Don't turn your back on the troubles you're facing.
"Lost, fighting, crying. Because I wanted to live."
Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple is a feature film for the 2016 manga/anime Bungo Stray Dogs. It fits the gap in between the Guild Arc and the Cannibalism Arc and is as such a continuation of season 2 of the anime and serves as a prequel of sorts pertaining to the third season.
Late-Arrival Spoiler Warning: Everything below this section will have unmarked spoilers for the original Bungo Stray Dogs anime and eventually, the manga. If you have not watched the anime and do not want to be spoiled, do not read this page. Many examples on this page are shared with the anime. All spoilers may ruin your enjoyment of the story. Again, avoiding these pages is highly suggested for those who have not seen the show. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Yokohama is once again in danger as a mysterious mist enters the city. People disappear, only leaving Ability-users in the town. Atsushi and Kyouka try to find out what happened when they suddenly get attacked by their own Abilities. Could the mist be the cause of this, and who is behind this? Things get heated up when they discover Dazai has seated with the enemy.
This anime film provides examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Similarly to a Soul Gem, the key to defeating your own Ability is destroying the red gem they carry on their body.
- Advertised Extra: Ranpo appears in the intro, but barely does anything since he doesn't have an Ability. Strangely enough, he seems to know this.
- Alas, Poor Yorick: Fyodor does this to Shibusawa's skull in order to revive him.
- All There in the Manual: Some important information is only in the novel
. Obvious spoilers - Animal Motifs: Dragons for Tatsuhiko. His name contains the character for dragon, he decorates his tower with images of them, and he transforms into one at some point.
- Badass Boast: At the end.Singularity: Huh? That isn't an Ability!Atsushi: That isn't an Ability. It's me!
- Bash Brothers: Fukuzawa and Mori, of all people. They provide a Back-to-Back Badasses when they deliberately switch positions.
- Big Bad: Tatsuhiko, and Fyodor later on.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: Just about every time Tatsuhiko is fought.
- Big Budget Beefup: A rare case with explanations, everyone who fights Singularity. The base three have regained their powers and are at peace with them now, and that results in them no longer being bothered by personal angst and issues, at least for the moment.
- Big Eater: Ranpo. He even has a safe full of candy, for god's sake.
- But Now I Must Go: Kunikida disappears after he explains what happens, contacts Ango, prepares to fight by stocking himself and the others up with weapons and leaves fighting his Ability. He does not return until the very end.
- Brought Down to Normal: What the fog causes.
- Calling Your Attacks: It's when it fails when the protagonists notice something's up.Atsushi: Special Ability: Beast Beneath The Moonlight!Kyouka: Special Ability: Demon Snow!(later on)Atsushi: You know, it's funny that our Abilities don't work...
- Came Back Wrong: Tatsuhiko returns in the form of Singularity, the skull Fyodor decorated with a piece of one of the red Crystals and then throws it into the chaos.
- Canon Foreigner: Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, who didn't exist in the original story but is implied to have to do with things from six years ago.
- Car Fu: Kenji's ability uses this against him.
- Cellphones Are Useless: As a result of the fog. It isolated Yokohama from the world, as Kyouka finds out when she can't use her phone.
- Color-Coded Characters: As usual. This time, purple is given to Kyouka, something that has never been shown before. It's possible that it's because purple matches blue (Atsushi) and red (Akutagawa). Tatsuhiko has a red-white scheme, similarly but not entirely the same as Akutagawa. The fact that one of them is coupled with white and the other with black is important to remember.
- Cool Versus Awesome: All the time.
- Dead All Along: Shibusawa.
- Demoted to Extra: While in the anime, the rest of the agency' screentime was relatively balanced, the movie is significantly more Atsushi-centric. Although it allows for developing Atsushi, it significantly reduces the influence of the other agency members.
- Detect Evil:Kyouka: I sense bloodlust. *immediately runs forward, revealing a ravished area*
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Atsushi, after being put through so much hell, finally gets to make peace with his past. Heck, even the other characters get on it: the movie ends with every character alive, happy and well.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Tatsuhiko.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Tatsuhiko's tower.
- Evil Versus Evil: Atsushi's tiger and Rashoumon immediately start attacking eachother when they arrive at the same scene. Their 'owners' are slightly embarrassed.
- Everybody Lives: Everyone turns out to be unharmed at the end. Even the civilians return.
- Fights Like a Normal: The fog forces this on people.
- Foreshadowing: An easily overlooked one appears in the first scene where we get to see the Triumvirate when they sit down in front of a bowl with apples and a skull. Some of them have knives in them. Dazai’s is the bottom left knife, Shibusawa’s is the one on the left, and Fyodor’s is the top right knife. The skull is Shibusawa's. At the end of the scene, Fyodor's knife is gone, and the skull is too. This would come back when Fyodor betrays Shibusawa, but is also an important indication of him taking over the role of the Big Bad.
