Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc

Episode 5

Sorry, Anri, but I'm getting real sick and tired of the "Ikebukuro keeps on rolling as if nothing has ever changed" speech, and you can stop pulling it out anytime you like now. That speech has always been the most "light novel"-y aspect of Durarara!! in the worst way, but it still had more resonance earlier in the show than it does now. Usually, the "Ikebukuro is a living organism that keeps on trucking despite the hiccups and illnesses we put it through" soliloquy is meant to cap the intentional anticlimax of any given story arc. For the first six books (and 38 episodes) of Durarara!!, this speech held true. The city really hadn't changed despite the grand ambitions and drastic character revelations of the people at work within it. But at long last, that isn't true anymore. Mikado is finally justifying his existence as Durarara!!'s main character by making a decision big enough to truly change Ikebukuro as we know it. So yeah. You can drop the speech.

Now that the fun and fluffy character-focused episodes are behind us, it's time for twenty solid minutes of set-up for the next arc. I'm happy to report that once again, the execution is stronger and more engaging here than it was in the previous cour, which leads me to think we'll never quite dip down to that level of production incompetence again. (But I don't want to jinx it.) There are tons of familiar individuals at play in the new arc, but the episode remains centered around two major events that wrap around one another, making this whole inciting incident blessedly easy to follow.

Following her familiar monologue, Anri goes to Celty for advice about Mikado. (Celty has just gotten in the door from another incredibly ridiculous fantasy adventure, similar to the werewolf hunt she went on in the first episode of this season. Something about a transporter mission involving a little girl's pet albino python and having to blow up a helicopter and--anyway, not important! Back to Ikebukuro!)

Mikado has been weirdly happy lately, Anri explains. In fact he's been too happy. She hasn't seen him this pie-in-the-sky since Masaomi was still in town, and it worries her. For the longest time, Anri was concerned that the events of last season had revealed her identity as Saika to him, and it would ruin their blossoming relationship. Mikado's actual reaction worries her even more, though. He said he didn't care what secrets Anri was hiding (as in he doesn't even want to know) because he was making the Dollars a place that would be safe for her, and safe for Masaomi to return to. This takes Mikado's positive attitude beyond reassuring into unsettling, almost cultish. Why would she need a "safe place" within the Dollars to begin with? Why would Masaomi? In fact, why does Mikado think this is his decision to make in the first place? None of this was like the trusting, open-minded, l'aissez faire Mikado she had come to know and love.

Celty is also troubled by this shift in his behavior and asks Anri if she's noticed him acting differently beyond their strange conversation. Anri says no. The only change she's noticed is that Mikado has been hanging out with this Aoba guy a lot more often. Little does Anri know that Celty met Aoba for the first time just a few days ago! He showed up on her doorstep making veiled threats (which earned him an unwelcome comparison to Izaya from Shinra), but before Celty's fiancée could shiv him with a scalpel for threatening his woman, Celty agreed to pass on the very simple information Aoba requested: just an e-mail address. We don't know whose e-mail address he wanted, but I guess that's a mystery for a future episode.

Of course, we know the reality behind all of Mikado's strange behavior, and it's unfortunately even more chilling than Anri suspects. Mikado is taking his first steps in making the Dollars self-regulated, but going about it in all the wrong ways. He's become the shadow leader of the Blue Squares, absorbing them into the Dollars in secret to act as white blood cells in the colorless gang's veins. If they hear of any Dollar acting in a way Mikado doesn't approve of, they'll stamp them out by forcing them to unsubscribe from the Dollars and blacklisting them from that moment forward.

There's two major problems with this approach that basically guarantee a ruination of Mikado's soul, The Dollars, and maybe even Ikebukuro itself over time:

1) The Blue Squares are not invisible, and Mikado doesn't have the foresight to insist they become invisible, probably because he's beginning to enjoy the idea of finally being recognized in some small way for all the work he's done to create and maintain The Dollars. The "Dollars that watch The Dollars" are already known amongst the community for wearing blue shark masks over their faces and spreading fear and physical injury wherever they turn up. No one talks about how they're improving The Dollars' image by getting rid of bad apples. The narrative that's spread is one of fear: don't let them find you or else. Maybe these Blue Squares are also taking action in ways that Mikado doesn't know about?

2) Mikado still wants a Dollar gang without any official rules or restrictions. He can not have it both ways. If there's no rule stipulating what Dollars can or cannot do, but "offenders" will now be punished based on his arbitrary judgment of whether they've become bad Dollars, this makes Mikado a tyrannical dictator without a face: the worst combination of absolute power and vigilante justice. If Mikado really wanted to regulate the Dollars, he would have to reveal himself as their creator and give them a mission statement with actual rules and consequences. If he never does this but continues to exercise these arbitrary moderations, it's going to become insanely easy for Aoba to turn The Dollars into the group he wants it to be, and turn Mikado into a person he's not.

So that's the first major event of the episode, and it leads into the second. There's a "bad Dollar" that has yet to be discovered by Mikado's "blue blood cells" (my nickname, not the show's), but he can't remain invisible for long. The unnamed creep is a kickboxing stalker who's after Ruri (the Hollywood serial killer/famous idol/girlfriend of Kasuka Heiwajima). In light of this, Shizuo's brother decides to meet up with him and ask about how The Dollars operate. Shizuo informs him that he just quit the gang and was never part of its inner circle to begin with, but he'll see what he can find out. My guess is that Kasuka asks because he's hoping the top brass in The Dollars can do something to punish this stalker, so he won't have to work with the useless police force in getting rid of him. In the past, the answer would be no, but now that The Dollars are secretly a regulated group...

I'm not really concerned about Ruri's safety here, and I don't think you're supposed to be. After all, she is the Hollywood serial killer, and this stalker isn't introduced like he's meant to be a major character of any kind. No, this subplot is less about Ruri's safety and more about the evolution of The Dollars and how their new structure functions in the elimination of bad apples, specifically bad apples with ties to the main cast. Ruri's stalker is bound to be discovered soon because he's already connected to Mikado through other major characters. The creepy kickboxer works out at a dojo run by a man named Sharaku, who teaches martial arts to the Orihara twins and Akane Awakusu. (Hey, that detail paid off already!) The twins have already begun inquiring about the creep, which puts him only a chat comment away from "expulsion" by Mikado's blue blood cells.

On a lighter note, the other thing Kasuka wanted to meet Shizuo for was a babysitting detail. He wants his brother to take care of the adorable Scottish Fold kitten (named Dokusonmaru) that he and Ruri adopted together, while they move places to try and shake the stalker. And with this, Shizuo's surprise family setting is complete! Now he just needs to buy a house with a white picket fence that he can live in with his new wife, new child, and new kitty cat!

There are also four new members of the Dollars chat thanks to the conversational void left by Izaya's (Kanra's) absence. The new members are Akabayashi (Gaki), Sharaku (Sharo), Aoba (Junsui), and Saki (Saki). That's an interesting combination of personalities, and the Sharaku-Aoba connection is the most immediately worrisome. The Orihara twins may not have to out Ruri's stalker as a Dollar themselves, if their teacher figures it out and spills the info to a certain blue newbie (although Aoba types in brown.) Bringing other characters like Anri and Shizuo into the mix is bound to turn this operation ugly fast, though. Let the games begin!

Rating: B

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.