Nikolai Gogol is a very eccentric character in Bungo Stray Dogs. Though he can be a bit annoying at times, there is no doubt he is such an interesting character. It is also a no-brainer that his design is very enticing, much like himself.
Just by looking at Nikolai, he seems mischievous magician full of joy. In reality however, he is extremely chilling and kind of really scary as a character. This makes his appearance even better not just for how bold it looks.
Nikolai’s outfit is designed very audacious just like his character. He wears a white ruffley collared undershirt and over it, a black and white vest. He wears some vertically striped black and white pants, a small white top hat with a black and white triangle strip detailing. His outfit is also accessorized with pink fur, as he has a pink puffball clipped onto his top, a pink puffball clipped onto his hair, and pink fur going around the heels of his clown shoes with pointed up toes.
Yeah… yikes.
From that description, Nikolai’s outfit kind of sounds like it looks really ugly, and although it is unconventional, Nikolai definitely pulls it off and it looks nice on him. The outfit probably works for him because of how well it fits his features.
Nikolai has layered white hair going down by his neck, and a very long rat tail tied up as well. He has heterochromia, his left eye being a very pale blue and his right eye being a stagnant green. His blue eye is adorned with a vertical scar and his green is usually covered with a card looking eyepatch.
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The most important part to Nikolai’s outfit is of course his big white overcoat which looks to be something like a cape. This is very important because with Nikolai’s ability, it allows him to be able to warp things with said overcoat.
Nikolai’s look seems to be inspired by a magician or a clown. Clowns and magicians always seem to be thought of as very colorful but in Nikolai’s case his whole outfit is generally mostly black and white.
I really like this choice for Nikolais’ design, blending two things meant to be colorful and full of joy with a monochrome palette as it accurately tries to represent his character.
Nikolai is generally very cheery and flamboyant. His whole act of a personality is somewhat of a grand circus show. His clown and magician-like attire shows off on how he always seems to be putting on this big performance, masking all of the violence and atrocities that he commits with all of his witty “humorous” remarks. In regards to that, he is also cold and calculated. Which this could be represented through the monotonous choice of clothing colors.
All Nikolai really cares about is his ideology of being free, talking much about a caged bird motif. He thinks that he can be free with violent acts such as harming and killing other people and getting rid of everybody he could care about.
Still with Nikolai’s crazy obsession with that way of thinking, he still states that he is completely sane and does feel guilt for the atrocities that he causes, even though his whole personality and clothes make it seem like exactly the opposite.
It’s very interesting how Nikolai is just putting on a good performance all the time trying to make what he’s doing seem like something in good fun, just like his circusness aspect to his attire. His mind seems to be elsewhere though with the feelings of guilt, shown through the lack of color in his attire.
The black and white aspects of Nikolai’s outfit can also represent those two personas that both exist in some form in himself, the giddy one he has on display and the one that feels the weight of his actions.
