Izaya Orihara

"I love humans!"

- Izaya

Izaya Orihara is the main protagonist villain in the light novel and anime series ''Durarara!! ''He is introduced as the main antagonist, but later shares the spotlight with Jinnai Yodogiri and Kasane Kujiragi. He is an infamous information broker who claims to love humanity and greatly enjoys messing with the lives of the people in Ikebukuro. He is also the archenemy of Shizuo Heiwajima.

He is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya in the Japanese version of the anime and Johnny Yong Bosch in the English version.

History and Plot
An information broker and a twisted man who screws with others for his own enjoyment. Lacking powers, Izaya makes up for it with his sole mind, which can predict the actions others will make. Izaya makes enemies with almost every main character on the show, but sits back and does all his evil from the shadows. His deeds range from trolling the show's heroes online, to refusing to call back Masaomi Kida when a girl who was in Kida's care was kidnapped and needed help, and even convinced a teenage girl to try to kill herself (which she attempted, but failed because Celty rescued her and the girl lived and moved on). In the (manga only), Izaya committed an assisted suicide on two young suicidal women by not joining them in a joint-suicide and for drugging their drinks (though the girls were not aware of it and tried to call for help) but he assures them that he is their savior. Izaya's rival is Shizuo Heiwajima a man with super human strength. Shizuo may be strong, but Izaya's mind equals (or may be greater than) Shizuo's brute strength.

Personality
Izaya, without a doubt, is an extremely crafty individual. He claims that he loves the whole human race because he finds them very interesting and he loves to mess with and playfully tease them in order to observe their reactions for his own twisted pleasure. However, he dislikes Shizuo with a passion and enjoys playing with and mocking him since they were in high school.

He has a very jolly and mocking personality, and is sometimes childish. He can easily read body language very well and he can tell what others are thinking without asking. He shows no interest in loving individuals, especially his own family that he sees as only friends to him. He isn't very interested in women and they are not interested in him. Even if his beloved humans treat him as dirt and with contempt, he claims he will still 'love' them. He considers himself an Atheist. He does not believe in the existence of God nor in the afterlife. The only person he ever cared about in a way is Shinra.

Appearance
Izaya is a tall and lean built man. He is very charming in appearance. He has black hair with auburn colored eyes. He wears a light, black V neck line shirt with long sleeves and black jeans and shoes. In the manga, his hair has long bangs that frames his face. He wears a short black jacket with thick brown fur trimming in the hood. Occasionally, he would wear an ankle length black jacket with buttons and thick brown fur trimming in the hood, sleeves, and ankle end. He sometimes wears a ring on his left index finger.

In the anime, he's almost always seen wearing his favorite dark brown jacket that goes down above the knees with light brown fur trimming in the hood, sleeves and ends. He always wears plain rings around his index finger on both hands.

Abilities
Izaya is a master of parkour. Ever since he was younger, he battles with Shizuo in the streets every day, and over the years, his parkour skills were achieved naturally.

Izaya uses a switchblade as a weapon to defend himself from other blade attacks. He uses it as an offensive weapon to threatened his opponents or victims. He also uses numberous of flickblades for long range attacks. He can swiftly and easily dodge objects that are thrown in his direction especially objects such as trash cans, soda machines, and streetlights that Shizuo hurls at him during their battles.

Personal Information

 * Race: Human


 * Gender: Male


 * Birth: May 4, 1986 (1987 in the Anime)


 * Star Sign: Taurus


 * Age: 23 (Claims to be 21 forever)


 * Blood type: O


 * Height : 5 ft 9in 


 * Weight: 128 lbs


 * Hair: Black


 * Eyes: Auburn


 * Family: 


