#general terms

General Fandom Terms

1. Fandom: A non-Bungou Stray Dogs-exclusive term that encompasses all fans of the series collectively together; think of it as a conjunction of the words “fan” and “kingdom”, for that is essentially what it is — all who exist as fans of the series exist inside of the fandom space, regardless of any differences of opinion.

2. “Ship/Pairing”: As stated previously, a ship is the coupling of two characters together in a relationship — usually romantically, though not always, and the act of “shipping” is wanting, imagining, or considering those characters to be an item in this way. This is sometimes also just referred to as a “pairing”, though the other seems to be much preferred. The term ship is commonly believed to be derived from the last part of the word “relationship".

3. Canon/Noncanon: A term invariably used to denote the official status of a given material by its head authority — usually the original creator of the series, although this can sometimes come to encompass multiple persons or even an entire team, depending on the series; if something is “canon”, this means that it is unquestionably true and definitively did occur according to the series’ author within the given timeline in which it takes place, whereas if it is “noncanon”, it is untrue and does not count as an actual event within a given official timeline.

The complexity of this terminology and the incorrect definitions often spread by some members of various fandoms can often lead to trouble, confusion, or even outright misinformation, and Bungou Stray Dogs as a series is sadly no more immune to that than any other.

Failure to understand that there is a hierarchy in those who are considered canon authorities can especially lead to fans often either disregarding or accepting material as official canon at their own personal convenience even when it is completely incorrect to do so; in situations like this, it is not uncommon to see one person trying to claim that, for example, a certain pairing — for which studio Bones often gives fanservice in both their official artwork and the anime — is canon because of said promotional fanservice, with total disregard for the fact that Kafka Asagiri and Harukawa35 are the actual ultimate authorities whose words reign supreme, and therefore, unless that fanservice is true in the source material they created and Asagiri has made it explicitly clear that it is being done with the intention of far more than just debatable subtext, it will remain noncanon until such a time that Asagiri deems it otherwise.

Bungou Strays Dogs-Specific Terms

1. Fifteen: The commonplace, shortened version of the title, “Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen Years Old”, an officially canon light novel written by the series creator, Kafka Asagiri, of which the first editions were originally handed out in theaters during a specific week in March 2018 to movie-goers who were looking to see the animated film DEAD APPLE. It is this novel that a year later was (extremely poorly) adapted into the anime’s third season as a mini-arc. An expanded but otherwise unaltered second edition of the original novel was released in August of 2019, including a new a bonus chapter, an afterword, and several illustrations by Harukawa35. A direct sequel light novel, Stormbringer, will be releasing on February 27th of this year (2021).

2. Arthur Rimbaud: The true name of the ability user who goes by the alias of Randou throughout much of Fifteen; anyone who has read the novel or even fan posts made by people who have will probably already be aware of this, but seeing as his identity is never truly, properly, fully revealed in the anime, it is still something worth noting here, as I will be alternating between his different names quite a lot for variety’s sake.

3. Paul Verlaine: The name of Randou’s former partner prior to joining the Mafia — and Chuuya Nakahara’s alleged elder brother (literally) — whose identity was, as with many things, wrongfully cut from the animated adaption.

4. Gifted/Gift/Ability User/Ability/Special Ability: The catchall phrases for those with special supernatural powers in the series, “gifted” tends to be the word favored in the animated series whereas Ability User tends to be much preferred in the manga and light novels, but in this case neither are exclusive, as there are points when one is used in the other and vice versa. Likewise, “Gift” and “Ability” are terms used to describe the powers themselves, with “Special Ability” sometimes also working as an alternative to either — primarily in the manga and light novels.

5. Hyperspace/Subspace: The names that the light novel and the anime use for the pocket-dimension ability owned and used by Randou/Arthur Rimbaud, respectively. I may also alternate between these terms for variety, but I suspect I will be using hyperspace more often as it is the one I have always personally preferred.

6. Transcendental/Transcendent: A special type of ability user more powerful than all other gifted in the world, whose members number only in the tens. Arthur Rimbaud is one of them, and as such, is practically invulnerable to at least all others not sharing this status with him, if not all natural-born ability users in general. In fan translations, the term usually used is “Transcendental”, but the official English edition of the only other light novel to make mention of their kind simply calls them “Transcendent”.

7. Abilities Secret Service/Special Abilities Department/Gifted Special Operations Division: All commonly used names for the division of the Japanese government of which Ango Sakaguchi is a part, normally preferred by the manga, light novels, and anime, respectively. Chief Taneda Santouka is the organization’s leader.

8. Soukoku/SKK: Literally meaning and often translated in official English releases of various entries in the series as “Double Black”, Soukoku is the name given to Dazai and Chuuya as a duo whenever they worked together as partners in crime; however, in the fandom, it is also more often than not the name used to signify a perceived — usually romantic — relationship (or in fandom terms, simply “ship”) between the two. Other names used for this pairing include but are not limited to “Double Black”, “SKK”, “DaChuu”, “ChuuZai”, or just “Dazai x Chuuya”, although all of these except Soukoku’s shortened abbreviation, SKK, are far less common occurrences.

And once more, just to make this perfectly clear: Studio Bones is only a canon authority in the sense that they are given permission to create supplemental material to canon, which Asagiri can then either choose to acknowledge as a part of official canon or ignore entirely; anything that they create which contradicts or works against Asagiri’s currently standing defined canon is false, and not to be considered official truth unless it is ever explicitly acknowledged as such by him in his canon material or by his direct word.

This means that yes, the anime’s rendition of Fifteen is absolutely false, because Asagiri’s manga and light novels will always take precedence over anything else that exists in the series, and this adaptions wrongly attempts to retcon the tale of its still-reigning source material for personal gain — thus rendering itself irrelevant and untrustworthy in the process.

9. Headcanon: A fan’s personal, non-official canon that they imagine and define for themselves. Though it is not to be confused with official canon, it is still no less valid a thing for a fan to possess and is a very healthy, respectful, and acceptable way for one to enjoy themselves within the fandom without feeling the need to include parts of official canon which they don’t want or like — or exclude that which isn’t canon but they greatly enjoy —  from their own works and imagined scenarios, while still allowing others to enjoy those things as they please and letting official canon be official canon.

10. Retcon: A change made to official canon to “rewrite history” in a specific timeline into something else and render everything that existed prior to that change non-existent. Unless done only in personal headcanon, or altered directly and decreed by Kafka Asagiri himself to be the new truth of his official timelines, a retcon is otherwise deemed invalid and untrue and is to be ignored by default.