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Durarara Izaya - Blog Posts
And now for asexual  one 💖💖
The Error
my favorite genre of drrr fanworks is izaya angst now I have one of those
That one re dollars art
Seeing as Death Note x Durarara!! Crossover is emerging on my feed again, and people seem to like this post, I'm gonna bring it up again. One of my favorite little rambles.
So my idea of a crossover between Death Note and Durarara!! would be to have Mikado find the Death Note.
A lot of people think Izaya would be the Light Yagami figure, but Izaya isn't the master manipulator genius type that a lot of people think he is. Yes, he can and will manipulate and he is certainly bright, but not in some grandiose, "I have everything set up and planned" sort of way. He likes to have the image of that, but it's not who he is. He prefers the randomness of it all. He loves humans, and therefore treats them like the Sims left on free will, with the occasional little tweak on his part. On that same note, Izaya wouldn't kill random people. He could care less if some people get hurt by his actions, or if they decide to kill each other, but killing is not his forte. The only exceptions to his style are those he dislikes (eg. Shizuo, Saika, maybe Celty) and the odd jobs that require him to take such actions in order for him to get paid (eg. the Amphisbaena arc). In these cases, his actions are more direct and involved, with him at the centre of the danger, which may involve the death of a person.
So instead I see him playing as a Ryuk figure to a much more naive and increasingly unpredictable Mikado. Watching to alleviate boredom, and occasionally poking in to get the ball rolling more.
Mikado with a Death Note is a much more interesting concept, because I can see him actually using it, granted with some hesitation from the start. While Izaya may get rid of any non human characters he considers in the way of his love for humanity (would it work on a demon sword?), Mikado would start using it in his reach for an extraordinary life. And we've seen how far he can push for that in the last arc.
I can see him finding it in the park, in the Mika Harima arc. While I considered giving it to him later, I think right from the start could help him settle into the idea of murder for the right reasons. Of course he wouldn't use it right away. Either he considers it a prank, or sees it as wrong to just test it out and kill a random person, or even just wish death upon them. He would feel tempted when he thinks Seiji and Namie killed Mika, but until he has all the evidence, he would resist.
In the Saika arc, the urge would grow stronger, but of course nobody knows who the actual Slasher is, so he has no way of confirming the books abilities by killing them. Takashit would be a good contender, but there is no final push moment there that could lead him to it.
I think the best contender for the first victims would be Horada and his group, right at the end of the Yellow Scarves arc. After chasing Anri (I know its anime only, but lets include it) and getting Masaomi severely injured, I can see Mikado asking who did this to them, and writing his name down in a sort of silent fury. It's not until the news confirms that Horada and his group were found after dying of heart attacks, when the horror of what he had done sinks in for Mikado. He would quickly hide the Death Note, vowing to not use it again, and won't touch it for a while, at least until the Akane arc.
During this time, I can see Izaya being curious as to the cause of these men dying in such a way at the exact same time. So he might investigate it.
On top of that, I can see the Death Note once belonging to Celty in this universe. She is a sort of grim reaper after all, so if she's lost her head, it's not far fetched to believe, that other aspects of her roll were lost too. Maybe Nebula and Yagiri pharmaceuticals had it, but saw no use for it, and threw it away. Maybe after seeing Horada's death on the news, Celty realises what's happened, remembers her Death Note, and rushes to try and find it before anything else happens.
Perhaps Izaya notices this and decides to try and find it himself. And this is what leads to him finding out it's Mikado who has it, at about the same time Aoba offers to help purge the Dollars. Izaya doesn't really do anything about it, and instead decides to watch how things go. And to prolong it a little, he decides to keep Mikado's secret identity as this universes "Kira" safe.
And of course, after being given the idea to "purge" the Dollars by Aoba, Mikado then begins to consider using the Death Note to do so. His next group of victims are the ones who kidnapped Chikage's girlfriend. And from there, he starts killing anyone in the Dollars who misbehaves. This goes hand in hand with his hope for the Dollars to become like an urban legend. Whether or not he sticks to the murder as a last resort, or he just ignores Aoba as an option I have left undecided. I say this as if I'm gonna write the full thing.
1. Mikado kills the guy who attacks Shinra. Izaya, for once, takes a disliking to his actions, because he wanted to make the guy suffer more for what he did. He doesn't specify why though. Mikado, maybe getting a little more unhinged and tactical at this point, warns Izaya that he himself has hinted at causing problems in the Dollars, and that it would be a lot easier if he wasn't around to do that anymore. Izaya has a rare moment "oh fuck, what have I done, oh fuck, this kid might kill me."
