Durarara!! - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Durarara, aka “Let’s milk the Bacanno fans.”

CHARACTER SECTION
Also, one of the things I hated the most in B! was that couple of young kids running around with their super positive mannerism, doing silly things and acting as if the world is a fairy tale. Stupid brats; they ruined all the serious moments! And just when I thought D!! would lack such characters… It brought them back! ARGH! I wanted to smash my screen when the suddenly appeared.

Average: 6.5
p.s. And in case you wonder about my B! scoring, it gets 8 in all sections.

I agree. I enjoyed Bacanno very much and this series to a lesser extent. I totally agree with the part about stupid young kids doing silly things like the world is a fairy tale.

I absolutely hated the 3 brats:

Anri - She IS a parasite, she does absolutely nothing, and half her actions leads to problems for everyone else. (ie. when she spied on the yellow scarf gang, and then asks Celty to bail her out...causing everyone to think the Dollars gang teamed up with the slasher). She has a dangerous sword that curses people and she uses to go around possessing people? I see her as a menace to society...especially at the end when she was still using people to confront Izaya.

I absolutely hated her character...she was bland, uninteresting, and her speech pattern made her seem retarded.

Mikado - He does absolutely nothing...when the sh*t goes down, he hides under his blanket and it takes Celty to set him straight. I don't hate him, but I really don't like him either. Causes problems for everyone with his indecisiveness.

Kiba - annoying middle schooler who starts a gang, but doesn't have the balls, intelligence, or responsibility to control it. Causes problems from his indecisiveness, as well as making bad decisions.

Rawr!!!

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by Intranetusa

I agree. I enjoyed Bacanno very much and this series to a lesser extent. I totally agree with the part about stupid young kids doing silly things like the world is a fairy tale.

Except that absolutely makes no sense and I'm staring to wonder if you guys watched the same show.

Anri - She IS a parasite, she does absolutely nothing, and half her actions leads to problems for everyone else. (ie. when she spied on the yellow scarf gang, and then asks Celty to bail her out...causing everyone to think the Dollars gang teamed up with the slasher).

Only thing you're right about is how she views herself, but you completely missed the point on why. Anri also didn't do anything wrong with asking Celty for help, the Yellow Scarves were already convinced that Slasher and Dollars were working together because in reality they just wanted a fight with the group that now biggest dog in town. All of this being a chain reaction of events manipulated by Izaya.

She has a dangerous sword that curses people and she uses to go around possessing people? I see her as a menace to society...especially at the end when she was still using people to confront Izaya.

Anri never used Saika on anyone, but Haruna, you know who doing the slashing and causing havoc throughout the city? Anri in the end was one who stopped her saving the town in fact it was Celty who encourage to use her power for good, which why she's comforting Izaya who's the real menace to society.

I absolutely hated her character...she was bland, uninteresting, and her speech pattern made her seem retarded.

That's fine if you feel that way, but at least get you're facts straight here.

Mikado - He does absolutely nothing...when the sh*t goes down, he hides under his blanket and it takes Celty to set him straight. I don't hate him, but I really don't like him either. Causes problems for everyone with his indecisiveness.

You also ended up misunderstanding Mikado. First off he is behind the biggest organization in Ikebukoro he also orchestrated the largest event in series that led Celty to direct whereabouts of her head for the first time in 20 years. So he's hardly a coward that does nothing nor is he indecisive. He made his choice shutdown fairly quickly to avoid further conflict.

Celty didn't set him straight about anything either, just to have him help her stop Anri and Kida from having a violent confrontation.

Kiba - annoying middle schooler who starts a gang, but doesn't have the balls, intelligence, or responsibility to control it. Causes problems from his indecisiveness, as well as making bad decisions.

Again this just shows how little you were paying attention. To began with, the current YS were not like YS in the past, especially since part of the group was replaced by a rival gang unknowingly to him. As long as this stay the case his control would have eventually broken down no matter what.

