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Spoilerless:

The story starts off great, with super funny and unique characters. It surprisingly accurately captures a lot of what college is - stepping out of your comfort zone, brand new people, drinking, etc.

In my opinion, the biggest faults of the show are cringy characters that arise in the latter half of the show, significantly decreasing the quality of the humor and overall show. If those characters didn't exist, and all those parts were cut out, I would have liked the show significantly more.

slight spoilers:
the characters im talking about are Iori's incel friend group from his german class.

I am writing this as someone who was incredibly into the first few seasons of this show. I watched all the extras, loved the characters, would rewatch the openings for fun, etc.

Now I will also preface this review by explaining who I am as an anime watcher. I, like many of you, am a binger. I binge shows super quickly, especially if I am into them. However, to start my review of durarara: this show took me INCREDIBLY long to finish. I would NOT recommend this show to anyone who likes to binge.

Even the first few seasons took me weeks on weeks to ... finish. The final season: months. It literally took me longer than all of Naruto. Maybe two times as long.

This is for a few reasons. The first is that this show has very individualized episodes with very little running plot. Sure, there is a longer plot, but I can show a friend a random episode and with a brief explanation of the characters it can end there. The episode "A Badass Dude" is a great example of this - I watched it with a friend who liked it, but ended up asking, "So how did this fit into the show's plot? It seems like this episode was standalone." Compare this with AOT, a show with a super put together plot line, it's like night and day. I could NEVER show a random friend a random episode of AOT, besides the first episode, because it would make NO sense and would also spoil so much. Durarara is not like this. I hope that makes sense.

This makes the show super hard to binge because I would finish one or two episodes and then be ready to take a break - I'd have finished a full mini story arc.

However, I found this final season particularly hard to watch. First, it introduces SO many new characters. I mean a completely INSANE amount. Also, it bounces around a ton time wise, to the point that I (someone who is usually very on top of show's time changes) was very confused. Furthermore, the main character, who I think is easily the weakest character of the show, became so incredibly annoying. The show reused the same issues that plagued the characters in the first season (lack of communication, love problems, etc.) and it just felt stale and annoying. I kept saying "Cmon! By now you surely have to realize that's a terrible idea." It felt like the development wasn't there, and by the end, their development felt really forced and instantaneous. As if the show said, "Okay, we need to end the show! Here are a couple scenes that show these completely insane psychopaths' all of a sudden acting normal! Great character development!"

Finally, I personally found the ending quite unsatisfying. Especially because Celty, a character I really enjoyed, reverted back to being hypnotized by a creepy and annoying Shinra. The only characters who I was satisfied with are Shizuo and maybe the main 3, but even still just BARELY. A bunch of the other characters I didn't care about at all, because they were so recently introduced and I didn't know anything about them.

Furthermore, this is a show that doesn't have amazing animation or anything like that to carry the plot issues. In the end, its a hard 5/10 for me.

The top reviewer for this show - who heavily critiqued the story, ends with this passage:

"What was the point of the show? Was it to show that humanity is corrupt and that we're the reason other species can't move forward? That humanity should embrace other species and try harder to understand? Or that reality is a cruel place?"

Honestly, the answer to all these questions is yes, and still, to me that only feels half way there. The question of what morality is, and particularly how it affects things that aren't human, is incredibly complex and at the heart of a variety of ongoing debates ... (veganism, environmentalism, etc.) This is also the center of the philosophy debate in Parasyte.

Spoilers ahead:

Perhaps the main philosophical question the show poses is "what does it mean to be human?"

One scene that directly represents part of the show's answer to this is in episode 23.
The ending fight, where Shinichi and Migi fight the powerful Goto was a perfect representation of one hard to understand aspect of humanity. Human's intrinsically think about themselves over other creatures. This message comes up throughout the show. This is even represented in how Shinichi injured Goto - using trash that humans have dumped in the forest because those humans were 'above' the forest and creatures who lived there.

However, before finishing Goto, Shinichi realizes that this creature has a life and the same will and right to live that Shinichi has. This sparks an intense internal debate over whether Shinichi has the right to end its life, with him initially concluding:
"He's different, not human. I don't want to impose human values on him. [...] Can I say an organism has no right to live because it's harmful?"
This idea, that human's shouldn't have the right to decide the fate of other creatures, because they have the same right to life that humans do, is incredibly important. This question, in everyday life, is less of a moral dilemma - we kill for food and protection constantly. We have more of a right to life than animals do.

