Review of Durarara!!

This is a brilliant anime especially it's second half. It revolves around a host of interesting characters who are part of the schemes of an information dealer to (as far can be gathered) entertain himself. This kept my head turning all throughout the show. What is the information dealer planning? Was he the cause of this or that plot point? Will he succeed? His plans on the one hand seem like both they have an inherit logic that gives them a life of their own and yet can be stopped in their tracks if people did something as simple as start sharing information. The animeis also great in how it slowly reveals more about the characters and the plot. Some times it will jump back in time to explain a situation you saw earlier. Other times the anime will take a break from the main plot to explain charterers back story. Every single one of the many character has a great back-story and is incredibly likable. In particular, the three high schoolers who seem like the least interesting characters in the first half of the anime get such a central and interesting role in the second half that when I realized how much power they had and what a stark contrast it was with their depiction in the begging of the anime, my jaw dropped. By far my favorite charater is the information dealer. A man who reminds me a lot of Lecouch from Code Geasse, he is a wicked smart scheme and could be called the villain in all this. Yet, he has hierarchical control of the characters or does much fighting himself. He selectively leaks information to various parties in order to get them to do what he wants. Despite causing so much disruption in people's lives, he is in a sense liked by everyone. Multiple times he both gets a character into a bad situation and then goes though the effort to get them out of that situation. Charater's know what he is like yet choose to keep interacting with him. It makes him my favorite character in anime right above Lelouch. Another thing I like about this anime is the Bacano! Easter eggs. The first intro is a lot like the Baccano! intro, a computer password is Baccano, you can see Baccano posters in the city, and two Baccano character even show up at one point. It's really well done and brought back pleasant memories of when I watched that anime. Basically, I think this is a killer anime. It just pulls you in and keeps you thinking all the way though. I give it my highest recommendation. 10/10.