Life in the city is chaotic and messy, and as someone who's lived in a small city for years and has lived in multiple big cities for months at a time, it's easy to feel lost in the sensation and in the beat of the crowd. Durarara is a show that echoes this idea, and in its massive cast of characters and its massive story pieces, it shows what the real life of the city is: Its people.
Our story takes place in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, and centers around some of its most interesting inhabitants. Durarara has a main cast so large that it would
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be counterproductive for me to try and describe all of them, so I'll take my time to go in depth on the 6 most important of the bunch:
Firstly, we have Mikado Ryugamine, a shy and introverted transfer student to Raira academy. Mikado is the first character the show introduces you too, and we learn about a lot of Ikebukuro through his eyes. Mikado is a character who loves life, and who wants to live a life far different to that of other men. This leads to him getting stuck in a lot of drama starting in the Bukuro. He's a surprisingly interesting character, and while he doesn't end up developig as much as I would have liked, he is definitely a great character.
Nextly, we have Masaomi Kida. The comic relief character, Kida is one of the most well developed and sympathetic characters in this whole show, taking a massive leading role in the second season. Kida is your typical high school student, a joker who likes hitting on girls. I'd say more, but I can't reveal any of the great character developments of the second season.
Rounding out the high school club, we have Anri Sonohara. The vessel for the second season's most surprising twist, Sonohara has a tragic backstory that leaves her a much less emotional person than before. She is the typical highschool bookworm in season one, and provides a very good love interest for Mikado.
First in the grownup characters, we have Shizuo Heiwajima. A man who literally cannot control his own strength, Shizuo is known as the strongest man in Ikebukuro. A really interesting static character, Shizuo's anger and his hatred for Izaya Orihara make for a great relationship and an incredible character.
Speaking of rivalries, the persay "villain" of the show, the information broker Izaya Orihara, is honestly one of the more interesting characters in the show. A man who claims to love humans, Izaya is generally the starting point through which all conflicts flow. Izaya loves to see how humans react to various situations, and spends his time either collecting or giving out information.
Finally, we have Celty Sturlson, AKA the headless rider. A mythical faerie from the land of ireland, Celty is attempting to find her head. She's a great character, and I love her a ton, but I just can't explain why I do. Watch the show and you'll find out why I love her so.
Something highly positive I can say about Durarara that I can say about very few anime is that it takes the time to develop its characters. Using a unique art style that has only main, focal characters colored, Durarara's main characters all have interwoven backstories, and interwoven plots such that everyone has a relationship with just about anyone. With the first season being a large amount of character based episodes, just about every character gets their due. Each episode shows different aspects of a character and different aspects of a city as well.
On the Art, Durarara is clean and well animated. Few of the animations were highly complex, but all the character designs were great, and I was very impressed with the reveal of the dollars. All the shadows becoming colored at once wasn't excessively complex, but it was enough to impress me. Brain Base is, as always, animating some damn good episodes.
In terms of Music, the soundtrack was very good, although there were few standout tracks other than the Slasher's theme, which I don't know the name of. The track itself was incredibly creepy and strange, and I was very impressed by how much it seemed to explain the personality of the slasher. Props also go to the first opening's theme song Uragiri no Yuuyake, which is a great tune and helped hook me in on the show.
So, the time comes for my biggest complaint with the series, and It really saddens me to say this. Durarara suffers heavily from Little brother syndrome, and Durarara is Brains Base's way of trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice and create another Baccano. And I'll be damned if I say that they haven't done an admirable job of it, but at its heart, it wants to be Baccano so very bad, and it just can't be damned to break from that mold. And that really disappointed me, because it had enough potential to be a masterpiece of a show, but by refusing to break from that mold, it just fizzled.
So, in terms of reccomendations, I would reccomend watching this, but after you watch Baccano. Durarara is covered in references to the show, and to fully appreciate them, you need to see the show. Dub or Sub wise, I'd go with Sub. The actors are great either way, but the Japanese just fits better there, and I prefer Izaya's seiyyu to JYB's voice, weirdly enough.
Jun 23, 2013
Durarara!!
(Anime)
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Life in the city is chaotic and messy, and as someone who's lived in a small city for years and has lived in multiple big cities for months at a time, it's easy to feel lost in the sensation and in the beat of the crowd. Durarara is a show that echoes this idea, and in its massive cast of characters and its massive story pieces, it shows what the real life of the city is: Its people.
Our story takes place in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, and centers around some of its most interesting inhabitants. Durarara has a main cast so large that it would ... |
