DazAku

SPOILER WARNING! this article may contain major plot or ending details

DazAku
GENERAL
Bungou Stray Dogs
Character	Osamu Dazai
Character	Ryuunosuke Akutagawa
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Former Mentor-Student/Occasional Allies/Admiration on Akutagawa's side
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Slash
Tropes	• Devoted to You • Love Across Battlelines • Please Don't Leave Me

1

“My hope lies in my credo. A few plain words spoken to me by a certain someone… Those words have let me overcome defeats akin to licking dirt and sipping mud.”

— Akutagawa to Hawthorne on his persistent faith, referring to Dazai

DazAku is the slash ship between Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Osamu Dazai from the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom.

Canon

Dazai is Akutagawa's former boss and mentor in the Port Mafia. Dazai took in Akutagawa with the motive to form the third generation of Double Black, The two occasionally work as allies but are more commonly enemies, as Dazai is apart of the detective agency while Akutagawa opposes them, But even today, four years after Dazai left the Port Mafia, they still behave quite similarly to what they used to. Akutagawa holds a strong desire for Dazai to notice and acknowledge his skills. Frequently, Akutagawa is still in Dazai's plans, and Dazai also takes some action to have Akutagawa perform as he desires.

Dazai is, and always has been, the only reason for Akutagawa to live. He was an orphan, used to live in the slums, and also suffered from lung disease. But one day, Dazai completely changed his world. It is obvious that for Akutagawa, Dazai is not only his mentor but his whole world. We cannot define his feeling by any other word than "love." Akutagawa also stated that he is not afraid of death, but what he fears is dying without being acknowledged by Dazai. Even though he knows he has so little time left due to his disease, he is willing to spend the rest of his days gaining recognition from Dazai.

Dark Era

They first met when Dazai was promoted to the rank of executive. Dazai met 14-year-old Akutagawa in a certain forest.^{(Manga, Chapter 84)} He soon invited Akutagawa to join the Port Mafia under his direct commanding unit, and promised to give him anything he wanted in exchange for joining the Mafia. Akutagawa once attacked Dazai with his ability, but his attack immediately disappeared as soon as it touched Dazai, causing Akutagawa to immediately learn how dangerous Dazai is. Dazai, then, conveys to Akutagawa his message that he will not hate him if he declines his invitation, will even give his friends a proper burial, and will provide him and his sister with enough money to live on. But if Akutagawa has vigor for the invitation, Dazai continued, he will gladly grant what Akutagawa seeks. Akutagawa asked if he could give him a reason to live, which Dazai accepted as an answer. Dazai asks for his response. However, instead of replying, Akutagawa just emotionally screamed out. "Good answer," Dazai said with a smile, and then he removed his coat and wrapped it on the shoulders of the crying Akutagawa as a customary symbol of recruitment in the organization, formally welcoming him into the Mafia. ^{(The Heartless Cur (Short Story), BSD Manga, Volume 6),}

Under Dazai's direct unit, Akutagawa faced horrific and abusive training to hone his ability, combat skills, and fortitude, usually resorting to harsh and forceful bouts to have Akutagawa refine Rashomon. These include Dazai personally fighting Akutagawa, and despite having the ability to cancel all abilities, Dazai told Akutagawa to fight him back with his ability to train it. Dazai also warned Akutagawa that with only that level of power, he would not be able to survive in the port mafia and also asked if he wanted to go back to being a stray dog in the slumps.^{(Manga, Chapter 12)} In the event of Mimic, Dazai also went so far as to punch Akutagawa in the face and shoot at him three times in order to punish Akutagawa for killing members of Mimic. Dazai then told Odasaku that he saw Akutagawa as a sword without a sheath and that, while he thought Akutagawa had the potential to be the Mafia's strongest ability user, someone needed to teach him how to stow that sword.^{(BSD LN, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era)}

Present

After Dazai left the port mafia, Akutagawa went to such lengths to find Dazai throughout Yokohama, not knowing the reason for his sudden disappearance. He vows to find Dazai at all costs, ^{(BSD LN, Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam)} and once bombed a public building in broad daylight in the hopes that Dazai would notice, musing on how the latter, who mysteriously vanished, had yet to accept Akutagawa's power. ^{(Manga, Chapter 14)} Eventually, Akutagawa crosses paths with Dazai during their bounty hunt for Atsushi Nakajima. ^{(Manga, Chapter 4)}

Since then, Akutagawa has shown hostility toward Dazai on the grounds of dereliction of duty, abandonment of his post, and defiance of the Mafia, even threatening to kill him when provoked, while Dazai maintains a distant and cold demeanor toward Akutagawa.During the Agency's and Mafia's conflict, Dazai purposefully had himself captured by Akutagawa in order to obtain information. Throughout their conversation, Dazai maintains his dry humor but communicates with Akutagawa with subtle contempt, even telling his former protégée that his new subordinate is far better than him.^{(Manga, Chapter 9)}

