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

Jan 26, 2025

wndfllfr

Recommended

Durarara!! (Part-Time Ghost Rider)

If you watch it all at once, boredom might kill you, but if you stretch it over two months, it’s tolerable. I cringed at the romance as usual, a classic, it annoyed me even more than the over-the-top drama.

Characters:
Not all of them are terrible, but there are definitely some who are. Take your Izaya Orihara, for example, he spends his time stirring up trouble and then chilling like this:
(https://imgur.com/a/0fLuMmr).
Many will claim he was trying to bring the head to life, but do you want to remember *how* he tried? That’s right, he leaned on mythology, which is just a fancy way of ... saying fairy tales. LMAO.
That said, there are fun characters that keep things lively. Too bad Erika and Walker didn’t get more screen time, their antics are solid gold. I loved their group dynamic, unlike Celty and the Surgeon, who only spew romantic nonsense for virgin romantics. Mikado? Not a fan. He’s your typical bland protagonist, which is a no-go. His friend, though, is much more interesting.
8/10.

Plot:
It drags like chewing gum and crawls like a zombie. The plot hinges, as you’ll later realize, on secrets that friends keep from one another.
Sometimes, they’ll replay the same scene, and you’ll sit there in shock thinking, *Did I just get dragged into another fragment of this mess to watch the same thing from another perspective?* TIME TRAVEL TIME, OKARIN, Rika!!!
Dump all the unnecessary romance between the Doctor and Celty, and it would be fine. Also, tone down the overdone drama with “I'm a tough guy don’t underestimate me! AAAAH, I’ll stab you!” Overall, 6/10.

Music:
Decent soundtrack, fitting for the scenes, and it keeps up the atmosphere. Not much else to say here.
8/10.

Art Style:
The art style, especially shading out background characters, is a nice touch. The character designs are solid and don’t embarrass themselves, except for Ryugamine. The proportions sometimes get weird, and Ryugamine’s face occasionally looks off, as if the artists purposely botched it out of spite for bland protagonists. No other characters seemed to suffer from such wild inconsistencies.
7/10.

Overall Impression:
7/10. The show isn’t trash, but it’s not a masterpiece either, just average. Don’t even think about watching this in one sitting, or you’ll die of boredom.

P.S. There are so many references in here you’ll lose count on your fingers.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 5, 2024

LacingMaster

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 15, 2024

Saharas962

Not Recommended

TLDR - this whole show is redundant, looks promising but a big waste of time

the only reason I've watched this show is due to its high rank,
which i honestly have no idea why would someone (and plenty of them) recommend this thing.

First of all, there are way too many storylines in the series that they tried to squeeze into a small amount of episodes, and somehow they managed to make it look like nothing was happening in the episodes, with most of them being boring.

One of the reviews that made me want to finish the series was that "all the storylines come together for ... an epic ending."
Well, no, far from epic – the ending of the series was ridiculous, stupid, meaningless, disappointing, and childish.

Focusing on the three main storylines that run throughout the series and are the main reasons behind many of the events:
*One ended with a very childish and silly conclusion, almost to the point of being laughable.
*The second ended in such a way that if this storyline hadn't existed, no one would have noticed any difference.
*The third ended with no explanation as to why it even started in the first place, or what the point was in ending it the way it did.

On top of that, there were many more! (If I try to remember, about 10) side storylines that seemed like they were meant to contribute to the overall plot, but in reality, they were pointless and a waste of time. Most of them just disappeared from the series after a few episodes, leaving open or unresolved ends, and the viewer has no idea why they even saw that storyline and how it contributed to the plot.

What makes this even worse is the fact that they shoved too many characters into the story in an attempt to inflate the plot, taking the viewer on a journey through pointless side stories that, even after four seasons, still have no purpose or meaning.

Bottom line, this series is unnecessary, rating 4, and even that is, in my opinion, too high.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	The change of mood of the story from the 2nd half of S1. ANIk_003 - Feb 21	9 replies	by asahinamafuyu »» 8 hours ago
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Usami-Haru - Mar 18, 2010	461 replies	by 19bullet »» Jan 19, 12:46 PM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) goldslaught - Jun 24, 2010	602 replies	by Arnishkarmoker »» Dec 29, 2024 12:02 AM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) yakisobapan - Jan 21, 2010	413 replies	by YopTheGod »» Dec 19, 2024 12:36 PM
	Poll: Durarara!! Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) francismeunier - Feb 25, 2010	302 replies	by CoastaLAeirk »» Dec 10, 2024 7:55 PM

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