Characters / Bungo Stray Dogs Chuuya Nakahara

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Armed Detective Agency | Port Mafia (Chuuya Nakahara) | The Guild | Rats In The House Of The Dead | Government and Gaiden | Hunting Dogs | Decay of the Angel | Dead Apple | Others | Beast

Chuuya Nakahara

Voiced by: Kissho Taniyama (Japanese), Nicolas Roye (English) ^{Foreign VAs}Alan Prieto (Latin American Spanish), Gregory Praet (French), Tammo Kaulbarsch (German), Felipe Zilse (Brazilian Portuguese)

中原中也 - 汚れっちまった悲しみに^note  Yogorecchimattakanashimini

^{Click here to see his Corruption form}

Literary references: He is named after Japanese poet Chuya Nakahara, and his ability is a reference to Nakahara's poem "Tainted Sorrow." The phrase he recites to activate Corruption is an excerpt from Nakahara's poem "Sheep Song."

Personalia
Age: 22
Height: 160 cm
Blood Type: B
Birthday: April 29
Zodiac Sign: Taurus
First appearance: Chapter 10/Episode 9

A Port Mafia executive and Dazai's former partner. His ability, "For the Tainted Sorrow," lets him manipulate gravity. The true form of his power, "Corruption," lets him manipulate gravity with far more destructive potential, but it burns through his life energy at an extremely quick rate and can kill him if he doesn't shut it down fast enough.

