Saw Durarara!! on mal yesterday and could've sworn by watching the trailer it was made by the same studio behind baccano. and sure enough there ended up being at least 10 references to baccano throughout the show. I was honestly skeptical if i'd even enjoy this because it had the mystery genre. usually i'd associate the mystery genre with generic detective anime and the same stupid predictable twists, but that ended up being an unfair assumption as although it is technically a mystery show that's only because there are unanswered question posed and re-asked throughout the show. it's unfair to lump it in with the
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generic shows I was talking about for that reason. probably wouldn't have watched the show at all for that sole reason if I hadn't recognized the animation style from baccano which is kind of crazy to think about considering how much I ended up liking this show. the story starts with our mc Mikado wanting a unique life in tokyo and ends up getting involved with every notable character mentioned by his friend Kida. one of these notable characters is a headless bike rider which ends up being revealed later in the story as a dullahan (irish urban legend). at first I thought they just wanted to tie this headless character to whatever folklore they first saw on google but they actually ran with it and played irish music in certain scenes and even had her speak irish at one point. probably the last thing i was expecting to see in that show to be honest but I thought the irish representation was awesome. this show has alot of colourful characters in it with interesting backstories, we also get to see their perspective on everything with each passing episode similar to baccano,
so I won't go into too much detail I just wanted to mention that. Mikado and Kida end up becoming friends with a girl named Anri, and it turns out the three of them all play a large role in what happens in the cities underworld, mainly with gangs. only one character is aware of this, Izaya. Izaya is obsessed with people and basically just gets a kick out of seeing how they react in certain situations and ends up controlling all three of our protagonists in one way or another. to be honest I wasn't sure how positively to feel about this vague explanation for why this extremely intelligent character is so invested in those three. I wonder if it would've been better if he had some ulterior motive that could be expanded and revealed upon in the later parts of the show rather than he just likes messing with people. there is a second season, which I haven't watched yet, which could've expanded this idea further but they just left it at that. maybe they end up doing that anyway I'll just have to wait and see. I mean it's not like it was rushed at the end explaining why Izaya did what he did, it was established at the very beginning of the show how and why he does the things he does all be it vague. he keeps calling people humans maybe he's a monster of some sort I have no clue. the show ultimately ends with the three finding out about each others secrets and coming to terms with them individually before meeting again. I know I'm being vague but I'm not writing a plot summary. this show captures a lot of things but in my opinion it focuses on everyone's desire for a sense of belonging. Mikado wanted to leave an impact on the world and he did with his gang, until he ultimately found comfort in
belonging in an ordinary life with the people he cares for. Kida originally too found a sense of belonging in his gang but ironically wished for what Mikado had, an ordinary life. at least that's what he initially thought Mikado had. Anri was the same as Kida in wanting an ordinary life and ultimately got what she wanted in the end. to be honest this was the only realistic outcome for any of the characters because wanting to leave an impact on an entire city as one person is pretty unrealistic. this was acknowledged in the show as everything that happened was seemingly forgotten and everyone moved on. It's not like I'm trying to say the message of this show was to be realistic, that's a pretty mundane message. as I said earlier, this show focuses on multiple topics and you could probably dissect at least 5 or 10 messages from it in total. not that I really care what it was. only thing I haven't mentioned is that I really liked the humour. I've already more or less said I liked the characters but I'll say it anyway. I really appreciate the fact that there were no characters created to fill basic roles for entertainment. what i mean by this is there were no characters for the ha ha goofy moments or characters for fan service. every character played an important role in the story which I really like. I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover. 8/10
Mar 6, 2025
Durarara!!
(Anime)
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Saw Durarara!! on mal yesterday and could've sworn by watching the trailer it was made by the same studio behind baccano. and sure enough there ended up being at least 10 references to baccano throughout the show. I was honestly skeptical if i'd even enjoy this because it had the mystery genre. usually i'd associate the mystery genre with generic detective anime and the same stupid predictable twists, but that ended up being an unfair assumption as although it is technically a mystery show that's only because there are unanswered question posed and re-asked throughout the show. it's unfair to lump it in with the
...
Mar 6, 2025
Sousou no Frieren
(Anime)
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Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is the best anime ive seen in years. First thing that immediately caught me off guard was that this anime has 0 fan service and 0 screaming and loud shrill voices like you'd find in your generic show. probably one of the first shows to have such a good rating and not have these things in it. Still has the highest rating on mal btw. one of the fight scenes at the beginning of this show had me thinking this would top aot but the quality wasn't as good after that. everything about this show is great, extremely refreshing to watch
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Mar 6, 2025
Bakuon Rettou
(Manga)
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Took me two days to read all of Bakuon rettou. It was like 100+ chapters too the bum behaviour is off the charts. But nah this was a really enjoyable read it’s definitely put me on manga that’s not adapted. It’s basically Tokyo revengers but good. A lot of stuff in this manga is based on real life experiences from the writer too. Haven’t seen any gang/delinquent media, despite there being so much of it, actually be able to empathise with the gang members on an emotional level. Just gapped by real world knowledge in writing I guess. Like this clears everything else in the
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