From there I don't know fully how things would go. But I do have some vague ideas for big dramatic moments and how other characters might fit into this. Some of them may be illogical and not add up, but I just think they would be cool ideas:
Can't decide if Aoba: knows about the death note, and is in a similar position; doesn't know, but is part of a growing follower base for this universes "Kira" because it's shown to benefit him in some way; or just straight up dies quickly because of endangering Anri.
Assume that Mikado has a way to ensure nobody else gets ahold of the Death Note, because if either of these guys decide they have had enough and steal it for themselves, that would just be boring.
3. Shizuo gets killed because of acting up one too many times and negatively impacting the Dollars image. Yes there is irony in that.
2. Mikado is definitely posting as "Kira" on the Dollars site, confirming why he killed certain people and ensuring the rest of the Dollars stay in line.
It also emphasises how it might be giving Mikado too much of an ego with how much power it is giving him over some of the most notorious people of Ikebukuro, further cementing the Dollars into the history of the city.
It also gives further fuel to Celty finding her Death Note.
5. The van gang could give some funny references, but they are also there to find the killer. Because they are ruining what was once a decent community.
4. Vorona wants to find and kill "Kira", because if they can kill anyone, including Shizuo, then surely they are a worthy opponent. She also has the added benefit of having a fake name.
Other "Kira" hunters might include: Simon, Akane, Masaomi and the Awakusu.
But those are all my ideas for it. They sort of came to me a while back when someone in the fandom was talking about Death Note. Can't remember who, or what about, but I finally got to have my chance to talk about it.
So my idea of a crossover between Death Note and Durarara!! would be to have Mikado find the Death Note.
A lot of people think Izaya would be the Light Yagami figure, but Izaya isn't the master manipulator genius type that a lot of people think he is. Yes, he can and will manipulate and he is certainly bright, but not in some grandiose, "I have everything set up and planned" sort of way. He likes to have the image of that, but it's not who he is. He prefers the randomness of it all. He loves humans, and therefore treats them like the Sims left on free will, with the occasional little tweak on his part. On that same note, Izaya wouldn't kill random people. He could care less if some people get hurt by his actions, or if they decide to kill each other, but killing is not his forte. The only exceptions to his style are those he dislikes (eg. Shizuo, Saika, maybe Celty) and the odd jobs that require him to take such actions in order for him to get paid (eg. the Amphisbaena arc). In these cases, his actions are more direct and involved, with him at the centre of the danger, which may involve the death of a person.
So instead I see him playing as a Ryuk figure to a much more naive and increasingly unpredictable Mikado. Watching to alleviate boredom, and occasionally poking in to get the ball rolling more.
Mikado with a Death Note is a much more interesting concept, because I can see him actually using it, granted with some hesitation from the start. While Izaya may get rid of any non human characters he considers in the way of his love for humanity (would it work on a demon sword?), Mikado would start using it in his reach for an extraordinary life. And we've seen how far he can push for that in the last arc.
I can see him finding it in the park, in the Mika Harima arc. While I considered giving it to him later, I think right from the start could help him settle into the idea of murder for the right reasons. Of course he wouldn't use it right away. Either he considers it a prank, or sees it as wrong to just test it out and kill a random person, or even just wish death upon them. He would feel tempted when he thinks Seiji and Namie killed Mika, but until he has all the evidence, he would resist.
In the Saika arc, the urge would grow stronger, but of course nobody knows who the actual Slasher is, so he has no way of confirming the books abilities by killing them. Takashit would be a good contender, but there is no final push moment there that could lead him to it.
I think the best contender for the first victims would be Horada and his group, right at the end of the Yellow Scarves arc. After chasing Anri (I know its anime only, but lets include it) and getting Masaomi severely injured, I can see Mikado asking who did this to them, and writing his name down in a sort of silent fury. It's not until the news confirms that Horada and his group were found after dying of heart attacks, when the horror of what he had done sinks in for Mikado. He would quickly hide the Death Note, vowing to not use it again, and won't touch it for a while, at least until the Akane arc.
During this time, I can see Izaya being curious as to the cause of these men dying in such a way at the exact same time. So he might investigate it.
