APPLICATIONS | 2012; 01

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Erika Karisawa | Durarara!! | Reserved

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Player nickname: Rhi
Player LJDW: amazingly_strange
Way to contact you:
Email: malakian_angel@hotmail.com
AIM: momentsbtwnsleep
Other: Plurk: amazinglystrange
Are you at least 15?: Y
Current Characters: Rose Lalonde

Character: Erika Karisawa
Fandom: Durarara!! (anime timeline, though supplemented by background information from the novels)
Character Notes:
History: Erika grew up in Ikebukuro. Little is known about her background except that she likely met her eventual best friend Walker Yumasaki at a very young age. Her passion for manga and anime is also likely something that started early and there are hints that her background had a dark side to it, although what nature this took is unclear. But the major defining moment for Erika, the one which would go on to shape her future, was when she joined the Blue Squares gang and met Kyohei Kadota, the person she credits for “saving [her] from the darkness”.

The Blue Squares were one of the prominent colour gangs in Ikebukuro, whose main rivals were the Yellow Scarves. Erika, as with the rest of Kadota's group, was more than happy to be a part of this gang until the Blue Squares (provoked by Izaya Orihara) kidnapped and tortured the then-girlfriend of Yellow Scarves leader Masaomi Kida. When Kadota defected from the gang, Erika, Walker and Saburo Togusa all left with him and they became their own little group - but not before Walker torched the van that the lead group of the Blue Squares were in.

Not long afterwards, Erika ended up joining the mysterious, "colourless" group Dollars. Kadota had been sent a URL and a password to a site which would allow him to join the gang; naturally once he had joined, Erika, Walker and Saburo all followed. In particular, the group seemed drawn to an idea put forward by the Dollars' mystery founder (later revealed to be newcomer to the city Mikado Ryuugamine) that suggested that the Dollars should work as a force for good within the city, to counter the rumours spreading that they were behind recent troubles. Of course, these being former Blue Squares members, their idea of "doing good" toed into interesting territory at times - what we're shown in canon implies that they chase down those doing wrong, for example those attempting to kidnap people for Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, and torture them into revealing more information. This is specifically Erika and Walker's domain, and they tend to take inspiration from anime and manga when it comes to their torture methods. Given that Kadota at one point tells them "no gasoline in the van like last time", it's apparent that they don't do these things by half measures.

Erika's introduction in the series occurs in the first episode, where Masaomi and Mikado run into her and the rest of her group during the latter's first tour of the city. She's impressed by Mikado's male-lead-esque name and she, with Walker, note that they have just been buying manga - revealing their habit of buying three copies of each manga they get (one each, the third presumably as part of their "torture kit"). As they leave, Masaomi notes to Mikado that Erika and the others are good people, so long as you're nice to them.

The two later run into Erika and the others and Mikado asks them about the Dollars, to which Erika's flippant response is that they are "Pipiru piru tenshi". It's only later that it's revealed that she and the rest of the van gang are members of the Dollars, when they set out to rescue Kazutano, an illegal immigrant who nevertheless became important to Saburo in particular due to his ability to procure otherwise unavailable tickets to his favourite idol's shows. When he's kidnapped, the group go all out to get him back, eventually learning of the connection with Yagiri Pharmaceuticals.

Erika's next appearance is a brief one, but reflects clearly her relationship with Walker - whether romantic partners or just very close friends, being unable to find each other is cause for genuine concern and outright panic. Of course, this being Ikebukuro that's perhaps not all too surprising, but it still reflects the bond between the two, something over and above their ties to Kadota and Saburo.

Some weeks later, all four become involved in uncovering the true nature of what Yagiri Pharmaceuticals is capable of. They catch sight of a cleaning van which is a known cover for the Yagiri company's men and decide to follow, eventually stepping in to rescue Mika Harima, who had taken refuge with Mikado after being chased by the legendary Black Biker (long story short: Celty, the black biker who has no head, believed Mika to be her head attached to a body; in fact, Mika was given plastic surgery to look like Celty's head, complete with neck scarring). Aware that Yagiri's men were after something in Mikado's apartment, Erika and the others slipped in before they could and took Mika to safety, eventually playing a key role in Celty being able to see her. As a result of this, the van gang are poised in perfect position when Mikado sends out a mass message to the Dollars, revealing just how many of the city's faceless residents are members of this gang with no rules and no colour.

Six months later, new troubles begin to stir in Ikebukuro. The Yellow Scarves are rumoured to be reforming and a new threat known as the Slasher is causing an increased number of incidents. Erika and the others end up involved when a reporter is cut by and thus becomes possessed by the being known as Saika, the sentient weapon believed to be the true identity of the Slasher. They intervene just as he is attempting to hunt down Anri Sonihara, aided by Celty and Shizuo. Erika and the others are left to deal with the subdued reporter as Celty decides to take Anri home and Shizuo decides to go beat up Izaya on the off-chance he's behind it all - which gives the audience the first real indication that Erika ships Izaya and Shizuo romantically, much to the disgust of everyone else around her.

As the rivalries between gangs heat up, Erika and the rest of the group confront Masaomi about his leadership of the Yellow Scarves and how things are spiralling out of control. Erika in particular notes that Masaomi is allowing the past to still have a hold over him rather than working to rewrite the parts that went wrong. The confrontation culminates in Masaomi declaring war on the leader of the Dollars and Kadota pointing him in the direction of the person most likely to know: Izaya Orihara.