The only real bad decision he had made was to not confront Mikado about the Dollars earlier. For the most part he is the character most victimized by Izaya aside from Shizuo and Rio, thanks to bastard taking advantage of his guilt and love for Saki. In the end he manages to come to terms with both his past and settle things with the YS.

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Except that absolutely makes no sense and I'm staring to wonder if you guys watched the same show.

I really don't care if the show has 3 middle schoolers who were able to start 3 powerful organizations. However, the show made no sense when it portrayed these
3 characters as totally lacking organizational, leadership, common sense, etc qualities.

I don't mind the fictional portrayal of awesome middle schoolers - but they actually have to be awesome with talents and skills, not a bunch of inept brats who somehow formed their organizations out of sheer luck.

All 3 of them are terrible terrible leaders.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Only thing you're right about is how she views herself, but you completely missed the point on why. Anri also didn't do anything wrong with asking Celty for help, the Yellow Scarves were already convinced that Slasher and Dollars were working together because in reality they just wanted a fight with the group that now biggest dog in town. All of this being a chain reaction of events manipulated by Izaya.

Uhh..no. She used her powers to manipulate some of the yellow scarf guys into leading her to the YS base. They told her the leader was Kiba, and she wanted to meet him. So what does she do when she actually gets there? She runs away...

What was the entire point of even going to the base then? And after that, she gets Celty to bail her our, pulls out her sword, and confuses the YS into starting the gang war.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Anri never used Saika on anyone, but Haruna, you know who doing the slashing and causing havoc throughout the city? Anri in the end was one who stopped her saving the town in fact it was Celty who encourage to use her power for good, which why she's comforting Izaya who's the real menace to society.

Her power controls people against their and uses them as slaves. The sword has a mind of its own and wants to take over the world and enslave everyone. There is really no way to use it for good. Anri already has a self-righteous arrogant personality at the end when she tries to stab Izaya, so there's a huge danger that she will start using the possessed people as her personal army. (which is kinda what she did)

Anri and her devil sword is a far bigger menace to society than Izaya.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

You also ended up misunderstanding Mikado. First off he is behind the biggest organization in Ikebukoro he also orchestrated the largest event in series that led Celty to direct whereabouts of her head for the first time in 20 years. So he's hardly a coward that does nothing nor is he indecisive. He made his choice shutdown fairly quickly to avoid further conflict.

If you don't call that indecisiveness or cowardice, then it is sheer stupidity. The Dollars had no tag to begin with - shutting them down does absolutely nothing because the YS were attacking random people. In essence he IS a coward because he ran away from the problem. Did you even watch the scene where he hids underneath his blanket and ignores the phone calls?

That is the very portrayal of running away and cowardice.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Celty didn't set him straight about anything either, just to have him help her stop Anri and Kida from having a violent confrontation.

Yeh, she did. He was hiding like a b*tch underneath his blankets to forget about the gang war, and only when she showed up did he gain some balls.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Again this just shows how little you were paying attention. To began with, the current YS were not like YS in the past, especially since part of the group was replaced by a rival gang unknowingly to him. As long as this stay the case his control would have eventually broken down no matter what.

The only real bad decision he had made was to not confront Mikado about the Dollars earlier.....

You're the one who hasn't been paying attention.

It was Kiba's decision to let random people from the Blue Scarves join. It was his decision to do NOTHING after finding out Mikado was a part of the Dollars. At that point, he could've easily stopped everything by having a little chit chat with his friends. What did he do? He decides to avoid Mikado every day after school. He is like Mikado and thinks if he runs away, everything will fix itself.

It was his decision to not properly restrain the YS when they were still following him - yes they were former BS members, but they still followed his authority at that point. In short, he did absolutely NOTHING, and let the gang war go out of control. The blue scarf members were still following him to a degree, but his betrayal (yes he did betray them) by not doing anything about the Dollars (not even negotiating) even though he knew Mikado was the leader shows he is a piss poor excuse for a leader.

