Characters / Durarara!!: Izaya Orihara

Warning!! The examples below may include spoilers for the light novels, as well as the anime.

If you're only following the latter, proceed at your own risk!

Durarara!! | Main Character Index
Main Characters (Izaya Orihara) | Anime Supporting Characters from Season 1 | Anime Supporting Characters from Season 2 | Characters from Novel Only | Characters from Game Only

Izaya Orihara

A completely trustworthy person. (Not.)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya (JP), Johnny Yong Bosch (EN)

"Izaya Orihara, the informant, isn't that bad of a guy. But I'm also not kind enough to stop someone who wants to die."

Ikebukuro's mysterious Knowledge Broker and greatest Troll. Claims to love all humanity (except Shizuo) — love which he expresses by manipulating people at every opportunity. He loves playing mind games and seems to be one step ahead of everybody else at times.

Officially a Wild Card to all sides of the various factions In-Universe.

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A-H

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the light novels his eyes are colored as red, whereas in the anime they are brown.
  • The change may have been done to prevent the audience from confusing Izaya for a Saika zombie.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the anime, Izaya is shown actively coercing, Rio, a teenage girl to commit suicide with him and mocking her for it, and besides also pulling this on Manami, there is little other info given. The light novels instead have him seeking out people who were already suicidal to begin with, and those shown are noted to be older than him. However, the trade-off is that while no one Izaya did this to ended up killing themselves, he was disappointed by the outcome, as the point was to see if they would kill themselves regardless of what he said.
• Adults Are Useless: During his school years, Raijin was always in complete chaos, suffering numerous incidents which were usually orchestrated by Izaya and resulted in many casualties. However, Izaya was never caught by his teachers and therefore never disciplined. Ironically, the only thing Izaya was punished for was his stabbing of Shinra, which he decided to take the blame for while the real culprit was Nakura.
• All-Loving Hero: Inverted. Izaya is a villain who loves the entire human race, stating that no matter what awful things they do, he will always love them. These claims are doubted however by Manami and Shinra, as Izaya goes to great lengths to distance himself from other people, which they believe is because Izaya is too fragile to emotional invest himself in other people and his 'love' is merely his way of avoiding dealing with anyone on a personal level.
• Anime Accent Absence: Inverted. While he speaks grammatically and idiomatically perfect Russian, it's painfully obvious that Hiroshi Kamiya hasn't the least idea in the world how it should sound. His accent is so atrocious that his words don't even register as Russian. It's a lot better in the English dub.
• Arch-Enemy: To Shizuo. He hates Shizuo because his unpredictability and Too Dumb to Fool status makes him a massive thorn in his side and a possible Spanner in the Works for his plans. In fact, he hates Shizuo so much that it allows him to Face Death with Dignity. His plans were ultimately driven by his fear of death, but when they failed and it seemed like Shizuo was about to kill him at the end of their last fight, he overcame his fear because his death would finally prove to the people of Ikebukuro and to Shizuo himself that Shizuo was a monster. That's right: Izaya was willing to die just to screw over Shizuo one last time.
• The Atoner: Downplayed. After the events of Durarara!!, Izaya is left crippled, yet refuses to do therapy that could allow him to run again. When asked about it, Izaya explains it's a punishment for running away from humans and keeping himself safe at a distance in spite of his love for them, believing that made his love impure. Therefore, he decides to show his love by facing humans and monsters head-on, though that does not at all mean he's stopped manipulating people and performing cruel schemes.
• Badass Bookworm: A very dangerous information broker with a wealth of knowledge he can use to pick apart victims. He also happens to have parkour and knife skills.
• Badass in Distress: In the PSP game, Izaya gets captured and loses his memories.
• Badass Normal: A normal human in terms of physical capabilities, but he is one of the few people who can pick a fight with Shizuo and live to see another day (or at least avoid getting hospitalized). He is also implied to have Super-Reflexes judging from his battle with Anri, despite her skillful use of Iaidō to mess with his depth perception.
• Bad Boss: He has Saki and Masaomi working for him. Needless to say, he doesn't treat them very well. Inverted in the case of Namie as he is almost a Benevolent Boss: he pays her a very high salary, keeps her from possible dangers and engages in symbiotic snarking with her.
• Batman Gambit: Pulls citywide strings by knowing his pawns well enough to predict their actions and responses. Many, many of them at once. He also invokes this trope, since he deliberately makes his plans easy to defeat if the key players would just face their flaws. They don't, his plans go through, and he laughs his ass off.
• Benevolent Boss: It's also worth noting that Namie is the only person he's employed (and one of the very few in the novels) that he has yet to screw with. He's also revealed some "secrets" to her, and he outright states that he wants to keep his leading lady close, so he seems to avoid doing anything that will seriously upset her in the future. Then again, knowing Izaya, there might be an ulterior motive.
• Berserk Button: While he never overtly displays anger, it's very clear he does not like being left out of the loop during important events. After the Hollywood arc, Shinichi Tsukumoya decides to mockingly catch Izaya up on what he missed, knowing full well it would upset him, resulting in the info broker setting up the events of the Akane arc out of pure spite for being excluded.