On top of that, I can see the Death Note once belonging to Celty in this universe. She is a sort of grim reaper after all, so if she's lost her head, it's not far fetched to believe, that other aspects of her roll were lost too. Maybe Nebula and Yagiri pharmaceuticals had it, but saw no use for it, and threw it away. Maybe after seeing Horada's death on the news, Celty realises what's happened, remembers her Death Note, and rushes to try and find it before anything else happens.
Perhaps Izaya notices this and decides to try and find it himself. And this is what leads to him finding out it's Mikado who has it, at about the same time Aoba offers to help purge the Dollars. Izaya doesn't really do anything about it, and instead decides to watch how things go. And to prolong it a little, he decides to keep Mikado's secret identity as this universes "Kira" safe.
And of course, after being given the idea to "purge" the Dollars by Aoba, Mikado then begins to consider using the Death Note to do so. His next group of victims are the ones who kidnapped Chikage's girlfriend. And from there, he starts killing anyone in the Dollars who misbehaves. This goes hand in hand with his hope for the Dollars to become like an urban legend. Whether or not he sticks to the murder as a last resort, or he just ignores Aoba as an option I have left undecided. I say this as if I'm gonna write the full thing.
1. Mikado kills the guy who attacks Shinra. Izaya, for once, takes a disliking to his actions, because he wanted to make the guy suffer more for what he did. He doesn't specify why though. Mikado, maybe getting a little more unhinged and tactical at this point, warns Izaya that he himself has hinted at causing problems in the Dollars, and that it would be a lot easier if he wasn't around to do that anymore. Izaya has a rare moment "oh fuck, what have I done, oh fuck, this kid might kill me."
From there I don't know fully how things would go. But I do have some vague ideas for big dramatic moments and how other characters might fit into this. Some of them may be illogical and not add up, but I just think they would be cool ideas:
Can't decide if Aoba: knows about the death note, and is in a similar position; doesn't know, but is part of a growing follower base for this universes "Kira" because it's shown to benefit him in some way; or just straight up dies quickly because of endangering Anri.
Assume that Mikado has a way to ensure nobody else gets ahold of the Death Note, because if either of these guys decide they have had enough and steal it for themselves, that would just be boring.
3. Shizuo gets killed because of acting up one too many times and negatively impacting the Dollars image. Yes there is irony in that.
2. Mikado is definitely posting as "Kira" on the Dollars site, confirming why he killed certain people and ensuring the rest of the Dollars stay in line.
It also emphasises how it might be giving Mikado too much of an ego with how much power it is giving him over some of the most notorious people of Ikebukuro, further cementing the Dollars into the history of the city.
It also gives further fuel to Celty finding her Death Note.
5. The van gang could give some funny references, but they are also there to find the killer. Because they are ruining what was once a decent community.
4. Vorona wants to find and kill "Kira", because if they can kill anyone, including Shizuo, then surely they are a worthy opponent. She also has the added benefit of having a fake name.
Other "Kira" hunters might include: Simon, Akane, Masaomi and the Awakusu.
But those are all my ideas for it. They sort of came to me a while back when someone in the fandom was talking about Death Note. Can't remember who, or what about, but I finally got to have my chance to talk about it.
A while back I said I would write some stuff, but as of now I've decided to go back on that. Deleted the original posts and some of the writing I already did (just simply didn't like it). Not against future writing for fandom stuff in general, but writing up plans like that just stresses me out and I don't tend to deliver on them. Sorry.
Watching Code Geass and hearing all the Durarara!! voice actors got me thinking.
Izaya = Lelouch
Shinra = Suzaku
Nunnally = The twins (Mairu lost her eyesight, Kururi lost her ability to walk)
The comparisons are too real. Angsty smart boys with parent issues and a weird obsession with chess. Younger siblings in their care. Childhood friend who's secretly fucked up and who has caused some weird mixed feelings for angsty smart boy about his intentions. Does this make sense?
I'm just saying.
When I draw Izaya I have to do his eyes extra evil.
I can't remember the specifics of when Izaya started getting access to the underground but I'm guessing it was pretty young for normal standards...actually given the common trend of gang warfare maybe not. But I feel like he got a little more deep into it than any of the colour gang leaders did. Like didn't he get recruited by Kine?
Anyway, given that and his apparent brilliantness its no wonder so little was done about his delinquency. Even his fights with Shizuo. Like imagine being a teacher for him, and trying to inforce the rules, only to have the knowledge that some yakuza guy has got this kids back for whatever reason. "Oil barrels? I don't see no oil barrels?"
