Hi!

Theory time:

Remember how Ranpo’s “ability” wasn’t even the name of a real book by the real author?

What if KUNIKIDA doesn’t actually have an ability, and it’s actually the notebook maker who has the ability to make magic notebooks. And it works like Poe’s does in the sense that he can assign a notebook to someone so that it would only work when that person uses it and effectively be tied to them.

ohhhh that would be cool :o thats so interesting

Yes, Kunikida's ability 独歩吟客 (Doppo Ginkaku | ENG: The Matchless Poet) is taken directly from a pen name the IRL Kunikida went by. This is confirmed from the first guidebook from the anime where it says

能力名の「独歩吟客」はいくつもある独歩のペンネームのーつ

"The ability name 'Doppo Ginkaku' comes from one of Doppo's many pen names"

The Author Guide at the end of BSD manga vol. 3 also says this about his ability:

"The skill The Matchless Poet does not refer to any specific work, but is based on his naturalist writing–a style that emphasizes accurate depiction of details."

With those two pieces of information, I'd argue that Kunikida's ability is more based on the IRL Kunikida himself, rather than inspired by a specific piece of work like other abilities are.

And yes, Ranpo's "Super Deduction" is not a reference to a specific piece of literature, and AFAIK Lovecraft "Ability" is the same way. I'm not a big Lovecraft person, but an irl friend of mine who is a lot more familiar with his works agreed that BSD Lovecraft's "The Great Old One" isn't a specific literary reference either as "The Great Old Ones" is something that exists across multiple of his works.

If that is true then there starts to become a pattern: abilities that aren't abilities at all use the lack of specific literary references to foreshadow that.

We do know that The Matchless Poet is an ability as No Longer Human can nullify it, but I feel like there much is more to it that we currently don't know. (Also the discussion of whether or not The Book is an ability, most people say it isn't but I personally believe it very well could be at least connected to abilities... like a singularity rather than a normal ability)

Also to that last part, Kunikida also gave Kyouka 2 pages from his notebook

They are folded up so we can't see if anything is pre-written on there, but given the context of their conversation and also what she summoned with the pages I am extremely inclined to believe the pages were blank. I love Kuni-kun but there is no way I'd believe he had the foresight to know that Kyouka would need glue + putty to hide in the vents with Atsushi, especially after he told her that there is nowhere for them to hide.

Ultra-Deduction isn’t a reference at all, and it’s not an ability or anything supernatural.

The Great Old One isn’t a single work, just a reoccurring entity, and it, too, isn’t an ability— but it is supernatural, and Lovecraft isn’t even human. Really, Lovecraft IS The Great Old One.

The Matchless Poet is a pen name instead of any particular work, and it is an ability, just one that directly relates to KUNIKIDA, and feels like there’s much more to it than meets the eye. Plus, it’s reliant on the written word directly.

And here’s an interesting detail along the same lines: Black Cat in the Rouge Morgue is a literary reference, it’s just of two books instead of one, and it is an ability. It’s two novels fused into one that make up an ability that makes worlds inside of the written word.

What if the reason Poe feels so strange as a major minor character with an ability so closely tied to literature is because his ability is meant to be foreshadowing? He himself doesn’t have any strong connections to The Book that we know of, but he’s introduced not long after we first learn of The Book as a member of an organization seeking said book.

What chaos shall ensue? >:)

(Ranpo was prohibited from deducing the whole thing because Poe intentionally made it easier than his normal things for the sake of a better experience and as to not accidentally trap the entirety of the agency there for more than a day)

WAIT i love that so much

ranpo wanders off 5 minutes in and escapes on his own + joins poe in watching the ADA (he scares poe too because he randomly appears behind poe just to say "im bored" and pull up another chair beside him)

kenji thinks breaking through things will get them out and they have to explain to him that they do not want to pay for property damage

kunikida inspects every little object trying to figure out what it's for, writing them all down in great detail in his notebook, then starts confusing himself into thinking they're all relevant but then that maybe that's what poe wanted him to think and really they're all irrelevant

kyouka darts around methodically and is the one to find the first clue

atsushi is initially kind of nervous because claustrophobia or something but he ends up just having a lot of fun because they're all being chaotic and silly and it's great

naomi finds the second clue after she notices dazai eyeing it

yosano gets bored and also suggest breaking through it

fukuzawa gives a few pointers here and there but overall just watches because he likes to see them talk things out

tanizaki figures something out but says nothing about it out of doubt that he's smart enough to figure out such a thing

They finally did it.