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by Intranetusa

I really don't care if the show has 3 middle schoolers who were able to start 3 powerful organizations. However, the show made no sense when it portrayed these
3 characters as totally lacking organizational, leadership, common sense, etc qualities.

Making blanket statements don't help you're arguement nevermind that your wrong again.

I don't mind the fictional portrayal of awesome middle schoolers - but they actually have to be awesome with talents and skills, not a bunch of inept brats who somehow formed their organizations out of sheer luck.

Except they do have talent and skills lead their group and have proven themselves already.

Mikado managed thawt Namie and saved Anri in the second half, Anri put Saika into excellent use for info gathering and protecting Dollar members. Kida had earned the respect of his gang long ago for being a great fighter.

Their didn't their places by luck, you know this if you're paying attention.

Uhh..no. She used her powers to manipulate some of the yellow scarf guys into leading her to the YS base. They told her the leader was Kiba, and she wanted to meet him. So what does she do when she actually gets there? She runs away...

And what's wrong with that? She only wanted information on the their leader not to start a fight. Then make a desicion on what to do, that's being smart.

What was the entire point of even going to the base then? And after that, she gets Celty to bail her our, pulls out her sword, and confuses the YS into starting the gang war.

Because she couldn't believe it that's why, which is perfectly understandable, and besides she had no know idea that Celty was in the Dollars to begin with.

Even she had gotten involved YS would have fought the Dollars regardless, as the Slasher was simply an excuse to do so.

Her power controls people against their and uses them as slaves. The sword has a mind of its own and wants to take over the world and enslave everyone. There is really no way to use it for good. Anri already has a self-righteous arrogant personality at the end when she tries to stab Izaya, so there's a huge danger that she will start using the possessed people as her personal army. (which is kinda what she did)

Except she just did numerous times as I mentioned before. By your logic there is no way Celty can't ever be good because of her origin as a hairbringer of death or, Shizuo's strength can't ever be good because it's inherently destructive. Saika is still just a tool like any of the others and as long as Anri is the one in control, no one is any danger.

Furthermore how is she self-righteous or, arrogant at the end? She knows Izaya is person behind everything and doesn't want her friends being manipulate by him anymore. Really what are you talking about here?

Anri and her devil sword is a far bigger menace to society than Izaya.

Once again you're not making sense here, how again is Anri the one who has been her best to help her friends more danger to Tokyo than a asshole who plans to turn the city into a battle field for his own selfish goal and entertainment?

If you don't call that indecisiveness or cowardice, then it is sheer stupidity. The Dollars had no tag to begin with -

It's neither of them, the reason why he shut it down is because he believe that there was no need to get people hurt over a ridiculous fight. the Dollars were not created to fight other gangs nor it why people joined the group.

shutting them down does absolutely nothing because the YS were attacking random people.

No all the people YS attacked were part of the Dollars, did forget that they went asking if they were or not?

In essence he IS a coward because he ran away from the problem. Did you even watch the scene where he hids underneath his blanket and ignores the phone calls?

That is the very portrayal of running away and cowardice.

No cowardice would be him not make any decision whatsoever and letting the situation fester. Telling them to fight would just drag more innocent people into the fight be them Dollars or, not. It does help that he lacked info YS even after talking to Izaya. By choosing to disband things would have died down and YS would end up arrested, and he just start back up again if he wanted.

He was ignoring the calls because he did not want to speak to anyone.

Yeh, she did. He was hiding like a b*tch underneath his blankets to forget about the gang war, and only when she showed up did he gain some balls.

No, look at last episode again, she came to speak to him about Anri and Kida not fight some gang war.

You're the one who hasn't been paying attention.


It was Kiba's decision to let random people from the Blue Scarves join.

lol, and when did this happen? Blue Squares attacked his gang and girlfriend why in world he ever let one in his gang? That's right because it never happened they joined long after he left. He didn't even know about them until the second-to-last episode.

So who exactly isn't paying attention to plot again?