On one hand, no wonder he comes off as a little bratty, but can you blame him? You try being a teenage guardian to two younger sisters. I can see why he might have signed up for an easy route too. I know his parents might have sent him money, but how much of that would really help him? He's a student, if something else came along that allowed him to afford a babysitter I wouldn't blame him for taking the deal.
And imagine growing up where some of the only adults in your life were criminals.
There are so many things that tie into how fucked up he is.
This is to the same tune of Arabella's colour being light pink, but MC's colour is definitely pastel blue in my head. Yes I know there are canon characters with blue as their thing, but pastel blue on MC looks so good! Sure, I permit the occasional divergence kinda like how Arabella can go for simple black and white and still work. Pastel blue just translates to MC for me.
Izaya looks like some kind of alien in X2 onwards.
Why did the durarara!! relay games and that have screenshots that looked straight from a dating sim?
Me: Oooo the mysterious head turn of all the mysterious characters to make this particular character that caught their attention even more mysterious
The family: you're not normal
To whoever granted me the gift of the Durarara!! Saika arc manga from ebay, you have no idea how happy I am right now.
Someone tell the durarara artist that there are tasteful ways for sexy art.
Spoopy fog? Freezing like an orphan? Writing an essay about Oscar Wilde? Don't be surprised if I go on a ramble about Dark Academia AU's.
Reblogging AGAIN to let others know. Glitches fixed, yaaaaay
Izaya’s route part two download + bonus comic
Art by Fi. Thanks for all your hard work!
Aren’t childhood memories lovely?
We hope you enjoy both the bonus comic and Izaya’s part 2 here! Per usual, the password is Baccano.
EDIT: Good ending glitch fixed.
Game testing without context:
"Riku, imma be honest, i'm only staring at your titties right now"
Got paper lately. Wanna draw OC's and canon character's in cozy little places.
Does anybody acknowledge Izaya's charm at all? I mean the guy works for yakuza and other big businesses, the guy kinda needs it. And he had to lure teenagers in some how. That sounded bad. No wonder he gets labelled with stranger danger
Any kind of puritan mindset is kinda stupid when it comes to Durarara!! but on a writing level, what was actually the point of all that incest?
If I could go back and design the durarara!! characters living spaces myself I would be one happy weirdo.
Creating characters to insert into the world of Durarara!! has been fun. Like so much of it is just done by messing around with doodles, what if's and further additions to the story puzzle, trying to see what fits. Why is one colour in the colour spectrum missing in this gang war? I dunno, lets insert it. What's a common strangers reaction to these people who fuck with everything? Let's find out! Is there baby? Is there enough dilfs? Who cares lets fuck around and find out. And the funny thing is, the more they last the more in debt we go into their characters. And often it's by complete accident or by chance. This character made a joke? Well lookie here now this canon character has a very deep attachment to this person now. I doodled this character in military clothes? Guess there's part of the backstory decided. Don't get me started on the ones that never made it. Many of them are lost to time, couldn't fit into the portrait. Some just straight up don't appear until much later on in these lives and very few are going to look into that window. So many buddy groups, mothers and children have disappeared now. But they make the survivors stronger and dammit if it wasn't a great time toying with them. No I'm not going to specify on any of this.
Doriririan Gray
Since everyone wants to see the connections between The Portrait of Dorian Gray and Izaya Orihara even though his favourite quote is from Lady Windermere I decided to keep that in mind while reading the book and my conclusions are:
Dorian Gray: Mikado Ryugamine
Basil Hallward: Masaomi Kida
Lord Henry: Izaya (BECAUSE NEITHER OF THEM EVER SHUT UP)
PLEASE CHECK IT OUT GUYS WE WORKED REALLY HARD.
IZAYA’S PART ONE IS FINISHED!
(Art by our lovely artists)
You can download it here. The game page includes guides for both routes currently available to play and credits. It’s restricted, so the password is MHFC.
Be sure to share to spread the news! We hope you enjoy Izaya’s part one!
One of my favourite things to do lately is draw Izaya. Specifically redraw screenshots and official art of him in my style. So here, have some Izaya.
Updates and Responses to Feedback:
Hi all. Due to talking to some of you we thought it would be best to inform you of some changes we've made to the game since the demo was released. Most of these we had done so earlier, however after recieving feedback, we thought that this might be important
First change:
MC's new character design.
