Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple

I went to see this movie on the day it came out. Despite it being 8:30 in the morning, the cinema was absolutely packed with fans (mostly young women) showing just how high the expectations were.

I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint, and kept me hooked from beginning to end! Although the developments are not necessarily shocking, it kept my attention for the whole movie.

The movie focuses mostly on Shubusawa, Atsushi, Akutagawa, Kyoko (the real MVP), Dazai and, to a lesser extent, Chuya. If your favorite character is one of the other members of the Armed Detective Agency, please understand that they may not ... get as much screen-time as you'd like, which is perfectly reasonable considering how much they tried to squeeze into the movie.

The artwork is stunning, although not particularly a step-up from the TV series. The action is well-done and I absolutely loved Chuya's fighting scenes!

One of the biggest highlights for me was the soundtrack. I was a big fan of the TV series OST, but the new tracks for the movie are just as good, if not better. (I was listening to the movie OST on repeat for a few days after seeing the movie...)

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie to the extent that I went to see it twice. However, I do want to give a warning to all BSD fans before they give this a watch. This movie is going to tire you out. It's almost only serious conversation or action, and is very low on the comic relief. Although there are lots of little funny moments scattered here and there, they are pretty subtle. When the movie finished, the other people in the audience were saying the same thing to each other: 'wow, that was great but it tired me out'.

In general, I recommend this for all BSD fans! It's fast-paced, action-packed and has a brilliant soundtrack. Unfortunately it is a little hard to follow if you are not familiar with the series and characters, so I don't really recommend it as a stand-alone work.

Dudes really just made a movie out of the The Zanpakutō Rebellion arc from Bleach...

High production values and some good performances by supporting cast just barely manage to salvage this movie that was surprisingly determined to run itself off the tracks with their persistent attempts at making sure Atsushi continues to be the front-runner for the worst shounen MC to hit the scene.


Animation / Art / General Visuals - 9/10
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This being a movie and all, the increased production values over the base anime are pretty obvious. The visuals are notably grander with the effects team putting in work. We get some pretty cool scenery and ... action, so if nothing else, you can walk away having given your eyeballs plenty of pleasure.


Sound / Music / Voice Acting - 9/10
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The movie gives us a ton of banger music, which is sure to find its place in many a people's playlists. Sounds and voice acting is similarly on point, but it's the music that's really a drop above the base anime.

And thank fucking god it at least had that...


Story - 6/10
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I'll be honest, I don't "get it".

My best attempt of understanding leaves me with the impression that this movie was more about laying a few extra bricks of foundation into the grander storylines yet to come in the anime. Which is why it kept the finer details vague and confusing.

Personally, I'm not a fan of such an approach. A movie is better off being 100% non-canon so you have freedom to do whatever the hell you want, or actually being a serious progression into the canon story, not just a tiny building block. Half assing it is kinda lame almost every time it's tried.

Also, funny enough, this movie is in large part a straight up rip off of Bleach's The Zanpakutō Rebellion arc. Which, while surprisingly enjoyable, just adds more to the pile of reasons why it doesn't quite meet my standards for a top notch anime movie.


Characters - 5/10
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I'm tired. Tired of Atsushi. He's the most worthless main character in a popular shounen anime that I can recall. The dude has no redeeming factors.

He has no personality of any sort outside of the EXTREMELY generic "good guy" persona. He has no aspirations. He has no skills. He has no self confidence, and can't go 5 minutes without dropping to his knees and wallowing in self-pity.

He is the textbook definition of "pathetic".

Yet the movie tries to play him up as some kind of an ultra special something. Which is 100% the absolute worst thing to do to any MC which is as badly developed as he is. We're now stuck with a main character with no redeeming qualities who is destined to be the focal point of the story by no merit of his own, just some "he's special" factor.

There's no grand aspirations that Naruto, Luffy, or Asta had. There's no grand willpower to save innocents like Ichigo had. No playfulness and desire to kick ass like Natsu.

Atsushi is empty inside. He's a shell in which the writers put all the Deus Ex Machina they might need to tell their larger story. And I find that very depressing.

LUCKILY, this movie does at least have some supporting cast that aren't so depressingly lame. But their screen time is hardly enough to really carry the film. Dazai is his usual self, but he only plays around with vagueness. Akutagawa does nothing but yell at our pathetic MC and fights a bit. Kyouka is a bit of a nice surprise with showing some evolution in her character, but again - it's not enough to carry the movie by itself.

