Episode 10 – “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree”

Just the other day, I was reminiscing about my high school life and the dark times when I didn’t have a cell phone. Whenever my parents wanted to find out where I was, they would have to call one of my friends and needless to say that was pretty awkward. Nowadays, the age at which someone gets his or her own phone is getting lower and lower, and the things we can do with them continues to grow and grow. This is particularly true for Japan’s youth today.

I’m not gonna lie, seeing Akane’s classmate get bullied made me genuinely upset, and she wasn’t even crying about it either. She just had her head down on her desk, filled with trash. We live in a society where death in media has lost a lot of its meaning, but it’s almost relieving for me that something as rudimentary as childhood bullying still elicits an uncomfortable reaction. Like all of the episodes thus far, voiceover is put to great use as Akane recounts these past memories to us and reveals how she discovered the dark truth behind her family’s line of work.

Even at Akane’s young age, she’s able to use it to find out that her family is part of the Yakuza and is why everyone at school is so nice to her. Realizing that her father is the true bully and that her friends were simply pretending to be friends out of fear, she tears up all of her drawings (which is heartbreaking, by the way) and runs away from home. What makes this particularly convincing for me is her seiyuu, Misaki Kuno, who plays these types of cute, innocent characters very well. Though, I suppose I should use the term “innocent” here a bit more loosely, considering she did attempt to kill Shizuo with a taser.

In Durarara!!, the cell phone is an incredibly powerful tool that opens doors and connects every single character that has one with incredible immediacy. For example, a fight breaks out and everyone knows about it in moments, thanks to the Dollars network. The tension mounts as Masaomi calls out Izaya for tricking Mikado, Kadota and Chikage Rokujou get ready to throw down, and Vorona gives chase to Anri giving chase to Mikado. What will happen when all of these points decide to intersect with each other?

“It all began with a cell phone.” ~ Akane Awakusu

B.W.