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• Adaptation Displacement: Partly due to No Export for You not many people realize that this series was based on a still ongoing Light Novel series.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Shinna's father a scientist that was curious about Celty and did dissecting to understand her physiology to better comprehend her body or a Complete Monster who likes dissecting unusual things and getting his son to participate it, leading to a strange Yandere obsession with her.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced:
  • Crispin Freeman being announced as Shizuo's dub voice actor seemed to have this effect.
  • As has the manga being licensed and released overseas. Still no word on the novels, though.
• Base Breaker: Vorona is either loved by fans because she's another action girl that is a potential love interest for Shizuo or a Relationship Sue that was created to sink the Shizaya pairing as well as a bitch that only wants to kill Shizuo and will break his heart to do so.
• Cargo Ship:
  • Not five episodes in and people are already shipping Shizuo with vending machines.◊
  • Speaking of cargo ships and Shizuo, Saika really has a thing for Shizuo. Anytime Anri so much as looks at him, the Empathic Weapon gets terribly excited and begins incessantly whispering, "I love you," in her head.
  • There's a general consensus that Mikado's ballpoint pen tops Aoba... it's not exactly a loving relationship though.
  • Saburo with his van according to some, and given how protective he is of it there may be an element of truth to this.
  • There have also been some...interesting fanworks involving Izaya and his switchblade.
  • Celty and her motorcycle. Her motorcycle is also a headless horse. This does not make things any better.
• Completely Missing the Point: The treatment that Anri gets from some fans is completely unwarranted. Not only is she often called "stupid" or "nothing but a fanservice character, she's also labeled as "dull" and "boring," in spite of there being a very good reason for her emotionless personality.
• Complete Monster:
  • Haruna Neikawa. Plans to not only murder Anri for petty reasons but also kill her friends and force her to watch for giggles? Check. Is taken totally seriously (unlike Izaya's Faux Affably Evil/Creepy Awesome role)? Check. Is not presented in a positive light? Check. Lacks any positive traits? Checkity check check. And if that's not enough she deliberately stabs her own father and forces him to murder Anri originally. She then calls him useless when he fails. She also constantly talks down on Anri for no reason whatsoever calling her a "skank" that throws herself on the men around her when it would apply to her more. Worse is when Anri shows her why she's Saika and her Abusive Parents, Haruna responds by attacking her not caring what she just saw. The scary thing is she's pretty much a Karma Houdini if you don't count her Humble Pie that Anri delivered to her. To add to this even though Anri spares her, she plans on getting back at her in recent chapters and for what reason? For the humiliation she suffered.
  • Izumi Ran also qualifies. He not only kidnaps Masaomi's girlfriend and gloatingly breaks both of her legs to get revenge on him, but also delivered a truckload of abuse on his own brother, Aoba, for extremely petty and selfish reasons. Worse still, he has been confirmed to be a sex offender and even threatens to rape Earthworm after already putting her through a massive (though admittedly well deserved) beatdown. And even worse, he, like Haruna is a Karma Houdini who has yet to receive any retribution for his actions.
  • Earthworm. Wanting to torture and kill two teenage girls just because their older brother was making a research on her organization, certainly makes her one of these.
• Crack is Cheaper: The 8-episode DVDs are going for 80 bucks each.
• Creepy Awesome: Izaya.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Seems to be a common theme in Narita's method of characterization; name one main character, and he'll have come up with a quirk or scenario that can topple you out your seat in several ways.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • This is beginning to occur between the Izaya/Shizuo fandom and Vorona/Shizuo shippers, and it's getting worse.
  • If you don't ship Saki and Kida together, she'll always suffer this treatment. (Mostly in the Izaya/Kida stories.)
  • To a lesser extent, Izaya/Namie and Shizuo/Izaya have also gotten some of this on forums and blogs, though it's generally averted in fanwork due to the ability to pair either up without the other ship getting in the way.
• Draco in Leather Pants: If fans don't Love to Hate Izaya, he's this for them.
• Ear Worm:
  • Asahi wa noboru, yeah!
  • TRUST ME TRUST ME TRUST ME TRUST ME
  • Whooooooa, oh, oh oh!
  • Linda Lindaaaaaaaaaaa~
  • MOGAKI KAGAYAKUUU.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Shizuo.
  • When it comes to a trio that everyone loves to place together to look or be cool, whether it be in videos or fanart, 9 out of 10 times — it'll be Izaya, Shizuo and Kida.
• Evil Is Sexy:
  • Izaya.
  • Some fans also perceive Earthworm as this.
• Fan Dumb: Definitely not as bad as other examples, but it appears to be happening more and more among shippers now that Shizuo has a possible Love Interest. Any photo of Vorona is bound to get bashed, even if she's not with Shizuo in the first place. Then there's the Shizaya shippers that claim to dislike Vorona simply because she wants to kill Shizuo, which would likely break his heart in the process, in spite of the fact that Izaya wants to kill him as well and has tried multiple times.
