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A review by storyteller_ish
文豪ストレイドッグス BEAST 4 by Kafka Asagiri, Sango Harukawa
- 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.
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.