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A-D

• Actually, I Am Him: Chuuya is introduced in the Fifteen arc as a kid who hates the Port Mafia and is looking for a supposed god called Arahabaki. The drive to find it is so strong that even after the mafia relinquishes their leverage over him, Chuuya continues to work with Dazai so he can obtain answers. He later explains he knew Rimbaud was lying about the incident with the old boss since he was the only witness to mention seeing Arahabaki, but his account was too spot-on to be completely made up, and Chuuya would know, since he is Arahabaki.
  Chuuya: I am Arahabaki.
• Actually Not a Vampire: During Dazai and Fyodor's jail break, it's made look like Chuuya has been turned into one of Bram Stoker's vampires. Actually, he's just wearing eye contacts and the fangs are fake. Mori had sent him on a mission to aid Dazai and they needed to trick Fyodor first.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: While he's not unattractive in the manga, the anime tones down and removes his more intense facial expressions and gives him brighter and longer hair and switches out his grey eyes for larger blue ones. The same goes for the Dead Apple and Beast manga adaptations, which make him look a lot prettier than in the original manga.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: In the manga, Chuuya is given black or brownish-grey eyes, and dull, light red hair. In anime, he's depicted with blue eyes and more vibrant hair. His waistcoat also goes from light red to gray. His powers are depicted as glowing red in the anime, but are black in both the light novels and manga with him bring able to hide in the dark while using them. However, his Corruption markings are red in all versions.
• Advertised Extra: He's shown in promotional work about as much as the protagonists are and often gets highlighted in opening sequences. However, Chuuya actually has very little impact on the main storyline and makes very few appearances, only showing up in sixteen out of ninety-four manga chapters by August 2021.
• All for Nothing: Chuuya puts a lot of time and energy into becoming an executive before Dazai. He does phenomenally well as a jewel smuggler for the mafia, only for it to turn out all the channels he was using had been originally set up by Dazai, drastically reducing the impressiveness of his exploits.
• Ambiguous Clone Ending: For a while, it appears Chuuya is a Modified Clone created by the government that Escaped from the Lab. However, Dazai points out that despite the evidence, there's nothing that can confirm or deny without a shadow of a doubt that Chuuya really is the clone. Dazai personally believes Chuuya is the original since he doesn't think it's possible to make a person he could hate so much, but he isn't an expert.
• Ambiguously Human: Chuuya struggled with this issue as a teenager, as he himself had no idea what he was, and he often didn't feel like a real human. His link to Arahabaki caused him to mistakenly believe he and the entity were one and the same until Rimbaud clarified he was likely a human vessel for it. It's later further muddied in Storm Bringer where it's revealed Chuuya is possibly a Modified Clone with an artificial personality. However, after the first usage of Corruption, it's now impossible to determine whether he's the clone or the original, but by the end, Chuuya decides it no longer matters.
• Animal Motifs: Sheep and dogs. Chuuya is fiercely loyal to whatever organization he is a part of and good at following orders. In Fifteen he wears a wristband and belt buckle with a ram's head is likened to both animals by Dazai. Some promotional work also has him sporting a ram mask.
• Artificial Human: Chuuya is likely a 'man-made anomalous life form', made when the cells of the original Chuuya were transplanted into the singularity Arahabaki. This means he would be technically not a human, but biologically indistinguishable..
• Artificial Intelligence: Chuuya has no idea whether or not his personality is something he naturally developed overtime or is merely an artificial formula implemented in him through programming. Dazai doesn't think it's possible to program a personality he could hate so much
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He's one of the most powerful Ability users in the series and he stands out with how well-dressed he always is even among the Port Mafia.
• Benevolent Boss: Implied. Unlike Dazai or A, Chuuya never demonstrates any abusive or cruel behavior towards his subordinates, and is genuinely saddened by the deaths of his men. While he doesn't have many scenes with those working under him, extra materials frequently show Chuuya looking out for them.
• Berserk Button: Do not ask him where he was born unless you plan to be seriously injured.
• The Berserker: When using Corruption, Chuuya effectively turns into an ultra-powerful, mindless, killing machine that will annihilate everything in sight. Chuuya slowly dies while it's in use, and has no awareness so he will continue to destroy everything in sight either until he succumbs or the Ability is nullified.
• Bio-Augmentation: Chuuya is probably a heavily modified clone made specifically to house Arahabaki. As such, he's physically durable and quite strong with an Ability made to cause its own Singularity resulting in a massive amount of power. However, he is very weak to poisonous substances. There is a slight possibility he is indeed the original Chuuya who had the same modifications done to him.
• Blackmail: After Rimbaud's death, Mori got ahold of all the documents pertaining to Arahabaki and Chuuya's past, knowing they held the answers the boy was seeking. Mori then promised to give Chuuya the documents once he became an executive, but kept them under lock and key until then, ensuring Chuuya would be loyal to the Port Mafia in the early days.
• Blood from Every Orifice: While using Corruption for a prolonged period, Chuuya will start bleeding from numerous places. It's not merely cosmetic either, as the severe toll on his body could very well kill him.
• Book Dumb: In Fifteen, this is used to highlight Chuuya and Dazai's differences, as the former fails to efficiently gather intel and complains about having never solved a riddle, while the latter is good at both. However, Chuuya is able to correctly deduce on his own that Rando was the culprit behind the old boss sightings, albeit not as quickly as Dazai.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: A platonic example. Dazai extorts Chuuya into joining the Port Mafia by threatening to have the Sheep killed, and despite having also manipulated them into turning on Chuuya for believing him to a traitor, the boy complies. Afterwards, despite Shirase being by no means a good friend, Chuuya keeps him in the dark, allowing Shirase to hate him for abandoning the Sheep and allowing them to collapse, knowing he's safer from the Port Mafia that way.
• Breakout Villain: He's possibly the most popular antagonist in the series as a whole, mostly because his powerful Gravity Master ability and dynamic with Dazai are very appealing to the fans. He was included in an OVA based on a manga chapter he originally didn't appear in, was given several scenes in the Dead Apple movie and the first three episodes of the third anime season are dedicated to his backstory with Dazai. He also received an entire light novel centred on him discovering his past, which also happened to be the longest written, at almost five hundred pages.
