https://anilist.co/manga/114998/BungoStrayDogsBeast/ I always have some kind of dissatisfaction when it comes to Bungou Stray Dogs. Despite liking the different eye designs the abilities based on real life authors and if were talking about the Anime the cool OSTs I still listen to Eye of the Tigerhttps://youtu.be/G89PbQmPnrM Inou no Susumehttps://youtu.be/TAYNcocyNZU I always had one problem. Dazai is too interesting This might be one of the few cases where I found a character being too interesting as a problem. In stories like BSD characters are like magic tricks and the story is the magic. Every character has something you can look forward or root for but the Anime story likes Dazai too much. Repeatedly bringing him everytime is like using the same magic trick again again until its donetodeath. Look Dazai is cool and pretty much the boss mastermind of the whole story so bringing him at every point in every characters episode made him more of a main character which weakened the main characterness of Atsushi whos the actual main character. Every port mafia backstory is so interesting that it pales in comparison to a story about a whimpy 18 year old trying to work hard in a detective agency while overcoming his fears trauma. So I never really liked when the Anime shifts focus from Dazais backstory to the present Atsushis story and even then its more of Dazais plan than Atsushis growth. In Beast however Dazai has less of a screentime which works really well with his Mastermind behind the scenes character archetype. So when his reveal about his master plan comes at the end of the story it just hits differently unlike in the Anime where it brings Dazai for every solution which just made him kinda boring. But why does it matter? What did BSD Beast deliver by making one of its dearest best character as a side character? Well it achieved what the Anime couldnt quite deliver. The Beast the Tiger Bungou Stray Dogs : Beast is set in an alternate universe where Akutagawa join the armed detective agency ADA and Dazai Atsushi join the Port Mafia. We follow Akutagawa Ryuunosuke who lost his sister to the Man in Black of port mafia and swore revenge on him. I really liked how much Akutagawa worked as a protagonist. Seeing this alternate version of him in ADA is believable kinda hard hitting I particularly liked his interactions with Kenji. Seeing Aku coming to terms with his inner beast is quite inspirational. He went from despising the weak to protecting them. What really surprised me though is Atsushis character study. Though its pretty much the same as the parent story it hits differently. The main reason why Beast works is because it highlights the rivalry between Atsushi Akutagawa. Theres a small section where Aku Atsu have a normal talk like friends as they reminisce about the small rewards they used to have in their harsh pasts its quite sad wholesome at the same time and it is my favorite moment in this whole story. The battle between Aku Atsu in the second half of the story is nailbitingly intense as they start to question each others motives and pasts this clash between these two rivals is what the Anime couldnt quite deliver which I always wanted to see and Beast does it miles better. Nitpicks I initially didnt like the artstyle. I like the idea of having an overall dark shade for a darker storyline but it needed time to get adjusted with. Its a shame we didnt get to see much of Chuuya sad day for Chuuya fans or Akiko sad day for me. Conclusion I really like this to get animated more than the parent story. Its dark intense does all things right that the main storyline couldnt do and will probably be my favorite in the whole franchise. Note : Beast contains massive spoilers for BSD S1 2. So dont read this without watching them. Lets conclude with my favorite Panel. https://i.ur.com/gmuMlaS.jpeg