The following contains some spoilers for Durarara!! and the beginning of its second season, Durarara!!x2.
There are tons of Halloween and Christmas stories, but rarely are there Thanksgiving movies or shows and the ones that are deemed such are usually labeled that way because of family drama. And after a politically divisive midterm, some anime fans might want to stay far away from family these holidays, which is why it's the perfect time to rewatch one of Durarara!!'s best episodes.
Durarara tells the story of the inhabitants of the small district of Ikebukuro, Japan, where everyone is a protagonist in a series of coalescing stories just as strange and beautiful as any other. After the anime became a sensation in 2010, it came back with a vengeance in 2015 with Durarara!!x2, a three-part sequel that adapted the rest of the light novel series.
There's a particularly memorable episode early on in Durarara x2 that stands as not only one of the best episodes in the series but an exquisite example of everything that makes the story great. It feels like the pleasant end to a series of unfortunate events while foreshadowing the start of an even bigger story that lasts until the series' end. And it all culminates in a bunch of friends eating dinner together.
"When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do"
The episode in question is #4, "When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do" which begins right in the middle of the story threads climax, as Celty Sturluson is chased through Ikebukuro. A 10 Million Yen bounty has been placed to figure out her identity, which inconveniences her right in the middle of a transportation gig. Biker gangs are chasing her down through the streets in broad daylight.
To make matters worse, Mikado and Anri, two known members of the gang "The Dollars," are cornered by bikers who suspect that they know Celty's identity. It isn't until Kyohei and his group pull up in the van and intervene that they escape safely, joining the rest of the assorted characters who have crossed paths with Kyohei and his pals.
The chase intensifies until Celty stops under a tunnel to face off against the bikers, but she's suddenly aided by the man who she was unknowingly transporting and a headless black knight. The unexpected intervention allows Celty and her friends to escape from the motorcycle gang, and after the police call off the bounty as a safety risk, things seem to have settled down.
In the aftermath, through a mix of unexpected meetings and things not going according to plan, the characters all convene at Celty and Shinra's place to enjoy a hot pot and simply unwind. What immediately stands out in hindsight is how this is one of the few times that these many characters are all together in the same room, talking to one another and taking a break from their own narratives.
But that barely scratches the surface of what makes this episode so jaw-droppingly brilliant from a writing standpoint. Every character appearance and reveal is a payoff to the tapestry being woven in each of the three episodes prior, creating one of the most satisfying and consistently surprising beginnings to a season ever.
Follow The Money
The easiest way to chart the progression of this micro story is by focusing on Celty, one of the chief protagonists and the de facto mascot of the series. Episode 1 starts with her being chased by the ever-persistent motorcycle cop, Kinnosuke Kuzuhara, prompting her to make a desperate escape by air.
Or at least that's how she makes it look. She just used the shadows that make up her clothes and her motorcycle to create a large paraglider, but she herself wasn't in it. There's just one glaring problem with her seemingly perfect escape plan: the envelope full of money from her last job ended up inside the paraglider.
The lost 1 Million Yen becomes the unifying thread tying every plot together for the next three episodes until the hot pot dinner. Celty is reasonably distraught by having lost the money as she was planning to get Shinra a present and feels like she's let him down. Shinra tells her that fortune and misfortune come in turns, which couldn't be more true.
It's revealed in the following episodes that before Shinra even got home, he made two house calls. The first was a check-up on idol singer Hijiribe Ruri, who is secretly a serial killer named Hollywood. Starstruck, Shinra decided to make the house call free of charge, opting to charge his next client extra.
Next, he treated a man named Egor, who coincidentally was sent to apprehend Hijiribe, but they both ended up being knocked across the city by the super-strong Shizuo Heiwajima. He charged them 200,000 Yen and returned home, where Celty sulked about losing her payment. And that's where the money comes back into the picture.
The money ended up in the hands of Mairu and Kuriri Orihara, the sisters of Izaya Orihara, the chief antagonist of the series, pulling all the strings. They got their hands on the 1 million yen and when the Russians worried they couldn't pay the medical bills, the sisters decided to front the money in exchange for a favor.
The man Celty was unknowingly transporting when she was accosted by bikers was Egor hiding in the bag. The Orihara sisters convinced the Russians to stage a job for Celty just so they could meet her in person. By the end of the fourth episode, the 1 million ended up back in Celty's possession without her even knowing it.
This is without even mentioning stuff like Egor being possessed or Celty driving Hijiribe home the same night that Shinra treated her, which both came into play during Episode 4's climax. It doesn't touch even half of Episode 3's plot with Hijiribe, Episode 2's with the Orihara sisters, or any of the happenings with Mikado and Anri.
Moments like the hot pot scene aren't just cute and wholesome but rather a reflection of the mind-boggling amount of work that went into constructing such fascinating characters and stories. To create so many is one thing, but to conjoin them in such a way closer to the chaos of real life more than most other fiction? Durarara truly is in a league of its own.