My disappointment with Durarara

KaiKatsuya said:
It was always a shounen and always a completely character driven plot since the very start of the series. I'm unsure of the point you're trying to make.

dizzyur said:
I'm disappointed because not enough Nasujima. He could've been a great antagonist to introduce to earlier arcs, and he could have been given cohesive backstory, because one does not simply become a fucking rapist without some kind of explanation for the most part, I imagine he had to go through something relatively brutalized to become the kind of man he was, and Nairta focusing on that instead of Shitzaya would've been so much more entertaining. I'm kind of disinterested in Izaya at this point, so what's upcoming in the anime will gratify me somewhat, because Shizuo is finally going to give him some deserving payback, but I feel shorted in the fact that i've been literally running in circles around my Nasujima headcanon and independent development for years with no canonical advancement that has weakened my interest in the work as a whole (one of the many reasons why I have not touched SH with a ten foot pole by the way).

The problem is that a dark backstory would probably cause an uproar of sorts among the PC members of the DRRR fandom that I have had the displeasure of running into, as well as the faint of heart. Even if some humor were injected into it I do feel like Takashi would have a backstory that would shock people which ultimately led him to become a manipulative, misogynistic, generally conniving, man (trust me, with the upcoming arc, everyone will SEE what I'm talking about). Comedic sociopathy still doesn't detract from the fact that there's fucking horrific things unfolding. As dark as the series was, I can't imagine Narita or anyone going darker for the sake of pandering, especially venturing in a territory that involves the formation of what would become a man's abnormal sexual deviancy. That is, more often than not considered to be too dark for the safe panderers like Narita, who'll extort windbags like Izaya to the ends of the earth but not do the same with characters who happen to be at an even worse level of deplorable. Because fanbases are terrified of those kinds of developments and a sudden further lurching forward into territory that'd likely cover domestic, sexual, physical, other forms of abuse, and rape, at least one that I can imagine might be rooting takashi's evils. People do not just overnight become villainous, or form assailant behavior, it is generally taught or imprinted upon them from earlier events or witnessing some endless horror. In a very usual case one ends up at least somewhat corrupted by watching abnormal behavior, and feels that to be normal. With Izaya, it was normalcy that seemingly drove him crazy, without notable sexual undertones. But when a person's deviancy blatantly has sexual undertones, it's usually not fucking normalcy that drives that home as being 'normal' to them, it's usually the fact that they've been immersed so much in abnormality or an abrasive, abusive, horrid environment that they feel it to be what everyone else DOES. Anyway, that's just theorizing what fuels the fact that Nasujima's a psychopath at worst, sociopath at best, as well as a likely rapist and clearly a pedophile.

Also, the direction the author took with the LN towards the end was okay, but it didn't wow me, and the ending was ultimately dissatisfying.

vlad_russo said:
Regardless of liking one more than the other, as a light-novel reader, I can confirm that the first season didn't do a good job at adapting the light novels. And not just because of the filler chapters (2, the majority of 4 and 5, 6 and 8), but also the fact that they screwed up with the personalities of some characters:

For example: Seiji and Mikado were made simpler in the anime, becoming a plain guy in love with a head, and a guy who is bored with his everyday life, when there have always been more than that.
Mika, Namie, Erika and Walker twisted personalities were softened in the anime too. It was stated in the first volume (the end of episode 12 of the first season) that Mika wanted to eat celty's head, and Walker suggested to slice a man's foot to fit in a crystal shoe, as a reference to cinderella. (I'm not joking btw)
In this aspect I like more the second season which is more faithful to the novels, even with all its bad animation and rushed pace.

Plus, without this second season, probably the novels would not have been officially translated and I think every durarara fan, has to be glad that the series is being animated entirely after five years, because it would have ended up becoming another unfinished anime for good. The former studio stopped continuing the series and now another one which is more basic and "amateur" so to speak, has taken the adaptation being Durarara its first one, so with knowing this you can somewhat forgive them for some really bad drawn scenes (at least I do).
And finally you are saying that it became a shonen with the start of the second season, but come on! did you forget the whole mess with the main trio that began after the saika arc in the first season that still continues until now? It was dragged to many episode and Masaomi's arc was really boring because of that.

nothing happens