#Drrr novel

[autisticshizuo]

20 years ago, on this day the first volume of Durarara!! (デュラララ!!) was released in Japan. This volume contains the Dollars/Mika Harima arc, which is the start and readers' first meeting with such a well written plot, complex characters and artsy language.

Happy 20th anniversary to Durarara!! It will be forever my favorite media; no book, anime or manga can come close to the place that Durarara!! has in my heart. It will remain as a unique and one of a kind work, not only to me but to many other readers as well.

[soultiio]

COMPLEX PART 2

left to right (cw: vomiting, not explicit tho)

COMPLEX PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 3

[kasururigoth]

that one comfort character meme but this is actually what goes through my brain every time i’m having one-sided beef with someone

[madhousefruitcake]

Izaya’s Part 3 is finished!

It’s been a long journey, but Izaya’s route is finished. We look forward to your thoughts on the endings and the conclusion to Izaya’s story in Ikebukuro Records. The password, as always, is Baccano. 

Download the game here!

Edit: As always, for newcomers, remember to play the normal route first! Password is MHFC.

[wbmwrites]

I will post more about these four later on.

[threadmonster]

I got the Drrr!! Side stories novel and well, great, now I have to talk about transman!Shizuo ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌ what a shame.

Just imagine Shizuo already feeling insecure enough about his violent outbursts, he didn't need gender dysphoria on top of it. Of course he didn't actually know what any of that was he just knew girls weren't supposed to act that way. His gender was probably a target of the bullying. "That's not a girl, that's a gorilla." He quickly abandoned feminine clothing, he felt better in his body that way but the bullying didn't get better.

I think we can safely say that he has good parents and a good home life, but he still worried about disappointing his parents. Not only did they have to deal with his monstrous anger and strength, he didn't feel like a girl. He respects his parents so much that the idea of even chopping his hair off and hiding his body felt wrong.

By middle school he confides in Kasuka, who ended up giving him a hair cut. Their mother panicked and for a moment Shizuo thought she was mad that he would do such a thing, she always said how pretty his hair was. She ends up telling him, "If you wanted a haircut you should have just said so" and made an appointment.

He's still wearing the girls' uniform and tries to adhere to the gender norms. He causes enough problems, the least he can do is appreciate the body he was given no matter how uncomfortable going through puberty was.

Maybe puberty hit him too early and he was offered puberty blockers. He was hesitant and was gauging whether or not his parents would be upset but he could tell they really wanted him to make the choice he wanted.

So one day after a fight he gets pulled along by Tom and they're chatting. The conversation is awkward. Cutting his hair was one thing but bleaching it seemed entirely different. He didn't really understand why but he ended up "coming out" to Tom and was genuinely confused by the concept of transgender because up until now he only understood the general distaste that existed around crossdressers. He knew what gay and lesbian was and he never really thought much about his own preference. What was Tom talking about?

It was the first time being told something like "you don't seem much like a girl" felt like a compliment and validated him.

After that he bleached his hair and wore the boys' uniform. After that his parents brought up his treatment, they had taken notice of the changes in their daughter over the years and could tell he was ashamed to bring it up to them. They used the topic as a way to show they supported him no matter what and he managed to open up a little bit and they bought him a binder, switched words and pronouns.

Hanging around Tom really helped him come to terms with himself and slowly he shook the belief that he had to be a girl.

By highschool the rumors about him spread so much and altered that none of it was a problem. He could just be a guy.

But then there was Izaya. The rumors Izaya heard, he was expecting the monster to indeed be a girl. When they met, for a split second Shizuo had a fear, like if this person wanted to he could ruin the success Shizuo had with his transition and the public perception of him. But Izaya just frowned as he looked him up and down, "Ah so the monster really is a guy."

Shizuo was angry, of course, everything about this guy pissed him off. He was pretty sure he was actually being insulted too. Still there was a part of him that was absolutely ecstatic. Fighting with Izaya somehow ended up being a gender affirming activity.

He absolutely hates when Shinra says stuff like that though.

Something like that.

[ayesakara]

I made another Durarara video! This one took 9 days from scripting to voiceover to clipping everything together. And I had so much fun! Vidding is so much fun! 🥰

It's over 12 minutes long, but then it's a whole character analysis of why Shizuo Heiwajima and Izaya Orihara ended how they began: as mortal enemies.

