Is the Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending canon? Manga and anime difference explained

Following the end of Bungo Stray Dogs season 5, all fans of the series were forced to wonder if the Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending was canon or not. As fans know, the anime series had surpassed the story of the manga, yet the anime studio BONES decided to release an episode that had only a few panels worth of source material.

In a normal situation, such an ending would be referred to as an anime-original ending. However, as revealed by the series, the anime is set to resume in the future. This has further forced fans to wonder if the anime story was canon. If that's true, how would the series proceed from now?

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How is the Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending different from the manga?

Osamu Dazai as seen in the anime (Image via BONES)

Unlike most anime that adapt the story from the manga, Bungo Stray Dogs anime happened to surpass the story from the manga. The last chapter of the manga series saw Aya making a sacrifice by jumping off the building to help pull the sword out of Bram's body. However, the anime ending far surpassed it.

The Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending made a lot of revelations. Firstly, it revealed that Aya was, in fact, successful in her mission as she managed to pull out the sword from Bram. This helped Bram regain all his powers. Using this, he was able to use Akutagawa to rescue Aya from her descent.

Chuuya Nakahara as seen in the anime (Image via BONES)

Elsewhere, it was revealed that Nakahara Chuuya was never a Vampire and was pretending to be one to help Osamu Dazai defeat Fyodor. Following that, one of the vampires controlled by Bram stabbed Fyodor and piloted the helicopter to crash toward a building. With that, Fyodor finally passed away.

Around the same time, Fukuzawa found an opening and took away the One Order from Fukuchi. Following that, the anime revealed Fukuchi's goal. He had received a message from Amenogozen stating that there was set to be a war in 36 years. Fukuchi was trying to stop it by uniting all armies in the world under his command.

Fukuchi and Fukuzawa as seen in the anime (Image via BONES)

With his plot out in the open, Fukuchi asked Fukuzawa to kill him and become the Chief Commander of the Army of Mankind. While Fukuzawa could not do it, Teruko did it for him, allowing the Armed Detective Agency leader to become the new Chief Commander.

However, that wasn't all, as the Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending showed fans an enigmatic scene that took place two hours after Fukuchi's death. An ominous villain was shown fighting Atsushi and Akutawaga but the villain's identity wasn't revealed. That said, the villain looked like a fusion of Fukuchi and Fukuzawa.

The villain as seen in the anime (Image via BONES)

With such an odd sight, it is difficult to say if the Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending is canon. However, the anime revealed that it would return. Thus, there is reason to believe that the story is actually canon.

However, fans will only be able to confirm it after the manga reaches that point in the storyline. While it should normally take only about three chapters for the manga to reach the same point, manga author Kafka Asagiri may choose to expand the Bungo Stray Dogs anime ending storyline.