The main villain of the show may as well be replaced by a test dummy because his motivations and actions make little sense and are hardly explored. Secondary villain is even more confusing. Guess they really wanted to build him up a bit more for anime where I'm sure they'll explore him further.

All in all, a let down in characterization. Playing to none of the strengths of the cast, only focusing on the weak points.

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Total - 7/10

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Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple is heavily carried by its production values, and for that reason alone it can be worth a watch. But it does little to advance the grand story or the characters. If anything, it fumbles and risks it all by reversing a lot of what the MC had already learned in Season 2, and making him go through even more of the same self pity and discovery, which is beyond tiresome at this point.

This movie is a waste of time.

This is coming from someone who absolutely adores the Bungou Stray Dogs series. Needless to say, Takuya Igarashi might as well be my pallbearer so that when I die, he can let me down one last time.

I'll start with some positives--the animation was pretty good (although that's to be expected for a feature length anime film), the voice actors did their jobs well, the music, while not exactly noteworthy, was decent, and there were a few interesting elements and events relating to the protagonist that I found to be genuinely interesting. The film, however, puts them to waste with ... a confusing plot, a seizure inducing climax, and probably the dumbest and most contrived antagonist to come out of BSD.

The story is about a series of (presumed to be) suicides by ability users using their own abilities. The reality is that a fog causes their abilities to manifest into this ghost of sorts that attacks their own user. Defeating this manifestation will return the original user's ability. This isn't a bad plot device in it of itself, if only it were an actual plot device at all. Instead, this predicament (which is made out to be this serious and daunting problem) serves as a mere triviality as the heroes of the movie take care of it in a matter of a few minutes, save for the main protagonist, which I'll get to later.

The cause of this entire conflict is the new character that is introduced, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko. BSD's strongest point is easily the lovable and empathy inducing characters. Kafka Asagiri lovingly crafted the entire life stories of each and every single character, and it shows without even needing a tragic flashback for most of them, even making a literal PEDOPHILE likable. The fact that no character, not even the villains, are tied to the good and evil binary is one of my favorite things about the series. That said, the new villain is absolutely dreadful. His motives are unclear--he wants to die? He wants to attain the perfect ability? What in God's name does he want?! The movie shoves down your throat that this character is simply too complex a person to understand and that only two other people (Dazai <3333 and Fyodor) match his wit, but from a writing standpoint, it sounds like a poor excuse. If the audience is unable to fathom the sheer complexity of a character, there's no point in having him be that complex in the first place. You cannot write a complex character if you yourself are not that complex. It's simply impossible. It's not artistic or poetic or thought provoking. It's just plain stupid.

By the climax, the movie had completely lost me. With all the information being thrown at your face, it's damn near impossible to piece together what the hell is going on, much less enjoy it. The movie's lack of exposition only makes the confusion worse--none of what happens is ever explained, and none of the information from the main series explains it either. The entire time, I was thinking, "Why and how is this happening? Is that even possible?" The film tries to surprise you by pulling a completely unnecessary move (for the sake of not spoiling, I won't say what) that leads to no consequence whatsoever and was so obviously only included for shock value, and it didn't even do a good job because it's a freaking anime movie, and nothing that happens in anime movies ever matter or affect the main series. The final battle against Shibusawa wasn't anything interesting either; just a generic shounen mindless punchout where Atsushi believes in himself enough to defeat him.

Speaking of Atsushi, his character arc was very poorly handled in the film. The anime watchers know all too well of the tragic past he's had to endure and carefully watched him move past his insecurities. So that's it right? No more of him screeching about how he isn't good enough? Nope! The movie needlessly brings back what was already resolved in the anime by making Atsushi 90% less sweet and lovable and 200% more annoying. I cannot wrap my head around why the hell they would touch this internal conflict when it was so phenomenally handled in the manga. As a matter of fact, this was a common complaint of the original anime, that Atsushi was a whiner, so why, dear God WHY would you bring it back??

And lastly, the little to no screentime from the supporting cast. They were discarded as quickly as they were introduced. I would've liked to see more of them working together for more group dynamic material like in the manga, but they were never to be seen again after the fog settled and at the very end where they pop out of nowhere to remind the audience of their existence.

All in all, disappointing. I'm honestly surprised at how many stellar reviews there are for this movie when picking apart would show how bad and rushed it really is. It's a shame, I was hoping they'd put the money towards a third season.