• The Brute: Downplayed. Chuuya is far from intimidating given his size and overall appearance, and while he's more reasonable than most examples, he's not exactly the brightest as he is prone to making tactical errors and putting himself into difficult positions- something Dazai likes taking advantage of. Nonetheless, he is still very capable of killing numerous people at once, and is usually deployed to deal with massive threats.
• The Bus Came Back: After being absent for three years in real time, he returns to free Fyodor from prison, after having been turned into a vampire.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Activates Corruption by chanting 'Oh Grantors of Dark Disgrace. Do Not Wake Me Again.' (交際よ、汝陰鬱なる汚濁の許容よ、更めてわれを目覚ますことなかれ, Nanji, inutsunaru oujoku no kyoyou yo. Aratamete ware wo mezamasukoto nakare) This is a trigger phrase which allows whoever wears Chuuya's hat to initiate Corruption.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: This has somehow happened multiple times.
  • Downplayed the first time. After parting ways upon finishing their business with Rimbaud, Dazai resurfaces and holds the Sheep hostages while turning them against Chuuya, forcing him to join the mafia and leaving him with nowhere else to go.
  • Played straight in Storm Bringer. Adam tries to get Chuuya to help him capture Verlaine, though he refuses, believing he can take on the assassin himself. He soon after finds his friends were all massacred by Verlaine while he was gone, driving Chuuya to seek revenge.
• Cannot Dream: In Storm Bringer, Chuuya reveals part of the reason he suspects he may not be human is because he is unable to dream.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: He likes alcohol, but is a very poor drinker. There is actually a reason for this since N made him physically strong but weak to substances like poison.
  Chuuya: "(Drunk) Hey, listen to me, could you believe that boss just told me yesterday..."
  Hirotsu and Kajii: "Here we go again..."
• Chained by Fashion: Wears a chain on his hat, and with Corruption activated he's lethal. Becomes a little more symbolic when you know that the ability “Arahabaki” continually rests within him in a 'chained' state. The chain is usually left out of his character design in adaptations.
• Clone Angst: The current Chuuya is likely a clone who was experimented on to create a vessel for Arahabaki. Since his escape from the lab he's been plagued by notions that he’s not really a human. However, Chuuya ultimately decides to erase the logs that could confirm his humanity and leaves the possibility of having had a normal life behind.
• Coat Cape: Wears his black trenchcoat like a cape.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Effectively what the experiments on him were.
• Color Motif: Chuuya tends to be associated with shades of red, with his hair, powers and some of his clothes showing off these colors. This symbolizes his aggressive personality, as well as displaying his Red Oni, Blue Oni relation to Dazai, whose power is shown to be blue and is far calmer.
• Criminal Found Family: Mori gives Chuuya the whereabouts of the original Chuuya's family as a gift upon becoming an executive. However, while Chuuya goes to see them from afar, he declines to meet them, deciding the mafia is his true family.
• Cutting the Knot: When trapped in Poe's book world without his powers and five hundred murderers who need to be outed before he can escape, Chuuya quickly gives up on solving the mystery and resorts to randomly punching suspects. This actually works.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Corruption, the true form of his ability. It lets him manipulate the gravitons in his surroundings, allowing him to crush a tank with his bare hands and effortlessly throw around miniature black holes. On the downside, it puts him into a Berserker state that becomes harder for him to control the longer Corruption is active, and if Dazai can't shut it down in time, he'll eventually be consumed by Corruption and die.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He might even be able to give Atsushi a run for his money, given his Trauma Conga Line involving the fact that he is likely a modified clone made by the government.
• A Day in the Limelight: Storm Bringer focuses on Chuuya discovering his past. It also happens to be the longest Bungo Stray Dogs light novel.
• Death of Personality: N tries to use Chuuya's programming to erase his personality and create a new one. Luckily, N is thwarted, though it's unknown if this was ever inflicted on Chuuya in the past.
• Decoy Backstory: Chuuya has no memories from before he was seven, and has worries his connection to Arahabaki means he is not a real human. His friends eventually manage to procure intel proving he was a human with a normal life prior to being experimented on, but it's quickly revealed the intel was false and he is actually a modified clone of the real Chuuya made by the military. However, Dazai points out there's no way to be one hundred percent certain Chuuya really is the clone, so it's unknown which backstory is true, but by that point, he decides it does not matter.
• Demonic Possession: More or less what Corruption equates to. When the Trigger Phrase is stated by the one wearing his hat, the 'gate' within Chuuya opens and his mind is overwritten by Arahabaki, the entity responsible for his Ability. Unfortunately, Arahabaki is not sentient indiscriminately destroys everything around it, with Chuuya's body quickly deteriorating until either he dies or Dazai nullifies the Ability and closes the gate.
• Distressed Dude: He has been kidnapped a shocking number of times for a person as powerful as he is. If he's the original Chuuya, he was kidnapped by the military as a kid and was nearly taken by Rimbaud from the lab. As a teenager, he was abducted by the Port Mafia, and later in Storm Bringer, he was briefly captured by Adam followed by Verlaine only minutes later, and finally caught by N. As an adult he gets trapped in Poe's book by Ranpo.
• The Dog Bites Back: Verlaine tries to invoke this by getting Chuuya to kill N, the scientist responsible for experimenting on him as a child. Unfortunately for him, it turns out Chuuya doesn't care about N and considers Verlaine massacring all his friends a much more grievous offense.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: His voice actor, Kissho Taniyama, is the lyricist and lead vocalist of the band Granrodeo, who wrote and performed the anime's first opening theme alongside an Image Song called Darkness My Sorrow.
• The Dragon: Seems to have taken Dazai's place as Mori's right-hand man after the former's defection. After Mori is rendered in an Ability induced coma, Chuuya becomes the temporary leader of the Mafia.
• Dramatic Irony: When he was fifteen, he would remind people who called him short that he was 'still growing', and refused to believe Dazai's prediction that he would never get taller and Dazai would surpass him. Anyone reading would know that in present day, Dazai towers over Chuuya who only stands at 5’3.

