Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! 2 Anime Series Review

The main story of Bungo Stray Dogs, whether in anime, manga, or novel form, isn't given to silliness. That's not just because the authors are reimagined in the plot, although many of them died young and/or tragically; the series explores humanity and all the light and dark aspects it encompasses. That's what makes the shorts that comprise Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! (and the manga it's based on) so much fun: it's a chance to see the goofier sides of the characters or inherent in the series' world – and do give Dazai something to joke about that's not suicide.

This second season of shorts covers up to the arrival of Sigma and the Hunting Dogs. (The final credits of the last episode mention Bram, but he doesn't show up that I could see.) Although they really only get one episode, I have to say that the Hunting Dogs make for excellent joke fodder. It's not just that they're all so self-serious in the main series, although that absolutely helps; it's more that they all have so many weird quirks that they're very easy to lampoon. Of course, one of the gags is simply that dogs have very good noses and leader Fukuchi is an old, farty man, but sometimes you don't need to aim high to get a laugh out of the audience, and fart jokes are the oldest human gag in the book. Even more amusing is that the Hunting Dogs don't quite seem to know why they're being included in this series, which nicely goes back to their aforementioned self-serious nature.

Another fun segment comes in a riff on the novel Dazai and Chuuya, Age Fifteen. Called “Dazai, Chuuya Age 14 (Edgelord Era),” these mini-episodes imagine the two as middle school second years deep in their chuuni period – in fact, the storyline opens with Chuuya writing cringey fiction about himself getting hit by Truck-kun and becoming a super awesome hero in another world. The best part about this plotline is that it feels one hundred percent believable that these two would have been this type of middle schooler. The way they try to out-cringe each other with their self-insert fiction and cool pose contests is all too easy to get behind…and maybe in another world, these two really are just kids making up badass powers like gravity manipulation and nullification while their teacher Randou worries about them from behind the scenes.

While most of the episodes focus on the Armed Detective Agency (and frequently feature Atsushi), both the Guild and the Port Mafia get their time in the sun, with a bonus appearance of Seishi Yokomizo and Mushitaro Oguri slipping in. One episode features the Guild's Lucy and the Agency's Kyoko attempting to bond, recognizing that they perhaps have more in common than a crush on Atsushi, while another addresses Francis' penchant for buying pots – and how sometimes sending him out shopping is the only possible way for Louisa to get anything done because the man is a clingy mess.

Art and animation are surprisingly very good for what feels like essentially a stopgap in between seasons of the main story. Characters are drawn with thick outlines and bright, solid colors, and movement, while clearly not as smooth as it could be, is fun to watch and uses shortcuts in pursuit of humor, such as a character flipping to change facial expressions as if they were a puppet. Although they don't appear as actual dogs very often, when the final credits of the last episode take care to tell us what breeds everyone is, you can, for the most part, recognize them. They also mostly fit their characters, although I personally wouldn't have put Dazai as a golden retriever, Chuuya very much has chihuahua energy, and Kyoko fits a toy poodle nicely. And the joke that Karl's breed is “raccoon” made me laugh harder than it really should have.

Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! is a fun escape from the world and a nice way to spend some time with the Bungo Stray Dogs cast. It won't have any impact on the main series, but sometimes you just need to see Akutagawa skipping along the waterfront with the rest of the Port Mafia trailing behind, or watch Dazai try to wrangle the rest of the cast as preschoolers. If that sounds like a good time to you, then I recommend checking this out.