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Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc
Episode 9

by Jacob Chapman,

How would you rate episode 9 of
Durarara!!×2 Ten ?
Community score: 4.5

Hip hip hooray, it's time for an Izaya-sode! It's not just any Izaya-sode, either. We're taking a peek deep into Izaya's past, when he was naught but a scraggly pre-teen! ~Durarara!! babies, we make our dreams come true~

Needless to say, seeing Izaya as a child is really weird. It's hard to imagine Durarara!!'s once-primary (now secondary) antagonist as anything other than what he's always been. You can't help but imagine him springing fully formed from the mind of madness, giggling about tormenting humans and returning to the ethereal on a chariot of war someday. It's not just his personality alone that does the job; everyone in the show seems to view Izaya as his own uniquely terrible species outside of humanity. Nakura, the mysterious figure we learned about last week, compares him to a cat lover who goes "aw so cute!" not only when the cat is playing with string or rolling around on the floor, but even when the cat is lying dead after being hit by a car. (And instead of cats, Izaya is this way about humans.) Even Celty, who is a literal supernatural phenomenon, denies Izaya's humanity: "He's like other people's grudges taken form, walking around fully clothed like a person!" However, there is one citizen of Ikebukuro that knows Izaya's true self, and of course it's the putty-hearted lover-of-monsters Shinra. (Maybe Izaya's sisters understand his human side too, but we don't ever spend enough time in their heads to find out.)

Shinra tells Celty that in middle school, Izaya hadn't started seeing himself as above humanity yet. He was just a more garden-variety introverted edgelord. When asked about his interests, Izaya told the class that he enjoyed "observing other creatures," so Shinra asks him to form a biology club with him, since clubs can be formed by just two people at their school, and Shinra has no other friends. (Baby Shizuo attended a different school. He gets two seconds of screentime in this episode and one line: "RRUUAAAH?!") Izaya declines the invitation at first, until Shinra successfully plies his darker side. "Humans are other creatures that can be observed too!" Izaya pauses at this, then takes a few days to look into Shinra's family history and finds him interesting enough to at least entertain with mutual club activities.

"Wait, so that means Izaya's personality is actually Shinra's fault!" I hear what you're saying, but it actually goes even deeper than that.

Plunging further down the rabbit-hole, Shinra didn't decide to try being outgoing all by himself. Celty is really the one who encouraged him to make new friends by starting a club. "So Izaya's personality is Shinra and Celty's fault?" Oh, it gets even crazier than that. Not long after starting up their biology club, Izaya is introduced to Namie's future pharmaceutical company by Shinra, who brags about his father performing freelance and coverup operations for them. Shinra is not at all tight-lip about the company's illegal operations, the existence of supernatural creatures like dullahans and zombies, or anything else he should probably keep to himself as he becomes more buddy-buddy with the future information broker. No matter how much their relationship has changed in the present, even people as autonomous and proud as Izaya are made rather than born evil, and it's funny to think of him as the Frankenstein's monster to Shinra's Frankenstein.

Like all the best episodes of Durarara!!, this childhood flashback is really part of a wraparound story to further develop the present day, as we learn more about Izaya's close "friend" Nakura, whose face remains obscured apart from his telltale mole. "Friend" is in air quotes because poor Nakura is totally ignorant of Izaya's current dealings, but still powerless to stop his identity from being abused whenever Izaya needs a spare face or name. Izaya has so much dirt on him at this point that Nakura just does whatever he's told, including telling a 10-year old mob heiress to assassinate the toughest guy in Ikebukuro. He calls Izaya to protest against using his identity for yakuza business, but only gets mockery and veiled threats in response. After all, the Awakusu aren't yakuza. No no, they're much worse than that. Besides, Izaya had to use Nakura's identity for his most recent jobs because he was just shutting down operations that Nakura had started in the first place. Izaya and Nakura had both completely forgotten about Amphisbaena (the gambling ring) and Heaven's Slave (the drug ring) since they got them off the ground in college, but for some reason, Nakura's name was still attached to both groups while Izaya's history with them was erased. The Awakusu don't really care if he isn't part of these groups anymore. Its members sure seem to think he is, so if Nakura wants to stay alive, his face and name will continue to be used by Izaya for whatever purpose he sees fit. (Nakura has already had extensive plastic surgery done to protect him from past indiscretions.) After the phone call ends, Nakura breaks down and boo-hoos in the middle of the city street at his hopeless fate. Poor Nakura. He doesn't deserve this. Does he?

Well, yes and no. (Mostly no.) Back in Izaya's past, we see Baby Nakura burst into the biology club room and threaten Baby Izaya with a knife for cheating him over some petty deal. Baby Shinra leaps between the two of them and takes a knife to the belly, while Nakura flees in terror. Rather than doing the decent thing and chasing after Nakura, Izaya just stares at the wound in Shinra's gut with fascination, and tells Shinra that he will take the blame for his injury. "In return, how about I make the rest of Nakura's life a living hell?" Ever passive, Shinra says that's okay with him, and Izaya should just do what he wants.

And Izaya did do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life. He remained "friends" with Nakura through their college years just to destroy his future adult life and make him into a puppet for his own business dealings. I can't help but draw comparisons between Nakura and Mikado thanks to this episode. Amphisbaena and Heaven's Slave aren't so different from what The Dollars are rapidly becoming, and just as Izaya erased Nakura's identity over time, Mikado could lose himself to his own ambitions and Aoba's vengeful scheming. Maybe Izaya's "evil plan" could be an agent of rescue for Mikado instead of destruction? We don't have enough info yet to guess either way, but I hope that Izaya becomes more of a "good guy" as he's further contrasted with ultra-antagonist Yodogiri Jinnai.

Okay, more of a good guy, but not a real good guy. There's still that whole "Ikebukuro War" plan he's got stewing.

After Celty hears more about Izaya's origin story (and takes on a job to protect his sisters from Amphisbaena and Heaven's Slave goons at his request), she tells him that she's glad there's some good in his heart after all, even if it's an extremely twisted sort of goodness. Izaya warns her to be careful when making assumptions of anyone's character (especially his), since those assumptions can be used to pull the rug out from under you. Celty shrugs off this warning, but it continues to nag at the back of her mind as the night wears on. Finally, Celty realizes that her mind is literally in Izaya's hands and has been all this time. Izaya has her head. He can't be trusted after all. This is not as dramatic a revelation as it could have been, since Celty already made peace with the idea of living out her life headless many months ago, but that doesn't mean she wants it to fall into the wrong hands. (Izaya's hands are definitely the wrong hands.)

This episode was great not only as a tiny window into Izaya's soul, reminding us that all madness has roots in normalcy in Ikebukuro, but also as a little glint of both hope and despair for Mikado's future. He could end up just like Nakura, and The Dollars could end up just like Amphisbaena and Heaven's Slave: little evil fish waiting to get snapped up by bigger fish and forgotten. If there's any hope for Mikado, however, it'll have to come from both his friends and his enemies. Maybe Izaya's Evil Friends Club has benevolent intentions in the long run. We'll just have to see how it all plays out.

Rating: A

Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.


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