  • Granted, many people haven't read the novels so their interpretation is simply based on hearsay, which is a form of Fan Dumb in and of itself.
• Fan Preferred Couple:
  • If you look on Fanfiction.Net, Deviant Art or any other poll site, you'll probably notice that Shizuo/Izaya is the most popular. Doesn't help with the Ship Tease that Narita gives to bait the fangirls.
  • Especially in Japan, Izaya/Namie is increasing in popularity, which is also not helped by the fact that the illustrator Yasuda Suzuhito ships them and has drawn some unofficial art of the two for artbooks and such. He's especially fond of dressing Namie in Izaya's coat.
  • At least on Pixiv, Yoshimune is usually shipped with Izaya or Shizuo.
• Foe Yay: Shizuo/Izaya (which is regularly spoofed, lampshaded, teased, and generally dicked around with), Shizuo/Vorona, Mikado/Aoba (which overlaps with Ho Yay, and Namie/Mika. Erika claims to see some between Kadota and Chikage. Kadota is not amused.
• Fridge Logic/ Fridge Brilliance: This is practically what Episode 9 should be called.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Celty's comment to Shuuji about Shizuo's strength level in relation to others sounds a whole lot less innocent after episode 22.
  Celty: You know how, no matter how skilled a martial artist is, you can just shoot them and it's over?
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: "Bacon Lettuce" (a backronym for BL) has been slowly catching on after Narita used the term in reference to Shizuo/Izaya.
• I Knew It:
  • Some fans have figured out that the girl walking around with a scar on her neck has Celty's head. Of course, this is an intentional red herring.
  • Izaya declares this in-series after discovering that Mikado is the leader of the Dollars
    Izaya: I was right! HA!
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Izaya gets paired with everyone.
  • Perhaps he wants to be paired with everyone on though, he does love all humans. Except Shizuo that is, which leads to extreme irony that he gets paired up with Shizuo the most.
  • Shizuo is also one of these.
  • Mikado is slowly becoming this thanks to taking a few levels in badass. There's actually one fanfic out there that goes out of its way to pair him with everyone.
• Love to Hate: Izaya
• Magnificent Bastard: Izaya, of course.
• Memetic Badass: Shizuo, Izaya (memetic ubertroll) and Mikado (usually in reference to the pen stabbing incident in volume 6)
• Memetic Molester: Many a fan have concluded that Izaya is just as much of an asshole in bed as he is everywhere else.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • LOL OUT ROUDER.
  • Almost every time someone is talking about Izaya, sooner or later "stomping on cellphones" will show up somewhere in the discussion.
  • Drawing versions of the scrolling artwork in the ending with different series' characters is getting rather popular.
  • Just like the Izaya example, Shizuo is always depicted throwing around vending machines all the time whenever he gets mad even though he actually throws anything heavy instead, or uses the closest streetsign as a club.
  • YO YO YO... HEY MAN!
  • Mikado is becoming this. Especially his pen.
• Memetic Sex God: Many a fan have declared their desire to be punched out of their clothes by the GARtender.
  • Its obvious from this that Japanese fans feel the same way. (There's also an Izaya version)
• Mind Game Ship: Izaya has a canon one going on with all of humanity. His favorite targets, however, seem to be Shizuo and Kida, as well as the girls he forms "suicide groups" with For the Evulz.
  • Though with Shizuo it's mostly in the anime; in the novels, Izaya truly hates him and states that he would rather be as far away from him as possible. He also hates talking about him in general and seems to get pissed whenever anyone mentions him. Shizuo's the last person Izaya would try to play mindgames with face-to-face - he just tries to get him dead from afar.
• Mind Screw:
  • Episode 9. The one where the plot really kicks into gear!
  • Narita just seems to enjoy this in general. Throughout the anime, manga, AND novels, he repeatedly mindscrews his audience, ranging from Izaya epic trolling Earthworm (all of volume nine had the readers switching between "He's under the bag" and "He put someone else there," finishing up with a giant WTF) to Harima Mika of all people having the best information network EVER just to protect her precious Seiji.
• Mis-blamed: Saki. The main accusation thrown at her by fans is that she's responsible for Kida dropping out of school and leaving Ikebukuro. In reality, it has very little to do with her. Kida left Ikebukuro because he was too ashamed to face Mikado and Anri after the whole Yellow Scarves incident. The extent of Saki's involvement is giving him a place to stay after he ran away from home.
