Title: Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 26
Author: Kafka Asagiri (Story), Sango Harukawa (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: January 20, 2026
The Story
A massive explosion and its fallout… that is how we start off the 26th volume of Bungo Stray Dogs. At the center of it all is Dostoyevsky, who has captured The One Order. With it, he can control all of the vampires in the world, thus effectively placing half of the entire world under his control. On top of that, Ame no Gozen, Fukuchi’s sword, has manifested as a god-like being that exists within a fourth dimension. Anything its blade cuts instantly dies, no matter the severity of the wound.
Fukuzawa is discovered by Atsushi. Fukuzawa’s final order for this mission is to gather everyone and get out, and not to fight The Divine One (Ame no Gozen). Kunikida didn’t get the message, however. One by one, members of the ADA fall to Ame no Gozen. Atsushi was too late, and he’s about to become the next victim when, suddenly, Dostoyevsky steps in and saves him! It is here that we learn the true nature of Atsushi and why everyone in the world was seeking to capture him.
Suddenly, right before Dostoyevsky can get his way, someone saves him… Someone who has received tremendous power thanks to the final acts of a certain character… and those acts put him on a power level to stand toe-to-toe with Ame no Gozen! The battle begins in our next volume!
The Characters
Well then, this volume is making my job for this section incredibly difficult. I guess it’s time to shift into vague mode so that I don’t ruin the story for anyone who hasn’t read it yet…
First up, we have Bram. Dostoyevsky has taken over Bram’s body. That much we knew from the previous volume; however, Bram anticipated this and performed one final act before fading away. What that act is, I’ll leave you to discover; however, that one act did allow Bram to properly say goodbye to Aya, which was quite the sad moment. I wonder what this will mean for Aya, and where she will go from here.
Next, we have Dostoyevsky’s revelation on what Atsushi truly is. Even though we answered the biggest question since the very first volume of this series, we still don’t know all of the details. Without spoiling too much, we know that Atsushi is merely a vessel, and the tiger within him is the key focus for Dostoyevsky and everyone else who has been trying to take him for himself. Well, that’s not truly a spoiler because everyone kept referring to him as The Tiger since the very first volume, so that much we kind of figured out already. Still, what the tiger truly is… that is the main mystery yet to be solved.
Next, we finally get all of the details for Dostoyevsky’s master plan. This has got to be one of the most intricately laid plans I have seen in manga. The layers upon layers of planning, calculations, setups, and everything else in between to pull this plan off are mind-blowing. The way he used Fukuchi, the way he knew about Atsushi, about Ame no Gozen’s true form, how he used Dazai and outsmarted him, even right down to fooling Fukuchi by planting false information to be transmitted through time itself, all for deception. Dostoyevsky is either the biggest, cheesiest plot device-driven villain, or one of the smartest, most calculating villains in anime/manga history. I’ll leave it up to you to determine which one he is, but with the way things are kind of just thrown out there, I’m personally leaning toward the former rather than the latter.
Lastly, we have Akutagawa. I can’t touch this one, but I will say, his newest power-up is insane. To be able to match Ame no Gozen puts him on a God-tier level now; however, given what was revealed about Atsushi, he could be next to reach that status!
Final Thoughts
Well… in Volume 24, I said that it took ten months to get a new volume. In Volume 25, I said that it only took nine months, and I hoped that we wouldn’t have to wait that long…. And I was right because this time, it only took eight months! Does this mean we’ll see Volume 27 in seven months? We’ll have to wait and see, but this was quite the wild ride.
There were so many huge reveals, huge power-ups, and shocking moments happening one after another after another. We know how things go in anime and manga, and that sometimes, huge, shocking moments don’t typically last. In fact, there was a moment in here that flat-out states that there is a way to reverse some of the damage done, so I would suspect that once this arc wraps up, that little plot device will come in handy, which is why I’m not holding my breath over some of the things that happened in this volume.
I have no idea what we are in store for going forward, but I do know that we will see the continuation of Ame no Gozen vs Akutagawa. That alone should be an epic battle… unless something happens to cut it short to give us a “to be continued” vibe. I mean, there’s that plane waiting for Dostoyevsky, after all, so…
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
