Anime 6746 Durarara Reviews Filter Check 3

I guess the most natural response would be to call this show a train wreck, but that would imply
1. There would have to be a train in one piece.
2. It would have to be on a set of railroad tracks.
3. It would have to be capable of moving in some direction.

Durarara!! is more like starting off with all of the train cars scattered across the yard, then having an earthquake and expecting them to somehow find each other AND put themselves in the correct order. (Nevermind getting on a track AND traveling somewhere.)

To put it in layman's terms: DRRR is ... a mess. There is no logical flow or coherence or reason in events that happen throughout the course of the series. I wonder what "Durarara" actually means; if I were to venture a guess, I'd say "crazy shit happening why because it's cool does it make sense no but that's okay because it's cool." In the first two episodes alone, they introduce a number of characters not much less than two dozen. How many of them actually end up being significant? Well, not many. How many of them is it possible to care for? Not many. Then why the hell are we wasting so much screentime? No idea.

The pacing makes absolutely no sense. In the first 7-8 episodes, nothing of any real importance happens at all: just a bunch of tiny events that one would think COULD be setting the stage for much more important things later on, but really aren't. Basically, all they do is establish the fact that "this is our city and crazy shit happens sometimes." Well, ain't that wonderful. It took you that long? When things DO finally start happening, they come out of nowhere, get dropped and forgotten abruptly, picked up again just as abruptly, and end anticlimacticly in some aesop... er, cute little outro about how "things went back to normal" for them er... whatever. Yeah, in a city where crazy shit is supposed to be a regularity? Guess how long that lasts. These little expositions simply serve as bookends that define where one arc ends and another begins. They may as well just say, "Okay this arc is over now; time for the next one," and it would have the same effect.

The writers obviously have no clue about what the concepts of buildup and foreshadowing are. Granting for the sake of argument that there is in fact a complete train on the tracks and it is in fact in motion, the train is screeching and lurching and starting and stopping and running off the tracks then back ON the tracks and skipping stations randomly and... Well, you get the idea. Here's one example: Out of nowhere, it is revealed that some dude started a group called the Dollars. There is absolutely ZERO allusion that this may have been the case previously; ZERO hints dropped to get us thinking. Nope. They just throw the fact in your face when it becomes relevant and expect you to accept it. Why did he do it? BECAUSE HE WAS BORED.

That brings me to another problem: Characterization occurs as the plot demands. Suddenly, CRAZY SHIT HAPPENING OMG WTF WHY. What's that? It's all about some character who seemed completely insignificant until now? Uh-oh. Time for a flashback. --5 minutes later-- "And that's how he/she got to where they are today" or "this is the secret he/she has been hiding." Er... wut? 'Scuse you? Another example: Suddenly, the guy with superhuman strength is saying that he's always hated his powers. Wait, what? He's been using them liberally on people, in front of people the entire show, and hasn't seemed to care in the slightest. Okay... There also seems to be a character who they were occasionally, half-assedly trying to paint as some type of MASTER OF PUPPETS AND I PULL YOUR STRINGS, but it's honestly impossible to tell whether he had any REAL significant role in the matters at hand or not.

The more I think about it, the more DRRR reminds me of Guilty Crown--in that GC ALSO likes to throw a shitstorm at you and then try to explain it as though it made sense afterwards. (Oh gawd; drawing parallels to Guilty Crown; not a good sign.) At least DRRR doesn't do it to quite an extreme degree.

The only exception to this trend is the case of one person whom they actually do a half-decent job dropping hints about the possibilities of his past and connections. Why couldn't they do that for everyone else?

*sigh* Anyway, on to sound and art. The OPs and EDs leave a bad taste in my mouth; there's no other way to describe it. The OST is composed entirely of a bunch of slow, nonchalant, beep-boopidy xylophone tracks that sound pretty much the same--regardless of the events transpiring on screen. No, actually, I think it's the SAME EXACT SONG over and over again. (At least it sounds like it.) The animation is generally pretty nice, although some big corners are cut at points--usually action sequences. One time, a mob of generic, unimportant people (signified by the fact that they're completely gray) is attacking someone, and they all somehow morph together into one giant amorphous BLOB. Seriously, guys: they're all gray. At LEAST draw some lines in there so it looks like they haven't turned into some monster out of a '50s B-stock horror film.

