Summary
Episode 9 boldly chooses to deviate from the action, only to deliver one of the most interesting backstories of the series thus far.
We recap the Crunchyroll anime series Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4 Episode 9, “A Dream of Butterflies,” which contains spoilers.
Atsushi (Yuto Uemura) sought help from a familiar foe last week with mixed results. While Francis may be able to help The Armed Detective Agency, it doesn’t come without a price. However, Francis isn’t the only person who wants access to Yosano’s abilities, with Mori of the Port Mafia also trying to poach her. With the Armed Detective Agency making so many deals for their freedom, it will be interesting to see what happens when it’s time to start paying up.
Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4 Episode 9 Recap
The episode opens with Tanizaki and Miyazawa confronting Yosano on her way to fulfill Fitzgerald’s request, even though it could be a trap. Tanizaki then volunteers to take her place in the Port Mafia if she tells him what happened between her and Mori.
Fourteen years prior, toward the end of the Great War, an 11-year-old Yosano worked as s student medic on the battlefield under Mori. She used her ability to bring soldiers back from death so they could continue fighting with nothing holding them back.
One grateful soldier, in particular, gifts Yosano her signature golden butterfly clip to thank her, calling her an “angel” as he does. He then tells her abilities are changing how war is fought, citing her as an example. It seems Mori brought her there to try to create an “immortal regiment” for battle.
What does the soldier show Yosano?
Later that evening, the same soldier is brought back to life after dying in an explosion. When he wakes, she admits that although she can heal their bodies, she cannot heal their minds from the trauma of what has happened to them and says she is no angel. However, the soldier says that is untrue and pulls out a chain, where he tallies the number of times Yosano has saved his life.
Over time, the war only worsens, with Yosano describing their side as being “brutalized.” She goes from treating soldiers every three days to treating them three times a day. After seeing what this does to them, she refuses to treat them again, hoping their injuries will remove them from battle instead.
Yosano refuses to heal the soldiers, so Mori tries to explain that their abilities are changing the war and that the nation will fall without her. When Yosano continues to say no, only wanting to save the men before her, Mori shoots the soldier she had befriended, forcing her to save his life.
READ: Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4 Review
As the war drags on, the soldiers begin to grow more unstable. Yosano says that usually, when half a unit’s soldiers are too injured to continue, they would retreat. Still, she denied them that human right with her ability, forcing the soldiers to fight and die daily for a war they are losing. After one of the soldier’s attacks and tries to kill Yosano, she notices that her butterfly hairpin is missing. As she looks for it, the soldier she befriended uses the ship’s communications system to speak with her, prompting Yosano to run to his room.
What nickname does the soldier give Yosano?
Although he once thanked her for her abilities, Yosano’s soldier friend backtracks, saying her abilities helped him to realize that everyone has their limits. Before hanging himself, he tells Yosano that she is not an angel like he once thought but an “angel of death.”
What happened to Yosano after the war?
After the war, Yosano’s memories are fuzzy, but she vaguely remembers being arrested for trying to blow up the military ship and then being put into isolation in a facility. Three years after the end of the war, Mori came to retrieve her but was confronted by Yukichi, who said what he was doing to her was wrong. It was then that Yukchi and Mori officially parted ways with one another.
Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4 Episode 9 Ending Explained
As Yukichi and Mori fight, Ranpo moves Yosano somewhere she doesn’t have to watch them. She begs Ranpo to take her back, complaining about her ability, but he calls her reasoning stupid and suggests she stop using her ability altogether. After promising to help her, Ranpo uses his “ability” to return Yosano’sbutterfly hairpin, which shocks her, as she thinks she’d lost it.
Unsure of what to do next, she turns to Ranpo for an answer. He suggests working for the Armed Detective Agency, as it will be one of the few places where her ability is not what they desire from her, as they want her for her kindness instead. As she finishes her story, Yosano vows to save the Armed Detective Agency.
I wasn’t expecting to be emotionally assaulted by this week’s episode, but I wasn’t upset about it either. Just when I thought the storytelling couldn’t get any better, episode 9 elevated the stakes, and what I thought would be an otherwise straightforward transaction was so much more enthralling. Not only was this the perfect place for Yosano’s backstory, but contrasting the pain of being forced to heal the soldiers with Yosano being asked to join the Armed Detective Agency highlights how Yosano has come full circle at this moment where she must work with Mori to save the very people who saved her.
Often a flashback or backstory in the middle of such an intense arc can feel like it’s taking away from the action or the moment, but this was the opposite. If anything, Bungo Stray Dogs delivered one of its best episodes of the season. There are few series that do pacing and flashbacks as well as this one.
What did you think of Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4 Episode 9? Comment below.
