Category: Durarara

This episode definitely had some interesting twists, and quite a surprising lead character: that middle-aged guy in trench-coat that we’ve been seeing once in a while in the first half. At first I thought that the creators were creating some side-story here, but the twist in the middle of the episode was… unexpected to say the least.

Looking for some interesting article to write in order to win back his daughter, it seemed like a pretty straight-forward episode that delved into film-noir territory, but having him stabbed and brainwashed was an interesting twist that asks a few more questions about the identity of that strange slasher. Is it really like some kind of parasite or virus that hops from one person to the other? Could the body that attacked him be one of those teenaged girls or something? And how does that slasher have access to the Dollars chatbox?

I’d guess that in a few episodes the show will get to the point in which it can show off the pay-off of all the build-up of the previous episodes. Having excellent build-up is of course one thing, but actually using it is something different, and I’m interested to see what this series can do. It’s obviously been building up a lot during the past few episodes, so they’re not as good or interesting as some of the parts of the first half, but it can still go anywhere at this point.

Here’s one concern, though: it seems to me that the graphics and animation isn’t as good as it used to be. Especially in this episode, the animation wasn’t as solid as we’ve been used to from this series, the backgrounds were a bit bland, and the movement of the characters also felt a bit jerky. Let’s hope that Brains Base saved enough of its budget to also deliver a solid finale.
Rating: * (Good)

Hmm, it seems like the second half of this series is going to be a lot more focused: the pacing has become much more linear, and dropped most of the side-characters in order to focus on the main story-lines: Celty’s quest for her head, Mikado and the dollars, Kida and his past, and Anri and those strange slashers. In a way it’s a bit of a shame, but then again: the past two episodes have promised that all those separate storylines are going to intertwine like hell as the series goes on.

This episode was a bit of a calm before the storm; it was probably one of the quietest episodes of this series yet, but still it had one big development for Celty: openly showing her affections for Shinra, and later finding out that Shinra knew that his father was the one who stole her head and shipped it over to Japan. Shinra’s father is a bit of a weirdo, but he’s definitely an interesting addition to the cast. Also, something tells me that he’s not just wearing that mask for the sake of clean air. Perhaps he has some scars he wants to hide or something? In any case, I loved the way in which he revealed what he had done. Slipping such a 20-year old secret out on a whim. I love it when those series insert a bit of comedy with these big plot twists.

Interestingly enough, this episode provided a ton of background information: we now know what the slasher is, we know exactly what happened to Celty’s head, we know Izaya’s intentions and how he’s trying to bring Celty’s head back to life. Most of the questions that the series has asked have actually been answered now, with the biggest question marks that still remain are the background of Kida and Izaya, and what happened between the two of them. And considering that there are still ten episodes left, the creators have built up quite an interesting foundation to start playing with. Rather than revealing everything at the end, it’s definitely an interesting approach.
Rating: * (Good)

Now… this is just so good. The entire start of this episode screamed build-up: we skip forth half a year, we get to see new characters (like Shinra’s father who suddenly pops up), while the narrator is Anri. The build-up however was just so excellent, the final scene of this episode made a lot more impact than I could have expected at this point. And we’re only at episode one of this series’ second half!

It’s now when this series really has to prove itself by surpassing the already excellent first half. And based on this series, the creators really might actually do it. I love how well written the dialogue of this series is. This episode did so many things at once: it established who the characters were, giving everyone a short scene to confirm that things have settled a bit, only to hit right back at this notion of no development with sudden new plot twists that set the character-development in motion again. The police officer, for example. That was a surprise for him to be bugging Celty so much that she’d lose her nerve over it.

Like its predecessor Baccano, the script for this series again is truly excellent, but in a completely different way. The way the creators in this episode played around with all kinds of different moods and themes, while keeping true to their characters was truly excellent, including the way the creators use their background music and sound effects, which is bold and varied. I’m really curious to see how far the creators are going to be able to take this.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

And we’re half-way through. I’m really curious to the second half of this series, considering how well written the first half has been so far. This episode really hinted at a completely different focus with Izaya’s proposal to give that ‘fallen angel wings again’. Because Baccano was only 13 episodes, I have no idea what to expect here. And that’s one of the great things about this series.

And again, I really have to praise the creators for how well written this episode was. The dialogue was very inspired and even allowed the seemingly one-sided Seiji Yagiri to shine. Izaya’s ramblings were also better than ever. I’m not sure when it was that he found out that Mikado was the founder of the Dollars; I actually believe that Izaya helped a lot in making the Dollars big. it’s just something for him to go and experiment with it.

Celty in the meantime also developed a bit,which is always a good thing, especially considering this only is the halfway point. Apart from that, the characters in this series have been rounded in their background, but not so much changed as us learning more about them. My guess is that the creators are saving the bulk of this character-development for the mysterious second half.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I’ve been waiting for this episode: the point at which this series carries itself to a higher level. It’s here where it grabs the build-up of the previous episodes and develops it. And I have to say that it’s here where this series has become something truly unique. What an inspired episode.

