By: Robert Murphy
It may be a bit of a cliche but I think at one time or another we all long to escape from the mundane by changing things up, go someplace new, meet new people and all that. For Ryuugamine Mikado this is true too and at the request of his friend, Kida Masaomi, he moves away from the country and moves close to him in the city known as Ikebukuro. Hoping that this change of scenery will be exactly the kind of thing to shake things up for his life, he follows around his best friend meeting some of the colorful characters that live in the city. Mikado though may be in for more than he initially thought as he meets not only some younger and interesting people but also a super human bartender, a Russian fist fighting/sushi chef and a mysterious black rider who drives a shadowy motorcycle. However, just like the city, Mikado is much more than your average high schooler and will prove to be more than just a pawn in the schemes bubbling under the surface of this strange place.
Durarara does many things right with its story but what I found that the story does best is telling the tale of what it is like to be a teenager or a young adult growing up in the world. Most of the characters for the show are young and looking for their own way, some place to fit in and belong with other people in society. The groups in Durarara are a little bit more unique in this regard though, creating gangs and becoming muscle for debt collectors or even becoming an information broker with a fancy office. It's certainly one thing to be so ambitious but to actually accomplish that much in your 20's is incredibly impressive. But, the city of Ikebukuro is filled with people like this and the whole thing has a great modern take on being young in this society. Everyone is connected through things like cell phones, chat rooms, online groups and trying to make something of themselves, trying to escape the mundane nature of things and making something that is yours, somewhere they belong. It's a view that, like I said, many teens and young adults feel at some point in their lives and though it may seem childish or looked down on in some cases, it's something that is captured perfectly here.
Looking at the character themselves too, you will find that there is definitely someone who will be your favorite as the pallet is exceedingly rich. Shows can often have a diverse group of characters to them but I have scene none more diverse than the one in Durarara. In the first episode you are practically introduced to your whole cast of characters as Kida gives Mikado his first tour around the city. Most are instantly memorable and probably something you were not expecting like Celty, the black rider I mentioned earlier who turns out to be a headless fairy from Irish folklore. Then you have Shizuo, the blonde hot head who has super human strength and often gets picked on for dressing like a bartender, which leads to someone getting smacked with a sign post a hundred feet in the air. My personal favorites would be these two and Izaya, the evil mastermind character who is the cities most reliable information broker but often the people who go to him end up in more trouble than they had before. There are plenty of others that I don't have time to delve into but what is unfortunate is when you look at your main cast of Mikado, Kida and their young friend from school, Anri, a soft spoken girl from their cast, you would hope that the rest of the cast gets more time than these three do. They just don't blossom or pop as the rest of the cast does even when you find out that each of them has a huge secret from one another, I kinda went "meh" and wanted the story to move on to the other characters stories.
This is when my issues for Durarara began to come out. The first half of the show does a top notch job of introducing all of the character, everyone gets their own storyline episode and a chance to talk about what them and their particular group is all about while connecting the other characters into their own in some way. The way it is done isn't super obvious, characters pop up somewhere in the city when the person telling their internal monologue is speaking of what happened and where. Then, things shift gears around the halfway point when you meet everyone and you see where each of them stands for the upcoming final. Everything shifts focus to pay attention more on Kida, Anri and Mikado and it is a frustrating affair to say the least. It's not that the big secrets I mentioned earlier aren't nice and or interesting, it's the endless confusion and lack of intrigue that happens after that becomes the real downfall. Each of them stand separately from one another but connected, Kida gets dragged into his former life before Mikado came to town and does nothing but complain and sit around. Anri, who was never a strong character to begin with, faintly tip toes around the two and tries to help but makes things worse and Mikado is frankly oblivious till the very end. It's a jumbled mess of nonsense that should not have been ended up being the concluding moments for the show.
That being said, I am sad that the ending of Durarara ended the way it did but the reason that I re-watched and reviewed the show now is because it has a second season airing now. I hope that things will pick up with the more intriguing stories that were left unfinished by this first season like where is Celty's head for instance. This first season though ended without finishing those stories and we were left with the sad state of confusion and mess of a story by the end so I will be dinging it for what we had before season two was announced and started. The characters were all fantastic and voiced by some anime legends and the first half of the show really was spectacular to watch. If it hadn't been for the unfortunate decent in the second half of the show that we were left with, Durarara would have been practically a perfect watch for me.
