This episode was Durarara back to doing what it does best. Taking its massive cast of characters and having them bounce off each other in Ikebukero. It works in the same way DRRR!! has always worked, because these characters are so wacky and diverse that simply watching them go about their daily lives is entertainment in on itself. In the last DVD special, I said it was sorely lacking in sushi-yo umai-yo, and hell yes did we get enough of that in this episode. Better yet was the further delving into Shizuo’s brother’s personality and his capability to play any personality his job requires him to do. Narita just doesn’t do bad characters. Heck, one of the best scenes in the episode was that 10 second shot of little-Shizuo’s fabulous boss and his simultaneous styrofoam cup drinking posse.

We also got treated to Izaya’s sisters and the…err, close relationship they have with each other. Honestly, I wasn’t quite taken by them, being far more amused by Shizuo hanging them up on a vending machine so they stayed out of his way. Anyone from the Oihara family is hardly going to be normal now, are they? Heck, that would have been even more amusing. If the sisters of Izaya were actually normal shy girls who wouldn’t know what end of a flick knife to hold. From what I’ve heard from those who read the light novels though, these two are some of the best characters we never got to see. Whatever, I’m still annoyed this episode didn’t have anymore of Shinra’s dad. He was a criminally underused character. Maybe in that second season I desperately hope we’ll get…

Shizuo being awesome. Not much more needs to be said. Him letting a street lamp fall on his head with the look of pure rage etched across his face was probably the best part of the episode. Wait, didn’t I just say the simultanious styrofoam cup drinking posse was the best part? Or would it be Erika’s ‘ume seke’ commentary on the duel? Sounded like she was reading the plot descriptions out for the latest batch of Durarara doujins from Comiket.

I tell a lie, you know what my real favourite part of the episode was? Mikado directing the new kid around Ikebukero. It sounds like a strange choice, given that there were no flying street signs and that Mikado is generally considered to be the one example of Narita creating a boring character. But I loved this scene because it highlighted the very essense of what Durarara is about. In this area of Ikebukero you have deity’s and gang leaders fighting alongside mad scientists and headless Irish fairies. A place where you could stop some random person on the street to ask for directions, unknowing that the guy you stopped is actually the leader of a dangerous online activist group. The kid himself is probably the illegitimate son of Hades who sent him to school in Japan because he was sick of him cramping his style down in the underworld. And it’s in this city where they can suddenly all meet up at a television screening and all get into scraps with each other.

And who is the one who agitates these interactions? Who is the malevolent git that got that guy to attack Shizuo’s brother with the knife so they would all start a punch up? Who is the driving force behind every plot arc? The one who makes this series tick? Oihara Izaya. You magnificent bastard. Without you, everyone in the city would probably get along fine. Izaya did say he would be leaving town though, so what’s going to be the driving force behind the plot now? As in, the driving force behind the plot in that second season Brains Base will make. I hope. They will though, it was their best selling anime they’ve ever made and there’s more source material to make more content with. Please?

SECOND SEASON WHERE!?!

Quick crash course: This is the first of the two extra episodes that were promised back just before the show originally ended. The first, in a rather welcomed surprise, is streaming at Crunchyroll. Why they couldn’t do that for the Sora no Woto extra episodes I do not know. But readily available extra Durarara is nothing to complain about.

This episode takes place between 12 and 13, if you hadn’t already copped on by the 12.5 title. The characters largely all act the same way they always did, but there’s more than a few telling instances that shows us where we are in the series. Celty doesn’t open the bag when there’s a suspicion that what’s inside might be a severed head, which shows it’s probably right after her romantic (bleargh) make up with Shinra. If it was any earlier, or possibly later, she almost certainly would have taken a peek. There’s also the fact that Kida is still in town. I’d forgotten that he had even left back in the last episode. It feels quite a long time ago now. Only 3 months since Durarara ended? Woah. So basically we don’t see any part of the characters we didn’t already know, which is a bit of a shame. I would have liked something like the Baccano OVA’s or even those extra FMA:B episodes where they showed extra parts to the story they didn’t feel were necessary first time around.