 * Shirou - father


 * Kyouko - mother


 * Mairu & Kururi - younger twin sisters

Trivia

 * His last name Orihara in Japanese may mean ori (fold) & hara (field) which translates "folding field" which can refer to the folding field knife, his signature weapon.
 * His name comes from a combination of the biblical Isaiah and Japanese for "the one who looks over the crowd".
 * Izaya shares his birthday with Daisuke Ono who is the Japanese voice actor of Izaya's rival Shizuo Heiwajima.
 * He can speak Russian fluently with Simon, usually proverbs, along with English.
 * He prefers foods that taste bitter, and dislikes sweets and conserved food. Although unshown yet, his fervor of humanity observation is stated to be reflected in attempt of analyzing people through their prefers and preparation of food.
 * He is a light sleeper.
 * Izaya is known to be one of the strongest men in Ikebukuro, although the title of strongest man belongs to Shizuo Heiwajima.
 * Izaya's nickname for Shizuo, "Shizu-Chan", wasn't actually made by Izaya himself. He heard about Shizuo from a girl who used to be in Shizuo's elementary school who refered to him as "Shizuo-Chan". Izaya initially suspected Shizuo to be a girl until someone explained who he was.
 * Izaya shows little interest in drinking or partaking in vulgar events.
 * He has a life insurance policy.
 * In the novel, from Mikado's perspective, it is stated that he found Izaya's appearance rather odd for a man of his age, regarding style. And that he seemed different from the rest, since Izaya didn't seem to find an interest in appealing to the culture's fashion.
 * It has been stated that Izaya views Namie as a housewife, not a friend and holds no romantic interest in her, calling her an awful person.
 * He is an atheist, stating that there is no proof that God exists. Regardless, due to following events and his plans, he takes a primarily agnostic view of afterlife later.
 * Izaya's hair style is similar to that of Mikado's.
 * In the anime, Izaya always wear his trademark jacket, whereas in the manga and novels, sometimes he wears a long trench jacket. In the anime's special episode 12.5, he wears a normal, casual t-shirt and jacket.
 * His eyes are stated as reddish-brown, however, sometimes in the anime, his eye color is just brown as seen as in episode 3.
 * Baccano!: In one of the baccano light novels, Boss Buraido mentions exchanging information with "Orihara of Shinjuku" who is obviously Izaya.
 * Izaya's seiyuu, Hiroshi Kamiya, also did the voice acting of Hiroomi Souma from the anime Working!!, mostly known for his ability to find people's secrets and makes them to do his job by threathening them using the secret, similar to Izaya's ability to gather informations and his ability to make people do as he planned, respectively. Also, Hiroomi likes to observe people ever since he was a kid, similar to how Izaya really likes human observation. In addition, Hiroomi's blackmail doesn't work on Jun Satou, his blonde-hair colleague chef, who is voiced by Daisuke Ono, who also voiced Shizuo Heiwajima.
 * Izaya is known as a troll, the series taking a strong hold of realism when it comes to societal behavior. Fans of the series comically call him Trollzaya. The Japanese fandom called him Uzaya, coming from uzai which means annoying.
 * In the Durarara!! fanbase, it is common to hear Izaya called a sociopath. This is evidenced in the way he behaves, with rare exceptions primarily refusing to establish sympathy in purpose to preventing prejudice and sees people, loving humanity only because he takes an obsessive interest on them, as if they were subjects to his game, only to end him of his boredom. He usually thinks along the line that he is their God, watching over them, and they are his playthings.
 * He has a habit of controlling his weight immediately after his daily bath.
 * His favorite fruits are red apples.
 * In one of the novel volumes, it is stated that Izaya is "ticklish."
 * He and Shizuo both have shared an undeniable hate for one another ever since their school years.
 * Izaya has stated in the novels that he does not hold an attraction for any individual, dubbing himself Asexual, which means that he doesn't hold an interest for a male or female. Though, it is hinted in the novel that he may or may not have had something with Mikage in high school.
 * Many people in the DuRaRaRa!! fandom believe he may actually have feelings for Shizuo for various reasons, and mainly because he claims loving every human equally, but refuses to acknowledge Shizuo as a human being. Thus, he would be able to hate, or even love him "separately" and exclusively. Another character in the series, Erika, a BL fan, seems to also pair them together.