if he could guess Higuchi he guessed “your best friend” instead and like. I couldn’t say NO

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Also this, from when he tried to guess Dazai.

bonus: “does your character wear a hat” he thinks it’s chuuya, “does your character wear a trenchcoat" hOW DARE- yes,

So a little under a year ago I made a post talking about how BSD tends to interpret book titles as the literal inspiration for the abilities rather than the topic of the book itself – with one of few major exceptions being Dazai. Sure, as a few people pointed out to me, and as I found out for myself after reading the book, the emptiness the main character feels in No Longer Human does indeed match up with Dazai’s, but I didn’t once consider how it inspired the characters’ personalities (just look at Kenji, Undefeated by the Rain defines his personality more than anything), I only want to think about how it inspired their abilities…

Dazai relieves characters of what makes them not like other humans, whether it be an illusion ability or one that turns you into a tiger. If anything, his ability makes you more human, right…? So, same as how Yosano’s ability literally prevents people from dying (Thou Shalt Not Die) or Atsushi’s turns him into literal beast (Beast Beneath the Moonlight), No Longer Human would by literal titular logic
amplify an ability, not nullify it. Make you less human, not more.

My friend however, suggested this possibility: the abilities are what makes them human. It is what makes them unique and special. Considering the real world context we have, knowing that they’re authors, and that most people consider an author’s book as a significant part of what’s left of them, of their past thoughts and emotions – writing things down allows them to stay alive and human forever. When Dazai takes it away, he takes away what makes that author special… And every human has something that makes them special. You can’t take it away.

So the question still remains to me, at least.
Does No Longer Human make more sense as a nullifier, or an amplifier…?

Or better yet – what if there was an ability amplifier to oppose Dazai?