Durarara does many things right with its story but what I found that the story does best is telling the tale of what it is like to be a teenager or a young adult growing up in the world. Most of the characters for the show are young and looking for their own way, some place to fit in and belong with other people in society. The groups in Durarara are a little bit more unique in this regard though, creating gangs and becoming muscle for debt collectors or even becoming an information broker with a fancy office. It's certainly one thing to be so ambitious but to actually accomplish that much in your 20's is incredibly impressive. But, the city of Ikebukuro is filled with people like this and the whole thing has a great modern take on being young in this society. Everyone is connected through things like cell phones, chat rooms, online groups and trying to make something of themselves, trying to escape the mundane nature of things and making something that is yours, somewhere they belong. It's a view that, like I said, many teens and young adults feel at some point in their lives and though it may seem childish or looked down on in some cases, it's something that is captured perfectly here.
Looking at the character themselves too, you will find that there is definitely someone who will be your favorite as the pallet is exceedingly rich. Shows can often have a diverse group of characters to them but I have scene none more diverse than the one in Durarara. In the first episode you are practically introduced to your whole cast of characters as Kida gives Mikado his first tour around the city. Most are instantly memorable and probably something you were not expecting like Celty, the black rider I mentioned earlier who turns out to be a headless fairy from Irish folklore. Then you have Shizuo, the blonde hot head who has super human strength and often gets picked on for dressing like a bartender, which leads to someone getting smacked with a sign post a hundred feet in the air. My personal favorites would be these two and Izaya, the evil mastermind character who is the cities most reliable information broker but often the people who go to him end up in more trouble than they had before. There are plenty of others that I don't have time to delve into but what is unfortunate is when you look at your main cast of Mikado, Kida and their young friend from school, Anri, a soft spoken girl from their cast, you would hope that the rest of the cast gets more time than these three do. They just don't blossom or pop as the rest of the cast does even when you find out that each of them has a huge secret from one another, I kinda went "meh" and wanted the story to move on to the other characters stories.
This is when my issues for Durarara began to come out. The first half of the show does a top notch job of introducing all of the character, everyone gets their own storyline episode and a chance to talk about what them and their particular group is all about while connecting the other characters into their own in some way. The way it is done isn't super obvious, characters pop up somewhere in the city when the person telling their internal monologue is speaking of what happened and where. Then, things shift gears around the halfway point when you meet everyone and you see where each of them stands for the upcoming final. Everything shifts focus to pay attention more on Kida, Anri and Mikado and it is a frustrating affair to say the least. It's not that the big secrets I mentioned earlier aren't nice and or interesting, it's the endless confusion and lack of intrigue that happens after that becomes the real downfall. Each of them stand separately from one another but connected, Kida gets dragged into his former life before Mikado came to town and does nothing but complain and sit around. Anri, who was never a strong character to begin with, faintly tip toes around the two and tries to help but makes things worse and Mikado is frankly oblivious till the very end. It's a jumbled mess of nonsense that should not have been ended up being the concluding moments for the show.
That being said, I am sad that the ending of Durarara ended the way it did but the reason that I re-watched and reviewed the show now is because it has a second season airing now. I hope that things will pick up with the more intriguing stories that were left unfinished by this first season like where is Celty's head for instance. This first season though ended without finishing those stories and we were left with the sad state of confusion and mess of a story by the end so I will be dinging it for what we had before season two was announced and started. The characters were all fantastic and voiced by some anime legends and the first half of the show really was spectacular to watch. If it hadn't been for the unfortunate decent in the second half of the show that we were left with, Durarara would have been practically a perfect watch for me.
Good:
- The mass assortment of interesting characters
- The story integrates each person well and makes each of them a part of the overlapping story
- Does a great job at personifying the feelings of teens and young adults, that feeling of wanting to belong to something
Bad:
- The second half of the show really is a decline for the story and is a jumbled mess
- Unfinished storylines just left hanging
Scully Rating: 6.5 out of 10
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