It's not Shizaya-friendly, but then I guess that automatically makes it Shizuo-friendly. Because... you know... Shizaya is bad, bad, bad for my darling boy Shizuo Heiwajima. 🤣

[subarashiihibi]

i've already written about these quotes in my own drrr novel notes but i have to post about it here too just because i need to speak about it again but

narita describing izaya as 'very difficult to grasp or classify' here in his first real appearance and introduction is so UGHHHHH it's so fucking good. izaya is like an enigma and he is so complex and he's got all these things going on with him that all work to make him so so so beautiful and so i just really like that narita worded it like that. i love to observe izaya like he's a specimen under the microscope.

the other things i highlighted were also very important to me i think the 'anything that wasn't himself' is also a good glimpse into izaya's personality and the way his mind works. 'equally pleasant face' i just like that one cause i like when they call him beautiful in the story . <3

this also made me feel like i was going to ascend from my couch first time i reread it a while back. how interesting is it that narita describes mikado's feeling as though his 'entire existence would be denied' by the very man who so obviously struggles with facing his own humanity and instead chooses to see himself as an omnipotent figure. i just idk i'm not even going to try and get further into it bc i'm already like just feeling like i need to start rolling around and pulling my hair out but my god i love izaya orihara so much he truly is the goat he is MY goat 🙏🙏🙏

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Season 3 Ramble#1 - New Year New Worlds ver.2

This is another one of those episodes where I almost feel like I’m betraying the name and purpose of the podcast, as this month I won’t actually be talking about manga or even anime for that matter.

The first time I did this whole New Year New Worlds thing was in Season 2 Ramble 1, where I focused on isekai manga and manhwa since I’d never really given the genre a chance before then. This month, again, I wanted to try something completely new to me and so I focused on Visual & Light novels.

Now my regular ramble format is to talk about top new reads on a particular topic/theme for that month, then give top reads I had on the same topic/theme before then. Seeing as this is an entirely new media format for me, there’s no way that format would work. So how this episode is gonna go is I’m gonna do a very quick once over of my top 3 isekai from last time, then get into this month’s media starting with Light Novels, then wrap up with Visual novels.

Lastly, before we get into it, I thought it would be useful to actually define these media formats, so everyone listening would be on the same page, veterans and newbies alike.

So…

According to wikipedia, Light novels are a type of popular literature novel, native to Japan, usually classified as young adult fiction targeting teens to twenties… In other words they’re books. Taking wiki at their word, light novels, or LNs as I’ll probably refer to them from now on, tend towards the YA novel variety you’d find in the west. The biggest difference being that they’re usually a bit shorter with an average length of less than 300 pages, but a crazy dense publishing schedule of 3 - 9 months between installments… crazy…

And visual novels, according to masterclass dot com, are text-based adventure games that combine interactive fiction and traditional anime or manga art styles, to give the gamer the experience of reading a novel in a visual format. The site goes on to describe different types and targets, along with 5 key characteristics of which I thought the first was really key and worth mentioning. Namely, Advancement; In visual novels, or VNs as I'll probably call them going forward, players do not guide a character the way they would in a traditional video game. Instead, they advance the story by clicking in targeted regions to refresh the text. Sounds kinda lame but trust when I say it’s the opposite. At least as far as my experience so far leads me to believe.

Getting right into it

A quick recap of my top 3 from Season 2 Ramble 1

#3) Loner life in another world - The ultra quick summary is in the name, as a lot of isekai tend to do for some reason… anyways, a loner gets transported to another world. Really it’s him and his classmates but he prefers to move alone. I thought it was pretty fun as far as isekai goes, mostly because it’s very lighthearted, doesn’t take itself too seriously and for the most part, at least from what i’ve read so far, it really felt like kids being kids. Which I really appreciated cause isekai always seem to go off the deep end.

#2) Murim Login - Again the ultra quick summary is that in this world, there’s the typical dungeon crawler aspect where special humans called hunters, protect the rest of humanity by going into special gates and closing them by defeating the boss monster inside. The MC is a low rank hunter that one day finds a VR game in the trash that actually sends him to another world. That’s the very basic premise but if i’m being real, the reason I dug it was because of it's heavy ancient chinese martial arts type vibe. The story has been enjoyable as well, split into two with his life in the real world and the one in the game, the one in the game so far being far more interesting… go figure.. but yh… I definitely have a martial arts bias so slight grain of salt there ig..

