Durarara!! x2 Ten

sushiisawesome★ 9

The build-up is done, the cards have been set, and all that remains is to see how everything pays off in the end. Durarara is a series where the normal meets the abnormal, and not everything is what is seems at first. But what is normal? What lies beneath the mask that any particular character has? And where is this entire story going? This season answers these questions and leaves more wide open to interpretation. What many people often complained about ever since the first half of the first season is that they miss the lack of a particular main character, and equal focus from character tocharacter. There's also the argument that the show focused on the most boring characters instead of the more interesting ones, which hurt people's enjoyment of the second half. These arguments are irrelevant, and all that build-up has found an extremely interesting and satisfying answer in this season. The story for this season follows a semi-episodic format similar to what we've gotten used to in Durarara so far. The only difference is that instead of leading to anti-climax to anti-climax, which was a major complaint in the second half of the first season as well as the first third of the second season, there is finally a feeling of real tension, that things will no longer remain the same and that the story finally has a purpose of sorts. The characters no longer are walking aimlessly into one another without purpose, and instead are setting up factions to confront one another and find the answers that they seek in Ikebukoro. Everyone has developed and changed, and not everyone picked the faction that people assumed they'd pick at the beginning of the season. And yet the reasons why every character picked the faction they did makes sense and is logically consistent with their development up until this point, instead of the show having plot twists for no other reason than having plot twists. The deciding factor behind the enjoyment of this season, however, is whether or not you enjoyed Mikado's development throughout the show. I personally felt his character made sense in the context of the show from the very beginning, and this season only made that more clear through the various actions he took (controversial as they may be). There was build-up to his character and it finally paid off here, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. The soundtrack is as consistent and fluid as it always was, and the voice acting was absolutely amazing and spot on. Particular mention needs to go to Mikado's voice actor, Toshiyuki Toyonaga, who did an utterly fantastic job at voicing Mikado from scene to scene, switching between calm and composed to absolutely chilling very naturally and consistently. The artwork and animation is the same, though I must add that it was a definite step up from the various awkward scenes in Shou. The backgrounds look fantastic and the movement feels smooth and consistent, so no real problems here. Overall, this season was a blast. It finally feels like the amazing climax we've been waiting for is arriving next season, and to say that I'm excited for the final season of Durarara is the understatement of the century.

