Review of Durarara!!

Hey folks, this is a review for Durarara!! If you haven't watched this show I highly recommend it. This anime has a very interesting way to convey its story and character which IMO was really engaging and fun. This show has everything from violence, comedy, cliches and a decent enough story. Lets begin shall we. First lets talk about the story. We start our journey from the perspective of one of our male main characters (Ryuugamine, Mikado) who moved from the country side to join his old friend(Kida, Masaomi) in Ikebukuro. This is the basic plot that we all need to know to enjoy the majorityof the show. Seems rather simple at first glance and that's true. However a majority of the story comes from the characters and the lives they lead or used to lead. This makes everything a hard topic to dance around without giving spoilers. For now just know that each character has some part to play and even through the seemingly slow start and the massive amount of time spent introducing characters that its all for a reason. We should also mention that some supernatural elements come into play as well, but more on this later.

The characters are what makes this show wonderful. I was surprised to see some people thought the characters to be cliche or underdeveloped. Durarara!! has an expansive list of characters and as previously mentioned, each has a place in this world. For the most part the characters all had their charms, even IMO some of the more annoying characters like (Sonohara, Anri), who was for the most part frustratingly distant, managed to be enjoyable. The first 12 or so episodes are spent introducing characters, and showing you how they think and what they are about. The supernatural elements are for the most part answered quickly so as not to mislead you, and you feel a sense of connection between the characters that isn't often seen. I don't know how to go through the cast without writing a few pages of observations so we will leave it at this. We are not given all the information about each and every character, instead we are asked to know them on a more superficial level and watch as they live their lives in front of us. The writers did an amazing job creating a fluid world and sucking us in even with characters with seemingly less depth.

Art and sound are two things that hardly ever make me take notice. Durarara!! however has an amazing soundtrack. Even if you don't watch this show I recommend going to YouTube and listening to it. The art isn't as praise worthy but still not terrible.

Finally I would say I enjoyed this show immensely. It sucks writing this review and having to dance around some things that would tell you if you would be interested in the show or not. I just want to say again that if you have the time and don't mind perhaps a small amount of disappointment to give this show a watch. I hesitate to say disappointment but alas I should touch on the one negative of the show, which lost it its score of 10. This show does an amazing job building this world around you, the more episode you watch the more you know, and eventually a solid plot begins and it leads you through several episodes of development starting with interesting and fulfilling and then going down hill to unfortunately lame and childish. The end was anti climatic, boring, silly and upsetting. We have this living breathing world and we know all the main characters, yet we watch as what seemed to be the main focuses turn into a childish "I should have confided in you" melodrama that doesn't fit the previous episodes buildup. I think the introduction of supernatural elements may have been a bad idea for this anime, certain things fit really well with it, but there are more things that I think would have been better left as normal and easily explained(for the writers sake) because it just felt like the show was water running through their hands. Lastly, the show isn't hard to follow and it really isn't deep or intricate however the ending dialogue becomes a little muddled and twisted. My own taste would have been to keep mostly a slice of life feeling show with some side goals to accomplish, but that's just me.

TLDR: Amazing show, go and watch it. The soundtrack and the way the writers build the world around you is something you don't get in many other shows. Ending was a bit disappointing but still worth your time.