Bungo Stray Dogs season four is coming in January of 2023. Currently, there are three seasons, an OVA (original video animation), and a movie titled Dead Apple. There is a specific order to watch Bungo Stray Dogs that will give you the best experience with the series before season four. Here is our watch guide.
Bungo Stray Dogs
Bungo Stray Dogs is both a manga and an anime written by Kafka Asagiri. The manga is illustrated by Sango Harukawa. The story follows people with special abilities who form the “Armed Detective Agency.” Their job is to protect Yokohama, Japan. Each character is named after a renowned writer, and their ability is related to the writer’s works.
Bungo Stray Dogs Watch Order: Season 1
The first season of the series is straightforward. Start with season one, episode one. There are twelve episodes in this season.
- Episode 1: “Fortune is Unpredictable and Mutable”
- Episode 2: “A Certain Bomb”
- Episode 3: “Yokohama Gangster Paradise”
- Episode 4: “The Tragedy of the Fatalist”
- Episode 5: “Murder on D Street”
- Episode 6: “The Azure Messenger”
- Episode 7: “Love for the Disease Called Ideals”
- Episode 8: “Teaching Them to Kill; Then to Die”
- Episode 9: “The Beauty is Quiet like a Stone Statue”
- Episode 10: “Rashoumon and the Tiger”
- Episode 11: “First, an Unsuitable Profession for Her. Second, an Ecstatic Detective Agency.”
- Episode 12: “Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past”
Watch Order: Season 2 and the OVA
Now, season two is where it can get confusing for some viewers. The first four episodes of season two are from the second light novel, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era. Here, we get a glimpse into the past of Osamu Dazai, one of the story’s main characters.
- Episode 13: “The Dark Age”
- Episode 14: “Nowhere to Run”
- Episode 15: “A Room Where We Can Someday See the Ocean”
- Episode 16: “Bungo Stray Dogs”
Then, Episode 17 picks up where season one left off.
- Episode 17: “Three Companies Conflict”
- Episode 18: “The Conflict of Strategy”
- Episode 19: “Will of Tycoon”
- Episode 20: “Though the Mind May be Wrong”
- Episode 21: “Double Black”
- Episode 22: “Poe and Rampo”
- Episode 23: “Rashoumon, The Tiger, and The Last Emperor”
- Episode 24: “If I May Shed Away My Burden Now”
- Episode 25: “Walking Alone”
In actuality, episode 25 is the OVA. While it feels like a stand-alone episode, it is actually important to the arc in season three.
Watch Order: Season 3 and Dead Apple
Moving into season three can also be a little tricky. The first three episodes of this season explain pieces of the past for two of the characters, Chuuya Nakahara and Osamu Dazai. Watch these episodes before the movie.
- Episode 26: “Dazai, Chuuya, Fiteen Years Old”
- Episode 27: “God of Fire”
- Episode 28: “Only a Diamond Can Polish a Diamond”
Then, watch the movie, titled Dead Apple. The first three episodes of season three will help viewers better understand the events of the movie.
- Dead Apple (film, listed as another Episode 28 on Crunchyroll)
- Episode 29: “My Ill Deeds are the Work of God”
- Episode 30: “Slap the Stick & Addict”
- Episode 31: “Herurisu/Portrait of a Father”
- Episode 32: “Fitzgerald Rising”
- Episode 33: “The Masked Assassin”
- Episode 34: “Cannibalism (Part One)”
- Episode 35: “Cannibalism (Part Two)”
- Episode 36: “Cannibalism (Part Three)”
- Episode 37: “Echo”
Season 4
The Bungo Stray Dogs panel at Crunchyroll Expo 2022 provided audiences with the trailer for season four. Season four is coming in January 2023!
If you want to read the manga while waiting for the next season, then start with volume 13. Season three leaves off on chapter 53.
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