Aside from the usual, like series with excellent characters or storytelling, I’m also a very big fan of series that can make their setting come alive. This isn’t just constantly animating the people in the background, but it also lies in the way that the story is told, and making clear that the world doesn’t just revolve around a bunch of main characters. Series that manage to do this are quite rare, but I often find myself enjoying them a lot. I actually think that it’s the area at which anime in general has improved the most at throughout the past five years, alongside CG integration of course.
And Durarara has been really good at that throughout the past three episodes. I love that while Mikado is the “lead character” of this series, every episode is told through the perspective of a different character, in a different style. In this episode, Simon, the Russian guy, suddenly started acting as the narrator. Also, I can be wrong in this, but was his voice also one of the people behind the chatting guys? That chat-room by the way is also a very nice idea: it really supports how this series shows many different sides of the bustling city life of Ikebukuro.
In any case, there are still many question-marks about the magic powers in this series. In Baccano, it was easy: some people were immortal, others weren’t. It’s a bit more complicated here, however, since there seem to be multiple kinds of powers: the headless biker (or Celty Sturloson) is one of those examples, the ability to… cut things from a distance (not sure exactly how he does it) from Izaya is completely different, and the super strength from Simon and Shizuo are different as well. Celty is also very much a mystery: in the last episode she worked for Izaya, but now we see her… “talk” to Shizuo, even though he hates Izaya to the point of wanting to kill him. My guess would be that they were once old friends until that friendship between Shizuo and Izaya just exploded (and frankly, with the personalities of those two I wouldn’t be surprised).
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Still loving this show! I feel the characters we have seen so far have so much personality even though its only 3 eps in. Really cant wait to see how this one keeps panning out.
I loved the bit where Mikado takes the girls hand (im rubbish with names,cant remember her name and cant be bothered to go look it up, but you know who I mean), runs off with her, but in turn she takes the lead because he runs out of breath. Little touches of comedy like that, crack me up.
Power-wise, I don’t think it’s that supernatural (besides Celty, being obviously not human), it’s just exaggerated.
In Baccano, the divide between immortal and mortal was clear, but characters like Rail Tracer were still “super” without any sort of supernatural ability. He could jump stupid heights and cling on to anything, and that’s not realistic in the slightest.
In this case, I think Simon and Shizuo are just ‘really strong’, whilst Izaya is ridiculously quick and accurate with his knife. I could be wrong, though.
I’m absolutely lovin’ every minute of this show. I can’t wait to find out about Shizuo and Izaya’s past. Shizuo especially.
I also want to know what’s up with the otaku trio. They haven’t had that much screentime yet so I’m very interested to know how their story plays into everything else. (Oh, I also noticed a Baccano! poster on the wall. XD!)
Lastly, who in the world is that girl with the scar around her neck?! And that guy (forgot his name) is convinced that she’s his lover? What? I read the Durarara! volume 1 prologue/chapter 1 so I know a little bit about that guy’s story, yet I’m still confused. XD;;;
Can’t wait for the next episode!
Can’t wait
its obvious that the big guy with the otaku trio is really apart of the dollars and that the dollars are more than just some punk gang
oh and Isaya was the last voice on the chatroom.
“This isn’t just constantly animating the people in the background, but it also lies in the way that the story is told, and making clear that the world doesn’t just revolve around a bunch of main characters. Series that manage to do this are quite rare, but I often find myself enjoying them a lot.”
—> oh, same here. same here~
This is why truly epic fantasy like 12 Kingdoms (which you really need to watch) is so good in my opinion, because world building is such an important component that fantasy authors usually go to great lengths to make the setting feel vivid and alive. Durarara! is doing an excellent job at this. When I write, I try to think of Setting as an additional character, because when you treat the setting that way, the Setting itself begins to play into developing the plot, which is how the world operates, and it makes for more “realistic” feeling stories, not realistic in the sense of Russian Realism/French Naturalism, where everything is supposed to be just like the real world, but realism where suspension of disbelief becomes easy because everything has lots of details that all work as glue to hold things together, and cause and effect function in a manner that is consistent and logical.
I think the theory on the chat room voices is that whoever is narrating for the episode also narrates the chats. It wasn’t as obvious in the first episode but was much more so this time.
Well, Simon’s power is to the extend that he doesn’t get killed by Shizu. Oh, Shizu’s name is a case of the ironics. Peaceful Island (his last name). Shizu (Quiet Man). Utter opposite of what he is.
Mikado’s name is also like that. When his internet pal met him in person, they didn’t believe that was his real name.