So the actual story of the episode was one of those told backwards ones where the whole thing only really makes sense by the end. I’ll try my best to explain what was going on, but I’m not fully sure myself. First there was the guy in the above picture who was running away from Tom because he owed him money. His nose-blowing girlfriend gave him fresh undies and a packed lunch in Bag A. However he got that bag mixed up with Bag B that was full of money the gangsters were going to trade for the lizard in Bag C, which Izaya somehow managed to get off the other group of Engrish speaking gangsters who were going to make the trade. However the Japanese gangsters lead by the guy with angry eyebrows figured out what was going on, almost certainly through Izaya, and asked him to help him get his lizard back. The whole thing becomes a mess when Bag A with the fresh undies and packed lunch gets tossed into the mix and people start chasing after Dotachin and co. Now here is where I totally lose track of who’s got what bag, but it stops really mattering at that point anyway.

In short, this whole kerfuffle was just Izaya finding a way to pass to time and with a bonus feature of pissing off Shizuo. Basically just like any other episode of Durarara.

So as I said earlier, the characters haven’t changed one bit. Celty is still moe and afraid of aliens. Izaya is still pulling the strings behind everything. Shizuo is still trying to control his rage with little success. The otaku duo still think of everything as fictional. Mikado still doesn’t do anything remotely interesting. But that’s far from being a bad thing. While it would have been nice to see something new brought to the series, seeing Shizuo lift swing the poor bloke inside the tree was refreshing in its inevitability. Plus it was a hugely entertaining episode, and I did love the final fireworks exclamation from Kida.

Durarara is still Durarara, God is still in heaven and all is right with the world.

Durararararararararararararararararararaararararara

This episode serves as to a great highlight as to what this series did well and didn’t do well. The final scene with the Yellow Scarves was awfully dull. Dotachin leaping out with his yellow bandanna, suddenly acting like he was important to the plot all along, was pretty badass but his way of solving this plot line was to beat the crap out of the Yellow Scarves? Really now, that’s the best he could come up with? Then there was the three angsty teenagers all apologising to one another for dragging the plot down these last few episodes. And what does Celty do in all this? Stand in a kung-fu position, totally ignoring the fact she can summon a 10 foot sythe and beat them all by herself. I mean, I get why this works. You shove Horada’s way of taking over the Yellow Scarves’ in his face by using the same method against him, but it wasn’t a particularly interesting way to end the arc. The best part from that whole was the guy in the background performing a crazy double-footed kick.

See! When Kadota was giving one of his speeches, my eyes were transfied to the guy in the background repeatedly hitting someone on the ground with an iron bar. Repeating animation movements make me lol.

This picture might be the best to sum up what was wrong with the last arc. Horada was never a real villain. Izaya said it himself that he had found someone distinctly unfabulous to finish up his game with. The last arc crawled to a finish, Izaya trolling away and the three angsty teenagers being unable to do anything. It was a conflict amonst the smaller characters in the series that was really nothing more than Izaya’s plaything. Horada, Mikado, Kida, Kadota, Anri. They’re all minor players in this big game of Ikebukero.

But bring the bit players back into the picture, directly conflicting with one another, and suddenly Durarara looks like the A+ anime it promised us all it would be. This may sound like blasphemy to some, but if there’s one place Durarara tops Baccano, it’s with the strength of personality of the characters. Izaya, Shizuo and Celty in particular, with maybe Simon lagging a bit behind those three. It comes as no surprise that the show was at it’s best when these characters were in scenes together. The main overlying story of Durarara is a struggle for power in Ikebukero amongst these bigwigs. Well, not a struggle for power I suppose. More like conflicts of personality between those. Each of the arcs in Durarara never dealt directly with these conflicts, which explains why the building up of these arcs was always stronger than the ending to each of them.

Izaya is what really makes this series tick though. Without him there would be no conflict. But without those other bigwigs in Ikebukero there would be nobody to stop him. That’s why this last arc stumbled. Nobody opposed Izaya in a scheme he was much more directly involved in than previous arcs so it became repetitive. Anyone who tried to oppose Izaya would inevitably fail, apart from those very bigwigs I mentioned earlier. Is it a coincidence that the only times Izaya was shown to be momentarily perturbed by events were directly caused by Simon or Shizuo? There was one flash of annoyance at the prospect of him losing his beloved humanity to a ‘stupid sword’ though, which shows that the supernatural still has the ability to throw him off guard.

