Dead Apple

Sooo… late with this one but I wanted to watch movie many times before commenting on it. This post is going to be about the Bungo Stray Dogs movie Dead Apple. Please, beware spoilers and the mention of (Dazai typical) suicide as well as other darker topics such as abuse and depression. If you feel uncomfortable reading about such things please, skip this post!

First of all, I personally really liked the Bungo Stray Dogs anime adaptation as well as the manga and light novel series. It includes supernatural, mystery, and action elements and is about characters that were based on famous Japanese authors and poets.

The movie starts with this flashback and we see the so-called Dragonhead Conflict that happened a few years ago. Dazai was still part of the mafia, working with Chuuya and we even get a glimpse of Odasaku when he was still alive. They fight an unknown enemy and meet the main antagonist of the movie who appears as the weird man with long white hair and a bored expression. For some reason, he’s throwing jewels into the bonfire?? I don’t even know…and Chuuya unleashes his corrupted form to avenge his fallen comrades. Then the intro starts and I liked it because it summarized the first two seasons of anime and gave short character introductions. The music and transitions were pretty cool as well.

To be honest the beginning of the movie was pretty confusing especially if you do not know the story of the anime but it’s explained pretty quickly and skips back to the present at the Armed Detective Agency where our main protagonist Atsushi Nakajima is looking for Dazai Osamu. Atsushi finds him at a graveyard in Yokohama where he’s sitting by someone’s grave. The animation in this movie is amazing by the way. Both Atsushi and Dazai look beautiful in most of the shots and the scenery is nicely done as well. The lighting when Dazai talks to Atsushi about Odasaku is very serene and gives the scene this ephemeral atmosphere. The death of Odasaku is shown in a flashback and it seemed as though they were reusing the clips from the anime which I found a bit disappointing. Maybe they could’ve included some of Dazai’s thoughts or add a change of perspective just to make this short scene more interesting. It wasn’t a big let down for me but I still believe it would’ve been nice to add something new to this. I liked this little bonding moment between the two and if you ask me, it was a good opening scene for the movie because it established the mentor and subordinate relationship pretty well.

Of course, Dazai pulls another “There’s a new method of suicide that I wanted to try out” and Atsushi has to go back to the Agency without him. The members have a meeting and we learn that there are many gifted who seem to have committed suicide by using their abilities. The guy from the flashback at the start of the movie is introduced as Shibusawa who is also known as the collector and for a brief moment Atsushi seems to remember something from his past but it’s quickly dismissed. Shibusawa Tatsuhiko who is first introtduced in this movie is suspected to be involved with the incidents and the agency is sent to investigate. This is where the story got a bit shaky for me. Kunikida and Tanizaki go meet with an informant who they find dead in an alleyway. Kunikida finds an apple with a knife stuck into which is supposed to be the first hint towards the villain.

Dazai is seen talking to an image of Odasaku at the Lupin bar where they used to hang out with Ango Sakaguchi. This scene was another favorite of mine because the way Dazai talks about depression and suicide felt so incredibly powerful to me. You can see his emptiness and how Odasaku was someone who seemed to be a good listener and friend. I like how Dazai explains the wish to die and therefore reflects on his incapability to enjoy life. I hope that the manga will explore his personality more in the future. Dazai then seductively swallows some kind of pill and the fangirls can die happy. After Dazai leaves the bar he runs into none other than Ango who suspects him of being an accomplice of Shibusawa. While that concept was not bad I didn’t feel like anyone actually expected Dazai to be the bad guy in this one. It was a movie and not a continuing series, so it was highly unlikely that a character as popular as Dazai would turn villain or become more of an antagonist. It just felt out of place and didn’t work as an unexpected twist.

Further, the plot develops as we see Atsushi and Kyouka run through the foggy Yokohama trying to find out what is going on and meet a wounded Kunikida. They all run away to hide and Kunikida explains to them that the fog causes gifted to not only losing their abilities but they are also being attacked by them. This idea was pretty cool and I liked how Atsushi finally had to think about how he really feels about his weretiger ability. Atsushi and Kyouka then have to face their own abilities while Kunikida stays behind to fight off his own ability. When Atsushi and Kyouka fight Demon Snow and the tiger ability they run into Akutagawa who is hunted by his Rashomon. The dynamic between the three of them didn’t feel that great and wasn’t all that interesting. Let me explain why; Both Kyouka and Akutagawa’s personalities seem so much more complex in this movie. Atsushi on the other hand felt whiny and sometimes he was annoyingly incapable of doing anything. My main problem with this movie actually was the character of Atsushi because while it’s not very clear when all of this took place the recaps and scenes in the intro of this movie it implies that this is playing after the second season of the anime. After season one and season two Atsushi has grown quite a lot and has already overcome a lot of his fears. It is weird to suddenly see him as this coward who acts scared and insecure. I understand that he has to deal with his past and the trauma that he had to endure because he was abused as a child by both the head of the orphanage and Shibusawa but at some point in this movie he was just pathetic. Of course, In the end, he overcomes his insecurities and acts like the hero he’s supposed to be but all in all he felt useless most of the time. The sweet moments between him and Kyouka felt forced too except for a nice smile they share at the end of the movie when Atsushi says that he’s happy to have all of his friends in his life. The dialogue between Atsushi and Akutagawa wasn’t that interesting either and surprisingly, I enjoyed the interactions between Kyouka and Akutagawa a lot more.

