Erika Karisawa

Erika Karisawa (狩沢 絵理華, Karisawa Erika) is a manga reader and a fujoshi. She has brown eyes and brown hair that is pulled back into a braid at the back of her head, with two pieces of her hair hanging freely in front of her ears. Erika is in the Dollars Gang, and can usually be found driving around the city with her friends Walker, Saburo and Kadota. She and Walker are both otaku (people obsessed with anime and manga).

Characteristics
She normally wears a black newsboy cap and a long-sleeved black dress with black ankle boots. She usually carries a small silver slash bag. She has dark brown eyes and side bangs and two pieces of short hair on the side reaching to her chin. However, when her hat is off, it is shown that her hair is medium length, being in a braid wrapping around her head.

Erika is a hard core Anime Otaku, usually seen with her close friend Walker. She gets extremely enthusiastic about anything anime or manga related. Her personality can come off as being hyper and strange, but she proves in Episode 20 that she can be calm and can reason with people, although she goes right back to being her normal otaku self immediately after the topic changes. In the manga, Kida explains to Mikado that she and Walker are a bit peculiar, but good people. Like Izaya, she calls Kadota "Dotachin" as a playful nickname. She is a member of the anonymous online gang called Dollars; her friends Kadota, Saburo, and Walker are, too, which is one of the reasons why she is often traveling with them. She is a big Yaoi fan. Whenever she sees Izaya and Shizuo fighting, Erika is convinced that Shizuo and Izaya are lovers, despite (or because of) their constant fighting. Erika is also shown to support Kadota and Chikage together as of Volume 6 of the Light Novels.

Erika and Walker have darker sides of their personalities as they have been seen to be skilled in both mental and physical torture, displayed whenever the two need to extract information from someone. During interrogation, the torture they conduct is usually based on themes from a manga or anime series of the victim's choosing. Both Erika and Walker share the mentality that they were twisted from birth and that their affinity for torture would persist even if Anime didn't exist. Despite her sadistic tendencies, Erika still values her friends and companions deeply and will do whatever she can to protect them.

Background
Very little is known about Erika and Walker's background before the start of the series. It is implied by Kyohei that he met them when they were still involved with other criminal organizations and acted as interrogators. Kyohei somehow managed to turn them away from a life of crime and helped them (mostly) re-adapt back into normal society. The two of them developed such a strong connection to Kyohei that they were ready to quit the Blue Squares in a moment's notice despite the risk of retaliation when Kyohei grew sick of the group. Not long after, they joined the dollars along with Kyohei.

Dollars and Mika Harima Arc
She and Walker meet Mikado and they tell him about the large stack of manga they bought. A couple days later she and Walker meet up with Kyohei who was putting tiles on a bathroom wall. Erika suggests to go ahead and eat at Russia Sushi. As they leave, Kyohei gets a text from Kazutano which everyone ignores.

After eating at Russia Sushi she and the others go to Kazutano's apartment to find the place is a wreck. Saburo deduces that he was kidnapped much to everyone's distress. As the group searches for Kazutano, she suggests to call him. Kyohei does so but hears Izaya on the other end informing them of one of the kidnappers locations.

They go to the place to find the kidnapper sleeping. Erika and Walker suggest using manga torture to wake him up but Kyohei tells them no on the grounds that they might accidentally kill him. Once Kyohei manages to trick the other kidnappers into revealing their location, Erika is seen celebrating with the rest of her group. Later she is in Saburo's car when they got to the kidnappers. When the kidnappers run off without Kazutano because of the Black Rider Erika jumps back in the car and they chase them down. One gets away but they manage to corner the last one. In the morning, since the kidnapper refuses to talk, Walker and Erika tell Saburo that they can take care of him.

Saburo gets out telling them not to use gasoline again. Then Erika and Walker pull out several manga books and tell the kidnapper to choose one. The kidnapper, becoming increasingly disturbed at the nature of the different books he sees, finally picks "Black Butler." Erika holds him down so Walker can use the soldering gun on the guys eye. But Kyohei stops them once the kidnapper agrees to talk.

The next day she is looking around town wanting to give walker's phone back to him after he left it in a cafe. She asks Simon but he said he hasn't seen him. Shiri walks up telling her to sign her book that is labeled Missing stuff. Later she finds and dances with Walker.

A day later she is with Saburo, Kyohei,and Walker when a guy accidentally flicks a pebble at Saburo's car, scratching it. Saburo drives full speed at the guy but stops just in time to avoid running over Mika Harima. As she explains the situation to them, they get a text to participate in the dollar's meeting. Erika and the others attend the gathering and marvel at how large the dollars had become and were even more surprised as Celty rode down from one of the buildings.

Saika Arc
Erika and the others were driving around town at night with Erika teasing Walker about the book he was reading. Kyohei asks why Walker was getting so worked up and she explains it's because the book was something Walker himself had self published. Kyohei then tells them to focus on finding the slasher.

Erika is with the others as they save Anri from one of the supposed "Slashers." Saburo hits him with his van but he simply gets back up and tries to attack Anri again. Suddenly Shizuo and Celty come in and incapacitate him via crushing him with Saburo's van door (much to his distress). When Shizuo leaves, mentioning his intent to kill Izaya,  Erika says that Shizuo likes Izaya which everyone immediately denies.

The next day, after interrogating him they released that slasher since the guy said he doesn't remember anything.

