This is a question to the Japanese people who happen to stumble upon this post. It’s something I’ve been wondering for quite a while now: are punks in Japan really such incredible morons? I mean, in just about every anime out there, punks dress like ridiculous Elvis rejects. I’ve seen a few series here and there that portray them differently (Kaze no Yojimbo for example), but the overwhelming majority of animated punks all have strange haircuts and over-the-top accents. Are those kinds of people really common on the Japanese streets, or is it a stereotype that evolved into this medium?
In any case, this episode’s big twist was Mikado’s sudden change of character. Now it makes sense why the creators chose such a seemingly dull lead character, as they had interesting plans for his character-development. Rather than being your typical loser, he was more like an alarm-clock, waiting to go off, and I think that his weird name was a bit of a hint for that.
The color gangs still are a big mystery at this point. This showed that they don’t actually meet face to face, but instead are a bit of an online community that happens to be stationed at Tokyo. I’m not exactly sure how that works, to be honest, but I believe that those chatboxes have a much bigger role than what they seemed to be at first. Also note the previous episode, in which Izaya’s chatbox was completely empty. Seeing as how he’s likely to also be involved with those dollars, that might have been a bit of a strange hint.
One thing I noticed was that this episode was one of the most linear ones out there. Really, nearly the entire episode was focused on Mikado aside from a scene or two, and there only were a few tiny flashbacks. It was surprisingly straightforward, and with this series I have no idea whether the creators intend to be more linear in the next number of episodes, or whether it was another one of those “build-up” episodes that’s there to give the future episodes the chance to go all out.
Rating: * (Good)
I think the story is going to unravel now. They have already spent the previous episodes introducing the characters, I think whats left is the progress of the story.
Mikado’s ‘revelation’ isn’t that much of a surprise considering what we know about him. Looking back, it was hinted at when he wrote what he is looking for/desired on the lady’s board. He said that he was looking for connections, which is exactly what the Dollars gang is. It has no rules, a perfect location to create a network. We also know that Mikado had a fascination of the weird and unknown from the first episode.
Its seems Izaya was the only one who suspected Mikado’s true character. It shows how good he is at noticing the true personality or motives of a person. Something tells me that Kida on the other hand is clueless just like the others.
lol , in this episode mikado remind me haruhi suzumiya when he thought he wanted a life out of the ordinary , sometimes i think it too
I think the only “color gang” that doesn’t meet face to face is Dollars,the colorless gang.Cause we’ve seen the Yellow Scarves gang going around in the previous episodes and Kida explained in the 1st episode that the color gangs were quite prominent in Ikebukuro before and can be seen loitering everywhere, but they are becoming less and less by the day since the face off between the Yellow Scarves and the Blue Squares.
And I think the chatroom mystery is pretty much cleared in the last episode,where it was empty because Izaya said everyone seems to be busy,hinting that that all the chatroom users are the major players in the episode.
The current linear plot progression might mean that they are probably gonna reveal a big spoiler soon which will allow some more non linear plot progression in the future,I guess?IDK,but it’s a possibility.
And the “punk” in this episode are not really punks,his more likely to be a part of a biker gang,a Bosozoku to be precise.Here’s the link to the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%8Ds%C5%8Dzoku
(my country’s version of the biker gang is on there too,the Mat Rempits lol)
Yeah from here on things should start to get interesting as we finally get hints to actually work with in the anime.
Because they wanted to keep the introduction a bit simpler and easier to swallow it seems, they decided to save the whole ‘mystery sagashi’ for now…but that’s okay I guess.
Concerning the depiction of gangs, but I can only base this off my own experiences and some things I heard from friends.
Depends on how you define ‘punks’…
Those people in Durarara so far are gang members and juvenile delinquents and are pretty much stereotyped, yeah. There are still people around who have that haircut…but it’s more of an 80’s thing. It just got stereotyped as THE juvenile delinquent type of guy…
The same goes for the over-the-top accent. But many people try to do that to actually sound menacing…like rolling the R and stretching the vocals to an insane extent.
But it’s so overdone and known nowadays it became more of a joke I think. A while back many Yakuza were said to talk like that…now young people do it to sound tough.
I stumbled across such people in real live. With crazy tuned bikes, blond chicks with too much make up, screamingly colourful clothes and that accent…
Believe me, it only gets crazy when GIRLS start to talk like that…
Yeah the Dollars gang is different from the color gangs. And that should say a lot. 🙂
Would’ve been awesome if they put together some sort of ARG with the Dollars and whatever 😀
Just wanted to remind everyone that Mikado’s not actually the main character. Celty is.
anime is anime. punks in japan cant possibly be something like that.
oh and for a nerdish looking kid, those last words were pretty damn cool!
I’ve been wondering the same thing about punks being bit of a punk myself. In reality punks are just as they are here, little bit more aware of things and like to listen rough music, but they are always shown as stupid assholes. Shonen Merikensack was on that aspect really shitty, but still kind of funny. If they had done it about real japanese punk-band like Crude (http://www.myspace.com/hakodatehardcore) it wouldn’t have been as entertaining.
Did anyone else notice that the password to the dollars site is “Baccano”? xD
I thought that was a nice touch
His password is….”baccano”
O_O OH MY GOD, MIKADO IS THE LEADER OF DOLLARS?!?!!??
Apart from Mikado’s password, there’s also a Toaru Majutsu/Toaru Kagaku reference in there! Really cool!
re: linearity.
In some ways the whole series has been much more linear than I expected. Having seen Baccano, I expected DRRR to be more jumbled, almost to the point of unintelligibility. Instead they’ve managed to keep a large cast with intertwining narratives and various plot twists from getting out of hand.
The episode was really good,but for a moment i got scared as i got lelouch vibes from mikado. i hope that doesnt ruin this show too 🙁
@Nocturnal Fulmineous: yea, it looks to me that Mikado is the leader of dollars.
“All the cards are in my hands”
Hoh crap.
Mikado, you are cool after all @_@
One thing that always bothered me about Japanese punks is the way their eyes are always drawn with the eyebrows pointing upwards when they’re trying to be intimidating. Is that an actual facial expression people in Japan use, or just some sort of cliche?
I was happy to see Selty spin-kick that guy with the pompodour in the face.
“All your cards are belong to Mikado” plus the fact the manga says so…
Mikado reminded me of a detective who just shed its wings lol those moments in life are the best where you can piece things together better than anyone and find that you are a creator and not the follower for once XD but this episode was a climatic point for Mikado, all i can say is hope there will be more of a linear, straight forward, all out, finish of the anime itself
Wow, this episode really made me rethink my opinion of Mikado. Wow o-o, he is pretty cool.
@anon Well actually Durarara has a very interesting story line. Unlike most animes, all characters in Durarara could be a main character. Each one has a unique background and all have unique goals and POVs in the story.
Of all the candidates for main character, I suggest Mikado, Kida, Anri, or Celty since they all have POVs in the anime. Other ones could be Shinra, Shizou, or possibly Izaya.
Personally I’m a Mikado since his POV was for the first ep :3 But Celty works too