ABSOLUTE PUNISHMENT FROM A PERFECT CRIMINAL

Rahm Jethani - Writer, 3rd Year, English

Dostoevsky is the Moriarty to Dazai's Holmes.

SPOILERS FOR BUNGO STRAY DOGS!

The ending of Bungou Stray Dogs’s second season left a few unanswered questions, but the main one was: who sabotaged the fall of Moby Dick, and why? This mystery is what the bulk of the anime’s third season spends its time unfurling. It uses the familiar and linear structure established in the second season to layer its drama and create heightened tensions in the third season. And, while the third season answers the questions posed at the end of season two, along with providing an action-filled and thrilling narrative, nothing in this season eclipses the scenic brilliance or plot revelations about the threat everyone faces quite like the introduction of its terrifying villain, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

While Dostoevsky has a brutal, and perhaps “overpowered” ability, that being ‘Crime and Punishment,’ it is his devious intellect and manipulation that grants him most of his power and status. Nowhere can this be best demonstrated than with his interactions with one of Port Mafia’s executives, Ace. In the scene that first introduces his intelligence to the audience, he is locked in a private casino owned by Ace. Ace is presented to be completely in control (although perhaps not to an audience member - his cockiness is too pretentious for him not to be killed off quickly), with him even crashing a wine bottle against Dostoevsky’s head with no retaliation. Even afterwards, when one of Ace’s servants talks to Dostoevsky with some level of solidarity, Ace is secretly monitoring the audio of the conversation. From this overheard conversation, Ace hears Dostoevsky “reveal” his power - to trap people in his consciousness.

This is, of course, a lie. Dostoevsky knew the room was being monitored, and purposely laid misinformation to work to his advantage. Following this conversation, Dostoevsky took the cork of the shattered wine bottle and changed the foundation of the room’s lock so that ignorantly using a key from the inside would not work. Then, he proceeded to memorize the entirety of the back of Ace’s deck of cards from their unique flaws and scratches, so as to convince Ace that his knowledge of them was unnatural. While this meticulous memorization is presented to the viewers as the only thing Dostoevsky chooses to memorize, the fact he either could have memorized other aspects of the room for possible manipulation or was so thorough in his assessment of Ace’s character as a gambler that he knew he’d only need to memorize the backs of the cards is astounding. Regardless, all of Dostoevsky’s preparation pays off, and he so strongly convinces Ace that they are both trapped in his subconscious that Ace thinks the only way out into reality is separation - in other words, death. As a result, Ace hangs himself in the real world, thinking it is still a fantasy. This is what makes Fyodor Dostoevsky so terrifying, and what makes this scene so striking. Without even having to use any amount of supernatural power, and just simply relying on intellect without raising a finger against Ace, Fyodor Dostoevsky kills a man effortlessly and almost trivially.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to not be as reckless a gambler as Ace. Have fun at Anime Destiny!