It was his decision to do NOTHING after finding out Mikado was a part of the Dollars. At that point, he could've easily stopped everything by having a little chit chat with his friends. What did he do? He decides to avoid Mikado every day after school.

Because he was in shock and was not sure if Izaya was telling the truth or not. I agree that he should talked to Mikado about it, but Mikado would deny it unless Kida revealed himself first.

He is like Mikado and thinks if he runs away, everything will fix itself.

Show me a point where he ever thought that, why he ever go back to YS to a life he hated if was go to runaway?

It was his decision to not properly restrain the YS when they were still following him - yes they were former BS members, but they still followed his authority at that point.

BS never followed his authority whenever he wasn't looking. They were never loyal to begin with and very little can be done about that other kicking them out.

In short, he did absolutely NOTHING, and let the gang war go out of control. The blue scarf members were still following him to a degree, but his betrayal (yes he did betray them) by not doing anything about the Dollars (not even negotiating) even though he knew Mikado was the leader shows he is a piss poor excuse for a leader.

No he definitely tried to keep them under control and even got physical with Horoda, interesting who Dollar leader was and if there was any real connection to the Slasher. Unfortunately for him BS members like Horoda were ones controlling the group from the shadows.

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Making blanket statements don't help you're arguement nevermind that your wrong again.

I'm just making a statement about the anime that I know a few others agree with - some of the main characters are annoying.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Except they do have talent and skills lead their group and have proven themselves already.
Mikado managed thawt Namie and saved Anri in the second half, Anri put Saika into excellent use for info gathering and protecting Dollar members. Kida had earned the respect of his gang long ago for being a great fighter.
Their didn't their places by luck, you know this if you're paying attention.

You're making excuses with poor examples.

First, Izaya helped Mikado put the organization together. If it wasn't for him, I'm sure the Dollars would still be a bunch of backwater nobodies. Also, all he did was call a meeting to thwart Namie...the result was still nothing happening. He showed zero leadership skills before and after this even. The only think Mikado did was basically call a meeting - he really did absolutely nothing to help put together the Dollars structure, foundation, organization, etc (which was all done by recruiters or people like Izaya)...

Kida earned their respect through brute force, but he was obviously not cut out to be leader. If he was such a great fighter, why couldn't he save his girl? Cuz he was a little punk coward at that time who had no leadership qualities or courage.

Anri uses her powers at inopportune times, and doesn't even follow through with it to solve problems in the long run.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

And what's wrong with that? She only wanted information on the their leader not to start a fight. Then make a desicion on what to do, that's being smart.
Because she couldn't believe it that's why, which is perfectly understandable, and besides she had no know idea that Celty was in the Dollars to begin with.

Yeh, so apparently mind controlling YS members and then infiltrating their base isn't going to start a fight?

And no, it's not understandable. The people already told her Kida was the leader.
I don't see how it could be a shock if she already knew the leader's identity.

What good would running away after seeing him do? She infiltrated their damn base...and of course, she leeches off of Celty to make a dramatic entrance, pulls out her slasher sword, etc...all that resulted was her causing more problems for everyone.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Even she had gotten involved YS would have fought the Dollars regardless, as the Slasher was simply an excuse to do so.

It doesn't exactly help that she is mind controlling their members, sneaking into their base, calling on the black rider to almost run their members over with a motorcycle, pull out a slasher sword, etc

All she did was give them more suspicion that the slasher was with the dollars and the black rider.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Except she just did numerous times as I mentioned before. By your logic there is no way Celty can't ever be good because of her origin as a hairbringer of death or, Shizuo's strength can't ever be good because it's inherently destructive. Saika is still just a tool like any of the others and as long as Anri is the one in control, no one is any danger.

The problem is Anri's power can mind control people, and her sword has a mind of its own. She is literally a walking time bomb. It's only a matter of time before she goes nuts and starts enslaving the city as her personal army. Her own personality is already a weak and feeble minded person who relies on others. It wouldn't be a surprise if Saki takes her over.

