Durarara!! – 06

With this episode Durarara solidifies its place as my favourite series of the season, this was just fun to watch!  This weeks narrator is Kyohei Kadota and there were some very interesting revelations.

The episode starts with as flash forward as it did last week, to the Otaku Quartet (I’ll continue to call them this as I can’t remember the other threes names :P) chasing down the misfit kidnappers from episode 1 & 2  (the minivan car-chase was a lot of fun) and then backtracks to show how we got to this point.

Kadota reveals that he and the other three are members of the Dollars gang that keep being mentioned – this surprised the hell out of me; have you ever seen four people who look less like gangsters than this Otaku Quartet!? 😀  How amusing is it that Masaomi went to them for information on the Dollars last week, only for them to turn out to be members themselves!

Anyway the focus switches to the Idiot Kidnapper Trio who are on the lookout for their next victim at a rundown apartment complex full of illegal immigrants.  They decide to avoid nabbing a teenage girl (even if they do fetch a better price) as they don’t want to run into Celty again – instead they target the weirdest middle-aged foreigner I’ve ever seen in an anime!  Seriously they find this guy humming along to Nessum Dorma and then he claims to be Japanese before attempting to squeeze through a window!

I had to laugh when the Idiot Trio attempted to drug Kaztano (weird foreigner) and then spilt the chloroform all over the place, drugging the lot of them!  Kaztano suggests dumping Mr Pink-hoodie who had most of the stuff spilt on him to clear the air a bit (Pinky also has Kaztano’s mobile phone).

Turns out that Kaztano is a good friend of the Otaku Quartet – long-haired driver guy in particular is distraught to discover he’s been kidnapped and fearing the worse due to the rumours of people disappearing, human experimentation and canabalism that have been rampant in the city.  The reason why Driver-guy is so upset?  Well it just so happens that Kaztano is a ticket tout who always manages to get Driver-guy a front row ticket to his favourite idols’ shows! 😀  A valuable friend indeed.

So the search is on to rescue Kaztano before he’s traded in by the kidnappers – Kadota places a call to Shinra to request Celty’s assistance.  I was very amused to see Celty completely gripped by an X-files type show on the TV (complete with X-Files-esq music!) given her excitement about the Slasher possibly being an alien last episode.  Unfortunately Celty is on a bit of a wild goose chase as Shinra gave her his shopping list rather than the kidnapper’s registration number!

Meanwhile the Otaku Quartet decide to call Kaztano’s mobile to see if they can possibly come to an arrangement with the kidnappers……only to end up speaking to Izaya who just happened to walk past Pinky while he was passed out in an alley, and answered the phone out of curiousity.  Izaya only manages to give Kadota Pinky’s location before he narrowly escapes being flattened by an elephant shaped slide thrown by Shizuo – Izaya makes a hasty exit.

Shortly after the Otaku Quartet arrive on the scene where Pinky is still completely out of it.  While Hat-girl and Fox-face want to torture information out of Pinky regarding Kaztano’s whereabouts, Kadota favours just tipping the fella upside down and shaking his mobile phone out of him.  They then place a call to another member of the Idiot Trio, Kadota puts on a fake voice (which Gaptooth-idiot actually falls for) and manages to get the location of where the Idiot Trio plans to make the exchange of Kaztano for their fee.  The Otaku Quartet feels quite proud of themselves and have a mini celebration where tickertape randomly appears (although think that was the product of Pinky’s drugged brain) before heading for the exchange point (making sure to punch Pinky out again after introducing themselves as Dollars members).

The Otaku Quartet meets the remaining members of the Idiot Trio prepared for a showdown to get Kaztano back – however the appearence of Celty on the scene has the Idiots running for the hills (after freeing Kaztano), leaving Celty a bit confused and wondering if she can go home yet – Celty is adorable.

The Otaku Quartet aren’t content to let the Idiot Kidnappers get away though and the car-chase from the beginning of the episode ensues – the Otaku Quartet (plus Kaztano) seem to be having a lot of fun with this whole chase, it was really amusing to watch.

Kadota manages to capture Gaptooth-idiot when he attempts to scale a fence to escape after they crash their minivan.  Kadota turns him over to Hat-girl and Fox-face who seem positively gleeful by the prospect of torturing information about the trade in humans that’s going on in Ikebukuro.  Needless to say in the face of their enthusiasm Gaptooth-idiot soon spills everything he knows before they can get started.

Gaptooth-idiot leads them to Yagiri Pharmacy, claiming that they are the organisation that trades live humans for cash.  Yagiri Pharmacy is run by Seiji’s older sister, who seems to dote on her brother.

However even more interesting than this is the shot of a head in jar we’re shown – could this be Celty’s head!?  How did the Yagiri’s get it and what research are they undertaking with live humans that requires them to fund an underground kidnapping ring?  And just what is up with the Scar-girl that Seiji is besotted with?  So many questions!

Thoughts: I loved this episode I found it so entertaining and fresh feeling – the Otaku Quartet are really fun characters to watch (I swear I’ll remember their names someday 😛 ).  There was some brilliant use of music in this episode, particularly of snippets Nessum Dorma.  Kaztano was deeply amusing too – he was just so out there, but at the same time completely believable.

The additional information we got on Dollars was interesting too – they’re a widespread organisation whose leadership is completely unknown to the members, and any actions taken are solely up to the descretion of the members.  The fact that Dollars members tend to work in small groups and are only connected through a private message board is also interesting – clearly the world of internet messaging is of importance to the world of Durarara, as the frequent clips of messages throughout the series show – are these messages posted between Dollars members?

I’m surprised by just how much information I’ve managed to soak in in only six episodes, the plot-threads are really building up nicely – I’m looking forward to seeing what they get woven into!

Next week it seems that we’re finally getting some background information on Shizuo and Izaya – really looking forward to that as these two are such interesting characters and have a very strong presence in the series.