[these feelings for] You will {never} Change! (Durarara!! Episode 3)

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Notifications:
Pompous Ass will henceforth be known by his actual name Izaya!
I will continue to refer to Celty Sturluson (The headless motorcycle girl) as our Dullahan
I’m analyzing this episode so it will be spoilerific up to episode 3, but not beyond that (as much as I would like to make guesses from what I’ve seen so far).
This probably has the most screencaps I’ve ever included in a post (and is around 2,200 words, I hope this doesn’t deter you)
I almost called this post Durarara!! 101 (haha, oh I see, nobody else is laughing… Fine then!)

Begin:
In the third episode we shift our focus back to Mikado, but this time we’re not subject to the more boring self-narration of episode one. Some initial thoughts expressed about Mikado in episode one are also further analyzed and scrutinized in this episode. At first I thought episode three was kind of boring in comparison to the previous emotional intrigue held by Rio. However, I soon realized that this episode was just focusing on something a little more common, thus my initial reaction was to ignore it. The theme in this case was trying to reinvent yourself upon a change in your environment. The character of interest was Mikado, the new guy in town. Our narrator is Simon, a seemingly omniscient spokesperson for the city of Ikebukuro and the citizens who live there.

What I find really interesting about the narration is how it sets the mood for an entire episode. In episode one it was all about the new boy who doesn’t have self confidence discovering the strange new world he’s going to become a part of. In the second episode Miyuki Sawashiro (who’s a seiyuu specifically listed as narrator at Anime News Network) set up an initially melancholy mood. Her almost lifeless narration reflected on the unordinary; a bit like Kyon starts out the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Miyuki brought a feeling of normality to the entire Rio story while also highlighting the emotions of the initial destitution and the optimistic hope in the ending sequences. I never second guessed her as a narrator because unlike Simon and Mikado she’s a disembodied voice. Her words were the perfect painting of the situation and the characters. Simon on the other hand brings a little of the personal touch from the first episode (in the way it’s self reflective). While Miyuki asked general philosophical questions of the audience Simon flat out told us what he thought of the human condition and what we should expect of this city (there was also some self correction [as if he was giving a dialogue while watching the scene unfold]. This was a lot different than the confident thoughts and rhetorical questions of Miyuki). Ultimately I find this intriguing because each character in turn narrates something different about the characters we’re introduced to. We end up getting a clearer picture not only of what the character thinks of him/herself, but also what the cast thinks of said character. Thus the differences tell us about the narrator and the similarities tell us about the character being analyzed. I’m enjoying it way more than I should. I would advise everyone to pay attention to the difference in narration; it’s pretty interesting.

Something that didn’t change, however, was the pointing out of what characters were. I enjoy the judgments the characters make of each other that we’re privy too. It’s something that happens all the time, but somehow in exposition it always falls flat. We never say what we really think about a person. We either spruce it up (like making fun of their jokes) or soften the blow by understating our opinions. There is of course the third option of not saying anything at all.

Theme: Change

It’s not like they try particularly hard to hide the theme this time around. They start out with Simon’s narration saying:

This is actually one way they show the theme. They’re both enforcing how some things change and how nothing changes. They’re dancing the line between how things appear to be happening, yet nothing large actually changes. Thus the circularity of Simon’s narration( He both begins and ends the show with the same lines and with the image of him trying to sell Sushi in front of the Russian shop) highlights that aspect of the story.

In other words we’re left with the message that regardless of personal developments within the episode the city is unchanging and constant. It also provides a universal connection, like the Dullahan’s shadow, that connects all of the characters to each other. In a way it shows we’re all the same, seeking something. Ikebukuro is just a grain of rice in a giant rice ball (No, I do not take my metaphors seriously at all).

The same sentiment is played out through Mikado as well, or should I say it actually focuses on him and has been since the first episode. Here are some lines to remind you of how the first episode introduced us to him.

and Mikado commented on his friend Kida by saying

Miyuki classifies Mikado in Episode 2 as:

And finally we’re to his struggle in the third episode to break out of his confines and strangle Change by its scrawny neck. He knows who he was and wants to be someone different.


with his best friend juxtaposing our theme:


and finishing us off with some great imagery to show us the split:

Mikado’s setup is now complete. The rest of the episode plays with the idea. They show him make strides to become someone new, while at the same time snubbing his development. An extremely good example of the latter:

Is the reaction to Mikado’s name. Though he can try to change his outward appearance his name is a force that, assumedly, stays constant. Thus, these lines attempt to remind us that his attempt to change is futile. This is reinforced by Simon’s lines:

If you’re curious about what this owl might symbolize here’s something I pulled from wikipedia:

“There is a small statue of an owl located near the center of the city called Ikefukurō-zō (いけふくろう像), meaning lake owl statue. It may be a hint of the true origin of the name given to Ikebukuro, but it was more likely constructed as nothing more than a joke, a play on words and as a point of interest by the city administration. The play on words arises from the alternative meaning of ‘fukuro’ as ‘owl’ (although owl is pronounced with a long final ‘oh’, rather than a short ‘o’ in the word ‘fukuro’ for bag). Perhaps because of this, the owl statue has become a famous meeting place along the lines of the statue of Hachikō located outside of Shibuya Station.”