• Big Bad: The closest thing the series has to the main villain. He's manipulated almost every single character in the series for his own twisted amusement, which arguably makes him the definite Big Bad.
• Big Bad Wannabe: However, as of season 2 he lost this position to Kasane Kujiragi. To his credit, Izaya tries to bounce back with mixed results.
• Big Brother Bully: Izaya's quick to admit that Mairu and Kururi's... more unusual quirks probably came about from growing up with him as an older brother.
• Big Brother Instinct: Subverted. Celty thinks he's looking after his younger sisters when he hires her to protect Kururi, only for Izaya to later admit he just didn’t want her meeting Haruna and intentionally used his sisters as bait. Inverted as well, since this is Izaya. He would never admit to caring for any specific human beings and this is evident when his sisters imply that they don't believe him and his motivation.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He can appear to be a genuinely nice guy, until you realize he's just fucking with you for kicks.
  • Even Celty knows there's something not quite right about him in Episode 4:
    Izaya: Kudos to you as the deliverer, again. I can get by because you're here, and vice versa.
    Celty: I don't want to agree with the vice versa.
    Izaya: Come on, don't say that. I'll be counting on you again from now on. I want to get along with you. Forever...
    Celty: Is it my imagination that I feel a certain eeriness from you?
    Izaya: Whoa! It's definitely your imagination.
  • And again, in Episode 12:
    Celty: And my daily life came back, too. [sees Izaya] Running into people I'd rather not see, like always...
• Blatant Lies: He does this a lot. He straight up tells Mikado he won't give away his identity as the leader of the Dollars, only for him to tell Masaomi later. He also feigns ignorance about Mikado's role in the Dollars to Akabayashi.
  • Though he clears it up later in a phone call with Mikado; he said he wouldn't sell the information. Izaya outright told Masaomi about Mikado. Akabayashi paid Izaya to know every last detail of Mikado's current life, Izaya explains he wasn't not going to fulfill a customers expectations and leave out that detail about Mikado.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Izaya's story in Durarara ends with him getting beaten up by Shizuo and then shot by Varona. While he makes a narrow escape thanks to Kine, it's left vague whether or not he actually survives the ordeal. He's yet to make an official appearance in the sequel series SH, but it is revealed in a side story that Izaya does in fact survive.
• Break Them by Talking: This is how he screws with people. His Establishing Character Moment is in the second episode where he goads a girl into committing suicide. Celty saved her and later asked him why. He just said it was for fun. He does it to Masaomi in the third arc. Also to Anri, in episode 24, as part of stopping her from making him one of Saika's "children". Then two suicidal girls in the novel/manga, and to Earthworm and Nakura.
  • Izaya does not particularly enjoy being on the receiving end of these and often appears unnerved whenever someone is able to see through him.
• Broken Ace: Intelligent, handsome, agile and also madder than a hatter.
  • It gets worse in his spin-off where he suffers from PTSD due to nearly being killed by Shizuo. It's so bad that he punishes himself by refusing therapy to allow him to walk again and hasn't returned to Ikebukuro for the past two years.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: While his plan to kill Shizuo was sound and he would have succeeded if not for Celty's interference, Lady Luck was not on his side and nearly got killed himself for his troubles.
• Calvinball: Izaya plays chess-shogi-reversi-go-cards-alcohol-matches against himself when he's bored. When Namie asks him how to play it he changes the subject.
• Cessation of Existence: This frightens him. This is why he's setting up Ragnarok. Even if he goes to Hel's realm instead of Valhalla for being a non-warrior, it's still existence. The only thing that can make him stop caring about this is if he can get Shizuo to end up killing him.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: This is why the Awakusu hasn't just offed him yet. Shiki explains to his driver that Izaya has a unique information network and they can't just kill him to obtain it themselves because it would disappear with him, so they need the info broker alive in order to make use of his network.
• Chaotic Neutral: In-Universe; the novels' narration states that he is neither good nor evil.
  "He is by no means anything like an ally of justice, nor can he be called a pawn of the wicked."
• Character Development: In his spin-off, Izaya is shown to have grown a bit in regards to his love for humans. He sees his constant running away from them as impure love and refuses therapy that would enable him to run again as a punishment, becoming determined to face people fair and square- tricks and manipulation aside.
• The Chessmaster: Izaya is thoroughly amused that you think you're playing chess with him.
  • In SH it's noted that this trope might actually be subverted, since it's explained to Kuon, who tries and fails to emulate him, Izaya's love for humans means he isn't fixated on any specific outcome for his plans and is more or less happy as long as something interesting happens, making it look like he's in control.
• Consummate Liar: If you didn't pay for it, there's a good chance that whatever Izaya tells you is something he just made up. The same probably goes some of the information you did pay for, for that matter. Even he acknowledges this truth.
  Izaya: It's kinda scary how much people trust me.
