Bsd Chapter 118 - Tumblr Posts

Bro thinks he's a model

Ok, why does that pen look so fancy?

Guys what if Naomi is related to a character that we already know? What if she's connected with the book somehow? What if she's connected with Fyodor? (If that so, I will literally cry)

Shit dude at this point atsushis gonna be the only option for the transfer

see how i cry over fictional characters? very demure very mindful!!

this is what the newest bsd chapter does to a person!! (i can’t do this yall.) i hate you asagiri RAHHHH

atsushi is actually going to experience so much ptsd from this point on in the manga omg. why is bsd getting the jjk treatment wtf💀 like, was this here not a ptsd attack?

Fydor: Yukichi Fukuzawa, where have you buried all your employees? Tell me so I say

G'enchiro Fukuchi, Where have you buried all your dogs? Tell me so I say

Talking about the past of Fukuchi during the war: All the lives that you've stolen

Split in half, now bum and broken

Like your heart that was so eager to be hid

Talking about Mori, Dazai and Kyoka: He can't keep them all caged

They will fight and run away

Dazai and Kyoka to Mori: Mori, tell us so we say

Fydor: G'enchiro Fukuchi, where have you buried all your dogs? Tell me so I say

Fydor: Fukuzawa yukichi, Where have you buried all your employees? Tell me so I say

Fydor talking about Fukuzawa past as an assassin: Forest walls and starry ceilings

Barren memories that you're weaving

Like the fears that you keep inside your head

Talking about the agency: You can't keep them all safe

Talking about Kunikida, Tanizaki, Kenji and Atsushi: They will die and be afraid

Ranpo: Father, tell me so I say

The agency:(President, tell us so we say)

Fukuzawa: Amenogozen, where have you buried all my employees? Tell me so I say

Fydor Dostoevsky, where have you buried all my employees? Tell me, so I say

Amenogozen, where have you buried all my children? Tell me so I say

Fydor Dostoevsky, where have you buried all my children? Tell me, so I say

The agency: (Tell us, so we say!)

Fydor : you can't keep them all safe

They'll be far and fly away

The agency: President, tell us you will stay

We'll be far and fly away

I wanted so bad to do an animation with this song for the latest chapter, but I suck at drawing.

Anyway, I just didn't expect how the chapter went, but I it makes me scared.

Some things my brother said when we were talking about BSD Part 1

Yes,the world is ending, and I don't think that Akutagawa and is new ✨ SHINY ✨ suit would be enough.

All of this mess could be resolved if Verlaine would stop being a hikikomori and go to save the day

But, if Fydor get killed by a bear, he would become a bear with Dostoevsky face?

A lot of bsd characters have natural hair... but I'm sure Mori is dyeing his because he looks too old to still having so much black hair.

Update guys i think we need to start worrying more 😰 i didnt see him again. we didnt see no nikolai, we didnt get a check in with Soukoku so lets hope theyre okay MENTALLY at the very least. everything sucks and im worried 😔

Why is nobody talking abt how ranpo is unaccounted for again? Hes just.....gone? Like...he was there now hes not-?

Ive got the link for the bsd chapter,

i’m so scared

I wonder if I will ever see Tetchou again

FREAKING OUT,

last night I was simply too busy to read the new bsd, and technically I am today as well. But we’re going to find a way.

ANYTHING for heartbreak

An incomprehensive series of my reactions on the latest chapter, presented to you by raddestrose. Please, enjoy

WOHOo, twas an illusion

“there’s one thing I ask you”… TANIZAKI NOOOO, you have sealed your fate with those words

WHAhshahshhs, HUUU, throufh the eye- YO BRUTAL

My reaction too Atsushi

YOU Have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME,

you’d say were reading the hunger games or jjk with the pace everyone is dying.

Did he just slurp him up? like literally- not an innuendo

YEAAAHHH- NOOOOO GET OUT OF THERE YOU WILL DIE

Kenji, Tetcho, I can’t lose you both too,

NOOOOOOO, hes just a baby- brooooooo

He done shattered the poor boy,

AHHHHHHHHHHH

DOSTOEVSKY EXPLAIN

So, turns out that WAS the end of me,

I am no longer the same person I was merely twenty minutes ago m, but a shell of that person

And im going to do my darnedest to read erha sometime today and make it worse

LETS GOOOOO

Lucy in Chapter 118: an Analysis 🫧

Hooo boy

Chapter one-eighteen. Where do I even 𝓫𝓮𝓰𝓲𝓷?