That is why we need a second season (yes, I think you all knew this was coming). The main conflict of Durarara was not solved. The minor conflicts each character had within themselves were solved. Celty’s relationship with Shinra, Mika Harima’s reveal that she was still herself to Seiji, Shizuo coming to terms with his strength, Anri learning to deal with Saika, Mikado understanding what the Dollars meant, Kida finally facing his past Spike Speigal style, but the main plot point of Izaya never came to a head. His fascination with humans, his complex with Shizuo (I heard the squeals around the world when Simon said that line) and what it was he was really searching for were never truly solved. Simon’s reveal at the end that a lot of what Izaya does is a farce to himself finally shows us that there’s more to Izaya then just being a benevolent sociopath.

There’s no way I couldn’t put this piece of fanservice in.

Even with all that jabbering over the rest of this post, this still is the last episode and looking back at the series overall, I really will miss it. Yes it could have been better, but what we got was fantastic either way. The gradual reveal of Shizuo until his grand entrance in episode 3 with his ‘IIIIIIIZZZAAAAAAYYYAAAAAA-KUUUUNNN’. Or how about the shortest-lived hobby in phone-stomping history. Then there was bubbling over how moe Celty was, followed by the outrage that she jumped back into Shinra’s arms. Remember constantly looking at the street signs for the latest reference to other anime? I was totally duped into believing that the head on Mika Harima’s shoulders did belong to Celty, which was often mentioned in quick succession with how fucked up the sexual preferences of the Yagiri family was. The awesomeness of Shingen was short-lived. The barrage of yaoi fanart was not, although was made bareable by the glories of genderswapping. The constant theories thrown around as to what the Slasher actually was. And how about the seemingly endless parade of parodies of the Trust Me ending song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those of you who followed my blogging of the series, I hope you enjoyed the ride as I spent forver blabbing about how fascinating Izaya is, how moe Celty is, how I helped spawn now the biggest Dollars lookalike site and, by the end, how slow-moving the plot had become. Please do leave a comment if you enjoyed reading. For those who only joined for this episode…well, I hope you at least enjoyed reading this post at least. Goodbye Durarara!!

Getting pissed off at characters is not my forte. When the rest of the world was raging at these bunch of angsty teenagers, it never particularly bothered me. Sure Mikado wasn’t exactly the most riveting character to watch but his actions all worked in the grand scheme of the story. What annoyed me about this episode was how dumb several of the scenes felt. Yes, Shizuo thinking he slipped when in fact he got shot was badass and everything, but it made a mockery of the cliffhanger at the end of the last episode. Its relevance on the story was minimal and now makes that twist at the end of the episode a lazy attempt to ramp up the tension. I bet he’ll return to the Yellow Scarves headquarters next episode for an ‘oh shit’ moment for Horada, but now it just feels stupid.

Speaking of Horada, since when did he become a main character? Why wasn’t he given a spot in the opening when Shizuo’s brother was? And what about that awesome policeman? Then what about Shingen? Why introduce all these characters when you weren’t going to do anything with them? I suppose these all could be answered in a potential second season but surely the director could have planned this series out better.

In the world of pointless characters though, Simon has to be the most frustrating. When he confronted Kida in the rain I was excited. Finally we were going to understand Simon’s relevance to the plot. But no, instead he had some stupid silly foreigners speech about why he liked Ikebukero. That seriously pissed me off. In the end he was nothing more than silly foreigner guy. That whole speech with Kida changed nothing. He might as well spent that entire time trying to sell him some of his umai-yo sushi-yo and it would have had as much relevance to the plot. The only effect he had on this episode was to point Celty in the right direction.

But this was the dumbest part of all. Can someone please tell me when 16 year old Kida suddenly learned street-smart kung-fu skills? Since when was he able to take on 6 armed Yellow Scarves members by himself? Why is this fight scene suddenly being thrown in in episode 23? There hasn’t been a single other instance over the course of the show where Kida has shown his fighting prowess. We know how strong Shizuo, Celty, Simon and Izaya are and we also know how weak Shingen and Mikado are. But for Kida to suddenly dispatch this lot was dumb. Dumb dumb dumb.

So what characters came out of this episode with their reputation intact? Well, Celty was awesome. When Mikado is trying to justify his reason for shutting down Dollars, she’s all like ‘cool story bro. Now come with me so we can finish this fecking arc’ (she’s Irish so she would obviously saw ‘fecking’).  Then there was Namie, who has also got sick of what little development is happening in this arc with Izaya and has also taken it into her own hands to get this plotline finished.