• Custom Uniform: It's notable that none of the Oriharas have ever worn the correct high school uniform, often opting for just 'a uniform'. Izaya himself wore his middle school uniform with the jacket left open and cropped.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shows shades of being one in middle school, especially towards Shinra. Occasionally lapses back into this around Shinra and sometimes, Namie.
• Defiant to the End: Proving once and for all how much he hates Shizuo Heiwajima, when it seems like Shizuo is about to kill him, Izaya starts taunting him, all but begging him to the deed and prove once and for all that his would-be murderer is a "monster".
• Devious Daggers: A switch-blade to be precise, and he uses it to threaten and humiliate people.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Manipulates people and supernatural beings just because he can.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The reason for becoming an information broker seems to have started with his past in middle school when a student named Nakura stabbed Shinra who took the knife wound for him. As revenge for the incident, Izaya swears to make Nakura's life miserable for the rest of his life.
• Dissonant Serenity: Despite all the supernatural, violent things happening around him, he still acts like his Smug Snake self.
• The Dreaded: Though not to the same extent as Shizuo Heiwajima, whom the entire damn city is terrified of. The people who fear Izaya are the ones who deal with him regularly, such as gangs. As a Knowledge Broker of the highest caliber, all of the gangs in Ikebukuro are perfectly aware that Izaya can screw them over in the worst way possible with nothing more than a phone call, if that. Putting a hit on him or attacking him won't work either, as Izaya is well-regarded as one of the strongest men in Ikebukuro (despite technically residing in Shinjuku) — good enough to mess with the aforementioned Shizuo Heiwajima on a regular basis for kicks.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Subverted. Izaya plans to betray Shinra who is his ONLY friend. All he has to do is bring Celty's head and be next to Celty without showing it and then see if anything will happen. However, knowing that his goal to cause Ragnarok might destroy Shinra's happiness, he has second thoughts and laughs at himself before slamming his fist into a telephone. No one sees his expression and his sisters come around when he's able to put his mask back up but just knowing he has second thoughts and the hint of guilt though...
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. Izaya maintains that no matter what people do, he will always love humans. Even if a person were to try to kill him or perform some kind of horrific deed, he is determined to forever accept them. Shinra states that this isn't because Izaya is exceptionally resilient, but because he's an emotionally fragile person who loves everyone to avoid dealing with them.
• Evil Gloating: He hired Namie to serve as his secretary for two reasons: to rub her defeat in her face (he makes her use a punch clock, for crying out loud), and so that he has someone to listen to his genius plans.
• Evil Is Petty: Izaya first shows how far he'll go to troll people by kidnapping a suicidal girl to "prove" that, since she was scared, she's not really suicidally depressed and is just being a whiny Emo Teen (and then he invites her to prove him wrong by showing her a ledge to jump off of and dangling her from it). His second act of vile depravity? Breaking someone's cellphone.
• Evil Laugh: When a plan comes together, he definitely can't help but laugh.
• Evil Plan: Believe it or not there is more to his trolling than For the Evulz (mostly). He wants to use Celty's head to cause Ragnarok so he can be taken away by a Valkyrie and avoid the Cessation of Existence.
• Eviler than Thou: A milder version, when Earthworm has captured him and is gloating over her victory as she tortures him, thanks to another mysterious information broker who she claims is better than he is. Turns out he planned the capture to observe her methods and get more information on her group all along...and the other guy was just yet another one of his pseudonyms.
• Exact Words: Izaya states he doesn't hit girls, which is true. However, he's never said anything about not breaking them psychologically or having someone else do the hitting for him.
• Face Death with Dignity: He hates Shizuo more than he fears death. So, when it seemed like Shizuo was finally going to kill him, Izaya purposefully egged him on, knowing that his murder would cement Shizuo as a monster to the public once and for all. Unfortunately for Izaya, things didn't work out that way.
• Faux Affably Evil: He never drops his friendly demeanor, even when he's doing his best to ruin someone's life.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: The true root of his hatred of Shizuo. The surface reasons of why Izaya hates Shizuo (Too Dumb to Fool, Spanner in the Works), wouldn't be issues if Izaya had just stopped trying to somehow manipulate Shizuo into one of his plans, if only just to kill him. And yet Izaya keeps on doing so and even goes out of his way to provoke him occasionally. When it really comes down to it, Izaya just can't stand the fact that someone like Shizuo exists, because Shizuo doesn't fit his purview of humanity.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: At the Dollars meeting, Izaya greets Kadota by calling him 'Dotachin' and a few minutes later refers to Mikado as Taro Tanaka. Mikado then quickly realizes Izaya is Kanra in the chat room.
• Foil: To Shizuo. Izaya is an extremely intelligent Renaissance Man who loves humans, expressing his feelings by manipulating people causing him to be despised, and is also interested in philosophical and intellectual pursuits. In contrast, Shizuo is straightforward and not especially smart, disliking things that make no sense, and tries to distance himself from people due to his temper and strength, while unwittingly attracting them to him.
• For Science!: In this case, for Social Science. Izaya is what happens when a Mad Scientist discovers that his true calling isn't chemistry or biology, but social psychology.