Unlike a lot of folks in this fandom (all more imaginative than I could ever hope to be, lol), I had basically no solid predictions for this chapter (or… any chapter thus far, really, and I've been following the manga religiously since 103, so… yeah, there's a reason I'm a BSD analyst, not theorist, lmao).

Needless to say, this chapter is heartbreak and bombshells galore: Tanizaki and Kenji’s apparent Ame-no-Gozen-ing, the possibility that all of those “Jun'ichirō and Naomi aren't really siblings” theories were just proven dead right, the protagonist and villain finally meeting because it's about goddamn time, so on and so forth.

But because a) the fanbase is already abuzz with talk about those things + no doubt already in the process of doing them analytical justice, and b) I'm annoying, I’ve decided to dissect the ever-loving hell out of the chapter’s three most innocuous pages: this interaction between Kyōka Izumi and Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Inhales

MY GIRLS ARE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

Does a little jig 🎶

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system

No, but seriously. We haven't seen Kyōka in person since chapter 91. Three whole years; definitely too long for a character of her importance. But Lucy… Lucy’s been out of the picture since chapter 81. That’s four whole years. So in other words, two significant female characters, sidelined for ages, are back. That’s kind of huge, IMO.

Of course, we have a vague idea of what they’ve been up to. Given Anne's Room has more than once been shown serving as the ADA’s safe haven and base of operations, per the rules of AOAR, Lucy must be nearby if not inside herself – and Kyōka we see in silhouette form in Anne's Room in chapter 92. But this is the first time in a hot minute we've seen either of them in the flesh, let alone gotten dialogue out of them. I nearly choked on my cereal when I turned the page and saw their faces, lol.

So then, pray tell, what does this long-awaited appearance in the flesh entail? Well…

Lucy and Kyōka:

Right off the bat, the two girls are seen in Anne’s Room (where they’ve ostensibly been this whole time), standing in front of the white door (i.e., the door opposite the prison, which – unless linked to a surface in the real world – will cause those who leave through it to experience amnesia. Not relevant to the scene, just thought I should give a refresher.) The exit is blocked by rubble; the airport, as well as the surrounding buildings, have all been devastated. How to leave Anne's Room at this point is anyone’s guess.

Kyōka suggests Lucy deactivate her ability, but Lucy points out that, chances are, they'll be flattened by rubble as soon as she does. In response, Kyōka does her signature knife-unsheathing and insists, rather ominously, that they'll just have to take a gamble then. Lucy grabs her wrist and tells her to stop, and upon being asked why, she replies solemnly, “Because… if you died… it would crush him,” this followed by a picture of Atsushi’s smiling face.

YES. YES. YES.

Now THIS is what I love about Lucy and Kyōka’s dynamic.

In essence, they're rivals. Thing is, they're not your generic “two girls fighting over the same guy” rivals. Kyōka’s feelings toward Atsushi aren’t even romantically-coded.

Their shared love for Atsushi doesn’t divide them; it unites them. After all, since the Guild Aftermath arc, the “rivalry” aspect of their relationship has had almost nothing to do with him. There, they were only at each other’s throats because Kyōka didn’t like how Lucy, still angry about the Moby Dick, was treating Atsushi, and Lucy didn’t like how Kyōka was standing in the way of her talking things out properly with him.

But once a much-needed heart-to-heart was had at the docks and Lucy officially turned over a new leaf, there was no longer any reason for her and Kyōka to bicker. Kyōka didn’t have the full context of Lucy’s actions, and was thus within her rights to suspect that she couldn’t be trusted, but Lucy proved that she could be when she led them to the right boat.

Later on, Lucy showed that she wasn’t holding any grudges when she advocated for Kyōka, forcing Atsushi to leave her to her thoughts upon learning the truth of her parents' deaths.

The next chapter, Kyōka calls Lucy’s coffee mediocre, but Lucy herself admitted that she's not much of a barista, and so Kyōka’s criticism is really just her not mincing words. What’s more, Lucy is offended at first, but then concedes without any real hostility.

