A way of life: Oda’s final words to Dazai

Dazai’s romantic relationships within his search for meaning

The symbolism behind Dazai’s eye bandages

We all know Mori as the current Port Mafia boss. He’s a logical leader who prioritizes both profit and the mafia's stable state. He plans carefully, whether that be short or long term. But Mori’s excellence in the leadership position goes beyond surface-level qualities. I could use many examples to illustrate this, but I’m keeping this short, therefore I’ll only reference the Dark Era arc. 

First, I will recall some context. During the Dark Era, the mafia had to face an organisation called Mimic. The members of this organisation were soldiers with Gide as their leader. They fled Europe after committing war crimes and were left to wander. During this time, they formulated their final wish; that was to die on the battlefield. In search of someone who could kill them in battle, they eventually came to Japan and started to attack the mafia. 

  At first, it seemed Mimic was attacking the mafia out of its own interest. Later, it was revealed that none other than Mori aided to establish this conflict, with a greater goal in mind. The roots of this plan go back a few years. Mori then sent Ango to Europe to gain information on Mimic by letting Ango infiltrate them. Eventually, years later, Mori helped Mimic enter Japan because he recognized their coming to Yokohama would create a specific situation. 

Mori had been eyeing getting his hands on the “Skilled Business Permit”. This is a certification given out by the government that allows an organisation with skill users to do all sorts of activities. Obtaining this permit would be beneficial for the mafia. Mori thought about how he could possibly earn this permit from the government. A way to reach this, is by creating a situation where the government has no choice but to rely on the Port Mafia. In return, Mori could demand the “Skilled Business Permit” as a form of payment.

This so-called situation he desired, could be made reality when Mori lured Mimic to Japan. Mori effectively sculpted this situation into existence. The government organisations couldn’t possibly defeat Mimic without much loss. Ango literally mentioned that the government had no way to deal with the special ability of Gide. This ability allows him to see a few seconds into the future. Normally, this would have been an obstacle for the mafia as well, were it not for Oda (who has the same skill). Mori drove the government into a corner since they couldn’t possibly fight Mimic, and thus had to rely on the mafia. As I mentioned, Mori then demanded this “Skilled Business Permit” as payment. He earned what he was aiming for. Much went according to his plan, except for one thing, that is Dazai leaving the mafia (but that is another subject).

  Now I’ll move on to Mori’s plan surrounding Oda in this entire scheme. The way he handles Oda here reveals much about how he coordinates his subordinates. Mori wanted Oda to defeat Mimic since he knew Oda was a suited pawn to do so. This is because of Oda’s skill that matched Gide's. Besides that, Oda also has great battle skills due to his past as an assassin. Mori recognized Oda was a ‘great match’ for Gide. This shows he understands his enemies and members' capabilities. Now, how did Mori set this scheme into motion? He purposely leaked information about the location of the orphans Oda cared for. Mimic then killed these orphans. This resulted in Oda wanting to avenge them. Mori knew what would trigger Oda to go and fight Mimic. This was also exactly what Mimic themselves wanted. They saw Oda as the one who could fulfill their wish (of dying on the battlefield). Oda was able to kill them, though at the cost of his own life. Here in this final battle, he only let him and a few subordinates fight Mimic with optimal results. No 'major' mafia member had to be deployed.

As you know, Elise is the manifestation of Mori’s skill Vita Sexualis. Along with this, she’s often argued to be the representation of some of Mori’s suppressed emotions. This includes his feelings of guilt, which I will focus on here. Mori feels guilty for some of his actions involving children, even if these actions were considered ‘logically justified’. This is, for example, why Elise adopted some of Yosano’s traits after the military era, as Mori shapes both her appearance and behavior. Unlike the children Mori could not treat well, Elise is someone he can genuinely care for. So given she’s said to represent this guilt, I found this particularly interesting in relation to broader cultural differences between the West and Japan. I’ll elaborate below.

