To anyone out there who thinks they are master trolls on the internet, stirring shit and generally causing havoc, I have this to say to you: You will never, ever be as good at it as Izaya is. Neither will you ever look as cool as him while doing it. Nor will you have as many fangirls fawning over you. You won’t be drawn in any yaoi fanart with violent bartenders whatsoever, which should be every man’s dream…or something.
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.
15 Comments
To be honest, this episode only did a few things of real note:
Kida thinks that the Slasher is in the Dollars and now hates them with a sick passion.
Mikado realizes that ruling over 4chan don’t necessarily mean they won’t do things like join other gangs, especially if you don’t have a tight leadership. He likes to think he use that to his advantage, but Izaya won’t let anything he doesn’t want out, out.
This episode also showed just how much command he had over the situation; he pretty much knew that Celty and Anri were talking in private, and it was implied that this was to his favor.
If there’s one thing I know for certain about the internet, it’s that you can’t rule over 4chan.
While Izaya might have everything under control at the moment, something is going to fuck with his plan before the end. I just can’t figure out where it’s gonna come from
That 2nd pic is waiting for the internet is serious business meme and it to be slapped together at any second.
So on top of getting off on stepping on ganuro girls’ cellphones, He trolls in and out of the interwebs? I have to say, this Izaya is a complex man.
God, I have to catch up badly.
Yes, you have to catch up. Badly
(Repeating exactly what you said. Hurrah for intelligent replies)
Those cat-eared helmeted motorcyclists — can’t turn a corner without running into one over here; true fact.
Izaya’s trolling is fun since I love the fella to bits, but I’m more than ready for some action now, or at least more on the fun side characters. Have high hopes for next week since its narrated by Erika and Walker.
I always forget who did the narration in the next episode previews. Looking forward to Erika and Walker. Maybe they’ll toss in loads of references…actually it would be probably best if they didn’t
You whore :I
And it was narrated by Kinnosuke? I could have sworn that was Shizuo..
Nope, that was Keiji Fujiwara handling the narration in this episode. He can’t sneak his voice past me. ;P
Whoever it was, he was a bloody dull narrator.
I am just going to post here ’cause of the video..
“fck u, Scamp,” i said, while laughing out loud at 1:00 in the morning.
Also, Anri’s conversation with her children was interesting.
mwahaha, ~Rickroll’d~
Izaya is a fascinating character, and master troll to boot.
I think part of the reason for all the chatroom time in this episode (besides showing Izaya’s mind screw), was to show Celty looking out for Anri so her rescue wouldn’t seem so abrupt. Also Mikado’s reaction was very sensible, he was trying to douse the flames, so it helped the plot to progress naturally for him to get fed full of disinformation by Izaya.
I guess that does make sense. Again though, it was not exactly very exciting to watch. Not sure how else they could have done it though. Probably spaced it out over previous episodes better? Although it’s only been 2 episodes since the end of the Saika arc
Damn It 5camp. (watched the video).
izaya is definitely living up to his potential as a mastermind. his complexity and trolling makes him a very interesting character for me, but as you’ve mentioned, it’s impossible to control the internet. somewhere, somehow, his plan is going to mess up due to a wild-card factor (which i assume to be shizuo).
there’s such a large cast and i’m so interested in seeing how it all pans out in the end. i have a feeling multiple characters will die (one of which I assume to be kida due to foreshadowing). his character has grown on me recently, too. gah, durarara just keeps getting better.