Shizuo Heiwajima

"Oh, I'm not mad. I just want to beat the shit out of you."

- Shizuo Heiwajima to Izaya Orihara Shizuo Heiwajima is a protagonist of the light novel, manga, and anime series Durarara!! with ''Durarara!! x2''. He is the rival of the questionable antagonist Izaya Orihara and is one of the two strongest men of Ikebukuro with the other being Izaya.

He is voiced by Daisuke Ono in the Japanese version of the anime and Crispin Freeman in the English version.

History
Shizuo was born to two normal parents and has a younger brother named Kasuka. One day, when he was a child, his monsterous strength first surfaced when he snapped and try to hurl a refrigerator at his brother when he ate his last pudding. Whenever Shizuo gets angry or if someone irritates him, he would break a plastic spoon or a pencil (as a child) and a cigarette (as an adult) in half and crush it under his foot and hurls a nearby object at them, but strains himself and breaks a bone in his body which ends him in the hospital everytime. However, this physical abuse made him stronger and he became adjusted to lifting heavier objects as time goes by. Shizuo was a fellow high school classmate with Izaya Orihara, Shinra Kishitani, and Tom Tanaka. As Shizuo first entered high school, he quickly became rivals with Izaya, and everyday on the streets, the two would battle and try to kill each other all the way through graduation and clear up to adulthood. Shizuo stated that there was no good reason and because he just hates him. After graduation, Shizuo tried to get a job and was fired everytime because of his short temper. Finally he became a bartender and Kasuka even gave him new outfits. However he was fired there also because he was framed by Izaya with the police. The police soon found that Shizuo was innocent and was freed. He was quickly found by Tom and was hired to work with him. From here on out, Shizuo became Tom's personal bodyguard.

Plot
Throughout the entire series, Shizuo works as Tom's bodyguard. Whenever he has the freetime, Shizuo would try to hunt down Izaya and the two will often battle. However, Shizuo does have some major roles in the series. His first role was when he narrated about his past, how he and Izaya became enemies, and how he became Tom's bodyguard. His second role was when a blade called Saika possessed most of the citzens of Ikebukuro and that they are after him so that they can contain his strength, but with the use of Celty's powers which took in the form of gloves for Shizuo to use, Shizuo took out the Saika controlled citizens until they where back to normal. His last major role was when Izaya phoned Shizuo to tell him that Kasuka was in danger of being killed by his hardcore obsessed fangirl's ex-boyfriend and Shizuo ironically guessed the man's coming to Izaya. Izaya then made his appearance and mockingly confessed to Shizuo on the phone that he did gave the man Kasuka's schedule so that he knows where he will be and that since Shizuo is around he would come to his aid. The two closed their phones and Shizuo ask Izaya what he is up to. Izaya told him that he is going to leave town for a while and go underground but he first wanted to settle a score between him and the city. In turn, the two rivals had one final battle.

Personality
Shizuo is introduced to the viewers in the first few episodes as a violent, no-nonsense tough guy, on equal footing with dangerous characters, such as Izaya and Simon. However, it is implied that most of the time, he is quiet and nondescript, simply following Tom around as his bodyguard. Shizuo apparently does not really like violence and has misgivings about his own strength; unfortunately, he has a very short temper and when angered, his body "acts on its own" and he fights with incredible strength. This restive nature is why Masaomi warns Mikado to stay away from him, along with Izaya and the Dollars, telling him to 'not hesitate to run from him' in the manga.

Shizuo's great strength is explained this way: Normally, the brain restricts one's power, shutting down muscles in response to pain in order to prevent serious injury; Shizuo doesn't have this limitation, and is capable of using his full strength. His power is described in the novels as the naturally unlimited form of human strength, and Shinra likens it to the incredible "adrenaline power" that people rarely display in times of emergency. Although he was chronically injuring himself as a child, over time his body quickly strengthened itself and caught up. Now, as an adult, he is able to use his power without destroying his body.

Despite the fact that Shizuo used his power very often, he was (and to some extent remains) worried about it. This is probably the result of events in his childhood where his strength caused others to fear him, alienated him from others at school, and even at times inadvertently hurt people he cared for. It is noted in the light novels that Shizuo seems to loathe both his strength and, by proxy, himself, despising both his short temper and inability to change his violent ways. As a boy growing up, it is mentioned that he simply endured the "eternal hell" that came with his power's toll upon his body as he felt it was simply a materialization of his own anger, and thus what he deserved.

As noted in the light novels, Shizuo is extremely lonely, partially due to his own fear of hurting those he cares for accidentally and partially due to his strength pushing everyone away from him. It is revealed he had fallen for a woman in the past, but was unable to control his strength and ended up injuring her severely despite only trying to save her. His strength also gradually alienated everyone around him, leaving him isolated and fully aware of the fact that he could never be seen as a normal person and not something to be feared again. As he matured, Shizuo came to the realization that all he truly wanted was to be loved by someone, but because of his condition could not love anyone. He believed he may have been able to forgive himself had his power existed to protect something, but also knew fully well that no matter what he fought for the world would always label his efforts as "violence". Thus, when Shizuo states he hates violence, it is implied that what he truly means is that he hates himself, as due to his very nature he is the definition of violence. It is not until his run-in with the Saika Army that he is able to accept himself the way he is, since they claim to "love" him because of his strength, the first time anyone has told them they love him at all. He was able to use his strength to its fullest without holding back and still be loved and praised for it, and this gave him the motivation to begin to accept his violent ways, even assisting with his self-control to a degree and allowing him to stop a punch he had already thrown at the last second. Outsiders believe that the "slasher" incidents ended when he went after Shizuo, while it is actually when Anri defeats Haruna Niekawa, but Shizuo still beat up many of Saika's daughter blades and only stopped fighting when they did.

