Anime 6746 Durarara Reviews Filter Check 2

I finally finished "Durarara!!" and while there were characters that I liked and moments that were entertaining, I don't think it's a series I would willingly put myself through again. I'm not even sure I liked it as a whole.

Putting aside the immediately obvious fact that the animation for this series is superb and all opening and ending songs are awesome, what's left for me to complain about is the pacing, the plot, and the nearly nonexistent character development. Oh, and the mind-numbingly boring way in which the dialogue is remarkably unsubtle, anvilicious, and pretentious.

I know this is based on a series of light novels ... and that there's also a manga version. But while I know a bit about both, I haven't read enough of either, and this is an anime review anyway, so I'm glad I haven't yet so I can focus on the anime. I actually wonder if I may be too old for this anime, because it left me completely unimpressed, didn't change my point of view in anyway, and I learned nothing and felt nothing while I watched it. It felt like the entire thing was made by a bunch of disaffected college students that have nothing better to do with their spare time than angst about how the world is so sad and boring. And while this seems perhaps an unfair attack on the team that made the anime and for all I know they're completely the opposite, it's how the series came off as.

For all the darkness or apparent maturity of the themes, the show comes off as incredibly naive. The characters spend way too long and talk too much in an effort to explain themselves and their actions. There's too much talking! Even when what they're saying is plainly obvious or when they could have stopped after one sentence and it's especially annoying when you realize that their justifications are pretty much senseless or stupid after the nth time they've explained it. I honestly blocked out whole chunks of dialogue from boredom. Then I went back to see if I missed anything by doing so. I didn't.

I don't think the series is as meaningful as it thinks it is, and I wasn't moved by most of the characters. The only ones I really cared about by the end of it all was Kida Masaomi and Celty, the headless biker. (And Heiwajima Shizuo who is crazy awesome. I like Orihara Izaya and he's one of my favorite characters, but I don't really care or am concerned about the guy because he should honestly die in a fire.) Speaking of which, what really bothered me was how so many of the characters escaped karma -- except Kida Masaomi, who the show seemed determined to break because that's his designated role. The show also tries to present Mikado Ryuugamine as somewhat of a hero, which I refuse to accept. And to bring up the manga and novels, I think the anime tries much harder than those two make him likeable or acceptable (and overall NICER) to count as one and it's obvious. I'm sorry, but no. Better to have left him a bit of a magnificent bastard than to do so. By extension, the Dollars are supposed to be the good gang, which is laughable, since while they do some good in the anime, they're not much different from the bad gangs -- they're a bunch of easily manipulated cowardly sheep who can't even do good on their own (with the exception of a few, but they're in the extended hero's group so...).

What really bothers me about the Dollars is, had their leader been actually smarter and less interested in his own entertainment, they could have PUT AWAY SOMEONE THAT'S DONE SOMETHING CLEARLY WRONG. In the first half, the major conflict involved a shady pharmaceutical company responsible for a string of kidnappings and that was covering up an assault. Granted, the assaulted girl was cray cray and a stalker, and she didn't press charges because she's madly in love with the guy that nearly killed her and they wound up together thanks to the said pharmaceutical company, but really? REALLY? The guy that ALMOST CRACKED HER HEAD OPEN escaped punishment and is later on referred to as "he's weird, but kind of cool"? By the show's protagonist? WHAT?! And what did the leader of the Dollars choose to do about this? MESS WITH THE MIND OF THE PERSON BEHIND ALL OF IT. Yeah, that's all. And the result? Was not so awful that by the next episode she's seen working for the information broker that orchestrated it all while still full of haughty arrogance. And speaking of the information broker, I don't know if he really is just that awesome or the other characters are just so stupid or weak that he's pretty much untouchable despite being so plainly evil.

The only thing that could have possibly redeemed this whole show was the friendship between the three main characters (Anri, Mikado, and Kida). But as a friendship, it just fails. There are countless other anime and manga that have portrayed friendship in an amazingly poignant way. This anime had that chance but it just fell so miserably short.

The light novels and the manga version of this show goes farther from what I've seen and heard about. If there's a second season, my point of view might change. Who knows? As it stands, it's pointless, other than being pretty to look at. Much of the show seems focused on being cool for the sake of being cool and that's it.

TL;DR watch Baccano instead

Durarara likes to rely on the 'Rule of Cool' but there's not much cool about it. It doesn't even have the complete pandemonium that makes its predecessor Baccano so great. It's not set onboard a zany animated Orient Express... It's just a normal city in Japan. They repeatedly reference a 'Color gang war', an apparently important event in the city's history, but we never learn anything interesting or important about it.

The characters aren't exception. You've a country bumpin... Who moved to the big city... To *sigh* GO TO HIGH SCHOOL.

Yoou've got a class rep with big tits with a dark secret, ... a dumbass pervert best friend, and oh big surprise, they're in a love triangle with the protagonist.

Side characters aren't special. You have anger issues man, slimy knife man, otakus, and token diversity character (tried to cross off a lot of squares, he's a giant black dude from Russia).

These characters get no development. Their introducitons are bland, their hastily added backstories are cringeworthy, and everything about them seems to exist just so you can tell them apart... Like NPCs in a bad video game.

The only character who gets any depth is Celty. She's a Dulahan (Headless spectre from Celtic mythology) in Japan searching for her lost head. I don't know if she's a good character of if she's just the only one who isn't terrible... But either way she's better than the rest. If I could change it, I'd focus on her story. Her motivations, conflicts, and interactions are easily the best part of the show, and the only reason the characters get a 5/10


The soundtrack isn's bad. Funk and jazz, very Baccano - the opening theme is almost comically similar. There's some amazing unconventional tracks with solo upright bass. Like Baccano, both the Japanese and the English dubs are great. Shame it doesn't save the show.


The animation isn't bad either, but it's not great. You get the sense they're saving the budget for a huge awesome payoff... That never happens. If you're gonna go full rule of cool it has to LOOK cool, not just average all the time.

