Durarara!! 18 deculture!

Unpleasant discoveries.

Yeah I know I didn’t bog about episode 17. Anyways last week we came to know that Izaya carefully plans a 3 way showdown between Kida (leader of Yellow Scarves), Anri (queen of those infected with Saika) and Mikado (leader of Dollars).

Summary

Most of the episode was a flashback showing the incident that forced Kida to quit the Yellow Scarves a year back. Apparently there was a major gang war between Yellow Scarves and Blue Squares. Back then Izaya introduced a girl named Saki into Kida’s life. As shit got real between the two gangs, one night Saki gets captured and tortured (her legs are broken, she can’t ever walk, etc.) Kida goes to rescue her but freaks out and never reaches her in time. Apparently Kadota and his buddies (the 4 people in the van) saved Saki , also leaving the Blue Squares in the process. Kida goes on a guilt trip after Saki is rescued, but Izaya finally gives him a patronising speech which leaves Kida being stuck with Saki; no matter who he dates, Saki will always be on his mind. For all the wrong reason of course. So now he’s determined to find the Slasher who hurt Anri and is ready to go to war with the Dollars if need be, never to freeze in his tracks again. Anri finds out the truth about Kida and Izaya is cackling at his master plan.

Thoughts

It really would’ve sucked if all three of these friends would unknowingly lead their respective groups into war with each other, putting the whole city into a state of utter chaos. Thankfully Anri now knows, and the situation may take a turn for the better, i.e. they all gang up on Izaya now. Whatever the case, there’s gonna be some severe violence in the near future, not least because of Shizuo and Celty, whom Izaya himself acknowledges as the King and Queen of his game. These two are also his biggest concern.

Now I normally hate flashback episodes as I just want to know about the past in one or two sentences, and not taking up almost the entire episode. While this wasn’t a particularly great flashback episode, it did give insight into the mysterious incident that led to Kida’s decisions thus far, and why he gets emo sometimes.

I used to like Izaya as somebody who watches things from the sidelines and always creates tension between characters, much to his amusement. After this episode though, I understand Shizuo’s hatred towards Izaya. That cold and calculating bastard needs to get his ass kicked really badly.