A lot of the complaints I’m levelling at this episode can be answered with ‘it comes later in the books’ but it’s the duty of the anime director to make sure the anime itself remains relatively self-contained. The series has sold phenomenally well so a second season seems likely and maybe then my complaints will start to look irrational whining. But this was not a good episode by any stretch of the imagination. bleargh

In case you were wondering, those things coming out from his head are arms from chaos dragging Ikebukero in, kinda like those creepy hands that come out of the Gate of Truth in Full Metal Alchemist.

The parameters of this episode were pretty small. Anri gets atargeted by the Yellow Scarves only to get repeatedly saved by the Dollars. However the Dollars methods of rescue were so ineffectual that this would only result in a temporary rescue that gained Anri on average an extra 30 seconds of freedom. It doesn’t say much for the Dollars if their combined efforts leave Anri in a town square surrounded by the Yellow Scarves. OK, at least their two ace-cards of Celty and Shizuo had arrived on the scene by then. However Celty would almost certainly have been chased off by the police moments after she tried to rescue Anri, while Shizuo only saved the day by accident because he was pissed off and the Yellow Scarves just so happened to be the closest thing he could be violent towards (I suppose he could have taken out his anger on his phone seeing as Izaya got bored of that hobby ages ago, but that’s not really Shizuo’s style).

Shizuo is awesome, isn’t he? I love Izaya because I can endlessly analyse him and I love Celty because she’s moe and I can endlessly analyse her, I love Shizuo simply because he is awesome by default. Even though the Yellow Scarves met Simon halfway through their chase of the bunny girl, it was only when they hit the extremely angry brick wall of Shizuo did their chase come to an end. Since I’ve got football on the brain, Shizuo works best in Durarara as an impact substitute. When he’s the main focus of the fight it’s just him beating up shit. However introduce him to proceedings late on in the game and his impact is fantastic. This was him at his best since he clocked Izaya with a bin. He enters proceedings, along with his custom BGM, and completely steals the show. Out of all the characters in this show, Shizuo may just be the one who will live in anime fandom’s memories the longest.

The one person Shizuo has to contend with for that title is Celty. Now that she’s no longer centre of attention, watching her everyday life with Shinra has managed to become more entertaining. I’m no longer left questioning the dubious relationship between the two (although Celty did do a little shout out to his untrustworthyness) and just left enjoying the odd way of life when living with a headless Irish fairy who sends your games consoles to other dimensions. I really want her to come back into the picture again.

What has happened to the Celty part of Izaya’s plans anyway? I’m starting to think I’ve misjudged his plans with the whole Valhalla thing (wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gotten something wrong in Durarara, as this tag is testament to). He plans to bring war and chaos into Ikebukero in order to awaken the Dullahan head. However I’m pretty sure there was a second part to his plan he concocted with Shingen (what on earth has happened to him anyway?) which involved Celty becoming disillusioned with life and her relationships with various Ikebukero folk, most importantly Shinra. However they seem to be living a pretty cosy life together at the moment. Celty doesn’t appear to be exuding any sort of apocalyptic inducing tendencies at all. There’s only 2 episode left and I can’t see how they’re going to reintroduce that half of the story, especially when you consider the pace the story has been moving at recently.

Meanwhile, Mikado continues his attempts at pissing off pretty much everyone watching the show with his general facepalm-inducing moves. I know various other people blogging Durarara, along with the forums I visit on occasion, are generally of the opinion that he is a giant ignoramus but my opinion of him has rarely ventured beyond indifference. However his decision to shut down the Dollars is baffling. Someone needs to repeat to him the Shinji mantra of ‘I musn’t run away’ because that’s all the idiot is doing. Kida is not a whole lot better, just taking the option of going along with the tide with a bored expression on his face, something he’d decided to do last episode. Then again, I can’t really see what they could do otherwise in their position so I will lay off heaping any criticism on their poor souls. They’re a bunch of angsty teenagers being manipulated by Grand Dick Izaya. Life’s pretty tough on them without us heaping scorn upon their misfortunes. Admittedly it doesn’t make for a riveting viewing experience though.

The episode ends with Shizuo getting shot, with the chances of him dying about similar to the chances of North Korea winning the world cup, and I’m trying to work out who would exactly care that he’s no longer terrorizing Ikebukero? His employer, Tomo Tanaka, would probably care but he holds as much sway in Ikebukero as a teacup in a nuclear war. His brother might come to visit him, which would be fun to see but ultimately irrelevant. The only other person he seems to be friends with is Celty. Suddenly, the one other person Celty seems to care about get seriously injured? Suddenly Izaya’s plan to disillusion Celty is coming into focus a bit more.