Enjoyment? Well, if you watch the show as brainlessly as possible, you'll enjoy it for the first few episodes, but the flaws will quickly become impossible to ignore and you'll lose your patience, so when it gets boring it's really frustrating. It has a few good moments, but I found it hard to finish.

Everything that this show gets wrong, Baccano gets right. And everything that this show gets right, Baccano does better. This is obviously a tribute to Baccano, and honestly... If you want to watch a tribute to something, I'd recommend watching the real thing. Go watch Baccano instead. Durarara is a waste of your time.

This show has an absurdly volatile and defensive fanbase, which makes it even harder to like. They hype it up as a masterpiece, and it's so far from it, you're annoyed before you've made it halfway through.

Durarara!! is one of those shows with a double life theme, add that with some gang drama and a headless motorcyclist, and you got yourself a mashup! Which is exactly what this is. A mashup.

Story:

Just what I said above. This is a mashup of different cliche or used ideas. The headless motorcyclist, the gangs and mobs, the secret double life of a high schooler, and two best friends who end being on the opposite end. I was a bit disappointed in the fact there was much at the beginning but silly introductions to the characters and their profile. I don't care! They could've ... easily done the same thing while they moved through the plot. And it was a bit hard to understand why this was considered "supernatural" minus Shizuo having extreme strength.

It was decent enough, but still had so much potential.

Art:

Not very good. Why do some of the people on the streets end up being just grey silhouettes? Now I haven't read the manga, so I don't know what the drawings look like, but the animation just seems so...sloppy. It looks like the animators got super lazy and said fuck it! Good enough. Heck! They look like they worked more on the background than the actually characters!

Sound:

Probably what saved this anime. The sounds in this were pretty good. They added to the suspension of the scene and drew the watcher in. The two opening songs were spot on and prepared the watcher for what was too come. Kudos to the soundtrack team!

Character:

Not much to say really. These characters are pretty much based off of other characters from classics, although they are pretty well thought up and they do have their own personality. No sterotypes, although Mikado was a bit of a goody too shoes. My favourite had to be Shizuo of course. The way he got when Izaya came around was hilarious!

Enjoyment/Overall:

50th anime watched! I really didn't get into this until around episode 17/18. The first few episodes were a bit too dull for my taste. It seemed to be repeating itself over and over...I got bored. No lies.

I give this 52.5% on the fighting level.

Watched the dub so that's what I'm reviewing.

The anime often shows you seemingly useless information, and at times following the flashbacks are very hard. The first few episodes were very slow, and not that engaging, and while it finished very well, the journey to that was less engaging.

The story and character interactions are very well strung together, perhaps too well at points, the flashbacks are sometimes a little hard to follow and the un centred nature of the anime made following the plot sometimes challenging. This anime isn't something that you can really attach 'antagonist' labels to something, while it's an understatement to say it's ... mostly the characters messing around with each other - it's probably a good summary.

The animation wasn't particularly high quality. The greying of non important characters was fine really, and helped you focus on what you were meant to, but most of the quieter scenes were animated very basically. Not so much as to detract from the story, but it lowered the engagement nonetheless.

The voice acting in the dub was very good, but the sound tracks were very heavily over used and to me they were getting cliché by the end, such was the number of times I had heard them.

I also personally didn't like the narrative style. Often what a character was thinking was literally said out loud, and the actual narrator was sometimes a character from the story and sometimes external. Without a very good ability to memorise an attribute the voices, following who was narrating what was hard, and the style of the fairly frequent narration lost any implicit messages. Everything was dictated to you like they didn't want you to miss it, and while all this information tied up brilliantly towards the end, it felt a little forced to me watching it at the start.

The style of pulling a surprise back story out of nowhere didn't really bother me, nor so much the characters/plot itself, more so the way in which it was presented.

While the animation quality might be quite low, and the episodes at the start aren't that engaging, the anime does tie up nicely and deliver on the ending.

Okay, so after surrounding all the hype that encased this show, and because Crispin Freeman made a big deal about it at NYAF 2010, I decided to give it a shot. Half of me feels like it was a waste of time, and the rest of me isn't so sure. I am almost finished with it at this point, but I feel that writing the review now might be best (the end that is in sight isn't looking good.)

Now, if you're one of the people looking to watch this show because you enjoyed Baccano! (I mean, who didn't?), then this is NOT for you. It ... will rub you all sorts of the wrong way. If you are someone that enjoys psychological thrillers with violence and mythology, step right up! However, I warn you now that it is a LOT to keep track of and isn't an overdose of any one genre specifically (except the sick pervy romance kind.)

Let's begin with the STORY, which I gave a 6. I pondered over this one for a little because it's actually a lot of stories all jammed in together, and individually they are all pretty boring, but together it makes for an interesting mix. In Baccano, which I highly recommend, you have three or less stories to keep track of at any one time; in Durarara, you have ... I dunno... a lot? A lot. You've got headless horsemen, sick doctors, unloved high school girls, a psychotic informant, some guy that throws vending machines, high school kids that lead huge street gangs, and some manga-obsessed quad-team that doesn't seem to matter but takes up screen time to confuse you. And yes, all of these things are stories that all interlace and run headlong into each other, until you don't know which was is up or down, and if you wanted it to be either of them!

Granted, people throwing vending machines is REALLY cool, so Crispin Freeman can have his kudos for being one of the few awesome characters. But I mean. If you're just gonna watch it for Shizzy-chan, then just watch episode 7, which is his backstory, and be done with it.

I just have a sinking feeling that this is the kind of anime that won't ever be resolved in a satisfying way. Why do I say that? Well, at the point where you find the epicenter of ONE of the plot lines, and two characters meet head to head (figuratively speaking, since one of them is headless), there is the feeling that the source of all the pain should be taken and everything can be resolved and we can move forward. What happens? One of the characters says 'Nice job killing everyone. Bye.'

Seriously?

