Plurk paste

Buraiha does the reminders at the beginning of the play. It starts with Odasaku looking for the other two, but when he finally finds them, he does most of the reminders anyway with Dazai chiming in, Is it my turn yet? a lot. Then there's an opening dance numbers with all cast members except Ranpo. It opens with taints holding books and Dazai failing at getting any of the books back from them. Then the other authors come in, wordlessly take the books from the taints and eventually they fall all down. When the authors start waking up, they have no idea what's going on. Ranpo was apparently the first alchemist transmigrated, so he acts as the librarian stand-in and does a lot of exposition. When he first appears, he does so in the audience, specifically right behind where my sister and roommate were sitting. He gives the basic rundown of the plot, explaining that the taints are destroying literature and if they succeed then great works of literature will disappear, but not just the work themselves, also the influence and effect they have on the people reading them.

If I remember correctly, it's Dazai, Haruo, Odasaku, Ango,... and then I don't remember whether Akutagawa or Shirakabaha wake up next. I also don't remember when Chuuya appears at all, whoops. Might be Akutagawa next, but forgive me if I'm remembering incorrectly. Either way, there's a great scene where Dazai realizes Akutagawa is there and runs over to him, trying to gather Akutagawa's cigar smoke to inhale it. He also asks Akutagawa to do the chin in hand pose and Akutagawa humors him and he dies and starts doing his own version of the pose. It's dumb. And before Ranpo appears, while everyone is confused, there's a great scene where Dazai is like I FIGURED OUT THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS! IT MUST BE THANKS TO MY FANS! literally everyone, including the taints, collapse except Shiga so Dazai gets to be like AHHHH YOU THINK YOU'RE HOT STUFF, ACTUALLY SINCE YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T COLLAPSE, YOU'RE THE UNCOOL ONE and Shiga be like, don't care.

Ranpo reveals that the first book to be tainted is none other than "Hana/Nose" by Akutagawa, and this lights a fire under Dazai's ass, who is like I'LL GO SAVE "NOSE" LET ME DIVE INTO "NOSE" IMMEDIATELY to which everyone continues to feel exasperated. He convinces the rest of the Buraiha to delve with him but then insists they sit back and let him handle everything so they can attest to how he single handedly saved "Nose" and then vouch for how he definitely deserves the Akutagawa Prize posthumously. They listen to him a little too well, and even when he starts needing help, they don't join in the fray. Shirakabaha winds up arriving to save the day.

When they get back, Dazai goes from SUPER PUMPED MODE to super depressed mode. He puts up a sign that says DONT LOOK FOR ME and sulks that he wasn't able to save the day. The rest of the Buraiha cheer him up by talking about what little they remember of their past lives. Odasaku gets him curry because no one can cheer up on an empty stomach. He does a really silly thing where he's like, let's go to the curry shop! And starts opening imaginary doors and peeping through imaginary shop curtains, and Dazai copies him step for step to "get into the shop" while Ango is like fuck it and just walks in normally.

They go down memory lane, remember Bar Lupin, and there's a set change to reflect the bar. In the background, the Bar Lupin sign is crooked, and at first everyone ignores it, but eventually I believe Dazai? is like IF WE'RE REMEMBERING THINGS LETS DO IT RIGHT FIX THAT SIGN, so a taint fixes it but throughout the rest of the scene, Chuuya keeps making it crooked again.

Just gonna add, my remembering of the order of the scenes might be off, and if so, I apologize in advance.

I don't remember the placement of the Dazai and Chuuya, but I know it happens before the Shayou delve, so. Basically, they encounter each other alone. Chuuya is drinking as always, and Dazai is a-feared, but is like don't you want to save literature too? And Chuuya is like nope. Only thing that was ever good to me was the drink. Who cares if my writing disappears or is forgotten. It's dark, it's depressing. No one understands it anyway. It'd be better off gone. And then Dazai is like, you know, i... I don't think I understand all of your poetry but I do understand one thing. You lived through your writing as much as you were killed by it, and if it disappears, then where will the soul of what you've written go? What will happen to the people who were saved and destroyed by what you've written?

In any case,
Ranpo reveals that Shayou is the next tainted book and Dazai immediately reacts with THEN LET IT BURN, IT WASNT WORTHY OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE AND NEITHER WAS I. IT DESERVES TO DISAPPEAR, to which Haruo is like, I won't let that happen. Buraiha is also like, nuh uh, we're saving it, but Shiga hears and is like, kay, Musha let's go. He gets into an argument with Dazai that ends with Dazai punching Chuuya after Shiga dodges him. Chuuya soundly knocks Dazai out, so he misses it when Akutagawa also decides to delve.

