Recap

When their leader makes himself known, the Toramaru biker gang stops chasing after Celty and shifts focus to the real reason for why they came to Ikebukero. Meanwhile, Masaomi warns Mikado of impending danger and Shizuo runs into a peculiar little girl.

Aqua’s thoughts

It’s Namie’s turn to narrate this week, even though she has little hand in the events of this episode. The same cannot be said for her employer, however, who in a pretentious video chat to his ever-suffering assistant pretty much confirms that he’s once again the source of all the chaos striking Ikebukero. You’d almost pity Namie for having to put up with Izaya’s shit, but her narration made sure to remind you that she’d probably even more screwed up than the guy in question. If there’s any theme her somewhat sporadic narration provided the episode with, it would probably be ‘futility’. To Namie everything, including her love for her brother, is useless in comparison to his greatness, and this episode did indeed feature its fair share of futility — from various folk trying to pick a fight with Shizuo to a mysterious blonde biker trying to ‘decapitate’ Celty. The narration is ultimately nothing more than a superfluous framing device, but gives seemingly irrelevant characters enough spotlight to justify keeping them around.

It’s a nice way for the show to keep track of its ever-expanding roster of characters, and with the introductory bounty on Celty’s head seemingly over and done with, Durarara!! wasted no time in introducing yet another bunch of them. Show-stealer of the week is Rokuro Chikage, a womanizing douchebag who spends most of the episode making a complete tool out of himself to anyone who isn’t a teenage girl of the most vapid kind. He’s pretty endearing in how convinced he remains of his own awesomeness in spite of his numerous phyrric victories, general creepiness and awful taste in headwear, but the schadenfreude of seeing him already get his ass kicked by Shizuo a mere 5 minutes after his introduction serves as more than enough proof that Chikage is Ryogho Narita’s latest addition to his pantheon of slimy jerks we love to hate.

We can count ourselves lucky already if a Durarara!! episode features one deluded sod brave enough to lay a finger of Shizuo already, but this week miraculously featured two of them. For some miraculous reason, the Orihara twins are the closest thing the series has ever had to a token murderous little girl, but that has now changed with the introduction of Akane, the girl who added tasers to the long and ever-expanding list of weapons that don’t work on Shizuo. Chances are her stint as an actual threat to the strongest man in Ikebukero was over before it even began, but her ties to Boss Shiki and the scarred definitely-not-a-Yakuza guy she’s clinging to in the opening credits seem to imply Akane is just another cog in the latest gang war brewing. Whoever was out of their depth enough to involve Shizuo in their petty mob feud remains to be seen, however. For now, it looks like Shizuo is stuck with a babysitting gig, and while that’s hardly the most revolutionary idea, it could be the source of more than enough hilarity in the inevitable conflict to come. Dollars, bikers, mobsters and Russians; all the pieces are in place for Ikebukero to spiral out of control once again.

Random observations

• The mysterious new biker is voiced by Mao Ichimichi, whom toku fans might recognize as Luka from Gokaiger. The former Gokai Yellow has been building up a steady voice acting cred over the past few months, including roles in Samurai Flamenco (as the redhead Flamenco Girl) and SeHa Girls (as Dreamcast).
• Apparently, studio Shuka no longer has the rights to show random bits of Baccano! on screens all over Ikebukero, leading to a bunch of product placement for… less good shows. And also Samurai Flamenco.
• The scene with all the chatroom members reading each other’s messages out loud was the most confusing thing ever and I hope the show never does this again.