Bungo Stray Dogs – Season 5 Episode 4 Recap & Review

The Vampire Virus

Episode 4 of Bungo Stray Dogs season 5 titled ‘Hero War, Gang War’ begins with Akutagawa telling Atsushi to run while he bleeds to death. In his last moments, he slices the fire extinguisher and in the confusion, Atsushi runs away in the submarine. Before Fukuchi can turn back time, backup led by the UN guard who was strangled by Akutagawa arrives.

The guard alerts headquarters and Fukuchi is annoyed. He planned to kill the guard and turn back time to get Atsushi but it would also make HQ suspicious of him. As for the guard, he apologises to a dead Akutagawa that he couldn’t help after the mafia member spared his life.

Back on land, Atsushi is met with Ango who helps him understand Akutagawa’s final plan of action. Turns out, his letting the guard live allowed the guard to interrupt Fukuchi and let Atsushi escape.

Once the deck clears, Fukuchi brings out the fifth member of the Decay of Angels – Bram Stoker. He was turned into a vampire due to a special ability and has no love for Fukuchi as it turns out his body has been cut in half. He refuses to play along in the destruction of the world but Fukuchi threatens him with the holy sword stuck in his body which can kill him. Even though he is still not on board with Fukuchi’s plan, Bram bites Akutagawa.

Later, Higuchi is seen running and is shocked to see Akutagawa as she tells him they just had a funeral for him. On almost losing him, she decides to confess her feelings for him. However, when he turns, she sees that his eyes are red and he has fangs. Before she can stop him, he bites her. She turns into a vampire and later bites Gin who bites Hirotsu. Tachihara tries to save them but Hirotsu tells him to run before he turns.

The spy reports it to the Hunting Dogs and they come to the conclusion that it is the next act of terrorism from the Armed Detective Agency and to stop it they need to kill the Gifted who spread the vampire virus. However, Teruko points out that things will get messy as a third of the police have sided with the Agency after Ranpo’s press conference.

Jono counts Tachihara in that group as the spy has been pretty vocal about how he believes there is someone else behind the attack after his Sky Casino revelation. Tachihara requests to investigate on his own to find the true culprit but of course, Fukuchi refuses. But he doesn’t let it go as he says he has a pen drive that he would like to give Commissioner Yasui who is a sympathizer.

It is the same pendrive with evidence that Tachihara had broken but fixed on suspecting that the Agency is being framed. Fukuchi feels that even though his identity is still a secret, it may ruin his plans and so tries to sabotage it by offering to hand the pen drive to Yasui personally. Tetcho doesn’t question it as Fukuchi did publicly voice his concern of whether the Agency is the true culprit to the UN.

Teruko is jealous that Tachihara can sway their leader and while she annoys him, Fukuchi tries to slip out with the pen drive. However, Tachihara suddenly calls out after him and to help, he says he will inform Yasui that he is coming which frustrates Fukuchi as his plans keep getting unintentionally sabotaged. 

He heads to an abandoned yard to get Bram to turn Yasui. However, Tachihara shows up and reveals that he gave a fake pen drive which is a GPS and a voice recorder. Guess he is a double spy, working with the Port Mafia. With him controlling metal, he easily takes back Amenogozen which Fukuchi tries to send into the past. Tachihara also reveals that when he went back to the mafia, Mori learned from Yosano that he is a Hunting Dog.

He also tells Tachihara about Atsushi’s fight with Fukuchi and his real identity. Angered by Fukuchi’s betrayal and upset with the way he keeps ordering Tachihara around, the double spy decides to help Mori defeat him. He senses that Fukuchi is trying to run away and backs him into a corner where they see the letter T etched into a wall. Suddenly, Tachihara is stabbed from behind. 

It seems that when Fukuchi sent Amenogozen back, he wasn’t trying to attack past Tachihara but carving the letter T when past Fukuchi was arriving at the location. On seeing the message, past Fukuchi realised that Tachihara had betrayed him and stabbed the sword into the future where present Tachihara was standing.

He also blinds Tachihara, making it difficult for him to control metal without seeing. Fukuchi ends up revealing his motivation — he is the bringer of the five signs that leads to an angel’s death – an angel is someone who brings death and suffering without getting their hands dirty. They enjoy wealth without any accountability and are false rulers. He is frustrated with their apathy and hence wants to destroy them as death is the only way they can atone.

Fukuchi then asks Bram how many days it will take to turn half the world into vampires. Bram states 4 days and Tachihara scoffs that it is impossible. Fukuchi lets him in on his plan which is to convert as many as he can who will then go on to turn others. Hinting that Tachihara will become one of his minions, Fukuchi brings Bram to him. Shocked, Tachihara tries to kill himself but Fukuchi stops him and Bram bites him.

In 4 days, all Bram’s turned kin have spread the virus globally. Chaos ensues as a lot of turned officials withdraw from the UN. The secretary-general recalls Fukuchi’s words of leading a new army to stop the terrorists. He then decides to ask the Knight Commander of the Order of the Clock Tower to use the special weapon – One Order.

The Episode Review

Oh wow, every move in episode 4 of Bungo Stray Dogs season 5 is so calculated and fun to put together to see the big picture. We have Akutagawa unknowingly allowing Atsushi to escape when he doesn’t kill the guard. At least he is not fully dead, so yay? But what happens now that most of our favourite mafia members are vampires? 

And after seeing the whole episode, it also makes sense why Tachihara kept “unintentionally” sabotaging Fukuchi. Guess he knew he was the bad guy from the start anyway and was just toying with him (even if it is temporary). About time since Fukuchi has been playing the puppet master since the beginning.

But is also quite satisfying to see how Fukuchi used the sword to even predict the future. It just makes Amenagozen useless against him since he is the only one who knows how to maximise the sword’s full potential.