Shiga wants to focus on researching the taints because the best way to defeat an enemy is to understand them. Mudha insists he's being too cold, Shiga is like, I said I wanted to save literature, but not that I wanted to save all of it. Even he said to let his book rot, so it's fine. Eventually Musha is able to soften Shiga up and they promise to go on a cycling tour together someday.

During the Shayou delve, the authors split into two groups: Buraiha and Chuuya, Akutagawa and Haruo. During this point, my sister continues to be extremely lucky because Akutagawa and Haruo go into the audience, and Akutagawa's cloak brushes against her as he goes past. Chuuya mostly uses the melee fighters as bait but has a self-reflecting moment after Ango asks him why he decided to delve too.

The melee fighters go into slow motion as he thinks on how he could throw Dazai's words right back at him: if Shayou disappears, what happens to the people who were moved by his words? Meanwhile, Haruo takes on most of the fighting because he explains he personally doesn't want Shayou to disappear. He's not there out of friendship like the Buraiha and he's not there because Dazai saved one of his works from the taints like Akutagawa. Instead, he genuinely wants to save Shayou because he wasn't able to save it in their past life.

He has an amazing angry moment where he's like I'M MAD AT ME FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO GIVE HIM THE PRIZE AND I'M MAD AT KAWABATA FOR REJECTING HIM AND I'M MAD AT KIKUCHI FOR MAKING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE IF IT DIDNT EXIST HE WOULDNT HAVE RUINED HIMSELF OVER IT AND I'M MAD AT HIM AND YOU BECAUSE YOU'VE BOTH WRITTEN SUCH GOOD LASTING WORKS AND DON'T ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT YOURSELVES AS MUCH AS YOUR WRITING WHEN YOU DESERVE MORE

but then he starts getting overwhelmed by the enemies the farther the delve goes, and eventually Akutagawa gets injured when jumping in to help him

When everyone gets back, dazai is like yay go everyone you saved a piece of trash woo... and then they point out Akutagawa went in to save Shayou too and he perks up only to go back to being depressed when he finds out Akutagawa was injured while saving it. In any case, when Akutagawa wakes up, he and Dazai talk, and he agrees to read Shayou which brightens Dazai's mood again. Dazai goes to thank everyone properly for saving Shayou because Akutagawa suggests he do so, but then Akutagawa starts thinking too hard. If he hadn't written Hana, his career as an author wouldnt have taken off. Dazai wouldnt have destroyed himself over not winning the Akutagawa prize. Haruo wouldn't be steeping in guilt over something he had no control over. But then it goes deeper, and shoutouts to Kume: if Akutagawa hadn't written Hana, Natsume wouldn't have complimented him. He wouldnt have written a letter to him, and akutagawa in turn wouldnt have shown that letter to Kume, who did not receive such a letter of praise. Akutagawa's career as a writer would not have taken off, and it wouldn't have left Kume behind, and he wouldnt have destroyed the spirit of his longtime friend who wanted to be a writer--and deserved to be a writer-- more than Akutagawa himself.

Meanwhile, Shiga has figured some stuff out about the taints: they form not just from negative feelings within the works themselves but also from within the authors. He found a way yo manufacture fake taints they could study and uses them to tease Musha. Also, musha is like OH YEAH THANKS FOR SHOWING ME THOSE BUT I WANTED TO TELL YOU THAT SHAYOU WAS SAVED and Shiga is like cool don't care. and then Musha is like ALSO AKUTAGAWA WAS HURT DURING THE DELVE and Shiga is like WHY DIDNT YOU SAY THAT EARLIER, but in Japanese, earlier is pronounced the same way as faster, so Musha repeats himself except fast this time and Shiga is like oh my god. He starts leaving but hits his head on a low bar to which Musha is like oh yeah, there's a low bar there so be careful and Shiga is like TELL ME THAT SOONER and Musha is like THERESALOWBARTHERESOBECAREFUL faster and Shiga hates his life

In any case, Akutagawa's descent into guilt calls back to a conversation he had with Haruo before delving into Shayou, while Dazai was still in depressed mode: Haruo was like, yeah, I was his mentor, but he actually respects you. Maybe you should cheer him up? And Akutagawa goes, words that are meant to praise can sometimes hurt more than the sharpest criticism, which is what caused his fall-out with Kume.

