# Atsushi Nakajima (中島 敦) (Bungo Stray Dogs)
**Atsushi Nakajima** (中島 敦, Nakajima Atsushi) is the fictional protagonist of *Bungo Stray Dogs*, a Japanese manga series created by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. Named after the real 20th-century writer Nakajima Atsushi, he is an orphaned young man whose supernatural ability, 月下獣 (Beast Beneath the Moonlight), lets him transform into a giant, ferocious tiger, and who joins the Armed Detective Agency in the fictional city of Yokohama[1](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi) • [2](https://promo.kadokawa.co.jp/bungo/character/). In the anime he is voiced by Yuto Uemura (上村祐翔)[1](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Series role | Protagonist of *Bungo Stray Dogs* (manga serialized in *Young Ace* since 2013; TV anime from 2016)[3](https://2nd.bungo-stage.com/sp/outline/) |
| Ability | 月下獣 (Beast Beneath the Moonlight): transforms into a giant, ferocious tiger, which he cannot control[2](https://promo.kadokawa.co.jp/bungo/character/) |
| Affiliation | New employee of the Armed Detective Agency (武装探偵社), recruited by Osamu Dazai[1](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi) |
| Backstory | Abandoned by his parents, raised in an orphanage, expelled at 18 and left starving on the streets of Yokohama[4](https://attackofthefanboy.com/anime/who-is-the-main-character-in-bungo-stray-dogs/) |
| Voice actor | Yuto Uemura (anime, games, and spin-offs)[1](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi) |
| Literary namesake | The real Nakajima Atsushi, author of *Sangetsuki* (山月記), a story about a man who becomes a tiger[5](https://www.ama-net.ed.jp/school/h06/sosei_tosyover002/libraryreport2019.pdf) |
| Live-action portrayal | Yuki Torigoe (鳥越裕貴) in the 2022 film *Bungo Stray Dogs BEAST*[6](https://bungo-movie.com/) |
## Role in the story
**The tiger of Yokohama.** Atsushi is introduced as an orphan expelled from the orphanage where he grew up, wandering Yokohama and close to starvation[7](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/tv/story/?season=1st). A city rumor speaks of a man-eating tiger, and Atsushi falls in with [Osamu Dazai](https://www.edgepedia.org/osamu-dazai), an eccentric employee of the Armed Detective Agency who is investigating it, alongside Dazai's partner Doppo Kunikida[4](https://attackofthefanboy.com/anime/who-is-the-main-character-in-bungo-stray-dogs/). Unbeknownst to Atsushi, he is himself the tiger: under Dazai, whose own ability 人間失格 ([No Longer Human](https://www.edgepedia.org/no-longer-human)) nullifies other abilities on touch, his transformations are brought under control, and he joins the Agency[2](https://promo.kadokawa.co.jp/bungo/character/) • [4](https://attackofthefanboy.com/anime/who-is-the-main-character-in-bungo-stray-dogs/). One account of the opening episode reverses the direction of the rescue, describing Atsushi as saving Dazai, who was attempting suicide in the river, by chance[8](https://www.ub.ro/litere/st/Studenti/Reviste/RoBrit_2019v3.pdf).
**Personality.** Official profiles describe Atsushi as timid but kind-hearted, a man who in a crisis takes bold action to protect others even at his own expense[1](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi). As the Agency's newest employee, he is the point-of-view figure through which the reader meets the rest of the cast, from Kunikida to the great detective [Edogawa Ranpo](https://www.edgepedia.org/edogawa-ranpo)[4](https://attackofthefanboy.com/anime/who-is-the-main-character-in-bungo-stray-dogs/). His stated goal of becoming a "worthy person" drives his development through conflicts with the Port Mafia, led in the story world by Ōgai Mori, and with the North American ability organization known as the Guild[4](https://attackofthefanboy.com/anime/who-is-the-main-character-in-bungo-stray-dogs/) • [9](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/yokomitsuriichi/2019/17/2019_3/_pdf/-char/en) • [14](https://www.bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=mori-ougai-15).
## The ability and its literary source
The characters of *Bungo Stray Dogs* take their names from real Japanese and foreign writers and carry abilities loosely tied to those writers' representative works[9](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/yokomitsuriichi/2019/17/2019_3/_pdf/-char/en). Atsushi's 月下獣 reflects the work of the historical Nakajima Atsushi, a classical-Chinese-scholar's son who taught high school in Yokohama while writing, and whose story *Sangetsuki* (山月記) follows the Tang-dynasty scholar Li Zheng (李徴), who degenerates into a tiger[10](https://www.koshibun.jp/file_upload/100121/_main/100121_02.pdf) • [5](https://www.ama-net.ed.jp/school/h06/sosei_tosyover002/libraryreport2019.pdf).
