dazai osamu

Dazai is a young man with mildly wavy, short, dark brown hair and narrow dark brown eyes. His bangs frame his face, while some are gathered at the center of his forehead. He is quite tall and slim in terms of physique.

For his attire, Dazai wears a long sand-colored trench coat, the belt of which he leaves untied. Under it is a black vest over a striped dress shirt that is light blue in hue. He wears a bolo tie, which is held by a brown ribbon and a turquoise pendant. He also dons beige pants, dark brown shoes, and has bandages wrapped around his entire body; only his face, hands, and feet are left uncovered.

Dazai is a mysterious person, his true intentions are never revealed unless he reveals them. The person who got closest to the truth of his personality, as acknowledged by Dazai himself, was his friend Sakunosuke Oda, who recognized that Dazai shall linger in the darkness forever, as there was nearly nothing that can surpass his mind. Regardless whether he is on the side of killing people or saving them, Oda knew that no place in the world could fill Dazai's loneliness, which Oda thought Dazai knew in himself.

In addition, Dazai kept an enigmatic and dark façade, whose endeavors in the Mafia were unrivaled and eventually earned him the status as the youngest leader in the history of the Mafia (歴れき代だい最さい年ねん少しょう幹かん部ぶ, reki daisainenshō kanbu?).[3] Because of his aptitude despite his youth, Dazai contributed to about half the Mafia's profits for at least two years.[11] Eventually, Dazai's ledger became tainted; Ichiyō Higuchi describes his blood to be "dark as the Mafia itself".[1] Even in his adulthood when he becomes an Agency member, when Kyōka Izumi showed remorse over having killed 35 people, Dazai remarked with a sinister face that such number is nothing.[15]

As a saying in the Mafia went, "The greatest misfortune for Dazai's enemies is that they are Dazai's enemies", for Dazai was aptly described to be "practically born to be in the Mafia". He was extremely confident and was a terrific planner, coming up with long-run strategies to subdue his enemies. For instance, he was able to lure Mimic operatives, who were previously trained soldiers, to fall under his trap.[11] Dazai is quite skilled in persuasion notably through his words, which he appeared to utilize in interrogations that broke targets who did not divulge anything under Kōyō Ozaki's torture squad.[16]

Behind this grim persona, Dazai admitted that he joined the Mafia to be exposed to death, violence, and people giving in to their urges and desires, expecting that—in this way—he would be able to see the inner nature of humankind firsthand in hopes of finding a reason to live.[11] Following Oda's demise, Dazai defected from the Mafia and went underground in order to heed Oda's final request for him to "be on the side that saves people". Admittedly, he reckoned that people change over time[1] where potential surfaces,[15] which apparently seems to apply to himself as well.

Upon joining the Agency, Dazai is usually called lazy, with Doppo Kunikida always scolding him for being unproductive and slacking off. Despite that, he has shown a sharp wit, deducing all the unlikely situations that led Atsushi Nakajima to believe he was being stalked by a tiger when he was the tiger in question.[17] He has complete confidence no matter what type of situation he is dealing with, be it combat or simply bad situations he formulated in the first place.[18][3]

most occasions, Dazai is overly dramatic. He takes most of his actions as a joke, and, although they are very well-thought plans, he does not credit himself for most of what he has done. Dazai likes to tease anyone and everyone, especially if it means that he can get a laugh out of it.[3] As a suicide maniac, he often attempts to commit suicide in comical manners, but he oftentimes fails[6] or gives up on it when such methods are painful.[10]

Dazai, in particular, wishes to commit double suicide with a beautiful woman;[19][20][3] though he admits that he "likes all types of women", he possibly prefers the type who would die with him if he asked to.[11] Kunikida once wondered why Dazai is quite popular with women and called him a menace to women,[21] a sentiment Chūya Nakahara once used when he threatened to leak Dazai's address to every woman he ever made cry, which Dazai soon asked him not to do.[2] Dazai also once had a run-in with a bomb threat instigated by a woman whom Dazai figured was obsessed with him.[21]

While his suicidal tendencies are initially comedic, they reveal a truly dark deep hole that Dazai has. Even as a teenage boy, Dazai questioned whether there was any value in life.[9] Thus, he soon tried to fill this hole and find a reason worth living for, choosing to live a life surrounded by bloodshed and war, but his friend Oda with his dying breath convinced him to choose the good side. He understood that even though good and evil mean little to Dazai, he may become a slightly better person if he were to choose well.