They finally did it.

Akutagwa: "I can't wait to kill you, Jinko!"

Also Akutagawa after six months:

Everywhere I go, fanfictions or gacha reaction videos or literally anything, people always characterise Atsushi as self-pitying, dumb and sheltered and it pisses me off SO much, i’m not even joking..

People always take the scene of Dazai slapping Atsushi as a source of him being self pitying, but lets not forget Dazai was literally trying to break him out of a panic attack because he KNEW atsushi would be too lost in guilt to help anyone if he didn’t?? Atsushi was abused throughout his entire childhood, i would even go as far as to say he has PTSD, he literally has hallucinations too, he isn’t looking for sympathy he’s quite literally trapped in the abuse of his past.. Self Pity is often used to avoid taking action but that is the exact opposite of Atsushi, who is constantly prepared to sacrifice himself which we see in the literal second episode where he uses his body to cover the bomb during the interview, even in the first episode where despite starving he jumps into a river to save Dazai. When he found out about the bounty on his head he literally left the agency despite having nowhere to go, with no regard for his safety whatsoever. He constantly goes out of his way to save others like Lucy and Kyouka. He’s not pitying himself, he just has a very low self esteem, again, stemming from past abuse from his childhood, and he’s empathetic towards others.

As for Akutagawa saying he’s lost in self pity, it’s a completely different thing. Akutagawa suffered through his childhood in the slums and developed a mindset of the survival of the fittest/the weak must die, and he becomes a monster to earn Dazai’s approval, and then Atsushi shows up who suffered just as much yet was adopted by the agency and praised by Dazai and allowed to keep his humanity.. he is SHOWN to be envious of Atsushi for the fact Dazai easily praises him, and calling Atsushi weak and self pitying is his own way to feel superior and more worthy of Dazai.. Akutagawa sees vulnerability, hesitation, and crying as pathetic, so while Atsushi is doubting himself or hesitating because of his own trauma, he sees a coward crying over the past. Akutagawa doesn’t really understand that Atsushi isn’t crying for pity, and because he copes with his own trauma through rage he sees Atsushi’s emotional processing as ‘self pity’. Ironically, I’d say Akutagawa is actually the one who is trapped in a cycle of self pity but instead of tears it manifests as anger, and he’s entirely dependent on Dazai’s praise for his life to have meaning, he calls Atsushi self pitying because he needs Atsushi to be weaker than him to justify his worldview, in a way.

And i’ve seen countless people characterising Atsushi to be slow on catching onto things and seeing the world to be brighter than it is, not understanding that bad people exist who are ‘evil’ just because, but that’s just bull. He’s empathetic, yeah, but he also spent his entire childhood being severely abused bordering on tortured and dehumanised. He would be the LAST person to think the world is all sunshine and rainbows, HE ISN’T SHELTERED!! Him being empathetic doesn’t automatically mean he’ll be shocked at every bad thing a person does.. and then, he’s also called dumb—he literally grew up as an uneducated orphan, but he’s also in a detective agency, and is very observant, he grew up in a hostile environment and probably learnt to read moods, hence he finds it easier to figure out motives of people or hidden pain.

Tbh, it’s not just Atsushi who is characterised as ‘incompetent’ or ‘dumb’, i’ve genuinely seen people mischaracterise so much to the point the call Kunikida dumb..hello?? It’s true that the agency relies on Ranpo and he is no doubt the smartest, but people seem unable to accept that Dazai and Ranpo aren’t the only competent characters. At the end of the day the agency is an elite team of specialised operatives, NOT Dazai and friends

Got me into philosophy

Got me into classical literature

Convinced me to keep writing

Strengthened my prior interest in classical music

Started learning russian

Russian made me want to learn history

History made me more interested in politics (although i always was)

Changed my overall aesthetic

Led to an interest in antiques

Mind you they’re eating the exact same meal but got different cutlery for it. Well it’s the same minus the fact Dazai didn’t get any salt and also had a raw arse egg for some fucking reason.

Mersault really went oh we have a Japanese man hmm…get him some chopsticks! At this point I gotta wonder if Fyodor requested a Bible or if they just went ah we have a Russian man staying with us don’t worry we’ve got this.

it takes a nerd to know a nerd