Reviews

Bungo Stray Dogs: Beast, Vol. 4 by Kafka Asagiri, Sango Harukawa

Only show reviews with written explanations

storyteller_ish's review against another edition

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

While the final volume of a one off story should be there to neatly tie things up a fair amount, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered and an abundance of questionable writing choices being made that keep the ending from being at all satisfying for me. Its quite disappointing to admit that since I did enjoy a fair amount of this manga and felt it was very promising. Most of the volume was Akutagawa and Atsushi's fight, which after a while felt redundant, and Dazai explaining the lore and world building to us, which, while a bit clumsy at times, was probably the most interesting part of the volume.

I do still think the overall story holds up decently well and slightly better than the main manga, however I do think that if Bsd Beast continued any longer than these 4 volumes, it would eventually unravel in the same way as the main manga as many of the flaws in the main manga still manage to surface in the final volume of Bsd Beast (and also as early as volume 2).

There were aspects of this volume that I enjoyed, namely Dazai's meeting with Oda, the reveal of his motives as well as the explaination for this world's existence, and parts of his final interaction with Akutagawa and Atsushi, but even those felt hallow by the end. This is due to the epilogue feeling pretty directionless and failing to follow up with any of the implications that were brought up in the final volume. It did not seem to imply anything interesting happening in the future or successfully give any closure to the overall story.

hades9stages's review against another edition

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5.0

this series has my favourite manga art style of all time. it’s actually flawless. it made a great story even better. i’m obsessed

nouranato's review against another edition

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5.0

This was the best book that I’ve ever read and I’m never going to read it again

The finale fight between our favorite pair was just magnificent and if it was to be animated it will be unbelievable. I have noticed that I look for misery with a tweezer. I just wasn’t expecting anything from the last volume —other than just pain of course— so like what I received was just..

Please just go read Beast and urge others to go and pick Beast because the author might have just went on and beyond our reason and expectations.. I just want to re- read this already.

rellz_'s review against another edition

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5.0

crying in the mf corner :(

martuchi's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Damn you Asagiri. You ruined my life completely, therefore I am utterly miserable. You gave us what the fans during season 2 wanted:

Odasaku being alive and well to finish his novel

. However, that didn’t come without consequences, which is also my doom:

Dazai, too, got what he wanted; his death, but couldn’t live accompanied with his friend

.

Asagiri, you’re a mastermind, yet I wish you could let us fans (more importantly, your characters) be happy.

PS: also, where the hell was Ango??? I really thought he would make his appearance here, shame.