The Angels
Episode 2 of Bungo Stray Dogs season 4 ‘The Day is a Dream, The Night is Reality’ starts off with a play about Angels and ability users. Fukuzawa notices someone suspicious with a cane in the audience while Ranpo is annoyed that he is the only one who seems to see the obvious as he easily points out that the murderer is on stage. Following Ranpo’s breakdown, Fukuzawa takes him out during intermission and tells him about the time he was the samurai known as King’s Blade that worked for the government. He tells Ranpo that no one could decipher this except him and this is because he has a special power aka an ability. Fukuzawa tells Ranpo that he will teach him to control his ability and activate it only through glasses. Ranpo is confused and scared but Fukuzawa tells him that the rest of the world does not hate him but that they are like babies and is up to him to take care of them as they cannot see what he sees. Ranpo is happy that nothing is wrong with him and he goes back to his cheerful self as he resumes solving the case and asks Fukuzawa to take care of the audience while he disappears. The world goes from greyscale to colour as Ranpo regains his self-confidence. The play resumes and in the middle of a monologue, Murakami, the actor is killed. But Fukuzawa cannot find a murder weapon and believes that an ability user was the murderer. When the police come in, they notice that the suspicious man with a cane has disappeared. The theatre owner pulls Fukuzawa aside and tells him that Ranpo told her that there are two culprits. Everyone goes back to their seats and Ranpo appears on stage to give a dramatic speech. He tells everyone that it is a play about reversals, and reveals the suspicious man as the victim as he is hidden and tied up. Ranpo claims that the murder never happened and Murakami stands up. Murakami and the scriptwriter faked his murder as he wanted to create the greatest performance with a real and genuine death. Ranpo tells him that his stunt did not impress his audience but scared them. Murakami is disappointed. Fukuzawa meets up with Ranpo who is impressed with his glasses. The police ask them to come to the station to give their statements but Ranpo flexes that he has nothing to say as he used his ability. An exasperated Fukuzawa finally tells him that he didn’t use any ability but simply observed and deduced the truth. Ranpo doesn’t believe him and he banters with the police. While he goes with the police to the station, Fukuzawa asks Murakami who the bound man was. Murakami tells him that the writer, Kurahashi told him that the man was important for the whole scheme and that he barely comes outside. At that moment, a staff member comes running and informs that the writer is dead in a locked room with a blade and that there was no struggle. Meanwhile, in the police car, Ranpo asks the driver how long it will take for them to reach the station. The driver gives a sinister smile and tells him they will be there soon.
The Episode Preview
It’s funny to see that the present Ranpo’s overconfidence is all thanks to Fukuzawa teaching him how to come to terms with his ‘ability’. He goes from the strange boy who no one understood to the ‘greatest detective in the world’ as coined by Fukuzawa and believes that he has an ability which is what makes him different from everyone else. We also see traces of the current Fukuzawa as he wonders what he got himself into as a now cocky Ranpo keeps boasting about his ability in front of him. The Angel play definitely foreshadows the Decay of the Angels story arc we are promised in the season 4 trailer. The suspicious man with the cane is also seen in the opening credits of the anime and looks suspiciously familiar (re-watch season 3 if you don’t remember his cameo). It looks like V used Murakami and the writer to kidnap the man with the cane and they are a powerful organization as they even have the police in their pocket.
