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My general approach to this series so far has been to enjoy every episode on its own terms. I'm impressed with those of you trying to create timelines and organize this chaos, but for me the chaos is a central part of the experience. That's largely why I haven't been a big contributor to this discussion despite my avatar.
I'm so happy to see that this is the show that might bring Brains-Base into the mainstream and earn them some serious money. Akikan was a blatant attempt at generating revenue which apparently didn't pay off as they might have hoped. Here B-B is back at doing what they do best, creating a witty, off-beat show from some outlandish material that's not primarily targeted at the Akikan viewer.
Does anyone else think the DVD ad was purposely placed in the "Celty watches the X-Files" scene? That was, by far, one of the funniest single scenes I've watched of late, and B-B made it impossible to grab without also grabbing the DVD announcement. Smart, very smart. What makes that scene for me is the nonchalance of an at-home TV watching session underpinned by an hilarious premise. That's just the kind of thing I expect to see from Brains-Base, and why I enjoy their work so much. (By the way, I haven't seen much discussion of the score for this show, but I think it's one of the better ones I've heard recently. In many places it's quite subtle, yet very effective. The operatic portion in episode six (Puccini?) was especially funny.)
I wasn't drawn to this show off the bat the same way I was to Kure-nai or Natsume Yuujinchou. (As for Baccano!, I had to start over a couple of times because of how boring and confusing the first episode is.) Episode 6 of Durarara!! has hooked me for the duration.
Oh, and I also think Issac and Miria are the mains in Baccano!, though I'd entertain the argument that neither that show nor this one really has "main" characters. They both have a fairly large group of protagonists and another large group of supporting cast members. I like the "main-character-of-the-week" approach we've seen up to now in Durarara!!, though I expect the focus to narrow onto a smaller set of characters as the weeks progress.
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