Review of Durarara!!

**This Review is polished. Please do not bother reading this. ** DRRR Review v2.0 All constructive criticisms are welcomed and appreciated. (In fact, please give me some so I can improve, if you have the time.) When something is different, people would either like the difference, or not. Therefore it is really hard to score and give a rating to something that doesn't really follow the general formula of anime, since the score is purely based on people's interpretation. In a time when people are bored out of themselves, thinking everything is going to be flat and boring for the rest of their lives, what they needis something great, something like adventure where you don't know what's gonna happen, something worth living for. The world of DRRR!! gives you everything modern young fellows will ever dream of.

STORY

Unfortunately, as much as I want to talk about how awesome the plot is, I just cannot. Not because it has a bad story, it just that, it doesn't have a story important enough to begin with. So now the question is, does it need one? My answer is no.

The story has very intriguing settings and objectives that involves many different characters.

However, the key of this story's success is the visions.
Do you remember how some animes have excellent first episodes to get people's attention and make people think the show is going to be enjoyable? Durarara!! essentially replays the "first episode" about 20 times. Every time the story is retold from different perspectives, making a very straightforward event feels like something that is big and complicated (I'm exaggerating it a bit, but you get my point). The story also uses many different methods to make the events look cool and awesome, such as time skip, time reverse or just show you the ending and gradually tell you what happened before that.

As what I always believed, truth doesn't matter. What matters is what people believe. The story is not that impressive. but the way they interpreted it, is simply brilliant.

CHARACTER

The characters are why people would watch this show in the first place.

Alright. So. Who are the main characters again? Um. ah. All of them?
Exactly. The characters in this show covers pretty much every cool beings you can find in a city. A founder of a secret society? A founder of an actual gang? A founder of a supernatural gang? A Doctor? A Supernatural being? A info broker? An overpowered street fighter? A Russian Sushi store owner? A bunch of street wanderers? You've got it all~~~

The magic here is that all the characters are seamlessly connected to one another and they all have a faction of themselves. Sometimes they work together, sometimes they fight to death. Everything changes like the flow of water, you never know what's going to happen to them next.

Nothing more to talk about without spoiling too much really. The characters are very well designed, and they are all affected by the trend of events.

GRAPHIC

The art in the series is very beautiful. The style of background and characters fit perfectly with the urban, fast, cool theme the story offers.
My only problem is that since there are so many characters, it is unavoidable that some character's art are quite alike, which confused me about twice during the series.

The animation is also very smooth. The action scenes are very well rendered and the frame rate are flawless.
HOWEVER. They really went a bit cheap when there is no action.

All in all the graphic carries the story with no problem and they are very well done. (Well, considering the high budget..)

SOUND

The op and the ed can be summarized with "WHIHOAHDAADShDHADAKILIADDALAAAA". Which is awesome. Perfectly urban, perfectly fit. I don't understand what any of the words mean and I don't care. The music alone is enough for me to get excited for the upcoming DRRR adventure.

OST are, I'm not even joking, very well done. When the scene is relaxed (for example the chat room), the music makes it conversation not boring. When the scene is tight and nerve recking, the OST can make you relax and simply enjoy what you are looking at without getting afraid. They do not stand on their own however, since I can't recall and sing them from top of my head (Unlike Code Geass's sound track).

Dub. Dub. Dub. Dub. are definitely not as good as the sub. BUT. You can certainly tell that the voice actors are trying very hard to make it entertaining and enjoyable. And I don't feel like dub has reduced any positive experience. So, your choice really, both are good, dub does make your eyes easier if you don't like reading.

ENJOYMENT

I loved it. As weird as the story may be, the series does propose and answer some interesting philosophical questions, which is what I love. The main ideas are not deep. But the production does make you feel like it is something worth thinking of.

OVERALL

Durarara!! in my opinion is a very interesting anime and it certainly deserves its hype for what it is.
It is an outstanding anime that appeals to contemporary young audience. It successfully earned its place in people's minds, and that's already good enough.

Peace.