Crunchyroll has picked up streaming rights to Bungo Stray Dogs , an adaptation of Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa’s manga, as it airs in Japan. Episode 1 of Bungo Stray Dogs premieres on Crunchyroll on April 6 at 1:35 PM EST. The anime’s plot centers around superpowered authors of the Japanese literary canon and is described as a “battle action” story.
Bungo Stray Dogs is summarized as follows:
“Kicked out of his orphanage and on the verge of starving to death, Nakajima Atsushi meets some strange men. One of them, Dazai Osamu, is a suicidal man attempting to drown himself in broad daylight. The other, bespectacled Kunikida Doppo, nervously stands by flipping through a notepad. Both are members of the "Armed Detective Agency" said to solve incidents that even the military and police won't touch. Atsushi ends up accompanying them on a mission to eliminate a man-eating tiger that's been terrorizing the population...
In the virtual city of Yokohama are individuals bearing the name of Bungo, "literary masters," who possess unusual powers likened to that name. Now begins the battle between the mysterious Bungo powers!”
For an example of superpowered literary hijinks, look to the character of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, who in real life wrote stories that inspired both the Hell Screen arc of Aoi Bungaku Series and the renowned Rashomon film by director Akira Kurosawa. In Bungo Stray Dogs , Akutagawa has the ability to transform his cloak into a monstrous creature of its own. Together with some modern Japanese writers like Yukito Ayatsuji and even foreign writers like Fyodor Dostoyevsky , the writers solve mysteries as part of the "Armed Detective Agency."
Bungo Dogs is helmed by director Takuya Igarashi and screenwriter Yoji Enokido, the same Studio BONES team that directed and wrote Ouran High School Host Club and Star Driver . Will you be watching Bungo Stray Dogs? Let us know in the comments section below.
