Izaya Orihara/Relationships

To be reworked.

Shizuo Heiwajima
Shizuo and Izaya easily have one of, if not the most negative relationship in the series. The two have hated each other from the moment Shinra introduced them. During their very first meeting, Shizuo threw a punch at Izaya after being antagonized; which prompted Izaya to slash Shizuo with his knife. Further into their fight, Izaya arranged for Shizuo to be hit by a truck.

Their fights have become legendary throughout Ikebukuro and have caused massive damage around the town.

Shinra Kishitani
Their friendship can best be described as "bizarre." Izaya and Shinra were classmates in Raijin Middle School. On the first day of school, Shinra approached Izaya to invite him to found a Biology Club, for his interest being "human observation." Izaya at first rejects the idea, but becomes intrigued with Shinra as a person. After doing some questioning around with other students, Izaya realizes that Shinra is the opposite of him—having no interest in humans, unlike himself. Wanting to know why Shinra held such disinterest towards humans, Izaya finally agrees to join as the Vice President of the club.

The Biology club is created as merely a front: Shinra uses it for the excuse to have a friend (thus earning the approval of his 'beloved'), while Izaya uses it for Baseball gambling with other students. When Shinra finds out about the gambling, he tries to dissuade Izaya out of it. Nakura, a member of the gambling ring, desperate to get the money back that he'd lost, suddenly comes in to attack Izaya, but Shinra jumps in between and ends up getting stabbed as a result. Izaya takes the blame for the incident and uses it to continually blackmail Nakura through the series.

Izaya attributes this event as something that helped shaped his personality. He'd felt envy toward his friend who seemed to be "watching humans from a different plane." They later both attend Raijin High school, where Izaya meets Shinra's elementary school friend, Shizuo, and begins a mortal rivalry. After High school, Izaya is seen occasionally hanging out with Shinra at Raira University, though the latter is not a student.

Currently, Izaya believes he isn't an important friend to Shinra, as he treats Celty as his top priority in life. An example of this is when Izaya tried to contact Shinra over the phone while at the hospital. Shinra hung up on him because he was too busy trying to enjoy his date with Celty (especially after having been continually interrupted by other callers). As a result, when it was Shinra's turn to be hospitalized, Izaya decided to also give him the cold shoulder.

Nevertheless, at various points in the novels, it is revealed that Shinra is the only person that Izaya actually considers a friend, and not just one of his "humans." Kisuke Adabashi, the man who injured Shinra, was eventually caught by Izaya's gang and kept confined at his apartment until he escaped by the series' end. Likewise, Shinra views Izaya as one of his only friends, and constantly defends him in front of Shizuo and Celty, even though he knows that "there's not a single ounce of goodness in him."

Shinra is Izaya's opposite. While Izaya claims to "love all humans," Shinra does not possess ANY feelings or interests towards them at all. Being too absorbed on Celty, who is a non-human, he practically lives in a different world. Despite his lack of interest in humans, Izaya thinks that Shinra's assessment of them is accurate. He was the first person to have seen through Izaya's nature, yet they still remained on friendly terms (unlike other people who express disgust toward Izaya once they see through him). Yet because Shinra is able to remain objective toward all humans—neither liking nor disliking them, regardless of how bad or good they are—it is difficult to tell what he really feels as far as 'friendship.' Moreover, Izaya claims to see all humans equally, whether they're his friends or his family or neither.

Although there's been no contact between them since Izaya vanished from Ikebukuro, they both continue to regard each other as "friends." Byakuyamaru Natsugawara, who happens to be acquainted with the Kishitanis, urged Izaya to go visit Shinra after such a long time at the end of "A Standing Ovation" novel, to which Izaya replied, "I'll see about that, if I have the time." Kazane Kinomiya, Shinra's half-sister from a different father whom has had dealings with Izaya in the past, likewise has expressed a desire for Izaya and her brother to meet again.

Mikado Ryuugamine
Izaya and Mikado meet on the internet; Mikado does not know that Kanra is actually Izaya for a long while. Mikado meets Izaya in person on Mikado's second day in Ikebukuro. Izaya knows that Mikado is the leader of the Dollars, but promises not to sell the information to anyone. He doesn't keep this promise exactly; instead of selling the information, he gives it away to Masaomi Kida for free. In the manga, Izaya tells Mikado that it wasn't a coincidence that he met him - he was looking for him.