OK, back to DRRR now.

I’m beginning to get frustrated at Durarara. I think the best way to illustrate my current problem with the series would be using my excellent artistic skills and the Japanese creation of the 4-koma.

Another episode is spent drilling these three kids further down the intricate plotting of Izaya and there’s absolutely nothing any of them can do about it. The thing is, this is exactly what Durarara has been doing for the past 3–4 episodes. It’s all excellently woven story-telling and everything but it’s getting repetitive. At the end of each episode I find myself thinking ‘woah, shit is going to get real next episode’ and then shit doesn’t quite get real yet and we’re left with yet another episode of tantalising. It’s now reached the point that I’m no longer eagerly anticipating this war of Izaya’s and now just want him to get it bloody over with. They’ve pushed this tale an episode too far and now it’s lost the impact it would have had. Well, we won’t know how effective it was until Ikebukero finally does spill over into all-out gangland warfare, but my general thinking is that it’s lost the power it had.

What more is there to say anyway? Mikado has gone for the ‘leave it alone and it will all work out’ approach, only to make things worse by doing so. Anri went the total opposite direction and tried to break up the fights, only for that to backfire and convince the Yellow Scarves even further that the Dollars are out to get them. Kida has clearly given up hope in trying to prevent this upcoming war, judging by his deadpan expressions. He’s letting himself be controlled by Izaya. The three kids have no control and are all beginning to see how immature and useless they are. It’s a harsh world.

As for the wildcards who can stop Izaya, they’re doing nothing to help whatsoever. Shizuo is too busy trying to find inner peace to bother confronting Izaya. Simon is a pacifist and is mucking about with his Sushi shop. The only person to consider doing something is Celty but she’s a wimp. Besides, Shinra was right. It’s hard to see what she could do without making things worse. Leaving things alone won’t help it either though and Shinra is smart enough to know that.

In a roundabout way, Namie has no become the character I enjoy watching the most. She’s stuck in the same situation we viewers are in. Watching Izaya’s plans all roll into action but being able to do nothing about them, she just sits in the corner and makes jibes at his ego and taunting. OK, it’s not exactly Nagato during Endless Eight but we’re definitely seeing things from her point of view. She’s smart enough and has a large enough view of things to work out exactly what’s going on. I wonder if she’ll try fuck with his plans before the end? At least can someone fuck with his plans? Another episode of Ikebukero dangling over the edge is not what I want to see.

Durarara manages to explain what the vast majority of what’s written on the internet is. Especially internet forums and chatrooms, which explains why Dollars seems to be made up of almost entirely young people. Oh, and one headless Irish Fairy in a skin tight leather suit.

So this time around we spend half the episode having Kida chatting to Dotachin and co. Hurrah, yet another episode made up of people chatting, except instead of chatrooms on the internet we get parades of talking heads. The talking heads conversation was more interesting I suppose, but still far from the form I’m used to seeing Durarara at. Erika and Walker did their rounds at narrating today but beyond showing that they rarely took real life seriously (something we kinda already knew), they didn’t add a whole lot to the episode. Dotachin getting defensive about the Dollars was interesting to see though. I wasn’t expecting that response. Being loyal to the Dollars seems strange when the group is just an internet-based gang with no aims. However once you factor in that he feels that way about Dollars, the rest of the scene fits quite well. Kida basically accused Dollars of fucking with the Yellow Scarves and Dotachin stood his ground, which is fair play IMO. He gets a thumbs up from Simon for that.

It didn’t seem like Kida anticipated that response either. He went to them apparently expecting full compliance from the Dollars but was met with serious face Dotachin and some otaku with dangerously low levels of temper control. Their message was quite simple really. Fuck with the Dollars and we won’t take it lying down. Which puts what happens at the end of the episode into harsh detail. Yellow Scarves have attacked a kid specifically because he was in Dollars, which is exactly what Dotachin said they would react to. Plus I’m pretty sure Dotachin knew this would happen after his ‘you know the Yellow Scarves have changed in your absense’ line. He knows the violent members of the Blue Squares had joined the Yellow Scarves and that tension was boiling between Yellow Scarves and the Dollars. What’s bugging me is why is nobody doing anything about it?