In other words if we are associating it with the city itself (as a personification or anthropomorphization), its all knowing gaze seems to be piercing Mikado (going along with Simon’s statement) almost proving that he cannot change who he really is. The city can see what’s inside of him, not the new image he hopes to project. I find the imagery interesting, I hope you do as well. Owls are also associated with wisdom (as well as many other things) so I can’t make the assumption that I absolutely know what the writer was going for.

The next time the writer plays with this idea comes about with the bullying incident. We see Mikado on the verge of trying to stop the bullying, though through cowardly methods, and interestingly enough Izaya shows up.


And Izaya, quite literally, pushes Mikado into the role he so desperately wanted to play:

I may be as crazy as Izaya,


but I find it incredibly non-coincidental that he has now been at the center of two characters vital changing points. Last episode he was responsible for giving Rio the metaphorical kick in the face necessary to jump off a building and (through the words of the Dullahan) reexamine her life. In this episode he is the instigator of a new persona for Mikado. If the Dullahan is the invisible thread that connects our characters than Izaya is the instigator that changes them. I’m loving this idea of characters being physical tools of metaphysical properties. Are you still not quite convinced? Here’s another interesting analogy:

It’s like assigning people certain characteristics: Like the homunculi from Full Metal Alchemist (Wrath, Envy, Greed, etc…), but in this case it’s left up to the viewer to figure it out and it’s not only a name. It almost makes me feel that Izaya isn’t as bad a guy as the animators make him look. Regardless, I think it’s wickedly cool to have a dimension of a character that is an idea rather than a physical object. It gives their conflicts added meaning (The Instigator of Change is getting attacked by Violence “Does that mean Violence likes the way things are and doesn’t want things to change?” Or the Dullahan’s power dissipating signifying that people are growing more distant in their relations).

Alright, back to Mikado’s angsty theme.

I like this line because it points out that our true world appearances depends on the relationships we have and how those relationships change. If people actually are acquainted with you they don’t normally think of you as that guy who is from out of town. They think of you in terms of the relationship like “That guy that owes me five bucks” or “my long time childhood friend”. Humans are selfish creatures so generally we think of people only when they affect us. So when Mikado stops being the coward and steps up to protect Anri from the bullies he is essentially changing his relationship from that of her insignificant classmate to the guy who protected her and used his cowardice to drag her to safety.

HE DID IT!! All that monologuing about how people can’t change is virtually bullocks. He’s going to have the high school comedy and be the hero… but that wasn’t really the message was it?

In the end Narita (the writer) stays true to form. He stays true to his message that overall nothing really changed. I admire all of the elements he combined to hit this message over and over again; in subtle ways and in non subtle ways. Once again there was a feeling of completeness to the story thanks to the message and once again so much more development happened outside of this message. He sets up plot for later stories while telling this one. For instance the missing Mika Harima:

Why did Anri think the girl with a scar around her neck was Harima? Why is she so important to the story? If you’ll recall the desk behind Mikado was supposed to be Mika’s, so perhaps that distant look Anri was giving it at the beginning of the episode will make more sense now:


If you’ll also recall from episode two the guy who walked in and said he would never come to school again. He’s another piece of the Anri puzzle and he also finds the girl with the scar around her neck to be what he was looking for. I admire that I can already guess the shape of the connection from episode three. Let’s see what do we get when we put together: Headless Rider, Girl Anri recognizes as Harima until she sees her face (this girl also has a suspicious scar like her head was chopped off), and boy who might have been in love with Harima getting exactly the same wrong impression? I think you can make guesses as good as I can .

I better finish this up, because I’m pushing almost 2,000 words and way too many screencaps.

Awesome Line

Awesome Moment: He punched that guy out of his clothes! OUT OF HIS CLOTHES!

Things I’m Extremely Excited to Find Out More About!

Another Attempt At Creating Normality (And Hilarious)

Best Delusion of the Episode

What is that Gang guy doing?

My Observational Powers Put to Good Use (He wet his pants)


They actually use the effect above quite a few times. For instance they showed this effect at the beginning of the episode when Simon said “He, and also her…”. This implies to me that by using this effect they were trying to tell us that Shizuo is also a foreigner looking for something in this city (and seeking to change something).

Another character I didn’t really have time to cover in detail was Kida. He had these lines which emphasized the theme as well. Once again he’s implying that things will change for him:

However, my favorite lines of his this episode were these:

because they highlighted an important concept behind change. You don’t have to make some huge change to start with. For instance you don’t have to go out and beat the anti-spirals. It starts with small things, like just talking to the older women. Sure you might not succeed, but it’s Kida’s constant perseverance that drives his ability to change at all. In fact, this is how true change comes about. By pounding the pavement and trying over and over again one can eventually build that image. One event doesn’t necessarily define you.

Alright I’ll end this post now. Be sure to tell me what you think, sorry it was soooo long… If it makes you feel any better I spent forever constructing it.

Obligatory Dullahan Picture

In case you were wondering (you probably weren’t) I made the title out of one of the lyrics from the ED.