So why the hell is DRRR's mean score so high? Your guess is honestly as good as mine. To its credit, it DOES have come pretty cool characters (Shizuo, Izaya, and Celty [rest are trash]), and there ARE some cool moments (almost always revolving around one of these 3 characters). (Again, seriously: why do we spend so much time looking at dumb/pointless characters? If they had just capitalized on the decent ones...) Crispin Freeman and Johnny Yong Bosch put on a great show as always. But that's it. Some cool points.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT. They seem to REALLY enjoy throwing the word "love" around in the show A LOT. No, I don't think you get it. They do it. A. LOOOOOOTTTT. There's this whole ordeal about a guy who "falls in love" with a head in a jar. His obsession is nothing less than what can be classified clinically as a mental illness. Love WHAT? And that's not even the HALF of that story. Seriously some of the most screwed up shit I've ever heard. If I recall correctly, there's exactly ONE situation where the word is used that isn't mind-bendingly perverse or nauseatingly messed up.

The series really isn't very memorable in any way. I've already forgotten most of what happened (except for the seemingly important stuff and cool doods). Hell, I've already forgotten most of what happened in the episodes I watched just LAST NIGHT. I think 17 episodes is more than enough to base an accurate review off of; if, after 17 episodes, it's still so physically painful to keep watching the show, then for the sake of my mental state, I refuse to keep going.

Trying to figure out how to write a review about this in a way that made sense, the best I could come up with is that this feels like an attempt to imitate Baccano while conforming it to much more normal anime standards and tropes.

The reason that Baccano is phenomenal is that it ignores many of these standards and focuses on its chaos and glib fun. Durarara, on the other hand, chose a plodding pace and complete lack of chaos, which would be perfectly fine on its own, but it tries to imitate Baccano's charm and sense of wildness, so a lot of Durarara ... ends up feeling forced and entirely inauthentic.

I found that the real root of my utter dislike for this series is rooted in the characters. Perhaps some of it comes from my dislike of slice of life stylings. For instance, the simpering "romance" maybe or maybe not developing between Mikado and Anri made me grimace every time it was a focal point, and the "glib" romance of Selty and Shinra is just as plodding and unbearable for me, mostly because Selty is such a pansy about it at all times. But it is not just that...I find Shinra inauthentic, I find Anri and Selty inauthentic, and Shizuo and all his IZAYAAAAAAAAing and swinging around street signs a shoddily inauthentic attempt at badassery. They are all just so tepidly crafted and their existences in the series so plodding that I cannot help but not want to see them at all.I would be more fine with this if the focal point were Masaomi and his buddies/Mikado and a steady explanation of the Dollars, with a plodding pace to match the scenic action, but instead they are shifting around constantly between scenes and characters.

The other root of my dislike is probably the scenic action. Again, I feel like plodding scenes randomly barged in on by the IZAYAAAAAing and the like is really disruptive and both waters down the plot. While the scenes are certainly coherent, they drag all the time, like any of the scenes between Selty and the doctor. Perhaps some incredible part of the story or some incredible action will happen later on, but as of episode 11 ending with an awful Selty action scene (horrible whining by her, horrible action), a lot more scenes in this anime have bothered me than have thrilled me!

Even without the character problems, I do not really feel the whole vibe of "a city made of jokes, whims, and coincidences." Everything moves at such a plodding pace with predictable, tepid action that everything is very explicitly planned. You never feel surprised by anything at any time. I get the feeling that this might be a loss from the novel to the anime, but that is just a guess.

The sound varies between interesting and awful, but only Selty's voice acting particularly bothered me as far as that goes. The art varies between average modern anime and average modern anime, so nothing really exciting nor bad there. The story is entertaining enough when not getting in the way of itself, like with the overuse of computer gossiping to actually propel the plot, rather than just show how excited everyone is about the events of the super awesome city.

