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Dec 6, 2014
TL;DR watch Baccano instead
Durarara likes to rely on the 'Rule of Cool' but there's not much cool about it. It doesn't even have the complete pandemonium that makes its predecessor Baccano so great. It's not set onboard a zany animated Orient Express... It's just a normal city in Japan. They repeatedly reference a 'Color gang war', an apparently important event in the city's history, but we never learn anything interesting or important about it.
The characters aren't exception. You've a country bumpin... Who moved to the big city... To *sigh* GO TO HIGH SCHOOL.
Yoou've got a class rep with big tits with a dark secret,
...
a dumbass pervert best friend, and oh big surprise, they're in a love triangle with the protagonist.
Side characters aren't special. You have anger issues man, slimy knife man, otakus, and token diversity character (tried to cross off a lot of squares, he's a giant black dude from Russia).
These characters get no development. Their introducitons are bland, their hastily added backstories are cringeworthy, and everything about them seems to exist just so you can tell them apart... Like NPCs in a bad video game.
The only character who gets any depth is Celty. She's a Dulahan (Headless spectre from Celtic mythology) in Japan searching for her lost head. I don't know if she's a good character of if she's just the only one who isn't terrible... But either way she's better than the rest. If I could change it, I'd focus on her story. Her motivations, conflicts, and interactions are easily the best part of the show, and the only reason the characters get a 5/10
The soundtrack isn's bad. Funk and jazz, very Baccano - the opening theme is almost comically similar. There's some amazing unconventional tracks with solo upright bass. Like Baccano, both the Japanese and the English dubs are great. Shame it doesn't save the show.
The animation isn't bad either, but it's not great. You get the sense they're saving the budget for a huge awesome payoff... That never happens. If you're gonna go full rule of cool it has to LOOK cool, not just average all the time.
Enjoyment? Well, if you watch the show as brainlessly as possible, you'll enjoy it for the first few episodes, but the flaws will quickly become impossible to ignore and you'll lose your patience, so when it gets boring it's really frustrating. It has a few good moments, but I found it hard to finish.
Everything that this show gets wrong, Baccano gets right. And everything that this show gets right, Baccano does better. This is obviously a tribute to Baccano, and honestly... If you want to watch a tribute to something, I'd recommend watching the real thing. Go watch Baccano instead. Durarara is a waste of your time.
This show has an absurdly volatile and defensive fanbase, which makes it even harder to like. They hype it up as a masterpiece, and it's so far from it, you're annoyed before you've made it halfway through.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 5, 2014
This review is for both seasons.
TL;DR - Great show. Refreshing medieval drama without corny magic (stunning historically accurate and fun depiction of medieval economics and commerce), immensely likeable main characters, awesome period-appropriate soundtrack, amazing dub, good art. Watch this show, despite the unfortunate cliffhanger ending of Season 2.
This is a great lesson on 'Never judge a book by the cover'. That said, I wish they had a better cover... Spice and Wolf was marketed with a half-naked furry wolf girl. Like most people, I was repulsed by it at first sight. Little did I know this seemingly shallow fanservice poster girl is one of
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the deepest characters in any anime ever, and the show is far better than the light novels it's based on.
Spice and Wolf doesn't have a grand story - but follows the motivations of its two main characters - Lawrence, a traveling merchant, and Holo, an outcast diety traveling with him. This gives the show freedom to deeply invest into its arcs, and use them as an excellent form of character-building. It also does something great - leaves a lot unsaid, but does it so tastefully that it creates mystery and intrigue rather than frustration.
Besides one of the characters being an outcast god, this is an incredibly low-fantasy, low-magic medieval drama, and I haven't seen anything quite like it in Anime - that I enjoyed.
The main characters are incredible. They're fun, intelligent, and never compromised to move the plot along. When something happens, it almost always makes sense given the characters' motivations and flaws. The character flaws are so well written, which lets the characters be defined by their shortcomings as much as their strengths. It's great to see them experience joy, fear, exhileration, jealousy, rage... All in complex, unique, believable ways.
The side characters aren't as great, but their screen time is so limited that I don't care, they serve their purpose and don't overstay their welcome. Bonus points because the English Dub is far better than the Japanese and brings out the characters way more.
The animation isn't groundbreaking or extravagant, but is thoughtful and gorgeous. It captures the setting of a medieval world before the advent of mass industry, blending undisturbed nature with primitive settlements and medieval cities, all without obnoxious fantasy outfits and outlandish weapons. They changed the studio in the second season, but honestly the different style works pretty well too.
The soundtrack is great - Yuuji Yoshino seems to have gone to great lengths to specifically use historically accurate instrumentation and techniques, and it shows. Everything hits home, from the festival music (there's a LOT of festival music) to the darker, suspenful tracks.
I can't talk about the sound without bringing this up. WATCH. THE. DUB. The Japanese voices can't hold a candle to the English. J. Michael Tatum is a genius, and Brina Palencia is the definitive Holo. The Japanese voices are full of Anime cliches - and once removed, this show has almost none, making it a truly refreshing watch.
Don't miss it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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