And… things actually make a lot more sense now. It’s convenient to say the least, but with the conclusion of the second arc, this episode revealed the true nature of Durarara: divided into three parts, with Mikado, Anri and Kida at the centre of each respective arc, with Celty meanwhile as the red thread that returns in all of them. Both Mikado, Anri and Kida turn out to be leaders of their own group: the dollars, the zombies and the yellow scarves: in their own ways they all gathered an immense and influential group of people despite being a bunch of teenagers. They did so individually, and just happened to become friends at high school without knowing this about each other.
The next and final arc will probably focus on the yellow scarves and Kida, where Izaya will play a very prominent role as the main villain. It’ll probably also involve much more of the other groups than the previous two arcs. Now the question remains what the rest of the cast is going to play in this.
In any case, the second arc for me was less impressive than the first arc. It’s a lot shorter, that’s one thing. But to me it feels less varied than the first season, with the eventual background of Anri being a bit cliched, and nowhere as interesting as the reasons Mikado provided for becoming the leader of the Dollars. It felt a lot less spontaneous, if that makes any sense.
But then again, that may have been the purpose: central to the first arc were the dollars, which are meant to symbolize freedom and individuality: everyone is free to do what he wishes, and it allows everyone to act on his own. The first half was whimsical because of that: it stressed how Ikebukuro was full of interesting people that you could run into. The second arc was completely different: Saika was more about enslavement: forcing your love upon others. The pacing became much more straightforward, and in a way more personal compared to the characters in the first arc who felt like they came and went.
Now, if this was just build-up, I’ll be happy enough. I’m a big fan of shows that completely change direction, but this shouldn’t be so extreme as a shark jump. I know the director, his finales are always very good and well built up despite a few lesser moments. Unfortunately, I do not know whether the novels allow this as well. The yellow scarves to me seem based around the flock-instinct: blindly following each other without putting emphasis on individuality. It’s in between the freedom of the Dollars and the brainlessness of Saika. I have no clue how the creators are going to weave that into the other hanging plot threads such as Celty’s head, but it had better be good. I’ve often had it that the final episodes of a series completely changed my opinion of it, so there’s still plenty of room for Durarara to be a classic if it makes well use of these final seven episodes.
Rating: * (Good)
Interesting how Anri who has the most combat ability(presumably,since Kida haven’t shown any fighting skills YET.But I think she’s definitely better in a fight than Mikado) among the 3 friends unknowingly become the damsel in distress in the boys’ eyes.
And the episode also made a nice comparison between Anri and Shizuo,in how they both have this huge urge to hold back,with Anri being the one who have better control,obviously ^^;
The Saika arc was rather dull, but it was meant to be taken care of quickly. Yellow Turbans arc is, in my opinion, a lot more interesting. Especially since you don’t expect a character as light hearted as Kida to be anything of a possibly major force, similar to how nobody really expected Mikado being the leader of Dollars.
I thought this ep set the stage nicely for the remaining episodes. It will be interesting to see how Mikado, Anri and Kida all react to each other when they find out they’re actually in conflict with one another.
re: c160
Don’t undersell Kida’s combat ability. Remember, he founded Yellow Scarves while in Junior High, and they were a formidable force. Unlike Mikado, he actually have to lead his men in person, instead of anonymously issuing request and commands.
The interesting thing here is that all three groups are set to go to war with the other two BECAUSE Kida, Mikado and Anri each think they are protecting their friends and their “everyday life” and in actuality are the very forces endangering each other. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to figure out they are being played by Izaya since none of them will confess to each other who they are.
Izaya reminds me of that song by Goldfrapp:
Yeah, the next arc is most likely about Kida and the Yellow Scarves since it still didn’t explain what happened with the girl in the hospital and him. I still liked the first arc the most so far as well.
It’s pretty clear that, although Selty is strong enough to have some freewill, stealing her head makes her unable to do serious harm to you or resist forever against something you want. It also seems clear that possession of her head gives you some power over her. This is pretty well in line with Irish fairy women and shapeshifters, and with the general tathlum idea of taking heads and head display. (Which is surprisingly similar to Japanese head display ideas.)
Irish heads that start rolling around on their own are not Healthy for Others, so Izaya is not being too smart about this.
Shizuo going into heroic frenzy is very much in line with Irish heroes like Cuchulainn. So yeah, Selty being attracted to him is a natural thing. And now she’s giving him clothes. Man, that’s fairy love. Unfortunately, most mortal warriors (however freakily gifted) who are loved by fairy women end up just plain dying heroically in very messy ways, not going under the hill to live forever with them. It’s the nature of Irish heroes. So I think Izaya is being extremely optimistic, if he thinks Shizuo is heading off to Valhalla.
Valkyries my butt. If every armed woman on a horse in Northern Europe were a Valkyrie, Joan of Arc and Margaret of York would be Valkyrior. Izaya needs to work out his Wagner issues elsewhere.
Unless the three friends start communicating, everybody is doomed.
My current prediction is that Selty’s head, which apparently kept Yagiri Pharmaceuticals safe from Selty and from being bought out until Namie gave it to Izaya, will end up buried under Ikebukuro as a magic ward, after Selty’s body gets chopped up by Saika. (Heroically.)
Kida is a remarkable fighter; don’t underestimate him, he’s been a gang member at a very young age, and not to mention he’s the general of the Yellow Turbans–which was a powerful street gang before Kida left. Like Izaya explained; the fact that he started off young makes him more dangerous than Dollars and Saikas.
Mikado is stronger on the intellectual side, actually. I don’t think we’re going to see him engage himself in a fight; he has other stronger members of Dollars to do that for him.
I love the trio, but Anri’s arc seems a tad draggy? I don’t know. I look forward to Kida’s arc. The girl in the hospital is his girlfriend… I thought it was already mentioned somewhere in the past. I could be wrong though.
I just think it’s sad how Anri, Kida and Mikado are doing their best to preserve their friendship and protect one another but in reality are just destroying whatever they hold dear. And all that could have been avoided with some communications. Still, I’d like to see how it will turn out once they face each other in the battlefield. But I’m not too sure how the producers are going to pull this out; I feel like it’s going to be a tad anti-climatic.
They better be saving the budget for the last stretch because the animation has been pretty nasty for the last 2 episodes or so. I think it’s been adding to my growing loss of enthusiasm.