In the meantime, Horada - a Yellow Scarves member who actually joined after the Blue Squares disbanded, ultimately with the intention of taking over from the inside - has been goading the other Yellow Scarves into being more proactive, in direct contradiction to Masaomi's instructions not to deliberately hunt down Dollars members (in part due to his knowledge that Mikado is the leader). After Horada tries to capture Anri, Mikado sets the Dollars - many of whom were quitting or on the verge of same after being instructed to do nothing in the face of the Yellow Scarves' attacks - the task of ensuring she comes to no harm; while Erika and the others play no direct part in the ensuing chain of events, it's clear that they are keeping a close eye on Anri and are likely at least partially responsible for the occasional updates on her location. They are also upset when they discover that the Dollars website has become inaccessible, after Mikado shuts the operation down.

Following this, with Mikado, Masaomi and Anri starting to become aware of each other's secret alliances and with Masaomi facing a mutiny from his former gang, Kadota arranges for himself, Saburo and some of their friends to infiltrate the gang so that when Horada shows his hand, Masaomi isn't alone; Erika, however, is deemed to stand out too much and she, along with Walker, are left to wait outside in the van while the action happens. With Horada and his allies finally apprehended, things in the city return to a form of normal, although it's not entirely clear whether that includes Dollars membership or not.

Personality: The first think one is likely to notice about Erika is that she is a huge otaku. She is obsessed with anime and manga, dropping in references wherever she can and often engaging in discussions with Walker that are unintelligible to pretty much everyone else. She is also a fujoshi, obsessed with Boys Love and with slash goggles firmly affixed. This doesn't just apply to those in fiction either; she is convinced that the ongoing hatred and fighting between Izaya and Shizuo is a sign of their love for one another and has gone so far as to write fiction involving her best friend Walker and their group's leader Kadota, with or without her involvement. She also is said to enjoy cosplay.

Erika is hugely enthusiastic about anything and everything she does, which can sometimes result in her sillier nature coming out. She enjoys nicknames and in particular seems to enjoy referring to Kadota as Dotachin even as he repeatedly tells her not to call him that. (Whether there is a relevance to her using a nickname that Izaya came up with is unclear; however she also calls Shizuo Shizu-chan which Izaya also uses) She is also a very intense person, particularly when it comes to her passions. This can take a darker bent, however; she and Walker are often left to physically and/or mentally torture troublemakers from whom they want information with their torture methods being lifted from anime and manga. Which isn’t to say that manga is to blame - Erika enjoys the prospect of making those who have wronged suffer and considers it an insult to true manga fans to infer that anyone could allow any form of fictional media to be held responsible for the actions of those who partake of it.

Beneath the fangirling and the occasional sociopathic moment, however, Erika does have a deeper side. She firmly believes that the only divide between fiction and reality is what they choose to believe; that reality can be rewritten to sever the ties to a past full of less than positive memories. This is shown in both her penchant for shipping real people with each other (including writing fiction about them) and her tendency to apply anime or manga references to what’s happening in the real world. Additionally she is incredibly loyal - she has been best friends with Walker for as long as she can remember and when they joined Kadota's group, she and Walker both ended up becoming loyal to him to the point that when he quit the Blue Squares gang, they quit right along with him. Hurt someone she cares about and Erika won't think twice about plotting revenge which, given how her mind works, isn’t likely to be something anyone would want. As Masaomi notes in an early episode she, along with Walker, is the kind of person who is nice so long as people are nice to her but who you wouldn’t really want to end up on the wrong side of.

Other: Erika is something of a fourth wall nightmare, even for her own series. For example, in an episode narrated by Kadota, she and Walker ask at one point who he's talking to.

Additional Links: Erika @ DRRR!! wiki, DRRR!! @ Wikipedia and have a TV Tropes page too.

First Person (entry type): I tried to show Walker the new story I wrote where he becomes Dotachin's willing love slave but for some reason he didn't seem all that enthusiastic. I don't know why - I even put in some scenes with Shinra and Celty, and I tried really hard to make sure that the totally obvious subtext in the fight between Izayan and Shizu-chan was kept off the page.

I mean, I think I did. And even if I didn't, that scene only took up, like, two pages so I'm not sure what he's getting so worked up about. Unless he's just upset that it's two pages where he doesn't get to be the star...he can be so funny about that sometimes. Like he has any right to be picky after some of the things he's written about me. Still, maybe I should give it another look-over before I let Dotachin see it...

Third Person: "Did I mention yet how much I love this place?"

It was something Erika said every time she walked into the Animate store and something she meant no less for having done so. For as long as she could remember, anime and manga had been something she clung to, something that allowed her to escape the darkness of her own world through the bright colours and loud battles presented in these worlds of fiction. It was something she allowed to consume her, to shape her thoughts and actions so that she swore she could see that wavering line between fantasy and reality. How very like each other they were, for all they were regarded as two separate entities.

Of course, it helped that she wasn't alone in these thoughts. In Walker she had someone who understood her when no-one else could, who could make sense of and match the references she made, no matter how obscure. Someone who would share in her excitement when new volumes hit shelves and who didn't consider her entirely weird for thinking that if fiction used reality as a starting point, why couldn't they write reality to their own vision? Both in the literal sense - neither of them took any shame in the fact that most of the fiction they wrote was about each other, or about other notable Ikebukuro figures - and in a more figurative sense. She had gone from nothing to being a Blue Square to defecting and joining the Dollars, admittedly under guidance from another but no less by her own will for that being so. After all, it was she who chose to trust in Kadota, who chose to place her loyalty in him above any colour gang.

And it was she, along with Walker, who would be shopping for new inspiration so that they could continue their war on the Manhunters and on anyone else seeking to disrupt the relative peace that had fallen upon the city ever since the demise of the Yellow Scarves and the Blue Squares.

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