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Dazai using No Longer Human, a touch-based ability in Bungo Stray Dogs
Dazai using No Longer Human, a touch-based ability in Bungo Stray Dogs (Image via Bones)

5 Bungo Stray Dogs characters with touch-based abilities

Priya MajumdarBy Updated:5 Mins Read Anime

Kafka Asagiri’s Bungo Stray Dogs is filled with characters with special abilities. Almost every other character has an ability, except the ones born without any ability. So, in a world that operates on strategy, intellect, and brute strength, abilities are an added bonus.

As stated above, the range of abilities in Bungo Stray Dogs is large. Here, aside from the offensive or who exercise their powers in a long-range battle, there are some users who can only demonstrate the full effect of their ability when touching their partner or their abilities. Thus, on that note, this article lists down five such Bungo Stray Dogs characters with touch-based abilities who are considered powerful.

Dazai and 4 other Bungo Stray Dogs characters who have touch-based abilities

Osamu Dazai

One of the most elusive characters on Bungo Stray Dogs is Osamu Dazai, who has an ability called No Longer Human. As Dazai describes his ability, the power of No Longer Human enables him to “nullify the gifts wielded by others by merely touching them.” For Dazai, the ability is always active unless he is on the brink of death, where his heart completely stops.

A condition to achieve the effectiveness of this ability involves the sense of touch. So, he can use it even when the ability is touching him and not the wielder, as seen when he could nullify the unnamed number ability in Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam. While one of the strongest abilities currently, it is defensive by nature and can be only used in close range, just like how he deactivated Atsushi’s Beast Beneath the Moonlight upon touching the tiger’s forehead in episode 1. However, he can only nullify abilities, so Ranpo’s Ultra Deduction or Lovecraft’s The Great Old One can’t be deactivated using No Longer Human since they are not abilities.

Teruko Okura

Another touch-based ability that is wielded by a BSD character is Hunting Dogs’ Vice-Captain, Teruko Okura. She has the ability called Gasp of the Soul, which has a close range of activation like Dazai’s No Longer Human. The power is specifically used for interrogation purposes, where she can alter the age of her target at will, inflicting mental damage on them. Besides, she can also control her age and size using this ability.

Gasp of the Soul allows Teruko to alter the age of anyone she touches. This was seen during the Sky Casino arc of Bungo Stray Dogs season 4, when she manipulated her and Michizo Tachihara’s age to avoid detection by the attackers, who were civilians. She then changed the age of the guard who was posted outside Sigma’s office, quickly making him old and threatening him to give age-related illnesses or maladies.

Ango Sakaguchi

Discourse on Decadence is an interesting touch-based ability that is wielded by Ango Sakaguchi, a government employee who works for the Special Division of Unusual Powers. The ability is unique in the sense that it serves an extraction purpose. As such, Discourse on Decadence allows Ango to read or absorb the memories that are left on a particular object and use it to his advantage.

The most recent demonstration of this power was seen in Bungo Stray Dogs season 4, when Kyoka Izumi and Atsushi Nakajima were aiding Mushitaro Oguri to escape from the jail. At this point, Ango touched the ground that the trio had stepped on to track them. Moreover, he also utilized the cash stolen by Mushitaro to gain information on them. However, a disadvantage of the ability is that the sudden onrush of information, that is mental overload, needs to be tackled by the user effectively so as to avoid fainting. The same was confirmed by Ango in BSD season 5 when telling Atsushi about how the overloading of information can cause mental strain or fainting.

Sigma

Member of Decay of the Angels, Sigma is said to have been born out of the book’s page three years ago. However, the character does appear to have an ability, which was unconfirmed until Dazai revealed his plan for Sigma to touch Fyodor’s corpse so as to get information on the latter’s ability, Crime and Punishment. As is implied, this power also operates at close range, which is why, unless Fyodor dies, Sigma can’t touch him.

Yet, another nuanced aspect of this ability is that if Sigma touches a person with the intent of information exchange, he also needs to pass on a personal information or detail that the other person wants to know for the power to fulfil his nature. Although an immensely useful ability, Sigma’s Information Exchange ability is limited, often making the user think about the right step in their plan to use the ability on something or not.

Ryuro Hirotsu 

Hirotsu’s Falling Camellia is unlike any other touch-based BSD abilities on this list. Upon touch, purple rings of energy burst out of the wielder’s to create strong repulsion. As seen in the Bungo Stray Dogs anime, the ability is powerful enough to bend metal, break doors, break bones, etc. Thus, Falling Camellia can be classified to be used for offensive purposes rather than defensive.

Notably, the ability made its debut officially in a BSD light novel, titled Dazai, Chuya, Age Fifteen. Here, the use of his powers against Chuya Nakahara, a gravity manipulator, seemed to be counterproductive as the powers that emerge out of his palms should be a force opposite of the contact that he makes. In the anime, Falling Camellia was seen in episode 4, which covered the Port Mafia arc. However, the full-fledged effect of his power was downplayed in favor of a comedic win of the Armed Detective Agency.

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Priya is an anime lover and writer at GamesHorizon. A graduate from EFL University, she is deeply interested in anything remotely anime, manga, and fan culture. In her free time, she likes to draw, cook, visit cafes, and read fanfiction on a variety of anime fandoms' ships.