Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, also known as E.A. Poe in the anime, is a supporting character from the Bungo Stray Dogs franchise. A redeemed antagonist from the Guild arc, he is a former member of the Guild who wanted to challenge his rival Ranpo Edogawa to solve the murder mystery inside his novel via his book imprisonment ability, Black Cat in the Rue Morgue. After the Guild's disbandment, he becomes an ally of the Armed Detective Agency.
He is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in the Japanese version (who voices Julius Novachrono from Black Clover and Kagaya Ubuyashiki from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba), and by Todd Haberkorn in the English version of the anime.
== Appearance ==
Poe is a 28-year-old man with a tall stature, pale skin, silver eyes, and purplish black wavy hair that usually covers his eyes. His old-style outfit consists of a black cape, a grey and white blazer with a button that resembles a black cat, which overlaps his black vest and white dress shirt, black pants with black leather belt, and brown knee-length boots. Poe is usually seen with Karl on his shoulder.
6 years prior to the main timeline, Poe, at the age of 22, had longer hair styled into a low undercut ponytail. His former outfit includes a sweater vest over his black tie and white dress shirt, brown pants, and dark shoes.
== Personality ==
A master architect with a main goal in mind, Poe is determined to plan his ultimate success of outsmarting a certain detective who solved thousands of cases to show that he will work hard at his interests. He is also an awkward introvert who couldn't stand larger crowds nor social gatherings. With his job, Poe is a wealthy man, but he is rather reckless with money, much to Ranpo's chagrin. As a member of the Guild prior to its disbandment, Poe acts cold and confident to Ranpo when the latter was challenged into a mystery game inside the novel. Deep down, however, he is rather desperate to see his rival take defeat in any mystery novel. Regardless, as an ally of the Armed Detective Agency, Poe is more than willing to help Ranpo solve difficult cases, especially when Kunikida was framed for murder, due to Mushitaro's ability that once outsmarted that of his rival.
== Background ==
Six years ago, Poe is a detective that Ranpo defeated during an investigation competition, which led the former to isolate himself in a dark room, planning to set up a rematch on the master detective. Sometime later, Poe decided to join the Guild, so he is able to encounter with Ranpo in person once again in the present.
== Ability ==
Black Cat in the Rue Morgue - Poe's ability allows him to transport readers into the setting based on the mystery novel that they are currently reading (the novel can be formatted physically with a book or digitally with any form of electronic device such as a phone). In order to transport back into the real world, the readers must solve the mystery, or they won't return. With a mystery novel that involves murder, a reader inside the novel can be a murdered victim (Yosano, for example) and being unable to return back to the real word. However, if the ally of said murdered victim is able to solve the mystery, they can return back safely. Besides Poe, anyone, including a non-ability user like Ranpo, can activate the ability to transport oneself, including other readers into the novel. The downside of Poe's ability is that it does not work on other genres as it relies solely on mystery.
== Trivia ==
* In real life, Taro Hirai admired the famous detective writer Edgar Allan Poe. Upon the former's literary debut, he decided to name himself as Ranpo Edogawa, which resembles the name of said detective writer.
* Although he likes raccoons, his main animal motif is a black cat, which can be seen as a button on his white blazer.
== Navigation ==
Category:Mature
Category:Male
Category:Anime Heroes
Category:Manga Heroes
Category:Animal Kindness
Category:Rivals
Category:False Antagonist
Category:Redeemed Villains
Category:Neutral Good
Category:Obsessed
Category:Book Heroes
Category:Honest
Category:Truth-Seekers
Category:Fictionalized
Category:Deal Makers
Category:Strategists
Category:Friend of a Villain
Category:Sidekicks
Category:Failure-Intolerant
Category:Supporters
Category:Virtually Resourceful