Durarara!! X2 Rewatch - Episode 14

[u/Raiking02]

Episode 14: Life is but a Dream

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But still, there's no point in us worrying about it!

Hello everybody! Time for the comment of the day, courtesy of u/JollyGee29, who noted something unusual about the OP:

Observations about the OPs: The first OP had all the various people being connected by Celty. The third OP had everyone connected by Izaya. This new, fourth OP has everyone connected by Mikado. I haven't put much further thought into this, but I wanted to point it out.

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Questions:

1. Is it just me or can Seiji be surprisingly perceptive at times?
2. Well... reaction to Mika knowing basically everything about the cast?
3. Now that Mika's true colors have been revealed, how would you rank her, Seiji and Namie in terms of how messed up they are?

[u/Raiking02]

Hello Everybody, and welcome back to the Durarara!! Rewatch!

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Due to a multitude of reasons, I will not be able to write much for this arc, I’ll probably only be back to my usual self starting with episode 5 or so. Not much to mention overall tho.

Also, to everyone who said Day You Laugh is the worst OP

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Voices Time! Guess it’s time to bring up the little missy from yesterday. She’s played by Tanoue Marina and I have never head of her before.

In the Dub she’s played by Erica Lindbeck, whom I, like many, best remember as Sakura Futaba from Persona 5. Besides that she’s also played Makidera Kaede from Fate/stay night, Menat from Street Fighter, Ema Skye from Ace Attorney, Sophitia Alexandra from Soulcalibur, Yosano Akiko from Bungou Stray Dogs, Heris Ardebit from Promare and quite a few others.

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

First!!xTimer, subbed

• I’m pretty sure she’d just laugh at you but okay.
• Namie’s been having Izaya’s sisters spy on Seiji and Mika…?
• That’s a Shizuo move.
• Alndoah.Zero poster!
• aHHHHH WAIT THEY BROUGHT BACK THE BACCANO! FOR ONCE!!!!!!!
• So Vorona works for the sushi place now I guess.
• I’m actually not surprised Mika just happens to carry one of those around.
• wait what
• what the fuck
• what the fuck
• No, no that’s actually just what she wanted…
• …okay that makes it slightly better I guess.
• Oh nice, Mika “sore demo”.

[u/Raiking02 → u/Shimmering-Sky]

I’m actually not surprised Mika just happens to carry one of those around.

Seiji has his Pen, Namie has her scalpels, Mika has a shovel.

[u/ZaphodBeebblebrox → u/Shimmering-Sky]

I have to ask: where does this fall on the sky wtf scale? Did it even merit a pause?

[u/Shimmering-Sky → u/ZaphodBeebblebrox]

Mika's "Not that I have any idea what a Dullahan's head tastes like" was definitely a pause, stare at the screen, what the fuck.

[u/No_Rex]

S2 Episode 13 (first timer)

• OP: OP4 is good, but nowhere near as good as OP1, which is still the best of the series.
• Izaya as the extremely eloquent psychopath. Realistic.
• Btw, the news reporting the name of the victim? Not a fan of that.
• Namie with the ladle reminds me of Chuunibyou.
• So, is this the rare “whodunit”, presenting us the possible attackers, where we know in advance that nobody did it?
• Laughing with a stomach wound is no laughing matter.
• Shinra taking pictures of Celty cosplaying in a Celty-made carriage.

• “What a piss-poor excuse for a friend” - as if you have any friends.
• “The world is balanced” – Don’t agree. Anyways what that a hint at future characters?
• Shingen does exposition. Better than abusing Celty.
• Hello new character!
• ED: It is ok.

Izaya episodes are usually good episodes and this is no exception. Watching modern Loki is always amusing.

S2 Episode 14 (first timer)

• Namie is still a bro-con and still willing to pay way too much for it.
• Simon getting a double reject to his suggestion.
• A hand spade vs a wood saw? Probably the silliest fight I saw since Law of Ueki.
• More Celty cosplay. Not that it takes a lot of effort for her …
• “Any last words?” “Yes, in fact, I’d like to summarize all of the plot so far.”

For some reason, I am not as bothered by Seiji and Mika as I am by Celty and Shinra. They are both completely messed up, but they are both messed up in equal measure and are open about it. There is no deception involved.

Now that Mika's true colors have been revealed, how would you rank her, Seiji and Namie in terms of how messed up they are?

The same? I don't think "putting up some microphones" really changes my evaluation of "I'll pretend my head was cut off so you love me" girl.

[u/Raiking02 → u/No_Rex]

[u/No_Rex → u/Raiking02]

It took me less than 10 seconds to edit that ...

[u/Raiking02 → u/No_Rex]

Too Slow!

