Review: Durarara!!x2 “The Ladies’ Man Has Neither Money Nor Power”

With last week’s episode going all over the place, “The Ladies’ Man Has Neither Money Nor Power” reigned in the all over the place feeling that “Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears” had. I felt like I can be invested in what’s going on, because there weren’t jump cuts going all over the place. In fact, “The Ladies’ Man Has Neither Money Nor Power” may have had a lot of things going on, but I felt like a lot of the plot threads that have been going on from early in Durarara!!x2.

Speaking of plot threads, the biggest thread so far was Masaomi’s conversation with Mikado a few episodes back. With that ominous message of the Dollars causing problems, and that actually came to a head. What actually went down came out of left field, and I didn’t predict that at all. All of the problems with the Toramaru Bikers were based on Aoba’s tour of Ikebukuro getting screwed because of the attack by the Bikers near the beginning of the season. That didn’t sit well with Aoba, who sent his gang, the Blue Squares, to Saitama to start a war. However, that wasn’t the biggest thing, because Aoba wants Mikado to lead the Blue Squares while leading the Dollars. I could see them as the spec ops of the Dollars.

The other plot lines were more of an interlude of Mikado’s plot. Akane woke up, and Shinra took care of her, ultimately leading to her getting taken to a spot with Anri. Off of that, Shizuo went on a hunt for Izaya, because he was the one who effectively sent Akane after Shizuo. Plus, there was a brief check in with Celty and the Russian assassins, but that was more of a “oh hey, we’re still here” type of thing.

I felt like there was a lot to take in, but the goings on in “The Ladies’ Man Has Neither Money Nor Power” were all done 100% better than “Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears.” There wasn’t much that really got me confused, and thankfully, there was no notebook to keep track of things. It was a great turn around from last week, and I felt myself getting a little more invested again. The slick, cool feeling I felt early on is on its way to returning to form, and it couldn’t come any faster.