Durarara!!

In Tokyo's downtown district of Ikebukuro, amidst many strange rumors and warnings of anonymous gangs and dangerous occupants, one urban legend stands out above the rest—the existence of a headless "Black Rider" who is said to be seen driving a jet-black motorcycle through the city streets.

Mikado Ryuugamine has always longed for the excitement of the city life, and an invitation from a childhood friend convinces him to move to Tokyo. Witnessing the Black Rider on his first day in the city, his wishes already seem to have been granted. But as supernatural events begin to occur, ordinary citizens like himself, along with Ikebukuro's most colorful inhabitants, are mixed up in the commotion breaking out in their city.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Orihara, Izaya Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Heiwajima, Shizuo Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Sturluson, Celty Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Kida, Masaomi Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Ryuugamine, Mikado Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Sonohara, Anri Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Dian, Isaac Supporting

Onosaka, Masaya Japanese

Harvent, Miria Supporting

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Kishitani, Shinra Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Brezhnev, Semyon Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Ogisu, Hirotsugu Producer

Satou, Yumi Producer

Reviews

Oct 29, 2024

Janaya

Recommended

This show is best watched without spoiling yourself on any of the content in advance.
Going into this show pretty much completely blind, having not even read the synopsis, allowed for a really good experience that gradually opened up the world more and more as each episode built upon the previous.

The show takes place in a part of Tokyo with a very colorful cast of characters and is essentially about how they interact with each other on small and large scales. There are reality stretching physics and supernatural elements, but they're largely confined to a few of the characters.

Watching this show, including the other seasons and ... specials, was a great time. Everything is well grounded in the world and has its own logic, even when things go completely whack! It was delightful that the anime kept to its own conventions and had elegant story telling throughout. It felt like a story consisting of many smaller arcs that were tied together by the glue of the characters. Even the two main arcs felt like they happily meandered along until the end, in a good way.

By the time the last episode rolled by, the most important story beats had been resolved and it was a perfect place to either stop or set up for a new story. A very minor negative would be that some subplots could do with more resolution, because they have quite a bit of setup towards the end of the show.

Many of the characters are interesting and unique, even so far as to not really being duplicated in any other anime. They're also driven by their own motivations, often to a comical - yet still consistent - and also entertaining degree. For that reason alone, this would be a good watch, but it's great all around and absolutely recommended.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 5, 2024

Cersil

Mixed Feelings

"Headless Horseman" wasn't as good as the commercials and numerous AMVs for its theme. If you ever want to watch it, it's probably easier to read Wikipedia and watch another clip.
This anime is about social interaction between different groups, including interest groups. There are some incredibly colorful characters here that are worthy of mentioning in their own right. What is only worth Shizuo Heiwajima: and his own philosophy, and his troubles, well, and comic scenes with his participation strongly motivate to tear through the grayness of the narrative.
The plot itself is very poor and often fits in a few words. People live, entertained ... by the game of friendship, looking for a way to realize their dreams, even if they consist in finding their own head.
As the play progresses, one is simply amazed at the mass stupidity, the ridiculousness of the characters' lives. Many events happen simply because the authors decided so: there were no preconditions for them. The viewer is put in front of insane facts, and then hastily come up with a justification for them, so that you feel deceived.

The most gorgeous thing about this anime is the drawing and animation style. Yes, fans of proportions will weep with laughter at the design of many characters, but such clarity and fluidity of movements and repositions, almost artistic change of shots and angles speak of great skill of the studio. It's hard to explain in words the success of the animation itself, but it's done in an incredibly appealing way. And if the plot is a rare nonsense, where no conflict is settled to the end, not resolved, but simply glossed over until better times; then the animation of the city, characters and scenery itself is full of life. It's a world that is very easy to believe in. In this case, the execution of the plot was better than the plot.

By the way, there are still a couple of episodes where a very non-trivial "movement" is organized, but unfortunately, the viewer just can't guess so that he can skip empty episodes with kilograms of exaggerated experiences. For a brief moment there is an illusion of plot, meaningfulness and, most interestingly, some intrigue. But then the authors also successfully ruin expectations, ending everything with boring everyday life.
Personally, I have mixed feelings: it did not immediately occur to me to rewind the procrastination that haunts the viewer from episode to episode, so I personally lost a lot of time. On the other hand, still a couple of episodes paid off my investment and my attention. So I advise you to admire the graphics, tolerate the killed plot and wait for a couple of important moments.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 12, 2023

slightexag

Not Recommended

A little bit of a series retrospective here. I haven't seen Durarara since it came out and would never rewatch it. In my mind, it is one of the original massively overrated series of my childhood, with baffling storytelling and focus problems that ruin everything good about it.

Let me start with an analogy: imagine JK Rowling creates the world of Harry Potter, filled with wizards, magic, lore, history, a haunted castle, centaurs, giant spiders, elves, soul-stealing dark phantoms, dragons, etc. But as she's writing it she decides, "no Harry Potter is too much a chosen one type and involved with interesting people, secrets, and ... high stakes drama. Instead, lets make Dudley the protagonist because he can learn about all the interesting stuff as a three-times-removed bystander who never acts to move the story forward, but simply observes interesting things other people do." That's what Durarara is. Craft a world where a waiter has superhero strength, a headless horseman rides a motorcycle around the city, gangs fight one another, a Machiavellian psycho who's waiter's mortal enemy creates chaos across town. Which of these interesting characters is the MC do you ask? How about some stupid, aggressively bland and boring high school nobodies who do nothing but occasionally witness some of the cool stuff that happens.

You watch this show and see interesting characters, setting, and plot lines but then have to constantly return to the most uninteresting nothing characters. Sorry, not enough time for Celty to solve the mystery of her head's location, but yeah, enough time for us to see emotional high school boy do nothing for several episodes. Make the interesting character the protagonist. Place the center of the story where the interesting stuff happens. Why would anyone want to watch Harry Potter but through Dudley's POV? A total catastrophe of storytelling.

tldr; It should be titled Dunonono!! since that would accurately how it feels to experience all the stupid narrative zagging from interesting and exciting characters back to the story of high schoolers doing nothing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 19 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) shanimebib - May 20, 2010	214 replies	by ZXEAN »» Oct 18, 12:59 PM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) yakisobapan - Mar 11, 2010	385 replies	by ZXEAN »» Oct 12, 12:20 PM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) francismeunier - Feb 25, 2010	301 replies	by ZXEAN »» Oct 11, 9:36 PM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Blackbird - May 13, 2010	245 replies	by KonokoAsada »» Oct 5, 2:33 PM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 16 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) yakisobapan - Apr 29, 2010	354 replies	by KonokoAsada »» Sep 28, 3:04 PM

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