Durarara!! – 10

Well now, this was a very interesting episode!  Mikado is in the narrators chair and nothing much happened for the most part, but subtle hints dropped here and there and the final few minutes gave lots of food for thought.

Picking up from when Mikado ran into Scar-ty last episode, we get a slightly longer chase sequence and then cut to that night with Mikado and Masaomi talking in Mikado’s room while Scar-ty sleeps behind them.  Masaomi seems to feel that Mikado’s encounter with Mikado is like something out of fiction, especially since she’s an amnesiac!  Once Masaomi leaves Mikado reflects that he’s always longed for a more exciting life.

Next day at school Masaomi barges into Mikado’s classroom announcing to all that Mikado has a pretty girl with memory loss hidden in his room – no one believes him 😛  Masaomi then produces a sheet that’s been doing the rounds in his class with a list of names and votes – seems guessing who’s a member of Dollars is a new fad in school.  Masaomi himself has quite a few votes, but Mikado zero’s in on a name that only has the one vote – from Masaomi as it turns out.  The two of them head to the roof to meet this suspected Dollars member, Masaomi just bluntly asks the question and the fella confirms that yes he is a member of Dollars.

We get confirmation of what we already know about Dollars  from the Otaku Quartet episode as Mikado asks numerous questions.  The Dollars are again described as ‘colourless’ gang in contrast to the ‘Color Gangs’ like the Yellow Scarves and Blue Squares (Masaomi got a very serious expression when these were mentioned, quickly changing the subject……another hint that perhaps he was a member of the Blue Squares at one point?).  Once they all head back to class, Mikado reflects that he won’t tell anyone about roof-guy being a Dollars member – only those that ask have a right to know.

After school Masaomi gets caught up in a meeting and Anri and Mikado head for home.  Anri makes a comment about knowing Mikado before they properly met, which sends him into a paranoid daydream were Anri is a stalker out to harm him (although that may be ok since she’s pretty)! 😆  Turns out she was just teasing him.

Waiting at the gates for Mikado are a pair of stereotypical gang members.  The girl turns out to be the one that got her mobile phone stomped on by Izaya 🙂  While she and her boyfriend are busy threatening Mikado, another couple looking for him show up – Izaya and Celty.  Celty makes short work of the boyfriend (and Izaya jumps up and down on his back with childlike glee), and the girl runs off in tears.

Mikado leaves Anri and tries to get away from Izaya and Celty, but they follow him home.  Izaya is all kinds of awesome, following after Mikado with Celty, making motorbike noises with a delighted smile on his face the fella is just fun to watch!

Eventually Mikado stops and decides to talk to the two of them.  Izaya retreats to take a phone call allowing Celty to talk to Mikado first.  Celty claims that Scar-ty is a relative in the worst lie ever, Mikado asks her to prove who she is – wanting to see if the rumour that she’s headless is true.  Celty consents and Mikado gets this expression of pure joy that’s a bit creepy.  Celty tells him her whole back story and Mikado believes it all, and then agrees to try to convince Scar-ty to see Celty.

Elsewhere we join the Otaku Quartet outside Yagiri Pharmaceuticals.  Seems Dota-chin has convinced the others to continue staking out the place.  A van pulls out, causing a piece of gravel to mark Togusa’s precious mini-van prompting him to attempt to persue the van (unfortunately they run into a red-light).  Erika and Walker discussing Railgun (or Index maybe?) in the backseat was a nice detail.

Over at Mikado’s apartment complex, he asks Celty and Izaya to wait outside while he goes to talk to Scar-ty.  However when he gets into his room he finds Scar-ty missing and gets attacked by two mysterious men who demand to know where Scar-ty has gone.  Outside Izaya remarks to Celty that he’s never heard her name or story before and finds it all quite interesting.  They both realise that Mikado is taking quite a long time and decide to see whats going on.  Bursting into the room they scare off the men, who take off in a cleaning van.  Izaya remarks that there’s no point following them as he already knows that they’re from Yagiri Pharmaceuticals.

Once Mikado hears that he starts to connect all the pieces of information he’s heard over the course of the story.  He immediately sits down in front of his computer and with some hardcore Death Note like mouse movements, logs into a chatroom using the password ‘baccano’ – the Dollars chatroom! 😯  Izaya looks on with an amused but knowing smile, seems that he wasnt looking for Mikado because he was sheltering Scar-ty, but for his own reasons.  Mikado faces the two of them with a very different and confident attitude, asking them to aid him as all the pieces are now in his hands.

Thoughts: Right I got my Mikado episode now its time for wild speculation!  I believe that we have the three chatters identities confirmed now – they are Mikado, Celty and Izaya and they’re chatting on the Dollars website.  Of course these three don’t know that they’ve been talking to each other at this stage, but its interesting to see them interact IRL.  Mikado took on a completely different personality once he was on the Dollars site and had his phone going.  We know that he’s been longing for ‘connections’ and that he’s really interested in other peoples opinions of the Dollars gang – could this be because he’s actually the person that created them?  At the very end Izaya seems to have confirmed something for himself saying “I was half-skeptical at first, but jackpot”.

I never really thought that Izaya was the leader of Dollars, it was a bit too obvious and I couldn’t really see him setting up an organisation with that amount of anonymity and freedom, although as an information broker being a member would be a great resource for him.  However Izaya has been interested in Mikado since they first met, which I couldn’t understand to start with – but if he had a suspicion that Mikado was the leader of Dollars it would make lots of sense!

Mikado himself says that he hated living an ordinary life and wanted something to set him apart from the rest, and in the preview he says “I had no idea that desire would end up affecting the destinies of so many people” – what else could he have done that would affect a large amount of people but connect them all through the Dollars organisation that he created?

Next week it seems the narration duties stay with Mikado – I’m dying to find out whats going on!