- For the Evulz: Pretty much the only reason why Shibusawa and Fyodor do anything. Shibusawa wants to obtain 'The Ultimate Ability' and Fyodor's goal to rid the world of sin by killing Ability users, and as such, simply hates Ability users and wants to take over.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Numerous, numerous passages from works like The Moon over the Mountains, Rashoumon and many more can be seen in the opening video and the pv.
- Kunikida's Ability uses a different book from the actual Kunikida, its cover reading 妥協 (compromise) instead of 理想 (ideals), which says a lot about Kunikida himself. Said book only appears in a few frames, and after that, the character is not seen again for the rest of the runtime.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: Oda remembers the story of the poisoned apple as being Cinderella.Dazai: It was Snow White who bit the apple, not Cinderella.
- Info Dump: All main characters are introduced in the opening animation by means of a quick rundown containing name, age, power and allegiance.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: First off, if you haven't seen the anime or read the manga, it's going to be hard to understand either way. Furthermore, there's a Myth Arc going on, loads of symbolism and references to real life, and a Noodle Incident of six years ago.
- Light Is Not Good: Hell no it isn't.
- Little Miss Badass: Kyouka.Kyouka: (when Kunikida is giving guns): I don't need one.
- Logical Weakness: Kunikida tries outsmarting his Ability by bringing guns bigger than the notebook. Likewise, Akutagawa initially stays out of reach in his fight against Rashoumon, knowing that Rashoumon cannot reach that far.
- Madness Mantra:Atsushi: That time, I used my claws. That time, I used my claws. That time, I used my claws...
- Mood Whiplash: Three abilities corner our trio, surrounding them. Rashoumon attacks first, Akutagawa turns around in order to deflect it...only for it to jump and attack Beast Beneath the Moonlight instead.
- Noodle Incident: A gang war lasting ages, called the Dragon's Head Conflict.
- No Name Given: The incarnation of Tatsuhiko that shows up in the end isn't called Tatsuhiko anywhere. To differ from the initial Tatsuhiko and the one that was battled in the last ten minutes of the movie, we use 'Singularity' note for the latter and just 'Tatsuhiko' for the former.
- One-Winged Angel: Singularity is created by Fyodor merging the opposite Ability with Shibu's. Due to the difference between these, Singularity is, well, a singularity.
- Opponent Switch: Mori and Fukuzawa meet eachother accidentally during the fight against their own Abilities. Fukuzawa can't seem to defeat his Ability, while Mori simply can't bring himself to it. When they meet, they almost immediately switch positions (note that this goes entirely without words) and quickly defeat eachothers Abilities.
Word of God says that this was a Call-Back to the Opponent Switch Dazai and Kunikida did in the anime, due to that scene being popular. - Plot Hole: A minor one. In the opening, Chuuya activates Corruption without saying the Trigger Phrase, which is revealed in Storm Bringer to be a mandatory prerequisite to using the power.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: Implied to have been the case, especially in Atsushi's case.
- Posthumous Character: Tatsuhiko.
- Power Trio: Atsushi, Akutagawa and Kyouka form an interesting one, since Akutagawa is Atsushi's enemy. They also form Two Guys and a Girl, obviously.
- Razor Apples: Literally. Although they're meant to be a message.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Tatsuhiko. Combined with Mystical White Hair, he is albinistic.
- Remember the New Guy?: Strangely, inverted. All the characters except certain ones like Akutagawa show surprise on 'meeting' Tatsuhiko and act like they're seeing him for the first time. One would expect everyone would know who he is due to his involvement in the Dragon's Head Conflict.
- Rewatch Bonus: The movie opens itself up to this. There are lot of things going on that take repeat viewings to get.
- Say My Name: 'Kyouka-chaaaaaaan!!'
- A very, very painful one is uttered by Chuuya, while in Corruption. This one was likely meant Chuuya wanted to express he's at his limit but he could not do that properly due to his broken state. As is seen before, he had issues speaking to Dazai. With his mind taken over by Arahabaki and near death by overloading power, he could not help himself in the situation.
Chuuya: Dazaaaaaiiii!! - Scenery Porn: Quite a bit.
- Symbol Motif Clothing: The Triumvirate dresses in white with some sort of elongated diamond on it.
- Team Spirit: Kyouka, Atsushi and Akutagawa fight Singularity in perfect synchronization. Note that these three never fought anything before as a trio.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Atsushi and Akutagawa.
- Terrible Trio: Tatsuhiko, Dazai and Fyodor.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Reason Living plays during the final fight. Counts as Autobots, Rock Out!.
- Tiger Versus Dragon: The fight at the end is described as such.Singularity: If the dragon represents the chaos of special abilities, then the tiger represents the opposite of that.
- Title Drop: The last words of the opening animation music is 'Stray Dogs'.
- Tempting Apple: They're used as a symbol of the end.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: Needless to say, the film trusts that the audience pays attention to the dialogue and allusions throughout the story, as it makes the ending much more understandable if they do.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Tatsuhiko.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in regards to Dazai. The overall plot resembles Dark Era.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: When Atsushi wakes up, the fog has already spread in Yokohama.