One work I would like to refer to is Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. This research was commissioned by a U.S. government agency during WW2. Their aim was to better understand Japanese culture in order to face their enemy more effectively. Therefore, Benedict outlined cultural differences between the U.S. and Japan. The West was described as a guilt-oriented culture and Japan as a shame-oriented culture. These two terms reflect how cultures rely on guilt or shame to guide behavior. In the West, feelings of guilt were constantly reinforced. Individuals were said to rely on their own conscience to judge their actions. While in Japan, social expectations and not bringing shame upon others were emphasized. This division is obviously not absolute, it’s spectrum-based with each culture leaning towards one side. For the sake of clarity, I will keep it oversimplified like this.

With this in mind, we can look at Elise. She represents Mori’s guilt while visually appearing as a Western-looking person. You could say that the guilt theory aligns with Elise’s form here. This becomes interesting within a broader framework. The dialogue between the West and Japan can be extended to the real author and his literary work. Mori Ōgai stayed abroad in Germany for some years where he was exposed to and influenced by Western culture. His story The Dancing Girl follows a Japanese student in Berlin who falls in love with a German girl called Elise. Eventually, the man must choose between his love (personal feelings) and his career (societal obligations). This way, the story covers the tension between individual desire and social expectation too, which mirrors this rough West-Japan division. This aligns with the situation during the Meiji era, when The Dancing Girl was written. In this period, Japan was torn between tradition and the tendency towards Westernization.

At the end of the Dark Era, Oda fought and ended up defeating Mimic at the cost of his own life. Shortly after this fight, Dazai arrived and managed to speak with his friend briefly before his death. It was then that Oda gave Dazai very valuable advice. I’ll elaborate below.

First Oda brought up something Dazai had once told him. That is that Dazai had joined the Port Mafia in search of a reason to live. Dazai hoped he could find something by putting himself in a cruel violent world and thus seeing true human nature. But in the end, he couldn’t find anything. At this point, Dazai had been in the mafia for three years. If he couldn’t even find a reason to live there, then where would he? Oda understood this about Dazai. He literally said Dazai would wander the darkness for eternity. Through these words, Dazai realized that Oda understood him in a way no one else ever had. Though Oda still didn’t fully comprehend him, he grasped something close to Dazai’s core. Therefore Dazai asked Oda what he should do with his life, hoping maybe Oda would offer him a different perspective. This is exactly what ended up happening.

Oda told Dazai:

“Be on the side that saves people. If both sides are the same, then choose to become a good person. Save the weak, protect the orphaned. You might not see a great difference between right and wrong, but...saving others is something just a bit more wonderful.”

This advice is valuable because of its nature. Oda told him to be on the good side and to save people. This isn’t a one-time goal you simply achieve. It's something you have to continuously pursue and maintain, an ongoing commitment. This is what it means to live with morals. Oda didn’t direct him to a reason to live, but instead to a way to live. That’s why it's meaningful, specifically for someone like Dazai, even though it doesn’t resolve his inner lack of meaning.

Dazai agreed to Oda's words by saying “Okay, I will." Some people view Dazai’s current behavior as keeping his promise to his friend. I don't think solely calling it a 'promise' is accurate at all. Dazai isn't following Oda's advice just to honor his final words. He does because he knows that what Oda said is true, about him not ever going to find something grand as a reason to live. Alongside this, Dazai acknowledged that his friend’s words were not empty words. He knew Oda’s advice was rooted in his own person and experiences. As you know, Oda used to be a hit man long before his time in the mafia. After he had quit that job, he refused to kill again. This decision stemmed from his wish to become a novelist. Oda believed that if he wanted to write lives, he should cease taking them. Dazai recognized the weight of Oda’s words here.

Throughout the series, Dazai’s romantic relationships with women are occasionally hinted at. We know that he engages with them and is, in fact, quite popular. This was also reaffirmed by other characters. Chuuya has, for example, mentioned that Dazai left several women hurt during his time in the mafia. Kunikida has also stated that he’s well liked by women. In the series, these moments often serve as comic relief. Despite this, I believe Dazai’s behaviour is rooted in something deeper (apart from it being a way to cope). I’ll elaborate below.

