#soukoku analysis

I do think they had that ‘tension’ with each other while growing up, but it wouldn’t have been enough to be romantic romantic. As of their time in the mafia, I don’t think they would have engaged in that type of behavior with each other (kissing, cuddling, etc).

While they could’ve joked about it ever so often as teenagers (maybe even exchanging small displays of physical affection like resting their head on the other, linking arms, and so on) I don’t think it would’ve gone farther than that—and it honestly didn’t need to.

EVIDENCE:

my previous analysis on how it’s set up that Dazai and Chuuya must be a team for success.

Chuuya going back to his Stormbringer hair cut

the contract (we all saw it👀)

Some people have stated that the reason they are acting quite calm and less aggresive to each other has to be due to the fact that their alone, and while I think thats a plausible reason, I think there's more behind it.

Chuuya and Dazai have only been calm around one another when they are alone + when they are TIRED. And I got to say, it's telling that both of them went through hell and back (drowned, shot, injured, etc.) and they are so exhausted at a point where they can't even pretend that they hate one another lmao.

Like, they are actually in a situation where they are under extreme stress and preasure, not having any time to even put on a play and act like they want each other dead.

past chapters provided us with how over the top and exaggerated their "hate" for each other is (although we all know how in reality, they are fond for each other), but in this new chapter, all masks are off.

For starters, Chuuya shows concern for Dazai multiple times and even tries to reasure his worries, telling him Fyodor is dead and he shouldn't be anxious anymore.

I also want to mention, Dazai's openess around Chuuya and how of course, this isn't the first time Dazai has had these sort of emotional/anxious outburts infront of him.

Dazai is comfortable around Chuuya, comfortable enough to show his much more vulnerable side. And sure, Dazai is understandably tierd and stressed but even then he wouldn't show this state to anyone but Chuuya.

All in all, its clear that Chuuya and Dazai are in a place where they both know hostility and facades are the least needed at the moment. They are alone, which gives them an open chance to be honest with one another without fear of betrayal.

I think the sheer trust they have for each other has always been shown in past chapters/light novels but this is defiently some of those rare times where they are showing nothing but honesty and care for one another.

first, there is the whole issue of dazai's vision in the mafia - dazai's vision in the agency, because they are two completely different facets of dazai, but even so, dazai allowed himself to be a little bit of the playful facet that he is in the agency in the few moments with chuuya when they were young.

dazai clearly had a soft spot for chuuya during their teens, we see numerous times that chuuya brings out this softer side of dazai, as dazai is caught smiling at chuuya several times in stormbringer; on the other hand, we rarely see it from chuuya

chuuya treated dazai with a lot of hostility during his time in the Mafia, as far as we know, even if not with MUCH hostility but still not with the softness that dazai always showed. During the mafia, Dazai, never able to show one ounce of emotion due to his mind games with Mori, found himself taking false steps around Chuuya. This completely changes after Dazai's departure mainly because

1. Chuuya saw Dazai as a partner, annoying and probably the cause of premature stress he would have for life, but still a partner; someone who, when everything was being taken from him, still were there

2. While Dazai saw Chuuya as he saw all the good that ever came to him in his life: as something he would lose eventually, no matter how hard he fought

And I think that these perceptions of each other speaks volumes about how they treat the breakup: as a betrayal vs. the inevitable.

It's easy for the two to fall into the same teenage routine, but Chuuya, who has never acknowledged any kind of soft feelings for Dazai, remains bitter about the "betrayal" because, after everything was taken away from him, two things held solid: The Mafia and Dazai.

While Dazai does not harbor bitter but melancholic feelings. He falls into a routine because it is a nostalgia and an indulgence that he allows himself for a few moments. Things are getting softer in Dazai's life now, but the softness towards Chuuya was the first he felt in his life, and I think that's why their relationship is so important. Not because Dazai's feelings were just romantic at first glance, but because they were SOFT, something a child like Dazai, abandoned with an emptiness in his chest and violence, never felt before.

