Six months have passed in the world of Durarara!! In some ways, life has returned to normal, but any sense of normalcy will soon change. Even things people consider “normal” aren’t really normal at all. This week’s episode focuses on the way the city has changed in the aftermath of the Dollars’ meet-up.
Fortunately, some things never change.
In any situation, perspective can make all the difference. To a bystander, Celty probably looks like a demonic creature whom someone should lock in a cage and throw away the key. She doesn’t see herself in that light, which makes all the difference when the police confront her. Celty views them as the monster for trying to confine her.
Kinnosuke’s tactics only reinforce that image. For the longest time, she has traveled through Ikebukuro without challenge. Celty doesn’t try to kill people, and she even avoids hurting the goons that corner Shinra’s dad, electing to simply scare them. Now not only does this officer pursue her, he focuses on backing her into corners and forcing her into a conflict. She never had to deal with such a defensive situation, so you can understand why the experience shakes her. She is a truly fearsome foe when provoked to violence, as we saw in the finale for the first half. I don’t want to imagine what could happen if she fought “seriously.”
You probably shouldn't bother the supernatural scythe wielder
Concurrent with the special police’s appearance, we also see the Yellow Scarves trying to grasp power. While Mikado organized the Dollars as a peaceful group for change, the individuals will prove a problem. While many members are passive, others, like the goons in this episode and previous ones, use the name to mark territory. A potential gang war could loom on the horizon, and Izaya warns Mikado to act with caution. With such a diminutive appearance and personality, the Yellow Scarves could easily capture or kill him if they compromised his identity.
The episode confirms that Kida used to work with the gang, but he has no interest in returning to them. It’s still a bit concerning though, because he says he won’t join “this power.” Whether he means the Dollars or a potential fourth power, we don’t know. However, the police and gang emergence forms the three-sided war I imagined a few weeks ago. Izaya must have played some part in orchestrating it.
Screw you guys, I'm going home!
Poor Anri really is a confused and forsaken girl. The narration tells us she never had a friend and still can’t tell the difference between friendship and true love. Those ganguro girls start to harass her again, and I imagine she really has no idea know how to tell them to stop and leave her alone. Cue the Slasher’s appearance to save her from persecution. There’s been speculation that Anri is the Slasher, but here you can see they are two autonomous entities.
However, the observation doesn’t mean she has no control over it. It’s far too convenient for the Slasher to appear at her moment of deepest despair, and through the shadows you can see they resemble each other. As for how long this has gone on, the closing lines focus on how she views the occurence as normal. To establish some level of normalcy for such an event, the Slasher must have existed for quite some time, probably before Mika’s surgery. Losing her friend, her rock and her defense, probably caused it to emerge with increasing frequency, resulting in all those new reports. The Slasher seems to insist on pulling the Dollars into this conflict as well, by constantly infiltrating their chat room. Next episode, Turmoil Reigns.
The horror... the horror...
And thus begins the speculation. What exactly happened at the end there? It sounds almost like you imagine a ‘Fight club’ -like scenario, where Anri has a complementary personality. I’m glad we have already taken one step into this madness. It is exactly these uneasy moments, when something confusing happens, that I enjoy this show the most.
God, I really need to watch Fight Club at some point. A complementary personality sounds about right, but put it in the body of a familiar.
It is worth watching.
That’s sort of how Fight Club was. He sees Tyler doing things, even though it’s actually him doing them. And that would be a very neat twist in drrr.
Oh wow, you haven’t seen Fight Club?! You’ve probably been completely spoiled, but there really is a statue of limitations on this sort of thing. I think Anri did those girls in, but the other Slashers were not Anri.
Yeah, I know. It’s like saying Aerith dies, or Rosebud is the sled. It doesn’t bother me too much.
And yeah, I definitely think there’s more than one Slasher, after going back to review the episode it appeared in. Two different designs in the same area. I’m looking forward to this week’s episode.
The “complementary personality” theory with Anri is something to take seriously, I think, because of the way Anri continually refers to herself throughout the episode — as a separate entity outside of herself. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the perspective we see in the final scene is unreliable.
While the scene where Celty is confronted by the police is scary for her, I found it funny in a dark sort of way. I don’t know how similar traffic cops are in Japan compared to America, in terms of perceived authority, but I see it like your regular Dunkin’ Donuts cop standing up to Celty, even if he is supposed to be a hotshot. More of regular ol’ humans turning the abnormal into the normal, which is a foreign concept for Celty, clearly, haha.
That actually would be about the norm for this series, considering that a lot of the interactions are unreliable. We had people confused about whether Mikado was really the leader of the Dollars even when the big reveal smacked you over the head with it.
Now you’ve got this vision in my head of the police officers chasing after her with coffee and donuts in their hands. It’s pretty funny. Thanks for the comment!
I have something to add about Shinmaru’s “complimentary personality” theory as well. It’s true that it did appear on Anri’s absolute despair moment, but the other cases had something to tell us as well. If memory serves me right, the Slasher appeared before Celty when she was cornering someone who didn’t want to die. Another (or I think on the same one I just mentioned) episode also shows how Mikado and Kida escaped an eventual harassment and passed by an alley where they barely got missed by the Slasher..an alley where another person was getting harassed (not sure about this one).
Also, the narration at the start has been bothering me..and smacked me real hard in the face immediately after the Anri event. “Something is born in the city everyday, and at the same time, something also disappears.” I’d speculate that this “something [that] is born” would be the Slasher, and that the “something [that] also disappears” would be either the people who dies or the feeling of despair felt by people like Anri. You could say that the Slasher is the collective despair of Ikebukuro if that’s that case: a shadow fueled by the raw emotions of thousands. Why the writers have such a thing in the story is a mystery though..could it be a sort of igniter for Izaya’s “war” or something?
I too thought that it might be a complementary personality when I saw that scene, which either means we could be onto something or that that is what they /want/ us to think.
Ehhh~ Just got myself to watch the episode. I got a lot of second insight, on Kida especially and the “side” that he’s taking. Izaya’s side maybe? O: O: O: There’s also something about Mikado that’s different from the last 12 episodes: he’s calling Kida by his last(?) name. I’d like to hear your views from that if it’s not much of a bother. :3
Eitherway, thanks for the insight. I have yet to watch 14, but things are probably going as Izaya planned. His talk with Simon on the street was one point to be taken, and his “game” at the office could’ve been something as well. Ah~ w/e. I’m off to 14!
I actually didn’t notice Mikado changed up the name he called Kida. On the one hand, it could just be writing choice. On the other hand, 6 months have passed, and we don’t know how a lot of interactions have changed in the interim.
As far as Kida’s side, I have no real idea. But someone who used to be in a gang, and apparently respected enough to be approached by his former comrades, must have some connections.
Ah, I got it wrong. Kida’s full name is (in it’s original, non-English format) Kida Masaomi. So technically, they got close over the past 6 months. ^^;
True. But I’ve given it some further thought. I think he won’t be taking any sides apparently, since he seems connected to that girl in the hospital..or probably directly connected to why she’s in there…so he’ll probably try to make up for that and be a sort of mediator between Mikado as Dollars team leader and Yellow Scarves team leader in Izaya’s war. ^^;