Episode 7 of Durarara!! has the clearest focus of any episode yet. This episode had exactly one goal, and that was to teach us about Shizuo. We learn all about his backstory this time around, and I found it to be quite refreshing. Shizuo has been a rather mysterious character, and while we don't learn everything we'd like to in this episode, we do come away with a lot more information than we had before.
For those that have been watching along, we all know Shizuo to be a rather angry guy. He seems to snap at a moment's notice, and is more than willing to beat the living hell out of anyone that even slightly ticks him off. Turns out Shizuo actually hates violence, but he simply can't control his anger. He one day hopes to be strong enough to control that anger and not result to violence, but clearly he's not reaching that goal just yet.
Why is this guy so angry all the time? It stems from his early days as a child, where we get to see what life was like for him. I'm not going to go into any spoilers or stuff like that. What I will say is, he witnessed some not-so-nice events when he was a youngster, and one such event pushed him over the top to become the man he is today. Oddly enough, Shizuo seemed to be a pretty angry boy right from the start.
There's one part about the episode that bugged me a bit, but it may end up being explained later. We see some reasons why Shizuo is hot-tempered, but we never learn just how he became so strong. I don't know many guys that can just rip signs out of the ground or pick up refrigerators for tossing at enemies, but Shizuo has no problem. While I'd like to think this strength is explained somewhat later on, I have a feeling it's going to be one of those elements that we just have to accept.
If you're not into Shizuo, you're not going to like this episode. It really is all about him and who he is. Along the way we get a lot of cursing and some big action as well. I really liked the way this episode was pieced together. It felt hectic and full of energy, just like Shizuo himself. I'm always happy to learn more about any given character in a series, and I feel this was the first time that Durarara!! really let us in on the details of one of its important people.