Besides, did you forget the part where she slices off Celty's head? (the real Sakia/Anri and not Haruna I assume) That's attempted murder, and would've been murder if Celty wasn't a headless rider. And she had the slasher attack her bullies with a sword... yeah, they were bullies, but attacking them with a sword? Common...

Anri is mentally unstable with a dangerous power. So yes, she is far more dangerous than Celty or Izaya. Celty has powers, but she isn't weak minded with a dangerous cursed sword that could implode any minute.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Furthermore how is she self-righteous or, arrogant at the end? She knows Izaya is person behind everything and doesn't want her friends being manipulate by him anymore. Really what are you talking about here?

All Izaya did was fan the fires a little. The fire itself was started by Anri/Mikado/Kida in the first place. They themselves are far more responsible for the situation than Izaya was. The entire situation could've been avoided if the 3 kids knew something called "dialogue."

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Once again you're not making sense here, how again is Anri the one who has been her best to help her friends more danger to Tokyo than a asshole who plans to turn the city into a battle field for his own selfish goal and entertainment?

Like I said before, she is a walking timebomb. She has a weak mind, and a dangerous sword with a mind of its own...a sword that plans to take over the world with mind control.

That is way more dangerous than Izaya, who just likes to see people in chaotic situations.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

No all the people YS attacked were part of the Dollars, did forget that they went asking if they were or not?

Exactly, so disbanding the Dollars would do absolutely nothing to stop the gang war. The fact that the kid thought it would shows he is not cut out to be any sort of leader.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

No cowardice would be him not make any decision whatsoever and letting the situation fester. Telling them to fight would just drag more innocent people into the fight be them Dollars or, not. It does help that he lacked info YS even after talking to Izaya. By choosing to disband things would have died down and YS would end up arrested, and he just start back up again if he wanted.

Which is basically what he did. Disbanding the organization means he would no longer have to make any decision. It didn't help whatsoever and the situation just got worse. He should've already known that disbanding an organization that has no tags would not help stop a gang war because the other side would just target anybody.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

He was ignoring the calls because he did not want to speak to anyone.

a.k.a. not making a decision and letting a bad situation fester...cowardice

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

No, look at last episode again, she came to speak to him about Anri and Kida not fight some gang war.

Yet she slapped Kida and ran away AGAIN. The moment Kida came up to speak to her she should've explained the situation...which would've probably have calmed down the situation. Instead, what does she do? She runs away!

Cowardice and stupidity.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

lol, and when did this happen? Blue Squares attacked his gang and girlfriend why in world he ever let one in his gang? That's right because it never happened they joined long after he left. He didn't even know about them until the second-to-last episode.
So who exactly isn't paying attention to plot again?
Because he was in shock and was not sure if Izaya was telling the truth or not. I agree that he should talked to Mikado about it, but Mikado would deny it unless Kida revealed himself first.

And whose fault is that again? Doesn't that mean there was no coordination and no organization under and after Kida's tenure as leader. This just proves he was never cut out to be leader!

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

BS never followed his authority whenever he wasn't looking. They were never loyal to begin with and very little can be done about that other kicking them out.

Which means they still followed his authority upfront, and didn't dare to disobey him. That means Kida STILL had power and control over the organization. They began to opening defy and disobey Kida after Kida squandered his opportunities and let the situation get worse.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

No he definitely tried to keep them under control and even got physical with Horoda, interesting who Dollar leader was and if there was any real connection to the Slasher. Unfortunately for him BS members like Horoda were ones controlling the group from the shadows.

Which did absolutely nothing. He already knew about Mikado, yet he didn't bother helping resolve the Dollars problem, and beat up his own members. Geee...that doesn't sound like leadership material to me.
Horoda didn't control the group until Kida betrayed them by doing NOTHING, and then ran away without giving them orders for a while.