It was a very interesting choice for the creators to make Mikado seem like your average teen-aged lead at first. At the time he was introduced, he indeed seemed like another one of those cliched leads that you see everywhere. But at the same time, he ended up becoming a perfect character to play around with, because of the expectations we have of these kinds of characters. Most notably, the fact that they never seem to have any background. It’s one of the many stereotypes of anime: your dull lead who’s supposed to be your average lead, but because he’s trying so hard to be average he never stands out at anything. Instead, Durarara has really shown that it’s a series in which all sorts of interesting people meet. Who in turn are just a small fraction of all of the interesting people that walk around in the city. I really have to applaud this series for that.

But what impressed me the most, and what set this episode really apart, is the execution, especially what happened after Mikado hit that send button, and every gray person suddenly started to get colour. It’s the kind of thing that never would have been possible without the previous build-up of this series. The way it was delivered, by showing the reactions of everyone standing in that street, along with Celty’s breakdown made this episode into a unique experience for me.

And yet you could also see a ton of stuff that’s borrowed from other series. The most notable was of course that the creators pulled a Clamp around the middle of this episode, with Isaac and Miria making actual cameos (I’d sell my hat of a shot of these two, going to the theatres and watching Baccano). There’s the flashback, just in the middle of a climax, explaining everything that just happened (a technique that’s also loved by the Armed Librarians), and the tons of pop culture references that had to be slightly modified due to copyright issues.

But most of all, I saw this episode as a celebration of the opportunities of modern social networking. As someone who’s also often on the Internet and who also has been involved in the creation of various communities, I could very much relate to Mikado as he and his friends created the Dollars. And meeting interesting and different people is exactly what I love about the Internet.

Despite its unique approach, this isn’t the first anime to focus on online communities. Mostly science fiction, series as Serial Experiments Lain, Master of Epic, .Hack//Sign and Real Drive also got to show their take on them (and yes, I’m a really big fan of those kinds of series). One thing that I’ve noticed however is that so far, there’s been one big part of the Internet that has been pretty much ignored: the idiot side of the Internet. There also are a lot of morons and spam-bots on the Internet, but you often see anime focus on the positive and progressive sides. While it might lead to a more complete image, but then again things like those would be rather hard to watch.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

This is a question to the Japanese people who happen to stumble upon this post. It’s something I’ve been wondering for quite a while now: are punks in Japan really such incredible morons? I mean, in just about every anime out there, punks dress like ridiculous Elvis rejects. I’ve seen a few series here and there that portray them differently (Kaze no Yojimbo for example), but the overwhelming majority of animated punks all have strange haircuts and over-the-top accents. Are those kinds of people really common on the Japanese streets, or is it a stereotype that evolved into this medium?

In any case, this episode’s big twist was Mikado’s sudden change of character. Now it makes sense why the creators chose such a seemingly dull lead character, as they had interesting plans for his character-development. Rather than being your typical loser, he was more like an alarm-clock, waiting to go off, and I think that his weird name was a bit of a hint for that.

The color gangs still are a big mystery at this point. This showed that they don’t actually meet face to face, but instead are a bit of an online community that happens to be stationed at Tokyo. I’m not exactly sure how that works, to be honest, but I believe that those chatboxes have a much bigger role than what they seemed to be at first. Also note the previous episode, in which Izaya’s chatbox was completely empty. Seeing as how he’s likely to also be involved with those dollars, that might have been a bit of a strange hint.

One thing I noticed was that this episode was one of the most linear ones out there. Really, nearly the entire episode was focused on Mikado aside from a scene or two, and there only were a few tiny flashbacks. It was surprisingly straightforward, and with this series I have no idea whether the creators intend to be more linear in the next number of episodes, or whether it was another one of those “build-up” episodes that’s there to give the future episodes the chance to go all out.
Rating: * (Good)

Wikipedia has the following to say about the so-called ‘Westermarck Effect‘:

“When two people live in close domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close sexual attraction. This phenomenon, known as the Westermarck effect, was first formally described by Finnish anthropologist Edvard Westermarck. The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Chinese Shim-pua marriage customs, as well as in biological-related families. In the case of the Israeli kibbutzim (collective farms), children were reared somewhat communally in peer groups—based on age, not biological relation. A study of the marriage patterns of these children later in life revealed that out of the nearly 3,000 marriages that occurred across the kibbutz system, only fourteen were between children from the same peer group. Of those fourteen, none had been reared together during the first six years of life. This result provides evidence not only that the Westermarck effect is demonstrable, but that it operates during the critical period from birth to the age of six.”.

Someone, please go to Japan and hit the anime creators over the head with this page.

