Durarara!! X2 Episode 9 (It’s, It’s, A Blue Square Blitz!)

So, yeah, he last few episode have been setting things up, more and more. Winding up the tension, setting up the factions and players, and preparing for huge worm of chaos and calamity to ensue. Chaos is one of Narita-sans’s strongest points, having such chaos with different groups intertwine and intersect, making the chaos huger and more destructive. And by God don’t we love him for it.

Yeah, Chikage’s gang has already begun beating up anyone they think are Dollars, and trying to get to their leader. Even though the Dollars really don’t have a leader, and noone knows who they look like, they still want them. They’ve begun beating people up, even as they begin to realize how different the Dollars are. They have no organization, no hierarchy, and their members can be literally anyone. Still, they are putting the hurt on a lot of people, and all because of Aoba’s plan. He’s not only provoked this chaos so that he can get Mikado to be the leader of the Blue Squares, he’s clearly trying to awaken something inside Mikado. While he seems so normal and regular, its clear he has a dark side, one that’s very different, and only comes out in situations like this. Despite not wanting anything to do with these plans..he’s clearly drawn in by that smile.

Yeah, while they totally want him to be their leader, its quite clear that if he doesn’t, he’s not getting free. He’s in this position where he can either play in to this plot, or be kind of stuck where he is. It really makes us wonder why they want Mikado to be the leader of he Blue Squares? Because they want him to be a fall guy or some other plot? Its really unsure, but it is clear Aoba is a conniving shit worthy of Izaya (though it’s explained they likely would hate each other due to both being schemers.)

It looks like Mikado’s not going anywhere until Celty (who had been eavesdropping the entire time) gets a cellphone call that disrupts the tension only a surprise unwanted phone call can have.

Wanna know how crazy connected everything is? Celty is getting a call from Shinra about the yakuza group, who both sent her to look for Akane while also having their own trouble with Shizuo we will discuss later. And meanwhile, while Celty’s dealing with Shinra, the Yakuza, and now Mikado’s conflict with Aoba and Chikage’s group, Varona, who was sent after Anri and Akane, is scoping out Celty at the same time. SO MANY DIFFERENT FACTIONS!!!!!!

As you can see, the different intersecting plot threads are mingling like christmas lights, and its only getting more crazy.Just when Celty says she’s not going to interfere with Aoba and mikado’s discussion, then suddenly Chikage’s group shows up!

There is no way of telling if they got here because of a plot by Aoba, Izaya, or sheer coincidence since those are insanely often in this show.  But they recognize the Blue Squares as the guys who attacked them like assholes, and so things break out. Whether it was his idea or not, Aoba capitalizes on this to frame Mikado as the leader of the Blue Squares like a manipulative jerk face. It both puts a dart on the back of Mikado’s head and forces him to take on that role to take care of himself, and causes only further misunderstandings (which are another huge aspect of this show).

Mikado goes with Celty to meet up with Anri and Akane, since now Celty knows the girl she was paid to find had been living in her house for most of the day (more coincidences.)  This continues when the yakuza that work for Akane’s dad find her with Anri, just as Celty and Mikado get there. However, this brings Chkage’s gang, and because both biker gangs and yakuza aren’t known for their diplomacy, another misunderstanding and fight breaks out. So now we got the Dollars/Blue Squares vs Chikage’s gang vs the Yakuza and everyone is fighting.

As yet another fight breaks out, Celty takes Mikado, Anri, and Akane, which is lucky for Varona, who was tailing Celty, since all her metaphorical ducks are in a row. I love how absolutely secret Celty used to be about things, but now she’s just like “screw it, I’ll make a giant headless horse carriage with my powers.’ Secrecy is for nerds anyway.

I decided, because I’m nice, to follow the characters through their parts n the story rather than constantly shift them around, as the show does. But yeah, as we have Celty and the crew riding off from all the madness, the yakuza have their additional problem with Shizuo. He got framed for murdering their guys, and they’e slowly figuring it out. Too much doesn’t add up to them to make them sure, even though they still want to bring him in. Still it could be worse, he could actually have the police after him. We learn a bit more on our yakuza characters.

This is Akane’s father who’s been overseas quite a bit. As such, he doesn’t know much about how Ikebukuro has changed, including Shizuo. However, luckily he has an assistant who does know, and explains things out on Shizuo, and it never stops being entertaining seeing people freak out at what he can do.

We see them basically understanding that killing their guys makes no sense from a motive perspective for Shizuo, so while they want to bring him in, they’re not going in guns blazing.

Shizuo, for his part, is not letting himself be taken, but is not going for the typical Shizuo approach of “get pissed break all the things”.  It shows that,while a powerful rage machines, Shizuo does have sense, and knows that the more he fights, the more guilty he will look. Besides, as fun as it is seeing him beat people up, its also fun seeing him just be like “lol no” and run up a building like he’s freaking spiderman.

We know, absolutely, that Izaya put him up to this, and its unclear why he wants Shizuo so occupied? Is it purely for fun, to keep Shizuo occupied while he hatches a bigger scheme, or to hide another plan he has? We can see that in all this chaos and disorder and confusion, its clear Izaya at least is highly enjoying himself. Who knows, he might have set Akane up purely to spring this trap on Shizuo.

So, yeah, shit has begun getting crazy now. We’ve had these episodes to set up, but now its going full crazy and insane. And I love it. I can’t wait for the twists and turns, reveals, turnabouts,all the things that makes Durarara!! so much freaking fun! The plot to this series is so complex and interconnected and it all fits in this grand puzzle. I can’t wait to see what happens next and how much more insane and interwoven things can get.