#1) Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint - This was my fav read that month and honestly I see it being my fav isekai for a long time. The story here is that the MC is a big fan of Light novels and happens to be the only person in the world to have completed one called Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse. Lo and behold the events of the story start to unfold in real life. Now I know that screams boring story overpowered MC red flags, as he clearly has a certain edge over literally the entire human population,, but TRUST. TRUST! it’s all handled really really well.

If i’m being honest, the really real reason I brought these up is probably because I saw some announcements earlier this month that two of them have started production for anime adaptations. #3 Loner life in another world and #1 Omniscient Reader’s viewpoint. Not that something getting an anime speaks to any inherent quality of a manga besides profitability, but in any case, if you liked the quick summaries, anime announcements or even just the names, I recommend actually listening to Season 2 Ramble 1 - New Year New Worlds, or reading its transcript for more structured descriptions and takes…especially on Omniscient Reader… so so good..

Now onto the stuff I actually got into this month, starting with Light novels... I say Light Novels plural and though I technically did read more than one, they were all from the same series

Durarara!!

I’m a big fan of durarara!! Watched the anime like ten years ago, and even back then I really wanted to read the source material but couldn’t find it anywhere, the source material being the LNs. I pretty much gave up.. but still 2 years ago I read the manga for Season 1 Ramble 12 - Delinquency and still enjoyed it. Finally. Finally. I’ve gotten my hands on the light novels thanks to a 7 year old reddit post. Thank you reddit.

Durarara!! is a story written by Ryohgo Narita with illustrations, like the cover and a few more for emphasis on certain scenes, done by Suzuhito Yasuda. In total there are 13 volumes which started publishing in 2004 and ended in 2014. Of these 13 I’ve read 4 so far. This is the third time now I’ll be speaking about durarara!!, the first time was Season 1 Ramble 8 - A is for Anime (solo reprise) then Season 1 Ramble 12 - Delinquency. Of course I encourage you to check those out but seeing as I clearly love Durarara!! I don’t mind giving the synopsis again.

Durarara!! Is the story of Tokyo’s downtown district of Ikebukuro and the people who live there. There are three central characters who the story mostly revolves around and a few more that make up the full main cast. The main three are mikado ryuugamine, a kid from the countryside who’s tired of the normal everyday life and so, invited by his best friend, moved to Ikebukuro to get closer to all the excitement. Mikado’s best friend who invited him, Kida Masaomi, is the second of the three. A rowdy, dye haired playboy who’s lived in Ikebukuro for a while and serves as mikado’s guide. Last but definitely not leat there’s Anri Sonohara, a plain girl who lost her friend on the first day of school.

There are others like the strongest in ikebukuro, shizuo, the most dastardly in ikebukuro, izaya, the random black Russian sushi store employee simon, and etc., that all affect the story one way or the other but there’s one more character that probably brings the central cast up to four and that’s celty sturluson, a dullahan, aka headless horseman, looking for her head that’s been stolen.

Not sure if you can tell from that not so short synopsis or the fact that there’s thirteen volumes of this thing but ALOT is going on in this story. For comparative reasons I'll bring up the anime here that has two seasons, the second being split into 3 cours, and they cover about 6 of the light novels. I say about, because I've only read four of them but I know for sure that season 1 covers the first three, and the fourth novel lines up with what happened in season 2 cour 1 so that’s where my assumption comes from.

In any case if it sounds like i’ve said a lot without saying anything, i’m aware and I hate it but it’s kind of a mystery story so i’ll give myself a small pass and hope you all can forgive me., Like this is one of those stories it’s hard to speak on without spoiling some aspect. I will say though that delinquents, katanas, superhumans and the yakuza are involved so… yh… Lastly the narration is great as almost every chapter is from a different person’s perspective and sometimes this goes back and forth through time so the story comes together in a very neat but crazy exciting kaleidoscope. One thing the anime had over the Light novel is that along with this changing vantage point, the narrator would change independently as well which I thought was really cool and really solidified the feeling that nothing goes unseen, whether on accident or by design, but the Light novels gave a bit more depth to the character's train of thought so I guess it balances out a bit.

Not much more to say but having watched the anime, read the manga and now the light novels I think it’s obvious that I definitely and holistically recommend durarara!!

Now onto the Visual Novels

The order I’m gonna mention them in is just the order I played them in, usually I’d do some sort of ranking but If you know anything about visual novels, and I guess story heavy games in general, it’s that they tend to be on the longer side of things so sadly I only finished one.

1) Steins;Gate

Released in 2009, developed and published by MAGES & Nitro+ with an approximate playtime of 44hrs. This was the only VN I actually got to complete a playthrough of this month.