When Kida sees that the phone number is Izaya’s, he realises yet again that this is all entirely part of Izaya’s grand master plan. And yet he still goes to Izaya because he has no other choice. Izaya himself knows that Kida knows and spends his time in this episode rubbing it in his face. Kida knows that Izaya is fucking with him and yet he continues on. It’s like on a board game like draughts when you realise that you’ve fallen into a set of moves that will result in your loss but you can’t do anything about it and are left playing out these moves set in motion by your opponent.

Practicing ma’ Gendo Ikari pose~

What’s worse about the whole situation is that none of the leaders of the three groups can turn to anyone for help. Kida can’t turn to Mikado for help because he’s just found out he’s head of Dollars. He can’t turn to Anri because that’s the very person he’s trying to protect from all this. He’s left turning to the Yellow Scarves for help, which is exactly where these problems are stemming from. Similarly Mikado can’t reveal he’s head of Dollars to his two friends so he’s left trying to get help from the Dollars, which is being hounded by Izaya and only contributing further to the problem. Anri has also joined that chat and is also being subjected to the shit-stirring skills of Izaya and Celty is no bloody help whatsoever in there because she’s too busy being frightened by the police.

He really has got this all perfectly worked out. The Yellow Scarves will cause violence by themselves naturally because they’ve inherited violent people. He can manipulate the Dollars leader in the chat room, while constantly providing even more fuel to the fire of Celty’s almost continuous worrying. Many people can see all this happening but nobody is capable of stopping him. Namie Yagiri is the best of the lot. Izaya has her pinned down so all she’s now able to do is point out what a troll he is. They’re like an alternative universe version of Lelouch and C.C.But watching Izaya trolling for the past few episodes has gotten kind of dull. Either this war has to break out soon or we need Celty and Shinra back in the mix again.

Taiga from Toradora, Shana from Shakugan no Shana and Horo from Spice and Wolf. Oh look. Reference dropping. You know, I’d probably prefer these scenes if I didn’t know the characters in question. In my ignorance I’d just be looking at Erika and Walker doing geeky stuff. Instead I found myself trying to pick out every reference in every scene change. It got to the point that I was missing what the subs were saying because I was trying to work out if the BL manga in the background sported Lelouch and Suzaku on the cover or not.

This far what we’ve seen of Izaya’s grand master plans have generally been him lording it over his board or one key move in relation to a much larger picture (such as a quick show that he was exchanging text messages with Mika Harima) and hence they’ve been pretty fun to watch. Mainly it’s his lording over everything that causes me to write so much about the guy and why I find him so fascinating. This episode was Izaya doing the dirty work of mixing with the masses and planting seeds that will eventually grow into this war he’s envisioning.

Yes, you are reading yet another post devoted to Izaya. Why, what varied and exciting Durarara posts you write Scamp!

The thing is though, watching Izaya trolling the internet isn’t particularly interesting. Apart from the scene with Celty rescuing Anri, this was essentially an entire episode of chatrooms. The chatrooms were never the most interesting part of Durarara. They were a nice add on to the plot and re-enforced the idea of everything being discussed in Ikebukero, but an entire episode devoted to them is pretty dull. Izaya is far more fun to watch in action then he is smirking at his computer screen. Try all you want Brains Base at having dramatic angles for each new line of text and cutscreens between the writers. You will not be able to make an internet chat room interesting. The only way it’s been made interesting before in anime is Ghost in the Shell or Summer Wars where they make the internet all colorful and have them all sitting around a digital table with weird stuff flying around in the background.

Heh, that’s an amusing thought exercise. What sprites would the Durarara characters have in Oz? Izaya would almost certainly be a cute girly creature. He just seems like that kind of guy.

So what more is there to say? Ikebukero goes slightly further down the path of war. Kida thinks the Slasher is part of Dollars. But the Dollars are everywhere, even inside the Yellow Scarves. But that just means their exchanging each others inside information. As are the children of Saika. Theoretically, this should mean more understanding between the three but Izaya is fucking with everything so that’s never going to happen. You need a wild card of Simon or Shizuo. More importantly, we need Shingen back in the picture. He was hilarious for the two episodes he actually showed up in. It’s the problem with large casts I guess. There’s always characters that feel like they’re never getting enough screen time. Like the traffic cop. He was the narrator for this episode but never showed up. He was, I must admit, I bloody terrible narrator. He just told us what was going on screen and that’s it. *snore* Bring back Simon commentated episodes!

