Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Durarara!!×2
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_Cyphon_
 Posts: 996 |
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Stop feeding the troll, guys. I find that the best way is to write curt responses for them and make them feel like they have no worth and aren't worth the time.
Wow, I can't believe there's only one episode left now. Come on, Mikado, you can do it. spoiler[Come over to the dark side]. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5420 Location: Iscandar |
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I agree that subjectivity is part of reviewing, but you seem to be forgetting about objectivity. I believe that it is possible to measure the quality of an anime in objective ways. For example, you can judge the writing quality by looking at how much things make sense, looking at the pace, the way in which events progress. Animation and art should be easier to measure by observing how ugly, pretty, crocked, blurry, etc. it look. Your comment on ANN reviews seem to imply that harsh critics refuse to give praise to worthy stuff because they feel like it. Conversely soft critics are more willing to give praise to stuff that might not deserve it. I think that subjectivity is present in all of us, but we should be able to overcome personal bias and be capable of grading something using objective standards. I am not a professional reviewer, but I have come across well done anime, like Genshiken Second Generation, that I have not enjoyed enough to buy and rewatch them. I have also watched inconsistent and mediocre-written anime like Valvrave, but I liked it enough and bought it. TL;DR: I can like or dislike an anime but still recognize if it is of high or low quality. I refuse to grade an anime solely on how much I like or dislike it. I can put my bias aside and also grade it in an objective manner. |
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Videogamep
 Posts: 564 Location: CA |
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I disagree. Animation and art are easier to judge but still subjective. Art critics disagree about things all the time. As for flaws in the writing, those are generally considered flaws because they decrease our enjoyment of the anime. Whether something affects our enjoyment of an anime is very subjective. For example, I've heard people criticize FMA:B for splitting the focus between so many characters when that's one of the reasons I like it so much. There's also some subjectivity about whether something makes sense. That can just vary with the watcher. Music's the same way; I've heard some criticism of the Samurai Champloo soundtrack from people who don't like hip hop, but other people like it for exactly that reason. Interpretations of writing can vary hugely depending on the viewer. |
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Aaronrules380
Posts: 121 |
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I'll agree the direction on this episode wans't good. Having read the source material, it was pretty underwhelming compared to my expectations. Hopefully they'll do a good job with one really major event that I think should fall around the end of the next episode based on the preview and my memory
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Ambimunch
 Posts: 2012 |
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There is nothing wrong with season 2, it's just as good as season 1 and I greatly enjoy every episode. The community is spoiled and I don't know what the hell they expect to make them happy? Not every show is fate/zero people..
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11331 |
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Could someone please explain the joke to me (aside from her not being able to chant out loud)? What was all that about throughout the episode anyway? Why were they chanting? Why were they all grey claybots? That all went right over my head. |
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Videogamep
Posts: 564 Location: CA |
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The characters were all grey like that because that's how all background characters in DRRR look. The game they were playing is one where they were supposed to get to the other side without breathing. The chant was to show that they weren't. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11331 |
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Ok...so what was the point of its incorporation throughout the episode?
I mean, I know the gray thing is their way of dealing with background non-characters, but since they kept coming back to their game, they no longer felt like background to me, so making them gray didn't seem normal. I dunno, it was just distracting and confusing and as far as I can tell had no purpose at all, other than to distract and confuse me. :/ |
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Theozilla
 Posts: 135 Location: Oakland, California |
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Hmm, while I agree the direction in this episode (and this cour in general) was lacking to the detriment of its quality, for me it didn't detract nearly as much as it seems to have done for Hope and others. I personally found this episode to be very enjoyable and would give it a B/B+ grade.
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 471 |
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Episode 12.
spoiler[First off, the climax, which was... another damn anticlimax that Durarara loves to do in all their freaking arcs, but while the others dealt with it with the good direction of the first season and the lack of seriousness of the fourth arc this season (despite me hating the super fast annoying pacing), this one was liveless. The big fight ends very lightly with everything solved, and although Shizuo is still fun to watch and there was a creative fight with Varona, the pacing, music and 'impact' are so insipid that it was hard to be invested.] spoiler[Okay, that was directing-wise, but now I'm going to criticize the content, not from this episode but from this season as a whole. Most of this whole chaos was pointless:] spoiler[-Shizuo. What this lead on to is now he's more related with Akane and has attracted Varona's attention. His misunderstanding and being persecuted never paid off and it was only because Akane's dad (in very confusing exposition) said he was the responsible of hiring someone to kill those three guys that were I guess spies or something and blamed Shizuo to disguise attention (which is kind of lame since there's no hint about it, not even his dialogue with his agents a few eps ago). So Izaya wasn't guilty of that, the whole Shizuo thing was pure coincidence. The Akane thing was either made by Izaya (who knows all about what Shizuo was going through) or someone else (Akane's backstory hides the Izaya with different hair so it could be other one, but who? Yodogiri not likely since they saw Shizuo's interferience the only wrong part of these events, and we don't know what they could have gained from that). SO CONFUSING yet at the