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by Intranetusa

I'm just making a statement about the anime that I know a few others agree with - some of the main characters are annoying.


You're making excuses with poor examples.

No I'm not everything I have said is actually in the show and most people see them as I see them including novel readers. I'm not ask you to like those 3 hell there people don't like Celty, Shizuo Shinra etc, but it doesn't change that your facts are messed up and baised. You're making the out be some sort terrible people that there aren't.

First, Izaya helped Mikado put the organization together. If it wasn't for him, I'm sure the Dollars would still be a bunch of backwater nobodies.

Not exactly, the Dollars gained fame before he even showed up started meddling with things and causing the group to grow uncontrollable by planting false rumors about. Futhermore the Dollars already had folks Ikebukoro and Saitama is not some "backwater town". Why actually look up the place before making such a sill statement.

Also, all he did was call a meeting to thwart Namie...the result was still nothing happening.

The truth about Harmina Mika came out which led Celty finding out about both Shinra and Yagiri Pharmacy causing Namie to escape with the head from her and Nebula. That's not "nothing", but I already know that you don't bother to pay attention.

He showed zero leadership skills before and after this even. The only think Mikado did was basically call a meeting - he really did absolutely nothing to help put together the Dollars structure, foundation, organization, etc (which was all done by recruiters or people like Izaya)...

Except he put together the meeting and used his resources to the best of he's ability to help not just Cetly, Mika but later Anri as well as by coordinating what would be a difficult to control group. And he did all that without any personal gain, more than 15 years ago are expected to do. Should I mention that he's living own and providing he's own expenses outside school tuition as well as being Class Rep and part of a concil? His got plenty of leadership.

As for the Dollars; it doesn't have a structure or much of foundation to begin(it suppose to be hoax for fun) with be he and his friends start the site and posted on other message boards and invited people long before Izaya showed up. The only Izaya did was invite more people causing the group to be somewhat more unruly(leading to all the original members aside from himself to quit) by vandalizing things and the like until Mikado convinced others in the group to use the Dollars for more positive things.

Kida earned their respect through brute force, but he was obviously not cut out to be leader. If he was such a great fighter, why couldn't he save his girl? Cuz he was a little punk coward at that time who had no leadership qualities or courage.

Not being able to save Saki had nothing to do with him not being a good leader. He had no problem fighting the BS, it was when the gang took things to another level such as kidnapping people close to him with the intent of murder that he realize for the first he or she could die. It doesn't help that person who come to trust had been manipulating both his group and BS along with Saki's capture for his own amusement. He just 13-14 kid ago back then things that went beyond his control and has been full of guilt since then. End he does make amends for it which is the entire point of his arc.

Anri uses her powers at inopportune times, and doesn't even follow through with it to solve problems in the long run.

Yes, saving the town from Haruna was stupid. Using Saika's information networrk was stupid. Protecting the Dollars and later confronting the mastermind of whole thing was stupid. Gee she's such and evil bitch.

She just continue close herself to anyone and everyone because you hate her.

Yeh, so apparently mind controlling YS members and then infiltrating their base isn't going to start a fight?

She only ask them to show her the base and then went on her own and for that matter those guys were already slashed by Haruna. Anri wasn't even aware that YS thought Slasher the Dollars were even connected to start.

And no, it's not understandable. The people already told her Kida was the leader. I don't see how it could be a shock if she already knew the leader's identity.

Except she was, look at that scene and watch her reaction.

That's dumb, if you had a good who friend who had been nothing more than upstanding person turnout to be leading a notorious group you be shocked and not try verify it or not?

What good would running away after seeing him do? She infiltrated their damn base...and of course, she leeches off of Celty to make a dramatic entrance, pulls out her slasher sword, etc...all that resulted was her causing more problems for everyone.

Again, she was not there for confrontation only to find out if Kida really was the leader because it doesn't make any sense with what she knows about him. She not leeching off anything with Celty either, who was the one that had taken in Anri as younger sister own. Celty was completely of her own choice in coming to save Anri, which you don't seem think she perfect capable of making.

