Wikipedia has the following to say about the so-called ‘Westermarck Effect‘:
“When two people live in close domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close sexual attraction. This phenomenon, known as the Westermarck effect, was first formally described by Finnish anthropologist Edvard Westermarck. The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Chinese Shim-pua marriage customs, as well as in biological-related families. In the case of the Israeli kibbutzim (collective farms), children were reared somewhat communally in peer groups—based on age, not biological relation. A study of the marriage patterns of these children later in life revealed that out of the nearly 3,000 marriages that occurred across the kibbutz system, only fourteen were between children from the same peer group. Of those fourteen, none had been reared together during the first six years of life. This result provides evidence not only that the Westermarck effect is demonstrable, but that it operates during the critical period from birth to the age of six.”.
Someone, please go to Japan and hit the anime creators over the head with this page.
So yeah, while these two siblings are very likely my least favourite members of the Durarara cast after this episode (they’re a bunch of elitists who can’t see beyond their own ‘love’), I liked the rest of this episode. “Celty’s head” (for a lack of a better name for her at this point) running into Mikado may have been a bit forced, but I guess it’ll do to get him involved with the rest of the storyline.
The interesting thing is of course that while this episode would have been very mundane if the course of this series was only 13 episodes, it creates a ton of possibilities for a 24-episoded series. It’s a pretty nice build-up for whatever is going to happen in that second half of this series. I also loved Izaya’s role in this episode: in this episode we really get confirmed that he’s genuinely interested in people, but he just happens to have a sick mind that can easily lead to trouble.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Is 24 eps confirmed? From what I know of the light novels we’re approaching the climax of the first book.
you still think that its celty’s head on the body?
i tell you that is not the case.
think about the episode. how would it make sense for the sister to place the head on that body.
strangest, irkest but one of the most plot-moving episode of DRRR! so far. Yeah. The Yagiris made it to the hate-list. Especially Seiji. He seems so clueless of everything; especially about Shizuo and his infamous vending machine 😛
But the bits of Celty’s head was interesting. And Shizuo seems a bit more…. controlled this time when Seiji’s facing him? (Maybe it’s just because he wasn’t Izaya)
Ah, a bit of hint: Check out the dude in the operation scene.
Are you talking about the feeling Namie has for Seiji ? Remember that she’s much older than her little brother, probably around or more 5-6 when they started to live together.
Agree with that Mikado bit, I still dont understand why he ran away with that scargirl….
I have no clue if that is or isnt Celtys head, but Im hoping she will get her head back halfway through the series instead of towards the end, just so that the rest becomes unpredictable
Also, I keep imagining that Celty would be blonde, maybe because her VA voiced Cal recently LOL also, if that WAS Celtys head, why does it have a different voice than the one we “hear” from Celty herself? I guess it would make sense if it was an “inner voice” only heh
Anyway, loved this episode because, well, its a Celty episode, nuff said
People are saying that this is close to the end of the first novel so I think whatever plot development that happens in this episode should not be taken as build up for the 2nd half and instead just as a build up of the first half of the show.
But I think this episode have been the episode with most plot progression so far and it’s very good,much better than just enjoyable,although the production values did went down a bit(especially during Seiji’s parts.haha even the animators don’t like Seiji).
I love how many important points are dropped in between the bigger scenes.
Something odd that I spot during the episode was that Mika said that she doesn’t remember anything but she is texting away to Nakura@Izaya like a pro and confessing her love for Seiji to the moon..unless texting is one of the Dullahan special abilities that she got from Celty’s head,I think Mika is just pretending to be amnesiac.
And I think things should get interesting soon,as Mika told Izaya that she is staying with Mikado,a person that Izaya himself shows great interest for in a few episodes back.
The westermark effect is the basis for the anime Koi Kaze. Just thought I let the folks here know…
I thought this ep was as good as the others. I like how Izaya had a hand in steering most of the events of this ep. And shinra better watch out Shizuo seems to be with selty every episode.
“they’re a bunch of elitists who can’t see beyond their own ‘love’”
They clearly both have mental problems (presumably inherited genetically). You don’t understand the word elitist at all.
“Someone, please go to Japan and hit the anime creators over the head with this page. ”
I think i’d rather smack you on the head. Who ever said that her attraction was sexual in nature ?
I am not that fond of Seiji and Namie, but it’s not due to the substance of their obsessions; it’s the presence of obsessions that threaten to make them unidimensional. One of the reasons Baccano was so bad, despite the respectable execution of the nonlinear storyline, was that its characters were annoying, one-dimensional characters presented with a total absence of subtlety. The other characters of Durarara haven’t been so flat that you expect them to remain useless caricatures for the whole show, so when we see Namie barely functional as a human being due to her obsession with Seiji, we can’t really accept that she runs this company or ties her own shoe laces. To say nothing of Seiji. I don’t even want to go there.
There also seems to be a danger of making Izaya lame. I’d rather this show didn’t fall into Baccano levels of ridiculousness. It’s boring.
Oh, and I think they played a bait-and-switch game with the viewer. I can’t think of a good reason for why Celty’s head would run away from her, so unless there’s either (1) a reason why Celty’s head wanted to be separate from its body or (2) it suffered some kind of amnesia, I think Namie just remade that girl (I forget her name) to look like Celty after Seiji attacked her. I’m just not sure how Izaya fits into that.
Mikado helped Mika because he recognized who she was since they met twice before. Plus Mika had been calling for help anyway.
Seiji and Namie share an arrogant belief that their love is more important than basic decency in the way you treat other people.
I wanted to comment on the Westermark effect and Koi Kaze, but egress63 beat me to the punch.
Clearly the Koi Kaze drones are on the prowl ^_^). Despair not, fellow obsessed ones, one day we’ll shove the best siblings’ love anime down psgels’ throat.
We should carry it in a usb key, so that we can have it at hand, if we corner psgels in some dark alley…
@Autonomous Monster, I checked wikipedia and it says its 24.
Holy shit! That just makes this show way better. I was just starting to worry about how they could possibly wrap everything up in 3/4 episodes.
Haha I too came to comment that Koi Kaze’s story is completely based on the Westermarck Effect =)
Somehow, I can feel the little knotting in my head that’s telling me to break a cigarette stick, stomp on it and grab the nearest vending machine to throw a home run.
Is it just me or is Celty’s head damned annoying? I’m assuming it is because it looks like Celty’s head was connected to the freshly dead body.
I thought Seiji was funny for trying to hurt Shizuo with pens. Even funnier how Shizuo doesn’t care much about his injuries and decides to get band aid or crazy-glue instead.
Is it just me or does Izaya have a strong connection with the cops? Just throwing it out there. And how come does ‘Mika/Selty’ know Izaya? I know he’s infamous and all… but what is he also trying to help her? What are the advantage of helping her out anyway?
And I’ll still annoyed at how both Seiji and Dotachin look alike! And The preview’s such a teaser: Mikado:”One of my classmate is a member of Dollars!”
The brother/sister pair was pretty annoying, especially the brother. He needs a reality check – seriously.
This is one of the most unique love polygons I’ve ever seen in an anime. But yeah, the bro/sis pair are pretty annoying, and so is Selty’s head. Izaya was easily the highlight of this ep.
The Westermarck Effect doesn’t work if the kids are abused in childhood, especially sexually. Given the bizarre stuff their family and company did on a routine basis during their childhoods, abuse is probably the most normal thing that could happen to them.
Seiji being such a sociopath also points to sexual abuse.