Episode three “Bungou Stray Dogs” Season 4 is here, and it brings along a lot to savor! We finally find out who the bowler hat-wearing gentleman is, and we also see Oda Sakunosuke’s comeback. The events still follow a brisk pace, but they make stunning revelations nonetheless! After last week’s episode where Edogawa Ranpo finally learns to live comfortably in his Gifted skin, he still has a few things left to learn when it comes to saving himself during danger. Fukuzawa and Ranpo grow closer as fellow crime-solving individuals and thus begins the tale of their newfound partnership.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 3 Of ‘Bungou Stray Dogs’ Season 4?
In the previous episode, we saw that Ranpo is being taken away in a car by a policeman, except the person has other intentions. Episode 3 of “Bungou Stray Dogs” Season 4, titled “The Secret Founding of the Detective Agency,” opens with their conversation, and Ranpo clearly understands that he is being taken away to another place. The policeman, who goes by the name Mitamura, takes Ranpo to an empty warehouse building. He makes Ranpo an offer to join his team of people who want to eradicate evil from society. Meanwhile, we have Fukuzawa here worrying about Ranpo’s whereabouts. He understands what Ranpo had meant earlier when he said that two crimes had happened that day. Not only that, when he goes out of the theater, he finds his business card under the wooden poster frame. The business card was placed there by Ranpo previously when he stumbled upon it. Ranpo already knew that Mitamura was a prime suspect. He wrote the same message on the business card, along with a message to find the bowler hat-wearing gentleman’s cane. Fukuzawa goes back inside to the scene of the crime, and he finds the cane, and within the cane, he finds a tracker. The tracker is placed for those under witness protection to contact their handlers. Fukuzawa visits the prison where Oda Sakunosuke is held and asks him for help. Sakunosuke does not divulge all the details, but he vaguely hints at knowing ‘V.’ After some more back and forth, Sakunosuke agrees to help, but on the condition that he gets to eat curry rice while he is in prison. Outside Sakunosuke’s cell, there is another gentleman with Fukuzawa. This gentleman does not speak and only listens to their conversation. He has claw marks like scars on his cheek, and his hair is gray-ish white.
Fukuzawa also learns about the organization that is behind Ranpo’s alleged abduction from his conversation with Sakunosuke. He proceeds to search for Ranpo. In the meanwhile, Ranpo is in the abandoned warehouse building with Mitamura. He is still cocky for having figured out most of the plan. Mitamura loses his cool eventually and points a gun at Ranpo. Just then, Fukuzawa bursts in and smashes Mitamura’s face. He also fights off the other four henchmen stationed outside the room. When Fukuzawa and Ranpo finally get to talk, Fukuzawa slaps Ranpo first. He scolds Ranpo for putting himself in harm’s way and gambling with his life out of sheer cockiness because of his abilities. After the events, Fukuzawa and Ranpo are standing next to a magazine stand and find that Mitamura was murdered while he was held at the station. There is a strange man standing on the rooftop of a building across from Fukuzawa and is eyeing him suspiciously. He also says that the name is “Five” and not “V.” Fukuzawa feels the stare and turns to look back, but the strange man is already gone. The two then proceed to rendezvous with the bowler hat-wearing gentleman, who is revealed to be Natsume Soseki. Fukuzawa asks him to grant Ranpo a special license to work. Since Ranpo is Gifted, working in public might not be favorable. The two hint at forming an organization to help Ranpo work and also fight vigilantes. Ranpo then understands that the events at the theater were staged by Soseki to lure out the antagonist and help Fukuzawa and Ranpo understand the larger game at play. Soseki uses Ranpo’s analogy of the shrimp and the sea bream while referring to the case. This clearly hints that Soseki has his finger on the pulse of everything that transpires around him. The episode ends, and we are informed of the title of the upcoming episode, “A Perfect Murder and Murderer (Part 1).”
Season 4, Episode 3: Ending Explained – Who Is Natsume Soseki?
Episode 3 of “Bungou Stray Dogs” Season 4 dropped quite a few easter eggs. Beginning with Oda Sakunosuke’s involvement with the mysterious organization “V,” the strange man across the street from Fukuzawa who says the organization is “Five” and not “V,” and the introduction of Soseki Natsume, episode 3 finally satisfies the curiosity of how the Armed Detective Agency took root. The strange man calls the organization “Five,” and it does make sense since, in Roman numerals, the letter V stands for the number 5. We know that Oda Sakunosuke grows up and becomes a part of the Port Mafia. Perhaps this “V,” aka “Five,” might be related to the Port Mafia as well. Natsume Soseki is quite a powerful man. According to the manga, Soseki is also a Gifted individual, and he can turn into a calico cat. Hence his human form has similar features to that of a calico cat, from orange-brown-white hair to piercing eyes. He has his roots deep in the government and the underworld and has information about almost anything and everything. Fukuzawa asking him for the license and the eventual forming of an agency clearly tells us that Soseki’s involvement will only increase with the forthcoming episodes. Ranpo, who is still a child, is on the path of becoming a popular figure in the world of crime and detection, and it might also lead him to form a few nemeses of his own. The end credits of the episode tell us that the flashback story has ended, and we are brought to the present. But it is not clear if the “present” is the time when “Bungou Stray Dogs” Season 3 ended or if the “present” is the time when Ranpo and Fukuzawa are facing their first enemy.