The adaptation reverses the source's logic. In *Sangetsuki*, Li Zheng loses his humanity in the transformation; commentators note that the manga's Atsushi instead gains his humanity by controlling the tiger's power and using it for others[11](https://syntelligence.jp/article/123698). The tiger-and-black-beast pairing with Akutagawa, whose ability 羅生門 (Rashomon) turns his coat into a beast that cuts through anything, forms one of the series' central rivalries[9](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/yokomitsuriichi/2019/17/2019_3/_pdf/-char/en).
## Portrayals and media franchise
*Young Ace* began serializing the manga in 2013, the TV anime followed in 2016, a social game came in 2017, and a stage play and theatrical anime film followed in 2018[3](https://2nd.bungo-stage.com/sp/outline/). The franchise had surpassed 8.5 million copies in cumulative circulation by the time of the 2022 live-action film *Bungo Stray Dogs BEAST*, an alternate-universe story in which Atsushi was played by Yuki Torigoe[6](https://bungo-movie.com/). Yuto Uemura voices Atsushi across the anime, the spin-off *Bungo Stray Dogs Wan!*, and later projects such as the school-setting game *Gakuen Bungo Stray Dogs*[1](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi) • [12](https://bunst-gakuen.com/chara/?chara=15).
The character has also drawn readers back to the historical writer. When the Koshinokuni Museum of Literature held the "110th Anniversary: Nakajima Atsushi Exhibition" in 2019, the exhibition introduced *Bungo Stray Dogs* as a representative work that received the writer's literary world, displaying manga reproduction originals and anime scenes alongside messages from Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa to visitors[13](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/news/?news=collabo-koshinokuni). Library reading programs report readers picking up *Sangetsuki* after school precisely because they wanted to know the story behind the manga character[5](https://www.ama-net.ed.jp/school/h06/sosei_tosyover002/libraryreport2019.pdf).
## References
1. [中島 敦 | CHARACTER | アニメ「文豪ストレイドッグス」公式サイト](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=nakajima-atsushi)
2. [CHARACTER 主要キャラクターを紹介 | 『文豪ストレイドッグス』KADOKAWA 公式サイト](https://promo.kadokawa.co.jp/bungo/character/)
3. [概要｜舞台「文豪ストレイドッグス 黒の時代」公式サイト](https://2nd.bungo-stage.com/sp/outline/)
4. [Who Is the Main Character in Bungo Stray Dogs? | Attack of the Fanboy](https://attackofthefanboy.com/anime/who-is-the-main-character-in-bungo-stray-dogs/)
5. [この作家が好き！ 中島 敦 の巻（学校図書館読書レポート）](https://www.ama-net.ed.jp/school/h06/sosei_tosyover002/libraryreport2019.pdf)
6. [映画「文豪ストレイドッグス BEAST」公式サイト](https://bungo-movie.com/)
7. [STORY|アニメ「文豪ストレイドッグス」公式サイト（第1シーズン）](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/tv/story/?season=1st)
8. [LITERARY STRAY DOGS, RoBrit (2019)](https://www.ub.ro/litere/st/Studenti/Reviste/RoBrit_2019v3.pdf)
9. [文豪のキャラクター化とは何か（横溝亮一『2019』第17号）](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/yokomitsuriichi/2019/17/2019_3/_pdf/-char/en)
10. [企画展「生誕110年 中島敦展」（高志の国文学館）](https://www.koshibun.jp/file_upload/100121/_main/100121_02.pdf)
11. [『文豪ストレイドッグス』中島敦を徹底解説｜シンテリ](https://syntelligence.jp/article/123698)
12. [登場人物 CHARACTER ｜ アプリゲーム「學園文豪ストレイドッグス」](https://bunst-gakuen.com/chara/?chara=15)
13. [「生誕110年 中島敦展」とのコラボ開催｜アニメ公式サイト NEWS](https://bungo-stray-dogs.jp/news/?news=collabo-koshinokuni)
14. [森鴎外, CHARACTER, アニメ「文豪ストレイドッグス」公式サイト](https://www.bungo-stray-dogs.jp/character/?character=mori-ougai-15)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Film characters and fictional worlds › Anime and manga characters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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