Ryohgo Narita's done it again, with the new 2010 anime series Durarara!! After only the first episode, I just had to dive in to the manga and the light novel series as well. This is a true masterpiece, with abstract characters, everyday setting, unreal elements that just become SO believable, humour, action, and seriously what can’t be loved in this series?
Like his previous work Baccano!! Durarara!! manages to connect tons of totally different seemingly unconnected events and people through a magical back-story, in a totally realistic setting and world. There’s all sorts of new tropes that are an instant fave; anime needs more interesting character twists! The "violent" fake bartender, the insane informant, the headless heroine, etc. Amazingly, all these different characters can co-exist beautifully and lead an incredibly unique history and plot.
Now, I basically recommend this to everyone, my twelve year-old sister and my dad both have found it entertaining, while there are people who prove to be unsatisfied; like a friend of mine who mostly resigns within the romance world.... so if you’re more of a shojo fan then I recommend you avoid this; even though Durarara!! Is actually classified as a.... romance... with a twist! Now this is a true romance anime, Narita explores all the nooks and secrets of lust, obsession, love, attraction and pulls his cast through all sorts of unaverage seemingly ‘romantic’ ideas- he has a few crazy hints at pairings, but the true darkness of love is what is mostly shown at the limit of attraction. The major disturbing part is later in the series when you see the epitome of black-love and how that could drive someone to do unspeakable things. It often makes you wonder the basis behind people’s romantic actions and causes you to question ‘true’ love.
Overall the romantic aspect of the series is incredibly disturbing, in a darkly juicy way. What my favourite part of the series is though is experiencing the amazing talent of connecting everything; every episode is a new surprise, seeing how something so simple from a previous episode can affect the overall plot entirely.
The soundtrack is another noteworthy thing of the series, at first it is incredibly similar to the story, random notes and keys only making things more confusing, but after a while you get used to the soundtrack, and as new songs keep coming and coming along with plot-twists, you find yourself humming along whenever those nostalgic songs manage to wiggle themselves in.
Honestly though; as amazing as the series has gotten, it does take some time to fall in love with, in the beginning it can be confusing and boring but as the pieces slowly come together you find yourself caring deeply for the protagonists, and curious for the next twist. Around the double digits is when it all starts to make sense and serious secrets reveal themselves, with only 24 or 5 episodes overall, a lot has happened. Once you’re done with the anime though you can await new chapters of the quickly translated manga and follow the events there, because honestly, only this many episodes will barely be able to contain the entire story from the light novels.
I think I’ll give this story 4.5 stars, loosing point five for the animation getting worse as the series progresses, making the characters look awkward at times, and a weak introduction to the plot. Overall it is a masterpiece, and that weighs out the small faults. I recommend this story to everyone... even though it’s not exactly family-friendly. It also isn’t exactly a common ‘gateway anime’ but I think if it was for someone who was generally intrigued with Japanese animation, then it would make for a beautiful one.
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