Title: Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 27
Author: Kafka Asagiri (Story), Sango Harukawa (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: July 28, 2026
The Story
It’s literally a battle across time and space as Akutagawa looks to battle the manifestation of Ame no Gozen; however, Dostoyevsky has a little insight for us on how Ame no Gozen works, and it puts Akutagawa in a perilous situation… but it’s fine because his vampiric healing can save him… for now. Atsushi, however, realizes something thanks to some words from a vision in his mind, and leaps in to stop Akutagawa from getting sliced. Atsushi takes the hit instead, and this leads him to discover Ame no Gozen’s true origins and identity.
There is one solution… destroy the true identity of Ame no Gozen; however, being the kind of person Atsushi is, he decides to opt for an optional, and riskier solution. Will his solution pay off, and can he stop Dostoyevsky once and for all?
The Characters
The story section was rather short because the majority of the volume was one massive battle against Ame no Gozen… with some detours along the way. Sadly, the character development section will be just as short because the only new character we received was the source of Ame no Gozen, and that would be a tremendous spoiler… but… I will say that the character we were introduced to, while brief, you felt sorry for… and that’s all I will say about it.
Akutagawa went through a little bit of development. Throughout the series, he only saw Atsushi as a thorn in his side, but he slowly became his rival. Now, Akutagawa sees him as something more than that, and maybe, just maybe, there is a hint of true appreciation rather than something fleeting built out of necessity when they had to work together.
Atsushi did some growing up in this volume as well. He had to overcome a lot of the doubts he held within himself, but when it came time to make a crucial decision, we already knew that he wouldn’t pull the trigger. In classic Atsushi style, he opted for an alternative solution that could solve everyone’s problems rather than just the immediate problem at hand. Maybe it’s smart, or maybe it’s naivety? No one can truly say at this point in time, but even if he did have some help from some visions in his mind, he was able to think more critically once he got past his self-doubting. That’s a pretty big step for him from a mental standpoint.
Final Thoughts
Here is a quote from my previous review:
“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?”
The answer is YES! It only took seven months to see Volume 27! Since I see a pattern, can we see Volume 28 in six months? Don’t let me down!
Aside from that, this was a mind-boggling fight. Trying to understand how Ame no Gozen works in a 4D space should be difficult to do, but thanks to the analogies that Dostoyevsky made about 2D planes as thin as paper, it made a lot of sense how the sword actually worked. What that also did was set up the feeling of helplessness… then… right after it sets up the feeling, it shows it to you through an attack on Fukuzawa. Of course, this is Bungo Stray Dogs we are talking about here, where every impossible situation has a possibility to be solved.
The one thing that this series does well is that it never makes the solution apparent. While I just said that this is something that is done well, there is a negative aspect to it, and that is solutions can sometimes feel like plot devices. They wouldn’t feel this way if there were more clues or something obvious in the writing, but that would be like a magician giving away the secrets to a magic trick. You have to think about everything to have it make sense because taking a solution to an impossible problem at face value oftentimes makes it seem like a random plot device.
That’s the fine line the writing takes in this series. The solutions are often intelligent, but they feel cheap. They make sense, but they seem abrupt. They work, but feel contrived. It’s good and bad at the same time, and I’m not sure if it’s a compliment or a complaint. I always loved the writing in this series and the way that the stories are structured, and this arc is no different. Going into the fourth dimension in a battle is classic Bungo Stray Dogs when it comes to deck-stacking. But after reading it for 27 volumes now, you’re conditioned to think “okay, where is the thing that happens that solves this?”
In any other series, evil would have won a hundred times over with some of the schemes pulled off here, but in this world, no matter how stacked the deck is, there is always one loose card that when pulled, will cause any well-structured scheme to come undone. After a 4D time fight, I’m not even sure what else is to come, but knowing Dostoyevsky, he knows what’s next, and already has 30 contingency plans and forethought outcomes to revolve around it.
So… six months? Let’s see!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
