Forum - View topicREVIEW: Durarara!! Part 1
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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I really can't wait to get my hands on this one. I loved Baccano and this release sounds gorgeous!
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ayashe
 Posts: 122 |
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The emphasis on character and the first 9 episodes of Durarara is the best part of this series. Once they do get things going in the second half it goes downhill fast.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2272 Location: Online Terminal |
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Vampire Leonelli in Heat Guy J, a teenage mob boss who like stuffing grenades in people's orifices. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Also spoiler[Adachi] in Persona 4. "Bitches n' whores!!" |
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chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 620 Location: USA |
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I don't find the price to be too high myself. VIZ' release of NANA and Honey and Clover only had 11 episodes per set and had ZERO extras. Not even some music videos for NANA 
But I agree with you. I'm not that big a fan of the show but saw the great dub, great packaging, decent extras and great picture on a rental and feel that it's a quality product. edit: And this is a silly complaint but the closer Trust Me is very far from 'rap themed.' 
Last edited by chrisb on Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:32 am; edited 1 time in total |
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redranger
 Posts: 271 |
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I though Bacanno was garbage. Couldn't get past episode 6 or so. Durarara isn't too similar is it?
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Takeyo
 Posts: 736 |
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Decide for yourself. It's told linearly, if that helps.
This statement seems to apply to the dub script. How are the subtitles in terms of localization? Also, was, "hakobiya," actually translated as, "transporter?" Seems like, "courier," would have been the way to go. |
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aizensama666
 Posts: 22 Location: Scranton(What?)The Electric City |
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They used both. If I remember correctly, Shinra called her a Courier while Izaya called her a Transporter. Anyway, I love this dub. Everyone is cast so perfectly and I love hearing JYB as a bad guy. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I don't much care for Baccano!. Although it looks and sounds nice, it simply was not enjoyable and I had to slog through it. Any Anime that is a chore to watch - let alone finish - is going to suffer greatly in my view. To be more specific, the characters are largely unlikeable, and beyond that, not much fun either. How so many people can enjoy watching a violent thug like Ladd or a serial murderer such as the Rail Tracer baffles me, especially when some of the same people decry other characters in other Anime that aren't nearly as brutal. Jacuzzi was too whiny - and this coming from a guy is who is a Shinji Ikari apologist and defender - and no other character really grabbed me. Too many characters can be a bad thing, because characters are the link between the show and the audience. I wasn't interested in what was going on in any way, because there was no character I liked or enjoyed watching. As for Isaac and Miria, I was lucky not to have nightmares about them, they were horrible. The non-chronological story was just a gimmick to make an otherwise straightforward plot seem really byzantine. Seriously, apart from generating buzz, I didn't think it worked in Haruhi and it certainly didn't work here. Sure, it was confusing at first, but when you unravel everything out you see that this was a straightforward tale that didn't need - and wasn't suited to - such a style of presentation in the first place.
Put simply, what Durarara!! did right was fix the things that Baccano! did wrong. Okay, so it did have some problems. I was disappointed with how the ending didn't wrap up spoiler[the overarching and very important plot regarding Celty's head,] and many of the wider ensemble cast barely got cameos in the second half. The climax of the entire show was in episode spoiler[eleven, leaving the entire second half to pale in comparison.] However, the story is linear but fairly well constructed, there is a core cast of surprisingly sympathetic characters that - apart from Anri - were all likeable and/or enjoyable (even if you just loved to hate them, i.e. Izaya), and it was an enjoyable ride. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Exactly, if a cookie-cutter linear story where practically everything is given away in narration is what a person wants to see, then they should definitely give Durarara!! a shot.
It should also be mentioned that Durarara!! practically turned off the violence/blood after Baccano! Heck, spoiler[the only death in the series ends up getting retconned]. So if all that icky blood in Baccano! didn't sit well in your stomache, then again, Durarara!! was just made for ya. |
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swienke
 Posts: 245 |
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...I honestly can't tell whether you're praising the show or bashing it. Alas, the internet makes tone so ridiculously hard to determine.
