Episode 39

The Day is a Dream, the Night is Real (は夢、夜ぞ,) is the 39th episode of Bungo Stray Dogs anime series and the second episode of the fourth season. It aired on January 11, 2023.

Summary
The play commences at the theater, where Fukuzawa scans the audience to look for the possible murderer. As Fukuzawa spots and grows suspicious of a suited man, Ranpo shows his disinterest in the idea of having to sit through and pay for a play like everyone else despite, as he claims, how obvious the story’s ending is. Fukuzawa quiets him down, during which the boy voices out his bottled feelings of fear towards the people around him, deeming them monsters whom he cannot comprehend.

During the play’s intermission, Fukuzawa asks Ranpo whether he was ever told by his parents that he is quite talented, supported by how he was initially able to deduce Fukuzawa’s past occupation as an assassin and figure out the play’s murderer at once. In short, he asks whether the boy has ever thought that the people around him are clueless fools, to which Ranpo responds that he has.

Fukuzawa then asserts that Ranpo is a special ability user and issues him with what he claims to be special glasses that can help control his power. Though Ranpo shows reluctance about the nature of the glasses, which indeed turn out to be dead stock from a store, Fukuzawa lets out a cry to rein in Ranpo into wearing the glasses and further explains that the people around him are not monsters but are simply foolish than him akin to clueless children. Colored with understanding, Ranpo cheerfully declares to save the people around him and asks Fukuzawa to return to the theater as they try to prevent the upcoming murder.

As the play reaches its climax, Murakami is suddenly pierced onstage, which Fukuzawa notices is not part of the play. He confirms the blood to be real and urges the spectators to stay put. Amidst the investigation, Fukuzawa learns that the suited man has disappeared from his seat during the fiasco, leading Fukuzawa to worrily look for Ranpo and avows that the detective, regardless of his genius, must be armed. During his search, Egawa reveals that there are two murderers as told to her by Ranpo and that he shall declare the truth of the case.

Ranpo introduces himself to the audience as a gifted great detective and deduces that the play is all about reversal, similar to how the victim is the attacker and how the suited man, thought to be the attacker, is actually the victim. With Egawa’s help, Ranpo shows the audience the suited man tied up unconscious behind the curtains, whose identity he claims can be ascertained by the attacker himself. Upon calling him out, Murakami rises onstage still alive, who turns out to have drawn his blood and adopted various tricks to make his performance believable.

Planned together with the playwright Kurahashi, Murakami explains that his ultimate goal is to portray death to reach the pinnacle of acting, which he was able to do so albeit prematurely. Ranpo praises his talent but points out the audience’s collective puzzled reaction forced upon them, causing Murakami to conclude that he was merely acting for himself and surrenders himself to the police.

Shortly after, Fukuzawa tries to convince Ranpo that he did not use any ability in his deduction, but to no avail. A police officer then greets and praises the duo for cracking the case, afterwards asking them to handle the police work documents. Fukuzawa agrees to go once he finishes the cleanup with Egawa and requests the officer to take Ranpo ahead to the station.

In the mid-credits scene, Fukuzawa questions Murakami who the suited man is; the actor answers that the man is the other aim of the entire project and a target to be captured as told to him by Kurahashi. Not long after, the police captain informs Fukuzawa that Kurahashi has been killed in a. In the police car, Ranpo asks the officer if they are arriving to the station yet, to which the officer succinctly responds that they shall arrive soon.