Anyway, the art (which got an 8 in my book). Well. It's very stylized, and I particularly love the grayed out background people, because it helps you keep track of who is not important. Until of course, everyone gets colored in as a huge 'EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT' statement. Hello Captain Obvious! I won't deny that the animation is fairly well done and the background work is phenomenal. Very rarely do they reuse any of the footage. We see the inside of one man's office maybe 20+ times, and only 3-5 of those times is it the same art. I really appreciate them not half-assing it artways, but it doesn't necessarily make up for the shitty incoherent plot they tried to concoct.

As for sound, I'm extremely picky. If I don't notice it, it sucked. My favorite sound track is from Eureka Seven, but I can honestly say DRRR comes pretty close! It is not very often that I actually LIKE the OP and ED songs from a show these days. It is even rarer that animators use music correctly! However, they have a refrain that they play several times when everyone should be rainbows and butterflies, and I love it! Absolutely love it! So the sound got a 9!

The characters were... mediocre at best. They were all very stereotypical, and nothing was TOO surprising. Watching them develop hasn't been the most interesting thing in the world, in fact it sometimes seems irrelevant despite the fact that the whole thing slowly seems to be turning into a slasher soap opera. As I said for the 'story' section, it is more about the characters than anything else, and so their histories ARE, essentially, the story. But you know, innocent high schoolers being majorly important gang leader/murderer/opposing gang leader... that's really original. I totally didn't see that coming in Higurashi when all the girls took out butcher knives and killed everyone. Come. On!

I did enjoy all the character DESIGNS. Especially Shizuo and his bartender outfit, and Selty with her shadow-leather biker suit. So I didn't score it TOO badly. I just wish... all the characters had been less typical. In Baccano, all the characters kept me guessing; I couldn't tell bad from good and I loved every second of it! (Jacuzzi was the most surprising!) But man... like I didn't know Celty was gonna turn into a pile of mush around her captor (Stockholm Syndrome much?) Shinra? Everyone can see it coming, so it's not a spoiler. If you didn't, this anime is too dense for you, you need some light hearted shojo. (May I recommend Kaicho wa Maid-sama?)

As for enjoyment, I gave it a 6. I'm still watching it aren't I? Could be I'm cooped up in the house for winter break like any anime fan, but it also could be that it has a mildly captivating watch value. I would recommend a rewatch, but only because it's so damn confusing. I feel like I should make a chart or something; in fact... I almost did. But how silly is that? If you have to watch anime with a chart, then it's too fucking complicated. Even Spice and Wolf, which people complain has a LOT of dialogue, isn't that complicated (AND IT INVOLVEES MATH PEOPLE.)

So anyway, I gave DRRR a 6. And I wanted to be able to provide a comprehensive reason as to why I'm scoring so low, so as to provide a new and fresh look on things. I hope it helped!

Let’s say that the soundtrack is exellent. If you happen to find yourself neglected by the people who actually know what’s going on in the series, don’t ponder over your miniature power of understanding and just follow the tune...
An ordinary boy leaves his small hometown and moves Tokyo. A good point to start the story of the town he’s suddenly in. But it does make you wonder whether the story is about the town itself or the boy we’re following as the main character, since the series itself doesn’t take sides, which is ok in the beginning, but gets confusing as the story progresses.

Base ... Brains + Aniplex = beautifully animated, stylish and lively. Dynamic camera movements, nice shots, carefully chosen point of view etc. I don’t want to underestimate anything, but after Kaiba, everything just seems mediocre. What you truly like about the atmosphere is this insisting on the danger, on the dark side of the town. You sit and watch an honest and naive boy in the midst of the urban jungle, all its dangers being presented to you, one by one, (thus bringing in new characters and story elements); wondering is he actually aware of all the things lurking from the dark?

Wait. What things? Well, the mysterious part that gets you tangled up in the story in the beginning is very soon explained and elaborated. Too soon, in my opinion. While it does feel necessary, and it is the main drive in all stories containing the horror or mystery element, I still didn’t think that you could uncover what lies behind so recklessly and get away with it. This series did. And when it started uncovering the rest, the disappointment started piling up.

And what gets you most is the narrative. It’s mechanical, made to make you think it’s not linear thus cool, as if that meant anything by itself. In order to turn your head away from the potential problems you may imagine developing and deeply damaging the series, you are confronted with a growing pile of main characters, and they’re all positive. The whole series reeks of being world/peace/human/whateverthef loving. In order to cover that up, you are presented with: a question of suicide/sick love/cowardice/WWII aura experiments on humans...

The characters can’t deliver the message well because they’re omnipotent, and when they clash – wait, he was omnipotent in the previous episode, so he must win; but if you don’t remember, the other one was also super cool, and he’ll even say it out loud. Just to remind you. And I don’t like that. Recapitulations without a good cause, or to fill the void of oblivion that the character fell into while you were following the other seven having a lazy stroll? I don’t like things falling out of authors hands. I did see a movie once where all characters are bad, and it was a good movie. But having them all good puts you in a position where the real opposition is impossible. How do you solve the problem in the end, who will make the balance; even the police are way out of the line cool. Even if you go with the flow and empathise, the “I’m sorry” part stabs you in the back. Teenagers need a catharsis too. You can’t just think of them as dumb.

It did have a good start, though. But the main ingredient failed. The myth you just might have fallen in love with, gets neglected by the author. Or, a less optimistic viewer might say the author didn’t know what to do with it. It’s like you have a god appear in your script and you don’t know what to put in his mouth, so you decide to let him be. But a silent god is still a declaration, so you decide to have him, but have him sleeping. And that’s about it to the series. You won’t hear it.

After watching, finishing and really enjoying Baccano I started Durarara!! With really, really high expectations of a great story, plot and an anime that would keep me interested the whole way through. Let me just say I was sadly disappointed.
-----------Criteria-----------
Story: 6.5
Although a new and original story, one that I’ve never heard or seen before, it seems like the story just ended at around episode 12 or 13 and then they decided to drag it out for some reason. As the description mentions it’s about a mythical Irish urban legend a dullahan “black rider” or “headless rider” which makes an appearance in the Japanese ... city of Ikebukuro. The story is about a dullahan and the mysterious events that unravel around the dullahan. After they confirm the mystery of who the dullahan is and who’s behind the dollars everything goes downhill, a little up and then crashes with the ending.

