Durarara!! - My Thoughts: Badass and Complicated

Durarara!!! Yes I put a third exclamation mark, of my own. Now, where to start. This was an epic series, of a different scale and genre from most other anime. It's different, it's damned complex, it's seriously epic. What more could I say.

Durarara, an anime with a strange name, and with a different type of story than others, according to my friends' recommendations. I've only seen the first season so far, and decided I'll rest my brain for a moment before going to the second season, which, according to my friends, will be more jumbled. Even at halfway through season 1, I had no big idea whatever is going on in Ikebukuro. Which is, actually, fine. I love these kinds of complex, unpredictable story. Trusting my friends that this is a great show did not hurt.

Huh, didn't Izaya basically say to never trust anyone?

Thus I'll give my own thoughts here. Spoilers, intentional or otherwise, may be present. Oh, I do know that there's Durarara x2 Ketsu airing now, but I'll have to catch up with everything. I'll just put My Thoughts again for that second season.

The story starts simple, by a boy, Ryuugamine Mikado, who came to Ikebukuro (in Tokyo) in an attempt to escape the mundane daily life. He met with his old friend, the funny Masaomi Kida, and went to school together, and became friends with the shy and quiet Sonohara Anri.

More or less all the important characters in Durarara. Credits to the person who made this image found in Pinterest.

And then, we learned that everyone is special in their own way. Ikebukuro is one strange town, full of wondrous people. We have the headless rider, the Dullahan, Celty Sturluson, and her strange doctor/scientist of a lover, Shinra Kishitani. Then we have the strongest person in the world, Heiwajima Shizuo, whose arch-nemesis is the influential-but-childish-and-not-right-in-the-head information broker, Orihara Izaya. Then we have Kida's friends, the Van group, whose names I haven't remembered, who frequents a shop where a dark-skinned Russian, Simon, work. Then the girl alleged dead, Mika Harima, and her lover, whose-his-name, whose sister, who heads a company but later works for Izaya, likes him. And...

Still so much characters. I am at a loss. Perhaps a good thing, before this character line-up becomes too long. Just see in the Wiki. 

Point being, there are so much characters of different flavors, each special in their own way. All of them are great. Even our heroes have flaws, and our villains unclear (are there even 'villains'?)... like Game of Thrones. (perhaps I should have used 'protagonist' and 'antagonist)

Let's start from the beginning, the Dollars/Dullahan's Head arc--or whatever it is called.

A dullahan usually travels with her head cradled in one arm. Celty lost hers, her head stolen in Japan, so she came to Ikebukuro. I didn't expect the story to have this level of supernatural. And I also didn't expect this story to have a strange love dramas (though not surprised), between Harima and the siblings, and Shinra with Celty (why isn't he creeped?).

This story expands to envelop our main characters, especially Mikado--and what surprised me was, at the end, we finally know that he was the one that made the Dollars gang. But seriously, which educated person accepts a shady email request to join a gang?

And it turned out, Izaya is one shrewd man. He should be the antagonistic info broker, working on his whim, but his personality was just so hilarious, and so smart, that I just can't bear to hate him. People are fascinating.

Now, on to the second arc, the slashers. The search for the strongest man in Ikebukuro--Shizuo--connected with a string of attacks in the town, with the victims possessed by a cursed blade. It turned out, Anri was the one that held the 'mother' blade, which she kept to protect her loneliness.

I don't get it either, however this arc really fleshes Anri's conflict. Add the surprising revelation that Kida is actually the founder of another street gang, the Yellow Scarves, we have an interesting finale brewing up. Is it really coincidence that all our three teens each have their secrets?

Finally, we have the Yellow Scarves arc, where we see how their friendship start to become distant, starting with Kida who rejoined the Yellow Scarves to find the Slasher, who seemingly have attacked Anri, which turned out as a gang war between the Dollars and Yellow Scarves, which also dragged Celty and Shizuo along... see when I said that the story is complex?

That end had a nice buildup. I usually hate plot with misunderstandings, however this was... well, something different. And the end tied the loose ends. I'll leave you to watch.

What else to comment on. The art style is just normal, nothing like Hai to Gensou no Grimgar. However, it is quite nicely animated. Especially the fights featuring Shizuo. That guy is awesome.

The audio. Voice: all well and great. Music: simple, playful, not teary. Reminds you of  music from old detective movies (probably). The openings, Uragiri no Yuuyake and Complication, strikes me as upbeat and fascinating, while the first closing, Trust Me, was one of only several closings to reach my playlists.

Durarara!!! Oh, what a lovely different show. It covers about everything from supernatural to drama to action, with a seriously complicated and interesting story arc. Also, the characters are all epic, memorable, and properly developed. Just, what more could you ask for from this first season. Now, I'll be watching the second, for this thing had gotten me hooked. But could this displace Shigatsu?

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Durarara!! is a light novel by Ryohgo Narita, then adapted into anime by Brain's Base Studios.

PS. Eightieth post!

Edit 28/1/16: Changed title, resized image, added info to first and last paragraphs.

Akame ga Kill! - My Thoughts

Ah well, perhaps I'll be doing reviews on some of my most recently watched shows. I finished Akame ga Kill in about five days--just finished it today, in fact. So, like Noaragami, I'll be doing an overview. This is quite an older show (If one-plus years is old) so I won't really hold back on spoiling. And perhaps, this shall be a rant: maybe no structure whatsoever but to vent my thoughts.

