Category: Durarara

This episode did exactly what the past arc should have been doing for bloody ages now: having people actually talk to each other. So yeah, I liked this ending quite a bit.

I expected something epic or over the top, but this works too. The conflict between the yellow scarves was actually solved quite quickly. There were a couple of bugs here and there, like how Shizuo knew where those punks would flee to, but overall I liked how the Dollars were indeed still acting on their own even though the website had shut down, and that under the lead of Kyohei they organized a mob to get back at the yellow scarves. It’s interesting to see that in the end, they did go to the path of violence.

But I liked what happened afterwards best. It allowed everything to wrap up for the series’ conclusion, so that it could leave an as good impression behind as possible. That particular background tune with the flutes also finally returned, as if to suggest: everything is back and peaceful like it used to be, yet characters have visibly matured and moved on. The past arc would have been perfect as a middle arc to flesh out characters, though not so much as a conclusion. It just lacked the energy and variety of the first half for that for me. I really appreciate that Brains Base is finally getting to work on 24 episoded series instead of just single season series, but it still isn’t enough I’m afraid. I’ve said this plenty of times by now, but there really need to be more series that go beyond 26 episodes.

Overall, Durarara certainly isn’t my favourite series from the director Takahiro Omori, but nevertheless it was pretty good. My main problem was that it just failed to live up to my own expectations, for which I only have myself to blame. Oh, reviewing the entire series is going to be quite difficult.
Rating: * (Good)

Ah, so the creators are going into an anime original ending. My opinion of those kinds of endings is simple: as long as it works, I don’t mind. Although of course in the past creators have shown that adapting a story and writing an original can be completely different (I think Claymore is the most notable example of this). But, here this series has the odds in favour of it: Takahiro Omori‘s endings have got an excellent track record. Baccano ended wonderfully, even though the source material continued on, Jigoku Shoujo always had excellent endings in which everything came together, and Fancy Lala had the single best ending of any mahou shoujo ever.

But Durarra… its ending is a bit more nuanced. You can see that a lot of thoughts went into it, but it lacks refinement. Here’s what I mean:
– I really liked how in this episode Mikado explained why he decided to shut down the Dollars. A surprisingly solid reason and gamble of him. The fighting didn’t stop immediately, but I doubt that he was just thinking in the short term. Unfortunately, he did not explain why he refused to answer Kida’s calls.
– I liked how the adults here set the children in their place, the chemistry between Celty, Anri, Shinra and Shizuo was well done, it was subtle, developed the story and was very interesting to watch. The conversation between Simon and Kida however… that was just too one-sided.
– The twist that the Blue Squares were the ones who took over the yellow scarves was actually quite interesting. It gives a reason to those random attacks they’ve been making beyond “ZOMG dollars sucks”. On the other hand… what were the creators thinking with that fight? Why can Kida easily kick away guys twice his size, and only after ten or so guys does he give up? I know that such an iron bar can hit hard and all, but it’s thugs he’s dealing with. These guys should know how to fight. I also did not like how they stood there like sheep while Kida was having a nice talk. And even during the fight, most of them just did nothing. Yeah, that’s a good idea, attack just one at a time.

Nevertheless, those are just details. What about the bigger picture? There, I can see where the creators are going here. They’re continuing the path of the flawed characters. They made Mikado more naive (seriously, I’ve seen quite a few webmasters pulling some weird drama that makes shutting down the Dollars just seem like nothing special) to let everything spiral out of control like what was originally hinted at. It decided to focus on the fact that the characters are teenagers, in the way that they have good ideas, but at the same time can’t quite see all of the consequences of their actions and don’t always take the smartest way out.

I suspected this way earlier, and with series that focus on flawed characters, it’s really hard to make your audience care about them compared to the flawless and charismatic ones. For me, it was especially Kida who got in the way and made me lose interest. This episode actually used Celty as a catalyst very effectively to develop Mikado a bit, in the same way that she took care of Anri.

