Durarara!! Episode 19

"The Blue Sky Perishes" is the nineteenth episode of the Durarara!! anime and the twentieth episode overall.

Synopsis
Continuing from the previous episode, Anri is running from the pursuing members of the Yellow Scarves, wondering why she saw Masaomi among them. One day prior, Anri is released from the hospital. Mikado meets her outside, and Masaomi joins up with them, characteristically teasing Mikado. Anri catches him staring up at a hospital window and notes that despite Masaomi’s playfulness, something is different about him. Masaomi receives a phone call and runs off. Around town, people in yellow scarves and bandannas walk in packs. A pack of Yellow Scarves members corner two Dollars members. Police cars rush through the city. Simon can be seen walking through the crowds on a delivery. In her flat, Anri readies herself to do something about the situation. The next day after school, Anri, Mikado, and Masaomi are walking home when Masaomi gets a phone call and abruptly departs. As Anri and Mikado continue to walk home, Anri asks Mikado if he has noticed Masaomi’s strange behaviour lately. Mikado wonders if she is overthinking things. Anri suddenly bids him farewell and leaves. Mikado overhears some passerby mention that some members of the Dollars were jumped by the Yellow Scarves the night before. Simon is soliciting customers outside Russia Sushi. Kadota’s gang rolls by in their van, with Erika noting that the Dollars members who were ambushed by the Yellow Scarves the night before were lucky that Simon was on delivery and broke up their fight. Anri changes out of her school uniform and into street clothes and runs through town, her eyes glowing red, asking Saika’s children for information on the Dollars and Yellow Scarves. Anri meets with three members of the Yellow Scarves, their eyes also glowing red, who give her the name of their boss and inform her of the Yellow Scarves meeting. She has the members take her with them to the meeting at the abandoned factory that serves as the Yellow Scarves headquarters. There, she sees Masaomi conducting the gang's meeting with her own eyes. Anri takes refuge from the Yellow Scarves members searching for her by hiding among piles of scrap in the yard of the abandoned factory. As Masaomi volunteers to navigate the piles of scrap in search of the hiding girl, the sounds of horse stop everyone in their tracks. The Yellow Scarves members stare at the newly-arrived dullahan in apprehension. Celty rides toward them, her bike climbing over the scrap piles, and Anri climbs on the back of her bike. In the abandoned factory yard, Celty is surrounded by Yellow Scarves members and approached by Masaomi. Anri hides her face from him. Celty sends shadows out from her bike, her bike taking its original horse form, and it runs through the crowd of frightened teens with Celty and Anri on its back. Horada, knocked over and infuriated at being beaten by Celty again, throws a pipe at her. Anri reacts immediately and slices it in half with Saika. As Celty and Anri ride away, the Yellow Scarves are left piecing together the connection among the Black Rider, the Slasher, and the Dollars. Masaomi thinks about the meaning of the Irish dullahan, a harbinger of death, and wonders if anyone he cares about will die in this war. He realizes that he will no longer be able to control the actions taken by the Yellow Scarves against the Dollars and expresses a desire to see Saki. The next day at school, Mikado greets a distracted Anri. Ryo Takiguchi walks by, stating that he saw Masaomi at the train station and that Masaomi said he was not coming to school that day. In Saki’s hospital room, Saki detects that something from Masaomi’s past has him worried. She tells him to stop running and to fight his past and win. He states that it is not possible, as he cannot fight her. Leaving the hospital, Masaomi recognizes that Saki is the only person who has ever felt like home to him, and that now he lives for the peace he has with Mikado. Kadota and his group are hanging around their van when Masaomi approaches Kadota, asking him to talk.

Chatroom

Kanra, Setton, and TarouTanaka talk about the increasing frequency of seeing the Yellow Scarves around town. Setton notes that they seem more violent than they did in the past. Saika joins the chat, and Kanra begins telling her about the rising tension between the Yellow Scarves and the Dollars over the Slasher incident. Setton tries to change the subject, but Kanra continues to inform the other chatroom users that the two gangs each believe the other to be behind the slashing incidents. TarouTanaka states that the Dollars are not making a big deal about it and that the confusion is caused by neither side knowing the other. In a private message, Setton tries to reassure Saika that the incidents are not her fault and tells her not to do anything rash. Saika and Setton log off. TarouTanaka private messages Kanra about the Slasher. Kanra promises to let TarouTanaka know if she hears anything. TarouTanaka expresses his hope that the Slasher will be caught and tension between the two gangs will ease. Kanra does not believe that the situation will calm down so easily, stating that the gangs are likely to use the tension to break into small but escalating fights, making a gang war inevitable. TarouTanaka confidently states that he will not let the situation come to that point. Kanra reminds him that even if it is not too late already, TarouTanaka has no control over the Yellow Scarves. TarouTanaka adamantly insists that he will stop the fighting.

Later, TarouTanaka and Kanra discuss the Yellow Scarves more. Kanra informs TarouTanaka of the history between the Yellow Scarves and Blue Squares, including the fate of the girlfriend of the Yellow Scarves’ leader. Kanra reveals to TarouTanaka that after the Yellow Scarves’ leader left and the Blue Squares dissolved, most of the Blue Squares’ members joined the Yellow Scarves. TarouTanaka is horrified by the thought that the leader of the Yellow Scarves has no idea that the men who sent his girlfriend to the hospital are currently in his gang. Kanra warns TarouTanaka to watch out for the Yellow Scarves members inside the Dollars. She also sews seeds of doubt in TarouTanaka’s mind that the Slasher might very well be operating from inside the Dollars, as the leader of the Dollars does not keep tabs on all of the group’s members. Kanra warns TarouTanaka that in order to be a part of the underworld, he needs to keep all possibilities open.

Referbacks
This episode is a direct continuation of the previous episode.

Character Debuts

 * 1) Anri Sonohara
 * 2) Masaomi Kida
 * 3) Mikado Ryuugamine
 * 4) Izaya Orihara
 * 5) Celty Sturluson
 * 6) Simon Brezhnev
 * 7) Walker Yumasaki
 * 8) Erika Karisawa
 * 9) Kyouhei Kadota
 * 10) Saburo Togusa
 * 11) Horada
 * 12) Ryo Takiguchi

Cultural References

 * On a billboard in the background is an image of Chane Laforet, a character from Baccano!, another work in the Naritaverse.
 * The title of this episode is "Sōten sudeni shisu" (蒼天已死) or "The Blue Sky Perishes" which, when taken in context with the fact that the Yellow Scarves' name is a reference to The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is certainly a reference to the slogan of the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, “The Blue Sky has perished; the Yellow Sky will soon rise. In this year of Jia Zi, let there be prosperity in the world!” (蒼天已死，黃天當立. 歲在甲子，天下大吉. ). In the context of the original rebellion, the Blue Sky is a reference to the Han Dynasty; the Yellow Sky is the rebellion.
 * The first four kanji (蒼天已死) are identical to the title of the episode. In addition, these same four kanji are seen spray-painted onto a rusting iron support in the episode, just after Celty escapes from the Yellow Scarves' hideout with Anri on the back of her bike. At this point, Masaomi approaches it, and we are explicitly told by the narrator, "A phrase that means everything changes for the worse. It was a phrase from the banner of the Yellow Scarves Army when it rose in the Three Kingdoms story." Masaomi says, "The sky ain't blue...then again, it isn't yellow either," a clear reference to the second phrase of the slogan.

Quotes
Saki: "You can't keep running from your past, Masaomi. I mean, that's what this is about, right? So stop running. Turn around, fight this thing, and win!"