same time it feels so vanal and contrived for nothing.] spoiler[-Celty. Only there to show Varona the dangers of the city, in all the rest of events she could be out and things would be simpler.] spoiler[-Kida. We saw a lot of scenes with him learning about his current state and growing some confidence to talk with Mikado, and what does he do? NOTHING, he walks off in a scene of three seconds and that's it. If you show him so much at least give him a proper payoff, even if he commits the same decision at least try to care about him!] spoiler[-Rocchi and Aoba. Now, my problem is not really that they are here, but they should have been much MUCH more the focus to make this whole chaotic battle more meaningful instead of being so narrow, and for so many things they did it feels they had such little development that in previous arcs we should have had. Also, wasn't Aoba persecuting Celty's thread an episode ago? What happened with that?] spoiler[-Izaya. Fight to resurge Valhalla? No. Is he even trying to do that, or just fudge with the city and that's it? He always talks in keys of "the city returned to itself again" that looks like everything is pointless, but I don't know what he's up to. I "guess" this was to put Mikado on the edge, but did he do anything by his own? Aoba and the rest caused it and it looks like Akane and Awakusu's stuff were others, the only thing he did was talking with Mikado and texting him disguised of Kida to "don't get involved with dollars". Which is confusing by itself, if he wanted Mikado to go through this direction, wouldn't it be better if he didn't give that advise? He's in danger now but I don't even know what he did or how things are, or whether I should know or not.] spoiler[This conflict could have been much more simplified and engaging, because as it is I don't quite know what each group pretended with each thing, this is such a mess and except Mikado's struggle everything feels bland and narrow, but especially veeery confusing.] In fact, from what I was told from someone who read the novels there are some answers to many confusing things explicitely said at this point or before in the light novels but completely skipped here, like (SPOILER QUESTIONS (not the anwers) THAT ARE RESOLVED IN THE NOVELS OF THESE ARCS (not later, in the same books)) spoiler[why Awakusu persecutes Yodogiri, who hired Sloan and Varona to kidnap Anri, or who hired Akane's dad to kill those people in the agency]. So if this is true then this show was also reaaaally bad at giving information to the audience, hoping they can follow this whole mess. Baccano wasn't this confusing. spoiler[Well, enough criticisms. To say good things, Mikado's transition was the only pretty interesting thing, how despite the dollars thing he feels like he doesn't belong in the abnormality of the city and nobody recognizes it and yet it makes him feel totally empty having in mind how much he wants to escape from the ordinary, and that is driving him to these messed up directions. I kind of jumped when Mikado suddenly hit Aoba with the pen, and yet he's still in-character with kind of the shy innocence but with some growing monster inside him. Also, seeing Awakusu this strong even against Sloan and Varona promises cool things later, although this looks more like putting them out of the field so they don't cause more problems (Awakusu are not the bad guys so far after all). Izaya's sudden attack is also neat to see since Izaya usually is too much "just as planned". But knowing the direction this season had and how Durarara can be with anticlimaxs, I'm still on the guard.] So overall, spoiler[I guess I kind of liked this kind of alright-ish-ish but more because I like these characters and ideas, but as a whole this whole arc and season were a letdown, even Kida's arc in previous season felt more clear than this one, this felt just "randomly put together pieces advancing the plot", and I'd attribue to this 80% the reaaaally weak direction and 20% the needlessly convoluted content that aside of Mikado was very narrow and superficial, without depth, you feel it was just a bunch of "things happening". Very sad way to describe a show, isn't it? I just hope the producers wake up for the next season and put some effort and life, but it will be my last chance, if they don't then I'll probably drop the show and read the novels.] |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3652 |
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And spoiler[Yodogiri] was... who again? This has been my problem with the show. There's not enough real introduction to characters for me to tell apart the gangsters and similar folks, and I'm bad at such things in general.
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justsomeaccount
Posts: 471 |
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^ I think it's like this:
-spoiler[Yodogiri old man, who hired Sloan and Varona to kidnap Akane Awakusu. He ran away after the events on the first arc this season.] -spoiler[Yodogiri... young man? the one who just stabbed Izaya. He just appeared this episode.] -spoiler[Yodogiri Ruri, the idol, who now is far from them because they were persecuting her (despite being in the same company). I don't know if they are related by blood or she has that surname because they were in the same company or something.] |
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Random 21
 Posts: 198 Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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Episode 12: B+
Now admittedly this wasn't the best quality ever but I still really enjoyed this, there wasn't really a point I felt bored by anything this episodes. Sure as previously mentioned, a lot is left unexplained. but the major plot points I felt were handled in a good way this episode. My only major criticism is I didn't really feel spoiler[Mikado's breakdown at the end. I think this is down to the voice actor not really selling the whole "feel the wrath of my anger" thing. I would've liked to hear him be a lot more serious then, it would've made his return to being jovial a lot more jarring and creepy] Other than that, I really didn't mind this episode. Here's to a second cour which hopefully helps them get back into the swing of things. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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He was the guy who ran the talent agency in charge of Ruri, he appeared briefly in that arc. We also saw him talk to Varona and Sloan and give them the picture of Akane. I was confused about what actually happened with the murders Shizuo was framed for though. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1388 |
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If I got the middle scenes right, I think the Awakusu (Akane's family) set up that scene themselves, using it as a chance to take out 3 of their undesirable members, and then planned to frame/incriminate the other family (lead by Yodogiri) so they'd have an upperhand in upcoming negotiations. Yodogiri presumably set up Akane's kidnapping for similar reasons. |
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