I watched the anime 10 years ago and though I don’t remember much of the intricate episode to episode details, I do remember time travel being involved and it fucking with my emotions in the last half. In fact I went to check old tumblr posts I made back then to see if it would jog my memory but there was only one post and all it said was that the last 4 episodes were feels…

In any case back then I had no idea what VNs even were so I pretty much thought that was the end of it, but as the helix of time would have it, I’m back here again.

For those who have no idea, Steins;Gate follows a rag-tag band of tech-savvy young students who discover the means of changing the past via mail, using a modified microwave. Their experiments into how far they can go with their discovery begin to spiral out of control as they become entangled in a conspiracy surrounding SERN, the organisation behind the Large Hadron Collider, and John Titor who claims to be from a dystopian future.

Yes i know it’s kinda crazy that technical time travel was stumbled upon with a microwave but one it’s fiction, and two the series really doesn’t ask you to suspend your belief all that much otherwise. Getting into it, I really like the VN way more than the anime, the time difference is probably a factor but I don’t recall the anime being as thorough in explaining the science of different theoretical time travel mechanics and how they may or may not work. In fact the VN was way more thorough in general, from individual characterization to the overall settings, but to be fair to the anime, they have a limited time to work with and there’s no way they could fit everything in there. No reason to either as they told their own story and to be clear the anime was great and obviously having things moving about is a strength that the VN could never touch, but as a person who really loves the specifics of things, as well as a healthy interest in time travel, the VN just wins out.

Moving clear of the anime now, the VN playthrough is actually multithreaded, with several branching routes and independent endings which plays into the whole time travel, chaos theory, cause and effect type stuff brilliantly. Especially because the choices generally aren’t very obvious or with clear impact or storyline segmentation, besides the split in chapters which is independent of your choices. In my head, going into VNs I thought it’d be like you’re presented with a situation and there are some obvious choices with obvious impacts like do you want to be evil yes or no? But in steins;gate, you’re really just advancing the script almost unknowingly and the only choices you make are to answer a text or not to answer a text and the preset choices only present themselves when you choose to answer a text but i swear to you they are almost always about the most unimportant things that have absolutely nothing to do with the task at hand of trying to complete successful time travel and escaping a future dystopia.

Real example, a friend texts you and asks you if you want some anime frogs.., i only know this because I chose to look at the text but you’re free to ignore almost every text. In any case the options were like what tf is that? or why tf would i? (paraphrasing ofc) + even if you do open the text as I said you don’t have to answer. No idea what that or my even more insane conversations with the cat girl maid had to do with anything but somehow I ended up where I ended up.. In the end I somehow caused the MC to get stuck in the same cycle for some unknown time until his soul pretty much died and he was on the verge of turning to heinous criminal activities but ended up just leaving his time period behind at the risk of taking on extreme mental illness.. No reflection on me and my character of course, as I said the choices aren’t anything obvious like become evil or become good, it just turned out that way somehow but that’s part of the fun because the anime only had one ending but here there’s i don’t even know how many in the VN and I can’t wait to playthrough again.

Also want to mention that it’s largely from a first person perspective so even though the story could have had the feeling of being completely independent from you and just click click click powerpoint powerpoint powerpoint, that first person perspective gave it a feeling closer to that of things slowly slipping through your fingers as you desperately try to keep a handle on things… and art imitates life… great decision by the dev team there but yh… besides that the art and sound direction was great.. The character art specifically was pretty unique like I could definitely spot it in a lineup of 100 anime art styles… phenomenal story of course and though I’d say if you have no exposure to steins at all it could feel a bit slow in the beginning, like I distinctly remember having that feeling when I watched the anime back then and I’m sure my knowledge of the insane pickup had something to do with not feeling it so much now, but I feel it had more to do with the VN having less time constraints, so they were able to make deeper character interactions and with that, the individual characterizations became that much more fulsome and enjoyable.

Definitely definitely highly recommend both the anime and the VN, I think any order is fine as who says time itself is strictly sequential anyways..

2) Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen

Released in 2002, developed by AQUAPLUS, Leaf & STING, published by AQUAPLUS, DMM GAMES & Shiravune, having an approximate playtime of 35hrs.

Now I had never heard of this before but I’d asked a trusted twitter mutual for reccs and this was one of them. shout out LZ one time. Seeing as I didn’t finish I’d feel bad trying to give it a summary or overview with my limited knowledge so I’m gonna go with the description from vndb dot org, which for the record is also where I snagged the description for steins;gate.