Many of you stated that in the demo, MC looked too short and young, and that it made a lot of you uncomfortable. We heard this and made the appropriate changes and the results are what you see in the above sketch. We made her chest more prominent and she should be taller--around the same height as Arabella and Anri. When we get a digital artist for the sprites, we'll make sure that she translates better to digital form. Previously, we had in story reason for her youthful appearance, but in the end both madhousefruitcake and I agreed it was too extreme, and so did some updates accordingly.
Related to this, we heard feedback stating that some of you have felt discomfort playing this game due to the MC's feminine appearance and pronouns, and that it has caused you dysphoria. We are dreadfully sorry about this, however due to technical reasons, we can't provide the players with a gender selection. The game is incredibly long, with over 30 character sprites. That's not taking into account the expressions each of those characters would have within the game. So we hope that you can understand the need to restrict ourselves to one gender. The reason we chose female and not gender neutral is both due to plot and game genre. Traditionally, otome games are made for girls, so we thought it would be wise to stick to the demographic we were aiming for. If this effects you and you still want to play the game, we consider viewing the MC as separate from you (I know I know, that kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it). If not, we completely understand not wanting to, and thank you for playing anyway.
The other change:
Since the demo was released last year, we have gone back and edited a lot of the scenes and dialogue. The specific example we're talking about today are the "I'm straight lines". When we looked back, myself and madhousefruitcake agreed and thought that multiple characters commenting on how straight they were was really stupid, clunky and unnatural, so we have since changed it. However, as of recently we have been made aware of just how glaring the lines were to some of you and we felt the need to update everyone on these changes. The mistake was made thanks to a slip in the editing and more than one script writer. We will try to avoid something like this happening again. With the exceptions of a few, most of the characters sexualities would be more ambiguous or unmentioned for now on. For the most part, our aim is to get the most accurate depiction of the series we can get through lots of reading and research, in order for the player to feel like they're actually taking part in the world of durarara. Any mentions of sexuality for now on would be either for plot reasons, or because the dialogue naturally fell a certain way.
We hope that these issues didn't turn any of you off Ikebukuro Records, but if they have, hopefully this new information will spark your interest in it again. Please let us know of more feedback you have, and feel free to ask questions.
Please consider donating to our ko-fi so that we may someday afford all the required digital artists. I'll leave the link at the bottom of this post. We will give you more art and script updates as development and donations continue. Thank you for your time.
-Ms.
Please spread the word everyone. We really didn’t want to have to ask for money but we have no choice. Take note that this is also for future projects too, which will be original works. The fangame is meant to be none profit. If you think you know any artists who may be interested, let us know.
Logged back in due to an important announcement: Our Ko-fi page is set up to pay artists for sprites, CGs, and backgrounds (all three are separate to avoid stress for completing the art) for Ikebukuro Records: A Durarara!! Dating Sim!
You can donate here:
https://ko-fi.com/madhousefruitcake
(We want to add extra content for monthly donors, such as screenshots and sprites that were not seen in the demo)
Artists who join us will:
Receive art from the demo as reference
Given sketches for future scenes as reference
Will receive payment (we won’t ask you to draw until we have enough money to pay you)
Be beta testers
Could work with us on future projects we have planned (OG)
Thank you for reading. Please spread the word so we can find artists as soon as possible. If an artist is interested, please DM us!
This is another case of "please spread the word" because it's really important.
News regarding art in the game
So I talked to my former digital artist yesterday and she told me that she doesn’t want her art in the game. We were originally going to keep the art style of the demo until day 4 of each bachelor route, but to respect her wishes, the art style will completely change in the full game.
It’s a bit inconvenient, but we’ll still send her drawn sprites, CGs, and backgrounds to the new digital artist once we get one for reference. At this point, I highly doubt a new digital artist would draw the amount of artwork in the game for free (we might get one for backgrounds and one for sprites and CGs), so we’re probably going to have to pay the artist(s). We’re still pondering over what to do, but we’re considering setting up a Buy Me a Coffee page, but it’s not set in stone yet. However, please note:
We will not use the donations for anything else but to pay the artist(s) and the game will still be free. Seeing people enjoying the game is all the payment we need.
Now, this wouldn’t start until the scripts are done. There would be no point in hiring artist(s) just to have them wait around. However, we’re still looking for a manga x anime style for the characters. If the sprite and CG artist finds it easier to draw one more than both, that’s okay too.
We’ll also be changing Riku, Arabella, and MC’s outfits, along with Riku and MC’s hairstyle. I can’t give spoilers, but they’ll have a more modern look. Their eye shapes, heights, and colors will remain the same though.
Thank you for reading!