POLL RESULTS IN!!! Shin soukoku outfit analysis <3
To begin, there is the surface level concept of just the colors. Atsushi in light and Akutagawa in dark, Ying and Yang, Good and Bad. But it is not those ideas themselves that compose the duo known as the "new double black" rather it is the presentation of the ideas that is the driving force behind their characters.
Mori wears a black coat. If he takes off the coat he is still in black attire. Mori is evil wearing evil, simple enough. Dazai wears a similar black coat when he's in the Port Mafia but adopts Oda's coat after his death and being told to do good. For Dazai, it's all the same, he may be placed in a neutral category of sorts. He chose to wear evil when in the PM and now with the Agency he chooses to wear good instead.
Akutagawa is given Dazai's original black coat when he is taken into the PM, going from gray, neutral rags to blacks and darkness. He wears Dazai's badness as his own. Constantly in only the dark until he works with Atsushi. When with Atsushi he gives up his coat and Dazai's badness and sacrifices it for saving his 'rival'.
Without the coat he has just as much dark and just as much light as Atsushi does. Speaking of Atsushi, the man himself lacks a coat, he doesn't wear good or bad, he just is. He exists as himself and as a good and he is on display for the world to see. He doesn't preform or try to be what he isn't.
When we first see him (Atsushi) in the story he's in gray tattered clothing, like Akutagawa was, but rather than being given a good or bad to wear by Dazai, he is instead provided with clothing from the entire agency. He is allowed to be himself and own his goodness as just what he is.
Presentation 2; Comparisons with BEAST
In BEAST Akutagawa is given a coat very similar to Oda's. He wears dark underneath the coat. Akutagawa doesn't wear the goodness of Oda, instead Oda has given him his own seperate goodness. He tries his best to align himself with this despite his own inner turmoil at his lost sister and life spent struggling, though his coat is worn open. He doesn't hide his past.
Atsushi in BEAST has a black coat given to him by Dazai, Dazai gives him badness to wear. In his moment at the cafe with Akutagawa, he sets aside his coat, the badness, for a moment where they can both confide in each other about their inner badness left behind from childhood.
In BEAST underneath the coats is not good or bad, it is the experiences they have had and ruin they've faced.
Presentation 3; the buckles
A/n: THIS SHIT HAS BEEN DRIVING ME INSANE FOR AGES ALL OF YOU SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND BUCKLE UP
Akutagawa's coat has buckles on the sleeve cuffs, it's a small detail but it's there. Ever present whenever he's in the coat, which is always, except for when he has to team up with Atsushi as previously established. Now, no one else has buckles on their sleeves besides from... Who?
BEAST Atsushi, THAT'S WHO. Nobody ever talks about it but I will. The buckles represent their tie to the mafia. Not a tie of their own choosing, but a tie graciously given to them by Dazai that lays in the badness they wear. No one else has buckles like that show up on their coats besides from Akutagawa and BEAST Atsushi.
What this means is that the coat shit isn't something I'm making up, but rather DELIBERATELY PRESENT IN THE BSD CANON. At least to some capacity.
Presentation 4; the final section; Akutagawa's knight outfit
Akutagawa's iconic knight outfit (rip knight Aku you will be missed), is the look he takes on when he first wakes up from vampirism. He doesn't remember Atsushi at first, he is only aware that with his body a promise was made so he must honor it. He becomes Aya's knight. His outfit shows his mission, after all.
Normally he wears Dazai's evil as he is in the pursuit of finally meeting Dazai's standards. He aims to wield that badness he's been given so well Dazai acknowledges him, then his pain and suffering under Dazai's hand will have accomplished at least that much. Otherwise it was all for nothing.
In BEAST his coat and the goodness Oda gave him is his pursuit. To save his sister and be, in the end, a good person. But Dazai has his sister. Constantly it is thrown in his face that Akutagawa's pursuit is good but he himself is not, despite his trying his best. If he isn't good, what is he?
Then he is a knight, his goal to destroy the Divine Being, he lacks any memory of a weretiger. Until Atsushi is ripped away and that is when. When he remembers. And as a knight still, he only aims to save his weretiger then. Which still entails destruction of the Divine Being anyways.
So, he is Atsushi's knight... Until the Divine Being is destroyed and Fyodor has control and everyone from the series arrives like they're the Avengers assembling.
When Ranpo leans over and whispers to pass over a message from Dazai, Akutagawa returns to his original outfit and coat because he's been dragged back into being a member of the PM. He's reminded of what he's supposed to be doing and reminded he's supposed to be pleasing Dazai and reminded that he cannot solely focus on Atsushi.
But the thought is there now. The desire to care, the desire to protect Atsushi and help him to save everyone as well as Aya who he's still promised to. It's there. So he doesn't hesitate to give his coat to Atsushi or to smile at him. He doesn't hesitate to give up his badness for Atsushi and make himself vulnerable.
Because his priorities have shifted somewhat.
The weretiger is a priority for Akutagawa.
