Title: Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 25
Author: Kafka Asagiri (Story), Sango Harukawa (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: May 27, 2025
The Story
Wow, it has been a while… nine months, I would say, but Bungo Stray Dogs is finally back with a new volume that sees the conclusion to the terrorist/vampire/one order storyline! While there wasn’t much in the way of action, it did interweave a lot of heavy plot points into the action scenes.
We start off with Aya trying to pull the sword out from Bram; however, the table she used wasn’t heavy enough, so she jumped over the edge and landed on it, and that did the trick. As she plunged to her supposed death, the vampire spell was broken with Bram’s awakening, at least on the vampires that he wished to be released. He released Akutagawa from his vampire state and commanded him to save Aya.
Meanwhile, Genichirou and Fukuzawa continued their one-on-one duel for the fate of the world. The conclusion to that duel was a bit unexpected, but it did give us some more backstory between the two of them, solidifying them as friends with a deep history stemming all the way back to their childhood.
On the Dazai/Dostoyevsky front, we saw a conclusion to that as well, which involved the fate of Sigma after he had fallen unconscious from interacting with Dostoyevsky. Even though things seemed to be resolved, Dazai knew him well enough to question whether or not the results were legit. When he revisited the scene, Dazai came to the same realization that Sigma did about Dostoyevsky’s true skill. With his true skill revealed, this little matter is still not over yet!
The Characters
When Sigma fell unconscious, it was because Dostoyevsky implanted all of his memories into Sigma’s mind. He can’t wake up because he needs to go through them and decipher what they are. This is how he discovers the truth behind his skill; however, he didn’t need to tell Dazai because he figured it out on his own. Still, Sigma seems to be trapped in memory hell right now, so it’ll be a bit before he wakes up and we see him again; however, while not development for his character, I’m mentioning it because those memories directly impact Dostoyevsky’s development as well as Bram’s.
It seems that Bram has a long history with Dostoyevsky dating back to the days when he was still a Lord. While I won’t go much further to avoid major spoilers, the fact that Dostoyevsky existed even way back then should give you a slight (but not full) hint as to the true nature of his skill.
The flashbacks between Fukuzawa and Genichirou were nice, but it wasn’t anything mind-blowing. It just reaffirmed that they were childhood friends; however, Genichirou’s wish from when he was a child was the sole reason for his actions in the present day. After he received a vision of the future from his sword, he coupled that with his childhood wish to enact his campaign. We learn the true nature of his campaign, why he was doing it, and what his plans were if he were to see it through fully. All I will say is that while a noble idea, it did have some flaws… flaws that he took into account and had a backup plan for. In the end, you kind of sympathize with Genichirou. He wasn’t truly doing anything wrong!
Final Thoughts
Well, I said in my last review that I hoped that we didn’t have to wait another ten months to get the next volume, and I was right because it only took nine! It was worth the weight because this volume answered a LOT of questions and sets up Dostoyevsky to be the true main villain of the series. Of course, we kind of knew that throughout the story, but these events put that final finishing touch on the masterpiece that is his character.
If one thing this arc taught us is that things couldn’t get any more hopeless. With One Order, The Page, Vampires, a sword that can read the future, winning seemed utterly hopeless, but that’s the magic of this series… it makes things seem utterly hopeless, and then gives us that hope, and the odds are overcome… except not so much in this case. With the shocking reveal that we got and the cliffhanger ending we received, that feeling of hope was instantly erased, and now the mountain we need to climb is even taller than we had originally imagined.
Although there were some plot points still floating out there that could be that hope that we desperately need. Well, we’ll find out in Volume 26… I just hope it doesn’t take another nine months to get here! (Hoping by saying this, we’ll get it in eight!)
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