50 Fun Facts About Bungo Stray Dogs

Osamu Dazai's power-nullifying touch in Bungo Stray Dogs is named after which novel by the real Dazai?

No Longer Human is the favorite novel that inspired writer Kafka Asagiri to create the series. Even objects made by another ability dissolve at Dazai's touch.

Chuuya Nakahara of the Port Mafia controls which force on anything he touches in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Gravity answers to Chuuya through his ability, Upon the Tainted Sorrow, as long as he is touching the object. He is regarded as one of the strongest ability users in the city.

Which animal does orphan Atsushi Nakajima transform into against his will in Bungo Stray Dogs?

A white tiger is the form Atsushi takes, with huge strength, speed and the power to regenerate. At first he keeps no memory of what he does while transformed.

Which ability turns Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's coat into blades and monstrous jaws in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Rashōmon controls any cloth Akutagawa wears and can even devour space itself, giving him a shield that ordinary attacks cannot break.

Port Mafia serial bomber Motojirō Kajii shapes his explosives like which fruit in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Lemons are the trademark of Kajii, whose ability keeps his own lemon-shaped bombs from harming him. He treats dying as his greatest experiment.

What must Guild leader Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald give up to boost his strength in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Money is the fuel for The Great Fitzgerald, an ability based on The Great Gatsby. Simply throwing cash off a balcony is enough to trigger it.

Akiko Yosano's healing ability in Bungo Stray Dogs only works on patients in what condition?

Near death is the catch: Yosano can heal any wound, but only on someone at that point. So she often injures her patients thoroughly before treating them.

In Bungo Stray Dogs, Kenji Miyazawa's ability Undefeated by the Rain grants superhuman strength only when he is what?

Hungry is the trigger for the 14-year-old country boy's strength. His honesty makes him so popular with locals that he is the Agency's main collector of eyewitness accounts.

Kyōka Izumi's phantom Demon Snow only obeys orders sent through which object in Bungo Stray Dogs?

A mobile phone carries every command to Demon Snow, which once let Ryūnosuke Akutagawa control the phantom instead of Kyōka. The flaw came from her mother passing the ability on incompletely.

How does Atsushi Nakajima first come across Osamu Dazai in the opening chapter of Bungo Stray Dogs?

Drifting in a river is how Atsushi finds Dazai, and he dives in thinking the man is drowning. Dazai had in fact meant to drown, one of the constant suicide attempts that define his character.

What was Osamu Dazai and Chuuya Nakahara's feared Port Mafia partnership called in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Double Black, or Soukoku, exists for a practical reason: Dazai's touch is the only known way to stop Chuuya once his full power is unleashed.

Which technique unleashes Chuuya Nakahara's full power in Bungo Stray Dogs at the cost of his own mind?

Corruption drives Chuuya's ability so hard that he can form miniature black holes, but he keeps destroying everything in sight until his body gives out.

What is the name of the god of calamity sealed inside Chuuya Nakahara's body in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Arahabaki began as a secret military experiment to create an artificial ability, then broke out of confinement and sealed itself into Chuuya.

Which drink is Port Mafia executive Chuuya Nakahara known to appreciate in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Wine is one of the few things Chuuya openly enjoys, while his stated dislikes are Dazai and any reminder that he stands just 160 cm tall.

Whom does Chuuya Nakahara call Big Sis after she served as his caretaker in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Kōyō Ozaki was 19 when boss Ōgai Mori assigned her to look after Chuuya. Her ability, Golden Demon, summons a sword-wielding spirit much like Kyōka Izumi's.

Which voice actor plays Chuuya Nakahara in Bungo Stray Dogs and also sings its openings as frontman of Granrodeo?

Kishō Taniyama performs as Kishow, vocalist and lyricist of Granrodeo, so he voices Chuuya and sings themes such as Trash Candy for the same show.

The real poet behind Bungo Stray Dogs' Chuuya Nakahara was nicknamed the Japanese version of which French poet?