Yellow Scarves Arc
It is revealed that Erika was with Kyohei's crew when they were still part of the Blue Squares. However, they betray the group by saving Saki. In the present she is at the Russia Sushi eating. Masaomi walks up and tells them that he needs to talk to them in one of the private rooms.

Masaomi asks them about the blue squares but she and walker don't give him any straight answers. As the talking gets more intense she gets scared when Dennis throws a knife in the room telling them that their talk is scaring the customers.

Not long after, Erika and Walker are left out in the war between the Dollars and Yellow Scarves since they'll stand out too much. They are last seen sleeping in Masaomi's hospital room.

Hollywood Arc
Mikado and Anri turn to Erika and Walker for help in regards to giving someone a tour of ikebukuro since neither of them are very good at showing people around. Erika and Walker try to give them some good tops and even make a list of some of the more interesting (to them) sites around the city but decide that it would be simpler to just come with them. After singing some Karaoke, the four of them part. The next day, Erika, Walker and Kyohei save Mairu and Kururi from some Toramaru members and call in Saburo to pick them up.

Eventually, they start getting chased by Toramaru and the six of them eventually pick up Mikado, Anri, and Aoba as well. After meeting with Celty along the way, Saburo drops Erika and the others off but she and Walker go back to help them deal with Toramaru. They watch as Ruri and Egor beat up the Toromaru members that were chasing them. Afterwards, Erika along with Celty, Emilia, Anri, and Mika assist in the cooking for the hotpot party at the end. The color illustrations rate the girl's cooking skills with Erika scoring an even 70.

Akane Arc
Erika and the others are hanging out but Kyohei notices Chikage following them. Erika's presence in the group is the only thing keeping Chikage from acting (due to his "no harming women" policy) and Kyohei tells her and the others to separate.

Dollars and Blue Squares Arc
Near the end of Kyohe's and Chikage's fight, Erika, Walker, Saburo and several other Dollars members show up to give them a helping hand with her and Walker in charge of getting the girls to safety. After Anri and Varona enter the fray, they witness Anri's prowess with a Katana and immediately think of the Anime "Shakugan no Shana". After the fighting dies down, Erika starts asking Anri about Saika and even begins trying to search Anri's person for where she keeps Saika hidden.

Kyohei manages to pull her off of Anri who decides to go look for Mikado. Later, Erika starts giggling about something and Kyohei asks her why. She states that she senses a strong "camaraderie" that has formed between him and Chikage and expresses a new pairing in mind about Kyohei and Chikage getting together (much to everyone's disdain).

Dragon Zombie Arc
While she is hanging out with her cosplay team, Erika sees Anri near a bookstore and calls out to her. Erika introduces Anri to one of her friends named Azusa Tsutsugawa who occasionally hangs out with her and the van crew as well. She mentions how Anri should take up cosplay but Anri is less than enthusiastic.

Kadota's Coma Arc
Erika is first shown in this arc talking to Anri about her relationship with Mikado and cosplay. Then Erika mentions Masaomi's return to Ikebukuro. While they were talking Erika gets a call from Kyohei's father. Kyohei's father informs her that Kyohei was in a hit and run.

She, Anri, Walker, and Saburo arrive at the hospital and find that Kyohei is alive but in critical condition. Walker and Saburo go to investigate who attacked Kyohei while Erika stays behind at the hospital. Anri stays with her and tries to comfort Erika as they wait for Kyohei to recover.

After hearing that Kadota's surgery went well she calmed down and told everyone that Kyohei was okay. Near the end of the Arc, Erika smiles as she swears that she'll kill the person who did this to Kyohei.

Saving Izaya/ Haruna returns Arc
Izaya told Anri what he is going to do to Masaomi and Mikado. Which Erika was pissed because Anri was an wreck when Izaya said that. So then Erika stood up to Izaya telling him that she is Anri's friend and that she will support Anri.

Walker Yumasaki
Main Article: Walker and Erika

Kyohei Kadota
Main Article: Kyohei Kadota 

Erika and Walker have both been with Kyohei and his group for several years and are extremely loyal to him. While in the Blue Squares, they immediately defected from the gang with Kyohei without question despite the possibility of revenge from other members. When Kyohei was beaten into a coma in Volume 10, she immediately dropped everything to see him in the hospital. During her stay, she swears vengeance while smiling maliciously. In the Durarara!! side stories it is implied that she has feelings for Kyohei but these are never elaborated on or addressed in the main series. He is sometimes annoyed when Erika and Walker get out of hand in their conversations but he still cares about them all the same.

Saburo Togusa
Main Article: Saburo Togusa

Erika has been friends with Saburo and Kyohei for several years and, although he doesn't share their same enthusiasm for anime and manga, he still considers them to be some of his closest friends.

Anri Sonohara
Main Article: Anri Sonohara

After the incident with Toromaru and after witnessing Anri use Saika to fight Varona, Erika and Walker started asking Anri all kinds of questions about Saika, most of which she wouldn't give a straight answer to. Erika and Anri spent more time together after everything quieted down and became good friends afterwards. Erika tries to get Anri to take up cosplaying and even convinces her to try on a few outfits but has very little success. When she learned that Kadota was attacked she rushed to the hospital with Anri, who stayed with her the whole time. Erika then stood up to defend Anri against Izaya, by saying she was Anri's friend when Izaya mentally broke her with what he intended to do to Masaomi and Mikado.

Trivia

 * She is an avid Fujoshi (Yaoi Fan), as shown when she excitedly thought that Shizuo and Izaya were gay lovers. This is shown again after the incident with Toromaru when she expressed a desire to see Kyohei and Chikage get together.