I do not expect you many people to agree with me about my take, and that is fine. I had a long discussion with mostly one person, and there was enough for me to turn into this review, so I decided to go ahead and make it. I do apologize for making this a bit too much about Durarara versus Baccano, but I felt that it had to be part of the discussion.

And that certain part of episode 11 that everyone is "excited" about is just disgusting fanservice (the clothing standing out was a really nice touch, but that was about all that I liked there). Again, surprisingly inauthentic following up a series so authentic like Baccano.

As a quick introduction, I hope to write reviews to 'Inform' and to 'Educate' the mass on certain shows, whether it be deserving of more attention or overhyped, with tihs being one of the latter.

Durarara can be described in one word; Disappointing. Why? With Durarara having been constantly compared to it's predecessor, and what I believe to be the superior, turned out to be disappointing and a cheap shot by Brains Base. With this in mind, I hope to address the merits and flaws of this show through compare and contrast with Baccano.

Story- 3
Why have I given this a 3? The story was neither ... 'Dreadful', or 'Pathetic', but is undeserving to be rated as Decent or anything better, because It could be summed up as a cheap and literal translation from Novel to Anime, with 0 creativity put in, which was a slap in the face for those who expected Brains Base to present us Durarara in the same or similar format on how they handled Baccano; Having small parts of different story arcs placed in an episode for us to piece together as the story progressed. The same can't be said about Durarara, which was a stark contrast to Baccano, being painful and slow, especially those who expected this to be as dynamic as it's predecessor. Furthermore, the only interesting 'part' of the series was perhaps its 2nd arc, which was short-lived and ignored by the finall arc, which was supposed to sum this whole series together.

Art- 9
Not much can really be 'debated' in this area, as modern anime goes, the animation was smooth, the characters were consistent, and I had no quells with the design adaptations of the novel characters to anime, but it certainlhy isn't outstanding, which is why I believed 'Great' did justice in this criteria.

Sound- 8
The same is said in regards to Sound, as there really is no 'debate' over one's preference to their likes and dislikes regarding the sound of an anime; The Openings and Endings were decent, the cast of Seiyus were accepable, and the BGM did not ruin the viewer's enjoyment of the show.

Character- 2
Why 2? Brains Base, was well... dreadful. I was not attached to a single of the characters in the whole series. Not one of what, 20+ characters? Not one of them appealed to me, and that to be honest is a shock. Their personalities ranged from the typical 1-dimensional pussy to the complete asshole. Really, 20+ characters were available to be molded and not one gave me any sort of attachment, and that is a shock. I watched the show hoping the pussy or the asshole would have even a marginal evolution in terms of their personality only to be mind-raped at the last episode, with the stark reality of life hammered into me that shit just doesn't change. And unlike Baccano, where comic relief is entertaining, the so called comic relief presented in this show is either horrifying or incredibly narcissistic. One of the only few moments that I enjoyed was having one asshole be an asshole to another asshole, if that should have been redeeming.

Enjoyment- 3
I expected this serie to give me the same dynamic pace that Baccano gave me, not the direct opposite. It was in general agonizing to go through Durarara only to realize that it's going to cop you out of all the hype you felt over this show. I expected the same, fast-pace story telling that Baccano had as an appeal only to bve shattered by the abysmal mess of Durarara. At first this was a show that me and my friends would be able to be look forward to, to watch together only to be shoved to a side as we realized that this was an absolute abomination. Durarara kills the element of sleuthing that Baccano gave us as we question what would happen next by having the explanation given the episode after the 'story'. I have this a 'poor' for the little moments I enjoyed this as a sort of moment of gathering, which failed miserably after around the 12th episode.

Overal- 3l

sure, some would say it's got great visuals and sound, but it fails to deliver the touch that I had expected from Baccano, turning this show into a slow, agonizing chore that I lived with in spite of far better shows at the time, and a waste of what could have been critically acclaimed like Baccano was. There will always be conflicting ideas from other (re)viewers as their tastes are unique, and their points are most probably valid in their own rights, but in honesty I cannot reccommend this show genuinely to those that hoped for show that would be on-par with Baccano or maybe better than Baccano, as this is, to be blunt, a piece of shit in comparison.

Regards.

