The story is roughly the same as last seasons. We continue with the few themes we have. The gang's butting heads with Mikado and Masaomi at their respective heads. The end of the Dollars, through the purge. The finishing act with Celty, her heads, and her relationship with Shinra. Finally we have a showdown between Izaya, and Shizou. This season sure was action packed, and because of that I can appreciate it. However it feels a bit too late, a bit non nonsensical, and slightly disappointing. The end though leaving no real cliff hangers, still leaves hardly anything settled other than the Dollars situation. If they cut out season 2 and simply removed the useless fluff and distributed the story between season 1 and 4 we would have been able to enjoy this far more, in a far more reasonable two or three seasons.
The story isn't bad because its long. Its bad because it seems reaching, it seems a bit stretched. Like going to a concert and the musician forgot some of his or her song, so they have a long solo until they remember it. They do try to bring back the interwoven story system that they ditched in early season 2. However again it falls short, making me wonder what the actual problem is. Different writers, too crazy of a story..etc?
The art and sound both great. Not much change from the other seasons.
The characters are honestly stale. Not to keep using bad analogies, but its like someone holding a dollar in front of your face. At first your interested, you want that dollar! However after a few tries you simply don't care anymore, finding its presence nothing more than an annoyance. As mentioned earlier things come to a head for most of our main characters. Nothing really happens of course but at least its interesting. Izaya and Mikado stealing the show in my eyes, though as they were the main reason for enjoying this anime in the first place I shouldn't say stealing. Though I really wanted to bang my head against the wall every time Sonahara came on the screen. How long, and how many episodes can you milk the, "I'm not a human", "I'm a parasite", "I cant possibly deserve human life" angle. The answer to that question appears to be 4 seasons.
I enjoyed this anime, much like I enjoyed season 3. Its marvelous to see things happen. Even if yet again the ending is lame, the characters were tired, and the rhetoric foggy and bland, I still enjoyed it. However I am more happy I no longer have to feel dread seeing it in my currently watching section and can, with luck move on to greener pastures. Seriously, if you made it this far its worth finishing. If you haven't started Durarara yet, I would say don't bother. I thought the first season was a great anime and recommended in its review to give it a try even with some of its shortcomings. I however don't wish this long and truly tedious journey on those who don't choose this for themselves.
TLDR: Its over...probably. The art was pretty good and the soundtrack spot on. Did I mention its probably over? Seriously if you haven't watched Durarara don't bother, unless you have nothing better to do. If you have already started its worth watching this season to as previously mentioned hopefully finish off this series.
