Durarara!!

Amazing anime with really good action scenes. The humor is just a plus but the story itself is amazing and everything is tied in even though how different the characters are from each other.

Durarara stands up against non-anime just as well as it stands against anime. Narratively ambiguous and ambitious, the story combines what is kind of an adaptation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms with the technology and internet-enabled present, mixed with a classic gang war story with a slight hint of real-world folk-tale inspired fantasy, all while keep the genre flowing. At times, its got hand to hand action, at others its got meditative drama, others use interesting methods to subvert typical action and favor social manipulation.

Mikado Ryuugamine moves from the countryside to the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo to be in high school with his childhood bestfriend, Masaomi Kida and meets Anri Sohonara, a classmate, as well as a cast of oddball characters including the pacifistic Russian hawker for a Russian owned sushi parlor, frighteningly strong Shizuo Heiwajima, reliable young adult Kiyohei Kadota and his manga or Idol obsessed friends, Walker, Erika, and Saburo, and the one person Kida told Mikado to avoid at all costs, Izaya Orihara. Eventually, Mikado also meets the mysterious and mythical Celty Sturleson, better known as the Black Rider and her partner, blackmarket doctor Shinra.

Mikado is essentially the dominant point of view in what is a third person omniscient ensemble story. Various episodes or post-credit scenes elucidate on other characters in deeper ways to show their depth and/or machinations towards the climax of the story.

What follows is a slow drip of revelations about each character and their motives. Two main factions are present (The Yellow Scarves and the Blue Squares), with a third shadow faction (The Dollars), a shady pharmaceutical company is kidnapping immigrants for study, and one character manipulating all sides to their benefit, and it all comes together in a very interesting way that subverts most modern fiction. Its not too hard to follow, but it IS a web of things for you to piece together and for you to try and predict or solve yourself beforehand.

An interesting motif is a running "anonymous" chatroom between Mikado ("Taro Tanaka"), Izaya ("Kanra"), and Celty ("Setton"). Its clear basically from the beginning that Izaya knows who the other two are, but as the series goes on, the other two begin to suspect whos whom, but instead of outing each other, keep the anonymity alive for potential new members.

The only cons are typical to the anime medium: lengthy (but solid) opening and closing songs, episodes tend to remind you about last episode in the first few minutes, spotty animation quality, spotty localization, no translation for written Japanese, etc.

I do think this series works remarkably well in English and the dub is solid for the time. Notable actors include Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man in the PS4 and PS5 games), Steven Blum (Spike Spiegal, TOM, i guarantee you've heard this guy somewhere), various Critical Role VOs including Matt Mercer, Laura Bailey, Sam Riegel, and Liam O' Brien, plus many others. The cast are all talented.

This is a series where the creators attempted to do a lot, and they shouldn't have - they did too much. There are many things happening, many characters with many backgrounds that have many problems, and the series is just incapable of resolving them all. Making a story with this many diverse elements in it is a problem because in order to make sense out of everything - why are the people like that, why do they do what they do, where is this all gong - you have to tell much more story, develop the characters much more deeply, and let the viewers get attached to those characters and what is happening in the storyline. They didn't do that here, and gave us lots of characters, plots, motivations, & actions - basically a city of people interacting - so that what you get is a hodgepodge of elements occurring that are painted broadly and lightly, without the time it would take for the viewer to care about what's going on or to know the characters well enough to become emotionally involved with them.

The characters don't ever really get deeply involved with each other, but occasionally the authors ATTEMPT to have them do that, sort of promising that, but they never truly get there. In having so many stories revolving around each other, none of them is ever explore adequately, and we are always left hanging with "almosts." It's as if the creators are are afraid to have their characters bond with each other and show those powerful emotions that would be normal in situations like that.

The animation is fair, certainly not overwhelming, the artwork & coloration okay, & the music inappropriate, like something out of a "Peanuts" cartoon, all of this giving us this once-upon-a-time random cityscape of young characters.

So, in the whole, as an animated piece which generally & sparsely depicts some occurrences in this particular city, it has some interest; but, too much talk, too many side issues which take away from having a main story, & too little character development to get one emotionally involved. Watch it, but do so lightly.

I love the first opening and lost myself completely in the huge durarara universe while looking. Awesome

"Ikebukuro", though it is a city, differs from Shinjuku with its prominent business district dominated by towering metallic skyscrapers and its pulsating entertainment district that swallows up all sorts of bars, karaoke, restaurants, and adult entertainment businesses. Ikebukuro also differs from Shibuya, the glittering city, which attracts hordes of young people with its. It is one of the three biggest sub-centers and yet remains somewhat nostalgic forest of neon. It's a waypoint for the residents of Saitama prefecture to be able to easily feel the Tokyo-like atmosphere. Therefore, I call it the "Saitama Stopper". Also, it is my town that I grew up in.

"Durarara" is an ensemble story with an animated TV series based on the light-novel*. Its 24 episodes were televised between January and June 2010. Set in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, the story is made up of the episodes with a blend of interesting characters such as; the Headless Rider, the color gangs, the information dealer, the underground doctor, Yakuza and the Slasher . What astonished me was that the reproduction of Ikebukuro is amazingly accurate with the exception of the fictitious sushi restaurant and the hospital used as one of the core factors, so it can instantly be recalled for those who are familiar with Ikebukuro which is the original setting. And there are the characters' model as if it reverses their precise depictions. As likely scenes depicted in Ikebukuro along with the outstanding characters, it makes you feel strange between reality and this fictional story.

"The Headless Rider", Celty, who is a courier and seen as an urban legend in Ikebukuro. She takes her job from Shinra who is a genius underground doctor. As her head is lost, she can't remember part of her past, and besides without a mouth, her communication is made through a PDA or laptop. Mikado Rugamine, is a seemingly timid guy and comes to Tokyo introduced by his close friend, Masaomi Kida. The yellow scarves gang called "Dollars", with no color and no sense of purpose, created on the Net by Rugamine, just to satisfy his curiosity and to escape from his ordinary life. Against his speculation, the Dollars has become a power in Ikebukuro. Izaya Orihara, who loves people's unhappiness and distresses, who loves "loves", philosophy, and people-watching, and who is a mastermind based in Shinjuku. A violent man who hates violence (Shizuo Heiwazima). Anri Sonohara who is a quiet girl with big breasts and a twisted old memory. She shows her other face by created from her past. A strange Russian guy (Simon). A guy who is fascinated by a beautiful head, and a girl who has changed her face because of her obsession towards him. Shinra's father wearing a gas mask all the time because of the dirty air of the city.

The battle behind the scenes between the Dollars and their perennial nemesis, the Blue Square. A chatroom where no one knows their real faces, yet they exchange information. Truth and falsity. A hidden past behind the lost head. The true love recognized as a false love. While being a mixture of each character's story, the time when the true features of the Dollars, the Headless Rider and the magical sword are revealed, it is melted into the hidden past.

It's a story with a lots of humor and full of entertainment.