In the Cannibalism arc, Kyōka is shown bowing politely to Lucy while enlisting her help, even if she is just following Atsushi's lead (and later does the same for Mushitarō).

Fast forward to the Sky Casino arc, Kyōka is miffed by Lucy’s hot-and-cold behavior around Atsushi, but that’s not exactly unique to her...

... and moreover, they agree without resistance to work together to infiltrate the casino. In chapter 81, i.e., the last we saw of Lucy until now, the Agency reunites and Lucy encourages Kyōka to join in on the celebration.

Perhaps most notable is that, in chapter 78, the two are lumped into the same category by Ango; he recognizes them both as people who would choose Atsushi over the good of the world, and this nearly drives him to kill them on the spot for fear of what their loyalty could turn into.

In this chapter, however, it’s underscored that, while Lucy and Kyōka may be the same in their care for Atsushi on the surface, they’re still, at the end of the day, foil characters.

Both are orphans. Both were taken in – and subsequently exploited – by criminal organizations for their abilities. Both found their place in the story by virtue of meeting Atsushi. Both are undyingly loyal to Atsushi because of what he’s done for them. But that’s about where their similarities end.

Kyōka was introduced as a remorseful killer seeking atonement by death. Atsushi managed to save her (twice, for that matter) in the conventional hero way, cementing himself as her savior and playing into the reckless heroism by which he determines his worth.

Lucy, on the other hand, was introduced as a bitter villain who believed she was justified in lashing out. Atsushi tried, but he couldn’t save her in the traditional hero way. Only his vulnerability managed to get through to her, and if anything, Lucy saved him. This utterly subverted the philosophy by which Atsushi had begun to define both himself and his relationships.

Since then, Lucy has been trying at every turn to get Atsushi to see himself as more than just a hero. She reprimands him for his reckless heroism when she sees it. She stops him from inserting himself into other people’s plights uninvited. She confronts him when he fails to understand his relationships beyond the framework of hero and savior. Kyōka, meanwhile, has been doing more or less the opposite; she’s passively allowed Atsushi to keep playing the perpetual hero, and this wouldn’t be the first time she’s taken on his philosophy of self-sacrifice herself.

To these ends, the girls’ thought processes here are perfectly in line for them: Kyōka tries to push forward without care for what could happen to her, whereas Lucy emphasizes self-preservation.

One might perceive Lucy replying the way she does to Kyōka’s question as callous, but I don’t really think so. She isn’t saying “the only reason you shouldn’t risk your life is because it would make Atsushi sad.” She’s applying her philosophy of self-preservation to Atsushi and Kyōka at the same time. She's encouraging Kyōka to be more than just a hero by telling her to think of how it would affect Atsushi as a person if she died.

If Lucy is good at anything, it’s communicating what she wants from people in a way that she knows will get through to them. She did this with Atsushi on the Moby Dick when she bluffed about waiting on his salvation, knowing that he would be more motivated to stay alive himself if he thought there was someone counting on him to save them. Here, she communicates with Kyōka in a way that highlights the reason they get along; the reason they’re both here in the first place. And if the way Kyōka resheathes her knife without a word is any indication, it works.

Lucy knows that she and Atsushi are close, but she knows that Kyōka and Atsushi are closer; losing her would be the last straw for him. She recognizes their relationship as something beyond hero and savior, something precious. This is nothing out-of-character; to the contrary, it’s in keeping with who she’s been all along. All that’s different now is she’s acknowledging it out loud.

Lucy and Atsushi:

When Lucy pictures Atsushi in her mind’s eye, she sees the spirit that would undoubtedly be broken if he were to lose Kyōka. This in and of itself is heartbreaking, but when you consider the greater implications, well…

In the Sky Casino arc, a huge breakthrough was made in Atsushi and Lucy’s relationship: her elusive “impossible” debt to him was finally repaid, though not in the way you'd expect.

At the time, all Lucy felt she could give in return for Atsushi’s turning her life around was conventional heroism – or in other words, many a close call and many a trip to Anne’s Room. This conventional heroism was a worthless currency in her mind – it wasn’t the kind that saved her, after all – but on the other hand, the vulnerability she so valued in its stead she wasn’t capable of giving; where she came from, being vulnerable was a death sentence, after all. Because of this, how she could ever come close to repaying Atsushi’s ultimate favor was a mystery unto itself. All she knew was that she had to do it one way or another, and that’s where her most glaring flaw – her quid-pro-quo mindset – came into play, eventually driving her so far as to override her own philosophy and embody the reckless hero she so discouraged Atsushi from being.

