Durarara!!, Vol. 1 (novel) (22 page)
Hello. It’s nice to meet you—or perhaps, to see you again. I’m Ryohgo Narita.
Thank you very much for picking up my new book, titled
Durarara!!
It’s an extremely strange title, I admit, but if you read the book, you’ll understand…perhaps. As I was finishing up writing and revising the manuscript, my editor said, “It’s about time for us to submit an official title to marketing,” and the first thing I came up with was—
“Du…Durarara?”
My editor said, “Actually, I like how mysterious that is. Let’s go with that. But how do you want to handle the English spelling?”
I had no answer because I didn’t expect him to accept it. Then, he asked, “Will you throw in an exclamation mark like
Baccano!
or
Bow-wow!
have?”
I still had no answer because I still didn’t expect him to accept it. So I said without thinking, “Let’s put two on there. Bam-bam!”
After a long silence, I heard the scratching of someone writing on paper, then my editor exploded with laughter on the other side of the phone.
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! When you write this out, it looks so stupid!
Let’s go with that, then!
”
That was the birth of
Durarara!!
—but as for what it means, I’m still not quite sure.
So, as for why I chose the location of Ikebukuro as a setting, it wasn’t to piggyback on a popular destination in novels and dramas, but because it’s the place I understand most of all.
The depictions of Ikebukuro and Shinjuku in this novel aren’t meant to be objective but are wildly fictional, so people who haven’t been there, don’t believe any of it. And if you have been there, don’t just slam the book down and call me a liar, but enjoy it as a work of fiction. The same goes for the depictions of gangs and mobsters. Whew! That should throw off all the people saying, “This guy acts like he knows what he’s talking about,” “Don’t mess with gangsters, man,” or “Come see me late night in Ikebukuro, bro.”
* Warning: This next part contains spoilers.
This story might be classified as a wild card among the Dengeki Bunko stable. First of all, there’s the protagonist who doesn’t have a head. I have to thank the editorial staff and my illustrator Mr. Yasuda for putting up with my crazy ideas.
Not only that, but I tried putting in lots of little in-jokes and parodies, some of which are probably way over the top, so I’m expecting to get bashed for it… But all of them are ideas that I found funny, so I’d appreciate it if you oblige me.
All around the world, the headless being trying to find its head is a common trope. There’s the story of Sleepy Hollow, which was recently turned into a movie. I think the image of someone without a head has the kind of impact that makes it effective in a horror context. The only thing is, while the knight from that folktale is considered a dullahan by some, it’s actually something entirely different.
The topic of a dullahan itself is a very minor one. If you look into more details than what is presented in this book, you’ll find that the two-wheeled carriage is made from the bones of the dead and that the root of the dullahan was the Celtic goddess Badb Catha, and so on—but I completely removed any of that mythology. Within
Durarara!!
, Celty is Celty, and any other dullahans are other dullahans.
If the
Durarara!!
series gets to continue, I’d like to take it into even weirder directions. I could have “Dullahan Versus Yellow Scarves Color Gang” or “Dullahan Versus Headhunter”… Then again, I got yelled at just for pitching those ideas.
* Back to my usual procession of appreciation.
To editor-in-chief Suzuki, who always puts up with my nonsense. To my editor Mr. Wada, who is now my double editor.
To the proofreaders who have to deal with my terrible lateness every single time. To the designers who put together the look of the book. To the marketing, publishing, and business arms of Media Works.
To the family, friends, and acquaintances who support me in a variety of ways, especially the people of S. City.
To all the other writers and illustrators in the Dengeki line. Particularly
to the people who agreed to lend their likeness to my in-jokes—Mamizu Arisawa, Takafumi Imada, Masaki Okayu, Erika Nakamura—and of course, to Gakuto Coda, who gave me permission to use the in-joke that was furthest out of line.
To Suzuhito Yasuda, who took on the bizarre idea of a headless heroine, came to Tokyo for research, and helped come up with nutty ideas with the editor-in-chief.
And to everyone who decided to read this weird little book, the start of my third series.
To all of the above, with my greatest appreciation—thank you.
From home, February 2004
While watching the trailer for
Zebraman
(directed by Takashi Miike, Sho Aikawa’s hundredth leading role) on repeat.
Ryohgo Narita
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DURARARA!!, Volume 1
RYOHGO NARITA,
ILLUSTRATION BY SUZUHITO YASUDA
Cover art by Suzuhito Yasuda
Translation by Stephen Paul
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
DURARARA!!
© RYOHGO NARITA 2004
All rights reserved.
Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS
First published in 2004 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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First Yen On ebook edition: July 2015
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ISBN 978-0-316-30482-5
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