Review of Durarara!!

Durarara is like nothing I've ever seen before (then again, I haven't watched Baccano yet, which a lot of people say has a similar narrative, and does it better, so yeah). This is my favorite show right now, and I'm going to try my damn hardest to put my love for this series into words! Story- The story of this series is... Interesting. It takes so many possible elements: A Supernatural Entity, Gang Wars, 3 Friends Who Each Have A Big Secret, and much more. You would think this would be the level of some kind of bad story made by an wannabe writer, but, surprisinglyit isn't. It actually mixes perfectly well together. Plus, the narrative, OMG THE NARRATIVE. The way how it tells multiple stories that collide with each other is pretty rare nowadays. Probably because it's a risky way of telling a story. But regardless, its a narrative that keeps you asking for more. And it's not like the tension is really high, its just a good story that can pull you in real easily. However, there is one thing I'll like to mention: The story is the show's biggest criticism is how people think the 2nd half of the show went REALLY downhill, because the show went into too many directions, and how they *MINOR SPOILER START* basically abandoned the plot about Celty looking for her head *MINOR SPOILER END*. If anything I like where the show went. The way I saw it, the 1st half of the show was to basically get into the characters, and give us a little bit of, "hints" of what was to come. The 2nd half of the show is where we kind of get to see these characters, "set off" into a pretty big plot. As for the, *MINOR SPOILER START* "Celty's Head" Plotline, I think how this wasn't brought up again... Kind of, "boosted" her character. This makes Celty realizes that she shouldn't get so caught up with one thing. Sure, I do agree it could have been wrapped up a little better, but I never really minded it. *MINOR SPOILER END* Overally, I really LOVED the way the story was told. Score: 10/10

Art- The art, for the most part, looks only pretty good at first glance, but when you pay attention to it, it looks GREAT! The characters look good, the city looks amazing, and the lighting really captures the mood, setting, or time of the event currently taking place. There really isn't anything more to say about it, it's just... Great! Score: 9/10

Sound- Okay, so for this, I'm going to divide it into 3 mini sections:

Sound/Main Soundtrack - The Soundtrack really captures the mood of whats going on, however, it can get a little repetitive after a while, because the same songs are used again a little too often.

Sound/Openings- The 1st Opening for this show is really catchy, upbeat, and really sets the mood for Ikebukuro and it's characters. One of my favorite memories of this show was simply watching this opening. That doesn't mean that show wasn't as interesting. If anything, it just shows that this intro matches up to the series that it represents. The 2nd Opening, like how most anime openings seem to do often for some reason, dies down the hype that the previous opening offered. By all means, its still a good intro. It can get stuck in your head just as easily as the first one. I just prefer the other intro. Of course, a lot of people say that the reason an anime's 2nd opening isn't as, "big and grand" as the first one is because they wanted us to get into the story with an excited feeling, and once we get it, it starts to die down a little bit. This is definitely true for A LOT of animes, but Durarara isn't one of them. As I stated earlier, the biggest criticism about the show is how the 2nd half of the show starts to go into too many directions. So, that would have been a good time to use a energetic opening. I'm not saying they shouldn't have used an energetic opening first, I'm just saying they should have saved the, "Calming Down" opening for maybe around Episode 16. I've talked too much about this. Moving on.

Sound/Endings- I kind of want to dislike the ending more than I do, but I... Just can't. Probably because of the impact (If you could even call it that) the 1st Ending had on me. It's not that it was an amazing ending, it was a Japanese pop/rap song for heaven's sake, but the mood that it set off visually. It has all of the characters hanging off of each other, and it feels nice and fun. The 2nd Ending, while not bad, didn't have any impact on me, and watching/listening felt kind of distracting because of how different it was from the 1st one. But they are both still good.

So overall, I like the Soundtrack. I spent WAY too much time talking about it, though. Score: 9/10.

