It’s been a while since season 1 of DRRR first aired, but in the world of DRRR it’s business as usual. The cast is largely familiar, as is the wonderful setting of Ikebukuro. Depressed over losing contact with Masaomi Kida, Ryuugamine Mikado continues his student life with Anri Sonohara. Celty meanwhile continues her job as courier, although finds herself being dragged into deep, deep water with the arrival of a hit group from Russia. And yes, Shizuo and Izaya are still at each other’s throats, fear not! You’ll no doubt have already realised, but you’re really going to want to have watched the first season of Durarara before watching X2 (that said, I’ll keep spoilers of season 1 to an absolute minimum).
Given X2’s limited 13 episode run-time, this cour opts wisely I think for the 1 overarching arc storyline. There are quite a few branches to this tree though. As ever, we firstly have the gang conflicts, because without them Ikebukuro just wouldn’t be Ikebukuro. The Dollars, Blue Squares and Toromaru are all at each other’s’ throats as they try to gain control of the district. We’ve also got some interesting mafia relations thrown into the mix as well. This mafia/gang warfare is pretty much the overriding storyline of X2, and nearly all the main characters are involved in some way in this story. Over the course of the series, these gangs slowly plunge Ikebukuro into complete madness – with Izaya pulling all the strings of course – and the dynamic between the gangs that the original season did so well to portray remains as exciting to watch in X2.
The gangs aren’t the only players in X2. This time, Ikebukuro has some visitors from the distant Russia to stir up further trouble: the beautiful but deadly Varona and the philosophical Sloan. Of the new additions to DRRR’s already expansive cast, I thought these Russian hit-men were some of the best. Like us viewers (unless you happen to live in Ikebukuro…), these new additions are foreign spectators reluctant to intrude on a well-established ecosystem, so it’s interesting to see how they react to the madness that is DRRR. Varona however in particular took me by surprise. At first sight, with her good looks and revealing outfit I had her pegged as clichéd fanservice material. Varona quickly establishes herself as a power player of Ikebukuro, and her personal vendetta against Celty provide some of the real highlights of this season. Her expert combat skills matched with Celty’s fantastical powers set the stage for some of the best battles in DRRR.
Now with these storylines, in theory these would and should have been sufficient to satisfy me for this season. What makes Durarara a more difficult recommendation than I would have hoped is the way it goes about portraying these stories. By the end of the season, you’ll have them figured out. Before that though, the structure and pacing of X2 is so fragmented that, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be scratching your head a few too many times. I don’t have a problem with a scattered storyline, Baccano is an example of how a disjointed story can be used to make the series’ conclusion all the more satisfying. X2 however seems to introduce a sense of confusion for the sake of confusion. Where am I? What’s coming next? These are the sorts of existential debates you’ll be having with yourself as you slog through another timeskip. I expect that, given DRRR’s five year absence, the producers were keen to fit in everyone’s favourite characters at every available opportunity, to reassure everyone they had everything under control. Instead, the story comes across as needlessly complex. I very much hope that X2 Ten and Ketsu can provide the much more streamlined storytelling that will do the fantastic characters and setting justice.
At this point, I’d like to be able to say I’m done: X2 Shou had a few flaws but overall had things were pretty fine. There are a few more points worth covering though. The sticklers for animation in the audience should note that X2’s animation is embarrassingly lazy at some points. I’m not talking still frame lazy, I’m talking jittery motion and forgetting to animate every second still. Oh well, this is so they could pour more money into the other 2 cours isn’t it? The music on the other hand, which I had high hopes for after season 1, does not fail to deliver. The op and ed are both catchy as hell, and there’s the ever helpful last episode catchup worked into every op as was the case in the original season.
The few foibles I have put aside, if you enjoyed Durarara you will still enjoy this series. I certainly did; Shou is setting things up nicely for the two remaining cours of season 2, Ten and Ketsu. Shou ends on a high note, and I’m confident the talented team behind DRRR can continue to deliver.