E-K

• Eldritch Abomination: Not Chuuya, but Arahabaki, the entity within him responsible for his Ability. It's described as a creature with a long, thick tail and fur made of black fire with red eyes, sort of resembling a human crouched on all fours, though the anime's interpretation is more vague. Why anyone would want it confuses Chuuya, as Arahabaki is not a god, instead being closer to a force of nature void of sentience or personality that simply destroys everything around it.
• Escaped from the Lab: Chuuya is probably a clone of the original Chuuya who was made in a military facility and modified to be a vessel for Arahabaki. Verlaine and Rimbaud arrived to capture him, but Verlaine decided to set Chuuya free instead and betrayed Rimbaud, leading to Chuuya destroying the facility and the surrounding area. He then escaped, not remembering his time there or what he was.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He used to be the leader of a gang made of orphans. Port Mafia forced him to work for them by kidnapping some of the orphans and Dazai made Chuuya's companions distrust him so that they would turn against Chuuya since they believed Chuuya betrayed them first.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Chuuya is a ruthless mafia executive, but does not view his subordinates as expendable canon fodder, and he utterly loathes Q for taking the lives of his men.
  • In Fifteen, despite having just massacred a group of GSS soldiers, Chuuya is disgusted when Dazai continues shooting a corpse after performing a Mercy Kill, and angrily hits the gun away.
• Evil Is Angular: Chuuya is a Port Mafia executive, putting him at odds with the heroes in the ADA. He has Tsurime Eyes, rather unnaturally spiky bangs, his tie forms four triangles around it, his vest ends in two points and the brim of his hat combined with the shoulders of his overcoat create sharp angles around his silhouette. Before joining the mafia, Chuuya largely lacked these traits.
• Evil Costume Switch: When he shows up the prison to free Fyodor, he's shown to have replaced his formal, Port Mafia outfit with a leather jacket, light-colored belt, T-shirt, black pants and heavy boots.
• Evil Redhead: He's one of the executives of Port Mafia and his hair is orange.
• Face–Heel Turn: He is turned into a vampire and arrives at the prison to free Fyodor as his pawn.
• Face–Monster Turn: In his right mind, Chuuya is highly unlikely to lend a hand, let alone kill, for someone who endangered the Port Mafia. However, after being transformed into a vampire, he rushes to the prison and massacres the guards for Fyodor.
• Fake Defector: Turns out Chuuya wasn't turned into a vampire and he never was under Fyodor's control. He just had to keep up the ruse until Dazai outsmarted Fyodor and managed to escape from jail.
• False Friend: It's noted by Dazai that while Chuuya is loyal to the Sheep, they only see him as a tool, calling the boy a "sheep in the eyes of wolves". The group doesn't listen to him and Shirase throws a fit when Chuuya refuses to attack the Port Mafia for them. Finally, after being tricked into thinking Chuuya betrayed them, the Sheep ally with the GSS and try to murder him.
• Fashionable Asymmetry:
  • His hair is significantly longer and his bangs are brushed back on the left side.
  • As a teenager, he wore his hair in a ponytail slightly to the left side of his head, and had a pair of sunglasses hanging from a pocket on his coat.
  • In the manga, Chuuya has a small chain on the left side of his hat, and his belt dangles off the right side of his waist.
• Fedora of Asskicking: He wears a fedora, is a Port Mafia executive and one of the most powerful Ability users in the series. This trope is played a tad more literally in that the fedora allows him to activate Corruption and do some major asskicking.
• Fiery Redhead: Hot-headed and quick to pick a fight with Dazai.
• Fights Like a Normal: Chuuya does not solely rely on his Ability to fight and is an extremely proficient martial artist, making him a threat even without the use of his powers.
• First-Name Basis: Nobody seems to refer to him using his surname, not even his subordinates. See Historical In-Joke below.
• Flowery Insults: Chuuya occasionally gets oddly specific when referring to Dazai. At one point he describes Dazai to Adam as a twisted, horrible human being who would sell a drowning person water and have the cunning to get away with it.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In Storm Bringer, Chuuya finally has a way of learning the answer to the question that's been plaguing him his whole life- what is he? However, Guivre the Beast is about to attack Yokohama, which would wipe out the city plus everyone he cares about. Unfortunately, the only way to defeat Guivre is to use Corruption, erasing the logs containing the answers. In a rare Pet the Dog moment, Dazai allows Chuuya to decide and he chooses to use Corruption, realizing the answer doesn't matter.
• General Failure: During the Cannibalism arc, Chuuya must kill Fukuzawa to save Mori, but manages to fail despite having the entire Port Mafia at his disposal and Dazai being unable to assist the ADA. Chuuya initially makes the smart move of having his forces attack immediately so the ADA can't strategize, before completely subverting the point of it by giving them the choice to hand Fukuzawa over, allowing them time to formulate a plan and escape.
• The Gloves Come Off: Literally. Due to the Dangerous Forbidden Technique nature of his ability, he holds back in fights. However, if he's pushed far enough and Dazai is around (and willing to cooperate), he'll take off his gloves and at that point, you should probably run.