Ending: 5
I don’t think the ending could’ve gotten any more ‘shounenier’. It was too happy and ‘lovey dovey’ for an anime that isn’t supposed to be purely romance based (even if was romance based the romance is really bad). I at least half expected someone to die due the fact that the climatic buildup of mystery and thrill in episodes 20-23 makes you expect that someone from the main 3 characters will have a tragic or heroic end. But it all come crashing down in episode 24 with a typical ‘the love birds run off to a happily ever after’.

Solid Plot: 5
As previously stated I found that after the mystery of the dullahan gets out in the open both the plot and story seem to just drag on. In the second half of Durarara!! There are things that are either unnecessary or add an element to the plot and story that doesn’t end up getting resolved. For instance the really big matter with the dullahan’s head, they should’ve dropped it at episode 12 or 14 but decided to bring a new element of mystery to it but saying a war will be the catalysts for the birth of a Valkyrie

Moral: 9
2 really great morals touched on in Durarara the first in episodes 1-12 being that everyone is fine with the way they are no matter what deficiencies they have. The second touched on episodes 13-24 via a direct use of the dollars, is that if we all band together and act as one, we can help each other out with any task big or small.

Sense: 8
Seeing as they explain everything in quite some detail it does make a lot of sense. The background/history of the characters comes into play when trying to understand character choices and reasoning and once taken into consideration we can understand the choices they’ve made.

Music: 8
Excellent opening song and use of oxymoron’s and expressions within it. “Reality is a picture drawn on a black stained tomorrow” “Writhing and Shinning”, what this is supposed to mean I will leave up to you but many different ideas can be taken from this. Music played during happy, sad, and suspenseful and action scenes are also complementary to the mood of the scene.

Art: 8
The art style was excellent everything from character design to natural effects (fire, water, day, night). Can’t really say a lot about the art work except for the fact that it was excellent and one of the highest points of this anime.

Characters: 8.5
Possible the biggest high point yet also the biggest problem with this series. Character design to emotions to character development was amazing too amazing in fact that it can’t get a perfect 10 due the fact that I feel they focused too much on developing the characters that they neglected the most important part of any anime: story and plot development. I felt that the anime should’ve ended after episode 12 with a dramatic close after revealing one of the series biggest secrets. Unfortunately the one and only character shrouded in complete mystery and you want to know more about they leave you nearly completely clueless on, Orihara Izaya. Where did he learn to fight? How did he become so good at gathering information? What does it take to become his disciple (Saki Mikajima)? How does he know Russian? And a lot more unanswered questions.

Personal Score: 4
Like I’ve said previously I really believed that they should’ve done the same thing they did with Baccano, a nice short 12-13 episode series that has a really good story and plot to it. Though in short my personal opinion would be to watch up to episode 13 then stop, I also wouldn’t re-watch it.
:POSSIBLE SPOILERS: If you’re like me and only if you’re like me, then really nothing can get past you when it comes to secrets. The leader of the dollars figured it out by episode 6, the real Slasher got that by episode 15, and previous leader of the Yellow Scarfs got that by 16. The only thing that caught me off guard was who Harima Mika is; but even then I had a feeling she was a head or a body…. Also the biggest thing I hated about this was Mikado’s resolve for creating the dollars ‘it started off as a prank which turned into something bigger’, ‘I didn’t leave because I thought I could make Ikebukuro a better place’. But then when shit hits the fan he packs his bags and hightails it out of there thinking that if he leaves it’ll reduce the amount of ‘shit’ on the fan. Like world revolves around him? Also I don’t think they could’ve made this anime any more ‘shouneny’, if they literally took out the blood and the swearing than this anime would be suitable to watch by a 13 year old audience, though they’d find it pretty hard to understand.

------Genres-------
Action: 4.5
Very little action scenes, that only last between 5-10 seconds max when we clearly want to see more of Shizou vs. Izaya.

Mystery: 4
The only thing that didn’t stop me from turning it off even though its element was still so low. I was always waiting for that big thing or event to happen that would completely mind blow me….never came. Also unfortunately pretty much 95% of all discussed mysteries are incredibly easy to solve. 1 or 2 mysteries may come as shock but you would’ve expected half of the answer already. Some mysteries also have no relevance or a simply dropped, such as the case of the disappearing people.

Supernatural: 4
I don’t really know how Durarara passes as a supernatural genre anime seeing as there a possible only 2 elements that are ‘supernatural’. The first being the Dullahan, the second the Slasher and they don’t even qualify as being really supernatural seeing as 90 percent of the time they show both the Dullahan and Slasher and regular ordinary people.

Gang: 5
The gangs didn’t really make any sense to me. After the war between the Yellow Scarfs and Blue Squares which the Yellow Scarfs ended up winning, the Yellow Scarfs gladly welcomed any Blue Squares member to their side. Stuff like that usually doesn’t happen between gangs. They don’t become all ‘lovey dovey’ after a fight like they were ‘bros’.
Though really overall and in short if you’re smart as in educated i.e you’re able to make accurate assumption form only 1 clue, than don’t watch this coz nothing will come as a surprise. However if you’re pretty slow and don’t catch on to things that quickly (most people these days) than this is the perfect anime to keep you entertained for a good 8 hours. Personally for me I would not rewatch no matter what, some people said they found it unpredictable; I went through this anime like an open picture book; with only a few things coming as a surprise.

Overall (Average) - 5.6875

This is my first review on this site so I apologise if my review doesn't inform you fully about whether you should really watch this highly rated show or not. Also I have to say that I am biased and will be much harsher than possibly other reviewers as I have watched Baccano! which was created by the same people and was told in about the same manner.

