Anime Club: Durarara

Hello everybody! For this week’s anime club we have the fantastic character driven series Durarara!

DURARARA!

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CREATED BY: Takahiro Omori

NO. OF EPISODES: 38

GENRE: Action, Suspense

YEAR: 2010, 2015-

COUNTRY: Japan

Mikado Ryūgamine, a young boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city moves to Ikebukuro to attend Raira Academy with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida, who he has not seen since he was young. After the two meet at the train station, they set out at night to the streets of Ikebukuro. Masaomi warns Mikado about people he doesn’t want to cross in the city, such as the violent and superhumanly strong man Shizuo Heiwajima, the information broker Izaya Orihara, and the mysterious gang known as “The Dollars.”

After running into some of the side characters, Mikado sees a local legend called the “Black Rider”, who rides around Ikebukuro on a black bike that occasionally neighs like a horse, and who is rumored to have no head under her helmet. The “Black Rider” is Celty Sturluson, an Irish dullahan who is in Ikebukuro looking for her stolen head. The narrative follows all of the characters equally, showing how their lives intersect and creating a greater plot line from what each character knows about a common incident.

I decided to give Durarara! after watching the older yet similar Baccano!. As I have not finished the second series yet, this review will only be regarding Durarara!. I actually started watching it, having no real expectation as what I was about to see. The massive amount of characters that each get their own part of the story is phenomenal, I wouldn’t be able to fit all of those characters into one episode. I guess it does help that we are able to see different events in the relative same time period, just changing scene angles. There is so much depth among all of the characters with their backstories and relationships that it is hard to rationalize, but not too hard. Did I mention the animation style? It is very crisp and clean, as well as being well presented.

So far, there isn’t much I can say that I don’t like about Durarara!. While it is indeed helpful, it becomes quite tiresome watching similar events in a handful of episodes. The storytelling becomes a little confusing, but after watching Baccano! I was definitely be able to keep up with it. There are a handful of characters that I didn’t necessarily like, but hey, they serve their purpose and they serve it well.

PROS:

• Similar to Baccano!.
• Massive amount of characters.
• Character depth.
• Clean animation

CONS:

• Different scene angles.
• Story is somewhat confusing.
• A few unlikable characters.

SCORE: 8.0 / 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9hRcIAza0

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Brandon Stuhr

Who am I? Just some guy who decided to start writing on the Internet years ago and now operates his own brand and site. Owner/Operator of Modern Neon Media, I make all kinds of niche content to suit my interests at the time. DIY Enthusiast, Brewmaster extraordinaire, and avid freak for geek culture. Follow on my socials for a more “on” version of me.