Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam

Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam (文豪ストレイドッグス 太宰治の入社試験, Bungō Sutorei Doggusu Dazai Osamu no Nyūsha Shiken) is the 1st light novel in the series. It details Osamu Dazai joining the Armed Detective Agency through Doppo Kunikida's perspective. Entrance Exam was adapted into the Bungo Stray Dogs (Anime), filling in Episode 6 and Episode 7 of the series.

It consists of eight chapters in total.

Description
Doppo Kunikida is an idealist and a straitlaced detective at the Armed Detective Agency, an organization that takes on dangerous jobs even the police won't handle. Everything in his life is going just as he's planned...until one day, he's paired up with the agency's newest hire: a suspicious, eccentric, suicide-obsessed man named Osamu Dazai. Their first case together turns out to be far more complicated than Kunikida anticipated -- and it looks like the detective agency's sworn enemy, the Port Mafia, is somehow involved, too!

Set two years before the events of the manga series, this is the tale of how two seemingly incompatible personalities end up forming the partnership that has made them one of Yokohama's top detective duos!

List of Chapters

 * Prologue
 * Chapter I
 * Chapter II
 * Interlude I
 * Chapter III
 * Chapter IV
 * Interlude II
 * Epilogue

Involved Parties

 * Armed Detective Agency

Author's Afterword
 It is a pleasure to meet you, and if this isn’t the first time we’ve met, then it is nice to see you again! Kafka Asagiri here. I write the stories for the manga Bungo Stray Dogs. They usually go a little something like this:  '''DAZAI: “Hey, Atsushi. Just finishing up work for the day?” Dazai smiles cheerfully. '''  ATSUSHI: “D-did you…try to drown yourself again?” Atsushi makesa face.   That’s my typical sloppy writing, but illustrator Sango Harukawa is the one who really makes the characters come to life. Her artwork makes things easy for me. But this time, things were different.

I had to take responsibility for every sentence I wrote in this novel .Everything from describing a cup on a table to an old man in town, I had to edit, adjust, and call the shots myself. If I was to describe my work on the manga in film terms, I would say that illustrator Harukawa is the actor, cameraperson, sound mixer, lighting technician, and scene editor, while all I do is write the scenario and help with the directing. That’s why this book was such a huge task and a massive responsibility. The pressure from writing my first novel was so intense that I was trembling almost the entire time, like a phone on vibrate mode. But it was worth it in the end. In a sense, I was able to create a world that was richer than the comics, which I hope you enjoyed.  This novel is a spin-off about events that took place two years prior to the Bungo Stray Dogs manga. However, I wrote it in a way that you wouldn’t need any prior knowledge of the series to enjoy the suspense and surprise.Additionally, I plan on writing a second novel that details the Port Mafia’s past. The pressure and responsibility is already making me tremble so much that my table’s legs are probably about to snap. I plan on finishing it before I dig a hole in the floor, so please look forward to it. Finally, I would just like to thank a few people: Katou, the chief editor of the manga; Koshikawa, the chief editor of this novel, from Beans Bunko; Sango Harukawa, who always draws such stylish covers and characters (andwithout her illustrations, this novel would’ve just looked like some weird Bungo Stray Dogs rip-off!); and the advertisers, agencies, bookstores, and you, the reader! Thank you all so much.

Let us meet again in the next volume.

KAFKA ASAGIRI