As you know, Dazai has always lacked a reason to live. Because he was unable to find meaning himself, he turned to look at other people. Dazai observes how others live their lives, what they consider worth living for or find important. Love happens to be one of those things. On that note, I would like to refer to what Dazai said in the Dazai, Chuuya, age fifteen light novel.

Dazai said: We breathe, eat, fall in love, and die. And you can’t get the full picture of living without observing death up close.

Notice how love is in that list? Before I elaborate, I will first focus on the last part of the quote. As you already know, Dazai wanted to grasp what life truly is. To fully understand what it means to live, you need to explore what’s part of it. Death is the final part of one’s life, therefore Dazai wanted to observe death up close so he could understand every aspect of it thoroughly. To do so, he joined the Port Mafia, an environment where death is part of everyday life.

So why did I bring this up? Because Dazai approaches romance in a similar way. Like death, he frames love as a part of a person’s life and thus of the "human experience". This explains why he also wanted to look into it to examine what love truly entails. He does this by engaging with women. This mirrors how he placed himself in the mafia to observe death up close. It’s his search for a reason, but in a different field. He hopes to find something meaningful by placing himself in certain situations/environments. What’s different between the two is the amount of importance given to them. Dazai’s interactions with women are obviously less "central" to his character than his exploration of death. This makes sense because, in the end, love is optional, while death is inevitable.

Even though Dazai is now on the “good side”, he won’t ever find something worth labeling as a reason to live. This emptiness he feels still persists. That’s also the reason for the continuation of some of his behaviour. By this, I mean his ongoing suicidal tendencies, but also his not so serious interactions with women.

During the Dark Era arc, Oda fought and ended up defeating the organisation Mimic at the cost of his own life. Shortly after this fight, Dazai arrived and managed to speak with his friend briefly before his death. It is then, at the end of this conversation, that Oda removed Dazai’s right eye bandage. This scene only appears in the anime adaptation, not in the light novel, yet it's a meaningful one. I’ll elaborate below.

First, I will address the timeframe in which Dazai has worn this specific bandage. We’ve seen him wear this since his earliest appearance. This was at the age of fourteen in the manga adaptation of the Dazai, Chuuya, age fifteen light novel. During a flashback, Dazai is shown getting treated by Mori after his failed suicide attempt. You can clearly see his eye bandage in the image below. I’m bringing this up to make clear he has had this seemingly “useless” eye covering from the moment he first appeared. He wears it continuously until Oda removes it at the Dark Era’s end.

Unlike his body-covering bandages, it doesn't cover up a scar or anything else, but instead carries a symbolic meaning. This brings us to the scene where it got removed. As mentioned above, Oda and Dazai talked for a moment before Oda died. He brought up how Dazai will never find a reason to live, something Dazai also knew himself. In a sense, Dazai was “stuck” in the mafia, or rather, without reason to go anywhere else. This is because no place or situation exists where he could possibly find meaning. Oda also understood this. Because of this understanding, Dazai then asked his friend what he should do with his life, hoping maybe he would offer a different perspective. Oda advised him to be on the “good side” and to save people. He said good or bad doesn’t matter much to Dazai in itself, but that being on the good side is a little more beautiful. Immediately after this was said, Oda pulled and so removed Dazai’s eye bandage. This serves as a literal “eye-opening”. Oda offered him a different perspective, one Dazai was blind to before. It’s an external appearance change along an internal mental one. Oda took off the bandage, initiating this change, but Dazai acted on the advice by later joining the good side.

Since this event, Dazai never appeared with this eye bandage again, since the path he was once blind to, has become visible. Oda pointed him towards a way to live, instead of a reason. Although this is valuable, it didn’t resolve his inner lack of a reason to live. His remaining body-covering bandages represent this. They cover scars of both his suicide attempts and mafia work. These scars and therefore his bodily bandages will remain, just like his absence of meaning. The continuity of his body-covering bandages symbolizes how Dazai, just like in the mafia, still lacks a reason to live.

It’s clear that Dazai’s bandages carry meaning, whether they remain or disappear. Here in particular, the removal of his right eye bandage symbolizes a change tied closely to the core of Dazai’s character.