While in the present he is more lighthearted and comical, he still retains some of his darker personality. He is still able and proficient at coming up with long-run strategies, though he doesn't inform his teammates what they are until the time is right.[22] When he is able to see through the enemies' schemes, no matter how complex, Dazai would sometimes plot to run along with a charade if he deems it necessary, which he did during his entrance exam in order to let Kunikida's suspicions arouse over him as planted; in so doing, they were able to break free from their opponent's ruse and eventually catch the mastermind behind.[6]

Dazai is also willing to use dirty means to achieve his goals, such as purposely deflating Ango Sakaguchi's car seat airbag when they crashed so Ango would get injured and force him to cooperate with Dazai for pardoning Kyōka in exchange for having his wounds healed.[23]

Intelligence: Dazai's intelligence is his primary source of expertise as a Mafia executive in the past and as a detective at present. Ōgai Mori, a proficient tactician himself, widely trusted and relied on Dazai's intelligence, whom he claimed to be his most worthy right-hand man should he have stayed in the Mafia.[25] Dazai is also recognized as one of the Agency's sharpest detectives (双璧, Sōheki?, lit. "Double Jade") together with Ranpo,[4] who is proclaimed by others and himself as the world's greatest detective. With his intelligence, he is able to go head-to-head against the formidable Fyodor Dostoevsky, an avatar of cunning who sees Dazai to be quite identical to him.[26] Even Ranpo once subtly admitted that going up against Fyodor is like going up against Dazai,[27] whom the great detective himself views to be quite an enigma even as his co-worker.[20] Dazai has an aptitude for predicting outcomes,[22][24] which he himself admits is one of his strong qualities, if not his strongest.[3][2] Negotiation Skills: Dazai is an adept persuader, able to negotiate with others and consequently acquire his required outcomes. He is able to convince Kōyō, a Mafia executive, into letting Kyōka get arrested and even to stay in the Agency as their captive;[28][24] Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, a former enemy, into collaborating with him to catch Fyodor;[12] and even Akutagawa into tailing and potentially helping Atsushi—the latter's sworn rival—before the outbreak of the Decay of the Angel' terrorism plot.[29] He also once presumably persuaded Naomi Tanizaki to work with him behind her brother's back, who both were secretly tasked by Kunikida into tricking Dazai, only for this scheme to backfire once Dazai realizes their clandestine arrangement.[21] Dexterity: Dazai is proficient in lock picking, such as prying locked boxes[11] or handcuffs[18][13] open. Moreover, he was able to implant a bug in Higuchi's pocket without being noticed by the mafioso.[30] He was also able to swipe Chūya Nakahara's knife without even being seen.[2] Kunikida also once described Dazai to be "frighteningly dexterous", knowing that Dazai can pick a lock to a bank's safe with a needle or easily switch out slips of paper with fake ones.[21] Physical Prowess: Dazai had fair-to-middling hand-to-hand skills among the Mafia as Chūya recalled, which his nullification ability made up for. Dazai was able to briefly hold his own against Chūya, the most physically gifted in the Mafia, by predicting and defending against his moves and timing which he had memorized, though he got backed up on the wall soon after.[3] Dazai was also able to fend against a big man by utilizing his resources around him, albeit being overwhelmed later on.[6] Heart Rate Manipulation: Using the device that monitors his vitals which is planted on him at Meursault, Dazai can vary his heart rate at will and digitize his messages in order to communicate to the outside world.[31]