Durarara!! centers in a part of Tokyo called Ikebukuro. It follows the lives of various people who each have their own influence on the city. The first characters we meet are Ryuugamine Mikado and his best friend from elementary school Kida Masaomi. While Mikado is from out of town, he quickly gets engulfed by the mysteries of Ikebukuro, from supposedly headless riders to giant black Russian men. He learns of a "colorless" gang called the Dollars who have found their way into Ikebukuro, different from the color gangs of before the Yellow Scarves and the Blue Square. By the end of the 24 episode anime, the cast gets fully fleshed out, which is always a plus. Furthermore, there is a sense of mystery and anxiousness that leaves you wanting more, even at the end.
While I believe the characters are absolutely amazing, the plot is also great. There are plenty of twists and turns with plenty of surprises, even for the most astute of anime watchers. It is my belief that part of Durarara!!'s charm lies in its ability to feel timeless, as if everything is moving perfectly with both dragging and rushing placed strategically in place. Since Durarara!! is based off a light novel, a novel with pictures basically, and this series only covered 3 out of the 7 out it is my belief that we may see more Durarara!! in the future and I would personally be looking forward to it.
In addition to the plot, I found the animation style nice and clean. There was little if any CG which I found nice since CG can seriously ruin good anime, for example Fairy Tail. The action scenes are smooth and reminiscent of some of the best action anime out while keeping the nice clean look of Durarara!!
For music, the 2 OPs/EDs were all amazing, easily some of the best OPs/EDs I have heard in a long time. From the pop/jazz feel of the first OP to the pop of the first ED to the powerful sound of the second OP and similarly good second ED, we get a pretty complete anime able to be watched from start to end. I often skip the OP/ED so having an anime like that once in a while is a very good thing for me. In addition, the soundtrack is similarly amazing for the anime. While I found a copy online, I must say that as strict listening it is not all that great, but in context it makes the anime all that much stronger. With both haunting tracks and fast paced tracks only fit for action, there is nothing out of place or done badly. Listening to the soundtrack by itself made me realize just how amazing it was, able to enhance the anime without being intruding which actually reminded me of Samurai Champloo interestingly enough.
In any case, if you are gonna watch any anime of winter/spring 2010 I would strongly suggest Durarara!! There is comedy, a bit of romance, and a lot of awesome. I suppose not everyone feels the same way I do, but that is not for me to decide, now is it? The next post is a WD then it is onto the start of the summer 2010 first episode review madness.
For some extra fun, let us look at something interesting about this season:
If you do not wanna click the pictures, the top three are all played by the same seiyuu or voice actor, Daisuke Ono, the next 4 are all played by Hiroshi Kamiya, and the bottom two are played by Jun Fukuyama, the same person who voices Lelouch from Code Geass. In order, the animes affiliated with each picture from left to right, sorry the pictures are set funny, are Giant Killing, Working!!, Durarara!!, Working!!, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Durarara!!, Angel Beats!, Durarara!!, and Working!! Notice that all three voice actors played roles in both Working!! and Durarara!!, must have been busy for them. In any case, time to give my ratings of Durarara!!
Overall: 9.5/10
Amongst its genre whatever it is: 9.8/10 (yea, that is right, 9.8)
*Note: you can stream Durarara!! off of crunchyroll.com
--CsMiREK
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