Durarara!! x2 episode 5 – Izaya’s selfie cam

I enjoyed the opening scene of Izaya recording himself on his phone and he rambled on about the price of the human soul and how much someone was willing to sell it for. Not necessarily for its contents, although I do like that they didn’t go for the stereotypical “everyone has their price” routine and admitted that there are some people for whom some things you could never get them to do no matter how much money was offered. I would suck another man’s johnny for enough money but you could offer me $1 billion and I wouldn’t kill my own mother. The reason I liked the scene though was the idea that Izaya has gotten so desperate for attention now that he’s started taking selfie videos and posting them on youtube as he talks whatever is on his mind.

I love this new character. Yes Narita has done fedora wearing characters before who weren’t assholes. But people like Firo could get away with it because it was literally the 1930’s. This new guy though is a self-proclaimed ladies man who acts like a nice guy but is really a bit of a shithead who treats women like delicate princesses who need protecting and shouldn’t get involved with any dirty work. He hasn’t just read pickup artists books. He’s probably written a few himself. And, like pickup artists, hit depressingly genuinely works and he gets his entourage of women following him around even when he starts displaying that attitude. Meanwhile coffee shop lady is the normal person who sees the guy and wants to get the hell away from him. Besides, you know that if you want a real man who will treat you with respect, you go with the sweetheart that is Shizuo.

I’ve heard some heathens out there don’t go for the basically canon ship of Shizuo and Izaya and instead think Shizuo has the hots for Tom, the fellow he acts as bodyguard for. I can see where they’re coming from, but personally I feel they’re relationship is one more of mutual respect and Shizuo wants to try his best so Tom can get his work done, rather than one of animalistic lust between him and Izaya shut up it’s totally canon. The scene of him in the coffee shop with Tom was neat because it was one of the rare occasions you got to see Shizuo not just yelling and throwing something. He’s not really that different from his brother when you get down to it. He even seemed to be trying to keep his temper under control for Tom’s sake and Tom was trying to help him by quickly changing the subject away from Izaya.

(gosh Izaya is a hard name to type on this German keyboard when the y and z have swapped positions).

Watching this episode I realised that the character who reacts the most humanly and naturally to situations in Durarara is Celty. She gets scared at minor things and worries about people. She tries to work out how to get out of situations logically and remarks that people seem scary in her mind. It’s a neat little detail that the most unnatural character reacts in the most natural ways. Her interview with the Yakuza was entertaining to watch her try to keep the situation under control while dealing with gangsters, like some sort of salarywoman entering a world she didn’t quite understand but had seen enough movies to get a general idea of what she’s supposed to do.