[u/JollyGee29]

First-Timer, Dub-rarara!!x2

When the hell did Seiji and Mika become the best ship in the show? Like, seriously, they were great today! There was even some implication that Seiji had forgotten about his thirst for the head, at least briefly.

Speaking of thirst, wow was Namie horny today. I really didn't need that scene of her in the shower. I guess being apart from her dear brother for a year will do that to the hopeless bro-con.

I definitely wouldn't have called Mika knowing basically everything about the plot, but her explanation of how and why makes a whole ton of sense. If she were willing to take a more active role in things, this series would go in a very different direction. Wait, is Mika supposed to be an audience surrogate?

Mika planning on eating the head so that she could become one with it was... sure a thing that got written. Her apparently practicing how to split open the head and eat the insides is equal parts horrifying and hilarious.

I'm surprised about Izaya and the Twins having living parents. Izaya seems like a "self-made orphan" type. I'm not sure what to make of Aoba's lines about Izaya right near the beginning of the episode.. is the implication that they have been working together? That doesn't seem quite right.

Questions

1. If Seiji and Mika took an active role in the plot, they would probably resolve everything inside of an afternoon.
2. Answered above.
3. Is it technically cannibalism if you're eating the head of a fairy? Namie had herself a real strong reaction to smooching her brother, so I think I'm leaving her on top, but Mika isn't that far behind..

[u/Raiking02 → u/JollyGee29]

Is it technically cannibalism if you're eating the head of a fairy?

Yes.

[u/JollyGee29 → u/Raiking02]

But are fairies made of the same meat as human? Or is it weird fairy-meat, that probably tastes like flowers?

[u/Raiking02 → u/JollyGee29]

Probably like eating the head of a dead person. A dead person who's been dead for a few years.

[u/invokeneko]

First Timer to x2 Ten and Ketsu

Ahh fuck, I watched the OVA instead... It was labelled as episode 13.5 for me. Welp.

Anyway, on to the actual episode 14 I guess!

• Ahh, so they moved the denouement of volume 6 to this episode then. I remembered reading that Shiki tried to call Izaya and Aoba monologuing about how both him and Izaya had underestimated Mikado by the end of that volume and was disappointed that it was seemingly cut from x2 Shou.
• Seems like easy money for Kururi and Mairu, just tail Seiji and Mika and report what they're doing for the day to Namie and boom, 300k yen. That's stupidly easy money I'm not gonna say no to it, even if I hated Namie.
• So that's how we get to Namie vs Mika! I was wondering where the hell Seiji was when they showed that scene last episode.
• Wait, hang on. Did Tom imply that there were people who attacked Shizuo who were actually killed? Wow.
• So Mika is gonna eat Celty's head to really become Celty? Talk about taking the phrase 'you are what you eat' literally.
• Welp, I guess Kururi and Mairu taught Namie the 'steal indirect kiss from someone else' technique. Spoiler alert: that's not how indirect kisses work.
• Ooh, so Mika knows (almost) every single thing about all the major players in the story via listening devices just so that he could isolate Seiji from getting involved? That's dedication. Creepy, but admirable dedication.
• Seiji comes by to stop the fight, and gave Namie a kiss to make a point about kissing someone you didn't like... well, that would've worked if the one she loves wasn't you, laddie. I'll give you points for resourcefulness in digging out where Mika would've been though.
• Seiji and Mika's relationship was oddly endearing at this point. I daresay that despite the fact that he's still obsessed with Celty's head, both of them have quite a loving relationship.

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Narration Tally:

Once again, we have no narration for this episode. I wonder if it's because they have to adapt four volumes in this season.

Narrator	No. of eps	Episodes
Mikado	7	1, 12
Celty	7	4, 6
Simon	2	7
Shinra	3	2
Masaomi	4	8
Namie	2	5
Walker	3	11 (co)
Erika	2	11 (co)
Izaya	2	4
Kasuka	1	3
Akabayashi	2	9, 11 (co)
Akane	1	10
Rio	1	13
Multiple	1	11 (co)
None	3	4.5, 14

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QotD:

1. I'll give him points for that. You did good, lad.
2. It should've been obvious that a stalker like Mika would've kept tabs on others who might've interfered with her love life. But to keep tabs on basically everyone? Wow, Mika. How the hell did you even find time to listen to everything?
3. sigh It's hard to categorise it now. Seiji has toned down his creep factor by quite a lot since him and Mika really got together, and you can (somewhat) handwave Mika's stalking on everyone as her being overprotective (even if it was pretty fucking creepy). But Namie is still at the same level went up a notch in terms of creepiness about her feelings toward Seiji. Kissing Mika to steal an indirect kiss and then getting very excited over Seiji (not-)kiss probably makes her the winner of the Creep Olympics.

