Durarara!! X2

Zach Goodier

The sequel to the original Durarara!!, X2  is the return of one of our favorite shows to a (somewhat) peaceful state, but things quickly begin to pick up again as a biker gang from out of town starts raising hell, saying that the Dollars attacked them in their town and they want revenge. What ensues is more of the quirky, exciting action and character development we loved in the original, with Celty and Shinra trying to make a life for themselves, and Mikado having to struggle with the future of the Dollars, which he created.

Meet Varona, a Russian woman who is as smart and deadly as she is beautiful.

The story is as beautiful as the original. While there are a lot of characters to follow, and things bounce around a lot, it really is easy to tell characters apart because they all have their own unique personalities, so nobody ever really feels like “that other guy/gal there.” Much of the story is like the previous season, with Shizuo and Izaya being at each other’s throats, and everybody trying to make their way in the busy district of Ikebukoro. However, some themes are brought out that really challenge some of our characters, mainly Mikado.

Izaya is still as dangerous as ever.

The central story here is the story of the Dollars changing. Since their creation in season one, the Dollars have risen to dominance in Ikebukoro. Mikado soon faces the decision on how to proceed as he watches the Dollars spiral out of control, since they by nature have no leader. As they act without oversight and start to bring the wrath of other gangs down on them, Mikado and his friends must decide what to do about things, if anything. This seems fairly mundane on the surface, but it provides some great perspectives from various characters, who have their own principles, who decide what being in the Dollars means for them, and whether they feel they can stay in the gang, even as everything falls apart.

Some Dollars still remember the old days, and they still hold old grudges.

There are some new faces this season, such as the Chikage, the leader of the “Toramaru” biker gang, which is at war with the Dollars. Most everyone else is from last season, getting into new situations to keep things exciting, some favorites, like Anri, don’t get quite as much screen time as they did last season, or at least don’t get as much going on, but everyone still has moments to shine.

This is one catfight I'd want to stay far away from.

This show is just as good, if not better, than it was last season. X2 has fun, deep, and exciting characters, all part of an intricate web of influence, where one action by a character can be felt all over the city, as dominoes fall and hi-jinks ensues. This is what makes Durarara!! such a fun show. If you haven’t watched it, I would highly recommend watching it from the beginning, because it is such a rich and wonderful series, and this season is no exception. The music is also a standout, with some nice tunes both in the series proper and the openings and closings.

This is what death looks like before it strikes you... and everything around you.

It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, but in a way that wraps up most of the current story, and sets us up for things to (hopefully) come down the road. I know Robert reviewed season one and felt it was a bit of a mess, but that’s what I love about this show: it is designed that way from the bottom up. This is a story about characters all living their own lives, trying to grow up and/or make lives for themselves, and life is messy. They key to understanding and enjoying this show comes from not looking at the series as a whole story, but at all the moments and characters struggling to make their way, in their own ways, creating episodes of their lives within the limited window we get to see through.

Good:

-Rich and entertaining characters.

-Fun and exciting, yet still a mature tone.

-A story that doesn’t let you look away for a second.

Bad:

-Can be tough to follow for casual viewers.

Scully Rating: 9 out of 10

Durarara!!

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. 

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