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A 2012 Seinen manga.
Nakajima Atsushi is an orphan who has been cast out of his orphanage. At the verge of starvation, he ends up saving a man from a suicide attempt. That man, Osamu Dazai, works in a detective agency, of a special kind who resolve cases that normal cops can't resolve, often involving people with super powers called "abilities". After discovering Atsushi is his most recent target, and managing to subdue his out-of-control ability with his own Power Nullifier ability, Osamu decides to "adopt" him, that is, employ him as a detective.
Written by Kafka Asagiri. Art by Harukawa35. Published on Kadokawa Shouten's Young Ace. An anime adaptation was released in 2016, and is currently on its third season.
Tropes used in Bungou Stray Dogs include:
- Badass Normal: At Chapter 6, it is revealed Ranpo has no powers at all, he's just very smart.
- Driven to Suicide: Played For Laughs. Osamu is constantly attempting suicide, and failing at it.
- Healing Factor: In Chapter 4, it's revealed Atsushi's ability allows him to regenerate his body parts.
- Healing Hands: Akiko's power, "Thou Shalt No Die", allows her to heal people, but only if they are critically injured.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In chapter 2, Atsushi jumps over an bomb that doesn't go off, because actually there's no bomb, only a chronometer on a box, and the situation is a test for his character in face of danger, to prove he can really work as an "armed detective".
- Living Shadow: Rashomon is a shadow who spawns from his user that can eat, well, anything. It isn't explained what exactly that means but things are hit by it seems to disappear on thin air, making people go through an experience similar to a Portal Cut.
- Incest Subtext: Naomi is a little too attached to her brother Tanizuka.
- Invisibility: Tanizuka's ability allows him to blend with the environment seamlessly.
- Not So Above It All: Atsushi is generally pretty strait-laced unless money comes into the equation at which point he'll happily go along with his fellow detectives' antics. It's rather justified, considering he was homeless and nearly died of starvation at the start of the series.
- Power Incontinence: Atsushi's ability activated and went out of control sometimes before the events of the first chapter, to the point he had no idea he was the "tiger" the Detective Agency was hunting.
- Power Nullifier: Osamu's ability allows him to make any abilities that get near to him to deactivate.
- Reality Ensues:
- A two-fold case in Chapter 2. In spite of the end of the previous chapter implying that Atsushi had been conscripted into the Armed Detective Agency, the fact that he was previously deemed a high-level threat thanks to his tiger form's rampage means there's a lot of opposition to him joining. As well, Atsushi is reluctant to join since not only does he not want to put himself in danger, but as he points out his Power Incontinence would probably make him a liability. Dazai, being Dazai, resolves this with a convoluted Secret Test of Character involving Junichirou pretending to be a Mad Bomber.
- At the end of the chapter, in spite of having passed said Secret Test of Character and being offered a position in the Agency, Atsushi once again declines in favor of getting a minimum wage job. In response, Dazai points out to him that there really aren't any other viable options for him; he has no significant friends or family, no viable skills, and if his designation as a major threat were to be revealed he'd be arrested at best and shot at worst. Atsushi begrudgingly decides to join.
- Reformed Criminal: At the end of Chapter 4, is revealed that Osamu used to be a mafia member.
- Semantic Superpower: Kunikida's can create objects from drawings he does on paper, which is limited by the size of the paper itself.
- Tomato in the Mirror]]: At the end of the first chapter, Atsushi is told he is the tiger he's trying to ran away from.
- The Smurfette Principle: Subverted. At first Akiko seems to be the only female member of the detective agency. By the second chapter we're introduced to Naomi, who was posing as a hostage for a secret test for Atsushi.