Shizuo Heiwajima

Shizuo Heiwajima (平和島 静雄, Heiwajima Shizuo) is the man renowned as the strongest man in Ikebukuro. He currently works as Tom Tanaka's bodyguard, and he is shown to be familiar with some of the major characters in the series, including Izaya Orihara and Celty Sturluson. He is a member of the Dollars group.

Characteristics
Shizuo is a smoker despite being seen wearing his usual trademark bartender suit and blue sunglasses. His hair is blond, although as a child it was brown. Most of the time his personality is rather simple; he is normally quiet and nondescript, and usually simply follows Tom around as his bodyguard. However, Shizuo has a very short fuse, and when angered, his body "acts on its own," and he fights with incredible strength. Despite his destructive tendencies, he apparently doesn't like violence. He is, along with Izaya and the Dollars, one of the people Masaomi warned Mikado to stay away from, telling him to 'not hesitate to run from him' in the manga.

Normally, the brain restricts one's power, shutting down muscles in response to pain in order to prevent serious injury; unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Shizuo doesn't have this ability, and is capable of using his full strength at will. His power is described in the novels as the naturally unlimited form of human strength, and Shinra likens it to the incredible "adrenaline power" that people get in times of emergency. Although he was always injured as a child, the fact that he could always fully exert himself meant that his body quickly strengthened itself and caught up. Now, as an adult, he is able to use his power without destroying his own body.

Despite the fact that Shizuo uses his power very often, he doesn't like violence, and apparently hates the fact that he is so strong. This is probably the result of events in his childhood where his strength caused others to fear him, alienating him from others at school, and even at times inadvertently hurting people he cares for. It wasn't until his run-in with the Saika Army that he was able to accept himself the way he was, since they claimed to "love" him because of his strength. Shizuo then let himself loose; outsiders believe that the "Slasher" incidents ended when he went after Shizuo (it was actually when Anri defeated Haruna Niekawa, but Shizuo still beat up many of Saika's daughter blades and only stopped fighting when they did).

Shizuo is also capable of often superhuman parkour moves, most likely a result of his own strength and from years of hunting down Izaya, who is very good at running away from him. Both of them share an intense animosity, and simply seeing him on the street usually results in Shizuo hurling a trash can/vending machine at him which he flees while loudly yelling "Izaya" at him.

Background
Shizuo stated that he grew up in a perfectly normal family, and the first apparent display of his immense strength was when he tried to throw a refrigerator at his brother, Kasuka Heiwajima, for eating his pudding. The strain was too much for his body, and he ended up in the hospital with broken bones. This was the beginning of many more fits of anger, and of course, more injuries - not only to him, but also to those around him. During his elementary school years, Shizuo met a young woman working at a bakery while walking home with Kasuka. She noted that she always saw him with injuries, and told him to drink milk. She was one of the few who were kind to Shizuo, and he began to care for her deeply. But one day, when he was walking home with his brother, he saw the woman in the bakery being assaulted by several men. He lost his temper and nearly destroyed the bakery, even hurting the woman who was so kind to him. Horrified, Shizuo never spoke to her again.

After this incident, Shizuo decided to stop holding back. Since he wouldn't be able to anyway, he wouldn't try at all. His muscles and bones became stronger each time he used his power, up to the point that he no longer hurt himself when he fought. Known as one of the most dangerous people in Ikebukuro, Shizuo defeated anybody who dared to challenge him. He was fired from many jobs, including working with fast food, car cleaning, and even children's plays because of his explosive temper. However, when he was working as a bartender, his brother Kasuka, at this point a famous idol, arrived, commenting that he shouldn't change jobs so often. As a sign of his desire, Kasuka brought him enough changes of his trademark bartender clothes that he "could work [as a bartender] forever". Strongly affected by his beloved brother's words, Shizuo strove to keep his job, and it is implied that he held it for a significant period of time.

This, of course, couldn't last. Izaya Orihara framed him for a crime that remains unclear. He was found innocent, but he was still fired. (In the light novels, it is not being framed but beating up his manager that gets him fired). At this time, Tom Tanaka, one of his old classmates, asked him to work with him as a debt collector. Basically, he's Tom's bodyguard. He beats up people who try to attack him, or won't pay up.

Still, he doesn't like violence.

Anime
Anime specific spoilers about this character per episode.

Episode 01: He is stated as the "person you don't want as enemies" by Kida to Mikado.

Episode 03: He throws a trash can at Izaya Orihara when he was talking to Masaomi, Mikado, and Anri. Shizuo wants to beat up Izaya (since he hates him) when the men that confronted Masaomi and his friends earlier appear and attack Shizuo. Izaya runs away, Shizuo gets hit in the head but beats up all the men anyways and is last seen trying to punch Simon who stops the punch.