The final episode is going to be very important for this series. I really want to see a good conclusion here, when the creators went out of their way to create a new one, eliminating any chance for a possible sequel. Kida is about to develop out of his angsty self. If the creators can get his character-development in the final episode right (and I really mean make something memorable out of it), then I feel like I’ll be able to forgive a bit of the disappointment of the second half of this series.
Rating: * (Good)

I think that I can finally point to what exactly I’ve been disliking about this series during the second half: it’s Kida. In this episode I actually quite liked Mikado and Anri, and their actions are quite believable. Anri had a bit of a slump at the end of her own arc, but even that was great as a build-up. I loved how in this episode she came to terms with herself, and how she finally developed. It’s here where all that build-up pays off. At the same time, Mikado was also quite interesting. I can believe his angst at the end of the episode, because hey; he just found out that one of his best friend became involved with some silly struggle that he was the indirect initiator of. The guy needs a bit of time alone.

Kida though… I don’t get him. His angst to protect those dear to him, combined with the way that he suddenly started yelling to Anri when he finally was able to talk to her under two eyes… I’m not really interested in that to be honest. For me, the parts of this series that focus on his angst are by far my least favourite of the entire series.

And it’s a darn shame, because the rest of this series really is excellent. It still sucks that it’s gonna end in two episodes, but this episode was well written, and one of those episodes in which a ton of build-up comes together and pays off. That really was great to see, and I loved the subtlety that the creators put into the development of the relationship between Celty, Anri and Mikado.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

“Oh yes, a girl from my school with glasses and big boobs. That sounds just vague enough to be Anri.”

I know it’s nitpicking what I’m doing here, but when this episode kept repeating it I really couldn’t help but notice how such a vague hint convinced everyone immediately about Anri’s identity.

In any case though, aside from that I can’t say anything new about how this series disappointed so far. This episode was clearly building up the things it had already established (ie, the drama around people who just refuse to talk to each other), but at this rate the series could still very much end with a bang.

Not sure whether this has to do with Mikado coming back into the picture, but I actually really enjoyed the time that was spent between him and the Dollars. To come with a bit of an analogy: it feels like Kida is trying to lead a group of dogs: loyal, but when left alone they might start barking and attacking. Anri on the other hand is leading zombies: brainless and completely obedient. Mikado on the other hand is trying to herd cats: it doesn’t work and more often than not they’ll just go with their own ideas. I find the relationship between Mikado and the dollars by far the most interesting of the three fractions that are currently about to go to war with each other.

I’m not really interested in the chaos that’s going to follow from now. Rather, I’m waiting for the moment in which the first of the three friends starts to speak up. That should prove to be very interesting. But at the same time… it’s still a pity that there are only going to be 24 episodes in this series. It really feels like the wrong place to end this series at.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I’ve said before that this isn’t the sort of climax I like. You know, the kind where characters just refuse to talk to each other, which is something that could make things a lot easier. With Anri… it’s still somewhat understandable: she doesn’t know about Mikado, and instead she’s just worried about being rejected as a monster, that’s fine. But in this episode Kida finds out that Mikado is the leader of the Dollars, and also remains silent. *headdesk* It also doesn’t help that Mikado still keeps listening to Izaya and that the rest of the Dollars are running around beyond his control.

There’s a line between flawed and just downright annoying here, and Kida… unfortunately is constantly hopping over that line. His angst has just been a bit too much for me… I can see that he’s had quite a past, but he doesn’t quite feel like such a dynamic character; my impression of him is that he’s either angsty or hyperactively hiding his angst, with hardly anything else. Anri on the other hand is getting more and more interesting now that we’ve gotten to know her, and Mikado already was interesting… though he’s gotten way too little airtime during the past episodes. I want to see some more scenes of him, trying to keep the Dollars under control. The two of them have a bunch of different sides now, but surprisingly there are just too many characters that are just… too one sided. This also includes Simon (who seems like he always talks about how good Sushi is) and Izaya (who seems to be a professional troll or something: do we see him do anything else?).

At this point though, I’m not yet sure whether I should criticize this show for having an annoying plot on purpose: it’s clear that the creators put a lot of thought into having things escalate like this, and Izaya’s trolling is making sure that everyone keeps doubting each other. But I’m just not enjoying this show like I hoped I would at the end of the first half of this show. It’s not bad or anything near that, but at the same I consider the second half as inferior to the first half of this show.