• Foreshadowing: In the very first episode, Kanra makes several references to who they are in real life, the most obvious being the fact that they call someone 'Dotachin', though they also mention that the Black Bike is well-known in Ikebukuro and Shinjuku. Now, where does Izaya live, again?
• For the Evulz:
  • Downplayed in the anime only, where Simon implies that this is purely an excuse and Izaya is jealous of Shizuo's influential status.
  • It's more or less Played Straight in the light novels for the most part, however, he does have a bigger plan for a lot of the asshattery he pulls.
• Fountain of Expies: In-universe. Izaya's manipulative ways and distinct personality have inspired multiple people to emulate him for various reasons. However, his copycats tend to do a poor job, with Kuon in particular failing to effectively imitate him due to lacking Izaya's love for humans, causing him to fixate on specific outcomes for his plans in a way Izaya did not.
• Fur and Loathing: Is usually seen wearing a brown jacket with furry ends, and he probably would skin an animal given the chance.
• Gambit Roulette: Sometimes gives his influence more than plausible credit for insufficiently foreshadowed outcomes.
• The Ghost: After losing a fight to Shizuo in the final novel and getting crippled, Izaya has not returned in SH.
• Giggling Villain: When his plan comes together, he pretty much giggles like a hyena. Hell, even his theme song has laughter in it!
• G.I.R.L.: Disguises himself as such on chatrooms as "Kanra", before he uses a different handle as "Chrome" and drops the G.I.R.L. act.
• A God Am I: Shows shades of this occasionally. It's especially noticeable when he sets his chess board on fire.
  Izaya: When I look at it like this, I can't help but feel that I'm just a little bit God-like. And you know what? It feels good! Three way struggles are fun, 'specially when all three leaders are so closely connected. And God attacks!! [insane giggling]. [...] Ahahahahah! Look! The pawns burn like garbage!! [begins to toss cards into the fire, each representing a character in the series].
  (Namie looks on, with a completely blank expression on her face.)
  • His hoards of in-story "worshippers", most of whom are young women with a troubled background who would commit suicide should he deem it necessary.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Izaya claims that instead of worry for Shinra during middle school, he was jealous that someone would jump in front of a knife just to impress someone they love.
  • It's also speculated one of the reasons he hates Shizuo isn't just because he can't manipulate him very well, but also because people actually like Shizuo instead of him, which makes him insanely jealous.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Sozoro criticizes Izaya for attending a baseball game to watch the crowd and accuses him of knowing nothing about the sport. When his employer insists he knows the game, Sozoro proves his point by asking which side of the batter's box a right-handed batter stands on and watches Izaya struggle to answer.
• Guinea Pig Family: According to Shinra, Izaya had a tendency to do psychological experiments on his sisters that were pretty much indistinguishable from emotional abuse.
• Hate at First Sight: He and Shizuo were instantly at enmity: Shizuo can see through Izaya and see him for what he is and Izaya hates him in return for seeing through his plots despite being Dumb Muscle.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Played with. Izaya maintains that he loves the entire human race, but expresses this through horrific acts of cruelty, though Mikage believes the fact that this behavior isn’t targeted towards anyone in particular is his only good trait.
• Hands-Off Parenting: Izaya's parents were frequently overseas doing business and were rarely around. It's suggested that, while not the main reason, this may have contributed to why he turned out the way he did.
  • Izaya himself does not subscribe to this trope while taking care of Himari and Haruto. He even personally homeschools them.
• The Heavy: Almost every problem the characters face can be linked directly back to him.
• Horrifying the Horror: While absent from the anime, it's noted in the light novels that after Anri confronts Izaya, Saika realizes this is the first time in its existence that its ever felt disgust for a human being.
• Humiliation Conga: Vol. 13 as a whole for Izaya is this. First, his plans completely fall apart and everything he's worked towards is for naught. Second, Shizuo manages to finally defeat him completely in combat, leaving him at Shizuo's mercy. When he tries to least take solace in his belief that killing him will prove Shizuo is a monster, Shizuo ultimately is stopped from killing him, so he loses that too. Finally, Verona fatally shoots him so he's not spared death either. He only gets away because he's rescued and things leave off with him dying and unlikely to survive his trip elsewhere.
  • However, Izaya was later confirmed to be alive in the side-stories, albeit handicapped. It's actually mentioned to be recoverable, but he refuses to go to therapy.
• Hypocritical Humor: Oh, Izaya...we're pretty sure that stomping on a girl's cell phone is a form of bullying.
• Hypocrite: He claims to love all humans and shows contempt for anything he considers a monster, yet the manner in which he expresses his love is about the same as how he treats monsters, which is to say, horribly. He also does business with Haruna despite having declared war on Saika and even manipulates the Yellow Scarves and Dollars as part of a plot to awaken Celty's head.

I-Z

• Indispensable Scoundrel: Izaya is an informant who cruelly manipulates people for his own amusement and is responsible for instigating numerous conflicts. However, he's also exceptionally useful, and the benefits of his information usually outweigh the cost of dealing with him, so he's kept around. However, it's deconstructed as his awful personality and deeds make it so next to no one cares about him, which is lampshaded by Namie when the rest of the cast has a hot pot party without him.