  • While this is true for the original novel, the anime's epilogue makes it seem that Kida left to elope with Saki, and the scene with Mikado and Anri, smiling and being oddly understanding of his choice to leave. This also wasn't helped by the anime giving Kida an more angst on the subject of Saki, and basically making Kida bring her up when Mikado and Anri saved him, and ultimately having Kida beat up Horada in order to take revenge for what happened with Saki. This is a big change from the original novels, where Kida beat up the Yellow Scarves in self defense, and after Anri and Mikado arrive the three just sat in silence being happy that they were all right. Anri and Mikado also aren't understanding of why Kida left, because he never brought up Saki with them at all, in fact Saki was never the main focus of Kida's characterization in those chapters. So this case Saki is only Misblamed, if you're talking about the novel, if you're talking about the anime however then yes Saki is at fault.
• Moe:
  • There's a reason he's called Moekado, after all.
  • Celty is this for some. Despite not having a head, she manages to be one of the most adorable adult women in the show.
  • Namie was adorable when she was a kid, especially in the manga. That lasted about five pages.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Izaya crosses it in the back story with his treatment of Saki and Kida.
    • Granted, to some, he crossed it upon his introduction. Especially in the novels/manga.
  • Any amount of sympathy you may have for Haruna will be lost after Anri shows her her depressing backstory. Haruna's response? Ruthlessly and remorselessly attacking her with the obvious intent to kill her, laughing maniacally in the process.
  • Izumi Ran either crossed this when he kidnapped Saki and broke her legs or when he abused Aoba. It's hard to tell which, though.
• Never Live It Down: Despite not appearing in the anime, Aoba is best known for getting stabbed with a ballpoint pen by Mikado of all people. This is to the point that, since there are very few official illustrations of him and we don't get a good look at his face, he is usually made recognizable in fanart by his wounded and/or bandaged hand.
• One True Threesome: Kururi and Mairu don't seem to mind crushing on the same guys, and they both kissed Aoba. And there's also the Twincest. Of course, this is probably because they don't see themselves as seperate people.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Shizaya, for the Shizuo/Izaya fandom. Or alternatively, Izuo for the ones who pair them in a...reversed manner.
  • Izamie and Izanra have also been showing up recently with the Izaya/Namie and Izaya/Shinra fans, respectively.
• Relationship Sue: Vorona is accused of being one by the Shizuo/Izaya fans and others.
• The Scrappy:
  • Saki. Many people think that she destroyed the Three Amigos dynamic with Mikado, Anri and Kida to the point that Kida left Ikebukuro with her and fails to communicate with the other two as time goes on.
  • Seiji, Namie and Mika also qualify; fans consider them insane, even by Narita's standards, and even after their subplot was rendered completely pointless they wouldn't stop showing up. Namie gets more Scrappy points to many Shizaya fans for "being in the way of their relationship."
  • Namie and Mika's scrappy-status is, for the most part, only among anime fans, but this rings especially true for Seiji in the novels. Most people can't understand why so many people like him, because he's very dull and kind of...weird. Mika and Namie aren't as disliked for this by the novel fan, because Namie still has her role as Izaya's secretary, and Mika's been getting more love due to the revelation that there's much more to her than what meets the eye .
• Squick: Episode 12, where we are treated to a scene of Izaya playing around with Celty's head, tossing it back and forth in his hands like it's a basketball. Though this doesn't quite amount to the fact that Seiji is in love with it. And that Shinra loves Celty better without it.
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Haruna Niekawa falls straight down to the bottom. Putting her Psycho Strings background music aside, note that when she goes to see Anri in episode 16, she never blinks once.
  • The Ganguros. So much makeup...
• Tear Jerker: Admit it, you cried when you thought Shizuo was going to die alone in that ally. Also, Anri's backstory.
• Unfortunate Implications:
  • Every scene with Simon. Since he's the Token Minority, this is (sadly) to be expected. He's a bit of a Funny Foreigner, but beyond that he's mostly just a victim of casual prejudices.
  • On the other hand, contrast Simon with Kaztano. If that personality was in Simon's body, that would seem pretty racist. Unlike Kaztano who seems unintelligent on top of the language barrier problem, Simon is just Eloquent In My Native Tongue.
    Izaya: ...Simon, you seem like a totally different person when you're speaking Russian.
• The Woobie:
  • After the crap Izaya puts Masaomi through in the third arc, you can't help but want to hug him.
  • You'll really want to give Anri a hug when you see her backstory.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Shizuo and Aoba if you squint given his backstory.
  • Celty is to a few fans- she just wants to get her head back. This, on top of how she possesses some human traits and lives like a normal human, except everyone else has a head! Yeah.
• Woolseyism: The English dub of the anime changes most of Kida's Gratuitous English uses of the word "erotic" (in reference to Anri) to "boobylicious," particularly in Episode 13. It ends up working better, as "erotic" isn't often used in the same sense in English as he was using it in the original. That, and it's much more in keeping with Kida's personality to make up a word on the spot and then keep using it until Mikado tells him to stop. It also just sounds funnier.