Durarara!! Season 1 [SUB] (2010) Review

 Durarara!! Season 1 [SUB] (2010) 7.5/10

Hey guys. I’m back with another anime review. Today, I’ll be reviewing season 1 of Durarara!! Durarara!! season 1 originally ran from January 8 - June 25, 2010 with two OVA episodes with the season clocking in at 26 episodes long. The series was produced by Brain’s Base and is considered a hidden classic of the early 2010’s. This was a very interesting series that was held back by its ever expanding cast of characters. Let’s begin as I have a lot to talk about.

Our story takes place in a small part of Tokyo named Ikebukuro. This city has a lot of characters that the show will focus on, but the MC seems to be Ryuugamine Mikado, a new transfer student to Ikebukuro and will be attending Raira Academy with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida. On his first day in Ikebukuro, Kida shows Mikado around, introducing him and the audience to a bunch of characters that will be involved with the show’s plot. Shizuo Heiwajima aka “The Strongest Man in Ikebukuro” who has a quick temper towards idiots; Izaya Orihara, an info broker and someone you don’t want to piss off; Kyouhei Kadota and his gang which consists of Erika, Walker, and Saburo; Simon, a black Japanese-Russian who works as a sushi chef; and probably the most important character, The Headless Rider, a Dullahan who is searching for her lost head. As the season continues, we will be introduced to even more characters (such as Anri Sonohara, Shinra Kishitani, and Namie Yagiri) and every single person will be connected to everyone else in one form or another. In this show, there’s gang warfare, sappy love stories, fantasy elements (Irish mythology, cursed blades, etc) and small Slice of Life elements, but everything leads up to the season’s climatic finale.

I love this show’s story, but after letting it sit for a little bit, I feel it was a bit lackluster. Let me explain. The way the story unfolds about the different gangs (The Dollars, Yellow Scarves, Blue Squares, and Saika) was very interesting and I loved the way this info was revealed to the viewer. I love how 90% of the cast will get thorough character development and even go through a character arc. My favorite characters are: Shizuo, Kida, Izaya, Celty (The Headless Rider), and Simon. Also, I was hoping the season would develop Erika and Walker a bit more. With that said, I feel like the season needed that extra push to be put into true greatness. Again, a very solid story that kept me on the edge of my seat with every episode, but it just needed that little push.

The show does have a lot of shock value to it. In the first(?) episode, a girl gets kidnapped, another character gets shot unexpectedly, you hear a character’s legs get broken, you see three other people get sliced up. This show gets brutal and barely holds back, which is great.

The show looks great. Visually, it’s very appealing. All of the characters look nice and distinguishable. But nothing to really write home about. I will say, I do like Celty’s whole design and how the show does her shadow powers.

The animation is somewhat fluid. You can tell that they saved their budget for certain scenes, especially for Celty’s scenes. There aren’t that many action scenes, but when action does happen, the show goes above and beyond for these moments. My favorite fights are Shizuo vs the Saika army and in the last episode with Shizuo vs Izaya.

The music for the show is easily one of its strongest aspects. Utilizing a wide array of instruments, the sound design  is top notch. They even use a bagpipe for certain tunes, which is a nice call to Celty’s homeland. The soundtrack is very unique, which is very appreciative. The OPs and EDs are awesome too. I enjoyed them all, but my favorite is OP 1 “Treacherous Sunset”. The beginning drum beat gets me hyped every time.

The voice acting is great too. I watched this in the original Japanese dub, and it’s pretty good. My favorite voices are Mamoru Miyano (Masaomi Kida), Kana Hanazawa (Anri Sonohara), Ayahi Takagaki (Erika), Miyuki Sawashiro (Celty), and Hiroshi Kamiya (Izaya). Everyone else was great but I found these voices to be the most entertaining.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this. I’m hoping season 2 makes this great show even better as it has a lot of potential to be in the masterpiece category. If you are looking for an anime with a large cast of characters and a more broad plot, then I highly recommend it. I’ll be touching season 2 some time in the future, but for now, I’ll be taking a small break from this.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.