• Insane Troll Logic: In the light novels, he uses a Breaking Speech on a couple of suicidal girls, mocking their pain and laughing about how they want to die. The girls realize the entire monologue hinges on faulty reasoning and contains numerous contradictions, but stay silent, realizing Izaya is too crazy for anything they say to get through to him.
• Insult Backfire
  Girl: You are the worst kind of human being in this world.
  Izaya: And isn't that just splendid?
• Irony: The Jerkass Manipulative Bastard who makes a Suicide Pact For the Lulz... is afraid of death because of the possibility that there's nothing after death. He says he'd rather go to hell or to Ragnarok if he ever died rather than doing nothing.
  • He's also on the cover of the Trust Me EP release...yeah, okay.
• It Amused Me: Izaya screws with people — both human and supernatural — For the Lulz.
• It's Personal: It may have started out as Hate at First Sight, but Izaya and Shizuo's enmity had long since passed this territory by the time the series starts.
• Jerkass Has a Point: During a conversation with Celty, the dullahan tells Izaya he is one of Shinra's friends, only for him to retort that Shinra really doesn't care about him or Shizuo, having only maintained their friendships in an effort to please her. While it's blatantly obvious Izaya is only trying to rile her up, Celty is unable to really argue the point.
• Jerkass to One: Of the “Crueler to One” variant. While Izaya does actively screw around with and troll people around with his reasons mostly stemming from curiosity about seeing how his victims will react rather than any malice towards them and remaining Faux Affably Evil toward them. Shizuo is the one exception: he’s the one person Izaya is genuinely malicious towards and Izaya noticeably takes more enjoyment messing with Shizuo’s life than he does towards other people.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He sends Celty to protect one of his little sisters from some thugs. This makes Celty think Izaya may have a heart after all, but then Izaya reveals he was only keeping her busy so she wouldn't meet Haruna Niekawa. This doesn't stop his sisters from being grateful, though.
  • It's noted that none of the suicidal girls he met up with ever actually committed suicide. However, the point of the experiments wasn't to stop them from killing themselves, it was for Izaya to see if they would go through with the deed despite what he said, made worse by the fact that he was disappointed by them.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: By the end of the second season, he finally receives his comeuppance and loses almost everything in a single night, up to almost dying himself.
• Kick the Dog: His antics are funny until episode 18 where he deliberately put Masaomi through hell. Double points when you realize that Saki was faking her injuries.
  • Also, in middle school, he apparently stabbed Shinra when the latter was trying to befriend him. While Shinra has brushed this event off, it's to be noted that Shinra uses this event to shut him up. This is subverted as of Volume 9. It reveals that Izaya didn't stab him. Shinra took a knife wound for him instead.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Or, better yet, use them as an impromptu trampoline!
• Kill It with Fire: What he does to his game board in one of his...less stable moments.
• Knowledge Broker: His main job.
• Lack of Empathy: The way he speaks about his "love of humans" seems to imply that he places himself on a different level than them.
  • Subverted in volume 9 (episode 9 of Ten). The closest he's gotten to showing human emotions is when Shinra got stabbed. He is shown panicking and trying to hide his worry and covers it up with something else. The anime downplays his feelings, but it's clear that the moment still shook him.
  • Also, the closest thing to a breakdown was him slamming his hand against a telephone pole at the thought of betraying Shinra.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Twice. The first time when he's stabbed, not a single person visits him in the hospital. Not even Shinra. In fact, most of Ikebukuro didn't give two shits. The second time is when he's beaten half-to-death by Shizuo and then shot by Vorona. He barely survives, and even his most loyal minion, Kine, who was the one who saved his life didn't seem to be too bothered by the prospect of Izaya bleeding out in his car.
• Lean and Mean: Amazingly, he manages to look skinnier than the rest of the cast.
• Leitmotif: "He's Such a Coward that He Can Laugh"
• Le Parkour: He teaches it to himself to outrun Shizuo. Naturally, Shizuo teaches it to himself to chase Izaya.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Once Izaya finally decides to kill Shizuo once and for all, he wastes no time pulling out every trick he can up his sleeve, all the way up to building a carbon dioxide pump to suffocate Shizuo with.
• Like an Old Married Couple: While it's never lampshaded, his relationship with Namie fits this trope quite well. He even calls her his House Wife.
• Lonely at the Top: Being a extremely manipulative asshole tends not to win over a lot of friends. Which is why his only friend is Shinra. it's worth noting that, unlike most examples, he doesn't just sit around and angst about it. He knows that this is the life he's chosen for himself, and if he ever even mentions his loneliness it's simply a passing comment. It might get him down at times (mainly due to jealousy), but it doesn't really bother him that much.
  Namie: [after Izaya offered to treat her to hotpot] Because your little chatroom friends are having hotpot? If you're looking for someone to soothe your injured vanity, you should try a therapist.