Character- The characters of this show are really interesting, this is probably the 2nd best thing about the show, besides the storyline. First of we have Mikado, a small town, wimpish kid who recently moved to the big city all by himself (this isn't uncommon in Japan) to go to Raira Academy, a private (and frankly a cool looking) school, with his former best friend Masaomi Kida, a guy who loves cringe worthy jokes, and a little full of himself. On their first day, they befriend a girl named Anri Sonohara, who may seem like a Mary Sue at first, but gets better later on. All 3 of these characters have a big secret that they are keeping each other, but you will have to watch for yourself to find out what they are. Aside from these 3 we have the fan favorite: Izaya Orihara. I won't lie, it doesn't surprise me that people love him so much. He is cunning, intelligent, manipulative, and a superhuman with super fast speed. He is the main villain of the show in a way, but not in the way most villains are. In fact, a lot of the protagonists have casual conversations with him, heck, they even team up with him on a few occasions. Nobody really tries to kill him or anything... Well, except for one character: Shizuo Heiwajima. Shizuo, like Izaya, is superhuman in a sort. You see *MINOR SPOILER START*, humans have a certain limit that keeps them for using their full strength, for if we could, our bones who snap quite a bit of times. Shizuo doesn't have that limitation. As I mentioned earlier, Shizuo is trying to kill Izaya, and it was like this ever since they were teenagers. Izaya, has never been even touched by Shizuo in these fights, and while Izaya has stabbed Shizuo on a few occasions, Shizuo keeps on trying *MINOR SPOILER END*. Next we have Celty, who isn't human: she is a Dullahan. A Dullahan is a humanoid type of fairy that are kind of like Grim Reapers, visiting humans not too long before they die. They are the same size of humans, and have similar anatomy (plus a super quick healing ability), there is one thing that Dullahans don't have that humans do: Heads. Well, actually, they DO have heads, but they are not attached to their body, they just carry it around with them. Celty has lost her head, but is 100% that her head is somewhere in Ikebukuro after Shinra, a perverted underground doctor, offers her to live with him. She then rides her, "motorcycle" around, doing tasks that people assign to her for money. There are more characters that I can talk about, like Namie, or Kyohei's gang, but I, once again, talked too much already. The only thing that keeps me from giving Character a solid 10 is because of the screen time so characters got. There is this couple that, while getting a decent amount of screen time in the first half, and barely appear in the 2nd or 3rd half. The same that can be said about Rio Kawichika, who got Episode 2 entirely focused on her, and doesn't appear until the end of the 1st half in The 1st Half, and is never seen again until the end of Arc 1 in Season 2 (NOT Half 2). But overall, these characters are really interesting, and I really find them enjoyable. Score: 9/10

Enjoyment: Unlike some people, I loved Durarara from start to finish. It took so many elements that could have easily been done wrong when mixed together, but REALLY worked! I will probably rewatch this show again after I finish all 3 Arcs of Season 2, and I can give it a HUGE recommendation to anyone who is thinking about watching this. It is a great experience that you have to see, and wither you enjoy it as much as I did, I hope you get something out of this.

STORY: 10/10
ART: 9/10
SOUND: 9/10
CHARACTER: 9/10
ENJOYMENT: 10/10

OVERALL: 9/10

IF YOU LIKE THIS SERIES, I RECOMMEND:

Baccano!: As I said earlier, I havn't watched it as of this review, but a lot of fans love this, saying that it has a similar story telling, and most people even prefer this over Durarara! So you should see if their claims are true. I know I will.

Mekakucity Actors: Based off Kagerou Project, one of the best Vocaloid series EVER, the storytelling and character relations are pretty similar. Sure, it may be pretty confusing, and sure, it may not tell as much about the universe as Kagerou Project did, but it is still a decent show that you might get some enjoyment out of. But seriously, if you don't like Mekakucity Actors like quite a few people did, PLEASE go check out Kagerou Project. It's REALLY good!

P.S. A friend of mine, Kira, actually recommended this to me at school after she binged watched both Halfs of Season 1 and all 3 Arcs of Season 2 by pulling a latenighter, so Kira, if you are ready this (which you most likely aren't)... THANK. YOU.

SO MUCH!