Bungou Stray Dogs 30 Day Challenge – Day Twelve: Honest Review on BSD 

   Definitely one of my favorite pieces of media and one of my favorite animanga! Not a lot of fandoms manage to keep my ADHD-addled brain focused for very long but Bungou Stray Dogs absolutely succeeded and I’m very happy about the fact, and very happy to continue on with it!

   The characters are absolutely perfect – and no, they’re not perfect angels, they’re perfect characters… Except one, Atsushi’s an angel, definitely. As wonderful as a protagonist as he is though, almost all of the Agency members get a day in the limelight as the show shifts focus from character to character, usually cited as one of its negative traits but honestly…? One of my favorite traits, I’m too used to shows never developing the friends of the protagonist(s) so this is a refreshing contrast!

   I could go on for pages about the characters individually and maybe one day I just might, especially Dazai, but it can wait, as this little review is about the show as a whole u-u

   The art is gorgeous and they ramp it up especially during Dark Era arc, the backgrounds, facial expressions, objects, character designs… They’re all done with meticulous detail and the fashion styles of several different countries and early 1900s fashion has been clearly researched – I should know, having done so for classes myself! Personal favorite is how the characters have these smooth dark outlines that dip and dive and aaaaa… I always make my outlines extra thicc both digital and on paper because I lov dat permanent marker vibe so it’s really nice to see an anime that isn’t all skinnie lines!

  The voice actors are brilliant. The soundtrack is divine! I risk sounding too much like an elderly British lady this way but it’s so truuuue.

   What else? OH! Yes the authors, of course! I didn’t realize at first that they were named after Japanese authors (the woes of being too American… Despite being Canadian and also halfway across the globe but still, English education) but when I found out it was a total delight! Then, with the introduction of the Guild, a few of my favorite authors were featured 😀 Twain and Montgomery, especially!

   After reading and on occasion rereading as many of them as I could I cried actual tears at the sheer amount of love and attention Asagiri and Harukawa put into their project. Though it’s nothing like any of those books, every character has something to their story that they took from their, well, story! It’s amazing and you don’t have to read any of their books to appreciate it, but the little details that give me little giggles was #worth

   All in all, BSD is definitely not the best, certainly not to worst, but absolutely special. I love it! It’s not perfect. It is by far not perfect, it has flaws. But what creative work doesn’t?