Ryugamine Mikado decides to go to high school in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, at the suggestion of his best friend, Masaomi Kida, who had moved there years earlier. Mikado is bored with his life and wants a change of pace from his small city life. Life in the big city proves to be more exciting than he bargained for. After his arrival underground factions begin to move in a prolonged struggle over control on the neighborhood. A new gang has emerged in town called Dollars, but no one knows who is a part of it due to no gang colors. A mysterious black motorcyclist cruises the streets at night stirring legends and rumors of super natural consequences. Someone known as the Slasher is attacking random people with a sword, making the dark allies a dangerous place for students.
I don't know why I took me so long to begin this series but I wish I had gotten to it sooner, because it was fantastic. It's somewhat hard to really classify this anime as it encompasses so many genres and it does a good job at them too. Comedy, drama, action, romance, super natural...it has something for everyone I think...except for any real fan service. Oddly enough, I have never spent any time in Ikebukuro during my trips to Japan, so I really can't speak for what type of neighborhood it really is and if the portrayal of it being a seedy underbelly in the series is accurate or not. I have hung out in some other less then glitz areas of the city but have never resided any place so can't speak for certain the level of localized threat that exists. Gangs’ fighting over territory is a universal theme and can't see the premise of this series all that farfetched, at least the gang fighting thing. However there are plenty of fantastical aspects and characters in this series that add to its flavor. My favorite being, Heiwajima Shizuo, the strongest man in Ikebukuro, who has a penchant for throwing vending machines and light poles.
Aside from the aspects of the show being agreeable, the way they unfold the story is well done and adds to the appeal. Many episodes will begin with an event and use the rest of the show to backtrack how everyone got where the episode started. At points some characters had entire episodes devoted to their back stories which tended to be entertaining and well done as well. The series does seem to be split into 2 overall story arcs though. The first introduces all of the characters and has some minor plot lines drawing many of them together. The second arch deals with the battle between the different factions coming to a head and dealing with the fallout. In fact I felt the series would have ended really cleanly with the end of the 13th episode and was partially surprised to find more...somehow I only thought it was 13 episodes when I started pounding through it. At that point there was only one question left unanswered and that question still hasn't totally been taken care of at the end of everything.
This was highly entertaining and I do strongly recommend it. The animation and character designs though are mid-grade...the worst being the black Russian character...really really horribly drawn, one would say even racially insensitive. Still, the writing is fantastic with tons of memorable characters. The show did give a couple of shout outs too; Darker Than Black, Yotsuba&! and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan are a few I caught that made me smile. And even better, there was news earlier in 2014 that a second series was going to be made at some point!!
Durarara is available streaming on Crunchyroll in North America, had appeared on Cartoon Network and is readily available on DVD and BluRay. So check it out, it’s well worth the time.
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