• Loners Are Freaks: Played with. In middle school, everyone avoided him because he gave the impression to everyone that he was this type of person. However, the way Izaya puts it, he does seem lonely and grateful that Shinra would talk to him. Of course, he would deny it saying that he only talked to him to "observe" him.
• Love Is a Weakness: He clearly states in volume 9 that he doesn't want to get attached to anyone whether it's friendship or romantic. However, just becoming friends with Shinra though becomes a problem for obvious reasons which the main one is that with someone that makes so many enemies, it would only be natural to get back at him with the only person he cares about.
• Love Makes You Crazy: His grandiose love for the entire human race hasn't exactly made him the most sane of people, but also his feelings towards Shinra. He was the vice president of his elementary school's student council, and in middle school, he was a "model student" who excelled in sports, joined clubs and won awards for his writing and research, but all that changed when Shinra took a knife wound for Izaya. It's pretty much heavily implied that the reason Izaya turned out the way he did was mainly due to that incident.
• Made of Iron: He gets hit with a freaking trash can and stands up moments later no worse for wear.
• Manipulative Bastard: He loves humans and in particular, loves to manipulate the world to see how those humans will react.
  • In the light novels, it's revealed the Izaya is actually responsible for a good deal fewer events than it appears, he only seems to be in control because his goal is solely to see how people react, and is therefore happy no matter how things turn out. Shinra states Izaya would probably get bored if he were really manipulating everything, and in SH Kuon fails to replicate Izaya's control due to his hatred for humans. Though, Celty suggests Izaya really can manipulate people, but only when he's in the thick of things.
• Man Behind the Man: Guess who passed the Dollars website password around Ikebukuro.
• Meaningful Name: Based on the biblical prophet Isaiah. Can also mean "one who watches over the crowd".
• Mysterious Past: Besides claiming he's from a normal family and having two younger sisters, Izaya's backstory remains a mystery. This is not helped by the fact that Izaya is a lying liar who lies, and has been known to just make up personal details for the hell of it.
  Namie: You said you graduated six or seven years ago...but didn't you also say you were 21 years old?
  Izaya: I've been telling people I was 21 for ages - or were you under the impression that I would just feed them my real personal information for free?
  • Subverted with volume nine, which is an entire volume on Izaya's past.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In a side story, Kazane speaks with Izaya who decides to deliver a Breaking Speech about why she had never tried to visit Shinra because she merely likes the idea of having a older brother in Tokyo. However, instead of having the breakdown as she appeared to be on the verge of, Kazane cheerfully admits Izaya was right and thanks him for telling her.
• The Nicknamer: Izaya's known for these (he's responsible for both Shizu-chan and Dotachin) — the recipients tend not to like them.
  • The former, at least, is subverted. It seems he heard the nickname 'Shizu-chan' before meeting Shizuo or even knowing what his real name was (he even thought he was a girl)
• Nonchalant Dodge: When he's not running from Shizuo, this is usually how he fights him. Also happens in the first OP when Shizuo chucks a mailbox at him and Izaya dodges in time, causing the water pipe behind him to burst open when the mailbox hits it instead and slam Shizuo into the vending machine behind him from the emerging blast of water.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, the feud between Izaya and Shizuo stems from Izaya falsely accusing Shizuo of some sort of crime.
  • Also in middle school. His apparent stabbing Shinra incident. If Shinra brings this up, he freezes instantly. However, you find out that the reason he freezes is that he doesn't want people to know that Shinra protected him and is trying to make it up to him by getting back at the person who stabbed him.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Particularly to Mikado. And suicidal girls, of course.
• Older Than They Look: Downplayed. Izaya has been saying he's twenty-one for several years and can still pass for that at age twenty-five. While Earthworm accuses him of worrying about getting old, though the real purpose seems to be obscuring his identity.
• Only Friend: His only friend is Shinra.
• Outgambitted: As noted by Kadota, do not try to use Izaya because he will turn it around and end up using you.
  • When Anri tries to lay a trap by following Higa to get Izaya to confess to manipulating the Yellow Scarves and give her a chance to cut him, he reveals he knew Higa was possessed and was taking the opportunity to deliver a Breaking Speech and declare war on Saika. Izaya also shows that his reflexes and knife skills make him impossible to cut and the entire plan was futile.
  • He pulls an even bigger stunt on Earthworm and Shijima, getting himself captured and mildly tortured Earthworm. Then, it turns out he planned the whole thing, nearly revealing to everyone the two have been lying about the existence of their bosses and ensuring he could take them out in one fell swoop.
• Parental Obliviousness: As it turns out, Izaya's father, Shirou, is extremely out of the loop when it comes to his children. After the stabbing incident, Shirou was only vaguely aware of Izaya's fights in high school and currently believes he works as a financial planner, being kept in the dark about his real job. To top it off, he has been encouraging Izaya's love of humans since he was a child, seeing it as a good thing and knowing nothing of how his son likes to express this love.
