Durarara!!×2

Episode 7

It's the end of an era: Celty's helmet has been squooshed. It is no more. It has run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. On top of that, something else died this episode, and it was the animation quality. What happened? Scenes float by with giant awkward dissolves between keyframes in lieu of in-betweens, and janky motion like this little floating hair-dryer gem is par for the whole twenty minutes. I can only hope this means they're saving the big guns for later episodes, because I've never seen Durarara!! look this ugly before, and I don't care to again. (Don't worry too much about Celty's destroyed helmet. I'm sure she'll get another one soon.)

At least on a story front, this was a step up from last week. This week's episode profiles two characters, one old and one new, who couldn't be more different, and are probably destined for a head-on collision before the show is over. It's time for a spotlight on Vorona and Mikado.

For Vorona, we follow her through childhood, as she comes into her own and digests a valuable life lesson that she should not have learned. As children, we often make decisions for the approval of our parents, and this affects the passions we pursue as well. Perhaps we read because our parents encourage us in becoming literate, or join a sports team so that they will cheer us on from the stands. Over time, we must reconcile the passions we were raised in with our own individual desires, and this part of growing up and self-actualizing is usually positive...but not for poor Vorona. Her childhood passion for books was a pale expression of loneliness. Books were all her absentee weapons dealer father had left her, and so she explored the world through them, day in and day out, isolated from familial affection. The first time her father ever held her close was after a burglar broke into their mansion, and she killed him in self-defense, using knowledge from the many books she'd read. She assumed her father was expressing satisfaction with her for killing a "bad person," when in fact he was only expressing relief that she was still alive, and regret that he had been neglecting her. It was too late. The damage had already been done, and while her father became more attentive, he did not become more communicative. She trained with his assassin friends (hi Simon!) under the guise of "learning self-defense," and later used these skills to terminate anyone she considered his enemy. Even after her father expressed obvious displeasure with her decision to become a trained killer, it didn't matter. Vorona wasn't killing for his approval anymore. Whether he could accept it or not, (and he can't, her father still refers to her as a child,) Vorona had become an adult, and she was killing because she loved to kill.

It's a great little story all by itself, and it also made a world of difference in creating a sympathetic point of reference for a character we really only met an episode ago. It's a shame that the episode looked so crummy, but if it's a small price to pay for such a nice and tidy little backstory, I'll accept it. Vorona was also the one who broke into Anri's apartment at the end of last episode, only to get chased off by Saika in this episode. I honestly have no idea why Vorona would be after Anri, and I fully admit it might just be something I missed. Could it be due to her connection with Celty? Maybe it will become more obvious in future episodes.

We also get some much-needed clarification on Mikado's new trajectory as a character, through an extended conversation with Izaya that makes our "protagonist" far more sympathetic to me than he had ever been before. Mikado is actually more selfish than we've been giving him credit for. Izaya explains to him that The Dollars' misbehavior is different this time because Mikado is different. In the past, his ability to reunite the group anonymously left him in control of it, while still keeping it a one-of-a-kind "secret nation." Now, if Mikado wants to reunite The Dollars under his ideals, to oust the bad Dollars and reward the good Dollars, he'll have to do it as a visible king, and that's a power that Mikado doesn't want. It won't be The Dollars anymore, it'll just be another gang. He has only two choices: become a gang leader like Masaomi was, or step down and let The Dollars evolve without him. Mikado is too selfish and immature to accept either option, and that could result in some extremely volatile mistakes down the line. Like taking advice from Izaya, for example. Mikado's heart is already drifting in the wrong direction.

The episode ends with another unwanted visit, like Vorona's house call on Anri, but this time, it's a more emotional intrusion than a physical one, as Aoba shows up at Mikado's doorstep. What does the shadow leader of the Blue Squares want with the shadow leader of The Dollars? I'm itching to find out, but I hope it's better animated than the events leading up to the confrontation.

Rating: B

Durarara!!×2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.