Review of Durarara!!

Durarara!! has a large cast of characters, and the first half of the series spends a lot of time fleshing out who these people are and where they come from. Just watching the opening shows that there are a lot of main characters to become invested in. Some characters are more fleshed out than others, and for the first 10 episodes you will find yourself asking "What the hell is going on?". However, once you meet all the players the story becomes really good. There are definitely some crazy people in this world, and the show becomes more enjoyable for it. I would say the charactersand the plotting are definitely the highlights of this series. You can tell this was based on a light novel, as there are lots of scenes with narration explaining character thoughts and providing exposition.

The animation and sound are average. The characters look different enough that you can tell everyone apart, and the music changes to match the scene. I watched the English dub (which is available on Crunchyroll) which I thought serviced the story well.

This show is intense. If you enjoy supernatural crime drama stories, then you will enjoy this show. I was so emotionally invested in the conflicts between characters and groups in the story that I actually got angry at the TV a couple times.