So yeah, while these two siblings are very likely my least favourite members of the Durarara cast after this episode (they’re a bunch of elitists who can’t see beyond their own ‘love’), I liked the rest of this episode. “Celty’s head” (for a lack of a better name for her at this point) running into Mikado may have been a bit forced, but I guess it’ll do to get him involved with the rest of the storyline.

The interesting thing is of course that while this episode would have been very mundane if the course of this series was only 13 episodes, it creates a ton of possibilities for a 24-episoded series. It’s a pretty nice build-up for whatever is going to happen in that second half of this series. I also loved Izaya’s role in this episode: in this episode we really get confirmed that he’s genuinely interested in people, but he just happens to have a sick mind that can easily lead to trouble.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

One of the many reasons why this series rocks is the following: even though every episode is dedicated to one particular character (in this case Celty), it never forgets that it has a huge cast, and also shows some of the lives of the other characters that don’t have anything to do with the episode’s main focus, beyond mere cameos. This is especially important early on in the series, and a lot of series seem to forget the entire rest of the cast when they decide to dedicate an episode to one or two particular characters. This is a great way to breathe life into all of your characters, rather than just one or two.

I also have to say, that this show is very good at red herrings. We finally get to see Celty’s real head confirmed. I could have sworn that it was captured by that scientist woman, but no! It was the girl with the scar after all! In any case, it’s great to finally see an episode from Celty’s perspective. This episode was mostly slice of life, but very enjoyable slice of life nonetheless. We got to see her worries and how much finding her head back means to her, and this episode managed to get much more into her character than in the Shinra-episode, at which she first was properly introduced.

The question-mark in this episode was that strange guy who blew himself up. I mean, what was up with that? We never saw him before, he just appears and then kills himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if Izaya was behind it, but still, that might seem a bit extreme even for him, to suddenly command an army of suicide terrorists…

And yeah, Walker and Erika were really cute together in this episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This time: Shizuo. This was a pretty straightforward background episode: we learn what drives Shizuo, we get to see his past and how he grew up, and we also see how he’s connected to some of the other characters in this series. At first I thought that he was deeply involved into the yakuza-stuff along with Izaya, but that turns out to be a bit differently.

Instead, he’s just another one of Izaya’s victims. Izaya is a strange guy: we know that he’s involved in shady business, but some of his actions are just strange, and don’t seem to have any particular merit or reward: why would he make Shizuo’s life miserable to such an extent? Why would he order some people to kidnap a random girl?

In any case, I like these series that are about all kinds of generations, like this one: we’ve got high schoolers, college students and working adults, the flashbacks are focused on kids, and on top of that we also have a bunch of people in their thirties and forties, plus an immortal one. In any case, this episode also explains why Izaya and Shizuo knew Celty. One thing that I also love about these flashbacks is that they show not just one part of a character’s background, they show all of it through all kinds of ages. It gives such a better feeling of the characters, rather than just another “flashback arc”.

Also, the references to other anime. In such a series, it’s actually pretty nice to see ads for series that are this recent: it shows that series take place right now, rather than in some ambiguous time period that could just as well be 1990 or 2000. I was surprised to see Cencoroll pop up among them, though. It’s obvious why Jigoku Shoujo and Baccano are often referenced in this series, but I like the little wink of the creators of such an independent movie. It’s not really a parody either, and instead it feels a part of the setting.
Rating: * (Good)

After this episode, I’m certain: this series is brilliant!

Seriously, what an awesome episode, and we’re only six episodes in! This show just keeps getting better and better. The seemingly endless wit of this episode and the incredibly fresh pacing shined in this episode beyond belief. The narrator of this episode is Kadota Kyohei, as he again runs into the strange kidnappers of the first two episodes. A modest premise at first sight, but this episode added so many nice touches and details.

This episode really showed the difference between strange people and over-exaggerated stereotypes. The foreigner in this episode was just beyond weird in his antics, and yet the way that this episode characterized him gave him his own identity, and showed that he’s not just a paper bag but a real person. This show always manages to surprise me in characterization by the way. It always finds these brilliant things to flesh its characters out. The Nessun Dorma? Talk about awesomeness.

And that dog! I’ve become a fan of that animal after this episode, even though he only appears in one or two scenes or so, he’s so adorable: he first appeared in front of Shizuo and in this episode serves as a very subtle bloodhound. And ZOMG: Celty’s head appeared. Seriously, after only six episodes?

You also have to love the use of music in this series. It’s bold, creative and varied. Especially the background tune when the kidnappers accidentally numbed themselves was just surreal.

As for the pessimists this season who claim that there are only one or two great series this season: I’m not sure what you’re talking about. There are at least three Top Notch series that are just as awesome as the best shows from any other average season: Durarara, Full Metal Alchemist and the Armed Librarians are all wonderfully written and produced. The problem with this season is indeed quantity, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing that’s worth watching.
Rating: *** (Awesome)