Can you say “gang wars”?
When Durarara!! (that is a nightmare to type) opens up, Mikado Ryugamine is
just arriving to start school in Tokyo after having lived his entire life in
some tiny, middle of nowhere town. He's met by his old friend Kida Masaomi, who used to live in the same town.
The first episode sets the stage for the series, as Mikado and Masaomi Kida walk
together through the streets of Ikebukuro and just about every major character
is (Celty Sturluson, Ruri Hijiribe, Nakura, etc.), at the very least, mentioned.
The other thing Kida mentions to Mikado? The
colour gangs.
Basically, there are two main gangs in Ikebukuro: the Yellow Scarves, and the
Dollars. No one knows what colour the Dollars are, and because they lack
colour, they cannot be identified.
The Durarara anime revolves around not only the conflict of these two groups (and the
mystery of who leads each one) but also a third group, which I won't try to
explain here.
Of course, there are also the other aspects of the characters (their goals
outside of being part of one of the groups) that all somehow wrap around into
each other. It's pretty interesting, the way it's done.
Durarara!! Anime Review
(Note: I do not feel I have at all done this section justice; it's hard for me
to properly explain the story without spoilers.)
The Characters: Durarara!!
My very first problem with this series was regarding the characters, and yet
the characters are also probably one of the greatest aspects of Durarara!!.
The problem? They're all introduced very quickly, and at first it can be
difficult to keep the names straight.
There are only three “main” characters, but there are sixteen or so characters
that I view as major players, and only one of them is not introduced within
the first few episodes.
However, once you come to terms with who is whom, it gets a lot easier to
handle and you can see the beauty of it.
I don't want to spoil anything, but
there are characters who have ties to other characters that you would really
never guess. Besides that, I also found that the character distinctions design-wise were
very well-done.
No one character resembles another too seriously and they
stand out on their own, with personalities that are pretty well-explored.
And a lot of the characters are pretty hilarious, which is always a benefit. (Now go figure, my personal favourite is also the biggest asshole in the
series).
The Setting: Durarara!!
Let's be honest some things just would not work out if they were set other
places.
Try transplanting Harry Potter into the United States and see how that
works out for you. Durarara!! is another one of those things.
The setting of Ikebukuro is very
important to the series. It's a complicated area, filled to the brim with
people, and that's part of what can make it so difficult for the colour gangs.
Especially in regards to identification of the Dollars...how can you figure
out who is part of the group when there are so many people, and they don't
have a colour?
A series like Durarara!! simply wouldn't have worked out if
placed in Mikado's little nowhere town.
Conclusion?
This is a series where, if you're anything like me, you'll have to give it a
bit before you really get into it. Honestly, it took me nine episodes.
Nine of episodes of sitting and
complaining about having to be introduced to a million characters all within
two minutes of each other (yes, that was me exaggerating), laughing
occasionally, and then growling about how all of the episodes seemed pretty
disjointed (not an exaggeration...it was all really disjointed at first).
Then I hit episode nine the almost end of it, and there ended up being a
moment, no spoilers from me! that made me swear at a character and let
it all come together and I realised the series had won, that it had me in its
clutches. It's definitely well-worth watching (Durarara Crunchyroll).
My rating: 8/10
So why won't I give this one a 10?
While the animation and characters and
storyline were all pretty brilliant, it loses points from me for taking until
the end of episode nine to draw me in, and uh...the ending was something I
found a bit disappointing.
Note: Durarara!!
The reason Music (Durarara Ost) became Setting this time around is because the third section
is always going to be inconsistent.
It will change based on which specific aspect of a series strikes me the most
as awesome, really crappy, or just plain fascinating.
So it might end up being Music frequently because of how much I pay attention
to music, or it could end up being Setting often, or it could be another piece
of a series entirely. It just depends.
Fan Art: Durarara!!
Durarara!! | |
| Episodes | 24 |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action, Shounen, Supernatural |
| Aired | January 7, 2010 to June 24, 2010 |
| Directed by | Takahiro Omori |
| Producers | Brains Base, Aniplex |
| Opening Theme | Uragiri no Yuuyake by Theatre Brook / Complication by Rookiez is Punk'd |
| Closing Theme | Trust Me by Yuya Matsushita / Butterfly by On/Off |
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