It’s also a bit of a shame that the animation budget still hasn’t recovered here. There are a few scenes with smooth animation, but none of them last longer than half a second, and on top of that there are a ton of distorted or rushed frames. That’s something you wouldn’t expect of Brains Base. I believe that this is the first series that they animate continuously for 24 episodes without breaks, and I guess that the toll of this becomes visible now.

Let me also talk a bit about the OP here, which have been… misleading to say the least. Consider the OP, which displays a bunch of characters who hardly made any appearance in this second half. I mean, why Shizuo’s brother? Why was there the need to include his brother? Heck, I actually thought that that Cop would make a big appearance, but aside from a cameos he’s also been pretty useless aside from giving Celty a strange quirk that feels a bit overdone. It’s another one of those “hey, we’re advertising to be like Baccano while we actually are completely different”-gimmicks of this series that caused me to expect the completely wrong kind of series here. I see that part of the fault lies with me for actually expecting this, but still…
Rating: * (Good)

The second half of this series turns out to be disjointed in a completely different way than the first half. The first half threw random scenes together and kept jumping back and forth to make a fun little story. The second half on the other hand is much more linear, but instead it likes to pull twists that it’ll only explain later, without any hint beforehand whether it’s going to do so or not. It was indeed a bit weird for Anri to suddenly show up at the end of the previous episode, this episode explains what she was doing there.

Now it’s time for this series to deliver. I’m not going to tolerate any more boring episodes after this, because overall my expectations for this series might have been a bit too high. I really tried not to compare this show to Baccano, but in the end the lack of energy of this series compared to Baccano unfortunately did bother me during the second half when the pacing suddenly turned down, instead of up.

Another thing is that Baccano just did have a huge cast of incredibly charismatic characters. Durarara on the other hand doesn’t: it’s about a bunch of angsty teenagers, a bunch of psychopaths, a headlesss rider and a bunch of characters whose quirks could have been great, but were underdeveloped. Sorry, Simon. I really liked him when this series started, but this guy never really got further than his episode in which he was the narrator. There are more of these minor characters who degenerated into caricatures due to lack of airtime in the second half, and I think that that’s something that I’ve been missing with this series.

Having said that though, I’m very interested in the plot here. It’s the kind of plot that I dislike, but in a good way. The way in which everything is based on misunderstandings and everything would be solved if people would just stop listening to Izaya and instead talk to each other. It’s been well built up however, and the creators can actually get an interesting climax out of it if they go out all the way with this, remain true to their characters and let everything spiral out of control.

The characters are acting with a kind of stupidity that is incredibly annoying with underdeveloped characters. However, now that Kida’s background has also been shown, they’re actually turning into rounded characters here, and that’s something that I appreciate a lot. However, character-development is one thing, now they also have to use it. I did cringe at the point in which Anri in this episode refused to show her face to Kida, however when the creators back it up well enough this can do interesting things for the plot.
Rating: * (Good)

So this episode delivers Kida’s background. I have a few problems with it, but that doesn’t take away that this was a very interesting episode. This episode has been hinted at ever since we saw that mysterious girl in the hospital, and I’ve been dying to know what happened to her. This episode tells exactly what’s up with her, and why she’s so important to Kida.

As amazing as a middle school gang leader may be, he was quite naive in thinking that he could just do what he wanted, and therefore ended up paying the price when the blue squares he was at war with went too far. While I don’t quite get why she’s still in the hospital after all these years (couldn’t she have gotten herself a wheelchair or something), it gave quite a bit of insight into Kida’s character. The reason he went back to the yellow scarves turns out to be the need to protect, ironically from the threat of the Dollars.

This has me slightly worried about an annoying climax, though. I mean, it’s another one of those “talk to each other dammit!”-finales. It’s going to have to come down to the creators properly balancing everything out and make it believable why the three friends refuse to talk to each other. I’m especially looking at Anri, now that she knows about Kida. Please talk to someone about it, rather than gathering your army of zombies in response.

We also finally learn about the strange board-game that Izaya has been playing: as it turns out the three kinds of pieces stand for the dollars, yellow scarves and saikas. In this episode he grabs a bunch of cards to symbolize the rest of the cast. It was just a way of foreshadowing and symbolism, and as everything went into flames here, another possibility of the ending could be total chaos, rather than total annoyance.