Maybe you miss it with Rio, Mikado and Shizuo but Celty is really nice who you know helps out her friends. But I guess their all leeches too.

And Anri pulled out Saika to defend herself from a pipe that had been thrown at her not to showoff if anything Celty was one doing it that(to scare off YS.)

It doesn't exactly help that she is mind controlling their members, sneaking into their base, calling on the black rider to almost run their members over with a motorcycle, pull out a slasher sword, etc

What are you talking about? So if Celty ran over someone it's Anri's fault too? I'm done. You know what speaking to you it's pretty much pointless, you essentially hate the 3 for mostly made up reasons and demonize everything that they do base off your own bias and hatred. Like I said earlier I don't care who you like or don't but don't bring misinformation.

The only other things I'm going to address before I go are:

All she did was give them more suspicion that the slasher was with the dollars and the black rider.

Suspicions that was based off an internet rumor that couldn't be proven, and had no base outside the Black Rider possibly being in Dollars. Even after the event Kida and half of the group weren't convinced and the others too busy wanting to revive their fallen reputation to care.

Besides, did you forget the part where she slices off Celty's head? (the real Sakia/Anri and not Haruna I assume) That's attempted murder, and would've been murder if Celty wasn't a headless rider. And she had the slasher attack her bullies with a sword... yeah, they were bullies, but attacking them with a sword? Common...

Once again the entire scene flew past your head huh? There wasn't any attempted murder, Anri only slashied Celty's arm and protecting her teacher who she thought he was being attacked when he was chased into the back alley only to find out Celty wasn't human. That's (out of surprise) when she cut-off her nonexistent head. The whole thing was revealed to be setup by Izaya to learn who that Slasher was.

[ronin myael]

i gave it a 9. i had some problems with the last part, i felt that it lacked resolution. but then again perhaps it was meant to end that way. maybe celty didn't need to find her head to be whole. maybe shinra was simply rewarded for his obsessive love for her by having her return his once unrequited feelings. maybe shizuo was meant to remain the abnormally strong and angsty bartender. maybe izaya was needed to stay on as the ever manipulative and scheming information broker, otherwise ikebukuro would be terribly boring. and perhaps mikado, kida and anri were simply supposed to carry on with their lives and learn from the circumstances that drew them to one another.

all in all, it was an enjoyable series with unique and flawed characters. i love that it was told through the eyes of different characters, making it more personal and interesting. even the musical score was good and distinctive. it has the feel of a movie made by quentin tarantino. easily one of the coolest anime series i've seen.

[mystery_orange]

6 out of 10.

Just finished watching the episodes and when I watched the finale I was like "meh...".

The whole scenario feels dragged. The theme reminds me of those movies where 2 brothers/friends/lovers grow up together and then a war happens and they end up on the opposing sides. There are a LOT of movies like that.

Here we replace the brothers with 3 friends ,and the "war" with 3 gangs fighting each other because... wait why were they fighting in the first place? Ah yes the old leader of one of the factions thought ,that a second factions (the Slashers) hurt on of his friends. Ignoring that ,his friend of his is the leader of that faction itself. And then the third faction(Dollars) comes for ... no reason at all. Just some rumors that there was a collaboration between the Slashers and the Dollars.

Right...

Well sorry ,but it's simply not convincing enough. That's why as I said the whole thing feels dragged. The writer was forcing things TOO much in order to get 3 groups to fight ,where in the beggining these groups had nothing in common and no reason to fight at all. It would be far more convincing to put 2 opposing gangs (like the blue and yellow scarfs) to fight with each other. THEY would have reasons to fight in the first place. But to put a gang(yellow scarfs) ,fight with a group of everyday people(dollars) and with a group of hypnotized people(Slashers) based on... a misundestanding?

Come on you can come up with something better than that.

Wait there WAS someone pulling the strings. Izaya. Hmmmm... He wanted to create a havoc so that he can awake the head of an irish demon so that he can go to Valhalla.