Episode 07: It is revealed that Shizuo's superhuman strength first surfaced when he was a kid. Also revealed is that Shizuo, Izaya, Shinra, and Kadota all went to the same high school, Raira Academy.

Episode 25(Bonus Episode): Shizuo falls for Izaya Orihara's trick once again and is hit by a truck.

Voice Actors
English: Crispin Freeman

Japanese: Daisuke Ono, Momoko Oohara

Manga
Manga specific spoilers about this character per volume/chapter.

Volume 01:



Light Novel
Light Novel specific spoilers about this character per volume/chapter.

Volume 01:

Volume 04 : Shizuo and Tom were walking through a park to go to a bank to cash in some checks they had retrieved from their "clients" for the company they work for. Out of nowhere, Igor and Ruri (dressed as Hollywood) jump out and start fighting each other, catching Shizuo in the middle. Igor grabs the metal briefcase carrying the checks out of Shizuo's hands to use it as a weapon but ends up smashing it and it's contents into pieces. In a rage, Shizuo picks up a park bench and smashes Igor into a tree. Shizuo turns his attention to Ruri and smacks her so hard, she flies across the city only to land in front of Kasuka Heiwajima's car, Shizuo unknowingly (and violently) playing the role of cupid for the two of them.

Shizuo isn't seen again until the very end of the novel where a few members of Toromaru who escaped the battle against Igor and Ruri at the underpass are riding away. Feeling humiliated, they attack Shizuo in order to make themselves feel better only to scratch the sleeves of his shirt. In a rage, Shizuo sends the Toromaru members flying.

Later, he and Tom attend the hotpot party at Celty and Shinra's place along with most of the main cast (minus Izaya).

Volume 05 : At the start of the novel, Shizuo and Tom are having lunch at a cafe. They talk about the recent incident with Toromau and Celty and mentions how Rokujo Chikage, their leader, is out for revenge. Shizuo remembers Chikage from the previous night, having been challenged by him personally. Tom asks how the fight went and Shizuo explains that, while he won (as expected), it took four punches from Shizuo for Chikage to finally go down. Shizuo took Chikage to Shinra since he didn't want to just abandon Chikage in the street like that.

Tom also suggests that it's about time Shizuo got a girlfriend but Shizuo claims that there aren't any girls who would be interested in him. As if to spite him, Shizuo looked out the window to see a young girl with black hair staring at him with her face pressed against the glass. Shizuo goes out to see why the girl is staring at him only to get a stun gun to the stomach. After a few seconds Shizuo knocks the stun gun out of her hand, accidentally knocking the girl down in the process. Seeing that the situation is turning to their favor, Tom and Shizuo were forced to flee the scene to avoid getting the police involved. Much to Shizuo's dismay, the little girl is clinging to Shizuo's belt yelling for him to die. Not wanting to get their manager or Kasuka involved, Shizuo and Tom go to the only person they know who didn't matter if the cops showed up.

At Shinra's apartment, Shinra is appalled that Shizuo would knowingly kidnap a little girl, who says that her name is Akane. After Akane collapses due to a fever, Shizuo and Tom listen to Shinra's ramblings for several minutes about Celty before the girl finally wakes up. As Shinra questions her, Akane mentions Izaya and his address which causes a storm of rage to erupt withing Shizuo. Much to everyone's surprise, however, Shizuo smiles and laughs light-heartedly at the whole thing. He tells Akane that he and Izaya are friends and that Izaya was probably using her for another one of his pranks. Tom commends Shizuo's acting after they leave the apartment. Shizuo asks that if he gets arrested for murder tomorrow, Tom tell their boss to act like Shizuo was fired yesterday. Shizuo storms off to Izaya's apartment/office. Once he arrives, he sees a crudely written note saying that Izaya had moved with directions written on the back. Shizuo gets even angrier and runs off to the new building. When he opens the door, Shizuo notices something wrong. Within the dimly lit room, he sees three individuals in suits murdered in various ways. Their corpses seemed to suggest they were killed with bare hands much like how Shizuo would've done. Before Shizuo can leave, one of the members of the Awakusu sees him standing over the bodies and proceeds to run away and call his boss. Shizuo leaves the building immediately before he can come back.