Shizuo is also capable of often superhuman parkour moves gained from years of chasing Izaya Orihara, who is very good at running away from him. They share an intense mutual animosity, and Shizuo simply seeing Izaya on the street usually results in Shizuo hurling a trash can, vending machine, or other dangerous projectile at him, followed by Izaya fleeing and Shizuo giving chase while angrily yelling "Iiii-zaaa-yaaa!" after him.

Despite his violent temper, and fierce attitude, Shizuo is shown to be kindhearted with a deep rooted sense of honor and cares deeply for those who are close to him, including Celty, Tom, Varona, and Kasuka; he is also shown to be protective of children, as with Akane Awakusu.

Appearance
Shizuo was born with dark brown hair which he dyed blonde when he was a teenager. When he was attending Raira High School, he wore his formal uniform which includes a white dress shirt, a tie, and matching blue academy jacket and pants. When he was working as a bartender he wore a white shirt with a black vest, black pants, black dress shoes, and a black bow. When working as Tom's bodyguard, he wore the same outfit and he even wore dark blue sunglasses which he takes off when he is fighting. He is very tall and muscularly lean and he is seen smoking a cigarette most of the time.

Powers and Abilities
Enhanced Strength:Shizuo is greatly known to be the city's most strongest man. His strength first surfaced when he was a young child. His special abilities is parkour because of his years of battling Izaya who also masters parkour. He can lift objects that weighs around 25,000 lbs in average such as trucks or cars.

Improbable Weapon Proficiency:He uses objects near him such as trash cans, street lights, street signs, coke machines, etc. as defensive weapons against Izaya's blade attacks or he uses them as long ranged offensive weapons.

Pain Suppression:After years of his body being adjusted to the abuse, his body can take on any physical abuse that no mere human can survive such as being shot several times, getting hit in head by a baseball bat, getting hit by a truck which sends him flying about 20 feet in the air, and getting his hand stabbed by a pen which hardly has any affect on him whatsoever.

Personal Information

 * Race - Human


 * Gender - Male


 * Blood Type - O


 * Birthday - January 28, 1985 (1986 in the anime)


 * Star Sign - Aquarius


 * Age - 24


 * Weight - 154 lbs


 * Height - 6 ft 1 in

Trivia

 * His name is ironic. Heiwa (平和) means "Peace/Harmony" while Jima (島) means "Island", leading his last name to translate to "Peaceful Island".
 * Shizu (静) means "Quiet" and "o" (雄) means "Hero/Masculine/Leader", leading his first name to translate to "Quiet Hero".
 * Shizuo shares his birthday with Hiroshi Kamiya who is the Japanese voice actor of Shizuo's rival Izaya Orihara.
 * Ironically, Daisuke Ono and Hiroshi Kamiya are best friends in real life.
 * His hobby is basking in the sun. Foods he likes: Milk, all dairy products, desserts/sweet things in general Foods he dislikes: Anything that's bitter, beer (his preferences are like a kid's as far as taste's concerned) Favorite quote: "I hate violence" Despite his quiet nature in his normal daily life, Shizuo can turn into a very loud type while fighting Izaya due to his hot blood.
 * Shizuo has a tendency to break whatever he is holding when he loses his temper.
 * In the present storyline, Shizuo becomes enraged and usually breaks his cigarette in half and then steps it out, while in his childhood, he is seen doing the same thing to a lollipop, pencil, and plastic spoon.
 * Shizuo is very tolerant to pain even to the point where he got stabbed in the hand with a pen and showed no signs of being in pain at all.
 * Shizuo apparently has some sort of vocal tic as he is often heard chanting "kill, kill, kill" when riding with Celty or walking down the street.
 * According to Tom, the reasons Shizuo has never been arrested for all the destruction he caused during his rampages are:
 * 1) The people he beat up are usually the ones who can't or won't go to the police (ex. gangsters)
 * 2) His boss has been paying for the damages
 * 3) The destruction he caused is too ridiculous and humanly impossible (in other words, a judge probably will have a hard time believing that a young man has ripped a light pole up from the ground and bent it in half with his bare hands).
 * It is revealed that he knew Anri's mother, Sayaka Sonohara, as a child. She always offered him some milk from her shop in order to let him grow stronger since he always hurt himself. Later when he tried to chase away people harassing her in her shop, he overdid it and injured her (as well as the culprits) and damaged her shop. It is hinted in the anime he never dared stop by her shop again or left before she sees him.
 * Shizuo has a few similarities to Guts. Both are humans who are perfectly normal apart from their inhuman strength, and are greatly feared and dreaded in their respective worlds as a result. Additionally, both have an archenemy who is in many ways the polar opposite of them (Izaya Orihara and Griffith, respectively).