Durarara!! - Namie Yagiri - On Love's Extremes

Namie Yagiri is the chief executive of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals in Ikebukuro, a mysterious laboratory rumored to be the site of bizarre human experimentation. While her exact motives are unclear, we do learn that she has a strong vendetta against anyone who gets in the way of her love for her brother, Seiji.

Her story begins when she was but a child. She and her brother would frequent the home of their uncle. One afternoon, Namie noticed a severed head in a glass jar (it later turns out that this head is that of Celty Sturleson). At first, she kept the details of this item a secret, until one day she showed it to her brother. This is where her problems truly begin.

As Seiji becomes more attracted to the head in the glass jar, Namie begins to feel her love for her brother being challenged, threatened even. Thus, every action she takes from that point - everything from her advancement up Yagiri Pharma's corporate ladder to her abduction of humans for experimentation - all of this is indirectly linked to her vendetta against the head in the glass jar.

"A doll should behave like a doll and stay put. The last thing it should do is interfere with my love for Seiji. I've made up my mind. I don't want any more regrets. I'm through with that."

In our last article, we discussed how interactions with our enemies can bring about mutual growth by holding us to higher standards. This time, however, we bear witness to how love and intimate relationships can bring about well-intentioned extremism, and on a much larger scale, radical change.

There is no denying that Namie Yagiri had power. Her string of abductions went overlooked by the police, and she commanded a private task force with which to do her bidding. But it was her love of Seiji which drove her to acquire that power, and it was her love of Seiji which then directed her outward flow of influence. Love was the catalyst with which to bring a city to the brink of fear.

It's an interesting phenomenon to consider, but one we haven't quite seen in the real world all too often. Aside from the mythological Helen of Troy (and the battles fought for her love), definitive examples are very few and far between.

Normally, the intent of the WLIA Blog is to provide commentary on how facets of various media apply to the real world. Of course, there is also a fundamental understanding that those media examples were derived from real life at some time in history. That this phenomena seems to have no apparent cause or effect makes it rather peculiar among examples.

Put simply, we have no way of knowing how this facet will apply itself to the real world. That is, until it actually happens on a grandiose scale. And in time, maybe it will.