In any case, Utawarerumono is about Hakuowlo, a man who wakes up in a tiny backwoods village near the mountains with heavy injuries, no memory, and a mask he cannot remove. After being nursed back to health by Eruruu, the girl who found him lying at the point of death in the forest, he starts to view the village as his new home. But when an oppressive ruler threatens the peaceful life of Hakuowlo and his newfound friends and family, they find themselves hurtled towards war, chaos, and a destiny far greater than any of them imagined.

Pretty simple storyline I guess but it’s all in the execution and from what I’ve played so far, which amounts to about 22hrs, they did a pretty good job. Personally they get extra points from me for justified political upheaval brought about by the consciousness of the masses due to the unjustified cruelty of the ruling class.. But i’ll digress.. Character design was pretty neat, typical anime type beat i guess, great soundtrack, loved all the wind instruments. The character interactions were neat too, definitely feel like i’m gonna do a little part 2 thing cause the more I go on I feel like there’s a few technical commonalities I wanna speak on but yh, again I didn’t finish, though I think I got pretty far, but i still I don’t wanna speak too long or hard directly on it.

Last thing on Uta is that it did have a lot of battle aspects, or at least a lot relative to my expectations for a VN, and that came in the form of a turn based tile map type beat. Think advanced wars or some megaman and final fantasy games.. In any case those were fun, i had it on easy mode cause I was more there for the story so that part was pretty much a breeze but it was refreshing coming off steins which was strictly text based + i haven’t touched any games in a good little while due to the economy™, I’d recommend this for sure, maybe not a super push but I definitely want to finish it which again implies that anything i say on this has to have a little bit more than a grain of salt.

3) Fate/Stay Night

Released in 2004, developed by TYPE-MOON & Notes Co.Ltd, published by those same developers along with Kadokawa Shoten & Kadokawa Games with an approximate playtime of 88hrs.

Just wanna start with no, I haven’t watched the anime, but of course i’ve seen the random clips on twitter, pretty much inescapable at the height of its popularity with ufotable doing undeniably excellent work on it, and i could tell that from just a few clips. But I was in my strictly manga phase back then so I let it pass. The only other exposure I had to the fate series was the gacha game Fate Grand Order which I played for a short time because of one of my twitter friends and then the fate strange fake manga because of that same friend which I will say I do enjoy and I think I even heard it’s getting an anime which would be really based. Anyways shout out jhin and I’m gonna go with the synopsis from vndb again but summarized by me cause it’s hella long, much like the playtime..

The Holy Grail War is a ritual that materializes the greatest holy artifact, the Holy Grail. There are two conditions to participate in this ritual: being a magus and being a "Master" chosen by the Holy Grail. There are seven chosen Masters and seven classes of Servants, beings akin to superhumans with incredible fighting abilities. If you wish for a miracle, prove that you are the strongest with your powers. Emiya Shirou is a high school student who finds himself engaged in the Holy Grail war as he gets attacked by a Servant. As he’s cornered, he somehow summons his Servant and manages to stay alive long enough to compete against the other Masters.

What’s crazy about this is that after playing Uta and reading the description for this I thought “oh so there’s gonna be fights and stuff” and yes there are but you kinda just watch them, well I can’t speak on the whole game but so far I’ve played about 30hrs and that’s what it’s been. Nothing bad, it’s a VN, just surprising given the nature of the VN. In any case I’ve enjoyed it so far, pretty much knew I would as most if not all the servants are famous figures from the past and it’s always cool to see clashes of famous figures across time.

I guess the bigger surprise was how much I liked the characters and their interactions, maybe they weren’t phenomenal but there’s always a certain set of folks on social media that will have certain characters as their profile pics and there’s always lewd art here and there and the trend that tends to follow from that is like the character is blown up by the fans to the point that when you actually get to the story it’s disappointing but… I get it…. Rin fans… i get it… saber fans… I get it… I only saw her briefly at the point where I got to but I’m a rider fan… Here my lawyers have advised me to mention that in the VN there is a disclaimer that all characters are over the age of 18… and i’ll just leave that there… Anywho I also dug the subtleties of the sound direction like if they were up high somewhere you’d have a light wind blowing along with the usual bgm or when they’re at a scene like lunch or breakfast there’d be the sound of plates and stuff clinking together… I thought little details like that were very cool… The art wasn’t much, typical anime stuff ig, doubt i could pick it out of a lineup but it was early 2000s so it gets a light pass ig…