Durarara is one of those shows which can seem fun looking at first, but deep down, is actually a poorly written show. It is a true waste of good voice actors, good premise and by the time the show ends, nothing has truly changed.

Why? Because of lack of a simple principle: SHOW, DON'T TELL.

Since the era of entertainment, SHOW, DON'T TELL is an integral part of any show. And it does not mean to focus only on the visual elements, however, it means to leave as much elements of the story line to the viewer's imagination, while bringing about the story. Even exposition, where there ... is a lot of talking, can use the principle of show, don't tell by intriguing the audience into the slight hints about the character and also the setting. The principle of world building is built upon this very rule. You don't show the city immediately without discussing about it beforehand and bringing some facts and unique characteristics about the city, making the viewer imagine these to allow for a greater experience. Similar to how the idea of eating a pizza is a lot appetizing than the pizza itself, "Show, don't tell" is a part of entertainment.

All of this is so badly violated in Durarara. For starters, EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER HAS AN EPISODE WHERE THEY HAVE AN EXPOSITION. EVERY DETAIL ABOUT THEIR LIFE IS DISCUSSED IN LENGTH. IT IS DONE SO BADLY THAT YOU MIGHT BE MISTAKEN THAT THEY WERE RECITING THE LIGHT NOVEL. See how the previous sentences looked like I was shouting to you? in a similar fashion, the anime goes out of its way to throw all the facts and force them DOWN YOUR THROAT. See how discomfortable that can be? This turns people off.

In fact, when someone does something, every single character's thoughts are voiced so often, which makes it impossible to sympathize with these characters. Why? If you know what a character is like, and what he/she will do, they become tooo predictable. And you cannot seriously comprehend what went wrong with them when they do something too emotionally. Again, "SHOW, DON'T TELL".


A testament to this fact is Izaya Orihara, a man whose character/life is never explored or told in the anime, however, he remains just as intriguing and mysterious enough to be the only CHARACTER in this entire anime to be likable. And HE IS THE VILLAIN FOR GOD'S SAKES. Imagine how badly the anime should be when the villain is the only one you can root for?!

Because every single character in this show is just a spoilt kid whining to the audience about how bad their life is, it makes us senseless to their actions and makes them hated. RIGHTFULLY TOO. I mean, the thoughts in each one of their minds DISGUST me. The headless biker thinks about how cool a guy fighting is despite the fact that said guy is doing nothing cool. A outsider thinks that a murderous psychopath with another lady giving him love advice must be cool as fuck. In just what world does that work??

In the end of this show, I was just happy that I was able to run off this stupid piece of shit story. The fact that the sequels to this anime aired only after five years and also by a different studio is testament to this effect.

I rate this show a 1/10 because of just this violation that ruined everything. And just as an advice to other anime, and entertainment in general, ALWAYS LEAVE SOMETHING TO THE AUDIENCE'S IMAGINATION. That's the only way to get your audience invested in the characters and also the story. Don't become the train wreck that is Durarara!!(Exclamation mark unintended)

End of review, SPOILERS AHEAD.




PS: I hated that big boobs girl. She was a slut if you ask me, trying to make love to everyone.

First of all, Durarara!! was extremely boring, and when it supposedly got exciting for most people at episode 12, it did not for me. Each episode left off with a minor cliffhanger, but only to fill the next episode with boring and confusing crap until finally giving mediocre answers to our questions. The anime does has some interesting animation and sound, though, while also managing to have extremely well developed characters. However, this show just misses every other mark. If you like so mind numbingly boring and confusing plots go ahead, but I do not recommend Durarara!! to anyone else.

P.S. I did stop 15 episodes ... in because I felt like watching toilets flush was more exciting and understandable than this ass, but if it does get exciting later according to viewers of the whole series, still don't watch because you will have to bear 15+ terrible episodes.

Well, this show just sucks. There are just problems everywhere.
This show is an offense to just the mystery genre in general.

So why did I even finish this? Well, I actually dropped this quite many times, but decided to finish it given that I haven't watched much mystery anime at the time. And it was so bad so that I remember how terrible this is though it's been quite some time since I completed this anime.