However, Akutagawa continues to seek approval from Dazai whenever the opportunity is given. As a result, Akutagawa is quick to accept almost any personal favor from Dazai, considering it as an opportunity to prove himself to Dazai, while Dazai is also not entirely oblivious to Akutagawa's development. Dazai wants to pair Akutagawa with Atsushi to make them the new Twin Dark, so Akutagawa occasionally worked with his rival Atsushi, even though he was obviously reluctant. This includes the event of defeating Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald in the Guild arc,^{(Manga, Chapter 36)} catching the virus ability user,^{(Manga, Chapter 51)} and also in the event of Decay of the Angel's terrorism outbreak.^{(Manga, Chapter 83.5)} At one point, Dazai complimented Akutagawa, acknowledged his development, and gave Akutagawa trust.^{(Manga, Chapter 36)}

Akutagawa also remains firmly loyal towards Dazai. Ochi Fukuchi once offered to become his mentor, but Akutagawa promptly turned him down, claiming that no human, not even the war hero Fukuchi, could ever replace Dazai as his mentor. Akutagawa still strives for his approval from Dazai even though he has uncertain time left due to his lung disease.^{(Manga, Chapter 87)}

Fanon

DazAku is a known and popular ship in its fandom, and also a popular ship in Pixiv, with over 700 works on AO3 and over 4000 works on Pixiv. It seemed to be more popular in the Eastern fandom than in the Western fandom. In the Western fandom especially it is portrayed as a generally toxic relationship, due to Dazai’s former abuse toward Akutagawa. Fans did not appreciate Akutagawa devotion and his goal to seek Dazai’s validation to extreme lengths despite undergoing harsh berating and degradation. Many times this ship is said to be in a toxic relationship because of Akutagawa's overflowing love.

Despite the dislike, DazAku is still very popular. It is frequently shipped as a one-sided love from Akutagawa to Dazai. Or, in cases where fans want them to be fulfilled in love, it's often the case that Dazai is being kind to Akutagawa, something that hasn't happened in Canon yet. There were also cases where fans made them switch roles, for example by having Akutagawa become Dazai's teacher instead so that Dazai could be seen seeking Akutagawa's attention. This is likely caused by a reference to some relationship between the real writers where the real Dazai looked up to the real Akutagawa.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Dazai Osamu tag on AO3

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke & Dazai Osamu tag on AO3

FAN ART

太芥 tag on Pixiv

芥太 tag on Pixiv

TWITTER

DazAku hashtag on Twitter

太芥 hashtag on Twitter

太芥わんどろ・わんらい hashtag on Twitter

太芥ゆるどろ・ゆるらい hashtag on Twitter

Trivia

• In the "Bungou Stray Dogs x ChouChou ALiis Special" 4 pages manga, the story shown that after Dazai left the mafia, even before he reunites with Akutagawa, he always watch over Akutagawa. As in the story Dazai said that "So no alcohol with his food TODAY AS WELL".
• In Akutagawa's character song 揺らぐ暗澹の世界から (From the Trembling Dark World) is implied that it is Akutagawa's feeling to Dazai which he sang about how he wanted Dazai to look back at him.
  • In the first verse, there is the line "其処にある限り焦がれるだろう" which 焦がれる can mean to yearn or to be in love.
  • He also mentioned if he has a heart, his heart was found by someone and had started moving since that time.
• In official Bungo Stray Dogs Preschool! from Bungo Stray Dogs Wan!, Akutagawa's profile is written that "love Dazai-sensei the most and wanting to keep him to himself alone."^{[citation needed]}
• In the Tanabata Twitter project of 2016, when Akutagawa was asked whom he wanted to meet, his answer was, "If I could wish, I would want to meet that person," which strongly implies that 'that person' refers to Dazai.
• In the key visual of the event "Mayoi Inu Tachi no Utage Sono Ni," Akutagawa is depicted holding a Wild daffodil which mean Respect, Consideration, Waiting for you in flower language. Staff also commented that "Clumsy respect... perhaps. I think it's cool that he goes to earn recognition rather than just waiting for you." Wild daffodil is also his birthday flower.

Gallery

Official Art

Anime

Dazai hand reaching Akutagawa from ED1

Akutagawa reunited with Dazai after 4 years

Akutagawa and Dazai in Torture Chamber (1)

Akutagawa and Dazai in Torture Chamber (2)

Akutagawa punching Dazai on face

Dazai trained Akutagawa