But when Atsushi saved her from Nathaniel – thereby repaying her for her acts of service as he’d promised so many times he would – she realized that, just as her care for Atsushi doesn’t depend on his being a hero, Atsushi's care for her doesn’t depend on her being vulnerable. The illusion was shattered.

From this point forward, Lucy is no longer helping Atsushi out of a sense of indebtedness. She's doing it because she wants to. Because she truly, genuinely cares. Not the artificial kind of care that comes with repaying a debt, but the care that she showcases when she stays by Atsushi’s side after he faints, pressing a cold towel to his face. The kind of care that involves refusing to hurt Atsushi in any way, even to jog potentially vital memories.

Lucy considering what Kyōka’s death would do to Atsushi’s psyche is a perfect continuation of this new leaf she’s turned over, but it also goes to show that her shared arc with Atsushi is far from finished.

Lucy’s character development has always been structured in a rather unique way: each arc she’s appeared in has worked either to establish or address her current most glaring flaw, more often than not in unexpected ways. Her appearance in the first half of the Guild arc established her villainous façade being just that – a façade – by having it crumble as she realized the kind of person she was up against in Atsushi. The second half addressed her unhealthy attachment to the Guild by having Atsushi dissuade her from villainy via empathy. The Guild Aftermath arc added the finishing touch to all of this – the last little push needed to propel Lucy into her new role – by addressing her and Atsushi’s “promise” on the Moby Dick. The Cannibalism arc subtly established her quid-pro-quo mindset, which the Sky Casino arc would then go on to address.

Another great subversion of the tropes usually involved in these dynamics is that, despite Lucy being the closest thing to Atsushi’s “love interest,” only he's managed to bolster her development, not the other way around. This isn’t for lack of trying, of course; Lucy tries. But Atsushi is a tough nut to crack. The fact that she’s still, nearly fifteen chapters later, trying to steer Atsushi toward personhood instead of heroism – albeit indirectly – is testament to this.

If she could reach him now, she’d no doubt be trying even still. She’d be conveying to him that none of his friends’ deaths so far has been his fault – that he can’t be expected to carry the burden of hero to all when the world is going to hell in a handbasket. But she can’t reach him. She’s trapped, and so is Kyōka. Thus is the cruel irony.

Anne's Room:

Anne of Abyssal Red has played a key role in pretty much everything plot-related up to this point. It’s only appropriate, then, that its owner finally appearing alongside it would give it all the more significance.

Lucy’s last line in this chapter is as follows: “So the enemy… even took this into account.” She’s right; Fyodor had countermeasures against her ability. That said, I don’t think this is attributable solely to Fyodor being, well… Fyodor.

AOAR is in the same ballpark narrative-wise as, say, For The Tainted Sorrow in that it’s overpowered to the point of detriment. It’s Lucy’s playground; the product of an imagination run wild due to crippling loneliness. This in and of itself is scary. A power having rules that malleable is automatically dangerous, because it means that, while its wielder can bend and exploit said rules, so can an enemy. In both major fights Lucy has been a part of, the rules of Anne’s Room being molded to favor her opponent has spelled either victory or loss on her end: Atsushi used the prison room loophole against her, and she indirectly used the transportation loophole against Nathaniel. Hell, her capture by the Guild following her betrayal was thanks to the loophole that, while Anne couldn’t be defeated, she could be restrained.

So basically, for as powerful as AOAR is, underneath that power is a shaky foundation. Power doesn’t always mean stability, and this is underscored by the fact that, at the end of the day, Anne is only infallible in terms of strength; she could only do so much to alleviate Lucy’s loneliness growing up (which is honestly a pretty clever mirror to her conflict of strength vs. vulnerability with Atsushi.)

With Anne’s Room nullified by Fyodor, Lucy has truly nothing at her disposal. She's not physically strong (she’s 165 cm and 44 kg, so… yeah ˙◠˙), and while by no means stupid, she doesn’t repeatedly say in this chapter that she doesn’t know what to do next for no reason. Anne’s Room is all she’s ever had. While at the orphanage, it was her only comfort. While in the Guild, it was her only value. With Atsushi, it was all she had to offer in return for his ultimate favor.