Akame ga Kill started off quite nicely. Tatsumi is quite a nice character. However, we didn't get a good explanation of how he became better than the others. About the story. It was fine at the start, but goes on quite wildly to kill random, seemingly important characters who could perhaps be fleshed out better.

About the characters. Major spoilers ahead.

The first assassin group. Taken from the first opening.

Akame, perhaps the only one who Tatsumi won't defeat anytime soon. However, I didn't get why Akame betrayed her old assassin squad. The Capital should've completely mindwashed all of their subjects, have they not? Her sister, Kurome, should've been better as the Capital assassin. Perhaps that was why she wanted to kill Akame so badly.

Yeah, Akame looks cute and has great swordsmanship, I need to give that to the producers. However, for a show who has her name in its title, her character seems not completely fleshed out by the end of the show. Tatsumi got all the story. Well, that makes Akame ga Kill memorable: the main character who's a deuteragonist (that is, the second most important person in the story).

When I first watched the show, never expected it to become like Game of Thrones, with the gore and the major character deaths. Unpredictable, I quite like that. Shame, that unpredicableness wears off when you know that everyone shall die but Akame. Every single Night Raid member. Cool members, with at the very least enough story to make each death an emotional one, at the very least.

To recap: Sheele's death became the first stunning death, but that became quite the driving force for Mine. Bulat's was the only way of giving Incursio to Tatsumi (But must he use Incursio?).

Then they are replaced by Chelsea, who died usefully, weakening Kurome, and Susanoo, who fought bravely. Then, about Mine: that was just sad, not able to die beside her loved one. But why do we need to have this funny love triangle going on, again? Finally, Leone's death was quite sad, but not after epicly crushing the Minister's head.

But a lousy way to die for Tatsumi. He didn't even had the most memorable of final moments, passing away after  With a woman that loves him but doesn't love back: General Esdeath. I've no idea about love. An alien concept, at least for now. I have no idea where that love started for Esdeath. Fascinating conflict, though.

Oh yeah, Boss survived.

Now. The Jaegers could have been used much better to be the villains we also hate to die. And they succeeded, to a point. I just feel that they could be used better, at least waver upon realizing what the Empire has done.

Waver... reminds me of Wave. Did he die?

So, overall, decent characters. Just...decent. Most, if not all, of them, are perhaps too shallow, too one-sided. There should be more interesting conflict if they are better sculpted. Well, they're already experts in writing, aren't they? I shouldn't blame them too much.

More about the story, then. It ended quite abruptly. Why did they opt for the huge-mecha-villain end? Perhaps, out of ideas. I don't know, the story could have been better, tying up the loose ends more neatly. At the end, this is another story of  'tyranny will fall'.

The scenes, then. The fights were quite nicely animated, unlike the more recent Owari no Seraph (I also watched that, however I've nothing much to say about that yet). Quite tense, perhaps dumb moves here and there. Still doesn't rival Fate/stay night UBW. Oh, and interesting that they showed much gore. One more good thing is, the jokes and funny expressions didn't ruin the important scenes. Had quite a good laugh.

Music, didn't really made me pay much attention. The first opening was quite nice, though. The only distracting thing is the stupid blaster sound, much like in Star Wars Battlefront, used whenever someone punches, or stabs, or whenever. Just... distracting.

So, to close up: Akame ga Kill has one-sided characters who die off in the author's attempt to replicate Game of Thrones (perhaps). Quite nice scenes, overall. Story ends abruptly, only to convey that tyrants will fall. Perhaps a good show if you want some gore or don't have anything left to watch. Story's quite amusing when you're already watching it, though. My friends' comments were right, after all--this post should sum them up. The manga might be better.

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Akame ga Kill! is originally a manga by Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro, adapted into anime by White Fox Studio and produced by Square Enix.

Edit 14/1/16: Added image.

Noragami - My Thoughts

I didn't really know why I went for Noragami. Heard several friends refer to it, but none specifically recommended it. Well, I've read almost all of Rick Riordan's books about mythology, so I figured Noragami was worth a shot. My following thoughts may contain minor spoilers or otherwise predictable plot.

In the end, I didn't watch it for the myth and knowledge. I shall confirm, about everything was way more off than Riordan's goofy gods. For one, Bishamon, or Vaisravana, should have been male. Oh, Japan. I thought Kirito in Phantom Bullet Arc was enough. Clearly I am too new to these stuff.

I don't mind some humor. Some, not excessive. The first season was quite nearly excessive to my taste, but Yato does seem very natural. The others are some quite well-fleshed out characters, too. Especially Yukine. I usually score stuff by relatability first, story second, unless the story is incredibly epic (read: Star Wars). Well, sometimes I do feel lonely like Yukine.

Oh yeah, cats. Why must Hiyori's tail be a cat's?

Story. We got to see a feud between gods, then Yukine straightened up in the first half, and after that, a god of calamity. Shame we didn't get to see too much of Rabou.

Now, the second season, Aragoto, was quite exciting. And it did get quite serious, then very emotional. Well, still some laughs.

Just as I like it.

That feud escalated pretty quickly and became quite interesting. And then there is the devious scheming part, which I do really like.

And another plus: On both seasons, the fight scenes were quite nicely executed. Also epic phantom executions by Yato and Sekki. Well, I say that because perhaps once I get sucked in the story and action I tend to forget the details.

So, that show was indeed extremely interesting. Do check it out if you are into the aforementioned kinds of story and other stuff. Now, very well then, I'll be preparing something now.

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Noragami is a manga owned by its maker, Adachitoka, and published by Kodansha, then adapted to anime by studio Bones.