However, their relationship isn't soft at all either, because they weren't raised to be soft, the two thrive on violence and chaos (as Kunikida said about Dazai once), so it makes it even harder to act soft.

that's why I can never imagine them soft in the first place, not just because they thrive on violence, but because violence and brutality are the only way they could start anything possible between them. Not only did Chuuya grow up with the idea that Dazai was the only one on whom his life depended at times, but he was placed in many ways inferior to Dazai for being the "muscle" of operations. So, in some kind of relationship, Chuuya would probably act on all this rivalry that was fueled between the two, in a way to balance things out, so he would dominate and demand, while Dazai, who is desperate (let's be honest), would do everything to please so Chuuya can quench the soft part in Dazai's stomach one way or another.

In a relationship that would be born in the Mafia times, I think the two would be much more volatile, with Dazai only knowing how to fight back with every blow that Chuuya's dominance nailed in his pride, which would result in more violence than softness

In a relationship back in the Agency days, Dazai would look for both violence and softness, wanting even more softness because he now knows how tender other aspects of life can be, a vision not possible in the Mafia.

It doesn't matter that 24/7 of the time he doesn't feel worthy, he still wants it. But in the Mafia environment it was simply impossible, with very few exceptions. But now, exceptions become recurrent and cease to be exceptions.

Dazai would want to experience Chuuya's softness, softness he's always wanted since he knew the feeling. But also his violence, because that was the trait that enerved him the most back those times: how smooth Chuuya's violence can be, how divine and glorious.

Chuuya on the other hand, will be tricky. He never had soft feelings for Dazai, not that we can see. Of course, he cares about Dazai's life (ch 31) but it's still not the softness that Dazai displayed, with secret smiles and passionate laughter. But he allows himself to be follow Dazai's desires so that he can see Dazai's softness

Chuuya worries about Dazai because, deep down, he likes Dazai (shock) but unlike Dazai who has feelings of melancholy and insecurity preventing any form of relationship, Chuuya has resentment and anger

what drives Chuuya is resentment, anger and feverish determination. Chuuya believed that Dazai would stay with him in the Mafia no matter what, not because he believed he somehow mattered to Dazai, but because what else did they have? Of course there were friends outside their bubble, but even though Chuuya didn't want to accept it, he knew there was something that connected Dazai and him, so much so that his drugged subconscious admits in sb that he and dazai are the same deep down.

Chuuya sees Dazai the way he was introduced at fifteen: a boy who sees no point in life but would stay as long as he was with Chuuya by his side. So he takes it for granted, that Dazai will not leave his side until death takes him. Even if he doesn't accept that Dazai has a special piece of his heart.

Like you, I also lean towards Soukoku the most — I think that there is a certain poetic beauty and tragedy to their dynamic

I often think about they were both kids when they were thrust into a world of violence, and how their abilities are literal reflections of each other’s lives which makes the implication that even Kafka intended for them to be connected by fate (romantically or not) and how Chuuya is not human but is simultaneously the most human person Dazai knows, while Dazai regularly struggles with his own humanity even though he is without a doubt human.

I just think that they have all of these character parallels and that they embody and reflect major characteristics in one another, and I think this is why so many people ship them even though their most prominent scenes haven’t even been drawn or animated. As a pairing, they offer a lot of analyzing potential and as anyone who has ever been involved in fandom knows, we love analyzing lol

Hi! Thank you so much first of all for sharing your thoughts! I do agree there is such a beautiful poetic tragedy to them. I attribute that to the fact they're both so broken and their relationship, although still having that trust, is pretty fractured and painted in violence and tragedy, maybe under different circumstances they would've been able to be together but as of now? No way in hell.

I wonder if Asagiri knew what they were doing when they made their characters such parallels to each other. In every universe we know (which is only two because of Beast) Dazai and Chuuya are somehow connected. In the universe we are most familiar with it's through being partners, in Beast its boss-protector connections. The Port Mafia is bathed in bloodshed, and these two 15 year olds were thrown smack dab in the middle, Chuuya also probably seeing much more bloodshed from the Sheep although as far as I know we never find out what exactly the Sheep did.

