English Dub Review: Bungo Stray Dogs “Tragic Sunday”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Detective Agency received an urgent request from the government to investigate a series of murders perpetrated by the same culprit.

Our Take:

Sundays can be tragic since it’s the end of a work-free weekend. However, for the Armed Detective Agency, they can be straight-up murderous. I mean that in a literal sense because the gang has another murder case to solve in this week’s thrilling episode of Bungo Stray Dogs. This time, they’re investigating a series of mysteries that only one suspect causes.

That suspect is Nikolai, the psychotic member of the mysterious Decay of Angels who’s last seen capturing Mushitaro in the previous episode. At first, I thought Mushitaro died at the hands of Nikolai. However, it turns out that Mushitaro is tied up in a room somewhere, looking all bloodied up. So it seems like he gets to live another day, although I’m not sure if he’ll return to the life of crime following that incident.

“Tragic Sunday” also brings back the entire Armed Detective Agency together for a murder mystery that causes the group’s downfall, as prophesied by Mushitaro. That includes the series’ main character Atsushi Nakajima (Max Mittelman), who helps the agency rescue the captured government leaders from Nikolai. With the entire team back under one roof after the last few episodes involving Ranpo, the rest of the season should become a test for me to keep track of its lore, let alone memorize the characters.

The episode also reveals more information about this horrible organization that connects to the previous chapters. For example, the letter “V” that Ranpo and Fukuzawa discovered in the past is actually a roman numeral for five, meaning there are five members of the Decay of Angels. The group is also based on the five death omens of an angel, which explains the violent and disturbing deaths of their victims. But that’s not the worst part. Nikolai also contained a page of a unique book that allows the possessor to transform what is written into reality.

Thanks to that page, Nikolai succeeded in framing the Detective Agency for the murders of the government leaders and himself. I can see this conclusion being a shocking turn of events for those following the show from the beginning to that point. However, I didn’t receive that same amount of surprise as the fans, but it got me interested in seeing how the agency would get out of this situation. Aside from a couple of convoluted moments, “Tragic Sunday” offers exactly what the title suggests: a tragic and violent beginning of the end of the Armed Detective Agency.