Kafka Asagiri's Bungo Stray Dogs is one of studio Bones' most acclaimed shows in recent years other than My Hero, and the neo-noir action series is returning for its fourth season early next year. At Crunchyroll Expo, fans were treated to the first look at the new season, and the trailer wastes no time setting up the stakes.
At the end of last season, the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia narrowly avoided catastrophe after Fyodor Dostoyevsky enacted a plan that pitted them against each other. Things appeared to be at peace, but the new trailer reveals a new plot to make the Agency public enemy #1.
Decay of Angels
The trailer begins with Ranpo desperately attempting to stop the Agency from accepting a new job, claiming it will "destroy the agency." This harrowing warning is juxtaposed against Fukuzawa accepting a gift from the government, no doubt recognition for the Agency's accomplishments. It is accompanied by what appears to be Tanizaki falling from a building.
The imagery throughout is chaotic, to say the least. Ranpo appears to take center stage, investigating a plot to set up the Armed Detective Agency and make criminals of its members, and despairing at his inability to stay one step ahead. His keen deductive skills have often been framed in a way that makes him seem overpowered, so this arc could be great for his character.
Additionally, police are seen raiding the Agency headquarters, Dazai is seemingly arrested, and a terrorist group named Decay of Angels is running amuck. Almost everything seems to go wrong in just an 80-second teaser, and amidst it all, a new foe is introduced that is on a whole other level compared to what the Agency has faced before.
The Hunting Dogs
Given the Agency's skill and reputation, it makes sense that if the government needed to take them down, they'd sent something considerably tougher. Enter the Hunting Dogs, a military unit specifically trained to hunt down Gifted individuals with powerful abilities who pose a threat to the government and the nation at large.
There are four key members: Captain Ochi Fukuchi, Vice Captain Teruko Okura, Saigiku Jono, and Tetcho Suehiro. This being Bungo Stray Dogs, each of them is based on a real-life author. Fukuchi was a Japanese critic who later in life founded the Constitutional Imperial Rule Party, or Rikken Teiseito.
Vice Captain Okura's real-life counterpart was a woman named Yoshiko Mozomu, who used Teruko Okura as a pen name to hide that she was a woman. Jono and Suehiro had similar backgrounds, a common theme among the real-life counterparts of the Hunting Dogs being an interest in politics and a history writing for newspapers and magazines.
Considering their similarities, there is a strong militant aesthetic to their anime iterations, and their brief glimpses in the trailer already give off a threatening presence. The poster released upon season 4's announcement features them heavily, along with an awesome display of powers that sets the mind alight with what their abilities might be.
Crime and Punishment
The Agency has its hands full in this new season and even after a three-way war in season 2 and "The Cannibalism" in season 3, the new threat still manages to feel larger. While Kunikida appears to take charge as the Hunting Dogs close in, it's Atsushi who appears to be working alone, tracking the terrorists and wondering "what Dazai might do."
It will be curious to see if season 4 will jump right into the Decay of Angels arc or if - like the two past seasons - it will start with a side-story. The BSD anime has taken advantage of the 12-episode seasons to take novels and prequel stories and give them short adaptations at the start of each season.
These side-stories, while not always tied to the main plot, were great chances to expand on the existing story and add extra context to the larger story. While there's no confirmation of such a thing happening this time around, there wasn't much warning prior to either season 2 or 3, so it is up in the air. Fans will have to wait until January to find out.