Fate is a pretty big franchise at this point so I don’t think my recommendation for or against would sway anyone but for the record I would recommend it, grain of salt due to me not actually finishing it included…

And that’s it for stuff this month, thanks for sticking around to the end gotta shout out LZ again, that twitter moot I mentioned, they gave me reccs, set me up with sites and everything to get free to play, also shout out vndb dot org for the VN details, they’re doing great work over there and I would give the sites I got from LZ but loose lips sink pirate ships so i hope yall can understand… yh that’s it for the main stuff,, a little part 2 ramble is in the actual podcast if you're interested in listening but other than that, hope you enjoyed and have a good one o/

[theophagie-remade]

Still the realest thing I ever said

[autisticshizuo]

happy birthday to ryuugamine mikado thank you for giving us one of the best scenes in fiction. he will be always one of the best written character in fiction to me i love him so much i hope he had the best birthday

[theophagie]

YOU WEREN'T HERE IN THE EARLY 2010S you know nothing of the Impact you haven't seen my man you haven't seen my man you haven't seen my man you haven't seeeeen him

[kasururigoth]

Your thoughts on Shizuo as Kasuka's brother?

hiiiii so first of all thanks for asking because i've been dying to talk about this Second forgive me if my rambling becomes a bit nonsensical or hard to understand, language barrier + brain worms sometimes make it hard to get the right words out of my brain, THIRD OF ALL i'm going to talk about sibling dynamics while having NO firsthand experience on the subject because i'm a chronical only child, with that said:

to analyze the heiwajima brothers dynamic i'm first going to analyze them as a pair rather than individuals because i feel that they are both a perfect example on how trauma affects people differently depending on their already set dynamics (meaning how shizuo is the oldest and kasuka the youngest, and the personality traits they have pre and post The Refrigerator Incident)

it is almost ironic how they don't match the already set stereotypes of sibling dynamics (how, for example, older siblings are associated with responsibility and stability and the younger tend to be the more rebellious and temperamental). this twist is what makes shizuo feel like he hasn't played his role as an older brother the right way, because kasuka is the responsible one and the stable one (in some way, at least)

he feels guilty for the way kasuka has turned out (even if it worked out for him at the end: meaning, he still has a career, he's still cared for and loved by fans, regardless of his personality). it's sad because it isn't shizuo's fault, at least not entirely, how much violence kasuka had to witness, how much rage he had to see from a very young age. they were both young, they were both children when this all happened, it was inevitable.

they both take complete opposite and equally extreme ways of coping with this. shizuo lets all his rage out, even if it breaks his entire body, because there's no point in holding it all in (at the end, he'll come out stronger), while kasuka holds down his feelings to the point he becomes devoid of them, because he has seen what they have done to his brother. they are two sides of the same coin, two different results of the same conditions (this is a big part of why i feel like their polarities also mirror the kururi and mairu dynamic). kasuka sort of took on the role of a glass child because of this, willingly maybe, maybe not. he does say that he consciously chose to turn out his emotions for the sake of not becoming like shizuo. This also makes me wonder how implicated where their parents in this whole situation like??? where were they that entire time?? shizuo mentions his family was normal and neither of them show to have a complicated relationship with them, but still i have to wonder.

i think that shizuo would break if he ever knew how inhuman kasuka feels too, they share that at least. do you think shizuo ever misses the moments he and his brother laughed together? cried together? wow this got sad, im going to change the subject.

some of the moments that i LOVE to see are how happy shizuo gets when kasuka needs help from him because he gets to be the big brother!! at last!! he goes out of his way to help him when he is in trouble or danger in both stalker incidents (world at peace OVA and Adabashi arc), and it makes me laugh how he goes berserk the moment someone mentions his brother in a tone that might be even slightly negative.

also i want to mention these three exchanges from the eight novel specifically

they are the world's most Brothers ever... they literally understand each other to a different level AHHHHHH IM GOING TO BE SICK

like, everything that could go wrong with them went wrong, they are both fucked up but at the end of the day it literally works out for them!! they have the healthiest sibling dynamic on the entire show compared to the rest and that says a lot by itself. Sure i know shizuo feels guilty for everything but knowing his little brother is doing fine brings him peace of mind. Love that one scene (episode six of the first season i think??) where celty tells shizuo that he must really love his brother. they are going to make me end it all i swear to god.

shizuo is aware that he screwed up over and over again but at the end of the day they still have each other's backs regardless of everything that went through :') i wished we had the chance to see more of them post-ketsu buuuut well maybe i'm asking too much narita clearly doesn't care about kasuka enough 😭 this got very long, i hope i gave an almost complete answer, i could certainly talk about this subject for hours on end. thank u for asking !!

little heiwajimas for u

[baccan0pe]

.

