English Dub Review: Bungo Stray Dogs “At the Port in the Sky (Part 3)”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As Atsushi races to find Teruko, Kenji arrives to help Aya and Bram escape the airport.

Our Take:

Our little visit to the airport has come to a close as several separate teams race against the clock to escape their dilemmas alive. On one side, Dazai and Fyodor are placed in Nikolai’s sick game, competing to leave the highly-secured prison alive. But there’s a catch. They have to accomplish this task while being injected with a poisonous substance, and they can use anything they wish to their advantage. For Fyodor, he chooses a security door card capable of opening any door he wishes. However, it’s later revealed that Fyodor’s card allows him to control the vampiric Chuuya. On the other hand, Dazai chooses Nikolai’s partner, Sigma, much to everyone’s surprise.

The competition may seem fierce regarding the life-threatening stakes, but the characters played it out like it’s nothing. Nikolai makes more sense, considering his psychotic behavior in the previous seasons, as he announces the competition like he’s hosting a game show. However, Dazai seems to be the odd one of the bunch, as he happily dances with the annoyed Sigma before deciding to help him escape and find his sanctuary. The tone in Bungo Stray Dogs is undoubtedly intriguing because it provides quirkiness in its characters out of a threatening and dangerous scenario. This episode is unsurprisingly no exception, as they showcase the competitors enjoying themselves being in danger, much to my concern. It’s still periodically alienating for some, but it’s pretty humorous whenever it works well.   

Amid the prison break, the Detective Agency members, Atsushi and Kenji, finally got the chance to spring into action, as they were tasked with rescuing Aya and Bram. But, of course, they would have to get past the Hunting Dogs, Teruko and Tetcho, who are searching for their missing members, Jouno and Tachihara. Sadly, they didn’t know that Jouno and Tachihara became victims of Bram’s powers, thanks to Fukuchi. While Kenji shows off his incredible strength against Tetcho, Atsushi goes for the peaceful approach by showing Teruko a video of Tachihara explaining the Detective Agency’s innocence.  

Whether Atsushi’s plan to get Teruko on his side is unknown, as it ends on another cliffhanger with Kenji battling Tetcho, abruptly concluding the season’s three-part airport party. However, based on Teruko’s smirk, I assume things might not look well for the white tiger boy. I’ll never understand the point of needing to conclude this trilogy with a cliffhanger if the struggle in the airport is still occurring. Since I enjoyed the third part of “At the Port in the Sky”, the best thing I can do now is not to question it and see where the remaining episodes go from here.