Bungo Stray Dogs

This Anime was very good. S1 is not so great but S2 and S3 are brilliant. Especially we get more dark theme and fights. Fyodor's and Dazai's mind game is really amazing to watch.

This show is fantastic. There's only 6 episodes out thus far but I've loved every single one of them. Its creative, funny, and puts limitations on the characters' powers to prevent them from becoming all-powerful (a trope that's all too common, especially in anime).

The animation is stellar and I can't tell you how much I love the art style, making all of the powers (which I won't describe here because spoilers) a joy to watch.

The characters are unique, likable, and funny, presenting plenty of contrast between the major characters to make for some hilarious situations.

The story focuses on Atsushi, an orphan boy living on the streets who after being kicked out of his orphanage through a turn of events manages to join the Armed Detective Agency, an Agency that specializes in dealing with threats from those who are Gifted - as most of their members are - that the police don't stand a chance against.

My only complaint with the show is the number of times Atsushi has flashbacks to getting kicked out of the orphanage; it gets kind of repetitive, but because of all the other things working in this show's favor I'm willing to overlook it.

In short this show is definitely worth a watch if you're looking for a new series to try. And if you finish all the episodes and still want more Bungou Stray Dogs, try the manga like I did, its worth your time.

Truth be told, I was disheartened by the reviews when I first planned on watching Bungou Stray Dogs. But the series soon became one of my favourites due to the fact that it has some of the most characters I have ever seen, a gripping and complex plot, and fantastic worldbuilding. The humour does get a bit tired at times, but generally does a good job of diffusing the tension during scenes. There's a lot of symbolism and most lines and themes go way beyond the surface level, and I just find that very exciting. I definitely recommend watching this series!

First, I just want to say that the English dub on this is rather well-done.

So, I won't say much here, expect that the first 10 or 12 episodes seem to be a bit slow, disjointed, without any real major unifying narrative tying things together. Rather, it feels like a series of unrelated episodes about different adventures of the detective agency.

The story is NOT about how people got their powers or "gifts" or anything like that. The powers are mostly unexplained and are just sort of there.

This show starts out as just a collection of funny stories and then takes a somewhat darker turn as the history of the different organizations are slowly revealed, and then things hit a climax with the major present-day factions get embroiled in a conflict, forcing certain political and personal games to get played.

Honestly, if they had just slowed the pace down a little and added more meat, this would have been such an epic story, but too many times they build up a conflict only to resolve it rather easily. And sometimes heavy drama between characters sort of gets easily overcome. That would be my only real complain, besides the mundane nature of the first few episodes.

Other than that, there was enough character development for me to become fond of most of the main ones. There was thankfully relatively little fan service, and what little there was in the show was kept to a minimum, used mostly for comic relief.

There isn't anyone really overpowered - each character is shown to shine at some point or another, and as I said, this is more of a story between different groups of people than it is about action or special powers.

I would recommend this, but I don't think it would appeal to as wide an audience as, say, Cowboy Beebop (yeah for some reason, I was reminded of Beebop, but just a few whiffs here and there).

Worth checking out. I found it while seeking out funny anime, and the humor was satisfactory. (I do think that the humor may come off better in the sub than the dub, but I am not sure).

Looking forward to the next installment of this anime. If you like quirky characters this is anime is for you. It does seem to jump around plot wise a bit, but it eventually ties many of the loose ends together.