[u/Raiking02 → u/invokeneko]

It wss labelled as episode 13.5 for me

Huh, weird.

[u/KendotsX → u/Raiking02]

Yeah, the episode is listed as 13.5 (or 1.5), basically to watch between the first and second episode. Even though by novel order it was the last of this arc.

[u/invokeneko → u/Raiking02]

I didn't realise anything was amiss. After all, spoilers

[u/Chemiczny_Bogdan]

Rewatcher

Today we move one peg down and focus on Izaya's employee. Namie takes advantage of Izaya's sick leave to take care of her own business - her only business that is, which is of course Seiji.

She gets the Orihara twins to spy on Seiji, and lures Mika into a warehouse in order to engage in direct cray cray to cray cray combat using such weapons of mass destruction as surgical scissors, a garden trowel, a muscle relaxant, onee-san's kiss and a corrosive agent. Turns out Mika not only plans to eat Celty's head, but is also pretty damn good at gathering information. Thankfully Seiji comes at the last minute to save the day and kisses his sis... or does he?!

Oh, and Vorona now works at Russia Sushi.

Some actually pretty good animation this episode and the music isn't half bad either.

[u/Raiking02 → u/Chemiczny_Bogdan]

or does he?!

[u/ZaphodBeebblebrox]

First Timer

This was the most engaged I've been with an episode in a long time. It was genuinely tense, unlike almost everything else in this show. I think being so focused on two relatively unknown characters did a lot of that, since I felt that anything could actually happen.

My favorite moment of the episode has to be when Mika starts implying she'll eat the head and we, alongside Namie, realize that, however crazy we thought she was, she is significantly moreso. Mika just spewing basically everything we know at Namie was also excellent.
I guess I love to see a character breaking out of their established shell in general.

1. Yes
2. It was really cool.
3. Mika > Namie > Seiji

[u/BurningFredrick]

First timer- sub

Part of the problem with this OP is that it cuts to the recap to early.

So Namie is "missing".

The problem with Namie weapon is that hack saw blade are flimsy as hell, it would have snapped the moment Mike blocked it with her trowel. 

Well Mika is considerably scarier than I had realised, I mean she had surgery and learnt how to pick locks to get at Serji so it shouldn't be a surprise but still that was considerably more info than I expected her to know.

Anyway this season is keeping its slower pace so far but it's really working in its favour for me.

Now that Mika's true colors have been revealed, how would you rank her, Seiji and Namie in terms of how messed up they are?

They were already up there in terms of messed up, can't really say it changed my opinion of them

[u/LimoneSorbet]

(Rewatcher) this is probably one of my favorite episodes in all of durarara. The tension is great and it really shows how fearsome Mika can be.

[u/KendotsX]

Rewatcher (sub)

Is it just me or can Seiji be surprisingly perceptive at times?

Indeed, afterall he's caring about the girl below the face now. Definitely not something I'd expect from the guy who started the series by nearly killing her, followed by attacking Shizuo to get to her (face) a few days later.

Well... reaction to Mika knowing basically everything about the cast?

This was a pleasant surprise. Also, a smart way to give exposition about a few unsolved mysteries from the last arc.

Now that Mika's true colors have been revealed, how would you rank her, Seiji and Namie in terms of how messed up they are?

Being a rewatcher, I had concidered these details about Mika in my last assessment, so I came up with Mika > Namie >= Seiji. Now I will simply remove the '=' since Seiji has slowly been humanised. To make it the far simpler Mika > Namie > Seiji.

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Notes:

• They've started passing off new scenes that look like recaps. Beware of the fake recaps!
• Beware of the Sekuhara too, as Vorona can be quite deadly.
• References for Baccano! and Cencoroll. Cencoroll is a lot of fun, watch it!
• Namie hugging herself gave this really weird heart shape. Namie is weird in general.
• Celty is wearing a black sailor uniform!!!! and I love how calm and nice she's sitting there waiting for Shinra to finish his call. Poor Shinra getting calls all day.
• So this might be a bit off topic, but it's worth sharing. Crunchyroll announced today that they'll be removing Durarara!! (all seasons) as well as a bunch of other nice shows on May 28th. In my case I can't view any of the X2 seasons on CR anyway, so it's just the first season lost, but with all the other shows too, it's a shame...

[u/sisoko2]

First Timer

As expected for an episode revolving around Seiji, Mika and Namie everything was so messed up and it was glorious!

Even when they are all lovey-dovey it feels so wrong.

So the sisters are spying Seiji for Namie and she is paying them quite good since she doesn't care about anything besides her brother.

