News
Bungo Stray Dogs Gets 2 More Stage Plays
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
A livestream presentation revealed on Saturday that the Bungo Stray Dogs franchise is getting two more stage plays that will debut in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency and Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era, the second and third volumes of Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa's Bungo Stray Dogs novel series, are inspiring the story of the Bungo Stray Dogs Hashigaki play. The 2018 anime film Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple is inspiring the story of the stage play of the same name.
The livestream presentation also revealed the title and story information for the live-action film adaptation of the franchise's stage plays. The film's title is Eiga Bungo Stray Dogs BEAST, and Asagiri's Bungo Stray Dogs BEAST light novel is inspiring the story. Shōhei Hashimoto and Yūki Torigoe are reprising their respective roles of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Atsushi Nakajima from the previous plays.
The Bungo Stray Dogs: Beast shipped in Japan in April 2019. Shiwasu Hoshikawa launched a manga adaptation on December 26. The spinoff follows Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who vows revenge on a man dressed in black in order to rescue his sister. However, as he is about to starve to death, a man from the Armed Detective Agency appears.
Bungo Stray Dogs: Sansha Teiritsu, the Bungo Stray Dogs franchise's third stage play, ran in June in Iwate, Fukuoka, Aichi, and Osaka, and in July in Tokyo. Norihito Nakayashiki directed the play, and Chūji Mikasano (Tokyo Ghoul anime) wrote the script.
The second play, Bungo Stray Dogs: Kuro no Jidai (Black Era, visual at right), ran in Tokyo at the Sunshine Gekijō from September to October 2018, and then ran in Osaka at the Morinomiya Piloti Hall in October 2018. The play covered part of the second television anime series.
The first play ran at the KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre in Yokohama in December 2017, at the Morinomiya Piloti Hall in Osaka in January 2018, and at AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo from January to February 2018. The play covered the first season of the television anime series.
Asagiri and Harukawa's original manga centers around a league of literary figures with supernatural powers. For example, in real life, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote acclaimed stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon film and the Aoi Bungaku Series anime's Jigoku Hen (Hell Screen) arc. In Bungo Stray Dogs, he has the power to transform and manipulate his cloak into a monster-like entity. Together, some of these writers solve mysteries as part of the "Armed Detective Agency," while others appear as antagonists.
The first television anime adaptation aired from April to June 2016, and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. The anime's second 12-episode series aired from October to December 2016, and Crunchyroll again streamed the series as it aired. Funimation and Crunchyroll released the series on home video with an English dub last March. The anime's third season premiered in April 2019, and Crunchyroll and Funimation are both streaming the series.
An anime film, titled Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple, opened in Japan in March 2018. Crunchyroll began streaming the film in September 2018, and Funimation began streaming the film in June 2019.
The manga also inspired a smartphone game that launched in December 2017. Ambition released the game in English in July 2018, and Crunchyroll took over publication of the game in November 2018. An OVA shipped with the manga's 13th compiled volume in August 2017.
Yen Press is publishing the manga and novel series in English.
Sources: Bungo Stray Dogs: Sansha Teiritsu Nico Nama Tokuban livestream, Bungo Stray Dogs BEAST film's website, Bungo Stray Dogs plays' Twitter account, Comic Natalie