And on day 3537 of me crying over skk because they aren't real, I'll share the realization that I got last night at 11 pm after thinking about skk's love languages :"D

Let’s start with Chuuya’s. 

He would definitely do acts of service and give tons of gifts, because he always takes care of those around him (it’s most prominent in the Fifteen LN, where he took care of all the kids of the Sheep) - and we all know that this man's wallet is PACKED :D

Next, the love language he wants to receive is most likely touch and words of affirmation, because he never had the chance to be hugged or handled lovingly, and he always needs reassurance that he's human enough despite the god of destruction bound to his soul.

Give him someone who touches him so delicately and regularly assures him that he’s human, and he would literally have tears in his eyes (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞

Now, moving on to Dazai. 

In my opinion, the love language he wants to receive is 100% acts of service and giving gifts, because he lives alone and nobody has EVER taken care of him properly. He even went batshit in that one Wan ep where Atsushi gave him flowers-

Look at his reaction- he didn't even know how to react when someone was thoughtful enough to buy him gifts :"D Get him someone who would take care of him and thinks about him enough to buy him gifts, and this man would melt. 

On the other hand, the love language he can offer is most likely touch and words of affirmation (I'm actually not so sure about this, so this is only my opinion). We saw how he frequently touches women and praises them, so maybe that’s how he also treats people who are dear to him. Besides this mf is the clingiest person to ever exist so there’s that-

Are you noticing a pattern here? :”D

Chuuya would do acts of service and give gifts as his love language, and he wants touch and words of affirmation.

Dazai would offer touch and words of affirmation, and he treasures acts of service and gifts.

I’m sure someone else has said (idk though cause I don’t spend time in the BSD Tag from fear of spoilers) this but I thought I would post it anyway.

Reason number one was probably a way if I suppose getting Chuuya to realise he’s human at least in Dazai’s mind because pain is something he thinks could be a reminder of life to Chuuya. Then there’s option 2 which I think is more likely.

Dazai is a genius but I doubt he would be like that for his own feelings. I’m quite sure letting Chuuya get tortured was part of his systematic weeding out of what he’s actually feeling towards Chuuya because despite his claims he knows it’s not hate. I think it was only after he left PM that he truly understood that what he felt was love. While Chuuya is more aware of his feelings towards Dazai he more or less shoves them deep down in denial town for the simple reason that Dazai is Dazai.

I do think Dazai is somewhat unaware of Chuuya’s feelings towards him because I’m quite sure in the time it took for Dazai to understand what precisely he was feeling Chuuya would have known how to hide it from even Dazai. Quite frankly I think the reason Chuuya didn’t react the same way to thinking Dazai was dead as in BEAST is because Mori was there. And the reason both counter parts didn’t just kill themselves was because Dazai always showed his need for Chuuya to be safe and to live as the lack of wanting to enter the afterlife with Chuuya. Leading Chuuya to delay his own death to give Dazai peace. It’s from both parts a misguided act of love. Dazai would have set Chuuya off to be healthy and happy in his absence because he’s Dazai but since he’s unaware of what Chuuya feels and thinks on this matter he messes up for once in planning.

How I be looking after dedicating two posts on the possibility of Chuuya not being a vampire due to the fact he was faceless for absolutley no reason during some chapters, thinking it was important: 

alright people, i wish i could express my embarassment further but instead of kicking my feet, screaming and crying over my miscalculations, i will proceed to (hopefully) redeem myself with my following predictions.  

Guys, first of all I need to tell you something that I think is absolutely obvious: Dazai is not going to die. 

thematically, it makes absolutley no sense for Dazai to die considering how many characters still depend on him, EVEN HIMSELF.

We still haven’t learned his backstory, we still haven’t had a cathartic moment between Akutagwa and Dazai, Atsushi is yet to learn more from his mentor, and he’s overall a very key character to foil others and develop them while he’s at it.