If you have already watched Baccano! you might be wondering whether you should watch Durarara!! and that will depend on what you enjoyed in Baccano! If you enjoyed the sheer violence(present only when necessary) that was there ... in Baccano! and the craziness of characters such as Rail Tracer and Ladd and the comedic relief provided by the couple Isaac and Miria then prepare yourself to be disappointed immensely. For me Durarara!! seemed to be a show made to cater to a much younger age group. Gone was the violence and the craziness replaced with high school kids who really did not develop much and also characters who remained static and comedic characters who just weren't funny. Even the romance present in Durarara!! seemed to be inferior and somewhat cliche to what was presented in Baccano!. So for me personally Baccano! was a much more superior anime than Durarara!! and I just had to make comparisons between the two since I know that many fans of Baccano! will look to watch Durarara!! just like I did.

The art was good enough for me and I found really nothing wrong with it.

The characters remained static and were dissapointing, it felt so repititive to see Shizuo do the same thing so many times, shouting Izaya all the time and throwing vending machines and what not at people so many many times and I can see how it might appeal to fangirls when you see one guy obsessed to such an extent with another but it did not appeal to me at all. Anri and Selty was also a dissapointment and they were the main female characters in the show. Selty's love for Shinra felt so clihce to me, gone was the exciting romance that was present in Baccano! replaced with romance that felt like it was taken out of a shoujo manga. Anri constantly drowned herself in a pool of misery and lack of self esteem, Mikado even with the secrets that were revealed about him seemed to be a typical shounen protagonist with self doubts and in love with a girl who he is too cowardly to confess to. It was so evident that Durrarara was made to cater to a younger age when you see these kinds of characters and circumstances. The only two characters that really seemed alright was Izaya and Kida. The romantic relationship between Yagiri and Mika was also refreshing as well.


I really did not enjoy this show that much but I believe that for people who have not watched baccano! this show might appeal to them much more but for me who has watched Baccano! this show was not enjoyable at all and quite disappointing.

"Durarara!!" was a fun ride... for the most part. With a intriguing premise, and a HUGE and fun cast of characters, the show held a lot of promise. However, expectations were quickly diminished after the first 12 episodes...

The story itself is rather simple, yet expansive. We're given a deep look at a lot of the character's lives, and that's mainly what the show revolves around. Episodes 1-12 were enough to make you interested, and held promise. However, the story drops off after that, and until the end of the show, we spiral downwards into a sea of unrealistic character actions and motivations, as well as ... general plot points.

The main three (who are the primary focus 13 and onwards) have to be some of the blandest characters I've seen in a while. Their interactions are annoying, and none of them never really grow or develop into something better.

Celty's storyline is dropped half-way through, with what feels like half-assed reasoning. Izaya is interesting and fun, but his record-player statement of "Humans are interesting!" certainly isn't enough to back up his actions. Shizuo is awesome. Simon is weird, but cool. Kyohei's crew is awesome, especially Erika.

Art is good and conveys the setting well, though the quality drops off a bit after the half-way point, but it still gets the job done. Both OPs and EDs are FANTASTIC!

In regards to episodic value, it was below average. I wish I could say otherwise, but if 45% of your show is sub-par, there's obviously something wrong.

"Durarara!!" was a fun start that held a lot of potential, but panned out to be something that wasn't cohesive, and lacked direction.

tl;dr the first half and second half ruin each other


Unfortunately, Durarara falls far short of Baccano's mark (as anime). While it does have its fair of engaging characters, such as Celty, Anri, Shizuo, and Izaya, most are a sore disappointment knowing what the mastermind was capable of.

That namely centers on the cliche trio that spent the entire first half of the anime being, ostensibly, the only sane people observing the insane Ikebukuro. And for what it's worth, I found myself enjoying the show in anticipation right until I was letdown by their actual fruition, which would be about the first 10-13 episodes.

And honestly, with ... little to no foreshadowing beforehand in the anime, the first half of the episodes and the second half simply clash too much due to the poor transition between them.

I won't go into further depth because, as the case were, the first half was largely unique to the anime (i.e. not in the light novel Durarara was adapted from).

I'll watch season 2 with no expectations.

Despite being a far cry from other more notable Takahiro Omori titles (Baccano!, Haibane Renmei, Hell Girl, Natsume's Book of Friends, Hotarubi no Mori e), more than a decade since it's release Durarara!! continues to be a part of the zeitgeist. However, in spite of the durability of the hype surrounding it, I can only think of two elements of this show that make it worth watching.

1) It's aura of mystique - it oozes of rich lore of urban legends saturating the streets of Ikebukuro
2) It's mesmerizing score - an absolute vibe

These components alone are reason enough to sit through 24 episodes meandering through ... who-knows-what. Beyond these two components, Durarara!! lacks the substance to live up to the artistic reputation the show has garnered. The characters aren't particularly likable or developed much (Celty excluded), the character design wasn't great then and it hasn't held up now.

Had this show been tucked away, without the projected facade of an artistic quality, I think I would have enjoyed this show more. But I feel that both the misdiagnosis of a large part of the anime community and the way it's own mystique unveiled proved to have little substance teed me up for little pay off & a surprising disappointment.

All of this said, if you are a long-time anime viewer. I do think this show holds an important place in the transition from anime in the '00's to anime in the '10's. Even if the music or the mystique somehow fails to draw you in, if you consider yourself a committed fan of the medium, it's worth it just to get a sense of where anime was at during this transitional period in it's history.

Ah gee, I really thought this show was going to evolve into something great. I honestly held my seat as thought I was going up a scary roller-coaster, only to be splashed after the first hill in the pool of disappointment. I don't mind water coasters but my cash got soggy. That how I feel after I purchased this from Amazon. I was promised greatness and at the end I just got wet. The kind of wet that makes me avoid this area in the theme park so it's safe to say I won't visit the sequels or specials.

Story was ominous early, but as ... more secrets are revealed through the show my only reaction could have been, "Oh". I'm being honest, I think every point or heading this show has was time filler. Nothing mattered. It didn't matter. I was just forced to attempt to care for the facts and then hope everything goes well for a character I liked? I couldn't bring myself to enjoy any of the characters. 6/10, mediocre, at best.