• The Penance: In his spin-off, Izaya is left having to use a wheelchair following his final fight with Shizuo. However, he reveals the problems with his legs are actually psychosomatic but he refuses therapy that could allow him to run again as punishment for distancing himself from humans. He is also seen constantly crossing his legs which is very painful for him to do.
• Perpetual Smiler: He always has a smile on his face. When he doesn't smile, it's either because someone screwed up his plans or something bad is going to happen to him.
• Pet the Dog: No matter what he says, he generally does care about Shinra. It's evident that the event that Shinra mentioned in middle school weighs on him because just mentioning it shuts him up. There's also the fact that he encouraged Shinra to buy valentine's chocolate for Celty. Of course, the chocolate was sold out so whether or not he was generally caring for Shinra at the moment or if he knew that the chocolate was already gone is up to interpretation.
  • And to add to the top he does feel bad about Shinra taking a knife wound for him. It was to the point where he would rather have everyone think that he stabbed Shinra rather than have people think that Shinra would take a knife wound for someone like him. And then he promises Shinra that the man who stabbed him, Nakura will suffer for the rest of his life.
  • When Mairu and Kururi start highschool, Namie asks Izaya if he isn't concerned they might get bullied since they're so distinctive. Izaya states that while he isn't concerned, per se (the twins can handle themselves), he wouldn't be happy to learn his younger sisters were being picked on.
• Practically Joker: A Psychopathic Man Child who messes with people For the Lulz, nihilistic but always in a good mood, a Manipulative Bastard who loves to Break Them by Talking, not much of a fighter but regularly holds his own against the World's Strongest Man, feared by everyone in the city, ambiguous sexual orientation, famous for his unpredictability and nothing about his past is known.
• Psychopathic Manchild: One of the rare Manipulative Bastard versions. It becomes quite obvious as the series progresses that he sees everyone and everything around him as little more than toys to be played with until they break.
  Izaya: Humans are mine! And I really don't like to share.
• Psycho Psychologist: He loves to dissect how people are thinking, especially if he gets to rant about to others.
• Psychotic Smirk: It speaks volumes about Izaya that he only gets truly frightening when he isn't wearing his trademark rape face.
• Psycho Supporter: Towards Shinra. If you even think of hurting him, be prepared to face the consequences. Of course, Ruri's stalker is no exception and he ended up with two of his legs broken, even though Izaya was still sore about Shinra being uncaring for him after being stabbed not too long ago.
• Put on a Bus: He's left Ikebukuro in the Time Skip between volume 13 and SH volume 1 to recover from his several near-fatal wounds from Shizuo and Vorona.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In many fan drawings and in the novel, he has red eyes.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's blue to Shizuo's red because he is the calm and smooth speaking manipular while Shizuo is basically rage on legs. The irony in this being Izaya is actually more aggressive than Shizuo is. Most of Shizuo's fights with Izaya are because Izaya provoked him in some way — Shizuo would actually be very content if he stayed out of his life completely.
• Renaissance Man: Understands and speaks three languages (Japanese, English, and Russian). He studies Norse and Celtic mythology. He knows parkour and is a good enough street fighter to mess around with Shizuo "God of Destruction in a Bartender Suit" Heiwajima on a regular basis. He dicks around with social psychology, mostly to carry out completely unethical social experiments (will exposing suicidal girls to near death experiments make them more or less likely to kill themselves? Let's find out!). He's set himself up as a very successful Information Broker before even turning twenty three. Not bad for someone who never went to a single class when he was in college.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: In his spin-off light novels, following his final fight with Shizuo, which nearly claimed his life, Izaya is shown suffering from rather severe PTSD.
• Shipper on Deck: Zigzags around this trope. He seems to support Shinra/Celty but around Celty, he tends to mock Shinra to no end to the point where she wraps a shadow around his neck and tells him to stop mocking Shinra. However, it becomes obvious that he does support the two together on Shinra's side at least. He encourages Shinra during a valentine's chapter to go by chocolate because it's the thought that counts. And this is after Shinra goes to Shizuo to complain about Valentine's Day and he shooed him away. His support might have to do with said middle school incident.
  • After Saki defies him to help Masaomi Izaya decides to give them his blessing.
• Silent Scapegoat: For Shinra. Despite Shinra taking a knife wound for him, he would rather have people think that he stabbed him instead of Shinra defending someone like him.
• Smart People Play Chess: And smart, crazy people play Chess-Shogi-Reversi-Go-Cards that's on fire.
• Smug Smiler: It's very rare for him not to smile while he revels in watching his plans.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Most of his conversations with Namie tend to lapse into this.
• The Sociopath: Fits the trope description (as well as the DSM, for the most part) to a T. Though it becomes subverted when we delve into his backstory a little. See Lack of Empathy above.
  • Also, it should be noted that Izaya's never said he was unable to love, just that he has no interest in forming personal relationships.
• The Stoic: He was actually quite stoic in high school, even around his good friend Shinra. He eventually developed his devilishly giddy personality when he met Shizuo.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome / Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Not as tall as Shizuo, but he's certainly a looker (and a snarker).