Later in the novels, Mikado begins to rely on Izaya's information and advice. This is similar to how Masaomi depends on Izaya to lead the Yellow Scarves (which eventually led to his downfall). Vol. 7 foreshadows that Mikado will be led down a dark path because of Izaya. However, in the same novel, Aoba reveals that both he and Izaya have grossly underestimated Mikado.

Mairu and Kururi Orihara
Kururi and Mairu are Izaya's younger twin sisters. They grew up in the same house as Izaya, where all three siblings were said to have had "fairly normal parents." Izaya believes that their eccentricities developed because of his influence on them: he told them as children that they were copies of each other and therefore had no real purpose. When they were younger, he often had to take care of them because their parents were almost always working abroad. Izaya states that aside from Shizuo, they are the only humans that he doesn't know how to deal with, which may explain why he's annoyed by them. While Mairu and Kururi are inseparable, their feelings on Izaya are not as clear—on the one hand they say that they still consider him family, but on the other they wouldn't mind killing him and throwing his dead body in the garbage in order to meet their idol: "Hanejima Yuuhei," Shizuo's younger brother. However, in the twin's episode of Epitome of Eighteen Histories, the twins claim that they "couldn't care less" but they still "sometimes" love him.

Izaya displays some affection for his sisters when he sends Celty to stop some thugs picking on Kururi; he claims that he only did this because he needed a distraction for a job. However, he also sends Eijirou after some other thugs who were targeting Mairu when it was not work-related.

Namie Yagiri
Izaya and Namie have a complex relationship. Although Namie approaches Izaya in order to prevent her own arrest, she despises Izaya. Namie is the only person Izaya has no problems sharing his plans with despite Namie's indifference towards him. Regardless of their feelings toward each other, both Izaya and Namie seem to have grudgingly accepted the other as the closest they'll get to normal human interaction.

Saki Mikajima
Izaya was like a guardian to Saki and took care of her before she left with Kida. Saki looks up to Izaya as an admirable person to the point that she is mesmerized by him. He uses this to his advantage; even instructing her to get kidnapped (which results with her legs being broken). However he still visits her in the hospital, where he ordered her to stay for a year. Despite his twisted and manipulative ways, he does have a form of attachment towards her as he appears to be genuinely sad when she leaves him and runs off with Kida, since she is one of the few characters that actually likes Izaya. Saki's attachment towards him is still there as she is grateful to him for bringing her and Kida together.

Celty Sturluson
Due to her job as a underground transporter, Izaya is in charge of giving Celty her missions. However, Celty doesn't like Izaya in general due to the manipulative tactics he uses. She always suspects him of being involved with many of the major events that happen in the city and doesn't trust him at all. In turn, Izaya considers Celty to be one of many pawns at his disposal. After obtaining Celty's head, Izaya tries to start a gang war to see if it will awaken Celty's head. Despite his actions, Celty helps save Izaya's life after he is seriously injured during his fight with Shizuo.

Masaomi Kida
Izaya has manipulated Masaomi from the very first day they met. He manipulated the Blue Squares to attack the Yellow Scarves and vise versa. He then abandoned Masaomi when Saki was kidnapped. Masaomi has hated him ever since.

Shinichi Tsukumoya
Shinichi Tsukumoya is an undesired and disliked source of information for Izaya. However, Shinichi always has a leg up regarding information and is a very necessary contact for Izaya to have. Shinichi first made contact while Izaya was still a high school student--- by mocking him for a video game Izaya himself had made. Their cooperation afterwards takes place wholly in Shinichi's private chatroom, and is almost always hostile. Shinichi is one of few people able to shake Izaya's 'mask' and invoke actual irritation from him. Izaya intends to get back at Shinichi for all the years of insult and mockery if he finds out where Shinichi lives (unaware he might actually be a living AI and not have a physical form at all).

Izaya once used Shinichi's name as an alias to annoy him and Shinichi responded by posting a forged photo of Izaya crossdressing on the internet and entering it in a contest.

Haruto
Haruto is one of the children Izaya took in after orchestrating the deaths of Haruto and Himari's fathers. Haruto appears to idolize Izaya, doing whatever he says and thinking very highly of him. He even went far as to say he wanted to become just like Izaya, something Izaya objected to. Izaya has included Haruto and Himari in his plots but does not seem to treat either child badly.

Himari
Himari is one of the children Izaya took in after orchestrating the deaths of hers and Haruto's fathers. Unlike Haruto, Himari detests Izaya, believing he has ruined her and Haruto's lives. She does carry out the orders she is given, however and seems to want to become like Izaya after finding out he can be defeated.