Review of Durarara!!

Narita manages to catch lightning in a bottle twice...sort of. Overview: Durarara is the spiritual successor to Baccano and takes place in the same universe. Once again, the famous light novelist Ryohgo Narita uses the formula of having TONS of zany characters that all somehow tie together. Also like in Baccano, the story is told non-sequentially and from multiple perspectives. The question you're probably asking is, "If he was going to basically re-make Baccano, why not just continue Baccano where the first series left off?" The answer to that question is marketing. Baccano took place in the US during the Prohibition Era and played around with Americancultural tropes and cliches. I believe the author stated that he created Baccano after binge watching The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Untouchables back to back. If you asked Tarantino to direct a prohibition era Mafia movie, it WOULD be Baccano. Although it also has that magic and sorcery randomly thrown in...maybe Del Toro guest directed along with Tarantino. The point is still that Baccano feels about as American as John Cena eating a cheese burger while riding a bald eagle. Needless to say, it didn't do as well in Japan as it did overseas. Japan as a market is maybe the only country even more self centered than the United States. Narita therefore decided to reboot the series in Japan with Japanese characters in the hopes that it would sell better with domestic audiences. It did. Fortunately for American audience members like me, the series did so well in Japan that it was aired on Adult Swim to the widest possible US audience release and features possibly the most All-Star English voice acting cast of any dub I have ever seen!

Story and characters

The story takes place in Tokyo, where a shy student from the Japanese countryside moves in to go to high school. This student is named Mikado after the 1880s Gilbert and Sullivan musical, which takes place in Japan. Odd fact: despite the fact this old British musical isn't exactly respectful towards Japan and their culture, it is widely popular in the same way that Kazakhs have embraced the movie Borat and especially the fake Kazakh anthem. Mikado meets up with his old friend Masaomi and is given a tour around town. This is where we are first introduced to some of the other ridiculous characters. One character is the brutal bartender Shizuo. Shizuo has superhuman strength because he can't feel pain and is able to push his body beyond its normal limits, even if this damages his body. This is the same explanation as Guts' Berserker armor, which isn't just coincidence. Shizuo hilariously goes into fits of blind rage where he is unable to tell friend from foe. He has devoted his life to killing a pretty boy rival and must fight through endless waves of said rival's minions while screaming the rival's name like a lunatic. He also has a brother named Kasuka, which is spelled very similar to Caska, Guts' love interest from Berserk. What can top a comedic Guts ripoff? How about a headless Irish fairy that rides a motorcycle and fights with a giant grim reaper scythe? Even she isn't the character with the wackiest background. That distinction goes to Semyon Brezhnev. Semyon is the son of a Russian woman and a Black American man who sought political refugee in the Soviet Union during the 1960s...so basically Huey Newton?! He fought for Spetsnaz GRU during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and climbed the ranks due to his superhuman strength. After the USSR fell apart, he randomly moved to Japan and became a sushi chef because...reasons. Let's summarize this: the insinuated bastard son of the Black Panthers founder is a super powered Spetsnaz GRU operative that randomly works in Japan as a sushi chef! Wow! That's what happens when you use Mad Libs to write your character backgrounds. With each episode, we get to meet new characters, learn more background, and see exactly how all these crazy characters connect.

Sound and Art:

The art is fantastic and Narita's attention to detail and use of real world locations for background is back with a vengence. One aesthetic difference from Baccano is that Durarara cuts down a LOT on the gore factor. I suppose that allowed it to get a wider release. I don't mind because gore obviously can't by itself make an anime good and its absence here didn't really spoil anything. The soundtrack isn't as catchy as Baccano's but is pretty solid. The voice acting for the English dub as previously mentioned is spectacular. A few episodes in we get a Mexican standoff between Crispin Freeman, Johnny Young Bosch, and Patrick Seitz. Can you possibly ask for more than that!?

Overall:

You might be wondering why I didn't rate this higher, since I've praised its high production value and zany storytelling. The reason is at least in part because Durarara is a bit of a disappointment following Baccano. By taking place outside Japan and playing with another culture's tropes, Baccano offered a unique outsider's perspective of American pop culture that was rather fascinating to watch. Durarara is a return to Japanese self examination for a domestic Japanese audience, which we've seen in other anime...a LOT. Baccano actually had a unique edge going for it, and they squashed it for the sake of sales. That kind of sucks. Baccano also had a slightly better cast of characters and knew how to balance time between characters. No one fucking cares about Masaomi! He's a boring character that gets WAY too much screen time, while the crazy and fun characters are underutilized. At least Celty got some development, but Semyon is given this ludicrous background...only to get shafted in the anime vs. the original light novels and have maybe 4 minutes of screen time. That would be like in Baccano if Claire Stanfield had all of his scenes save for his introduction cut out, so we could watch Eve Genoard and her maid be boring for 3 whole episodes. That's just fucking cruel to the audience! I never watched an episode of Baccano and thought, "Ah shit, this episode revolves around that douche bag?!" Besides the first episode of Baccano, which just sets up the world, every single episode is an absolute blast. Durarara is FAR more hit and miss. Durarara is a fine series by itself and I really did enjoy it, but it still doesn't hold a candle to Baccano!