Review of Durarara!!
Story- This one gave me trouble to rate. Durarara's story is one of the most amazing story that I never seen. Usually, war clan or whatsoever don't really interest me for the sole reason of having bad/cliché ending. The 'good' side always winning or simply everyone realizing at the end that fighting is utterly useless, for example. Though, in the Durarara universe, it's different. We assist to some realistic war clan content who's being mixed up with normal teenagers' life AND fantasy. All of these elements without doing 'too much'. I feared at the beginning that this would become a huge mess by bringing allsort of superpowers, big huge fights that wouldn't make any sense and etc. however, when seeing the whole picture, everything seems coherent, well thought and context-fitting. Which I love. Also, the cliffchanger and cliffhanger. Dang it. I loved them. Excluding the main 'goal' of the manga, there was all sort of 'mini-mysteries' that us, the spectators AND the characters had the discover (if you understand what I mean). To make it brief, adding to the main story, we had a lot of smaller 'secrets' in the plot. At some times, it was sure confusing (which I dare to say that was one of my less favorite point) however I had a great time stressing out to guess.
Art- Quite simplistic, no detail, à la Shonen and etc. I don't really have something to say about this. BUT I must say that I loved the scenes were only the'main characters were 'colored' and the background characters, who share no connections with the plot were all in 'gray', just as if they were 'shadows'. Those who watched the anime know what I mean by this little effect ;)
Sounds- As for the openings, for one of the rarest time, I preferred the animation over the songs. Weird, isn't it? It's only a matter of taste, so I won,t write about this however, as for the ending... Anyone who still hasn't watched it, go and do it! 'Trust me' is one of my favorite song and I just love this 'pyramid of characters' for the animation.
Characters- I first thought of doing something, a little text for each of the characters, but this will never end. Let's make it short then: Durarara has the most awesome characters that I never see. No stereotype, if yes, this mean you didn't watch fully the anime and to a certain point, all the characters are enjoyable and for god sake! no annoying girls. There's a HUGE variety of personality, of backgrounds and even if some are more here for a comical relief, we love them anyway. At some times, you'll maybe want for the anime to focus more on a certain character (since each episode have a different narrator and etc.) however, sadly, there isn't. My sole problem with this is the fact that in the anime, there's so many characters and we so want to 'see' each of them that after some few episodes, it's become boring. Because the plot isn't advancing. I won't write more than this or else: I'll spoil.
Enjoyment- I like it. But nothing more than this. The ANIME had a lot of qualities, but its default wasted it all. On a side, there's some few bad points that made me appreciate the original version (the light novels... because yes: Durarara is a novel and not a Manga!) than the anime or the Manga adaptation. First, the focus on 'every characters' life'. While 'useless speech about someone's past/random or past events/information about a certain character is interesting in a book, it isn't in an anime. These long scenes bore me out and frankly, knowing that a single tome took 12-13 episodes for the adaption... I can understand why. Second, the non-respect of the time-line of the story. Example: Shizuo throw the garbage can when Mikado is at his second meeting with him and not his first. Another example: we don't see the &#?@* scene where Izaya is 'introduced'. We replaced it by a passage where he meets with 'Miss Magenta' and toy with her. Trust me: the karaoke psychopath moment is way much better. It may be some tiny little details, but trust me: the tale is way more great the original way.
Word of the end: watch the anime, fangirl/boy about it then read the novel fangirl/boy even MORE about it. *CoughcoughIhavesomesitethattranslate
thenovelsundermyhandifyouwantcoughcough*