This, I feel, could be the establishing point for the next portion of her arc. She could strive to find a way out of the rubble, working together with Kyōka, and in the process learn to break away from her ability as what defines her role in all of this. One thing's for sure: something has to be done sooner or later, otherwise, they'll starve.

I dunno, maybe that’s wishful thinking given how much is already going on. But either way, I’ll hope against hope that this isn’t some one-off return, because Lucy has proven time and time again that she has a lot to offer to the story, both plot-wise and thematically.

I've come across a few theories suggesting that Lucy is being intentionally dishonest about the rules of Anne's Room to stop Kyōka from joining the fight, and ngl, as valid as these are, I kind of disagree.

The main thing the theories seem to stem from is confusion about how AOAR’s transportation system works – or in other words, why Lucy is insisting they’ll be crushed by rubble if she releases her ability when before it was shown that those she transports out of Anne’s Room don’t necessarily have to reappear in the same place they were transported from.

While I agree that this is puzzling, I feel inclined to take an Occam’s Razor approach and attribute it to the pre-established proximity rule: just as Lucy can only transport people or things she’s in close proximity to, she can only make them reappear near where Anne’s Room has been deployed. And so in this scenario, where there’s no way of knowing how much of the surrounding area is rubble, reappearing would be taking a major risk no matter what.

Loopholes are a feature of Anne of Abyssal Red, not a bug (in keeping with its “imagination incarnate” theme), and most inconsistencies in the rules can be explained by them. For example, while Lucy can't change the spatial location of Anne’s Room once it’s already been deployed (if she could, the Guild probably wouldn’t have been able to capture her on the Moby Dick +  it’s indicated in chapter 71 that she can deploy it around her body instead of a location, but only so long as she herself remains outside)...

... she can at any time alter the conditions of the exit door. It was, after all, implied that her linking the door to the Moby Dick’s outer wall was what allowed Atsushi to keep his memories.

What’s more, in chapter 33, it’s revealed that Anne, while indeed undefeatable, can be restrained, and in 77, we learn that an enemy can transport themselves along with a target if they attach something physical to them beforehand. What Lucy can and can't do with loopholes is what makes her ability so versatile.

But aside from the ability aspect, a more obvious sign that she's being honest is her dialogue in the last panel. Why would she remark, worried expression and all, that the enemy accounted for Anne's Room if she were lying to Kyōka about what Anne's Room actually does?

I take both this and the fact that she replies “I don’t know” to Kyōka asking what can be done less as her trying to throw Kyōka off and more as the story underscoring just how helpless she is with Anne’s Room nullified. One because the former would be kind of pointless (more on that below), and two because not knowing things is far from out-of-character for Lucy, lol

Granted, lying for a good reason isn’t out-of-character for her, either. All the way back on the Moby Dick, she lied about waiting on Atsushi’s salvation, knowing that he would be more motivated to stay alive himself if he thought there was someone counting on him to save them. This situation with Kyōka feels a bit different, though. She's upfront with her about why she doesn't want her risking her life, something that would be rendered meaningless by her lying about their situation. Why be simultaneously honest about wanting Kyōka to show self-preservation in the face of danger and dishonest about there being danger to begin with? They're conflicting tactics.

The only slight manipulation I believe Lucy is employing is – again, like with Atsushi on the MB – touching on their shared love for Atsushi, i.e., deliberately communicating with Kyōka in a way she knows will get through to her. But if anything, that just makes it more doubtful that she's lying. Again, why would she make such an effort to dissuade Kyōka from risking her life if she could just further reinforce a lie about escape being impossible instead?

Don’t get me wrong, I do think Lucy is trying to protect Kyōka, but I also think it goes a little deeper than that. I went more in-depth about this in my previous post about them, but basically – in keeping with who Lucy has been from the start – she’s applying her philosophy of personhood > heroism to Kyōka and Atsushi at the same time. She’s encouraging Kyōka to be more than just a hero by telling her to think of how it would affect Atsushi as a person if she died. I don’t think this would have nearly as much impact if she were additionally using underhanded tactics.

No disrespect to any hardworking BSD theorists, ofc – y’all rock – I’m just not so sure about this one.

what.. I've read three pages of the new chapter and... what..