Bungou Stray Dogs Characters & Voice Actors (Including Dubbed)
Bungo Stray Dogs might never end up in the history books among the “Big Three” anime series, but it’s definitely a title to look out for. This seinen title follows the members of the “Armed Detective Agency” as they try to protect Yokohama from the mafia. A popular title with a respectable fandom, Bungo Stray Dogs has been adapted into several media and with more material on the way, we have decided to talk about the show a bit.
What we are about to tell you is a list of the most important Bungo Stray Dogs characters and their voice actors, both in the original (Japanese) and the dubbed (English) version of the anime series. Before we approach each of the characters individually, here is a quick overview:
Atsushi Nakajima – Yūto Uemura
Original voice actor: Yūto Uemura
Dub voice actor: Max Mittelman
The main protagonist of the story; a young man of eighteen years of age possessing an ability known as Beast Beneath the Moonlight, inspired by the novel Sangetsuki by Atsushi Nakajima, which allows him to become a white tiger of enormous strength and rapid regeneration. However, he is unable to control his power when he fully transforms.
He was raised in an orphanage, in which he suffered multiple abuses by his superiors. Later, these abuses would be the cause of the psychological problems that he begins to develop throughout the series. At some point he was kicked out of the orphanage, presumably because they knew of his tiger-like nature. He wandered the streets for months until he was taken in by Dazai and the agency.
Atsushi is constantly bewildered by the antics of his co-workers and, due to his entire life being called useless, he lacks self-confidence, continually searching for a reason to live. He values the power to be alive above all things; and his sense of morality leads him to try to help his enemies on more than one occasion. He detests when people die due to unfortunate circumstances or abuse his power to hurt others, as he says during his battle with Akutagawa.
Osamu Dazai – Mamoru Miyano
Original voice actor: Mamoru Miyano
Dub voice actor: Kaiji Tang
He is a member of the agency and also the one who took Atsushi under his care. Carefree and playful, he is suicidal and is almost always trying to kill himself, though he fails every time because he is always miraculously saved by someone or something. His ability is called No Longer Human, inspired by the novel of the same name by Osamu Dazai, which allows him to nullify any type of power.
Dazai is a mysterious person whose true intentions are never known, unless he reveals them himself. Despite being called lazy and unproductive by his co-worker Kunikida, he has more than once shown himself to be very cunning, as well as possessing incredible wit. He has complete confidence in himself, although on most occasions he is overly dramatic and takes things too lightly.
Later, it is revealed that he used to be an executive of the Port Mafia, but after the death of his friend Oda he decided to quit and join the agency to protect the people. During his time in the Port Mafia, his personality was much less comical and darker; he described death as a way to free himself from the world, but strangely he couldn’t die no matter how hard he tried.
Furthermore, he was extremely brutal and methodical, setting traps to capture enemies alive and thus torture them for information. He also used to physically and psychologically punish Akutagawa for disobeying orders, in order to push him to his limits and enhance his abilities.
Doppo Kunikida – Yoshimasa Hosoya
Original voice actor: Yoshimasa Hosoya
Dub voice actor: Patrick Seitz
Doppo is Dazai’s coworker, whom he always scolds for his antics. He used to be a math teacher; and he tends to write and plan every second of his day in his notebook. He hates unplanned events and hates wasting time. His ability is called Lone Poet, inspired by the writing of the writer Doppo Kunikida, which allows him to create any object he writes in his notebook, as long as this object is not larger than the notebook itself.
He regards his notebook as an “ideal” and his life is entirely made up of them. Despite his professional and diligent nature, Doppo can be very naive and is prone to easily believing Dazai’s lies. His partner’s suicide attempts despair him, mainly because, in his own words, they “interfere” with his itinerary.
He values all human life and strives to save as many innocent people as possible, even though he doesn’t always manage to do so and ends up blaming himself for it. Due to his dedication to trying to protect the city and its inhabitants, Ranpo believes that Doppo is the strongest and most virtuous person in the agency.
Ranpo Edogawa – Hiroshi Kamiya
Original voice actor: Hiroshi Kamiya
Dub voice actor: Vic Mignogna (seasons 1-2) / Landon McDonald (season 3; Dead Apple)
He is the self-proclaimed detective at the agency. He is very intelligent and observant, although he doesn’t know how to do simple things, such as riding the train or knowing his way back to the agency. He calls his ability Super Deduction, but it doesn’t actually have any supernatural powers and is simply due to his intelligence. Ranpo prides himself on his “skill”, with which he has solved countless cases, though he can also be quite childish. He often provokes the other detectives in the agency and refuses to do his work for reasons as trivial as being lazy.
Akiko Yosano – Yū Shimamura
Original voice actor: Yū Shimamura
Dub voice actor: Erica Lindbeck
She’s the agency doctor. Her ability is called You Shall Not Die, and it allows her to heal others and even herself, but it only works when the person is half dead or dying, for which is sometimes forced to hurt others in order to heal them, which she seems to enjoy doing quite a bit. This causes her companions to be terrified of being treated by her.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa – Kensho Ono
Original voice actor: Kensho Ono
Dub voice actor: Brian Beacock
He’s an assassin for the Port Mafia. His ability is called Rashōmon, which allows him to wield a type of black beast that can tear through anything, even space itself. Rashōmon is considered one of the most powerful and dangerous powers in existence. A former apprentice of Dazai, he is greatly infuriated that Dazai has found his agency subordinates more “capable” than him, and throughout the series seeks to demonstrate to him the true extent of his power.
