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.