We are talking about the same head that kept standing in a jar , on a bookself rthe WHOLE time right? What happened to that? I expected in the big fight scene in the finale Izaya to show up with the head in his arms so that he can awake it.

But nothing like that happened.So what was his original plan again? What was the point of all that in the first place?

Hmm....


Let's be honest thought. That was the sereis theme for the second hald of it. For the first half the main plot thread was about Celty getting her head back. And alas, in the end of episode 12 she does learn that her head, who has been searching for 20 years is in a lab of a pharmaceutical company nearby. And WHEN SHE LEARNS ABOUT IT WHAT DOES SHE DO?????Nothing...

Excuse me???? So we've been watching 12 episodes for nothing? Right becaue the new main plot of the series was 3 friends finding themselves on opposing sides as I mentioned above.

So in conclusion:

-Main plot thread A= Celty finding her head = Unresolved.

-Main plot thread B=Izaya awaking the head=Unresolved.

-Finding the point of existance of the Russian character, the doctors father, the police officer with the motorbike ,Heiwajima's brother=Unresolved. No just one scene with them is not enough.

-Finding the point of existance of Heiwajima besides being a deus ex machina for 1.235 times and being a good excuse to add some fighting scenes=Unresolved.

-3 friends becoming friends again with each other: Done.


So 6 out of 10. For the graphics ,sound ,Heiwajima and the Russian guy(true they don't really have a reason to exist but I kinda liked them ).

Actually if I add to all that the fact that the 3 main characters were boring as hell , I guess the final score is 4 out of 10. Because I can't give above 5 to an anime that tells me that the scenario is of no importance and all that matters is friendship. I have One Piece for that.

[j0x]

the ending is poor but leaves room for a possible second season
but overall a good series, nicely animated and an uncommon way of story telling

[webkid94]

Animation Quality: 9
Really great stuff from Brains Base (which i follow their works closely now on ), everything was above average and kept the quality going strong.

Voice Actors: 9
Mikado - Japanese and Dub were equally great.
Kida - Mamoru Miyano rocks yet again, Kida is truly the kind of character that you love or hate. Dub was okay, though i loved Kida's "Oh shiiit!"
Celty - Miyuki Sawashiro = Win. enough said. Dub was also great too.
Shizuo - Ono Daisuke??! Holy crap i didn't know it was him, i thought it was Keiji Fujiwara. Damn what a BAMF! Dub: Crispin Freeman, yeah even more BAMF here too.
Izaya - Hiroshi Kamiya?? (Natsume and Tieria??!) Damn, again i was fooled! Dub: I didn't like Izaya's voice, i kept thinking "OMG LELOUCH" the entire time.
Shinra - Irony: Voiced by Lelouch's seiyuu (in Japanese) and Suzaku's in english.
Anri: The beginning of Kana Hanazawa's rise to stardom. Had no clue Michelle Ruff (Rukia!) dubbed her. Great overall.

Characters: 10
Without DRRR's amazing range of characters, from the Russian sushi guy to Shizuo to Celty and everyone in between, it wouldn't have been as great. Though Mika and Seiji got annoying, Seiji in particular.

Story: 7
The first half of the series was amazing to watch and see our main characters grow especially Mikado when he summons the Dollars and pwns Namie in the process. Shizuo and Izaya are the show stealers, though. Second half really slipped IMO and the ending was just...plain.

Soundtrack: 8
Of Brains Base's three biggest successes (Baccano!, Durarara!! and Natsume Yuujinchou), DRRR ranks last but still great overall. Same musician for all three of the above series!! Dang, talented guy there!

Enjoyment: 8
Despite the drop in the second half, i really enjoyed Durarara and the characters really do make the show enjoyable.

Emotional Involvement: 8
Would be a 9, but as i said earlier: Second half really lost my interest a bit.

Overall: 8.6/10 (rounded to a 9)