Kinda Criminal That He Has A Transformation Power-up That Color Coordinates Any Outfit As A Side Effect,

Dazai Osamu (BSD): a case study of a nihilist turned absurdist

I've talked a bit before about the themes of absurdism within BSD, and I think this plays heavily into Dazai and the personal journey he's gone on throughout the series (light novels included). From my perspective, his character development has followed a shift in ideology, from nihilism to absurdism.

First, I'd like to define how these two philosophies are similar yet different. Nihilism is the belief that life is intrinsically meaningless, and that there's no value to seeking meaning. Absurdism also believes that life has no intrinsic meaning, but states that revolting against the absurdity of existence is the way to create meaning.

While I don't think Dazai 100% fits either category fully at any given point in his life as we've seen it thus far, I think in his PM days he leans more towards a nihilist perspective, and following Oda's death he leans more towards an absurdist perspective.

Dazai's reasoning for joining the PM was because he thought that perhaps being around violence and raw emotions would help him understand humanity, giving him a reason to live. This doesn't sound quite like nihilism, but honestly, I think he gains a more nihilist point of view as time progresses and he realizes that he can't find meaning in the PM. I'm not even sure he believed that there was meaning to find in the first place, he was just desperate to prove himself wrong, and then failed, which really cemented this nihilistic mindset for him.

Friedrich Nietzsche, often regarded as the founding father of nihilism, claimed that nihilism "not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one shoulder to the plough; one destroys.”

If life doesn't have meaning, then it doesn't matter to Dazai if he destroys. So, he fills a corpse with bullets, he horrifically abuses his subordinate, he actively tries to take his own life.

Nihilism is right in line with his suicidal nature. This isn't to say that all nihilists are inherently suicidal, but when one believes that life has no meaning, it's quite easy to come to the conclusion to kill oneself. I think this mindset really lends to his general depression and suicidal ideation, on top of the fact that he feels generally disconnected from humanity. It's so easy for him to consider himself inhuman because he has this nihilistic point of view that nothing matters and everyone else in society seems so dead set on opposing that worldview.

And then you have Oda. He is the closest thing Dazai gets to finding meaning within the PM. Like Chuuya, this is a person that fascinates Dazai, although his reason for fascination is much different. To Dazai, Oda represents what is good in the world, he thinks that he is a good man, and struggles to reconcile how a good person can come out of an existence so seemingly pointless and horrific.

Then, Oda dies.

It's an absurd occurrence, and to Dazai it only proves that life has no meaning. This is exemplified when Dazai speaks to Fyodor about God in Meursault: "[God] is known for is famous for his coincidences and absurdism, I've seen it countless times," and a flashback to Oda's death is shown. A good man died for seemingly no good reason, and to Dazai, this only proves life's meaningless, because to the universe it didn't matter who Oda was, he died, regardless.

(I quoted the dialogue from the BSD anime English dub because I feel it better suited my argument, but you can see that he's essentially saying the same thing).

This event should have only further cemented Dazai as a hardcore nihilist, but fortunately for him, Oda was able to get a word in before he passed. He told Dazai that as long as he believes the sides of good and bad are the same to him, he should be on the side that helps people. Oda suggests fighting against life's inherent absurdity -- and that's absurdism in a nutshell, revolting against a meaningless universe.

Dazai takes his advice, and within a few years, he's working for the ADA, he's on the side that helps people.

In that same conversation with Fyodor, Dazai speaks further about life's meaning:

"Those who scream within the storm of uncertainty and run with flowing blood." That's absurdism, the rebellion against uncertainty, meaninglessness, absurdity.

While I don't think Dazai is a bona-fide absurdist due to his suicidality (absurdism basically sees suicide as giving into meaninglessness), I think he's on his way there because of moments like this.

I don't think he's totally convinced that life is completely and utterly meaningless anymore. He, at the very least, has a respect for those who forge their own meaning through the act of revolt.

"Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world." - Albert Camus

moominmoominmoominmoomin

The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It's a time for protection and securing things and for making sure you've got in as many supplies as you can. It's nice to gather together everything you possess as close to you as possible, to store up your warmth and your thoughts and burrow yourself into a deep whole inside, a core of safety where you can defend what is important and precious and your very own. Then the cold and the storms and the darkness can do their worst.

- Moominvalley in November (Tove Janssson)

Chuuya has so much angst potential.

I genuily don't know why people ignore that.

They opt for Dazai angst instead.