Dragon Mountain Peak (his last name), Emperor (his first name). Thus you have the very cool name of Dragon Mountain Peak Emperor…
I do like this show a lot, but sometimes the characters play out their caricatures too much. For one, each character plays his/her part and it almost seems like they are TOTALLY separated from one character to the next. It’s like watching a play with one person doing a monologue followed by another person doing their own monologue. The sense of conversation is pretty weird in both Durarara and Baccano.
Also, yeah… the super human strength. At least Baccano tried to explain it with its premise, but this show just straddles a strange line.
All this would not matter if the show doesn’t seem to straddle a lot of extreme stereotypes in characters, but it seems to be the case so far. I guess how deeper the characterizations get depends on their interactions later. But so far, I’m not quite to convinced of this show. Granted, it’s one of the more smarter and unique shows this season. But I’m seeing so many anime cliches with this one..
I don’t really see any “cliches” in this show – what I see is solid and effective archetypes that have been tried and tested, which are then used in a slightly unconventional way either by contrasting them or mixing them up. After all, the setting isn’t exactly serious or deep – there’s always a slight sense of exaggeration or parody, almost like the story is poking fun at itself.
In most cases it’s not originality that matters, it’s the execution, and I feel DRRR and Baccano write the book on this – if you have a good idea, you can be sure that Narita would take it and make it better, since he rarely seems to be satisfied with plain cliche when its in his ability to improve it.
Shippoyasha,I would have to disagree with you here and would invite you to follow these links, and see whether your opinion would be different having read this:
http://fuzakenna.com/2010/01/15/i-love-pulp-characters/comment-page-1/#comment-12317
&
http://shinmaru.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/durarara-3/
I liked every part of this episode. Especially Ihaya stepping on the girl’s phone like crazy. XDDD
What makes baccano epic is that it is one of the most interesting non-linear literary work animated. Durarara seems ready to go down that path too, which in my opinion will guarantee another Epic flag from the creator and animator.
I love Baccano. But somehow I find Durara’s character much more interesting. Everyday super power and entangling of events … I am really looking forward to this series.
very reason why wish i could understand the japanese language, i really would like to focus on what’s happening in the scene rather than reading the subs. i wouldn’t have missed shizuo and the other guy walking in the background while simon was doing his thing the first time i saw it.
“Also, I can be wrong in this, but was his voice also one of the people behind the chatting guys?” — was thinking the same thing. was he using a girl’s avatar/userpic?
too bad we didn’t get to see simon and shizuo fight. oh well, im pretty sure there’s a lot more of that to come.
Izaya is my favorite character so far. The scene where he confronts those gangsters is one of the most amusing ones yet.
Well, I do think the show is getting less cliched, but like some others have said, they play the archetypes quiet a lot. I guess in Baccano, it was just concealed a lot better due to such a wildly different locale and culture.
But with Durarara, we already have seen hundreds of anime with highschool kids with the whole ‘normal kid’, the ‘wild kid’, the ‘silly friend’, the ‘quiet girl’, the ‘suicidal girl’, the ‘conniver’, etc.
I’m still willing to give this show the benefit of the doubt and I still do think this is one of the best shows of the season, though this setting of highschool kids isn’t doing this show any favors.
“But with Durarara, we already have seen hundreds of anime with highschool kids with the whole ‘normal kid’, the ‘wild kid’, the ’silly friend’, the ‘quiet girl’, the ’suicidal girl’, the ‘conniver’, etc.”
That’s because those ARE the kids in high school. And I for one find young, attractive almost-adults pretty interesting when they are written well, which these are. Sure, these are archetypes, but that doesn’t automatically make them cliches. A cliche is only such when its used in such a way that the audience finds it predictable, and no longer has to engage with the work because the cliche requires no thinking. In fact, when we read or hear cliches in people’s speech, we typically don’t even conciously process the expression itself, only the meaning. But the characters from Durarara are far from predictable and their identities are certainly not so unoriginal as to be completely processed beneath our consciousness. If anything, this show brings the audience to a heightened state of consciousness because the characters, despite their archetypical roots, have motivations and take actions that are at first a little difficult to understand. Sure, we’ve seen the suicidal girl in anime before, but when did she turn suicidal because her dad was having an affair? Sure, we’ve seen the silly friend before, but when was he so street smart and on the periphery of larger-than-life characters and events like izaya, simon, etc. Even the quiet, bookish girl has something atypical about her, since she’s somehow tied to that missing girl, and keeps going out to look for her. It may be a matter of personal preference whether we like these particular characters, or teenage characters in general, but to call them cliche simply because they fill an archetype, is a misnomer and an unfair judgement of a show that has all kinds of originality and creativity. Remember, even Shakespeare used archetypes, plots and settings that had appeared and reappeared in the decades and centuries preceeding him. But what he built from those re-worked ideas are works of poetry and storytelling generally held to be the best in the English language.