Dazai Osamu from Bungo Stray Dogs is a man who’s been there, done that, and tried to punch his ticket out more times than he can tally. His numerous suicide attempts are a running joke in the series, leaving you to wonder if he’s just become so jaded with life that he’s over it all.
From being a mafia wunderkind to a top-notch detective, Dazai’s past is as twisted as a pretzel. Orphaned young, he was scooped up by the Port Mafia and groomed into a cold-blooded assassin. Even as a kid, his genius shone through, rocketing him up the mafia ranks to become one of their prized assets. But, somewhere along the line, he had a change of heart and jumped ship to join the Armed Detective Agency, where he now fights crime and shields the innocent.
So, How Old is Dazai in Bungo Stray Dogs Anyway?
In the current Bungo Stray Dogs timeline, Dazai is a spry 22 years old. However, his age bounces around in the various arcs that delve into his backstory. In the “Fifteen Arc,” he’s a precocious teen just starting out in the Port Mafia. Zoom forward to the “Dark Era Arc,” and he’s in his late teens to early 20s, navigating a complicated relationship with Oda Sakunosuke, a fellow mafia member with dreams of peaceful novel-writing. Oda’s influence is pivotal in reshaping Dazai’s views on life and morality. By 20, Dazai has kissed the mafia goodbye and signed up with the Armed Detective Agency. At 22, he’s a bit more settled, though still delightfully unconventional, wrestling with his existential musings and quirky habits.
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Interestingly, the fictional Dazai Osamu is inspired by a real-life author of the same name. Born in 1909, the actual Dazai Osamu was a heavyweight in the Japanese literary scene, famed for his trailblazing and often contentious works that tackled themes of alienation, despair, and the human condition. He battled drug addiction, depression, and had his own series of botched suicide attempts. His writings, including No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, are semi-autobiographical, steeped in his own experiences and internal struggles.
Tragically, the real Dazai’s story ended in 1948 when he drowned himself in the Tamagawa Canal in Tokyo at 38. The fictional Dazai nods to his real-life counterpart right in the first episode of Bungo Stray Dogs, where we see him attempting to drown himself in a river.