  • He has an affinity for using his power in addition to his kicks rather than punches, and even in the official game you'll see that most of his units use kicks as their attack animation, but the ones where he is in Corruption, he'll usually throw compressed gravity at enemies.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Like the other villains, Chuuya's eyes are colored black in the manga, though are also noticeably sharp and show much of his sclerae, giving him an aggressive and intimidating look. While using Corruption, his eyes widen considerably and his irises almost completely disappear.
• Gravity Master: His Ability lets him manipulate the gravity of anything that he touches, and due to the training he underwent, he can also rain down bullets which leave the same impact on the ground as he left during the fight against Kenji and Yosano, despite not touching them directly.
• Hearing Voices: While under the effects of drugs, Chuuya hears voices. Things get very disturbing when he hallucinates the voice of Dazai trying to convince him to commit suicide, insisting they are alike because neither of them should have been born. Unlike most examples, Chuuya is aware it's fake but can do little besides scream that he's nothing like Dazai and try to endure the torment.
• Height Angst: He displays this as a teenager, constantly insisting he is 'still growing' and becoming enraged whenever anyone comments on his size. It's uncertain whether he still has this as an adult since the only times Chuuya's height comes up is when Dazai insults it.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Inverted due to his status as a mafia executive. While this is absent from the main series, his Wan! counterpart loves dogs and wants to adopt one, though Dazai points out he would make a terrible owner as he does not know how to care for them.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Chuuya's rude and violent demeanor stems from him having been the only source of protection for the Sheep during his time with the gang, so he doesn’t really know how to act around people who don't rely on him for everything and don’t need him to act tough.
  • He's good at making friends and values his relationships with others, taking the deaths of those he cares about very hard.
  • The Dead Apple light novel shows that he is very observant and good at computation, dodging an oncoming grenade by accurately calculating its trajectory and timing his reaction accordingly in only a few seconds.
  • Chuuya can be a very effective actor, fooling Fyodor into believing the executive had been turned into a vampire and keeping the act up even while drowning, with Fyodor none the wiser until Chuuya reveals the ploy.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • His real-life counterpart was also often called by his first name as well. This is probably because the real Chuuya wasn't born with the last name of Nakahara ^note  It was Kashiwamura. Make of that what you want. but was given it because the family from that side was rich.
  • The real Nakahara Chuuya was also famous for being a bad drinker. He likes drinking, yet he became poisonous and violent every time he got drunk, earning him a bad reputation. He once got arrested because of it, and his first wife left him eventually sickened by his behavior.
  • The strange relationship he has with Dazai, stems from one time that the authors had to work together. Real!Dazai had the idea of a literary magazine and had gathered some friends and poets for it. He had only invited Chuuya because it was said he was a genius poet at that time, and the two parted eventually after some insults and name-calling. The magazine ended after 1 issue.
• Hypno Trinket: Inverted. Whoever is wearing his hat can use the trigger phrases programmed into Chuuya, so as long as he wears it only he can decide to use them. The hat was made for Verlaine by Rimbaud to prevent him from being mind controlled.
• Hypocrite: Chuuya hates it whenever Dazai manipulates him, but is more than willing to help Mori extort the ADA.
• Image Song: Darkness My Sorrow, sung by his actual voice actor.
• Immune to Bullets: Bullets have no effect on him because he can stop them through his gravity manipulation the instant they make contact with him.
• Improbable Age: During his first year in the mafia, Chuuya was put in charge of facilitating jewel smuggling since it was a bloody business and his Ability was useful for overpowering others. Most of the other Port Mafia members were completely shocked that a sixteen-year-old boy was actually perfect for the job.
• Insistent Terminology: As a teenager, he wasn't 'short', he was 'fifteen and still growing'.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He often gets tricked into acting like a woman. He complied with fulfilling Dazai's prediction of Chuuya walking and talking like an ojou-sama (or a rich young lady in the subtitles) once their conversation is over. He gets to roleplay as a woman for Kajii's plan in the drama CD at one point.
• It Was a Gift: His fedora hat was a present from Mori since it's a tradition for new members of Port Mafia to be given a garment from an older member. In Chuuya's case, his hat belonged to Randou. It was actually made for Verlaine, however.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chuuya tends to be very unpleasant, frequently swearing, insulting people and being prone to violent outbursts when enraged. Underneath that, he's extremely loyal and cares about his subordinates, never once being seen treating them cruelly, unlike the other executives. Chuuya is also capable of forming meaningful friendships with others and is surprisingly empathetic, even giving up his hatred for Verlaine after understanding the man's plight.
• Kick Chick: Gender-inverted example. In Fifteen, Chuuya exclusively used his legs the point of always having his hands in his pockets during fights, which he did to handicap himself so he could feel more human. As an adult, he uses punches more often but you still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a kick.