Art was pretty boring to me. They tried to visualize the inner-city 'hood' but it seemed they only knew how by removing light and adding dirt. 7/10

I had purchased a dual-package with a dub and a Japanese version with English subs. The dub was so awful, they could've used Cortana or Siri, or freaking Stephen Hawking to produce more range of emotion in their voice.
The sub version was better, I don't know Japanese but their voices didn't boil me over in a rage. 5/10, don't contract out to bad dubbers.

I know this leans towards a drama more than any other genre. However, Every. Single. Character were intense drama queens with over the top reactions. The only one who was reasonable through the whole show wasn't even human. They might've meant it, but I knew they didn't because they weren't even reasonably believable as 'secrets' were revealed. 6/10 characters that deserved to better secrets.

To end the rant, I want to point out that I did enjoy the beginning. The more they revealed the big secrets the less I became surprised, with a general reaction of 'finally' or 'duh'. I really just don't get how this is so popular. 6/10

Anime in general is interesting to me however in the case of this anime I found something that I usually never find when watching anime.. I didn't like it.

Perhaps it is because of my strange taste in anime but I found the anime all in all very boring and in some cases extremely repetitive.

I had to force myself to watch the anime seeing as how I extremely disliked this anime and was surprised that i had even made it to the current episode.

The plot was actually quite good complex but also simple enough to understand however I ... found the build up of the story extremely slow, one might compare it to watching paint dry.
I didn't particularly like the main character either. In my opinion he was pathetic.

I cannot understand why it is rated so high as there are other anime's that are rated lower that are much better in comparison to this anime.

I am not going to continue to watch this anime seeing as I in plain words hated it.
( and I never hate anime this is the exception)

Durarara is like Baccano! if Baccano! was a complete mess of tropes and loosely strung-together subplots. Do you see how I used exclamation points for Baccano! and not Durarara? That’s because my excitement for Durarara is at least two exclamation points less than it deserves. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the street gangs and the ambiguously omnipresent god character, but I just can’t bring myself to be sexually attracted to a headless woman. It’s a shame because Celty, the punk biker girl, is super hot from the neck down. When she was first introduced, I was like “holy boobies this is getting spicy” ... and I was really excited because the show was mind-numbingly boring up to that point. Much to my dismay, Celty was revealed to have no head and thus no cute anime girl features for my viewing pleasure. It’s like they were trying to teach me about how anime creates unrealistic portrayals of women and how I shouldn’t use it as a reference for actual people. You know, all women should be respected for what they are, blah blah blah. Just this once I wanted a sexy vigilante in a catsuit and they give me this headless weirdo with daddy issues. Yeah, she’s got a nice body, but what is she like in bed with no face? But I’m getting ahead of myself a little here. Let’s talk about the other characters. Oh wait, I can barely remember them because of how bland and inconsequential they were. Durarara (no exclamation point) does a horrible job of balancing the focus of all the characters and bringing their individual motivations to a satisfying climax. I think the outlines of their stories and backgrounds would work well on their own and with the impressive production quality of this show, but written together they don’t give you enough time to breathe let alone become immersed. Also, to nitpick more, Durara (minus one “ra” for disappointment) uses quick text messages for all of their exposition and it was such a pain to understand. I’m not Japanese, alright? I watch all anime subbed but the only phrase I know is “it’s stirring up my insides”. I doubt even the ultra-weebs could fully understand the texts anyway. If I wanted to pause the screen every episode to read the translations I would have just bought the manga.

7/10 for nice Celty fan-service but 5/10 for physically restricting headpats.

Well, this anime was probably the most boring anime I have ever watched. That makes me upset because I can clearly see the amount of love and effort that went into all aspects of it, but I didn't feel any emotional investment to continue watching.

Story: There was a story? Throughout these 7 episodes that I have watched I was hoping for at least a little action. Something to me make me care about the characters, and something to look forward to in the next episode. Alas, it never came. Suspense, action, romance, excitement; all of these are things missing in the anime (as far as ... I have watched it). It shouldn't take a third of a season to get all of the characters introduced. 4/10.

Art: The art was really nice. I enjoyed the animations, facial expressions, city landscape, etc.. No complaints here; it is a solid 10/10.

Sound: Sound was cool. Characters had great voices fitting their personalities. Music was ok, but nothing to write home about. 8/10.

Character: The characters are pretty bad-ass. However, this series suffers from too much character introduction, and very little character development. This is partially due to the fact that in the 7 episodes that I watched, not a single major event occurred. There is a lot of room for character development but I am too uninvested to find out if there will ever be any. 7/10

Enjoyment: I was thoroughly bored the entire time. Even crappy low budget anime never had this sort of effect on me. Total snooze-fest, unless you enjoy mindless banter. Simple ideas and concepts were drawn out to make them seem more "deep" and philosophical. In fact, the repetitive humdrum musings of my brain were far more exciting than the dialogue in this anime and took precedence for my attention span. In other words, it was so boring that I had to force myself to pay attention. Did I mention it was boring? 2/10.

Overall: Good characters, no real plot, waste of time. 5/10.

-Story-

A normal setting with a plot that’s a little difficult to integrate yourself into. The tension that moves the storyline seems unrealistic and over-dramatic. The nuances of magical realism (such as Celty Sturluson and Saika) appear mismatched in this modern setting due to poor plot execution partnered with a rather terrifying showcase of horrible relationships.

What really really puts me off is how this anime portrays relationships. It shows you what happens if you miscommunicate, manipulate, lie, or omit the truth on a horrifying, super-dramatic, and lightly supernaturally-induce scale. Like a chunk of the plot could have been unraveled entirely if a ... certain someone just told their friends the truth. Like, seriously. A sentence would have done it. A text. 5 minutes of the character's time.

That being said, however, there are times when the storyline and the plot shines. I find the pacing very well done and I very much like how well-integrated the multiple storylines are. Still, I feel a majority of the anime is tedious.

-Art-

The art is quite good. Very fluid.

-Sound-

I would really recommend the Japanese-With-English-Subs version. Partly because Izaya's low alto voice doesn't translate very well in the English Dub. The English voice actor went for a more husky, relaxed sigh, and I personally preferred the low, lilting taunt the Japanese voice actor does.