Notice how Celty always spawns her helmets with cat ears? It’s an Irish thing you know. All people wearing motorcycle helmets have cat ears on them. People always remark on it when they visit the country. Don’t believe me? Here’s a video of some motorcycle race in Ireland. You can tell the French guys apart from the Irish because they don’t have cat eared helmets.

Kida and the Yellow Scarves. In this picture they look nothing more than a group of kids trying to act tough, and that’s all they really were. It was never really explained why Kida set the group up but they never really needed to. Kida is just a hugely charismatic character who naturally draws people towards him. He also strikes me as the kind of guy who’d get heavily influenced by pop culture, hence I can see why the idea of starting a gang would appeal to him. I’d say he simply underestimated his own charisma and ability to attract members. At heart he had no intention of ever clashing with any rival gangs. I doubt he ever thought that far forward, he was just a kid at the time. There was someone who thought that far forward though…although I did say I’d try not to talk about that person…

Speaking of influenced by pop culture, even the world of the otaku can drive people to violence. I quite like Dotachin’s group in that van. They represent the everyday Ikebukero young adults. They’re heavily influenced by the culture around them and extremely street smart. This episode also cleared up why they were so interested in the idea of the Dollars in the first place. After discovering what the Blue Squares were doing, they’d want to join a group that was more interested in helping society and yet let them do their own thing. Being part of a group without having to wear your colours. For a city that was entrenched in gang warfare, I can see why you’d join Dollars. Be able to walk into Russian Sushi without other tables being worried about your presence. Not having to be worried about a large opposing gang attacking you yet keeping the comfort that your fellow members will look out for you. The thing is, it’s still a gang, even if it is colourless. Which is why someone like Izaya is able to control it…oh dear, there I go again…

Oh Kida, you know nothing good will come from starting up the Yellow Scarves again. Sure, you get to stand in dramatic poses in the lamplight but what on earth makes you think this time will be any different. Do you honestly think not getting anyone over the age of 20 will help your cause? Makes me wonder how old that man was when he was ‘helping’ the Yellow Scarves originally. Well if Shinra was in school with him and Shinra met Celty originally when he was 4 and Durarara started 20 years after that and the Yellow Scarves disbanded 6 months before the anime started, that man was about 23–24 around that time. I suppose it does help Kida keep the group under his control, although in the grand scheme of things that probably isn’t a good idea because I can see Kida letting his emotions get to him. Plus that man has him wrapped around his little finger.

It’s amusing seeing Kida trying to flirt with a girl whose much better at it than he is. Quite the different environment from when he’s around Mikado and Anri.

This episode felt very similar to episode 7 when Shizuo was narrating his past. While each episode of Durarara is narrated, in these episodes the narration felt stronger and more relevant, probably because they themselves knew what was going to happen next. And, like episode 7, the narrators life started to unravel when they met a certain man. Their life, which they had tried to get used to, had fallen into the path of violence under the tutelage of that meddler. Fuck it, I can’t hold back any longer.

It’s not that I particularly like Izaya. He is, as Shinmaru puts so elequantly in his post title, a humongous dick. There are some playful moments around him, best of all being his classic phone-stomping scene in episode 3 and his general jolly attitude to life. But for the most part he’s terrifying and an absolute asshole to people in this series, sending their lives crashing down around them. His grand final plan revolves around sending Celty into a fit of rage by collapsing her trust to those she holds dear to her. How could one possibly like a man who has the intention to ruin the life of our favourite headless moeblob? Yet he stands far and away as my favourite character in the series.

I was going to write a separate post about why I’m so fascinated by Izaya but I think it suits these Durarara posts more to have it in here. I love characters whose shadow hangs over everything that happens in a story, through willpower or influence or general scheming control and effect everything that happens. Nothing can happen in the story without considering how this character effected the events. The Count from Gankutsuou is a great example of this. Nothing happens in that anime without it having been factored into his plans. L from Death Note hangs over every decision Light makes, even after episode 26. The best moments in Berserk come not during the hacking and slashing, but when the sheer power of Griffith’s ambition and dreams overwhelms everyone who comes into contact with the man. Similarly we have Izaya in Durarara, manipulating everything in Ikebukero and factoring every event into his plans. That ShogiGoChess board of his is the perfect metaphor for what he’s doing in this show. At first I thought it was just a gimmick to show how silly and bigheaded a person Izaya is but it’s relevance has only really shown itself in this half of the season.

