Durarara! 03: Don't get on their bad side

I'm not sure if I can keep on blogging Durarara!. Slice of life is one thing. But slice of life plus this many random characters is just too difficult. On the other hand, I think the first few episodes of this series is designed to introduce much of the main cast as possible, hence, the seeming lack of a cohesive storyline. We can probably expect that things are going to start make sense by the fifth episode so I'll wait until then before making the final decision whether or not to blog this series through or to drop it.EPISODE 03: Rampant Evildoers
More Screencaps from Durarara! 03
The series begins with Simon hawking his boss' sushi bar. A couple of Russian tourists stop to ask him for directions and he obliges them.

Meanwhile, Mikado and Masaomi are in class listening to their teacher discuss the class elections. The girl with glasses, Anri Shinohara, volunteers for the position of class representative for the girls. After some hesitation, Mikado volunteers to be her counterpart. Later, Masaomi teases him about it, much to Mikado's embarrassment. Masaomi then decides that he's going to meet girls and drags Mikado along with him. Mikado has to watch as Masaomi comically tries to ingratiate himself with random girls and gets rejected every time. Then one of these girls start talking about the Dollars and Mikado perks up. He wants to know more about this dangerous gang and asks Masaomi about it. While they are still talking, they bump into Walker, Erika and Shingen but as usual, the three are too preoccupied or talk too much in code for Mikado to understand.

Somewhere nearby, Anri catches up to a girl whom she thought she knew. But the girl turns out to be the one with the scar that Mikado and Masaomi met earlier. Realizing that she made a mistake, Anri apologizes and backs off. However, in doing so, she bumps into a gang of ko-gals who all seem to recognize her. They start bullying her but at that moment, Mikado and Masaomi happen to pass by and witness the scene. Mikado wants to rescue Anri but hesitates to take action, until Izaya comes out of nowhere and pushes him into the fray. Mikado's sudden appearance surprises the ko-gals enough for them to stop their bullying and for Izaya to make his own entrance. Izaya declares that his hobby is breaking other people's cellphones and proceeds to snatch one of the ko-gals phones and maniacally stamp on it with his foot over and over. After a while, he finally stops, nonchalantly saying that he's bored with this hobby. The outraged ko-gals call on their guyfriend, who claims to be a Dollars member, for help but Izaya makes short work of him, shaving him with a switchblade without his even noticing.

After the bullies leave, Mikado finally finds out who Izaya is -- one of the people that Masaomi warns him not to offend. At that moment, a guy dressed up like a bartender arrives and proceeds to antagonize Izaya. Mikado finds out that the new guy is Shizuo -- the other person that Masaomi had warned him about. Izaya and Shizuo seem to know and hate each other very much. However, before their barbed banter could erupt into a fullblown fight, the ko-gals' guyfriend returns and this time he brought company with him. They want to teach Izaya a lesson, but when they realize who Izaya is with, they hesitate, recognizing Shizuo to be the most dangerous man in Ikebukuro.

Nevertheless, one of their cronies start to panic and hit Shizuo in the back of the head, earning his ire and prompting a bloody fight between him and the ragtag gang members. Izaya uses this opportunity to make a clean break but not before Shizuo lifts up a vending machine and throws it in his direction. But then someone leaps from the top of the building and catches the vending machine before it could Izaya. Everyone looks in shock at Simon, who is apparently in the neighborhood delivering sushi to a regular customer. He and Shizuo exchange angry words before deciding to settle their differences with their fists. While these two fight it out, Mikado notices that Anri is really scared. So grabbing her hand, the two of them make a run for it, stopping only when they've put a considerable distance between them and the mayhem they left behind. Looking into Anri's face, Mikado wonders if his adventure in this new city is about to begin but his boy imaginings come to a crashing halt when Anri only thanks him before leaving.

Later that afternoon, a classmate of Mikado's finds the girl with the slash scar on her neck, Izaya has a chat with the headless rider, and Simon continues hawking sushi for his boss

COMMENTS:

I don't really have anything to say. This was an entertaining episode but I can't extrapolate anything from it.