It just feels like waste of words to write this for long so I'll just make each section shorter than my other reviews.

Story: 2/10
Durarara just starts off by putting out just ... loads of characters without any depth. Many look the same so I couldn't tell which was which. And there are just too many characters.

The element of surprise was basically non-existent. As a mystery genre, it's just really bad when an average person like can me can see how the story will turn out.

Absolutely terrible pacing. Well it just takes forever for the story to start. And it just feels all drab just like the art style. It was an anime I didn't regret skipping some parts.

I personally thought I could have come up with a better story. This is just too far below average.

Art: 4/10
All are just dark, with no substance. The background just seems like that little work was done. Wasn't a big fan of it.

Sound: 8/10
Catchy opening. Didn't have major flaws.

Character: 2/10
All characters fit inside a stereotypical tropes.
I just didn't like the characters. Well, Shizuo and Celty were the only characters I found likable, and I still thought they were below average characters.
All are pretty shallow and lack substance.

Enjoyment: 2/10
I reserve 1/10 for worst things imaginable, so pretty much one of the lowest scores I give.
It was a waste of time.

Overall: 3/10
Well, it's not the worst anime.

TL DR; Save your time and skip this anime.

Well now, some review on this site said it was 'the greatest thing they had ever seen'. and so i watched it. I, too, wanted to partake in this person's anime boner and fly to the stars with a head full of pomegranates.

I'll put it like this, it was like someone telling me there was a gem in a dark hole and i should stick my hand in to retrieve it. ofc there was no gem, it was man's peepee. and i touched it.

Which i can understand would be hot and ero for some dudes. but i vote ... republican.

Anyway, this show is a story about nothing important. it builds itself up to a point where you are just waiting to get your mind blown and your body is heavy with readiness. and then...its super anti-climactic. its like "oh hey, you're that one guy, that's pretty cool. k thanks bye"

this is right up there with the super overrated code gayass, except there aren't any birds flying out of anyone's eyes. had there been, well, this would be a far different reveiew my friends.

DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW.

and i dont hate on drama like shows, i thought stein's gate was pretty cool even though i was totally expecting a documentary. anyway. until next time frens.

**finally got strenght enough to finish the last 4 episodes....holy shit that was a headache - felt like a chore**

Durarara!! is an anime about ..... About what ? This is the taste that stays in my mouth, the more I delve into the plot. There are so many characters, with such bland backstories, that the plot itself, which unfolds episodically, exists for the simple fact of making the anime keep going, despite having no destination. The narrative wants to be a web of interconnected revelations, which in the end, feels entangled. Each episode in which we have a small (and forced) flashback to try to ... emerge some connection of the viewer with a character, the series sinks in personality development and ecstasy of revelations. A world and actions that need to be explained by the characters themselves in each episode, what each gang does or did and why, in that way, makes this universe's image less convincing. Finally, this "gang war" becomes the main focus of the anime shortly after the fragile introductions. But anyway, is the plot about that? Or about something else?

Is it about high school friendship? Yes. But without the high school life itself - the 3 student protagonists have beaten personalities that do not evolve. They exchange very few deep or thought-provoking dialogues.
Is it supernatural? Yes. But that is lost trying to merge the supernatural with the real. It presents itself in an original way in the first episodes, to become irrelevant over time.
Is it about fights and urban life? Yes. But the more you are obliged to hear about "city life" and how things are, the more boring and tedious are the events - for example, when they morph in extraordinarily weak or expendable moments of action ( looking at you, fight with "gray zombies" with knives).

This anime could be about a lot of things, but it wants so much to show the variety of themes and to reveal the hidden and ugly urban life, which serves us a medium, uninteresting (with an almost childlike vision), with shells of characters that do not bloom. You hate violence and still make use of it because "you do not know how to be otherwise", not only is schizophrenic, as it is a cliché (believe it or not, this is the face of the character Heiwajima Shizuo). The mysteries are unmasked in a simple and predictable way - and in some cases as of Celty Sturluson (the "supernatural" character who is a headless creature, called dullahan) in an anticlimatic way. Relationships are superficial, without substance.
In fact, the only character that caught my eye and seemed different to the point of being explored was the supporting Brezhnev Semyon. A black russian man working in a sushi restaurant. And yet, I feel that if they had turned the spotlight on him at some point, they would probably end up making him less interesting than he appeared to be.

