Review of Durarara!!

This show is best watched without spoiling yourself on any of the content in advance. Going into this show pretty much completely blind, having not even read the synopsis, allowed for a really good experience that gradually opened up the world more and more as each episode built upon the previous. The show takes place in a part of Tokyo with a very colorful cast of characters and is essentially about how they interact with each other on small and large scales. There are reality stretching physics and supernatural elements, but they're largely confined to a few of the characters. Watching this show, including the other seasons andspecials, was a great time. Everything is well grounded in the world and has its own logic, even when things go completely whack! It was delightful that the anime kept to its own conventions and had elegant story telling throughout. It felt like a story consisting of many smaller arcs that were tied together by the glue of the characters. Even the two main arcs felt like they happily meandered along until the end, in a good way.

By the time the last episode rolled by, the most important story beats had been resolved and it was a perfect place to either stop or set up for a new story. A very minor negative would be that some subplots could do with more resolution, because they have quite a bit of setup towards the end of the show.

Many of the characters are interesting and unique, even so far as to not really being duplicated in any other anime. They're also driven by their own motivations, often to a comical - yet still consistent - and also entertaining degree. For that reason alone, this would be a good watch, but it's great all around and absolutely recommended.