Anyway, I honestly loved this show, and consider it one of my top ten anime, period. It may seem a little disjointed to some people in the beginning, but the characters are the most delightful cast of screwballs I have ever seen, bar none. They could honestly make an episode of the cast doing nothing but sitting around telling poop jokes and I'd still love it with a fiery passion, because the characters are just that good. It's just too bad that this set doesn't include episode 10, since that's really the big "Holy Shit!" revelation of the series and it would've made the perfect end for the set. Gaaahhhhh, now I feel the need to go and rewatch episode 10 on Crunchyroll again (and I've already watched it at least 4 times). |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
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Well to be fair, spoiler[in the actual anime (not sure about the novels), the only people we see Ladd kill are gansters/criminals and cultists who are willing to kill innocent people for a selfish goal. Not that that justifies it necessarily, but it's easy to see why he doesn't actually do much of anything to conjure up hateful feelings during the series. Claire/Rail Tracer is the same way, but he actually goes after those people specifically, there's no suggestion he would ever target innocent people. Remember, he only went after Czes after Claire overheard him encourage Ladd to kill all the people in the train plus saw him regenerate. Ladd is a villain but it's more implied if anything (as the saying goes, "show, don't tell"), and Claire is a straight-up anti-hero. So why we would enjoy watching these characters in the anime shouldn't be baffling at all. Now if they actually did start killing off sympathetic and/or innocent people, that would be a different story. That's why Dallas gets more hate from the fanbase, he is verbally abusive to his sister occasionally, beats up an old man for no good reason and tries to steal from him and then later "kills" him JUST TO GET SOME BOOZE, beats up Issac (Miria got off easy, but who knows what they might have done if Ennis hadn't shown up) once again for no good reason, and he "kills" Firo and the 3 Gandor brothers simply because he got embarrassed about getting his ass kicked. In terms of what we SEE in the anime, Ladd and Claire are saints compared to this guy. Obviously Szilard is a complete villain, I don't think anyone disagrees with that.] |
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Sanosuke_Inara
 Posts: 1662 |
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Honestly, what I've seen of Durarara!! hasn't impressed me much at all, and I don't plan on picking up Part 1. Which is a shame, considering how amazing Baccano! was. I picked the latter up for a steal at an amazon sale last summer($20) and watched the whole damn thing the same damn, it easily becoming one my favorites.
Baccano! didn't have any blaring flaws, and tbh, one of its greatest strengths--right alongside the method of storytelling--was its characters, who, for the most part, were a total blast. It's the intricacy of the plot and the way that it rarely stops for a breather that makes it so god damn exciting, as well as the way in which all the threads of each of the different characters are woven together. Durarara!!, on the other hand, has sorely disappointed me. Beside a few exceptions(Masaomi, Celty, Izaya, and Shizuo) I haven't found myself even remotely interested in any of the characters. The show seems to be taking a helluva lot of time to get anywhere, and if I don't give a damn about most of the characters, then there's not much left for me. And after Baccano!, I go in expecting something of a thrill ride, but the slow moving linearity of DRRR!! hasn't cut it for me. It really just can't compare with Baccano!. Somewhere down the line(when the price has lowered) I may pick it up and see if it gets better, but I've actually heard that the 2nd half of the series is far weaker than the 1st, so my hopes aren't very high. Last edited by Sanosuke_Inara on Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Personally, I wasn't hoping for some kind of dumb-downed Baccano! so I was pretty let down by DRRR!! But I can understand that the people who don't like a lot of blood or don't like disjointed stories would like DRRR!! moreso than Baccano! |
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swienke
Posts: 245 |
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Durarara may not be as gory, bombastic, and flashy as Baccano, but I certainly wouldn't call it "dumbed-down." I honestly think that it's a better show than Baccano: its characters are more fleshed out, more relatable, and their relationships with each other are more complex, interesting, and, frankly, mature. It also has a much more defined sense of place, to the point where the setting is almost as much of a character as the actual people (which I think is really interesting and unusual). Baccano certainly had a more complex and twisty plot (which, don't get me wrong, I loved), but I think it unfortunately sacrificed much of its character development in order to achieve that. I liked the characters in Baccano, but I absolutely adored the characters in Durarara, and that's a big difference for me. With Durarara, I still find myself thinking about the characters, trying to puzzle out their motivations and interactions, the forces that shaped them, what they might do in the future, and how they fit in with the themes that the show presented. I don't do that with Baccano: although I had a lot of fun watching the series, it didn't really grip me or actually challenge me. In short, while Baccano is (arguably) the better piece of pure entertainment, Durarara works better as a piece of art. |
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