A mystery slasher is keeping Ikebukuro on edge.
Creative Staff
Story: Ryohgo Narita
Art: Suzuhito Yasuda
Translation/Adaptation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
Ikebukuro has a slashing problem.
Ikebukuro, Tokyo. A place where the clumsy and inept at love gather. A high school girl worried about her status. A third-rate magazine reporter covering the Ikebukuro beat. A teacher suspected of sexual harassment. A thug wearing a yellow bandanna, who is said to be the toughest around. A young man who deals in all manner of sensitive information. And a headless rider on a coal-black motorcycle. As these individuals and more are drawn into a whirl of unlucky incidents, Ikebukuro itself will begin to crumble…!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The events of this volume occur almost a year after the events of the first volume of Durarara, much to my surprise. Rarely does there seem to be such a gap in narrative time in serialized stories, but this is only the second of thirteen volumes and I doubt author Narita new how long Durarara would last when he began. Time has marched on without much incident, besides an increase in random slashing attacks in Ikebukuro. Celty’s legend has grown, as has the Dollars, but nothing of note occurred in that gap. One thing that did happen was that Celty and Shinra spared us the awkward early relationship woes and are very much a couple when we meet up with them again. As someone who is very tired of ‘will they or won’t they’ games, this is a welcome development.
Celty has become out default protagonist. She’s almost the opposite of the typical reader stand-in, as she’s probably the strangest member of the cast. Yet she’s also far more human than she realizes, and she’s just as astounded by the residents she encounters in Ikebukuro as we are. When she is attacked by the serial slasher the distantly random acts of violence become personal. From that moment on it’s a hunt for the slasher. However, much like the first volume, a student is the nexus of the events.
The story centers on Anri this time around, with Mikado almost nowhere to be seen. The quiet, reserved girl finds herself the target of bullies and of a teacher who is inching closer to the sexual harassment line. Anri has been a lifelong victim who worries that she’s nothing but a parasite living off of others, and it’s almost painful watching her cope with her present situation.
Shizuo is also dragged back into the narrative at large this time, delving more into his character and what makes him tick. His unique constitution is explored and explained a bit, and when he finds himself the target of the Saika demon blade he embraces it’s strange fixation as a chance to be accepted. That’s the theme of the entire story this time, love and acceptance. Durarara continues to be something of a twisted love story, even now.
The nature of the mystery in this volume gives the story a harder edge, yet never does it really feel like any of the leads are in danger. People suffer real grievous bodily harm, yet no one perishes from the attacks. A return of Kadota’s van crew means a return of the manga kids, who I still find mostly intolerable. Celty once again lets Shinra off easily for knowing things he really should have disclosed. The anime adapted this volume very faithfully, and not much was left on the cutting room floor. The mystery feels less like a who done it and more of a race against the clock as the attacks grow worse.
The writing in this volume continues to explore the page space. Beyond the chat room logs and their style, there are also moments where a character begins to panic and the thought process moves beyond normal pagination. Strings of repeated words spill across the page in ever increasing patterns. It’s not something that you see much of in typical professional fiction, but in a light novel the room exists to go a bit more freeform. It makes me wonder what that looked like in Japanese. Even the author’s one-page afterword shares a similar playful layout. I didn’t notice any obvious typos and everything reads very smoothly. Yen includes a fold-out color opener which lays out the cast thus far, with the usual black and white illustrations throughout the book.
As the mystery of the slasher comes to a close, there is one character who is still determined to seek revenge. If you found the amount of yellow on the cover a strange choice for the story of a serial slasher, it becomes very clear by the end that that it’s clever foreshadowing for the next volume. The Yellow Scarf gang, and it’s leader, are set for a collision course with the slasher army and the Dollars. Which makes this entire volume more of a set up for the battle to come.
In Summary
Durarara remains an entertaining read heading into its sophomore novel. It uses many of the same tricks as the first novel to lead its reader and headless protagonist into the mystery of the slasher terrorizing Ikebukuro. So many of the same tricks are used that once you pick up on the pattern it’s easy to determine who the culprit might be, but the why is mostly lost in metaphysical handwaving. Despite the trouble with detailing how a cursed blade might work, much of the action surrounding the slashings is compelling because of the sheer amount of absurd and over-the-top violence being orchestrated. The ending doesn’t wrap everything up cleanly, doing away with mystery and setting up a potential street war for the next volume, and leaving readers with one large tease.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: November 17th, 2015
MSRP: $14.00
