Hello everyone, nice to meet you, or if I've met you before, then long time no see, I'm Narita.
Thank you so much for buying this book 'Durarara!!'!
Don't you feel a little mystified by just looking at the title? But if you've finished reading the story then...you still don't get the meaning behind it right? It all happened when I was editing the finished draft of the book and my editor called and asked, "Isn't it time to give an official title to the Public Relations department?"
So I just randomly gave a name, "Du...Durarara?"
And in exchange for those string of syllables, the editor said:
"Not bad. I kind of like ambiguous titles. Let's just use it...but, how do you write it in English?"
I hadn't thought it'd get through at all so while I was busy being stunned, the editor asked, "...Do you want to add a '!' behind like in 'Baccano!' and 'BoWWow!'1?"
I would never believed it would be accepted like that, so my thoughts were kind of muddled-up so I just said carelessly, "It's rare that I get a chance like this so let's just add two exclamation marks then."
There was a short period of silence, and I could hear the sound of a pen being used to write something over the phone, and then suddenly the sound of my editor's explosive laughter.
"Wahahahahaha! It looks really stupid when you write it down! It's rare that we get this chance so let's just go with it."
Thus the title 'Durarara!!' was born-although to this day I'm still not quite sure what it's supposed to mean.
The reason why I've used Ikebukuro as the setting for the story isn't because I want to ride on the current popularity of a certain novel and drama series, but more of because it's the city I'm most familiar with.
In this particular work, I've portrayed Ikebukuro and Shinjuku relatively rather subjectively, and I've also thrown in many fictional elements, so to those who haven't been to those places: please don't take it seriously. As for those readers who have been there, if you could take it easy and read my works with an attitude like 'This guy's such a liar!', I would be most happy. As for the parts about colour gangs and the underworld, similarly, please bear with it-oh...and I'm glad I could make myself clear now so that people with grievances like 'This author acting like he knows everything', 'You think it's funny to make fun of us gangs?', 'If you've got balls, come to Ikebukuro at night' will be able to look past all that.
*There may be some spoilers mentioned below
In Dengeki Bunko, it could be said that this book could be considered a little different. Having a main character with nothing above their neck was already weird enough. To the editor who accepted this crazy story of mine and as well as to Yasuda-sensei who did the illustrations, I give my utmost thanks.
And this time, I tried putting as many jokes into the story as I could. Admittedly I went a little overboard at some points, so that's why I've mentally prepared myself for my punishment-but the things I've put in are...things that I feel that are pretty interesting, so please read these jokes with an open mind.
Since a long time ago, there have been lots of stories of headless creatures looking for their heads. One example would be the recently made movie, 'Sleepy Hollow'. Either way, using headless creatures as the main theme for thrillers are usually really impactful. But although some people feel that the Dullahan in 'Sleepy Hollow' is the Dullahan in all those rumours, but I don't think so.
It is said that the Dullahan isn't really the main theme. If you were to dig deeper into the details of the story, you'd find sources that say that the two-wheeled carriage is actually made of bones of the deceased, and that the Dullahan is actually descended from Badhbh Catha2, a member of a trio of war goddesses-all which I haven't included. Thus I hope everyone can see that in 'Durarara!!', Celty is Celty and the Dullahans in other stories are themselves.
If I have a chance to continue writing the 'Durarara!!' series, I would say there could possibly be even more extreme developments in the story. For example things like 'Dullahan vs. Yellow Scarves' or 'Dullahan vs. Headhunter'-although I was scolded when I raised those ideas.
*Below are the usual acknowledgements
I'd like to thank my editor Suzuki whom I'm always troubling as well as my editor for two of my works as of the start of this one, Wada-sama.
I also want to thank the proofreaders who often have their work delayed because of my slow progress, as well as the artists who designed the cover of this book and those in the Public Relations, Publishing and Marketing Departments of ASCII Media Works.
I'd still like to thank my family and friends who have been supporting me, especially 'S-shi'3
I want to thank the writers and illustrators in Dengeki Bunko who have been always been looking out for me. Especially-Arisawa Mamizu-sama, Imada Takafumi-sama, Okayu Masaki-sama, Nakamura Erika-sama who allowed me to add certain 'things'4 as well as Kouda Kakuto-sana who told 'it's up to you' in response to some of the edgier jokes I put in.
-Narita Ryougo
