Durarara!! Episode 7
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Before we get into the meat of the episode, can we please mention how silly it is for Mikado to call Celty's phone What was he expecting her to respond with when he asks her \"where are you\" Turn her Dullahan black smoke powers into some sort of trumpet and respond using Morse code And while we're on the subject of questionable things Mikado did this episode, the scene where he started squirting the lighter fluid on the stalker's back looked an awful lot like he was peeing on him. That may just be because I've been watching too much Prison School and Shimoneta this season so when I see a questionable scene like that, my mind automatically jumps to the dirtiest thing possible.
Back on topic, boy this episode was fantastic! I know Durarara takes a while to get going with each arc, but once it does it really makes for enthralling viewing. Possibly the best part of the episode was the scene where Kida realises it's Mikado under the hood, wearing a pained smile underneath the double black eyes and blood soaked forehead. Neither of them have ever been the most interesting part of Durarara (when you've got headless Irish biker fairies, super-powered, super-angry bartenders and black, Russian, ex-assassin sushi chefs, somehow the travails of teen gangs don't seem as interesting anymore), but this episode they really sold me on their relationship and why we should care.
A manga adaptation of the same name, first illustrated by Akiyo Satorigi and later by Aogiri, has been serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy since July 2009. A 24-episode anime television series adaptation was broadcast from January to June 2010. It was followed by a 36-episode second season, titled Durarara!!2, broadcast from January 2015 to March 2016.
The story is told from the perspective of approximately eleven of the main characters and changes every episode in the anime, sometimes even more often. One of the few constants given in every episode is that the narrator gives his own opinion on the current situation that he is in as well as what things that make him tick and keep him going in Ikebukuro: a city with a large underbelly that is the medium for the majority of both the plot's development and random violence throughout the series.
The rest of the episode details Ruri's exploitation by Jinnai using familiar \"fallen idol\" imagery straight out of Perfect Blue. Of course, Ruri is not being exploited as a girl, but exploited as a literal inhuman monster, drawing easy parallels to both Celty and Anri, who she meets with in episode 6 to discuss her fears. Her late-night \"trysts\" with old perverts are not sexual in nature, but surgical, as her immortal constitution becomes a sadist's playground for leering corporate goons to relieve their violent stress in a \"safe\" environment. The drooling stalker who catches her in these acts is not obsessed with destroying her nubile innocence (which doesn't exist), but her horrific undying flesh.
While Ruri's tragic tale is engrossing and well-told, it's not the true focus of these episodes. As I mentioned in the episode 5 writeup, the real point of a \"Ruri's stalker\" subplot is to explore how well (or how poorly) Mikado's new secret police function within The Dollars, especially once their actions start directly affecting Mikado's friends and acquaintances. Much like Anri-as-Saika, Ruri-as-Hollywood can protect herself just fine. In both cases, the girls just don't want to provoke the violent monsters lurking inside them for fear of hurting the innocent or endangering their secret identities. So we're not meant to be seriously worried about either of these girls being victimized; we're meant to be worried about Mikado's soul.
That's the thing about vigilante-style revolution. It seems like true justice at first. It really seems like it's worth the pain, sacrifice, and discord, because if it didn't feel worth it, no one would end up taking things too far. That rush of fist-pump celebration the audience feels when Ruri's stalker runs off screaming, enveloped in flames, is completely justified. Mikado and his Blue Blood Cells protected Anri, Shizuo, and Masaomi that night, and they probably protected Ruri and others close to her in the long term. But that still doesn't mean what they're doing is right. I mentioned Masaomi in that list a moment ago, which shouldn't be the case. He was dragged into the fight because he just so happened to be with Shizuo at the time of the attacks, apologizing for the hit the Yellow Scarves put out on him when their shadow leader started using the gang for their own dark purposes. (Well that's ironic, considering what Mikado is going through right now!) He wasn't supposed to see any of this, but now he has: he knows that Mikado has allied himself with the Blue Squares, Masaomi's old sworn enemies, to change The Dollars from the inside out for the benefit of friends who never asked him to do any of this in their names. Once again, the repeated shots of Masaomi reaching out to his injured friend, only to be cut off with a Grima Wormtongue-esque deflection from Aoba, sometimes from Mikado's own mouth as he parrots dogma, are totally heartbreaking. It's an intentionally uncomfortable episode to sit through, in all the best ways.
It always seems like a good idea at first, Mikado. But as a few key shots from this episode make clear (like this review's screencap), he is not the one in control, and Aoba is one very bad lieutenant. Mikado cannot control The Dollars this way, Anri has started reaching out to Akabayashi in response to her fears, Izaya has started introducing sock puppet accounts into the Dollars chatroom, and things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.
There's also a special for Ketsu called Dufufufu!! that takes place in between episodes 7 and 8. Aside from that, that list is totally correct. If you're still hungry for more like me, well then it's on to the light novels. 781b155fdc