Review of Durarara!!

General Review + English Dub Review (Aniplex): General Thoughts: Once I heard this series was director by the same director as Baccano and was written by the same light novel writer, I had to see this series. In many ways this anime is similar to Baccano, though they both have very distinct flavors and storylines. Like Baccano Durarara had the rapid jumps between different characters perspectives which was a nice move to give each different character a moment to shine since the cast is quite large. However in Baccano I felt like the multiple different perspective concept was executed a bit better than inDurarara as I felt the finale of Baccano had the different stories intertwine and mix better than Durarara.

In general I liked the series and appreciated the wide array of characters. Unfortunately I found Mikado the lead protagonist to be the least interesting of the entire cast, though that’s not a huge problem considering how much the show shuffles around the different stories. I also thought the concept behind Celty and Izaya was very interesting and unique. Celty’s character was also a fun, slightly sassy but badass figure, something you don’t see to often.

Some personal nitpicks I had with the show as the pacing and progression of the plot felt a little uneven. The first half of the series focused on introducing a lot of the characters but felt a bit bland in terms of plot compared to the second half where the action really gets going. Another qualm I had was that the cast felt unnecessarily large. For a light novel I think it would’ve worked better, but for a standard length series I felt like some characters weren’t quite fleshed out such as the police officer in the second half of the series, Walker or Erika’s roles (Kadota got some nice moments though!) or even Namie who was very interesting around episode 8/9 and then almost entirely disappears from the series after that. The ending was also a bit too open-ended for my liking, almost as if the series is just asking for a second series or spin-off project.

Dub Presentation:
Aniplex really went all out on this one enlisting a largely veteran cast of well-known union voice actors. In the end their efforts mostly paid off with a very professional, consistent dub job. Standouts for me were Johnny Yong Bosch as Izaya who nails both the playful and dangerous moments of crazyness and Kari Wahlgren who could literally be the direct English version of the original Japanese actress. Yuri Lowenthal also matches up almost identically to the original and Steven Blum turns out a smooth and solid performance as Kadota.

Personally I know some people have had either love it or hate it opinions on Bryce Papenbrook as Kida, but I personally loved him in the role and thought he put a unique interpretation on the character that fits for an Americanized series. I think some of the fan criticism has to do with the script written by Kristi Reed that incorporates a good deal of local slang and “yo bro, what’s up?” kind of guy persona while the original is more of a straight playboy. Either way I though he did a great job and was one of my favorites!

In my opinion weak points of the dub was Darrel Guilbeau who sounded too old for Mikado and struggled to convey the innocent and personable side without sounding derpy (which unfortunately doesn’t help the character). Mela Lee as Erika also felt a little underwhelming when required to go into her otaku mode and Crispin Freeman doesn’t quite fill the big shoes Daisuke Ono set for Shizuo, though many other actors could’ve certainly did far worse.

Recap:
Overall I liked both the series and the dub. I thought both were a nice, pleasant watch though I wasn’t blown away by either (though that’s not really necessary). In many ways some people have said that Durarara is like the modern little brother of Baccano and I have to agree both in terms of the theme and in terms of it being slightly inferior to the latter. Either way I nonetheless enjoyed Durarara.