I liked this episode quite a bit now that the story is coming together very nicely. However, this episode did leave me disappointed in one area: the way that it did not show how Kida actually managed to become the respected leader of an army of people older than him as a middle schooler. It just starts him off as the leader, but we never actually get to see what makes him such a good one; we never get to see why he was so special. While Mikado and Anri had very good and believable reasons for being special, I just fail to see that with Kida: how did his network grow? How did he pull that one off? To attract these kinds of people you’d expect him to have tons of money, but we never see any hints for that.
Rating: * (Good)

And… things actually make a lot more sense now. It’s convenient to say the least, but with the conclusion of the second arc, this episode revealed the true nature of Durarara: divided into three parts, with Mikado, Anri and Kida at the centre of each respective arc, with Celty meanwhile as the red thread that returns in all of them. Both Mikado, Anri and Kida turn out to be leaders of their own group: the dollars, the zombies and the yellow scarves: in their own ways they all gathered an immense and influential group of people despite being a bunch of teenagers. They did so individually, and just happened to become friends at high school without knowing this about each other.

The next and final arc will probably focus on the yellow scarves and Kida, where Izaya will play a very prominent role as the main villain. It’ll probably also involve much more of the other groups than the previous two arcs. Now the question remains what the rest of the cast is going to play in this.

In any case, the second arc for me was less impressive than the first arc. It’s a lot shorter, that’s one thing. But to me it feels less varied than the first season, with the eventual background of Anri being a bit cliched, and nowhere as interesting as the reasons Mikado provided for becoming the leader of the Dollars. It felt a lot less spontaneous, if that makes any sense.

But then again, that may have been the purpose: central to the first arc were the dollars, which are meant to symbolize freedom and individuality: everyone is free to do what he wishes, and it allows everyone to act on his own. The first half was whimsical because of that: it stressed how Ikebukuro was full of interesting people that you could run into. The second arc was completely different: Saika was more about enslavement: forcing your love upon others. The pacing became much more straightforward, and in a way more personal compared to the characters in the first arc who felt like they came and went.

Now, if this was just build-up, I’ll be happy enough. I’m a big fan of shows that completely change direction, but this shouldn’t be so extreme as a shark jump. I know the director, his finales are always very good and well built up despite a few lesser moments. Unfortunately, I do not know whether the novels allow this as well. The yellow scarves to me seem based around the flock-instinct: blindly following each other without putting emphasis on individuality. It’s in between the freedom of the Dollars and the brainlessness of Saika. I have no clue how the creators are going to weave that into the other hanging plot threads such as Celty’s head, but it had better be good. I’ve often had it that the final episodes of a series completely changed my opinion of it, so there’s still plenty of room for Durarara to be a classic if it makes well use of these final seven episodes.
Rating: * (Good)

After the previous episode, I remember noting how this series hasn’t exactly delivered yet in its second episode. It’s like it was missing something. But yeah, after this episode I realize that it was just building up. This episode was much more like it. It’s here where the creators really start playing with what they’ve built up.

My guess was that the previous episodes were mostly trying to shed the remaining Baccano-roots that had somewhat grown after the first half. While you can very much tell that the first half of Durarara comes from the same creators as Baccano, with the second half you really can’t.

The mystery in this series is definitely interesting: it’s the kind that keeps huge secrets about its lead characters: it only drops a few hints here and there, but Mikado’s involvement with the Dollars was a complete surprise. Just as how even though we’ve known Anri for sixteen episodes now, we never knew that she could pull a freaking sword out of her arm!

The twist that everyone in the city is getting turned into a bunch of zombies is perhaps a bit lame, but I guess that it is an interesting twist for the series’ setting: it’s previously been established that Ikebukuro is full of life, and here this old spirit comes and turns everyone into a bunch of obedient and lifeless zombies.

It’s all going to depend on how the rest of the series will use this, because this episode was pretty damn tense with the way that the red eyed people made their appearance, answering a ton of questions about the plot in the progress, and fully explaining the point of the previous episode, and why the guy in the trench-coat was featured in the first place.
Rating: ** (Excellent)