L-P

• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Chuuya has no memories of his life before seven years old, the same age he merged with Arahabaki. He likely didn't have a life before then, as he is probably a clone, but the logs that could have confirmed this were erased.
• Leitmotif: "Ojoku", specifically for his Corruption form (Ojoku means Corruption in Japanese). In Dead Apple, it gets a Triumphant Reprise as "Wake Up Call".
• Like an Old Married Couple: The most positive way to interpret his relationship with Dazai. They are at each other's throats whenever they meet, yet they can understand and read each other's actions better than anyone. Also, they do appear to have a high amount of trust in the skills of the other and can rely on each other in dire situations.
• Like Brother and Sister: He and Kouyou Ozaki became this. He was under her tutelage and is notably the only one to address her as 'ane-san', a Japanese honorific specific to an older, mature sister figure (in contrast to 'onee-chan') especially used to address women in the mafia. (because those that are, are usually in a high position like Kouyou is). Kouyou seems to care for Chuuya as well, as while fighting Verlaine she threatens to dismember him for trying to poach her subordinate.
• Logical Weakness: He's weak to extremely fast attacks and Abilities that don't follow the laws of physics. It's mentioned Pianoman could potentially kill him with his strings due to the speed of the winding devices being the most dangerous part. Poe and Rimbaud's Abilities are also not something Chuuya can deal with directly as they aren’t effected by the law of gravity.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He grew long hair as he grew older, which resembles that of his honorary older brother Paul Veraline and appears quite attractive for a Pint-Sized Powerhouse of a mafia gang.
• Long-Lost Relative: The epilogue of Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen Years Old reveals that Paul Verlaine is very much alive and eager to meet his younger brother, Chuuya. It turns out Verlaine is not really his blood relative, just another product of similar experimentation.
• Made of Iron: Chuuya gets thrown around quite a bit during fights, yet never winds up seriously injured. It's especially egregious during his fight against Rimbaud where he gets repeatedly smashed by cubes, hit hard enough to send him flying several meters into a wall and his leg twisted three hundred and sixty degrees yet is no worse for the wear by the end. Justified as he was subjected to experiments that, along with giving him an Ability, made him stronger and tougher than a normal human.
• Major Injury Underreaction: In Fifteen, Rimbaud twists Chuuya's leg around three hundred and sixty degrees and yet his only reaction is to grunt in pain and keep fighting. Even afterwards he shows no signs that the injury impacted him.
• Manly Tears: Implied. After the Flags commit numerous felonies and go behind Mori's back just to get the information Chuuya had been desperately seeking, he suddenly accuses them of trying to move him to tears while screaming that he wouldn’t fall for it. He then proceeds to run out of the bar demanding no one look at his face and staying out of sight for the next forty seconds before re-entering, having composed himself. It's explained he has literally no experience having actual friends who don’t rely on him for everything, justifying this reaction.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: His permanent unit in the mobile game has a unique skill that deals damage based on the current amount of HP you have lost at the moment the skill is used instead of a set amount of damage based on ATK. As such, it will deal very small damage or even nothing at all (2.5 times 0 is still 0) when ones hp is full or almost full. When using him, you will need to gather as much damage without dying in order to make his skill effective. This makes using it a kamikaze move that is best saved up for when times get tough. As of the time of writing, there is no other SSR unit in the game using this sort of skill.
• Modified Clone: Chuuya is likely a clone made from the original Chuuya, and was altered so he would be able to house Arahabaki. Among other things, this made him physically tough but weak to poison.
• More Dakka: How does he fight against the all-powerful Hunting Dogs Squad? Summon dozens of bullets and using his Gravity Master powers to fire them in rapid succession, mimicking machine gunfire without a gun.
• The Napoleon: His exact height with the hat is just 160 cm (5'3") and compared to the Port Mafia, he is considered the shortest among them. In fact, the only people he is confirmed to be taller than are Q, Kenji, and Kyouka, who are all children under 15 years of age. In one of the chapters of BSD Wan, he's represented as a chihuahua. Interestingly, his real-life counterpart is even shorter than this, having a height of 151 cm.
• Nightmare Face: Has one when he's just fifteen while revealing that he is Arahabaki here◊.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Chuuya is a mafia executive who's also a Gravity Master martial artist with a god of destruction inside him that gives him a Superpowered Evil Side which came from likely being the clone of the original Chuuya had been kidnapped and experimented on by the government, has amnesia of the first seven years of his life after escaping from the lab he was made in, a Long-Lost Relative who's a master assassin and also a clone and was part of Double Black with Dazai.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: Chuuya was extremely malnourished to the point of passing out when he first met the Sheep, being described by Shirase as emaciated and close to death. When he was offered bread, Chuuya didn't even know what it was.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In Storm Bringer it’s mentioned that he and Dazai can really only understand each other, as everyone listening in on their plans winds up severely confused. Played much more disturbingly later on, when Chuuya hallucinates Dazai telling him they both mistakes that never should have been born and insisting the two are the same.
• Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: While each of the other executives have specific roles they fulfill, it's never actually specified what it is Chuuya does.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While trapped in Poe's book, Chuuya gave up on solving the mystery and opted to randomly punch suspects until he escaped. This is fairly impressive considering he had to fight five hundred murderers without the use of his Ability and Poe fully expected him to die.
• Older Than He Looks: Chuuya is 22, the same age as Dazai, but his petite body makes him look only slightly older than Kenji and Kyouka, who are 14.
• One-Man Army: Chuuya is almost exclusively deployed to deal with major threats, either alone or accompanied by Dazai, and even as a teenager he was able to massacre a group of soldiers without receiving a scratch.
  Ranpo: We'd better summon the defence teams back to base.
  Fukuzawa: Is the enemy here? How many?
  Ranpo: One.
  Camera cuts to the security feed, revealing Chuuya breaking into the base.
• Only Sane Man: Occasionally. In Storm Bringer he is constantly exasperated by Adam's inability to understand humans and various eccentricities. During an OVA, he's stuck trying to prevent Higuchi, Akutagawa and Kajii from inciting various disasters at a hot spring.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In his memoir, Rimbaud had referred to Chuuya as something that looks like a little boy, but could destroy the entire world. Chuuya was also responsible for creating the crater that eventually became Suribachi City.
• Power Gives You Wings: During his first usage of Corruption, Chuuya gained black wings.
• The Power of Friendship: Chuuya is juxtaposed against Verlaine, as both are the product of experimentation, but while Chuuya had the support from others to deals with it, Verlaine never had that and eventually went insane. Chuuya also eventually decides that those relationships matter more than whether or not he's a clone, enabling him to use Corruption and defeat Guivre the Beast.
• Precision F-Strike: In the English dub, Chuuya makes his grand reappearance into the story by shouting "you've fucked up" at the ADA while rescuing them.
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: While disguised as a vampire, Chuuya pretends to obey Fyodor's orders like the humans who were actually bitten. He drops the act when he and Dazai manage to fool Fyodor into thinking Chuuya killed Dazai.
• Puppet King: Played with. As a member of the Sheep, Chuuya was part of a group responsible for making decisions within The Sheep. However, he was mainly used as a weapon by the gang with his authority being blatantly ignored. However, most outsiders referred to him as the 'King of Sheep' as they assumed he was the leader due to his powerful Ability

