Review of Durarara!!

"It all happened here at Ikebukuro." This is a street gang soap opera of a series. It is driven by some of the most ridiculously zany characters I have seen. From the first episode it is easy to see why it's a popular anime series. There's everything from headless horsewomen to black Russian sushi greeters. This is a must see. The story is told in a very busy way. It's non-linear with a lot of backpedaling and intersecting between the various character story lines. It is brilliant at times, but the chaotic delivery does get distracting at some parts. This series started to lose me a bituntil the 10th episode where the first major twist came into play. From that point forward I was watching very intently.

The artwork was done very nice. Background characters were dull and gray in color so as not to distract from the extremely colorful characters that were important for each scene. It made them stand out that much more, and it was used as a great delivery tool at certain key moments.

The music fit the craziness of the story. It complimented the voice acting, though the narrative done by each character was a bit busy at times. Overall I have no complaints about the quality of the sound.

This series really boiled down to it's characters. Each character was funny in one way or another. Some were disturbingly funny in how twisted they were in the most bizarre of moments, while others were very slapstick. The humor in the story was sometimes out of left field in such a refreshing way. This did not steal any of the dramatic scenes, as there were still plenty of emotional moments as well. Each character had a background story that unfolded in a very interesting way. It's hard to talk about the characters, because I am tempted to fill this review with spoilers. Let just say characters make this world go round.

There are plenty of surprises, plenty of twists, and there's lots of enjoyment to be had in this series. I do want to reiterate what I said before about it losing me a little in the beginning. I had tried to watch this series a few months ago but put it down after the sixth episode. This time around I almost did the same thing due to the chaotic delivery, but then episode 10 ended and I couldn't stop watching.

If you enjoy zany character driven stories, then this is for you. Definitely check this one out.