Manga Review – Durarara!! Volume 3

This week we continue with Durarara with its penultimate volume.

Title: Durarara!! Volume 3
Written by Ryohgo Narita
Art by Akiyo Satorigi
Character designs by Suzuhito Yasuda
Translated by Stephen Paul

Available from Amazon.com and RightStuf.com

The Premise

Celty is still on the hunt for her head. However, she is shocked to find a girl with a face just like the face on her head, who ends up running off with Mikado Ryugamine. Mikado learns that the girl is Mika Harima, Seiji Yagiri’s stalker, and Mikado, Celty, and Izaya Orihara (who has stuck his nose in with his usual timing) manage to determine that all of this goes back to Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. Mikado will have to bring all of the resources at his disposal to bear to resolve this, and those resources are a lot more considerable than you’d think.

High Points

The climax of this volume is probably Mikado’s best moment of character development in the manga thus far.

Low Points

On the other side of the coin, Mikado is trusting Izaya far more than is reasonable or safe.

The cores

Originality: This hews fairly close to how I understand the narrative plays out in the novel. 3/6

Artwork: Still very good, particularly when the art switches to an Osamu Tezuka pastiche while Mikado is trying to explain what happened when he met with Mika to Masaomi Kida. 5/6

Story: The narrative here is great, with everything clearly building to an intense climax. 4/6

Characterization: Great development for Mikado this volume, along with Celty as well. 5/6

Emotional Response: This volume wraps up on an intense cliffhanger. 5/6

Flow: 6/6

Overall: This volume made me want to get the next volume after I finished this one. 5/6

In total, Durarara!! Volume 3 gets 33 out of 42.