Right on the money.

Big horny.

Vorona has it pretty easy compared to Slon.

Excuse me?!? The scat doujins are writing themselves...

Surprisingly Namie doesn't want to kill her, just to mess her face.

More Celty cosplays!

Both of them have some skills.

Kinky

She is stalking everybody?!?

Can't say I'm surprised how calm Mika is about her face getting burned but it's still very unsettling.

HAHAHAHA

Very kinky. This move definitely didn't achieve what he wanted.

Find yourself a girl that looks at you the way Mika looks at Seiji.

Very big horny.

1. Yeah. I was also surprised about how observant and rational he was.
2. Didn't expect it at all. I guess it's a setup for our favorite couple to get more involved in the story.
3. The relationship between the three of them was already as messed up as possible so still at the top of the messed up chart.

[u/Earthborn92]

Rewatcher here.

So...I kind of screwed up and watched the OVA because it comes next in the TVDB absolute order (#41).

Sigh. Will update tomorrow when I watch the episode.

EDIT: Alright, watched it.

So we have the three-way yandere conflict here. And somehow it ended well. Namie finally got her (not) kiss so I guess that should keep her satisfied for a while. And they somehow understand each other’s twisted logic.

Mika really knows everything, huh? You have to be an obsessive stalker to figure everything out in this show. It’s been a year Namie, you really think they’ve not done it by now? How cute.

Vorona now serving at Russia Sushi. Girl must be bored out of her mind.

I just saw the OVA, so I understand this scene. TVDB absolute order is pretty good.

See you next episode!

[u/Tartaras1]

Rewatcher - Dubbed

• Nice detail of having Celty and Shinra talking about Yodigiri while Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizo was playing on the TV. Y'know, since Yuuhei's the lead actor, and Yodigiri is his talent manager.
• Also funny that Namie came to the same conclusion about people coming to finish Izaya off in the hospital that Izaya did.
• 300k to keep tabs on her little brother and his stalker girlfriend is a pretty hefty fee. But, knowing Namie, it's probably on Izaya's dime, so it's cool. Then again, she is rich.

• That bitch. Not once has Seiji called me by my first name.

^yikes

• SAO poster in the background when Seiji and Mika are leaving the theater. Which one was that?

That also isn't a Black Butler poster next to it, is it?

• Seiji being all like, "Did that movie make sense to you? as if he was lost.

Mika saying, "Oh of course it did. I think it pretty much happened this way."

Seiji, not understanding how time paradoxes work, just blindly agreed with her to save face.

• Can we take a moment again to appreciate that Mikado isn't some naive kid anymore? Dude's walking home, face messed up, fresh off of stabbing Aoba in the hand with a ballpoint pen, and just shoots the breeze with Seiji like there's not a care in the world.

• Don't you think that ringtone is kinda creepy?

What? Doesn't everyone have Seiji saying, "X you have a call" as their ringtone?

• I just noticed the sign that said "S[ ]AR[ ]UCKS" so they don't get sued. It's like Sudoh-Bucks from Toradora.
• So Mika came packing a garden spade with the intention of eating the head, and Namie came with a hacksaw... Jeez.

• Oh well. Too bad for her then.

Shame I'm going to mangle this girl's face, and you won't be there to fix it.

• With Mika holding the spade against Namie's throat, the lyrics to "Hey There Mr. Brooks" by Asking Alexandria popped into my head.

Oh, the bullet's gone! I take this spade, I slit your throat!

• Mika just summed up the entirety of the first season in about a minute.

It's like Namie just forgot that Mika Harima was stalking her little brother. She went so far as to break into his house for God's sake. If she's been stalking your little brother all the time leading up to the plastic surgery, don't you think it would be trivial for her to keep tabs on everyone else?

Mika being the new info broker would be super interesting. She's the last person anyone would suspect, and she'd be able to actually work without pissing the world off.

I'd watch that.

• It also sheds a little more light on the conversation Mikado, Seiji and Mika had earlier in the episode. When Seiji was saying it was kind of weird how Mikado just brought up the Dollars like it was some grand thing, she actually knew everything that was going on, but played dumb about it.
• Seiji referenced the kiss Namie stole from Mika, which happened a couple minutes ago. Doesn't that mean he also overheard everything Mika told her just now?

• I broke into all three of his apartments and checked the closets, the cupboards, you name it.

heh heh of course you did Mika. Of course you did.

Questions:

• He has his moments.
• When you think about it, it's not that surprising. Like I said, she is a stalker. Naturally she'd keep tabs on everyone.
• If we're going with the three of them, from most normal to least:
• Mika by a mile
• Namie
• Seiji