Only with this amount of information, you can get an idea that Durarara !! covers various corners of different genres. A great variety puree, that tastes like nothing.

The good points are the audiovisual and environment. Often the scenery and animation has an interesting tone. But this idea of ​​highlighting the protagonists in graying the rest of the extras only passes the assumption of cretinism of the production.
The songs, in fact, are the best the series could offer me. The 2 opening songs were really good (can't say that about the endings tho).

I would give a 4.0 / 10.0: it is average/bad.

The anime is not bad - it seems that it tries to take itself seriously, but afraid of really being serious.


I also tried watching Baccano, but fell asleep in the third episode. I guess that I just don't like these shounen that tries to look like seinen. It's childish, indeed. Durarara!! is the shounen that thinks is edgy and profound but just sounds like a teenage ranting. Probably the target audience are people under their 20's.
I would recommend to those who like something that is different, but at the same time does not go too deep - it's just shallow.

If I were to give a score of Durarara until episode 16, I would gladly give it a well deserved 8/10.

While the animation is below average, the OST is incredibly good.
The story isn't too complicated but the way it's narrated is really original, so here again it's very good. Special mention for BlackRider, Shizuo and Kida that are really good characters. They do carry the show.

But then, unfortunately, everything collapse for the third and final arc.
It's almost as if the scriptwriter changed and didn't know the show.

Characters totally lose common sense, the story goes on without ANY logic.

I still recommend this anime, but I ... will advice you to stop at episode 16. Really. There's nothing more beyond except frustration to see such a good show go to waste.

It was worth the watch ill say that. The characters and plot is all pretty interesting I could see my self loving a few of them but I guess thats more in isolation. The narration and handling of the themes are honestly so "fake deep" that it gets annoying. It constantly explains everyone's internal conflict when it all speaks of itself. The characters don't know how to communicate at all and the story will pretend that everyone had a realization without communicating instead of sitting them down to have a 5 minute conversation. And yeah I know people keep secrets but I'm talking about after ... everyone wants to open up. They'll all decide to speak up but you never see it, the story pretends its all resolved like they saw into eachothers souls or something. It's not something I'd recommend, the more I watched I was just reminded of how much was left or thrown away I can't give it any higher tbh (unless they add decimal).

A little bit of a series retrospective here. I haven't seen Durarara since it came out and would never rewatch it. In my mind, it is one of the original massively overrated series of my childhood, with baffling storytelling and focus problems that ruin everything good about it.

Let me start with an analogy: imagine JK Rowling creates the world of Harry Potter, filled with wizards, magic, lore, history, a haunted castle, centaurs, giant spiders, elves, soul-stealing dark phantoms, dragons, etc. But as she's writing it she decides, "no Harry Potter is too much a chosen one type and involved with interesting people, secrets, and ... high stakes drama. Instead, lets make Dudley the protagonist because he can learn about all the interesting stuff as a three-times-removed bystander who never acts to move the story forward, but simply observes interesting things other people do." That's what Durarara is. Craft a world where a waiter has superhero strength, a headless horseman rides a motorcycle around the city, gangs fight one another, a Machiavellian psycho who's waiter's mortal enemy creates chaos across town. Which of these interesting characters is the MC do you ask? How about some stupid, aggressively bland and boring high school nobodies who do nothing but occasionally witness some of the cool stuff that happens.

You watch this show and see interesting characters, setting, and plot lines but then have to constantly return to the most uninteresting nothing characters. Sorry, not enough time for Celty to solve the mystery of her head's location, but yeah, enough time for us to see emotional high school boy do nothing for several episodes. Make the interesting character the protagonist. Place the center of the story where the interesting stuff happens. Why would anyone want to watch Harry Potter but through Dudley's POV? A total catastrophe of storytelling.

tldr; It should be titled Dunonono!! since that would accurately how it feels to experience all the stupid narrative zagging from interesting and exciting characters back to the story of high schoolers doing nothing.