Bungou Stray Dogs 4th Season – First Impression

4 years later, we finally got the much-awaited 4th season of Bungou Stray Dogs. The first 2 episodes have a monochrome color scheme; indicating the flashback of the titular character and with some occasional colored highlights; indicating the subcontext e.g., blue meaning suspense, red meaning danger, etc. It also means that we were looking from someone’s perspective who only sees everything as black & white. It becomes clear halfway through episode 2. The series has several characters, some of which are yet to be explored. I’m glad to see this season focusing on the origin of the Armed Detective Agency right from the get-go.

The main two characters have the perfect chemistry that sets the playing field: the brawn & the brain. The contrast is also seen in their demeanor & appearance: one is older, serious & uptight, the other one is younger & carefree. Some other characters are introduced that I think would recur later since some stood out. Since season 3 ended with

The animation is great as usual. Every scene feels lively & fresh thanks to the animators at Studio Bones. The fight scenes that lasted for a few moments were great & very well-choreographed. Even the dialogue felt interesting & definitely not monotonous. The opening theme felt like it was specially made for the flashback episodes, just like seasons 2 & 3. After this when we’ll be back to the present day, new OP featuring the main characters will be played.

The English dub of episode 1 was aired this Tuesday and I hope it continues. Both Japanese & English dubs are very good and showed voice acting talents.

I am looking forward to this. It’s one of my top recommendations. Very few anime manages to stand out and this is one of them. It’s not just the animation quality or the literary references, it’s everything. Bungou Stray Dogs have interesting characters, intriguing villains, great visuals, talented voice acting and a well-written story that has suspense, mystery & action.