Arthur Rimbaud's poems were translated into Japanese by Nakahara himself in 1934. Nakahara wrote more than 350 poems of his own before dying at 30.

Which so-called King of Assassins comes to regard Chuuya Nakahara as his little brother in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Paul Verlaine was himself made in an experiment to build an ability-using super soldier, which is why he believes only Chuuya can understand him. He later joins the Port Mafia as an executive.

Which silent, masked Port Mafia assassin turns out to be Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's younger sister in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Gin is first assumed to be a man until Dazai reveals who she is. She has no ability and fights with a knife, and the siblings often spend their shared days off together.

Which gun-wielding Port Mafia subordinate admires Ryūnosuke Akutagawa to the point of obsession in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Ichiyō Higuchi prefers a pair of pistols and flies into jealous rages when she suspects her boss is seeing a woman, who turns out to be his own sister.

What did artist Sango Harukawa wrap around Osamu Dazai's body in Bungo Stray Dogs to reflect his fixation on suicide?

Bandages cover Dazai as one of several design details pointing to that obsession. Harukawa also drew him taller than the hero, Atsushi, to set the pair apart.

Which Japanese voice actor plays Osamu Dazai in Bungo Stray Dogs, with Kaiji Tang voicing the role in English?

Mamoru Miyano changes his vocal tone to play the younger Dazai of the flashback arcs. In an AnimeAnime poll, Dazai was voted the second-best character of his career.

Kafka Asagiri partly based Osamu Dazai's personality in Bungo Stray Dogs on the lead of which American crime series?

The Mentalist gave Dazai some of his manner: Asagiri drew on Simon Baker's performance as Patrick Jane. The character's look, by contrast, was designed to be the opposite of Atsushi's.

Kafka Asagiri compared Osamu Dazai's role beside hero Atsushi Nakajima in Bungo Stray Dogs to which famous mentor?

Merlin to King Arthur was Asagiri's comparison: Atsushi is the hero and Dazai the sage. He left Atsushi without a strong personality so readers could connect with the odd characters around him.

Whose dying words persuade Osamu Dazai to leave the Port Mafia for the Armed Detective Agency in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Sakunosuke Oda was a low-ranking mafia man who refused to kill and hoped to become a writer. He could see five to six seconds into the future.

The real Osamu Dazai, namesake of the Bungo Stray Dogs detective, was found six days after drowning on which occasion?

His birthday, 19 June, was the day the search ended in 1948; he would have turned 39. He had finished his last novel only weeks earlier.

Artist Sango Harukawa drew Atsushi Nakajima's long, dangling belt in Bungo Stray Dogs to resemble what?

A tail was the idea, a quiet hint at the animal Atsushi turns into. Writer Kafka Asagiri first imagined him as a 24-year-old rather than 18.

Atsushi Nakajima's ability in Bungo Stray Dogs references which tale by the real writer of that name?

The Moon Over the Mountain, or Sangetsuki, follows a poet transformed against his will. The real Nakajima is an author Japanese students often meet in their textbooks.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is left frail in Bungo Stray Dogs by a slum childhood and a disease of which organ?

Lungs are his weak point, which is why he coughs constantly. The illness also drives him to win Dazai's approval before his time runs out.

The real writer behind Bungo Stray Dogs' Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is called the father of which Japanese literary form?

The short story was his form: he wrote 150 of them before dying at 35, and Japan's premier literary award now carries his name.

Which Armed Detective Agency member has no real ability, only genius-level powers of deduction, in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Ranpo Edogawa calls his talent Super Deduction and has convinced himself he needs a pair of glasses from the Agency's president to switch it on.

Which single word is written on the cover of Doppo Kunikida's ever-present notebook in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Ideals fits a man fixated on planning and perfection. The notebook also powers his ability: anything he writes on a page can become real, provided it is no bigger than the notebook.

Ōgai Mori's ability in Bungo Stray Dogs summons a blonde girl who calls him Rintarō; what is her name?