• Trauma Button: In his spin-off, Izaya is shown to become very disturbed upon seeing a woman in a bartender suit, even freezing up in fear due to his PTSD from his final fight with Shizuo.
• Technically a Smile: Izaya's constant grin is frequently described as 'mask-like,' or 'a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.' As written in the ninth novel:
  "It was not even a smile of pleasure - but rather a smile that could be called either eerie or bland, a smile that made the observer think that it only served to conceal his emotions."
• Terms of Endangerment: He calls Shizuo "Shizu-chan". Shizuo absolutely hates it, but Izaya loves to push his Berserk Buttons anyway.
  • For clarification, 'Shizu' is typically a girl's name, and 'chan' is a suffix usually used when referring to young children of both genders and women. In other words, it's an incredibly demeaning nickname.
• Troll: Both in real life and on the internet (where he earns extra points by pulling the G.I.R.L. routine on a regular basis). Izaya screws with people simply because he enjoys it and likes seeing their reactions.
• Tsurime Eyes: Always has these types of eyes, even when he's not smiling.
• Vocal Evolution: In the dub, his voice starts out as pretty normal, yet gets progressively higher-pitched and breathier over the course of the show. Just listen to him in the first episode vs the last episode and you'll notice a pretty drastic shift.
• Weak, but Skilled: He is this compared to Shizuo as he has no sort of powers like Super-Strength and is just a regular human.
  • Turns out to be subverted. Izaya has fast reflexes and can dodge Shizuo's attacks on a regular basis, yet has very little skill in fighting himself, even being mocked that if he were to try to harm or injure someone he'd only be stabbing randomly with no clue as to where to aim his strikes. He explains that [[spoiler:Simon was able to punch him because unlike Shizuo, Simon has had formal training and extensive combat experience]]. Izaya is also rarely seen attacking offensively and usually sticks to blocking or evading blows.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Shinra reveals that Izaya is afraid of dogs thanks to an incident in middle school where he's holding on to a pole as dogs bark at him from below.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: As noted by Izaya himself, his parents are ordinary people aside from their weird taste in names. His father was actually surprised he was even allowed to give Izaya his name since the spelling is extremely difficult to pronounce and even had a backup name just in case. The same goes for his sisters.
• Wicked Cultured: Has a snazzy apartment, is well-read, and speaks fluent Russian ^note Not very well, but that's probably more to do with the seiyuu than the character. However, his Russian is near perfect in the English dub.
• Wild Card: He's probably helped out and backstabbed every significant character in the series just For the Lulz... except for Shizuo. With Shizuo, it's clear that all his actions regarding him are driven by pure hatred.
• Ukefication: Almost always when paired with Shizuo in fanon...and even by Narita himself In-Universe in an April fools story (though they did, um... "switch" roles). Though he tends to avoid this when paired with anybody else. This is helped by the anime's portrayal of him, which gives him some random "feminine" qualities.
• Would Hurt a Child: Izaya isn't above manipulating elementary school girls and endangering their lives in the process.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Played straight, but ("I don't like hitting girls... Which is why I instead make it a hobby to stomp on their cellphones!")
  • However, he is not above letting others do the beating for him.
• Xanatos Gambit: Subverted. After his failure to kill Shizuo due to interference from Celty, Izaya tries to employ one. He runs into a large crowd with Shizuo hellbent on killing him and the two engage in a fight. Aoba explains the situation as follows: if Izaya kills Shizuo, then he's destroyed his enemy. If Shizuo instead kills Izaya in front of everyone, society will reject him as a monster and Izaya still wins. Unfortunately for him, he did not account for Vorona's intervention by shooting him to prevent Shizuo from doing the deed. However, thanks to Simon, no one is able to deliver the coup-de-grâce and Izaya survives, if barely.
• Yandere: For Shinra but not in the romantic sense. He will make sure that the person that hurt Shinra will suffer for the rest of his life. How serious is he? Well, for one thing, ever since that incident, he's been stalking said stabber and setting him up for two huge crimes against criminal organizations that he worked for and then telling him over the phone that these people will come for him. It's to be noted that when something bad happens, Izaya never tells said person that it was his doing but this incident proves that he indeed holds a huge grudge.
  • In the Izaya Orihara spin-off, Daisuke Sozoro mentions that it's better that Izaya loves humanity rather than specific people. He says that if Izaya was ever to love an individual, he'd finally become evil and probably destroy everything to obtain said person.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: In his spin-off taking place after the series, Izaya is confined to a wheelchair, despite the fact that only his arms were broken during his final battle with Shizuo. It turns out that, theoretically he should be able to walk, but the fight traumatized him so badly he suffers from psychosomatic pain in his legs, making it extremely difficult for him to take more than a couple steps. It's noted that taking therapy would allow him to run around like before, though Izaya refuses it in order to punish himself.
• You Never Asked: Himari believes that had her father asked why Haruto's father took over their company when he hired Izaya to obtain info, Izaya would have told him. Unfortunately, her father didn't and Izaya decided to reveal Haruto's father was actually trying to protect his partner directly after he murdered him, causing the man to commit suicide.