「同舟相救う」 (Doushuu Ai Sukuu)
“All in the Same Boat”
Like I said last week, this week’s episode is all about laying the ground work for this season. The past two episodes have been more of a recap of what happened, who knows what and showing everyone’s hand. This week, people are starting to form plans and plots; talking to opponents and just waiting for that moment to strike. Perhaps some of them even made a move early.
Building off of last week’s momentum, one of the bigger moments this episode was the confrontation between Anri and Haruna. In my opinion, it was a bit anticlimactic – neither of them getting what they wanted and just a lot of talk. Haruna grew up a lot since we last saw her. She’s no longer a crazy lunatic running around and she’s trying to make calculated moves by collaborating with Anri instead. Obviously Anri rejects her and that’s when the fighting begins. Haruna should know better than that since Anri is the “mother” of Saika but what’s intriguing is that Anri has grown up a lot since their last meeting as well. She’s more calm, she knows what she’s doing and she doesn’t want to kill Haruna (why have another body laying around right?). The two are interupted by Kasane (sitting around with the cats in the afternoon) and she quickly takes down Haruna. She also a contract with Saika (different from Anri’s) but her “Saika” doesn’t take the form of a single blade. Instead it comes out as crazy metal pointy things, or they morph her fingers into crazy claws. Haruna doesn’t harm Anri, but she says that Anri has a different relationship with Saika than herself.
The second set of characters we see a lot of are Mikado and Izaya. Their phone conversation takes up almost half the episode just talking about “old” times and what Mikado plans to do now. Being a “friend” of Izaya’s is like a double-edged sword. You never know what you’re going to get talking to Izaya and trusting him. Mikado is ultimately making the same mistakes as Masaomi all those years ago. For those of us that forgot all about season 1 of Durarara!!, Izaya was basically behind the downfall of Masaomi’s rule of the Yellow Scaves the first time around. Masaomi trusted Izaya and Saki (his girlfriend) got the short end of the stick because of it. Mikado is going down the same path now trying to save the Dollars and “cleanse” it but also trusting Izaya with his identity. I’m interested to see what Mikado is planning to do with the Dollars now that he’s trying to gain better control of it (and not having a lot of the influential members anymore). At the same time, will he really go head to head with Masaomi? He’d be playing right into Izaya’s hands.
We see a brief appearance from Shijima Hiroto (Murata Taishi) meeting up with a mysterious stranger (at least, not anyone that I recognize at this point). Their conversation wasn’t too interesting until the stranger admitted to being the one that sat in the passenger seat of the car that hit Kyohei. He has photos as evidence and even knows the identity of the man that hit Kyohei so that’s pretty interesting. I’m almost 99% sure that we didn’t see the face of the man that hit Kyohei (nor was there a passenger?) but maybe my memory is a little faded. I don’t think it’s a character that we’ve met yet either so who could it possibly be? Hiroto didn’t have a large role in Ten, but we first met him last cour when the story dove a little deeper into Izaya’s past with Shinra. Not going to write a blurb about him here, but if you forgot, I can clarify in the comments.
The episode ends with Masaomi getting an unexpected visitor, Chikage. Both of whom I feel have been out of the loop until recently and somehow Masaomi has attracted the attention of Chikage. Not that I like Chikage… he’s not an important character in my mind and somewhat powerless when it comes to fighting. I’m pretty sure Masaomi will win this brawl. What I’d like to know is what Chikage wants and where is his gang?
This episode was narrated entirely by Izaya’s sisters, Mairu and Kururui. They haven’t been seen at all this season so I wonder what they’re up to.
All in all, it was a slow episode with some build-up here and there. Asides from Mikado and Izaya, I don’t see the other characters as pivotal at this point because none of their actions seem that impactful to the overall story. Celty didn’t make an appearance (and neither did anyone at her apartment) and I’m more interested in what will happen to her head at this point. Shizou and Kyohei are probably two of my favorites and they haven’t shown up much at all this season. Two people that are always at the wrong place at the wrong time… I hope they give Izaya what he deserves. Clearly stabbing him once just isn’t enough. Hopefully next week will prove to be a little more exciting when Celty comes back.
Preview
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Honestly Mikado just feels like he has a chuunibyou complex. I miss Ruri and Kasuka : (
Masomi? Or was it Masaomi? I haven’t watched DRRR since the first season, so I forget.
It’s Kida Masaomi. (Family name first)
Ah, because Cherrie was referring to him as “Masomi” throughout the post.
Shall fix that! My bad =X
The mysterious stranger looks like Haruna’s pedophile teacher (don’t remember the name)
Arent you underestimating Chikage ? He actually survived a few punches from Shizuo and fought Kyohei to a standstill, tbh i don’t think Masaomi can defeat him
just jumped into the series after years of “i need to watch it someday”
…
and fell in love with Anri
I think everyone is underestimating Mikado, especially Izaya for a change.
You have a saika, she has a saika, everybody has a saika~
I have the opposite feeling for Anri in regards to how calm she is. She actually feels a bit more indecisive than before, as she’s been recently unable to decide what her position is. In the beginning, she thought of herself as a parasite that fed of others, but now she’s unsure. Izaya calls her a monster, Erika considers her human, and the other saika still thinks she’s a parasite. It’ll be interesting to see whether Anri will be able to utilize Saika’s full power or not, and how her interaction with the other two saikas play out.
And I feel like Mikado will do something that is a bit beyond Izaya’s expectations. He’s clearly different from Masaomi in terms of thinking, and he’s aware of what happened to the Yellow Scarves, so I’m hoping he does something that is really out there. He hasn’t failed yet in the surprise department, aha.
“Hi! We’re gonna introduce a new mysterious character in the second batch of episodes, and only wait until the third batch to reveal that she has Saika powers! TIMING!”
i highly doubt our little Kida-kun holds a candle against Chikage in the slightest bit. The dude’s a fricking beast. He took attacks from Shizuo for several punches and was still conscious enough to be taken to the hospital. And after holding all that injuries with Shizuo, he pretty much held his own against Kadoka, who is established as a non-supernatural powerhouse unlike Shizuo and Simon.
And Kida lost to a forehead flick of Shizuo.
Interesting! Interesting! This getting very Interesting!
I like how people an differently interpret the same scenes.
For me, the conversation between Mikado and Izaya isn’t about Mikado making the same mistake as Masaomi. Instead, to me it shows that Izaya and Mikado are the same: both want to be part of chaos in the city, both love observing other characters and both will throw fuel into the fire if they feel like it. Mikado starting to call him just “Izaya” to me looks like Mikado feeling just like Izaya.
Of course, Mikado is still nicer and more humane than Izaya, but if Mikado is going down someone else’s path, I think it is Izaya’s rather than Masaomi’s.