English Dub Review: Bungo Stray Dogs “In Lament of My Wingless Body”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Tanizaki, Miyazawa, and Yosano head to the site where Yosano is scheduled to be handed off to the Port Mafia.

Our Take:  

It’s pretty clear that Yosano had one of the most traumatic experiences in anime history in last week’s episode. But from my critical perspective, it made “A Dream of Butterflies” the most emotional episode of the show’s fourth season. Of course, I’m reminding you again that this is my first experience watching Bungo Stray Dogs, so the fact that the previous episode got me emotionally connected to one of the characters was quite impressive. With just four more episodes remaining, the supernatural mystery series hopes to keep the momentum going to close this high-stakes case successfully.

The tenth episode of season four occurs after “A Dream of Butterflies”. After sharing her traumatic backstory with Tanizaki and Miyazawa, Yosano heads to the site to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her agency family. In case you forgot, Yosano is chosen to rejoin the Port Mafia so that the mafia can help the Armed Detective Agency in their quest to clear their names. Although, it turns out that the transaction is unsurprisingly an ambush set up by the Hunting Dogs when an ambulance carrying Atsushi and Margaret explodes in front of them.

Thankfully, we later discovered that the exploded ambulance was just a regular one, as Atsushi, Kyoka, and Margaret remained unharmed in another vehicle. This gave Yosano time to reunite with the members and heal Margaret with her ability. However, even with Margaret in good condition, our troubles are far from over, with the Hunting Dogs’ fifth member finally arriving from the shadows to show the agency no mercy.

This episode doesn’t slow down with the tension and danger surrounding the characters, with the Hunting Dogs’ mysterious member being the example. He can manipulate metal like Magneto from X-Men and uses it to wound Kenji and kills one of the Port Mafia’s members. However, his only target is Yosano, as they share a connection with each other due to the member having possession of a pendant that once belonged to a late soldier from Yosano’s past. This moment comes full circle with Yosano’s backstory, with Yosano willing to sacrifice herself to face her past sins and save the agency.

While “In Lament of My Wingless Body” wasn’t as emotional as the previous episode, it continues to provide some intrigue and thrilling stakes for the characters, mainly Yosano, amid my struggle to keep up with its lore. What sealed the deal for me was the reveal of the Hunting Dogs’ fifth member, Michizo Tachihara, who went undercover as a Port Mafia member to seek revenge against Yosano for his older brother’s death. It turns out that the soldier who died in front of Yosano is actually Tachihara’s older brother. With Yosano’s fate being unknown at this point, this surprising revelation could spell even more trouble for the agency and even the Port Mafia.