-Characters-

Horrible relationships aside, I find the characters themselves quite interesting. Celty is so ironically down-to-earth. Masaomi is awesome. Shizuo is hilarious. Mikado's character growth is excellent throughout the series considering. The characterization doesn't seem too far-fetched and the characters themselves are very well-presented. Like, everything you need to know about Izaya's personality is showcased in the second episode. You know exactly what kind of person he is and he is an horrible, despicable, human being (and I love him.)

My favorite character is Izaya Orihara, as his introduction into the plot sets up the theme of the entire series. As Izaya says: ""Everyone lies, everyone hides things, no one goes through this life completely honest." Izaya also says one of my most favorite lines in the series: "Your guilt will be your past and that will be your god." Love it.

This DRRR!! review will be written largely based on my personal afterthoughts after finishing this anime, and also some advises for those who wanted to check out this anime.

Being the #84 anime on MAL, and a persistent recommendation from my imouto herself, I had very high expectations for DRRR!!, unfortunately, that was the ultimate downfall between the 'bittersweet' romance between me and DRRR!!

For starters, DRRR!! spent the first 7 episodes depicting only about the introduction of characters and the setting, and the story was a standstill. To attempt such a daring feat, DRRR!! must have a very interesting setting to boot, right? I dunno about ... that, though, does modern Japan sounds interesting to you?

What about the characters? Take my advice, and focus on only 6 characters: Celty, Izaya, Shizuo forms 1 group, while Mikado, Kida and Anri forms the other group. Ignore the rest, so that you can focus on their individual developments, which is good, but is also the obscure highlight of the show. Why obscure? As DRRR!! bombards you with another 15 or so characters and most of them act as if they are also main characters, but in actuality, they aren't, they are just sidekicks and sub characters that are trying to distract you, don't let them succeed.

There are 4 arcs in DRRR!! The first arc, the introductory arc, is the lowest point of the show, as it was the bitter medicine of the show for me, turning my tongue so bitter that the remaining 3 arcs lost any sweetness they had. I am sorry to say this but in my opinion the show would be much better should episode 8 became the first episode.

The 2nd arc, the headless rider arc, has a decent degree of mystery and suspense to it, and probably the best solution to end the arc. However, nothing much changes as an aftermath.

The 3rd arc, the slasher arc, is terrifying and bloody, but the resolution was too short, too abrupt, and cut off any steam I had built myself upon this arc. This arc was actually good buildup for the last arc.

What about the last arc? I call it the misunderstanding arc, in which did a great job linking all our 6 main characters together, and it had a very good buildup, but then, what happened? The show pulled off a cheapskate resolution which left me largely disappointed.

In truth, when I finished watching the 7th episode, I asked myself a question, "why am I still watching this?". I believe this was the absolute flaw of DRRR!!, it has a weak introduction, and is heavily character driven. So if you want to watch this series, better find yourself a character or two that you are very interested on, and stick to them as your motivations to finish this show. I didn’t, as initially I did not know who I should focus, and when I realized that, it was all too late. In the end, I found myself turbo-ing through the show, skipping parts that I don't find interesting, as the entire show had already turned stale, and don't ask me to rewatch this.

One noteworthy thing about this show is that it revolves around the theme "love", in which was severely abused to many extends, to some point, absurd (I won't spoil it, *evil laugh*). Be sure to stick this around your head when you watch this anime, as it was repeated many, many times, and is the ultimate motive force for most of the characters' actions.

TLDR; if you are interested in DRRR!! Be sure to remember these advices:
- Don't have your expectations too high.
- Focus only on Celty, Izaya, Shizuo, Mikado, Kida and Anri.
- Find a character you really like and stick to him/her.
- Remember that love is the motivation to everything.
- Don’t expect any large changes except for character development.
- Tons of patience.

Let's begin by saying that Durarara has all the makings of an outstanding anime; the characters are involving and deep to some extent, the build-up of the story to the conclusion is engaging and enticing, and it really makes you want to watch the next episode as soon as possible.

That being said, where the anime falls apart is its inability to pull all this together and reach an acceptable catharsis at the end. As I said the story is engaging and it makes you want to keep watching. The build-up heading to the end is outstanding and you really begin to care about ... where the characters are going to end up, but this only makes the flimsy conclusion all the more disappointing.

From a more technical perspective, the story is good, a little bit average, but good. It's engaging and if not for the ending would be very good. There's nothing to really say about the art, it's pretty good and doesn't take away from the experience. The same could pretty much be said about the sound also. The characters as previously stated are good and make you care about them, but the score for enjoyment takes a hit because of the way they end the story.

Bottom line though, it's not a terrible anime all things considered the story leading up to the end is actually a little above average. On the other side of things the ending is so poor that the anime winds up somewhere just below average. If you want to know whether to watch this anime, I'd say don't go out of your way to watch it, but if you've got some extra time and nothing to do go for it, the story is enjoyable enough.

Durara for me is the very definition of average, the main cast of characters was boring as fuck, the only good characters were Shizuo and Celty (Simon as well i guess), but for some reason they got the least amount of screen time.(bad move)

My problems with this anime:
1. The plot, oh yes... The plot... Twist that plot baby! As many times as u want my dude! But it's all for nothing if you twist a boring plot only to do nothing with it and abandon it or continue the plot with another boring one, it's such a shame since i was very interested in the ... story of Celty and her head, and wanted to see more of her.. but noo.. we needed to see the other plot of the "main characters" which was the boring trio, i liked the blond guy (Kida), i think he carried the whole trio and story, even tho he pissed me off multiple times ( with him choosing to do absolutely nothing to help the situation with the gangs and choosing to ignore it).
I guess the same could be said about the other 2, but the other 2 were just... Awful, omg were they bad, the most boring and plain characters in the whole existence, even the side side characters were more interesting then them, the author dropped the balls with those ones, Especially the girl, i hated every second of the anime with her, she single handedly ruined the anime for me!
And let's talk about the guy, Mikado, the man behind the dollars, oh yes, very good character what can i say, even a fucking toothpick is more interesting than him, the only good thing he does is in the first plot twist when the anime reveals him as the "leader" of dollars, but that's it folks, after that one episode he does jack shit, keep in mind the anime stated him as someone that didn't like to be a normal guy, and even himself said that, wishing to do something abnormal, but guess what, after the first plot twist, him having the power of this group, He chooses to do Nothing! With it! Great character! 0/10! Waste of screen time!
I imagine the conversation between the people that came up with this shit, must have been like:
Person 1: "So hey, about Mikado, we got him this group and all, what do you think we should do next with him?"
Person 2: "How about we make him... Waitt for it... We make him... Do Nothing for the rest of the show!"
Person 1: "Great idea!"