[wbmwrites]

Durarara: the most heinous and devious manipulators.

Since I crafted a poll on these four individuals recently. I'm trying to make a brief description of each of them and everything they've done in the series so far.

SPOILER ALERT:

Izaya Orihara: An info broker who wanders Ikebukuro and works out of Shinjuku. Izaya has a very strong god complex. Loving all humans and wants all humans to love him back.

Having a pair of twin sisters Kururi and Mairu. Both of them despise him and rarely get along.

He despises people who don't believe in an afterlife. Faking suicide pacts and whatnot. But what he truly despises is monsters who take the form of humans.

Case in point his former classmates Shizuo Heiwajima, a man with unnatural superhuman strength. Izaya made his life a living hell afterwards, putting low life delinquents and fogs up against him just a toy with him. After high school, they continued the feud up until the point where Izaya framed Shizuo for a crime he didn't commit and went underground and Shinjuku.

Izaya people are toys for his entertainment. Causing chaos that he is in control of. Manipulating people using his online IDs of Kanra and Chrome. Even making his former classmate Nakura dress up like him and getting plastic surgery to change his face, courtesy of the underground doctor and former classmate Shinra Kishitani.

Izaya manipulates the Raira Trio of Mikado Ryuugamine the leader, founder and admin of The Dollars. Masaomi Kida the leader of the Yellow Scarves and Anri Sonohara the wielder of the demonic blade Saika and its Slasher victims.

All to create a war that he can control. Involving other groups such as the Blue Squares and Awakusu into the fray. Using the head of the Dullahan Celty Sturluson aka the Headless Rider. Theorizing that she is a Valkyrie, wants to perish in a battle and be taken off to Valhalla. Izaya sustained serious injuries in his final fight with Shizuo Heiwajima on the streets of Ikebukuro. He was taken awhile by his allies within his Alliance.

In the spinoff: A Sunset With Izaya Orihara and A Standing Ovation with Izaya Orihara. It shows him suffering the aftermath of his fight with Shizuo, bound to a wheelchair and is entangled in murder mysteries.

In SH aka Snake Hands: Izaya is mentioned numerous times by old and new characters alike. Showing how much his influence stays in Ikebukuro, whether he is there or not.

Aoba Kuronuma: A student at Raira Academy and founder of the color gang The Blue Squares. A denizen of Ikebukuro, Aoba keeps tabs on what's going on in the city.

A cunning and devious teen manipulator, even at a young age Aoba started trick and frame others. First by framing his older brother and second leader of the Blue Squares Ran Izumi by setting his room on fire and later getting beaten up by his father.

Izumi got back against Aoba later on. During the first war of the Blue Squares vs the Yellow Scarves, Aoba feared that things were getting out of hand and requested Izumi's help in the matter by kidnapping Saki Mikajima, the girlfriend of the Yellow Scarves leader Masaomi Kida.

Both sides had devious manipulators on hand: Aoba using Izumi as a scapegoat, being sent to prison, becoming scarred and scared of fire now. As Izaya uses his Saki, who idolizes him as a god to convince her to date Masaomi. Which led to confidence issues because he didn't save Saki from Izumi and the Blue Squares.

Years later, Aoba enrolled in Raira Academy and befriends the Orihara Twins, Kururi and Mairu. Once corruption started to seep into the Dollars, Aoba used it as an opportunity to convince Mikado Ryuugamine, the leader of the Dollars to lead the Blue Squares and use them to weed out the corruption within the Dollars.

Despite the two being cut from the same cloth, Aoba Kuronuma truly despises Izaya Orihara.

By doing so, he sees what Mikado is truly capable of. By the end of the series, he was going to deliver some flowers to Mikado who was wounded in the hospital. Aoba was stopped by Mizuki Akabayashi of the Awakusu, threatening him to back off Mikado as well as Anri Sonohara. Seeing him show fear up and backs off.

In SH, Aoba is seen as a primary informant for the main characters, being the upperclassmen and mentor to Kuon Kotonami.

