Durarara!! / First Impressions

Summary:

Shizuo has been in a very bad mood lately, and when a writer comes up to talk to him about his movie star brother Hanejima Yuuhei, Shizuo attacks him with a lamppost. Despite this, Shizuo claims to hate violence, and it all goes back to his childhood with his brother whose real name is Kasuka. Back then, Shizuo had tried to pick up a refrigerator during a fight and had hurt himself, but that experience didn’t stop him from picking up and throwing other objects later on because his body seemed to move on its own whenever he got angry. Although he got hurt a lot as a result, Shizuo also got stronger each time this happened. In one particular incident, Shizuo had tried to help a woman who had been kind to him and his brother, but he ended up wrecking her store and hurting her. Shizuo had eventually attended high school at Raira with his friend Shinra, and that’s how he met Celty. It was around this same time that he met Izaya, and Shizuo immediately started disliking him and tried to fight him. Izaya, in turn, had made sure that Shizuo got into a lot of fights with random gangs.

After they graduated from high school, Shinra had become an underground doctor and Izaya had gotten involved with the yakuza. Shizuo had trouble holding down a normal job, and when he became a bartender, his brother had bought him a lot of bartender outfits. Thanks to Izaya though, Shizuo wasn’t able to keep that job. Instead, he had run into an old acquaintance Tom who was now working in debt collection, and Shizuo became his bodyguard. That’s still his job today, and since he doesn’t like violence, Shizuo’s goal is to become strong enough to control his anger. On this particular night, he feels better after talking with Celty, and she comments on how he really loves his little brother. Shizuo enjoys himself up to the point that he sees Izaya again, and being unable to catch Izaya pisses him off all over again.

Preview

This turned out to be less of a plot episode and more of a character development episode for Shizuo – and to a lesser extent, Shinra and Izaya. That’s not a bad thing of course since those three fun characters to watch, and it was nice to see how Shizuo’s strength and anger came to be. I didn’t realize until now how much he was like the Incredible Hulk. It’s like all of the emotion in the family went to him and all the restraint went to his little brother (who looks to be yet another potentially important side character in this large cast). It also makes more sense now why Shizuo hates Izaya, and that makes what Izaya is doing all the more interesting. I can’t help but think that he’s after more than just antagonizing Shizuo and that this is all part of some greater scheme. In any case, I’m looking forward to next week’s episode since it seems to be back to Celty’s narrative point of view, particularly since we now know that she’s one of the few people that Shizuo gets along well with.

36 Comments

  6. @treble89:
    Now I can’t see Kasuka the other way.

    I like this episode.
    I also noticed that Kadota, Shinra, Shizuo, Shinra went to the same school and that the red eyes – the slasher was watching Shizuo.

    lilu
    Reply

  7. Shizuo just became my favourite character in the series.

    shizuo = hes just like a typical dumb giant with a crazy brute force, but lets just say hes that kind of a giant, but in a human form

    Izaya = agile & SMART. In a death match, he would be dead, but he uses his brains to his advantage

    Alec
    Reply

  8. I was looking forward to see a lot of past action plot, and it kinda fell short of my expectations. Sure it was really fun watching Shizuo toss things and people around, but the several interesting stuff like the lady who gave him milk and Izaya and Shizuo’s rivalry in more depth, etc. Of course it leaves more mystery with Izaya’s plan (and it almost sounds like Izaya really is a villain), but on the whole it was far less exciting than the others. Have to wait for the next week anyway, since it’s going back to Celty.

    p.s.) Celty poking Shinra- lol

    Celty trying to calm Shizuo down-lol

    Celty’s breasts kinda seemed larger today. lol? (I prefer flat ones)

    Starshade
    Reply

  9. Wow. That episode was ridiculously entertaining, and funny as hell. Celty’s screentime worked quite well, and added a nice funny element to the character we haven’t really seen much of yet.

    Avenger
    Reply

  10. Man, I’m enjoying Shizuo bashing people and stuff with the street poles like HELL. Seriously entertaining.

    By the way, I don’t mind spoilers so I’d like to know. Anyone who knows more about Izaya and answers me is welcome and thanked. Keeping the part below a spoiler in case, though it has nothing new unless someone hasn’t watched episode 3.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Starshade
    Reply

  14. @Starshade: I doubt he’s actually a kamaitachi… It’s probably just a title he gave himself which fits perfectly to how swiftly he uses his knife.

    @Lilu: Not only that, but those four went to the same school Kida, Anri, Mikado and Seiji are attending now!!
    Wow, I just realized how few student characters we have in this anime. That’s pretty odd for an anime to have more adult characters than teens~

    SomeKindaNick
    Reply

  18. awesome episode!! so much fun!! and i like shizuo anyways, but i really love how him and celty get along so well. he seems to calm down around her. also in the preview where they both tilt their head sideways together is so funny!!
    i like i like i like ^^
    i just love the relationship between the characters in this show. makes you think about it in the shower and giggle or laugh XD

    madzo
    Reply

  23. Shizu-chan is awesome.
    [spoiler]
    i know people tend to think of izaya as some sort of master planner or something but thats hardly the case at all. there are other characters that can mess with izaya more than izaya does.

    there are just exceptions like shizuo that izaya could never really get the kind of reaction he expected of his believed humans. that is the reason shizou is hated by izaya. he can’t be controlled by izaya.
    [/spoiler]

    stuff
    Reply

  26. lol@ Shinra’s role as this ep’s punching bag : ) I can kinda see Shizuo stealing Celty from him… they look so close a Shizuo x Celty plot seems possible.
    Btw, anyone notice how the baker lady looked a lot like Anri? Maybe family?

    tommichaa
    Reply

  33. @sealouse I can understand where you’re coming from, but I’m really curious as to who these chatters are so I don’t mind it so much. I assume they’ll be revealed at some point, but they might have been already and if thats the case…i guess im just an idiot ;_;

    Really great episode though. This is slice of life anime at its best, with just enough fantasy elements that its not over the top but keeps it fresh.

    Ranzell
    Reply

  35. Yeah. By this point all three of the chatters’ identities should be clear. I’ll write them down here. A powerful spoiler of course.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Starshade
    Reply

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