2.The main antagonist, if u could call him that, was ok at first, he seemed like a guy that wanted to see the world burn for fun, simply a chaotic neutral character, but with time he became more and more annoying and stupid, what's up with all this 4d chess he is playing if he doesn't even care about how will things end out, or what was even his motivation for doing all this work and scheming, just because "he loves people", yea right, nice way to get out of the way of a good reason with this bullshit answer, in the end he did absolutely nothing with celty's head as well, such a fucking waste, especially after all this time the anime tried to focus on it, as if it was very important to the future, but guess what! Nothing happened with it, it just stayed there, wasting screen time, good job anime!

3. So in the end i felt pretty unsatisfied with the whole show, the ending was meh, i feel like i wasted my time overall watching this show.

If i had to describe this anime i would compare it with a good cake that is full of pickles, like yea the cake tastes good but it got all this fucking pickles in it that destroys the taste and makes it not worth to eat, especially since there are 100000 more better cakes out there, that don't have weird things in it that ruin the composition.

I rate this 5/10, not good, not terrible.
Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Durarara might be a good choice for you if you're looking for a story that has a more extroverted style to its writing and you don't mind a couple of conveniences being thrown along.

Now what I mean by an extroverted style is simple. The story and its characters only develops through the means of the relation or conflict of other characters to other different characters. If there's any inner struggle or any inner monologue it's gonna be 99% of the time, actually, probably always, due to another person or the relationship the person in question has with them. You see the series pretty much ... defines every character with a simple label and then gives them more depth through the relationships and the new characters they will come across. While I'd say the style the show used was really interesting, there are some problems due to not thinking through about this style's possible weakpoints. For one, between every relationship, what's the easiest emotion to throw in? Love, of course.

And most characters LOVE someone. About 80% of the characters (the important ones or at the very least, seemingly important) do things for the sake of romance or with romance as their fuel. Love is not the only emotion that can define a relationship. And no, I don't mean hate. It's not just these two extremes that are the only things you can explore. But I will give it to you it's quite hard to do that when most characters don't have any thing that fuels them other than the people around them. Still, perhaps maybe the theme of love is a bit too much when you have a stalker, a sister who wants her brother, a woman with no head and so on... A little diversity wouldn't have hurt in the meaningful relationships of the characters.

The other weakness of this style is the characters have no sense of self. When the story focuses on a character, it describes the character had with the world of Durarara, defining who they are. Except it only defines who they are in the world, not who they are in a personal sense. Let me use Celty as an example, who is a Dullahan that's looking for her missing head, in order to not forget who she is. Basically this goal of hers defines the relationship they have and how they change once she moves towards this goal and why she is who she is. But everyone else you just simply don't have any material to use in order to understand why they feel the way they feel towards someone, you just accept that's that. I guess they've been through this and that, yeah sure, but take the social ties they've established and you have... some generic label and absolutely nothing else. The closest to Celty as far as execution comes is Shizuo and Izaya but they're not quite there for different reasons I can't give away due to spoilers. Anyone else? Not really.

They could've been far better characters if they had some sort of motivation of their own that wasn't strictly tied to the relationships they've had or are having with other people. While it's true every action other than our own is what defines us, the only reason that is even true is because it has an impact on us as a person. We develop skills, preferences, we don't just define ourselves with our preestablished relationships, we have some things, some interests, that define who we are and why we see things the way we do, which define us and give us a personality that makes us look for people alike us. Most, if not all characters, have no interests, no goals of their own, none whatsoever. Other than their relationships with other people, there's nothing to the characters. To put it bluntly, it's just like a game Izaya has created. It seemingly has no rules and is chaotic played on some board. The pieces are from chess, shogi, checkers and so on. You will see the pieces. You will see the board. You know in what directions the pieces can move due to which piece they are.

But you won't know the rules by which the pieces operate or why they are where they are on the board.

To sum up what I said, the relationships the characters have are well defined, but they themselves are definitely not. That is why I called the anime extroverted. It is an interesting execution which has a couple of things to improve upon.

Another thing I disliked is how some things just simply don't make sense. Like for instance, you have a guy which we operate on the assumption can use his body's full capacity whenever enraged. Am I supposed to believe that no government has taken any interest in that to study him or that he is not at least known and that absolutely has no problem with his vandalism? I mean seriously, when we get introduced to the series we will be first seeing him throwing a fucking Vending Machine 5 meters into the air. The police is almost never present, almost non-existent. I would complain about some other things too but, really, beyond this things get really spoilery. And you will be often confused by the series because it takes its time to tie things together. But it does tie things together, even if the story operates on monumental conveniences, and I did quite enjoy seeing the way series completed itself.

As far as the art and sound goes, they're pretty good. The OST is pretty fitting and sounds quite decent while the art style does the writing style justice through the way it highlights its characters. Keeping in mind that it's also quite simple and easy on the eyes, I enjoyed it.

If you're gonna watch Durarara, expect to be confused and things to feel convenient a whole lot. You most likely will enjoy the series' and how the characters tie themselves to the overarching world, not just amongst each other, but the town itself despite everything I said. But the series could've been written better. It still manages to be entertaining, but if you expect well expressed personal conflict that doesn't exist. You instead get a lot of social conflict that defines the place of the characters in their world. If you think that's a fair trade, or you find this interesting, give this series a try. If not, you could skip it.