Kasane Kujiragi: Secretary to Jinnai Yodogiri and half-aunt to Ruri Hijiribe. Once the real Yodogiri passed away, Kasane kept the Yodogiri Shining Corporation going on. Using the talent agency as a front to hunt & smuggle non-human entities. While using proxies for Yodogiri and assigning them each a number.

Later on, Kasane becomes jealous of Ruri obtaining her freedom and hires her to be the next idol star. Using her to perform in secret for wealthy individuals. Showing what Ruri's bloodline could do.

Using the Yodogiri proxies to manipulate Ruri to do so or her father will die. The truth later came out and Ruri took her revenge as a serial killer known as Hollywood and got a new contract with Jack O'Lantern Entertainment.

Later on, Kasane along with one of the Yodogiri proxies were enlisted by Seitarou Yagiri, the head of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals to obtain the head and body of the Dullahan known as Celty Sturluson, the demonic blade Saika in the possession of Anri Sonohara and Ruri Hijiribe's cursed body.

Around this time, all of the Jinnai Yodogiri proxies were taken out by Izaya Orihara and his alliance. Leaving Kasane Kujiragi to reveal herself as a mastermind of the organization known as Jinnai Yodogiri and a Saika wielder as well. Now giving herself the first taste of freedom, she confronts Anri Sonohara and Haruna Niekawa. Revealing more hidden truths about Saika an offers to buy it off of Anri.

Later that night, Kasane introduces herself to Shira Kishitani and Celty Sturluson Kasane kisses Shira in front of Celty and reveals that she infected him with Saika's curse.

Celty as a black smoke entity, chases down Kasane who abducts Shinra. Using Saika to swing through the city like Spider-Man/Witchblade hybrid. Kasane was able to ensnare Celty. But in the end she ultimately failed to contain and her contract with Yagiri Pharmaceuticals ended.

In the end, Kasane saves Ruri Hijiribe from her stalker Kisuke Adabashi, who has been operating a secret sect within the Dollars.

Throughout her appearance in the series, she seems emotionless to an extent. Only when the Yodogiri proxies were disposed of. She began truly acting on her own accord. Collecting cat ear headbands and getting into cosplay. All while happy to play the role as the villain in the story.

In SH, Kasane returns to assist in financial support to fellow Anri Sonohara to reopen her family's antique shop. Along with some help from Mizuki Akabayashi, Masaomi Kida and Saki Mikajima to get the business up and running.

In Volume 4, Kasane Kujiragi meets with Celty Sturluson to discuss the Slugger attacks. Kasane was had ownership of called Bannanjin. An item is not a cursed hammer with a mind of its own, like Saika. It's just a normal hammer crafted by a blacksmith from the late Edo period. Which gives off a hypnotic effect that amplifies holders desire. She secretly placed the Bannanjin without telling Anri Sonohara.

Kuon Kotonami: A young man who has recently started Raira Academy along with Yahiro Mizuchi and Himeka Tatsugami. Founder of the odd job group Snake Hands (based off of Yahiro's urban legend alter ego). Along with Celty Sturluson, they investigate crimes and become bodyguards. Taking on whatever weirdness the city brings them.

Kuon is known to hang out with the Blue Squares on occasion along with his upperclassman Aoba Kuronuma, the Blue Squares leader and founder. Training in self defense at the Rakuei Gym, where Mairu Orihara and Akane Awakusu train at.

While investigating the disappearances around the Headless Rider, Kuon antagonized Shizuo Heiwajima and got beaten up by him. Afterwards, Yahiro Mizuchi took on Shizuo. Causing a new urban legend to be born.

Throughout the series, Kuon gave off the feeling similar to Izaya Orihara. Even the other locals in Ikebukuro acknowledged that, Yahiro and Himeka could already see through his facade. More was later on confirmed by his sister Nozomi Kotonami. Who told Yahiro and Himeka about their past as foster children being abused and was saved by Izaya Orihara.

Nozomi worships Izaya, as Kuon wants to become just like him. Which leads him to stage events and manipulate others. He's still not on par with Izaya, Aoba or even Kasane. As Kuon prior to dying his hair green, talks to formal associate of Izaya Orihara, Namine Yagiri.

But, Celty Sturluson and Yahiro Mizuchi tries to steer Kuon down a better path. Despite the fact he wants to replace Izaya, he despises humans. Which makes them more of an Anti-Izaya in this perspective.

But since Durarara SHx4 is the last volume we see Kuon Kotonami in. It's hard to tell what path he'll lead down the line.

[saturdays--sun]

this was me, actually. not kida.