Volume 06 : Shizuo is confronted by several members of the Awakusu over the deaths of their colleagues but, instead of fighting them, he runs away by climbing up the side of a building, displaying excellent skill at Parkour accumulated over years of chasing after Izaya. After Shizuo loses the Awakusu, he receives several messages from the Dollars website. He skims through them while thinking about how to clear his name when he sees several posts about Kyohei and Chikage fighting near Raira Academy. Shizuo reads through with more attention and notices a post by "Nakura" suggesting they kidnap Chikage's girlfriend to make him stop. Shizuo decides that he should try to rescue the girls who were being targeted and goes to Raira to intercept the kidnappers. When he arrives at Raira, he sees a motorbike parked up front and picks it up, intending to use it on the rogue dollars members. He also spots Mikado on the side of the road, recognizing him from the Hotpot party several months ago. He also remembered that Mikado was part of the dollars and tells him that he is quitting as of today. Shizuo states that it's because he didn't want to be a part of a group that was low enough to kidnap students.

Shizuo then moves on to deal with the kidnappers. By this time, the fight has escalated into a battle between the rogue Dollars members against Kyohei and his gang (plus Chikage). When Shizuo arrives, Anri and Vorona have also gotten caught in the crossfire. Shizuo asks whose motorbike he's carrying and Voroan answers that it's hers. Shizuo puts the bike down now that he knows who the owner is and proceeds to beat up the remaining kidnappers who haven't been incapacitated yet, sending each of them flying. Unable to contain herself any longer, Vorona throws her knife into Shizuo's chest which causes Shizuo to have a flashback to one of his and Izaya's chases. Shizuo then proceeds to chase Vorona all across Raira until Vorona gets in the back of her getaway truck. Shizuo catches up with her and spots Akane tied up in the very back of the cargo compartment. Before Shizuo can reach for her, Vorona attempts to shoot Shizuo with her rifle which forces him to retreat. As Shizuo watches Slon and Vorona drive away with Akane, he looks around for something he can use and spots an abandoned car off to teh side. Shizuo kicks the car around like a soccer ball and knocks it towards Vorona who blows it away with her rifle. Shizuo uses the distraction to climb on top of a fence which he uses to leap on the the side of a nearby apartment building. Shizuo runs along the side of the building until he catches up with Vorona and Slon and jumps, bashing through the roof of the truck and landing between Akane and Vorona. Vorona, with regret, attempts to shoot Shizuo in the head but is stopped by Celty. A sudden jerk by Slon causes a crate full of combat knives to fall and Shizuo shields Akane with his body.

Once he made sure she was unhurt, Shizuo slams his fist into the floor of the truck, effectively breaking the cargo compartment in half. Shizuo takes Akane and leaps off the still moving truck while Celty's shadow moves to cushion their fall. Slon and Vorona retreat for the time being and Celty goes to make sure Shizuo is alright. Akane asks why Shizuo saved her despite the fact that she's trying to kill him. Shizuo simply replies that he's glad that she's safe and smiles. Akane smiles back at Shizuo warmly.

Volume 07 : After Vorona joins up with Shizuo and Tom's debt collection agency, she is assigned as Tom's second bodyguard. While they take a break in the hallway, Shizuo asks Vorona if he's seen her before (she was wearing a biker's helmet when they fought). Vorona asks that she refrain from answering until a later date as she doesn't know how Shizuo will react if he finds out she's the one who he fought with several weeks ago. Shizuo responds by pouring Vorona a cup of coffee and saying he's glad that he finally has someone who will call him sempai for a change.

Volume 08: Kasuka arrives at Shizuo's apartment asking for his help. Shizuo is a bit surprised by the sudden visit and assumes it's because he and Ruri are getting married. Kasuka denies that and says that it's about Ruri's stalker. He tells Shizuo that he needs someone to take care of his cat and leaves it in Shizuo's care.

Later, Masaomi Kida returns to Ikebukuro and approaches Shizuo. Masaomi apologizes to Shizuo about him getting shot by the yellow scarves over a year ago saying that even though he didn't order it, he still has to take responsibility. Shizuo accepts Kida's apology but pokes him in the head (which is about as strong as a punch) for not addressing him with respect, knocking Kida out.

Volume 09: Shizuo is asked about his relationship to Izaya by several delinquents who want to get back at Izaya for scamming their boss. Shizuo offers a bit of insight into his and Izaya's life in high school saying that he was never able to lay a finger on him. The only person who could ever catch up with Izaya was someone he referred to as "Shishizaki-sempai." He also states that when he finally does kill Izaya, he'll make sure not to involve Tom, Vorona, or anyone else if he gets arrested for it.