R-Y

• Raised in a Lab: Chuuya may be this, depending on whether he is the original or the clone. When the original was very young, he was abducted by the military and cloned as part of a series of experiments to create an artificial Ability user by merging him with an entity called Arahabaki. Later, when Chuuya was seven, Rimbaud and Verlaine released one of the boys in a botched kidnapping attempt, who was found by Shirase and brought into the Sheep. The other remained in the lab for the next nine years until he was killed by N in front of the surviving Chuuya.
• Reality Warper: Downplayed. Chuuya's Ability is actually a Singularity as it is self-contradictory in nature. This causes reality to warp, resulting in his gravity powers.
• Rebel Leader: After Chuuya joined the mafia there was fear that, due to the circumstances of his recruitment, he would become this by killing Mori and declaring war on the Port Mafia. Mori had Pianoman invite Chuuya into the Flags to placate him and prevent this outcome.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: As part of Double Black, Chuuya was the red to Dazai's blue, being short-tempered with powers allowing him to cause massive amounts of destruction, while Dazai kept his cool and was in charge of strategizing. Fittingly, his ability is colored red while Dazai's ability is blue.
• Revenge: Verlaine manipulates Chuuya so he will kill, N, who admittedly was responsible for torturing him and experimenting on him. However, Veraline's murder of Chuuya's friends ends up backfiring when Chuuya decides he wants Verlaine dead more than N, though he ultimately gives up on it.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: There was confusion that Chuuya was this due to a translation error created when fans began attempting to translate Storm Bringer. He'a definitely not a robot, but could possibly be a clone.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Chuuya is the human vessel of the God of Chaos Arahabaki.
• Signature Headgear: He's almost always seen wearing a fedora, likely an homage to the most famous photograph of the poet he's named after. It's so notable that his character profile lampshades it by listing "hats" as one of his likes. Ranpo even calls him "Mr. Fancy Hat" at one point! The hat is also the key to using Corruption, as whoever wears it while saying the trigger phrase can control the 'gate' within Chuuya or Verlaine. This would explain why he always makes sure it stays on during fights.
• Silent Scapegoat: Dazai extorts Chuuya into joining the mafia by making the Sheep believe he turned traitor and threatening to kill them if he doesn't join. Chuuya agrees but refuses to tell Shirase the truth, even though it means his friend utterly loathes him, knowing that telling him would just put Shirase at risk. Adam eventually does tell Shirase what happened, and he and Chuuya reconcile.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He tends to use some colorful language in English translations, especially around Dazai. One fan even translated him greeting the ADA as "Hey, stupid Armed Detective Agency motherfuckers!" because while Japanese doesn't have actual curse words, he speaks in a rather rude manner and it apparently made sense for him to say.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Chuuya and Dazai absolutely despise each other and get into squabbles whenever they're in the same scene together.
• Story-Breaker Power: Upon the Tainted Sorrow enables Chuuya to control the gravity of whatever he touches, and as he says himself- you can't escape gravity. He can apply his power to make himself virtually immune to bullets, break concrete by standing on it, smash opponents into the ground, etc, and that's before getting into what he can do with Corruption. As such, he is often either forced into positions where he can't use * brute force to solve his problems, or simply Put on a Bus. Chuuya is also limited to using Corruption only when Dazai is around or his life is forfeit, and he's typically out of commission after he uses it.
  • To be fair, if Chuuya was a little more creative with his power, he could potentially become invisible, camouflage himself as something else, trap someone in static time by combining momentum and time control, manipulate dark matter, seperate part of space to make it inaccessible, weaponize certain wavelengths, and create stars, wormholes and fusion. His Gravity Master power is really just a Swiss-Army Superpower once you view it in a larger scope, so it's no wonder that his appearances are so sparse.
• Strong and Skilled: Along with having a powerful Ability, Chuuya is the Port Mafia's best martial artist, combining his skills and powers to deadly effect, subsequently meaning even if his Ability is nullified he's nowhere near vulnerable.
• Superpowered Evil Side: While he doesn’t exactly turn evil, when using Corruption, Chuuya is only capable of taking pleasure in destroying his surroundings, and with the power boost he does this by flinging black holes at everything in sight, laughing the entire time.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Flags throw Chuuya a party and reveal they went behind Mori's back to obtain the information on his past he had been searching for. Instead of thanking them, Chuuya accuses his friends of trying to move him to tears and yelling repeatedly that he would never fall for that, before running out of the bar while ordering them not to look at his face.
• Sympathy for the Devil: While fighting Guivre the Beast, Chuuya is able to communicate with Verlaine. At this point, despite everything the man as done, Chuuya gives up hating him, realizing he can empathize with Verlaine plight and believing he himself would have probably turned out the same if he had been alone as well.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Chuuya discovers he is not in fact a human and had no past before he was released from a military facility by Rimbaud and Verlaine. He is a clone modified to house Arahabaki and the real Chuuya is dead. Made ambiguous by Dazai's theory that Chuuya is the original, and the fact that there's no evidence that can unquestionably confirm or deny this.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Wine. Though he becomes pretty crazy when drunk, he doesn't seem to be an alcoholic, since he does his job fairly well.
• Trauma Conga Line: Even more so than Atsushi. Chuuya was made in a lab where he effectively tortured in order for him to house Arahabaki until he was released at which point he blew up the facility. After that he was found by the Sheep emaciated and at the brink of death, and was then used as a weapon by them until Dazai tricked the gang into trying to kill Chuuya and extorted him into joining the mafia. There, Chuuya finally gained genuine friends in the Flags, who found out his past for him against Mori's orders only to be massacred by Verlaine. He was tricked into being recaptured by the military and subjected to torture, learning he is likely a clone but soon had to erase the logs that could have confirmed it. In the case that Chuuya really is the original, that means he was kidnapped from his parents who were told he was dead.
• Trigger Phrase: Chuuya is programmed so the phrase "Oh grantors of dark disgrace, you need not wake me again" will activate Corruption and overwrite his personality, as long as they are wearing his fedora.
• Tsundere: He has moments in the main story, and more apparent in the omakes and spinoffs (BSD Wan!, April fools' event).

