Durarara: Episode 23

Wow! What an excellent episode! While it does confirm my suspicion that Semyon, Shingen, Kasuka, the two Otakus, Tom, Saburo, and Kinnosuke won't be given any back story, it does make me very excited for the final episode. After getting fired by the yellow scarves and discovering that Horada knows who the leader of the dollars is, Kida then decides to leave his depressed state and take action, deciding to confront Horada in order to stop them from killing Mikado. He then confronts the gang, discovering that members of the Blue Square gang were actually inside the yellow scarves gang from the start. He then attempts to kill Horada, but ends up getting whacked in the head with a crowbar quite a few times by members of the gang, rendering him unable to achieve the task.

Damn was this plot thread well done, as we finally get to see Kida in action after seeing him get depressed for the last few episodes over... nothing. I was also surprised to see that Kida actually incapacitated quite a few gang members before becoming severely wounded himself. I also thought that his blood being splattered all over his face was a nice touch that added lots of intensity to the scene. Overall, this part was probably the highlight of the episode.

The part where Shizuo got shot by the yellow scarves gang last episode was not very suspenseful, as I knew that he probably would survive the attack. This episode confirmed my guess, as we see him walking inside Shinra's apartment as if the bullet wounds were not even painful. I mean, Shizuo survived getting hit by a truck, got smashed in the head with a baseball bat, was attacked by hundreds of people simultaneously, can lift vending machines and telephone poles with ease, and was actually stabbed once in the first arc. Does the author really expect us to believe that he can actually be killed by two bullet wounds that were fired in his leg and the very edge of his body? Those areas aren't even lethal! Well... blood loss could still kill him, but knowing Shizuo, he would probably shrug off the wounds as if they were nothing! These problems aside, it's at least nice that the creators didn't decide to kill him off due to blood loss.

Finally, Anri and Mikado then head to the warehouse in order to confront Kida after being misinformed that he ordered the attempted assasination of Shizuo. They arrive to discover Kida kneeling in front of Horada who is preparing to kill him via pistol. Next episode is going to have quite a tough job, as it's going to have to resolve the current conflict and must provide a resolution to many other plot threads that haven't been wrapped up. While I'm not expecting it resolve everything, it should at least tie up most of the loose ends.

Overall, this episode was fantastic, as it has built up enough suspense in order to have me begging for the next episode. Hopefully, the final episode will end with a bang.
Rating: Excellent