Kasuka Heiwajima
As children, Shizuo was very close to Kasuka due to the fact that Kasuka was one of the few people that wasn't terrified of Shizuo's monstrous strength. Even after Kasuka went into showbiz, Kasuka still took the time to help his brother find a job he could keep. He gave Shizuo several bartender uniforms after Shizuo found a job that didn't constantly send him over the edge. Shizuo promised to keep the job he had but that was quickly ended when Izaya framed Shizuo for an as of yet unidentified crime. This event caused the two to grow rather distant. As shown in Volume 09, Shizuo seems to consider himself inferior to his brother as when Mairu called him a nice guy like Kasuka, Shizuo told her not to insult his brother by comparing him to Shizuo.

Likewise, Kasuka claims that his expressionless personality is primarily influenced by Shizuo. Due to the fact that Shizuo always lashed out the second he became even a little bit angry, Kasuka tried to balance it out by being the level headed one of the two. Kasuka even takes partial responsibility to Shizuo's rampages such as with Ruri Hijiribe when he found out that it was his brother who knocked her halfway across the city (not that he was surprised).

Izaya Orihara
Since the second they met, Izaya and Shizuo have been locked in a never ending conflict with one another. Izaya would constantly manipulate events around Ikebukuro to put Shizuo in danger or to get him killed seemingly with no reason whatsoever. Likewise, Shizuo would constantly throw everything he (and everything he could grab) had at Izaya in the hopes of killing him once and for all. Shizuo constantly refers to Izaya as a flea and Izaya doesn't even consider Shizuo a human by his standards and is baffled whenever Shizuo actually shows a sign of maturity or intelligence such as when Shizuo decided not to fight the Awakusu since that would only solidify his guilt in their eyes.

Mairu and Kururi Orihara
Unlike their older brother, Shizuo is actually on friendly terms with the Orihara twins. This is most likely due to the mutual indifference they share towards Izaya. The twins even frequently cheer Shizuo on whenever they witness one of their trademark chase sequences.

Tom Tanaka
Shizuo and Tom have been friends since middle school. Ever since Tom witnessed Shizuo in action, he tried to get on his good side to avoid getting killed. It was Tom who suggested that Shizuo bleach his hair blonde so as to build up a reputation to keep the gangs away. After Shizuo got fired from his bartending job, Tom gave him a new one in the form of his bodyguard and the two have been partners ever since. Tom is also one of the few people that can calm Shizuo down after one of his rampages.

Vorona
Since Shizuo was usually fired from every single job he's been in before he could gain any seniority, he was very excited when Vorona was assigned to work under him. He takes Vorona under his wing despite the fact that she already has extensive fighting experience and does what he can to be a good sempai to her. Vorona has a strong desire to defeat Shizuo in battle and as such, wants to know everything about her opponent although Shizuo is oblivious to this fact. Over the course of volume's 7 to 9, the two of them work well together and even express similar likes and dislikes (such as cake).

Akane Awakusu
Due to Izaya, Akane wanted to kill Shizuo at first since she believed him to be an assassin after her father and grandfather. Shizuo was initially annoyed at Akane but the two grew closer after Shizuo saved her from Vorona and Slon. Because of this, Akane's feelings toward Shizuo are mixed. While she believes that Shizuo isn't after her family anymore, she still thinks he's an assassin and is too dangerous to be left unchecked (No one has told her otherwise or even knew she thought that in the first place.) With this in mind, Akane decides that the easiest solution is to become stronger than Shizuo is. She starts training at the same dojou as Mairu and Kururi.

Celty Sturluson
Shizuo and Celty have remained on friendly terms for several years. They would often talk to each other about the problems they have and the events that surround them. Shizuo even went so far as to swear vengeance on the Slasher when Celty informed him of her attack.

Shinra Kishitani
In volume 05, Shizuo states that Shinra is a "Bad aquantance that stuck." Shinra considers Shizuo a friend but the feeling isn't entirely mutual. Still, the two remain on mostly good terms with one another although Shizuo is sometimes annoyed at Shinra's ramblings.

Trivia
Foods he likes: Milk, all dairy products, desserts/sweet things in general Foods he dislikes: Anything that's bitter, beer (his preferences are like a kid's as far as taste's concerned) Favorite quote: "I hate violence"
 * His name is ironic. Heiwa (平和) means "Peace/Harmony" while Jima (島) means "Island", leading his last name to translate to "Peaceful Island". Shizu (静) means "Quiet" and "o" (雄) means "Hero/Masculine/Leader", leading his first name to translate to "Quiet Hero".
 * His hobby is basking in the sun.
 * Despite his quiet nature in his normal daily life, Shizuo can turn into a very loud type while fighting Izaya due to his hot blood.
 * Shizuo has a tendency to break what ever he is holding when he loses his temper. In the present storyline, Shizuo becomes enraged and usually breaks his cigarette in half and then steps it out, while in his childhood, he is seen doing the same thing to a lollipop, pencil, and plastic spoon.