There are a few common warrants to this modern philosophy. The main one is usually that animals are less advanced than humans. Animals can't experience human happiness and love. This show and this scene perfectly shows a reality where that isn't necessarily the case, where these arguments are invalid. Not only are parasites in many ways more advanced than humans (physically and mentally), but Shinichi at this point is essentially half-parasite half-human. He has also experienced the story of Tamura Reiko, someone who clearly showed love and compassion to her baby. Thus, it makes this moral dilemma even more difficult.

This show, in this way, represents and frequently asks the commonly asked hypothetical: if aliens came that were more advanced than humans, to the point that humans were to them what livestock is to us, would it be fair for them to treat us like livestock?

When Shinichi interestingly changes his decision to finish Goto off, he is left with the words: "I'm just a lowly human being. All I can do is protect my small family."

This is one aspect of the reality that we live in. Humans, sometimes, only value those close to them, and this pressure takes Shinichi over. This part of the show is arguing that despite the realization that creatures, in this case parasites, have the same right to life that humans do, especially with them being more advanced than humans and the protagonist understanding their philosophy after having a friend parasite and being part parasite... despite this intense realization and understanding, Shinichi, and humans as a whole, still sometimes only value themselves. We kill creatures with the trash we dump, and we finish them off for protection. We answer that alien hypothetical with: "Yes, but they would never be able to because we, humans, are supreme."

The serial killer of the show adds to this narrative. He is arguably even more of a monster than the parasites, and yet he still is valued over them by other humans (shown through his lack of immediate death while the parasites are killed off without trail).

So yes, humanity is corrupt. We take life from other species because we value ourselves over them. Yes, reality is cruel.

But...

The show also comments on the beauty and uniqueness of humanity. At the end, when presented with Murano's expected death, Shinichi is torn up (as any human would be). Migi then comes to Shinichi and talks to him, answering that this pain is because of "how much time human's have on their hands". This time allows humans to "have room to spare in their heart". This is the true uniqueness of humanity.

In my eye, this show is arguing that the true value of humans is because of this trait. Humans are able to care about other humans and other creatures, a beautiful trait that isn't shared, at least to the same capacity, by any other creature.

The last quote of the show, "We were all born here on Earth. We try to understand, using tiny points of reason we slowly accumulate. We find something to be close to... until our lives someday end," sums up humans response to this dilemma. We never truly understand, and in the end of the day, we live out our lives as humans do.

So what are humans? The show answers: We are a creature that has the capability to care about other creatures. This is a beautiful and unique trait. But at the same time, this trait has its limits. In the end of the day, we tend to only value those close to us, and we prioritize our lives, and human lives, first.
And the show further asks, "is this the right answer?" and states, "Well maybe, maybe not." Humans generally have very little clue about how this world actually works. In actuality, we spend most of our time living out our normal lives as societal creatures.

This philosophical questioning and answering is absolutely amazing and made me, at least, think about this show for hours on end (clearly).

As for the rest of the show's review, its amazing. The combat is sick as hell. The music is absolutely bonkers with epic dubstep at some scenes contrasted with beautiful saddened piano masterpieces. The art is dope.

9/10

The truth is, the start of this show kinda sucked for me. It was super boring, pretty cringy, and I didn't really relate to any of the characters.

This all changed about half way through the show. Events take place that entirely change the tone, the revealed personalities of the characters, and even things like the music and art. If you've watched the show, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, or you haven't gotten that far, I promise, it gets better.

In a way, that end half wouldn't be possible without the first. It's hard to explain why, but its true. Either ... way, it did affect my overall experience with the show. It's hard to say its a perfect show if I truly didn't enjoy the first half, even if the second half is a masterpiece with its foundation on the former.

As for the rest of the components of the show, not much more can be said that hasn't already. This show does an amazing job with time travel, constantly keeping you on your toes and making you think for hours after each episode. There are almost no glaring plot holes - a true achievement in this genre. The art and sound are works of art, and certain scenes feel like they're straight out of a water color art gallery.

One complaint is that it can be a little predictable. A few of the "big reveals" were fairly obvious for a while, which might be purposeful - I'm not sure.

End of the day, it's a good show. I feel like a lot of the 10/10 reviews are from people who either feel as though the slow start was completely worth it in the end, or who bizarrely enjoyed those first episodes.