Durarara!! SH

''Durarara!! SH (デュラララ!! SH) is a sequel series of light novels following Durarara!!''. Set one and a half years after the end of the original series, SH features the same setting as Durarara!! and much of the previous series’ cast returns alongside several new main characters.

The first volume was published in April 2014 under the Dengeki Bunko imprint, and four volumes have been released in total as of February 2016.

As with its predecessor, SH is written by Ryohgo Narita and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda.

Synopsis
One and a half years after the end of the Dollars, Ikebukuro now welcomes a new wind.

Yahiro Mizuchi, a cowardly boy with a knack for fighting, moves to Ikebukuro after a childhood of ostracization in his hometown in Akita. Come to the city in hopes of meeting the famed Headless Rider and validating his existence as a “monster," he enrolls in Raira Academy as a freshman where he quickly befriends fellow classmates Kuon Kotonami and Himeka Tatsugami, both of whom possess their own reasons for seeking out the urban legend. Meanwhile, the rider in black has yet to be seen in the city for the past half year, and anyone who has since attempted to seek out Ikebukuro’s resident Dullahan has vanished without a trace.

With a new start on life, Yahiro wants nothing more than to live out a quiet, ordinary existence, but the city of Ikebukuro has other plans...

Name Trivia
The “SH” in the title is an abbreviation of “Snake Hands.” Derived from the Chinese idiom “adding legs to a snake,” it refers to the act of adding unnecessary details onto something that should otherwise be complete. It originates from a tale in which several men compete to finish a drawing of a snake as quickly as they can. The story goes that the man who completed his snake first went so far as to add legs, resulting in his ultimate defeat.

''Durarara!! SH itself is the "snake’s legs" to Durarara!!''. With the original series resolved, Narita refers to the sequel as an unnecessary addition to an otherwise complete story. However, he goes on to state that were the legs of a snake to evolve into arms and further into hands, then the snake could become a dragon and thereby grow into something greater than what is was before.

Trivia

 * Before the real meaning was made known, rumors began to spout that the SH in the title referred to the character Shizuo Heiwajima. Based on this, many fans speculated that the sequel may instead have been a prequel, focusing on the characters within the cast who had attended Raijin Academy and their high school days.