Alternative titles
Overview
Bungo Stray Dogs is an action, mystery and supernatural anime produced by Bones, adapted from the manga by Kafka Asagiri (story) and Sango Harukawa (art), serialized in Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine since 4 December 2012. Season 1 has 12 episodes and began airing in April 2016, directed by Takuya Igarashi with scripts by Yōji Enokido and music by Taku Iwasaki. Its characters are named after real late-19th and early-20th-century writers such as Osamu Dazai, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
OtaHub's take
The protagonist is Atsushi Nakajima, who can turn into a tiger. After stopping a man from suicide, he joins the Armed Detective Agency, a group of detectives with special powers in Yokohama that handles cases too dangerous for the police and opposes the Port Mafia.
The anime continued with season 2 (6 October to 22 December 2016), an OVA (31 August 2017), the film Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (3 March 2018), season 3 (12 April to 28 June 2019), season 4 (4 January to 29 March 2023) and season 5 (12 July to 20 September 2023), for 61 episodes including the OVA. The comedy spin-off Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! began on 13 January 2021, and its second season aired from 2 July to 17 September 2026. The manga is still running, with 28 volumes as of 26 March 2026 and over 16 million copies in print by 2024; Yen Press publishes it in English in North America.
Verdict
Bungo Stray Dogs suits viewers who like superpower stories mixed with detective plots, a detective-versus-mafia rivalry, and curiosity about the writers behind the character names. Start with season 1, only 12 episodes, then continue in broadcast order.
