“Bungo Stray Dogs”  is an anime who’s creator, Kafka Asagiri, chose to make its characters based off of authors who lived usually sometime in the 1800s and 1900s. These characters are often based on Japanese authors, such as Dazai Osamu, Nakahara Chuuya, and Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. There are also a few other authors who weren’t Japanese, like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lucy Maud Montgomery. These are only a few authors who the characters are based on. 

In “Bungo Stray Dogs,” the characters have powers called abilities, these abilities are often based on the books or poems that their authors had written. One of the abilities, Rashomon, was based off of the book “Rashomon” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and this ability belongs to Akutagawa in the anime! Although, there are also some characters that don’t have an ability named after a book they’ve written. An example of this is Ranpo Edogawa. Ranpo was named after a Japanese author, but unlike many of the other characters, his ability is not named after a book that Ranpo wrote. These characters not only get their abilities and names by their authors, but their personality is also based off of the authors, and their books. This can be seen with Jun’ichirō Tanizaki and his book Naomi, in the anime/manga. Naomi at times can be seen manipulating Tanizaki, and Tanizaki, although very chill and calm, always loses his cool when something comes up about Naomi. In the book, the main character is obsessed over her at first sight, and tries to mold her into his perfect woman. The main character tried to control Naomi but Naomi ends up controlling the main character, and manipulating him. In the anime, we can see how Naomi can be extremely controlling and how Tanizaki is obsessed over her, it can also be seen in situations where Naomi is in danger, Tanizaki is always there trying to save her. 

The characters in “Bungo Stray Dogs” are based on real people, their experiences, and books! This is a really creative way to make a show. Although it is fiction, it is also non-fiction. We can also learn about the authors, their personalities, and what they wrote about in the past.