Durarara!! x2 Shou – 02

Well I couldn’t not blog this sequel now could I?  Opening up this draft had me awash in a sea of nostalgia – Drrrr!! was the very first series I started to blog five years ago!

Anyway, this episode continues the work of the first episode in that it is mostly concerned with introducing the new characters and reacquainting us with old favourites.  Considering I didn’t have time to rewatch the first season of Drrr!! prior to starting this season, I’m pretty pleased the show is taking the time to do this.  All the familiar faces and places also serve to remind me why I loved this series so much – this episode was a lot of fun.

Of the new characters the ones that grab your attention most are Izaya’s twin little sisters – Mairu & Kururi.  Being a bit mental is apparently something that runs in the Orihara family, although you do have to wonder how much of the twins personality quirks are caused by their scheming older brother’s influence.  Izaya himself doesn’t really seem to want to deal with the twins much, it is amusing the think that the only people Izaya can’t really handle are his blood relations.  Through Izaya we learn that from an early age the twins took the idea of their being ‘two halves of a whole’ very seriously, to the point that they arbitrarily decided to split up character traits between them to form a perfectly balanced whole.  So we get Mairu who adopts the look of a classic bookworm but has an attention grabbing and vibrant personality and Kururi, who dresses in a provocative manner, but displays a quiet, reserved personality.

As the twins stand out so much among the first years at Raira, they quickly attract bullies, but just as quickly they establish themselves as people not to be fucked with.  Between Mairu bodily taking down a girl and attempting to pour thumb tacks down her throat, and then she and Kururi setting the rest of the bullies up with inflammable bags; I don’t think anyone will challenge the twins again.  Really I’d have expected nothing else from the sisters of Izaya Orihara.  It will be fun to see how these two fearless girls manage to worm their way into the everyday insanity of Ikebukuro.

The other first year at Raira that catches the attention is Aoba Kuranuma, if only because he approaches Mikado as a member of Dollars and gets kissed by both the Orihara twins.  Aoba’s odd willingness to rat out Kukuri’s bullies marks him as someone a touch different to the rest of his classmates – not many teenagers are willing to defy the herd, especially not in the fresh flush of a new school year when cliques are forming.  Aoba’s blasé manner seems to suggest that either he doesn’t really care about such things, or that he’s confident no one will be able to retaliate against him.

The fact that Aoba approaches Mikado as a fellow Dollars member also makes him stand out.  Mikado isn’t the most visible of Dollar’s members, even if Aoba was at the flash mob gathering it doesn’t really make sense that he’d make note of Mikado, to the extent of learning Mikado’s name.  Mikado’s primary feature has always been that he’s rather unremarkable – the fact that he is the founder of the Dollars is something that doesn’t quite gel with his ordinary exterior and doormat personality.  This makes the fact that Aoba reaches out to Mikado for a guided tour of Ikebukuro, citing his membership of Dollars as the reason, somewhat suspicious.  Aoba is a character to watch.

It is also interesting to see Shingen is back on the scene and meddling in things again.  He casually approaches Anri about Saika with zero remorse about the suffering that blade brought to the Sonohara family – Anri lost her parents and her ability to feel emotion to that sword.  The fact that Shingen sold such a dangerous demon-blade to an unsuspecting family shows that he doesn’t really operate on the same level as most normal people – more so than the goofy manner of taking and ever present gas-mask.  Shingen Kishitani is a man who separated a Dullahan from her head with a demonic blade, performed an autopsy on said Dullahan (and forced his 5 year old son to participate) and then allowed that Dullahan to live with his family.

Shingen has always seemed to know a lot about the supernatural events going on in Ikebukuro – even more so than Izaya at times.  The fact he is back in town can’t be good for the supernatural residents.  He’s already resumed experimentation on Celty’s body via his new wife (with Celty’s consent this time), he is aware that Izaya holds the Dullahan head and now he’s approached Anri as Saika’s host.  It makes you wonder who that ridiculously tall fella he was chatting with is.  Especially when that stranger (along with the rumoured Hollywood serial killer) was more than willing to pick a fight with Shizuo at the start of the episode.

So it is business as usual with Durarara!!  This episode was narrated by Shinra, although I didn’t really like the way he broke the fourth wall occasionally – that’s never happened before in Drrr!!’s narration, and I don’t think it was necessary.  The overlapping plots, the myriad characters and fun chats are what make this series entertaining to watch.  I’ve always enjoyed how Durarara!! just assembles a colourful cast of characters and lets them do their on thing on screen, it’s never been too worried about wrangling everyone into a linear plotline, which is one of the features that make Drrr!! fun to watch.  Definitely looking forward to following this week by week again!

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