Then there’s the antagonist trio of Shibusawa, Dazai, and Fyodor, and while I find a liking to all the characters like individuals they did not work in this movie. It almost felt like they weren’t talking to one another but rather they were mumbling to themselves and had absolutely no chemistry. Similar to the Atsushi, Akutagawa, and Kyouka trio this one also fell flat.

Shibusawa is bored. Dazai is sassy and Fyodor has enough of everyone’s bullshit.

Anyway, Dazai and Fyodor plan to betray Shibusawa who previously showed his collection of crystallized abilities he got from gifted who have died by his dragon’s breath (aka the ability to create a fog that makes gifted lose their abilities and then be attacked by them) but then Fyodor betrays Dazai because he’s Fyodor and should never be trusted. Shibusawa quite literally stabs Dazai in the back and wants to collect his ability after he supposedly died. (We all know that Dazai cannot die.) But then some weird shit happens and Fyodor slashes Shibusawa who is confused af and explains that Shibusawa has been killed before. What?

Fyodor is just evil because he can.

Atsushi, Kyouka, and Akutagawa manage to defeat their abilities but unlike the other two, Atsushi can’t use his. The struggle of him not accepting his tiger was done nicely and I liked how in this scene, he was confronted with his unconsciousness. Akutagawa and Kyouka leave Atsushi behind because he’s injured and USELESS. (I swear, I love Atsushi but in on this movie not so much!) Atsushi is then faced with long-forgotten memories of his past and we learn that Shibusawa used to torture little kid Atsushi to collect his ability or something. He did this because a Russian (Fyodor) told him that Atsushi’s ability was the only of it’s kind by the way. The explanation didn’t really make any sense but Shibusawa was bored so why not. Atsushi being electrocuted and suffering unleashes his tiger and uses his claws to cut Shibusawa. First awesome thing Atsushi has done in this movie aside from pointing a gun at Akutagawa for saying that he’ll kill Dazai.

For some reason, Shibusawa and Dazai’s abilities clash and a giant ass dragon representing the chaos aloof abilities (don’t ask me) is unleashed. The whole tigers and dragons concept is really awesome but the movie didn’t handle it well. The dragon starts destroying the city and Chuuya (because he’s a fan favorite and I love him too) appears to make a cameo in this. The fight between Chuuya and the dragon though. That was badass! The music and animation were really cool and Chuuya possibly risking his life using his corrupted form makes him an even better character. Anyway, Chuuya defeats the dragon (too quickly) and we have the obligatory Soukoku shipping moment when Chuuya punches Dazai who swallows his antidote that he hid in his mouth for who knows how long. And then Dazai gently touches Chuuya’s face to stop him from self-destruction. I loved and hated that scene! It was beautiful with the background and some of the dialogue but it was also utter nonsense.

More shipping moments when Dazai pushes Chuuya’s head towards his crotch because why the hell not it’s what the fans want and we flip to a revived demon Shibusawa (yes, that’s a thing!) who starts fighting Akutagawa and Kyouka. The two of them get beaten up and Atsushi appears to save the day. I didn’t like his tiger-human-form in the movie. He looked like he had this beard and it didn’t look cool at all. I don’t know why but it just made him look ridiculous! I preferred his appearance in season two and season three a lot more but maybe that’s just me nitpicking. The final fight between Shibusawa and Atsushi is alright and I like it when Atsushi finally identifies more with his tiger ability. That was really awesome!

The other characters like Rampo, Kenji, and Yosano didn’t get much screen time but it is difficult to include all the characters, I guess. There’s a scene that shows the boss of the Agency and the port mafia boss fighting each other’s abilities and I enjoyed that.

Atsushi defeats Shibusawa, everything is great and we have no idea where Fyodor went.

Dazai appears (and has changed outfits), Akutagawa meets Chuuya and Atsushi and Dazai share a nice moment. The ending is cute, really but all in all the movie is more of a nice add on for Bungo Stray Dogs fans. I wouldn’t really recommend watching the movie if you’ve never seen the anime or read the manga but I don’t think that the movie was meant to be a stand-alone in the first place. Dead Apple has great animation and sound and I enjoyed the overall concept. Sadly, there were many flaws and poor character development in this movie. I would still recommend watching the movie after finishing season two of the anime though. It’s entertaining and it has a few nice moments. I only recently started reading the manga adaptation which is done by a different artist than the Bungo Stray Dogs manga. The art style is nice and overall the story is enjoyable. However, had I not watched or read any of Bungo Stray Dogs this movie would’ve been messy and confusing.

Sorry, if my explanations are confusing and the time line may be off here and there but that’s because at some point Dead Apple seemed all over the place and I didn’t really know what happened when? As always, these are my personal opinions and as a supporter of the Bungo Stray Dogs series, I would recommend watching the anime. As for Dead Apple, I wouldn’t say that it’s a must-see but if you have some spare time and feel like watching something for fun it’s a nice movie.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you again soon!

Patsie