Greetings, and welcome to anime Rants with 7Mono! I have been on a 75-day streak of posting something on Anime Rants every day. In order to keep the streak going a little longer, I’m going to hurry and post these rushed episode reviews with no cool introduction. Lol, sorry. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the next few episodes of Bungo Stray Dogs!

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Episode 4: Hero War, Gang War

Atsushi manages to escape from Fukuchi thanks to some guards that come by. If Fukuchi were to use his powers at that point, he could risk exposing his secrets. Therefore, he has no choice but to let Atsushi escape. Afterward, Fukuchi opens a strange coffin, exposing the final member of the Angels Decay: Lord Bram, who is a vampire. Bram bites Akutagawa’s corpse, bringing him back as a raging vampire whose only instinct is to mindlessly bite others and spread the infection.

The vampire pandemic quickly takes hold in the city. In a matter of days, it could spread to the whole world and turn as much as half the population into mindless vampires. That’s Fukuchi’s plan. However, Tachihara acts as a thorn in his side for a while. Atsushi spread the information that Fukuchi is Kamui and that his power can send his blade back in time. That information was passed to the Port Mafia’s Boss (Mori Ogai), who ordered Tachihara to defeat Fukuchi with his metal manipulation ability.

Tachihara faced off with Fukuchi, cornering him and nearly beating him. However, Fukuchi sent a message back in time warning himself of danger. His past self got the signal and guessed what would happen in the future. Thus, Fukuchi’s past self was able to stab into the future, and it went right through Tachihara’s chest. Fukuchi blinds Tachihara by cutting his face and eyes. Although Tachihara tries to kill himself rather than become a slave, Lord Bram still makes him into a vampire.

As the vampire virus spreads and the governments of the world fall, the episode draws to a close. In the last few seconds, we see the men who proposed forming the counter-terrorist group before. They announce that the next step is to “call upon the Knight Commander of the Order of The Clock Tower to unleash One Order, the special ability weapon.”

It was another amazing episode of Bungo Stray Dogs season 5. There’s so much happening and it’s all so intense. I love it. This is truly the climax of the series. As for specific thoughts, I can’t make this post without following my tradition of simping hard for Mori Ogai. To me, he’s the sexiest character in BSD, and his voice lowkey turns me on. I was so happy to see him even briefly in this episode.

I had forgotten about Tachihara’s metal manipulation ability, but it makes sense that it’s the arch-nemesis power to Fukuchi and his sword. After seeing the season 4 finale, I started liking Tachihara a lot. He went under my radar as an interesting character for a long time. But now I know how awesome he is, so it sucked that he got defeated by Fukuchi. Still, I’m glad he lasted as long as he did against such an OP enemy. On the plus side, if someone can kill Lord Bram, all the vampires will turn normal again – Tachihara and Akutagawa will be back.

Going back to Fukuchi for a second, I was interested to finally hear his motive in this episode. If I understood correctly, he wants to destroy the state and create anarchy rather than let bureaucrats, politicians, and kings continue to rule and wage wars without even getting their hands dirty. In other words, the “Angels” that Fukuchi refers to are the embodiments of corrupt government. Those are what must decay.

Although I love chaotic and sadistic villains like Fyodor, I can also definitely appreciate a villain with a “noble” goal. Who doesn’t hate politicians? However, in my book, the ends don’t justify the means, which still makes Fukuchi evil.

I’m not sure what will happen next, and I wonder about the identity of the Knight Commander and his special ability weapon. Is it just me or does that title sound like a King Arthur reference? But whatever happens, I’m excited to see more.

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Episode 5: At The Port In The Sky (Part 1)

The Armed Detective Agency is all back together. They hold a meeting to go over their next big plan. They need to stop Fukuchi from obtaining One Order, a transmitter that was developed by Gifted Ability users. Anyone who controls the transmitter can assert total mind control over their subordinates. If Fukuchi gets his hands on this weapon, he’ll be one big step closer to world domination.

Fukuchi will be picking up the One Order at an airport. There, the Detective Agency must stop him, as well as destroy Lord Bram, the leader of the Vampires, who will be unguarded. But Fukuchi is of course able to guess this. So, he reveals the truth to Jouno (the blind Hunting Dog) and asks him to guard Lord Bram. Jouno, however, is against Fukuchi, and chooses to fight. Unfortunately, he is defeated by the space-time blade and critically injured.

Jouno had one last trick up his sleeve. There was a young girl at the airport who had been rescued by the Armed Detective Agency in the past. Jouno passed her a note asking her to discreetly follow him. She did so, and overheard everything about Fukuchi being the mastermind. She takes a picture of Fukuchi with Lord Bram’s coffin, but the flash on the phone camera alerts the old man. The little girl is able to hide, but it might not last long. To be continued.

This was a great episode that kept me intrigued all the way through. I can’t for the life of me remember the little girl’s name, but I hope she survives and spreads the proof of Fukuchi’s villainy. Speaking of Fukuchi, it seems that I was slightly wrong about his motivations and goals. While he holds the state and its leaders in disgust, his plan is not to destroy them and induce anarchy, but to destroy them and induce a new world order. Fukuchi thinks “If you want something done right, do it yourself” – including ruling the world.

I also liked this episode’s character development of Jouno. He seems like an extremely interesting person. He may have started out a bit more on the evil side, but he learned that it feels good to protect people, so it was easy for him to decide to be against Fukuchi. I’d love to look into the author that Jouno is named after when I have a little more time. Anyway, that’s about it for my thoughts on episode 5!

Thanks for reading~

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PATREON