Durarara!!

Title: Durarara!! Genre: Action, Supernatural Rating: 9.2/10

Summary: Ryuugamine Mikado is a boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city. At the invitation of his childhood friend Masaomi, he transfers to a school in Ikebukuro. Masaomi has warned him about people he doesn't want to cross in the city: a champion fighter, an informant, and a mysterious gang called "Dollars." Nervous from Masaomi's stories, Mikado witnesses an urban legend on his first day in the city, the Headless Rider astride a black motorcycle. From then on, the existence of supernatural cases and a gang called the Yellow Turbans will rise to the surface, and Ikebukuro will pushed to the breaking point.

Review: Yes, the moment has come when the animes of the previous two seasons come to a close. Oh how I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. As some of you remember, I gave Durarara!! a first look back in January. Quite a long time ago. When I first started watching Durarara!! I tacked it as a slightly above average anime. It showed no signs of anything beyond other animes out at the time. Oh how very wrong I was. Durarara!! has entered my top five favorite anime of all time. The unique art style, story, characters, and twists brought a new shine to the anime community. Let’s begin with one of the first things that caught my attention: the art work. Durarara!!‘s author and illustrator actually took the time to draw real places found in Ikebukuro into Durarara!!. This was the most fascinating things about the anime, and I didn’t even realize until half way through the series when I happened to stumble upon a Youtube video showing the different areas. The time and effort it took the illustrator to draw an animated version of Ikebukuro  is admirable. The lighting effects, action scenes, and scenery were astonishing. Before watching some of the most crucial episodes, I thought that the gray filled people walking the streets was simply to help the main characters stand out.  Another wrong assumption on my part. Not only was it a brilliant tactic to center focus on the different characters, but it also played a huge role in later episodes. I don’t want to dive in too deep as to avoid spoiling the anime to those who haven’t watched it. Which brings us to the next topic: storyline. The storyline was filled with twists and turns that caught me more off guard than most mystery animes I have seen. What really made Durarara!! special was how the twists were presented. Every little etched detail led to a much bigger picture. What feels like three separate stories turns into one huge plot. Again, I don’t wish to give too much away, but let me tell you that not everyone or everything is what it seems. To avoid making this review too long, let’s move onto the final subject of soundtrack. The soundtrack for Durarara!! was another outstanding feature that the producer was not afraid to use. All major scenes had perfect fitting background music. They ranged from chill and calm, to rough and rockin’. Not every song caught my attention, and I don’t plan to buy the OST. However, that isn’t too say it doesn’t deserve an applause. They did a superb job in bringing out the best of every scene.

Final statements: It is easy to tell that I consider this anime a must see. I enjoyed it from episode one to twenty-four. I felt the ending could have been a little better (seemed slightly anti-climactic compared to the rest of the anime), but it wasn’t bad in the least. Durarara!! is one of my top five favorite anime of all time, and very well deserving of that achievement. So please, for all you new and old anime fans out there, check this out for your sake. You wont regret it.