He lords over everything that happens in this series. Try as you might Kida, but you can’t escape his influence. You’re just another piece on that playing board of his, dancing to his tune.

OK, this whole slasher and Saika thing. I didn’t do a whole lot of talking about it in the last post because I was pretty baffled by the whole thing and wanted to see the next episode to wrap my head around the whole thing. Saika loves humans and wants to show that love by cutting them, that’s easy enough to understand. Anri has Saika under her control because she’s drawn inside herself so much that she’s incapable of loving others, hence Saika can’t actually control her. That’s easy enough to understand too. Crazy Yandere girl has soooo much love inside her thanks to her stalkerish ways that she becomes ‘The Slasher’ and attacks and infects the many people across Ikebukero to form this odd Slasher family, which is now under the control of Anri. Not sure if I have that part entirely right but it makes sense in my head. What I don’t get is why they were attacking Shizuo.

Best moment of the episode: Spinshizuo!

This part did confuse me though. Why does Saika love Shizuo? Saika just sorta loves humans as a generic mass and only through humans does Saika attack specific people. At first I thought it was because the reporter dad was so obsessed with Shizuo but that doesn’t seem the case. It’s simply because Shizuo is so freaking strong. Again though, why does this draw the Saika gang towards him? It’s still not making sense in my head. I should probably go read some other blogs on the subject (god knows there’s enough blogs covering this anime. At least there was, many of them have predictably dropped off by now) but I hate reading posts about an anime I’m blogging before I write about it myself. It’s just one of those hang ups I have.

Little Anri looks a lot like Nadeko from Bakemonogatari dontcha think?

Leaving aside my Shizuo confusion, there’s also the issue of why Anri now controls over 1000 people in Ikebukero, including the undoubtedly dangerous Ganguro Angels and their army of cliched gang member stereotyped boyfriends. So first of all Crazy Yandere girl controls them. Then through all that stabby stabby that went through with herself and Anri somehow Anri came to inherit this army. Again, this all isn’t quite making sense in my head but I’ll go along with it because it has set up for a pretty epic finale. We have the three friends controlling the three biggest factions in Ikebukero.

Anri controls the Slasher group. Probably the weakest of three in terms strength of the fighters it has, second in terms of numbers but highest in terms of commitment seeing as they are practically mind-controlled. Easy to control if she wanted to and seemingly indestructible to anything other than van doors, their weak point is probably their lack of ingenuity. It’s a whole load of mindless slashing from the Saika gang. Taking them on in a straight up fight would result in disaster (unless you’re Shizuo, who’s practically a side by himself) but it shouldn’t be too hard to outwit them.

Mikado controls the Dollars, who definitely have the largest forces, although the problem would be getting them to actually participate in the war. Take any random internet forum and honestly consider how many of the people actually regularly contribute anything. Twitter, for example, only has 10% of its users who are deemed ‘ative’ in that they follow 10 people, have 10 people that follow them and have written 10 tweets. Dollars are obviously more loyal to their internet gang but getting them to agree to fight would be a difficult task. However if you can get them to fight then they clearly have the upper hand on everyone else. Strongest and  the most intelligent fighters out of the three armies, they could wield enormous power if they actually got around to it.

Kida and the Yellow Scarves are still a bit of an enigma. They’ve been building up slowly in the background and very little in the way of actual fighting appears to have broken out with them. However it’s clear that they’re extremely loyal to Kida and clearly aren’t as mindless as the Saika gang. They’re the most organised of the lot now that they have their leader at the helm once again. Really, the group relies on how forceful and confident in his own abilities Kida will be in any upcoming battle. Whether there will actually be any fighting between the three groups is questionable but it’s fun to theorize about anyway.

And at the centre of it all is Izaya. I did most of my theorizing about him back in episode 14 where he controls a breakout in fighting between Dollars and the Yellow Scarves. Obviously Anri’s group weren’t in the picture back then but the whole story still fits into place pretty well for him. How much of this can he control and what is he still trying to do with this city dangerously balanced that he’s created? Most importantly is who, if anyone, can stop him? Shizuo? Simon? Celty herself mans up and doesn’t let Izaya get to her? ‘Tis going to be an interesting final 6 episodes~

::Edit:: Hey cool, this is my 300th post!