I just finished episode 7 of Shou, and Izaya's phone call to Mikado is very interesting to me. He initially calls to antagonize Mikado, or at least it seems like it with how he criticized Mikado's response to the Dollars going off the rails again and his strained relationship with Masaomi.

But really, it seems more like genuine advice to me than most of the bullshit Izaya goes on about in the series. I'll be real, I personally think Izaya is more honest with Mikado than anyone else in the series. When he gives him advice, it feels a lot less manipulative than his "advice" for any other character. This is especially true compared to how he is with Masaomi. Every bit of advice Izaya ever gives Masaomi is wrapped in riddles or culminates in some sort of arm-twist to get him to do what Izaya wants. Sure, Mikado is part of Izaya's plan to awaken the head, but it seems like he has a vested interest in Mikado ultimately coming out on top. I wonder why that is? Perhaps the fact that Mikado is a direct parallel to Izaya himself within the high school trio? Izaya clearly sees himself in Mikado, and wants to support him in a way he probably didn't have when he was up-and-coming himself.

It especially comes through to me at the end of their call this episode:

"You're a good person, and that's something to be to be respected. But didn't you start the Dollars because you got bored of being respectable? An escape from the ordinary—isn't that your dream? That's why I'm worried about you. I said it before, didn't I? To enjoy an ordinary life, you have to constantly evolve. But that's definitely not something you should try to do by yourself."

Izaya ends the conversation by insisting Mikado call him by his given name, a sign of friendship and equality, and reminds him that he has lots of people in his corner—Anri, Kida, and him. It's especially notable to me that Izaya doesn't reference himself as an exclusive authority here, and even sites Masaomi (who doesn't get along with Izaya) before he references himself. If it were really a manipulative tactic to keep Mikado under his thumb, he wouldn't have suggested Mikado communicate with his friends about the problem. Hell, in the original run, Izaya's WHOLE PLAN was centered around these three NOT communicating.

What's also notable is how Mikado takes that advice. He thanks Izaya in earnest, and later reminisces how he used to think Izaya was sketchy, but he now believes he's nice.

Orihara Izaya is nice. To Ryuugamine Mikado.

I think that's kind of an important facet of Izaya's character, that he is capable of caring for others. He's just a little chosey about who in his circle actually gets that care.

happy birthday to ryuugamine mikado thank you for giving us one of the best scenes in fiction. he will be always one of the best written character in fiction to me i love him so much i hope he had the best birthday

Happy Birthday

Mikado Ryuugamine (21st March)

Durarara!!

Somehow I'm more terrified of Mikado having the Death Note than Light.

vol 1 mikado was literally the funniest person ever. he calls masaomi pathetic and immediately ditches him in the city. he hasn’t seen this guy since elementary school and he only makes it like 24hrs in his presence before just leaving him alone failing to flirt with women in a park somewhere.

Happy Masaomi day! Here some Mikida to celebrate it

Oof, Izaya seems to be getting a l little tired of Mikado treating him like a personal search engine instead of a friend...

Though he clearly can't resist getting into it once they're actually talking haha. But what is that? That's looks an awful lot like a bit of regret over the Saki incident... Such careless mentioning of the Awakusu though, Izaya could really do with being a little more careful.

I think the person they weren't meant to cross was Izaya himself, not Shizuo lol. Way to go Mikado, that probably pissed him off!

I also find it funny how Izaya is probably thinking this is ridiculously cheap, while Mikado still can't actually afford it x) In the end he gets the info that's actually useful to him anyway, because of course Izaya can't resist poking the beehive.

And here Masaomi could have known about the the blue squares in his backyard, but Mikado prevented it~

And it's so entertaining to watch them both play their roles for the other chat residents! And finally we end on another very clear warning. Not that Mikado is ever going to listen to those!

for the character opinion ask meme: we dont have much overlap in fandoms anymore but i'd assume the boi in your icon is one of your blorbos?

AH YES mikado my high school blorbo...he's my son and ill hear nothing against him [ignores his many many crimes]

still wasted potential because we really could've done without the unnecessary romance between him and anri it was embarrassing for both of them

Protective or Manipulative? It's up to you to interprete. [esp. since I can't read the text, translation anyone?]

They kin each other

Got back into Durarara!! recently, and it's really funny to me that everything that seemed cool/kind of sinister about Izaya when I watched it in highschool vs. as an adult just seems really funny now.

Like, this is a 23 year old man with an untreated mental illness who runs around the city in a giant fur coat meddling with people's lives in the most destructive way possible while trying to avoid a debt collector who throws the nearest traffic sign at him every time they get within 5 miles of each other. He will not shut up about the gang war he's been setting up but nobody takes him seriously. His only friends are an borderline-yandere doctor who literally hung up on him when he got stabbed and the most unhinged high school student to ever exist who for some reason has not figured out that he maybe shouldn't trust this guy even though everyone around him is shouting it at him 24/7. He knows Russian for some reason and risks getting murdered to buy his favorite food.

Like, somebody get this man a prescription and stop trusting everything he says instead of letting him run around unsupervised

Why mikado scares the crap out of me part 3738364

20 years ago, on this day the first volume of Durarara!! (デュラララ!!) was released in Japan. This volume contains the Dollars/Mika Harima arc, which is the start and readers' first meeting with such a well written plot, complex characters and artsy language.

Happy 20th anniversary to Durarara!! It will be forever my favorite media; no book, anime or manga can come close to the place that Durarara!! has in my heart. It will remain as a unique and one of a kind work, not only to me but to many other readers as well.

Light and Mikado have the same cellphone and that's incredibly funny to me.