Durarara!! – 07

So this week Shizuo Heiwajima is our narrator and we get his whole back story and some interesting tidbits of information about who know who and for how long.

First off we learn that Shizuo’s little brother is the famous actor Yuuhei Hanejima (real name Kasuka Heiwajima) whose debut role was in the amusingly titled ‘Carmilla Saizo, Ninja Vampire’ 😆  Shizuo is approached by Mr Brown Guy from episode 5 (whose name turns out to be Shuji Neikawa) for an interview about his brother.  Shizuo gets irritated and lashes out with a lamp-post….interview over!

Shizuo takes a stroll down memory lane to his childhood with Kasuka – remembering that even though he hates violence he can’t stop his outbursts.  Shizuo reflects that the 1st time was when he picked up the family’s fridge during an argument with his little brother, and escalated from there.  Each time Shizuo snapped be ended up injuring himself, but after healing he became stronger and stronger.

We also discover that Shizuo has known Shinra since elementary school, and Shinra has been fascinated with Shizuo’s strength and abilities ever since.  Chibi-Shinra is just as chatty and slightly off kilter as adult Shinra – twas adorable 🙂

Shizuo reflects on an incident that had a particular inpact on him – a lady in a local bakery was always very kind to him and his brother, but one evening they see her being attacked in her shop.  Shizuo looses his temper once again but ends up injuring her and wrecking her store.  Later a depressed Shizuo askes Kasuka if he’s afraid of him – Kasuka replies that he isn’t.  The contrast between these two siblings is as stark as fire and ice!  Shizuo seems to have gotten all the fiery passion, whereas Kasuka is cooly composed and aloof.

Skipping forward to high school now Shizuo is reunited with Shinra, who once again tries to use Shizuo as a research subject and also introduces him to Selty.  Watching a teenage Shinra interact with Selty was amusing, seems he was smitten with her even then.

Shinra also introduces Shizuo to Izaya – seems Izaya and Shinra attended the same middle school.  However Shizuo takes an immediate dislike to Izaya and a brutal fight ensues.  Seems Izaya’s speciality is speed coupled with knife skills, which seems to mostly keep him safe from Shizuo’s brute strength.  While chasing Izaya down Shizuo gets run over by a truck , but Izaya pays the driver off (where did a high-schooler get that kind of money from!?) and runs off again.

Shizuo (remarkably undamaged from his run in with a truck!) track Izaya down to Shinra’s apartment (where Shinra is treating his injuries) and threatens Izaya with Shinra’s door, while Selty implores him to calm down!

Shizuo recalls that from that time on he was constantly being challenged to fights, even though he wanted nothing to do with violence.  It began to dawn on him that someone was pulling the strings and getting him involved in these brawls, suspicion landed firmly at Izaya’s feet turning a dislike for Izaya into out-and-out hatred.  Izaya is shown watching Shizuo’s fights in the background – even back then he was a creepy bastard….gotta love him! 😀

Graduation rolls round and we see Shinra dons the white coat of an underground doctor and Izaya getting involved with the Yakuza……..and Shizuo?  Well his anger management issues cause him to have difficulties holding a regular job.

Eventually Shizuo ends up in a bartending job and his little brother comes to pay him a visit.  Kasuka expresses concern over Shizuo’s inability to hold down a job in his own way – by giving Shizou two box loads of bartenders uniforms in a show of encouragement to keep this job.

All is going reasonably well for Shizuo until Izaya rears his head again – getting Shizuo arrested and consequently losing him his bartending job.  Now you can really understand why Shizuo completely looses it whenever he sees Izaya.

Fortunately and old school sempai, Tom Tanaka comes along and offers Shizuo his current job – Tom’s bodyguard while he goes about his debt collection job.  This kind of work suits Shizuo’s temperament best it seems – however he still wears the bartender’s uniforms his brother gave him, even though the two are now somewhat estranged.

Back in the present, Shizuo’s black mood caused by his dragging up old memories seems to lift after a chat with Selty, who remarks that he must really love his little brother.  Seems Selty is one of the very few people Shizuo is friendly with – it’s a nice wee scene.

Unfortunately Izaya chooses to show his face again and Shizuo promptly looses whatever composure he regained talking to Selty, the vicious cycle starts again.

Thoughts: Great episode, not much plot progression but a fantastic amount of character development for Shizuo.  He’s quite a sympathetic character, his severe anger management issues and subsequent bouts of super strength, in spite of his claim of being abhorrent of violence, make him a bit like The Hulk.  I’d be interested to hear what Shinra’s speculation about Shizuo’s strength actually is.

I’m also fascinated by Izaya’s actions towards Shizuo.  Izaya is always hovering about the fringes of everyone’s story – but he seems to be determined to mess with Shizuo’s life directly and its hard to see what possible benefit he can gain from pissing Shizuo off to this extent!  Izaya’s motivations remains a mystery, but he’s still the character I’m most interested in – can’t wait till he gets his own episode.

Surprised to learn that Shinra and Shizuo have known each other for so long, but know we know that they, Izaya and Kadota are all roughly the same age.  I’m also wondering if Shizuo’s famous brother is going to play a larger role in the future since Mr Brown Writer Guy seemed so interested in him.

Next week sees the return of the Otaku Quartet and Mikado & Co. as well as more Selty & Shinra – seems Selty is the narrator again, should be interesting!