Chapter 19

AFTERWORD So here we are with a new Durarara!! series, titled Durarara!! SH. This story is meant to be a two parter with the next volume, but after that, I think I’ll be breaking with my usual Durarara!! format by having each single book be a self-contained story, like a series of short works. I hope you enjoy the world of Durarara!! unfolding in a new way that’s a little bit different from before. The three new characters I’ve introduced are each eccentric in their own way. Since they’re taking over from the cast of the original series, I’ve been puzzling over (and sometimes enjoying) how I can get you to love and hate them like I did for the old cast. Yahiro Mizuchi, Himeka Tatsugami, Kuon Kotonami—each of their names has a reason behind it, which I intend to explain in these afterwords going forward. (If you live in the Tohoku area, particularly around Akita, you’ll probably figure it out right away.) I will leave it up to you readers whether this series becomes the unnecessary snake legs of the Durarara!! story or if it becomes snake hands that evolve into a dragon instead. I’ll do my best to push us in the latter direction, so please stick around to see how it turns out! (Incidentally, I consider the SH to stand for “Snake Hands,” but you could consider it to be any acronym that fits, like “Super-Hard” or “Sonohara’s Horny,” or whatever you want. Find your meaning and keep it close!) Now…in the meantime, as you probably know already from various sources, it’s been announced that the Durarara!! anime series is getting a continuation!! Yes…as a matter of fact, this project has been in the works for several years; I won’t say how many. But that was just how long it took to lock down the same wonderful staff and cast that came together for the first Durarara!! series… In other words, I’m overjoyed that the same directors, writers, animators, and cast members will be returning to bring you a new Durarara!! anime. The only reason we’re getting a second series is because of your incredible support for the first anime. All you fans out there who stayed fans as the years went on and continued to ask, “Where’s DRRR, season two?” I am so sorry I wasn’t able to be open with you until now. Thank you for your support! I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about it at this point, so I’ll just tell you that it will be incredible! I’ll do my best to make things exciting on the writing side. Hope you check out the continued anime series as well as Durarara!! SH. Although I couldn’t say why in the afterword of Durarara!! Vol. 13, this anime series is why I ended up going back-to-back with Durarara!! rather than alternating with Vamp! or Baccano! It’s also the tenth anniversary of the series, so there are various projects in the works. We’re doing a collaboration with Morinaga’s famous Dars chocolate bar, uploading something to Niconico Novels, porting the video game to the PlayStation Vita, and other things I can’t talk about here. Suffice it to say that you’ll be able to see Durarara!! in new forms you’ve never experienced before. Look forward to it, DRRR fans! On top of that, this has been a year of great change for me, too. Although I don’t know if it will still be running by the time this book comes out, I got the chance to try writing a story in a weekly magazine at a different publisher. It was disorienting getting used to a writing logic that was completely at odds with a novel, but regardless of how it turns out, I hope to utilize the lessons I learned from the experience. If the series is still running when this book comes out, check it out, and if you like it, add it to your list of things to support, in addition to my Dengeki Bunko book series! There may or may not be other things happening as well, but I’ll be doing my best to support all my novel series anyway, including Durarara!! In fact, I think that these other experiences brought a new energy to my writing process, because my pace seems to have picked up. Or maybe that’s just my imagination… And lastly, I must deliver my acknowledgments. To my editor, Papio, and everyone at ASCII Media Works and the printers, I’m sorry for being late on submitting the very first entry of my new series… To the anime staff and mangaka who are bringing Durarara!! to life in different forms of media, between our new anime project and three different manga series. To the family, friends, authors, and illustrators who support me. To Suzuhito Yasuda, who provided us with such wonderful illustrations despite his incredibly busy schedule. I love every Durarara!! collaboration manga that comes with each disc release of the Yozakura Quartet anime! But most of all, to you all for picking up this new Durarara!! SH story. Thank you, thank you all! I hope that we meet again soon! March 2014—Ryohgo Narita