Which is not bad, but Chuuya has way more complex angst than Dazai, whose problems come from HIMSELF.

Chuuya ends up being like Dazai, but he is like that because life hasn't been kind to him.

I think he is one of the most complex characters and I can understand Dazai's admiration and obsession.

He hides himself behind a mask, barely showing how he feels.

So seeing him break is so satisfying, yet quite painful.

Dazai showed who he is through Oda, Chuuya and other characters, but Chuuya is like a man trapped inside a soldier.

It makes me so sad.

I love skk because of this.

Dazai makes Chuuya be more free.

He can bicker with him, because he wants too, not because he has to.

So even though Chuuya "hates" Dazai, that hatred ends the moment he begins the think the reasons of this hatred.

He is fascinating.

The hero with a fate he cannot scape, but it doesn't define who he is and his character.

It's there, but Chuuya opts for ignorance.

"I don't do what I want, I do what it has to be done."

Consider yourself a pro if you recognize the quote ^^

oh he's a little bit fucked up actually

Insert trail blazing montage

Moomins: The Turning of the Leaves pg. 1 of 31

#moomins #snufmin #moomintroll #snufkin #moominstheturningoftheleaves #moominvalley #comic

#inktober #inktober2023 #dream

Page 2

CW: disturbing imagery/spoilers for bsd

hoshikawa has done such an incredible job of portraying Dazai from Chuuya’s perspective… back before he figured out that Dazai’s demon persona was just that… a persona. an act

before he learned to see through Dazai’s fronts

Dazai made people think he was uncaring & heartless, when this was his intention all along (he does this in Stormbringer & Dead Apple too)

Chuuya sees Dazai manipulating him…

but he doesn’t see that Mori is manipulating Dazai

“I do it all for the organization and the protection of this beloved city.” —Mori

this panel has quickly become a contender for my favorite of the series so far

large tsukasa bias heads up for this post lol, but mostly marvelling at the narrative and evocative power one panel can have because like. god. this panel is SO good. it's so simple!! and yet!!!! even my first time through it made me pause because there's such a palpable energy to it--which, having finished the chapter like 7 times over now haha, i can now say is very strong calm before the storm energy.

i love how this panel functions as like, a thesis statement for tsukasa. he's so perfectly centered, looking head on, his koku joudais on either side of him, the panel cut off right under his stab wound. this panel reads like a portrait.

and the feelings this one single expression evokes!! he's so at ease, and it makes the audience so not at ease.

because we know what "tsukasa" means. we know what tsukasa can do. and the panel immediately proceeding this tells us: akane and the clock keepers don't know what "tsukasa" means. this panel is like a stinger score in a horror movie as a character heads straight into a threat they can't see, while the audience sees the threat plainly but is helpless to warn them.

i especially love this panel coming off of all the chapters we've just gotten. we've seen so many shades and states of tsukasa in the past few chapters, including a very new state:

i've been puzzling over these panels all month, trying to figure out what felt so... distinct? about them, and 109 gave such good context for them. 108 tsukasa feels new because he is a tsukasa we hadn't seen before! this is a tsukasa who lost. but the energy in these 108 panels is really illuminated by the above panel from 109. this is not only a tsukasa who lost, but a sore loser! yet, not actually too deeply bothered; honestly, the best term i can think of here is butt hurt lmao. like. he's not actually scared, he's just sulking. 108 tsukasa looks like he lost a board game, or like he came up against a video game boss he's having trouble defeating--and in this panel from 109, he looks like he just figured out how to win. he's been puzzling over how to get out of this situation, huffy over not getting it immediately when normally he blows through challenges like this, and now he sees his checkmate.

in fact, i think there's a comparison to be made between this 109 panel, and this 92 panel:

the same symmetry, the same smile. centered in the frame, looking head on, undaunted, his koku joudai on either side of him. in his element. putting all his puzzle pieces together, and having fun with it.

i love the line "tsukasa. my name is tsukasa." coming right after such an out of character loss, and right before his return to how we first meet him, how he's been this whole time.

and one last panel comparison, just for the sake of breaking my own heart:

by himself, just tsukasa. not yugi tsukasa, no official title of yorishiro given to himself like the other three get, just tsukasa. this is not the first cage he's had to break himself out of, and he knows he'll find a way out of this like he found his way out of hanako's boundary, even if he has to figure it out himself, just tsukasa.

and he does!--because, like he says: he's tsukasa.