Flawfinder★ 2

To say that Durarara is no longer as popular as it once was is like saying Ariel Winter has had problems growing up. But it’s not like the show was providing much incentive to keep itself relevant in the public eye considering the creators seemed to give up on it long before the audience did. I mean at least most oversold inexplicably popular anime look nice regardless of their awful writing. Despite being made by the same team, Durarara’s production, pacing, style, and even the writing (which wasn’t exactly Pulitzer Prize material or Paranoia Agent - a much better psychological anime centered on multiple characters- to begin with) have tanked since its emergence in 2010. In fact, I can’t even recall when I last saw it on a sales chart let alone witnessed any sort of hype or merchandise for the thing. Yeah, you’re living in a more fujoshi-filled world now, Durarara. Either get more pretty or accept your defeat with dignity. But Durarara didn’t seem to get the memo and decided to take all the complaints we levied at the thing, arranged it on the wall, and then set it on fire. Because if you thought Shou was trying its damndest to imitate a politician last time, Ten is pretty much giving real-life presidents a run for their money with its empty promises and redundant dialogue. Do you remember how the first cour of this second season ended with Mikado becoming leader of the Blue Squares and that it signaled his first real step into the journey of darkness, getting the most naive of viewers excited for what was to come in three months? I mean even the fucking terrible opening was hinting that it’d focus on his continuing downward spiral as a merciless Dollars exterminator. Well you’ll be pleased to know that in this twelve-episode long cour, only one is dedicated to that plot point and the rest of it is spent on trying to forget it ever existed. People say Durarara’s plot is hard to summarize, but I say they’re not thinking hard enough because it’s really quite easy to do, and in three words no less: “really badly written”. If you need more context, the gist of the matter is that the Dollars are starting to turn into the literal version of current-day 4chan and Mikado wants to purge the trolls so that the group will be back to the way it was before and, more importantly, Ikebukuro will be safe for Masaomi and Anri. Said friends decide to get their own factions together in order to stop Mikado whilst some asshole named Yadogiri Jinnai has certain plans regarding the monsters who live in Ikebukuro and Izaya has plans involving Celty’s head that are still vague at best, causing them to form their own factions in the process. Oh, and Mikado gets the yakuza involved when one of their best guys named Akabayashi join courtesy of Celty and...oh Christ, I can’t go on. This shit is fucking stupid. I’ve seen Jodorowsky films that were easier to keep straight. It’s pretty safe to say that if you’re not up to speed on Durarara at this point, you’re not welcome, because Ten assumes you remember all the complications from prior seasons and then adds in a few more for good measure. Every single person who’s not part of the main cast gets focused on this go-around despite having virtually no storyline significance, and then the show decides to give Izaya some backstory for good measure despite the fact that he hasn’t been relevant to any of Ikebukuro’s going-ons since the Yellow Scarves arc. And Celty hasn’t been relevant ever, despite Narita’s assistance that she’s the main character. About the only way that’s true is that everything is connected to her and forgive me if we have different definitions dude, but I’m pretty sure main characters are supposed to do more than that. Like, y’know, driving the story with their character arc? So does anything actually happen in Ten beyond establishing shit? Sorta. It’s just that it’s all incredibly inconsequential to the point that Mr. and Mrs. Filler are denying any allegation that they know the stalker arc or the “Dotachin getting run over and ending the show after what feels like the halfway point” one. You see, Durarara - and Baccano to a lesser extent - has always had a problem with tension because all the good guys are massively overpowered to the point that I’m surprised no one’s made an official fighting game out of the Naritaverse yet, and all the bad guys are fucking pathetic by comparison. You honestly can’t expect me to believe that Rui was in any trouble in regards to that kickboxing weirdo given that Masaomi and Mikado went through him shortly afterwards with only a few bruises, and she’s around Celty’s level in terms of fighting off thugs. So you’ll forgive me if I nodded off several times watching it apart from a slightly amusing minute when Shizuo thought his brother and the famous pop idol were getting married. This somewhat changes when Izaya assembles his own Suicide Squad of capable fighters, but none of them ever directly confront the protagonists unless you count Aoba’s sunglasses-wearing brother, and Izaya seems to have no plans in regards to letting them. They’re pretty much only there for the sequel hook, and I seriously doubt much will come from it, because even when you take the one-sidedness into account, Durarara’s fight scenes are unbearably bad. This is the first time I remember noticing it, but the action seems to always end right when it’s about to get good and whenever the opposing parties are equally matched, it always ends with them walking away from each other with the promise to meet next time. Shizuo hasn’t had any interaction with Izaya since this show made its return last January, so it’s no wonder the fangirls have been going to other sources when it comes to slash-fic material this year (and incidentally, there’s quite a lot this season alone). I mean there is that episode that showcased how important Shinra is to Izaya and all, but it’s just not the same. There’s not really much more that needs to be said about Durarara at this point other than that it needs to be put out of its misery and fast because it has long since passed the point where its conclusion could possibly be worth it and anyone who says otherwise is either incredibly shallow or incredibly delusional. That said, I am surprised at how much this sequel has eroded people’s goodwill towards the franchise as a whole, as with the exception of maybe Moyashimon, most people seem to agree that the first season still holds up well to this day and everything after is non-canon in the same way most people only acknowledge the first Matrix movie or the first Pirates of the Caribbean. And whilst that’s certainly true to an extent, I’ve seen way more people turn against Durarara as a whole than I did when Chuunibyou 2 caused people to explode in a fountain of moe tears. But I guess I shouldn’t talk. I mean I bought the Aniplex DVDs back in the day and now they’re just crying in a far corner of the room whilst I try to figure out how selling things on eBay works. Not selling the key chain though. After all, it’s not Celty’s fault that she’s stuck in a poorly written, poorly directed, and poorly animated mess.