Even Dazai himself dying right now feels extremely weightless, we haven’t even learned anything about Dazai’s past and he’s already killed? without growing as a person? without fullfilling Oda’s promise?  I don’t know, personally to me, direction wise, development wise and plot wise killing him off is absolutley nonsensical.

Asagiri does tend to take a very unique and unpredictable route with his writing and characters, but for plots sake, I highly doubt Dazai is gone forever.

Also, Fydoor and Dazai continue throwing uno reverse cards at each other, always catching one another unexpectedly. I am still going strong on the idea that Double Black will catch Fyodor off-guard.

Fyodor during these whole prision sections has been constantly belittling and teasing Dazai over how shallow his bond with Chuuya is.

When that’s beyond the truth. Dazai and Chuuya’s trust is literally undying. Stormbringer, the double black chapter and dead apple show us this in the most obvious way possible.

Asagiri himself has quoted that Soukoku knows each others motives, which has also been proven plenty of times when they are working together. 

Dazai himself admited there really was moments where their hearts reached out to one another.

and I think that’s enough to understand, Fyodor is wrong. THEY ARE DOUBLE BLACK FOR A REASON!!!

So far in this chapter, I got various things confirmed. Let’s walk through them together. 

1. Dazai’s nullifcation ability works on vampires, confirmed by Fyodor himself.

So what does this tell us? That Dazai had been planning all along to get in contact with Chuuya. He knew his partner’s abilities will break him out of the water trap, he’s not dumb.

So Dazaj totally meant to get in physical contact with Chuuya in order to nullify his vamparism. And no, it’s not only because Dazai cares for Chuuya (which is a true statement, but not the main reason.) It’s because out of everyone in this room, Chuuya is the only one able to physically overpower Fyodor. 

And even if Chuuya somehow can’t overpower Fyodor, atleast Chuuya can be Dazai’s bodyguard considering well...Dazai’s countless of injuries. Chuuya is Dazai’s ticket to get out of the prision.

Dazai needs Chuuya in his corner. He needs double black in action. He needs Chuuya. 

2. Dazai is genuienly frustrated that his plan to bring back Chuuya didn’t work.

I can’t be the only one who ADORED seeing Dazai panicking. (I sound so masochistic but seriously, it’s rare to see Dazai unmask this way).

Anyways, Dazai’s panic and frustrating during these pannels are unfortunately proof that things did not go at all how he planned.

3. Aya is attempting to take out the sword that stops Bram from having full atonomy on his vampire abilty. 

If by any luck, Aya is able to detach the swoard from Bram, Chuuya and literally every other vamp will return to normal. (which honestly, let’s do hope Aya removes the sword bc this is getting too agonizingly dragged out.)

4. Chuuya and Dazai are destined to....

 kiss?? marry?? make out under the moonlight??

Nono my friends, Chuuya and Dazai are destined to die together.

Chuuya and Dazai dying together has been hinted since Fifthteen, but my theory of these two dying together strenghtened during Stormbringer when Mori teased Dazai about a double suicide with Chuuya.

I’m not saying they will die right now but in order to solidify the need for Shin Soukoku in Yokahama.....

This old married couple gotta go and make room for the highschool sweethearts/hj

5. Dazai took the L

Honestly, I won’t lie to you and say that Dazai’s way out of this situation is going to be hard. But Dazai has attempted to kill himself plenty of times, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has shot a bullet through his head in his early 20s. (Im not joking when I say this i swear).

Anyways, Dazai seems somewhat imune to death and honestly, his character is too important to die, especially in such a meh, anticlimatic way. 

Dazai said it himself best, him and Chuuya are destined to die together.

6. Vampire Chuuya’s expression

I mean,,,, what is the need for the random three little pensive speach bubble ?? we have been proven by Akutagawa that vampires are capable of some sort of sentinence, especially when it’s tied to their deepest desieres/mental strenghts.

I don’t have anywhere grand to go with this but, I just wanted to point it out lol.

ALL IN ALL

I can’t say for sure what is going to happen, but with Aya’s attempts of removing the swoard the possibility for Chuuya to become concious and do something to get out of there and save Dazai still remain pausible in my books.