Durarara!! X2 Episode 1 (First Impressions)

So, 5 years later and here we are, with Durarara!!’s second season, and man am I hyped for this. Narita-san (the writer of the Durarara light novels) is one of my favorite writers, with so many great characters, twists and turns, and other great parts to it. And, the fact this season follows from the light novel means stuff I thought I’d never get to see is now out there. And for fans of the anime, it feels like coming right back into that world.

For this episode, most of the main cast is absent, and in fact, is directly stated they haven’t changed. While its been over half a year, Anri and Mikado are still together, Kida is gone, Shizuo and Izaya are still fighting, things for our characters seemed to have not changed much. However, the status quo won’t be there for long, and we got several new characters tossed into the show.

Two are ones you actually might have seen if you watched the Ova for Durarara!!. These are Izaya’s sisters, Mairu and Kururi. We see that they both are totally into Shizuo’s brother, and also are in their own ways quirky and odd. Mairu is energetic and loud, while Kururi is much more distant, and when Mairu gets too loud, Kururi sprays her with tobasco sauce. As you can see, they might be as messed up as their brother, but at least not as devilish.

A more odd one is the ceo in charge of Yuuhei Hanejima (aka Shizuo’s brother). He mostly discusses how crazy the town is, how he can’t see past Yuuhei’s pokerface, and he’s talked down to by his staff. He seems rather trivial, but you never do know with characters in Narita-san’s work (looking at you, nameless  train station attendant).

While Mikado said things were the same, there is one big difference this time around, a serial killer who brutally rips apart their victims, and also loves to wear masks and disguises of monster movie characters. The serial killer is called “Hollywood” (Narita comes up with such great names).

Anyone who remembers the “Slasher” arc in the first anime can already guess this figure is going to be prominent in the story.  This show loves mysteries and secrets, and then pulling the rug out from under you.

Interestingly, the final character we’re really focusing on was in the show, but not really as a main character. Yuuhei Hanejima, Shizuou’s brother, was mostly shown in how Shizuo thinks of him, but this time he gets much more focus. We even see part of why he’s so stoic, because he didn’t want to follow in Shizuo’s bouts of rage, though he still loves and respects his brother.

However, the main focus of this episode is on our main heroine, Celty. Celty is great, I just…love her incredibly. She’s cute and she can be a bit silly and child-like but she’s also incredibly strong and talented and supernatural. Its quite clear why Shinra likes her, and she’s just so much fun to watch as she goes about her work.

We find out her trials, due to her getting more and more attention from the police and the media, as well as something even more horrible than can be imagined…in-laws!!!!!

This is Emilia, Shingen’s new wife. Yes, Shingen’s father, the man who let a 4 year old operate on a headless naked woman and who wears a constant gas mask because he doesn’t trust Japan’s air.  How he managed to find the time and find such a hot scientist wife is beyond me; but hey, its a thing. She’s pretty fun and affectionate, though Shinra and Celty are a biiit caught off guard by her (because anyone interested in Shingen would freak them both out.) But hey, this family is pretty weird, already, I’m certain they’ll get quite close.

…A bit too close. Well, I’m certain paying your future daughter in law large sums of money to medically examine and run experiments on her is totally normal…in the weird weird world Narita makes for his characters. But hey, it pays the bills, right? Actually, this leads to a very interesting part of Celty’s development. At the end of the previous season, she’d finally said she was interested in Shinra, but its unclear how far she wants to go. She’s still quite unsure about it all, which I find kind of adorable. This of course adds to her troubles previously mentioned.

However, Celty is a totally awesome badass and can totally make an escape. Her darkness creation is just so freaking cool, I love it.

 

In summary, this episode was a great reintroduction to the show, while also leaving plenty of little tidbits for whats to come later. Its fun, its cute, and its leaving so many questions and mysteries that make me excited to see what happens next. Word to the wise, this is not a series to just dive into with this episode. If you haven’t seen Durarara’s first season, go and watch it and then watch this. The setup can take a while, but once it grabs you, this show is extremely fun and great.

Possibility of Watching: Absolutely!

Possibility of Blogging: Second verse, same as the first!

Now, I’ll leave you with an image of a random character I am certain will not be important in future episodes.

Take it away, Midnight!!

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WEEEEEEE, I’m with Savage on this one. I’ve been waiting for this like….well I don’t even have a comparison. He did a good job of summing the episode up so this will be a pretty sure post on my part. But at the same time, I’ll add this to what he said. I’M HOME, everything about this episode was perfect. From the direct parallels from season 1 episode 1 with Mikado witnessing Celty on her bike, to the small hints and teases of characters we have yet to meet or get to know.

Also, two of the best characters in this show bust out the references like there is no tomorrow. Erica and Walker are sitting there talking about all sorts of titles and Dota-chin even pipes up with an interested in a light novel. I have to laugh because Durarara is licensed to Aniplex of America in the US and EVERY TITLE THEY MENTIONED BY NAME, is licensed by Funimation. Every single one of them! A Certain Scientific Railgun, The Irregular at Magic School. Can you say anime dubbing NIGHTMARE?

Anyway, that aside this episode was a trip back into a world I know and love and while I’ve never peeked at the translations for the light novels or anything of the sort. I’m still really excited for some certain things….

IZAYA

Celty is really cool in this episode and they use this episode to build up things we’re going to see this season….

IZAYA

I can’t wait to see all my favorite characters in new situations…

IZAYAAAA-KUN.

okay, if you can’t tell I’m a raging Izaya fan girl and half of my posts are going to be gushing over how amazing he is….so be prepared. with that said, I’ll wrap up my first impressions with this. I can’t wait to see the continued lives of the old characters and see the development of the new ones. I do know one thing about the light novels and that’s about Nakura, I am hoping that we need to learn about him in this season.

Possibility of watching: Gaurenteed
Possibility of blogging: Ditto, three times the Ditto.

~Midnight