Elise is named after the heroine of The Dancing Girl, a work by the real Ōgai Mori, and Rintarō was that author's birth name.

Before leading the Port Mafia in Bungo Stray Dogs, Ōgai Mori worked underground in which profession?

Doctor was Mori's trade, with future Agency president Yukichi Fukuzawa as his bodyguard. He still plays the clumsy ex-surgeon when he wants to blend in.

Which Port Mafia hit squad is commanded by the sharply dressed veteran Ryūrō Hirotsu in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Black Lizard is the mafia's squad of hitmen, and Hirotsu's own ability, Falling Camellia, sends objects flying with powerful force.

Kyūsaku Yumeno, known as Q in Bungo Stray Dogs, triggers a mind-control curse by tearing open what?

A doll that Q always carries sets off the curse, called Dogra Magra, on anyone who has hurt Q, even by accident. Dazai and Chuuya once locked Q away as too dangerous.

What is the name of the Guild airship that Kyōka Izumi stops from crashing onto the city in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Moby Dick is really the ability of Herman Melville, an elder of the Guild: a gigantic whale that was rebuilt over the years into a mechanical airship.

Which Guild member keeps an affectionate pet raccoon named Karl in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Edgar Allan Poe can pull readers into the setting of whatever novel they are reading. He spent six years writing mysteries to settle an old score from a lost investigation contest.

Which former Guild member takes a job at the café beneath the Armed Detective Agency in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Lucy Montgomery, an orphan mistreated by her caretakers much as Atsushi was, becomes an ally of the Agency after the Guild collapses.

Which novel by the real Fyodor Dostoevsky names his villainous namesake's body-stealing ability in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Crime and Punishment lets Fyodor take over the body of anyone who kills him. Late in the plot he tricks a vampire into doing just that so he can escape Dazai.

In which Japanese port city do the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia operate in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Yokohama is home to both groups and teems with ability users. The first stage play of the series opened there too, at the KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre.

Which animation studio, also behind Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia, produces the Bungo Stray Dogs anime?

Bones also made the 2018 film Dead Apple, and its staff went on a campsite retreat to work out the details of the production.

Which Bungo Stray Dogs spin-off swaps the leads, putting Ryūnosuke Akutagawa in the Armed Detective Agency?

Beast began as a light novel and became a 2022 live-action film, with Atsushi recast as a cold subordinate of the Port Mafia.

Which self-described collector creates the ability-stealing fog in the film Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple?

Tatsuhiko Shibusawa uses the fog to turn abilities into jewels for his collection. The film reveals he once tortured Atsushi as a child at the orphanage to draw out his power.

Which celebrated war hero is unmasked as Kamui, leader of the terrorist Decay of the Angel, in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Ōchi Fukuchi is a childhood friend of the Agency's president, and his ability, Mirror Lion, makes any weapon he holds a hundred times stronger.

Which high-security prison holds both Osamu Dazai and Fyodor Dostoevsky late in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Meursault becomes the stage for a deadly escape game set by Nikolai Gogol, who gives the two rivals 30 minutes to break out.

Sigma, a man created by the Book only three years earlier, manages which neutral territory in Bungo Stray Dogs?

Sky Casino is the only home Sigma has known: his first memory is waking in a desert holding a train ticket to a station that does not exist.

The reality-rewriting Book in Bungo Stray Dogs was modelled on wish-granting items from which classic manga?

Dragon Ball, by Akira Toriyama, gave Asagiri the model for a prize that everybody wants. In the plot, the Guild puts a bounty on Atsushi because the Book is linked to him.

Which band performed the ending theme for each of the first five seasons of the Bungo Stray Dogs anime?

Luck Life closed every season from Namae wo Yobu yo in 2016 to Kiseki in 2023, while the openings alternated between two other acts.

Which bestselling American novelist was written into Bungo Stray Dogs as a character with an ability called Inferno?

Dan Brown joined the manga in 2013, and his ability writes three-line poems that foretell the future for anyone able to decipher them.