Akutagawa has a Darwinian view of the world, holding that weak people should die and give way to stronger ones. He is not afraid of pain and defeat, if it means being able to hear a word from a certain person, meaning Dazai. He is more than willing to commit heinous crimes and acts of violence in order to further the goals of the Port Mafia.
He respects the hierarchy of it and usually obeys his superiors, but tends to act on his own. His cold and serious personality is often distorted by moments of irrational anger and jealousy, especially towards Atsushi. It is worth noting that Dazai sees more potential in Atsushi than in Akutagawa himself, the main reason for his hostility against the latter. Socially withdrawn, he limits himself to communicating with his subordinate, Higuchi, whom he also doesn’t seem to trust too much.
Junichirō Tanizaki – Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Original voice actor: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Dub voice actor: Spike Spencer
He is a young member of the agency. His ability is called Light Snow, inspired by the novel The Makioka Sisters by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, which allows him to project illusions within a certain area. Although he doesn’t like the antics of his sister, Naomi, he becomes extremely enraged if anyone tries to harm her.
Ōgai Mori – Mitsuru Miyamoto
Original voice actor: Mitsuru Miyamoto
Dub voice actor: Keith Silverstein
He is the leader of the Port Mafia. Despite being a mob boss, he has good manners and acts with etiquette, being polite to his allies and enemies alike. As a former doctor, he is more than capable of using his knowledge in this area to hurt others. His ability, Vita Sexualis, allows him to “set” Elise’s actions and mood.
Kyōka Izumi – Sumire Morohoshi
Original voice actor: Sumire Morohoshi
Dub voice actor: Cherami Leigh
She is a fourteen year old girl with long blue hair and blue eyes, who loves tofu and rabbits. She is orphaned, she becomes part of the Port Mafia with the role of assassin, since, according to Akutagawa, killing is the only thing that makes her worth breathing. She does thirty-five murders in six months through her power activated by Akutagawa, but when she is on a subway train with a bomb set on her, she throws herself out of the carriage telling Atsushi that she no longer wants to kill anyone.
Atsushi takes the girl to heart and, after saving each other from the attacks of the Mafia, decides to take care of her. When she is taken to the Agency, Kyouka begs the President to hire her to prove to herself that Akutagawa was wrong. She is very greedy and pampered by the members of the Agency and in particular by Ranpo, who treats her like a little sister.
Her power is called Snow Demon, and she is a female demon in a mask, armed with a katana. However, she does not respond to Kyouka’s wishes but to her orders that are given to her via the mobile phone, so she is easily manipulated.
Chūya Nakahara – Kishō Taniyama
Original voice actor: Kishō Taniyama
Dub voice actor: Nicolas Roye
He is an executive of the Port Mafia and a former partner of Dazai. His ability is called For thr Tainter Sorrow, which allows him to manipulate gravity, as well as the force of objects he enters with. in contact. Hot-tempered but quite gullible, he always falls for Dazai’s tricks and tricks. He claims to hate Dazai for leaving the Port Mafia, even though in the past the two of them were known as the Double Black couple after taking down an entire organization in one night.
The true form of his ability is known as “The Corruption”, with which he can manipulate the gravitons around him which, by compressing them, create black hole-like bombs that devour everything. However, he cannot control his power and according to Dazai, Chūya does not stop until he runs out of strength and dies. Because of this, he uses this ability only in extreme cases and only when he is certain that Dazai will nullify his powers. Known as the “best karate fighter in the Port Mafia”, he shows great confidence in his martial skills and scoffs at it.
Kenji Miyazawa – Hiroyuki Kagura
Original voice actor: Hiroyuki Kagura
Dub voice actor: Lucien Dodge
He is a skinny, blond boy who wears country dungarees and a straw hat. He has a jovial and kind character. He comes from a village where everyone knows each other and does not fully understand the life of the city, resulting naive and spontaneous. Precisely for these characteristics he is very popular with civilians and is often instructed to go around collecting information and rumors.
He is firmly convinced that sincerity brings sincerity (even with criminals) and he sees the positive side of things at all times, always calm and smiling. His ability of him is called Undefeated by the Rain, and it gives him a superhuman strength, which however manifests itself only when he is hungry and makes him fall asleep when he is full. He often talks about cows and agriculture.
Ryūrō Hirotsu – Atsushi Ono
Original voice actor: Atsushi Ono
Dub voice actor: Greg Chun
He is an elegant and well-dressed man, commander of Black Lizard, the Port Mafia group of hitmen. He has been in the organization for a long time, and his ability, Camellia in Deceased, sends objects flying with a powerful force. He is diligent in his work and does not like unprofessional behavior.