Ranpo tells the authors while they're celebrating over saving Shayou that Hana is being tainted again, and this time, it's happening faster and worsening more quickly. The authors prepare to delve, but Musha goes to find Akutagawa to warn him about what Shiga said was the cause of the taints. He's like, YOUR WORK IS BEING DESTROYED! and now it's Akutagawa's turn to be like, then let it burn. He attacks Musha so Musha can't warn the others and Dazai finds Musha and is like, OH NO SENSEI COULDN'T HAVE DONE THIS. and Musha is like JUST WARN THE OTHERS AND SAVE HIM PLEASE. And then Shiga arrives to be gay and overdramatic with Musha.

So they delve in Hana again, and this time, the authors split up to hold off the massive amount of taints while Dazai and Shiga go after Akutagawa. Dazai immediately tosses his scythe when they find Akutagawa, so Shiga has to do all the fighting. Dazai is still like DON'T BLAME SENSEI HE'S NOT BAD and Shiga is like I GET THAT HE'S BEING CONTROLLED BY THE TAINTS BUT COULD YOU STOP GETTING IN THE WAY HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME

Akutagawa tries to discourage Shiga with the “A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled." quote, which just pisses Shiga off more. He's basically like, I've come this far driven by the need to prove myself right in my convictions, and I won't be proven wrong by you.

Dazai eventually steps in and protects Shiga, and Shiga is like !!! And Dazai is like, DON'T GET ME WRONG I'M NOT PROTECTING YOU BUT YOU WANT TO SAVE SENSEI TOO SO SHUT UP

Akutagawa takes Dazai hostage and Shiga stops fighting, but Dazai stabs Akutagawa and they both fall into a deeper world than the world of the book.

Apparently, beyond the world of the book is the graveyard of the abandoned manuscript: all the writing the authors did and threw away. So Dazai and Akutagawa literally fall into the trash. Akutagawa comes to his senses, but Dazai loses heart and starts crying. Akutagawa is like, nows the perfect time to read your book! It's dark here, but I can read by what little light breaks through the nothingness.

Meanwhile the other authors try to fight their way toward the hole the other two fell in, yelling for them to come back.

Apparently, a writer's body of work is connected by what they threw away, because the spider's thread appears in the graveyard of the abandoned manuscript. Dazai offers to piggyback Akutagawa up while he climbs the thread, and thus they start their ascent. Akutagawa reminds Dazai that it's difficult to climb while you're hold onto something else and only one may climb the spider's web. Dazai counters with, so the consequence for trying is just to fall back down into hell? No problem, double suicide is something of a specialty of mine.

the other authors try to help by yanking on the thread from the other side, even as the taints continue to attack them, and then they're like, ah. It snapped.

Then happens something amazing. As the thread snaps and they start falling back into the abyss, everything goes into slow motion with people yelling D-D-AAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZAAAAAAIIIIIIIII and slow-mo running towards the platform they were on. Here's where stage magic comes in: even though they're in a hole, the hole is depicted with a rolling platform, so the two who are falling are technically higher than the ones who are supposed to be at the top of the hole. Them falling is depicted by slowly rolling the platform away from the audience. So during the slow-mo, ranpo breaks the fourth wall by turning to the audience and being like, please allow me to explain: they are lower and we are higher, thank you for your understanding while still running in slow-mo.

At the end, everyone is recovering from injuries and cheering each other up. Shiga is finally treating Musha's blade wounds and Musha is screaming in his face. Oda is bringing everyone curry and Chuuya is drinking. Akutagawa admits that it was Shayou and its light in the face of despair that helped him regain his will to live, Ranpo tells them good job everyone but another work is being tainted, so everyone gears up for another delve to save their literature.

Some other highlights!

When Chuuya first appears and during Ranpo's explanation of the game mechanics, he recites one of his poems. Also he's like, save literature? Lame I'm just gonna drink over here, and Ango is like, what if Miyazawa Kenji's work is attacked? And he's like OF COURSE IM GONNA SAVE IT and Ango is like lol, you're lame too, gotcha.

During the fake curry shop scene where they're cheering Dazai up, Odasaku starts pretend-ordering something ridiculous sounding and super spicy while Ango orders enough for 100 people.

When promising to go on their bike tour, Musha says he doesn't even know how to ride a bike and ranpo rides out on one to tease him.

Dazai asks people in the audience to commit suicide with him no less than twice.

During one scene, Ango is lying on a platform above Chuuya, who is drinking too much, and takes his drink and Chuuya is too short to get his drinks back.

During the end credits when everyone is taking a bow, Shiga gets to ride out on the bicycle.

During a blink and you'll miss it massive fight scene, Ranpo wraps his whip around enemy weapons.

During fight scenes, watch Ango and Chuuya and you'll notice they kick each other in the ass occasionally.

watch Chuuya and ango in the closing scene and Chuuya drunkenly hugs Ango around the waist while smooshing his face into Ango's stomach.