  Student!Chuuya: "Huh?

  Why should I self-introduce? Annoying.

  ··· Arrggh —— ! Fine, fine, I understand ! I'll do it, is that okay for you ! ?

  My name is Nakahara Chuuya.

  I don't want to say it, but I'm sort of rivals with Dazai.

  My favorite hat... I left it at home.

  Not — not that it's confiscated for breaking school rules!

  My height...? Just shut up if you still cherish your life."

  • Canonically, his behavior with the Flags has shades of this. Despite obviously caring about them, is extremely abrasive and rude, constantly swearing, threatening violence and insulting them. When they effectively risk their lives just to get the information he's been desperately searching for, he accuses them of trying to make him cry, clearly touched by the gesture but having no idea how to deal with people who don’t depend on him for everything.
• Undying Loyalty: One of Chuuya's notable characteristics aside from his temper is that he is fiercely loyal. As a member of Sheep, even when they believed he betrayed them and tried to kill him, Chuuya joined the Port Mafia on the condition they spared his gang. As a member of the Port Mafia, Chuuya refuses to kill the captive Dazai, no matter how much he wants to, when he realizes doing so would be considered treason.
• Unrealistic Black Hole: In his Corruption state, he's able to shoot balls of compressed gravity that act like black holes that swallow anything.
• Volleying Insults: Whenever he is with Dazai, this happens.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: He's a monumentally powerful Ability user but doesn't have a versatile skillset, so as a teenager, his approach for dealing with dangerous enemies was the same for gathering intel- kicking someone with his gravity powers. As an adult, he's more willing to talk things out, but only marginally.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises:
  • Chuuya's sclerae are proportionately very large and his irises are quite small, denoting his aggressive personality. This was extremely prominent when he was a teenager.
  • Exagerrated during Corruption. When Chuuya activates it, his eyes widen considerably while his irises shrink almost completely out of sight and become blurry.
• Worthy Opponent: Chuuya doesn't often face people who can give him a run for his money, so he enjoys being given a challenge. He's elated when he realizes Kenji can withstand his strikes (see Would Hurt a Child below), but expresses disinterest at being challenged by Ranpo, until the detective starts pressing his berserk buttons.
• Would Hurt a Child: Chuuya doesn't go out of his way to harm children, but has no issues with fighting Kenji when the boy proves to be a strong opponent, and later he tries goading Dazai into killing Q for murdering his subordinates.
• Wrong Context Magic: Initially, Chuuya appears to be a powerful Ability user capable of manipulating gravity, which isn't too odd until it's revealed there's a second aspect to his power, Corruption, making him even more powerful at the cost of his mind, which is completely unique to him. It turns out it's because he's an artificial Ability user and Corruption is actually a Singularity, an event that should only be possible when two Abilities contradict each other, resulting in infinite power.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • During the Fifteen arc, Chuuya is extorted by his sworn enemy, the Port Mafia, who kidnap his friends and force him to work with Dazai on a mission, straining Chuuya's relationship with the Sheep and nearly getting him killed and his corpse puppeteered by Rimbaud. Just when things finally seem to be looking up, with the mission over and Chuuya having learned about his past, the Sheep try to kill him due to Dazai machinations, and Chuuya is forced to join the mafia or sentence his friends to death.
  • In Storm Bringer, Chuuya suffers as he does not know whether or not he's really human. His friends manage to find a loophole in Mori's orders and go to great lengths to procure the information regarding his history, and throw a party for his first year in the mafia, showing Chuuya a what a good friendship is for the first time. Soon after, he learns the information was false and his friends are massacred by Verlaine.

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