Despite being a story about Atsushi, there is a lot more focus on side characters. The most interesting aspect of this story is that every character with an ability has the same name as a real life classical author and their ability is named after one of the authors famous works. As a result, watching this anime ended up with me reading classical literature to better understand the characters.

Books referenced in Bsd

I will be posting on this anime more often because I greatly enjoy it, but for now, if you want, here’s a analysis of F. Scott. Fitzgerald and how this ties into The Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald in bsd

First, before we begin to start breaking down what Fitzgerald’s character is like, I just want to talk a bit about his character in my own opinion.

Fitzgerald in the story serves as a temporary antagonist for one arc, when he ran the Guild, before he becomes a bit of an anti-hero. He starts of as some stereotypical moneyman, who think everything is purchasable and is a big fan of capitalism, despite being a previous vicitm of it. He tries to get the book in Yokohama, one that can change reality, in order to revive his dead daughter. Also, his wife has a mental illness and believes that their daughter is still studying in London. His ability is called the Great Fitzgerald, and is a reference to the authors work, the Great Gatsby.

I am physically incapable of disliking any characters in this show, especially when their each so well written and connected to their real life counterparts. Fitzgerald, is, in a sense, a sort of tragic character, and I find him funny, but a bit of a dreamer, like his wife. He really does try to make the best out of what he has, and I think he’s a nice change of the typical Japanese “American richboy”.

BSD does a wonderful job of tying the authors work to the character of the author. For example, F. Scott. Fitzgerald is clearly based off of Jay Gatsby. He’s a rich socialite with powerful connections, though much have his money has come from unconventional means. Here, his American dream is to revive his dead daughter and make his wife, Zelda (the name of real life Fitzgeralds wife), delusions real.

This is similar to how Jay Gatsby’s American dream was also to make the woman he liked, happy, even though it was all fake. And in similar senses, once Fitzgerald/Gatsby lost their wealth, they lost basically everything else they had. They sold their soul for the American dream and got nothing.

The difference here is that this show is called Bungo Stray Dogs, not The Great Gatsby – A Remake. Here, the BSD author, Kafka Asagiri, challenges a theme prevalent in the Great Gatsby, that money if more valued than morality, by giving Fitzgerald a redemption arc.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

– Jay Gatsby

This quote surmises how everyone can’t escape their roots and will repeat the past, which is just a really demoralizing idea to tell the readers overall.

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.”

– Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby

Here, Nick is talking about the vanity of the American dream. Once again, a very bleak theme that Asagiri didn’t bother to delve into to much characters outside of the American ones, but I find it interesting nonetheless. Fitzgerald I would say, is one of the characters still trapped in the American dream, despite it seeming like he had his happy ending. Not to mention, us readers know that there’s a very high change that his dream is futile and will never happen, which makes his character a rather tragic one. But hey, at least he got to beat up Tom Buchanan.

A couple of other characters that I feel like resonate to this quote well is Margaret Mitchell, based on the real life author of Gone With the Wind, which is her ability in the show. She had little to no screen time, but it is safe to say that she is pursuing her American dream. She joins Fitzgerald’s Guild in order to restore her families honor (somehow) and ends up suffering near fatal wounds and is now in a vegetated state.

There’s also a couple more guild characters worth mentioning, like Nathaniel Hawthorne, but most of them have enough involvement in the story to deserve their own analysis.

Lastly, I think that Fitzgerald is a direct foil to Fukuzawa, the president of the agency Atsushi joins. Seriously, lets compare them.

Fukuzawa

Grew up in a fairly well-off country.

Fights with a katana, is a traditional fighter who dresses like he’s in the wrong era.

Isn’t wealthy, doesn’t want to be.

Runs the Armed Detective Agency. His members respect him.

Made money off of killing, but quit for personal reasons.

ISTJ

Fitzgerald

Grew up in poverty.

Fights with fists and guns.

Is wealthy, want’s to be. Originally (and maybe a little bit still) believes most peoples value comes from their money.

Runs the Guild. Most members hate him.

Made money by being a child worker, but turned to illegal things (murder) for more money.

ESFJ

Thats all, thanks for reading all the way here!

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