Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1034 |
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Just a reminder to everyone -- the first book is out today from Yen Press. I know Theron and Rebecca normally handle the light novel reviews, but I think it'd be cool to get Hope's take on it.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yeah, I was thinking about that! I'll definitely read it if nothing else, wouldn't mind reviewing it but it's true that light novels aren't usually my ballpark, so we'll see. |
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_Cyphon_
 Posts: 996 |
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This was a pretty good start to get back into Drrr!! Ep. 1 was about Izaya, ep. 2 about Namie and Mika, ep. 3 about Akabayashi. My perceptions on Izaya, Namie, and Mika stayed the same (crazy as f*ck), but episode 3 made me see Akabayashi in a new light. I was pretty surprised when he confessed to Anri's mom. Now if only the production quality was better.
And also, didn't Akabayashi show his eye at the beginning of the episode? Eye surgery I surmise? |
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Random 21
 Posts: 198 Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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Episode 4: A-
Holy crap, Durarara's good again! Now that I've finally come to accept this again, next episode is probably going to go back to bluh again. It seems like next episode will finally take us back to the arc stuff, so we'll see how it's handled. This episode was really good though, helped by the fact that Shizuo is my favorite character. The episode also had a lot of cool Varona and Akane, an I'm really digging Varona especially. Tom and the Orihara twins had a lot of cool scenes as well, so that was fun. The Daily Life arc was a really good reminder for me of exactly why Durarara is my favorite anime. The dynamic it has of a ton of different stories playing out in the same time span, interlinking and affecting each other is really cool to me. Those moments in the first season combined with all the dollars stuff is what sold me on the series so much. I mean, it's not like season 2 didn't try, it's just the bad direction made it so dull I didn't really care about those moments. But yeah, please keep this up Durarara. There's still time to right Shou's wrongs. |
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 471 |
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Well, then I guess I'm the "ying" of the audience. This was an episode that had a lot of Shizuo relaxed and interacting with other characters... and I didn't give a shit about anything. That's the point when I found out my Durarara "flame" is totally off. Even in the previous season I tried my best to have it as on as possible (and probably the reason why it's so low now), but now... no, I can't say I'm interested anymore in what is going on or the characters. No, not even the two previous ones worked with me either.
The season is directed "a little" better than the previous one, at least in structure (but know that I know it is because of the source material, this will probably go down again when the bigger plot happens again), but in the setup of the scenes is still pasionless and bland as hell: The animation is so bad and limited that the characters remain not only super static, but also in the same basic boring postures they have even when they're talking, especially with these designs that feel like they don't have any volume to them. The cinematography doesn't help either, it's as equally liveless in the shots they show to represent the dialogues. The pacing is still a big problem where everyone just spit out their lines without pauses or attention and the music feel like it's just pasted out. Also, the music is another problem: Either we have the same repetitive old OST themes (which are good themes, but they're so overused they are distracting), or new OST themes that are so lazy they're just a small bunch of sounds to represent the mood they want and that's it, no more effort or atmosphere at all. And that's the biggest gripe. But to be fair, I'll also blame a little to the content, each time I grow more and more tired of this kind of written dialogue and monologues, but the good direction of the first season still pulls it off well even when I rewatch it; however here it's more painful and exhausting than anything. The story also has so many subplots and relations between characters badly established ultimately (the second Izaya's sisters interacted with Akabayashi I suddenly realized "okay, I just don't care anymore who knows who, it's all a mess") that I stopped seeing them as exciting and complex, just a bunch of chaotic colors thrown into a picture without any thought. I guess if other people can still be on board with the show, cool I guess, but while I'll still be watching, just out of curiosity, can't really bring myself to be invested on it anymore, sadly. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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Well, any Shizuo episode is a good episode to me, and this one was perhaps the easiest for me to follow of any episode in the franchise.
 And Akane's expression after she successfully zapped the guy was just priceless.
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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Best episode of the season so far, I really enjoyed it. Simple (comparatively), sweet, dramatic and just funny enough. Also, more Shizuo is always better than less, and Akane continues to be adorable.
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_Cyphon_
Posts: 996 |
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I really liked this episode. The art was fantastic and animation was good. Shipping Varona + Shizuo right now (sorry Akane).
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Theozilla
 Posts: 135 Location: Oakland, California |
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Seems like Book 7's Daily Life arc ended with this episode. Varona and Shizuo's relationship seems likely to really develop into a very nice vaguely ambiguous platonic/romantic relationship in the future.
These past 4 four episodes have been really great character study-focus episodes. Next episode seems to be the start of Book 8's Adabashi arc. Perhaps the character buildup of the first four episodes will help with the next 2 arcs more plot heavy stories. |
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KutovoiAnton
 Posts: 942 Location: Vladimir, Russia |
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It's "Vorona",not "Varona", BTW. Subbers messed up in the previous season and still didn't fix it in this one. Same with "Sloan", who should be "Slon".
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Random 21
Posts: 198 Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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Episode 5: B+
Really enjoyed this episode too, a good start to the new arc. It did a good job at introducing the main characters on the arc, an I'm pretty interested so far in where they're going to take it. Most importantly, it looks like this arc is going to have a lot of focus on just how far gone Mikado is at this point, and considering he's gone from one of the worst characters to one of the best, I can't wait. Whenever you see him smile, it's always accompanied by this sense of unease, which I really enjoyed. Also looking forward to seeing some more Izaya junior, Aoba. Really enjoying his character, in the "I want to kill this asshole" sense like with Izaya spoiler[And it seems as though Shinra agrees too!  ]
Only thing I'm hesitant about is more of Shizuo's brother and Ruri, who are honestly my least favorite characters this side of Masaomi. Maybe Ruri will get some development in what seems to be another backstory episode next week, but we'll see. Overall, great start, now keep it that way. |
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_Cyphon_
Posts: 996 |
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Stalkers, huh. Can never avoid those in the idol industry. Good episode, starting to see Mikado take action on rogue Dollars members. Although I know it's probably going to end badly, I'm actually rooting for him to reform the Dollars. Does he not have the ability to kick out members with his administrator powers? Having to unsubscribe from the member's phone is a lot more work, especially if you can't find that person. I think I'm one of the few that actually like Ruri and Kasuka, so happy they're getting more screen time.
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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Well if he does that then it officially becomes "the admin kicking people off the Dollars" What he's trying to do is have a group of Dollars moderate the rest, so the horizontal hierarchy isn't lost |
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_Cyphon_
Posts: 996 |
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Makes sense. That was touched upon first cour now that I think about it. |
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Lovely
 Posts: 116 Location: Florida |
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The email address Celty gives Aoba (and that Aoba wanted) is her own.
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