Ok. Now that I finally managed to calm myself down and think clearly, I gotta say: WHAT THE WHAT?!
When i saw manga panels on Instagram of the new chapter I thought; this gotta be some sort of advanced and very cool fan art cause I couldn’t connect the dots. Why vampires? Up until now I believed that the BSD universe wasn’t so different from ours, except having the ability users and that book that can change reality (which for me is a very good metaphor).
Even though it was unexpected, it was a good chapter. I particularly liked:
1. How Aku keeping his promise helped the situation.
Because Aku has promised not to kill to Atsushi, he spared the guard’s life, who later will come and help Atsushi escape. It should be noted that the guard is doing this ON PURPOSE to thank Aku for letting him live. If Aku would have killed the guard, Atsushi wouldn’t been able to escape alive. He himself realizes that and seems to have a lot of questions in his head whether all this is a coincidence or not? In the end, this scene makes me realize how important it is to keep our promises.
2. Higuchi almost confessing
I think we all have witnessed gestures of love that Higuchi has shown towards Aku. She’s in love with him. In this chapter she felt rather regretful for not telling him how she feels because everyone considered him dead. When she found him, I think Higuchi wanted to straight up tell Aku how she feels because she now understands the importance of sharing your feelings as soon as possible cause we can not know what the future holds. I find this scene so genuine and beautiful and would have loved if Aku would actually listen to her confession.
After Atsushi manages to escape, he meets Ango. Atsushi tells him about the real identity of Fukuchi but Ango remains silent and doesn’t say a word, or a react surprised and such. I may be wrong but, Ango is constantly communicating with Dazai. I think they inform each other about the happenings and Ango follows Dazai’s orders. I also do believe that Dazai has already figured out about the infection rising and Aku being killed. I’ve seen comments claiming that they will get Dazai out of jail in order for him to cancel the vampire ability so the infection can stop existing. This is most likely to happen thus I see Ango lost in thoughts or trying to figure out the next move.
At first, I was not sure whether Aku sacrificed himself because of Dazai or because he really wanted to save Atsushi, now I conclude that both were his reasons. He did claim that he wanted to die by getting Dazai’s acknowledgement. Aku realizes that Dazai really cares for Atsushi and even agreed to protect him when Dazai asked him to. This way, he would have died knowing that he did something that Dazai would appreciate and be proud of. On the other hand, no matter how much Aku seems to hate Atsushi, he actually understands him and has helped him many times. This chapter he not only saved his life, but he created an opportunity for the city to be saved as well. He knows that Atsushi is the only one who can save the city because he acknowledges his strengths. Moreover, Atsushi was the only one who knew about Fukuchi’s real identity so he had to stay alive in order to tell others. Aku’s sacrifice can be seen as selfish, but it’s not all there is.
