「薄氷を踏む」 (Hakuhyou wo Fumu)
“Walking on Thin Ice”
「以心伝心」 (Ishindenshin)
“Telepathy”
As we’re reaching the end of Durarara!!, I can’t help but think that their ending is lacking that impact at the moment. Some characters are slowly reaching their end, while others are just waiting for something to happen. When I first started these posts, I created them in this format in order to properly align all the different subplots going on. As we approach the finale, I find that the episodes are getting easier to follow so there’s fewer and fewer points to make. Regardless, I’ll continue to blog this way until the end to keep things consistent.
There are a lot of floating pieces going around and the story seems to be tying the easier side stories than the main ones. Examples include the Dollars chatroom which sums up the loose ends from Izaya’s sisters. The bombs dropped by Namie pretty much closed that loop. Akabayashi also got some screen time and I think this signals the end of the Colored Gangs’ involvement too.
The biggest plot driver that I’ve been personally looking forward to is the blowout between Shizuo and Izaya. Last week I actually thought Shizuo was going to die and there he is! Saved by none other than Celty! We never actually get to see her, but just the fact that she saved Shizuo’s life has to mean something. An unconscious part of her probably still recognizes all the things he has done for her. Izaya fumbles his way out but I don’t doubt that Shizuo will find him soon and finish him off – whether or not that means death is up for debate…I just can’t imagine any of the key characters actually dying. One of the cuts that I actually like in the show are how the flashbacks are brought in. It’s funny how Shinra is the root cause of all their tension since he’s the one that brought them together.
Kyohei and crew sitting in the van is not anything new. They’re on their way to save Erika from the Saika horde (even though she’s managed very well on her own so far). Airi is sitting in their van and ready to make a move as their “mother” so hopefully she’ll stand a chance against Takashi.
However! Takashi’s attention is all on Aoba and crew as they’re out in the middle ready to gangbang Chikage. I know I said this gets less complicated and I swear it probably will, but there’s a lot of oppositions hovering around Russia Sushi right now. Chikage is going to confront the Blue Squares to buy Masaomi some time… Aoba is there to distract Chikage while Mikado is confronting Masaomi and Takashi is there trying to slash as many people as possible to join his army. I’m actually still unclear what his motive is… bad guys be bad? I didn’t see him as someone that had evil intentions before so perhaps it’s the Saika powers going to his head and his need to “love everyone”.
Mikado finally reveals everything to Masaomi and guess what? He actually admits to being the leader of the Dollars! Congrats buddy – no surprise to anyone in the audience or Masaomi I’m sure. I really can’t read Mikado at all and it scares me what he’s thinking on the inside. When Masaomi says that he can be 1 or 3 people and names Mikado’s name 3 times… it’s like he’s already implying that Mikado is 3 different people inside one body. That’s what you call multiple-personality disorder (MPD) and it’s an illness. The episode reminds us that Mikado is still holding “a gift” from Ran but I just can’t imagine him shooting anyone either… like how I can’t imagine anyone actually dying.
Shinra regains his consciousness somewhat… and he stumbles around to find Celty. I appropriate his love for her as he realizes that she might have already forgotten all about him by now. Still, their relationship is amicable and I wish Shinra all the best as he tries to reconcile with her. I really do hope she regains her memory, even if it’s just the feeling and not the full picture.
This pretty much sums up my impressions of the past 2 episodes. I’m kind of glad that episode 9 was relatively slower because episode 10 was a lot more discussion worthy. I will definitely do my best to post the remainder of the month on time. Do I think anyone’s actually going to die? I honestly don’t think so… Durarara!! isn’t going to kill off characters to make an impact. Severely hurting someone though? I hope so. Izaya and Takashi come to mind but I can’t predict where they’ll end up. If Izaya is still roaming the city by the end of the series, I don’t see much of an improvement for Ikebukuro.
Author’s Note: No words can describe just how bad I feel about the late posts these past few weeks =( I’m so sorry to the readers and I hope I can make it up to you in the following month (for our finales). Just a quick explanation on my absence, I’ve been moving across the country! Getting a new house, new job, new car and all that lovely stuff so again, I’m terribly sorry if I don’t have the time to respond to everyone – I’ll be more on the ball next month. Plus the season preview which is a killer!
Preview
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The art is really bad. especially that shot of Shizuo’s face.
Durarara season 1 was great. The trilogy suffers poor animation in general. I mean animation is what makes anime, well, anime. This trilogy feels more like a really long drama CD rather than an actual anime. I never read the novels, but even I could tell it’s poorly adapted in retelling this tale.
If you’ve never read the novels, then how could you possibly know whether this adaptation is good, bad, or indifferent?
i’ve read the novel, at least parts of 12 (it was never properly translated to english in full), and all of 13, which this is being adapted from, and the anime feels very rushed compared to the novel. though the novel is rushed in its own regard, this anime feels like it is cutting even more corners. not to mention how shoddy the animation looks. this should’ve been longer than twelve episodes, but it’s clear how limited Shuka’s resources are, so if they’d adapted it longer the animation would’ve been even more abominable.
although i’m particularly mad that they’re giving Nasujima even less time in story than he was given in the novel, which wasn’t much to begin with. there’s very little explanation in the novel for him returning and his motive, but even less is given here. Ughhh. As someone who actually likes him…
yeah, that exists…well the thing is, people have to consider how that durarara anime is even going to finish the whole thing. not many series goes the extra line to reach the ending, much less add more seasons. the only rushed thing I could agree with is on ten where I believe they fit in 4 volumes as opposed to the usual 3, which was to make space for all 13 volumes to be animated.
with the exception of some series, generally sequels/continuations gather less profit compared to the initial one, especially if they take a long time to make. some people lose interest or find another one interesting that they dont continue it when its back, some who already watched the first season didnt find it impressive enough that they’d continue, and then there’s a lot of casual anime viewers that dont have the time/want to bother catching up.
durarara anime is on a viscous cycle already. 1st season was done extremely well because of a lot of backing that it was even a two cour. then there’s the continuation years later with only 1 cour that also has to take a break. they make much less profit, profit that would go on to make the next continuation. repeat this again and its not surprising how it gets “worse” for some people.
not really, its nearly impossible for an anime adaptation to give justice to its LN. there will be key parts that you really cant replicate, or rather, hardly anything beats the own readers imagination of how the scenes go.
durarara’s doing the best it can really. besides some filler in S1… that kind eventually became canon/integrated by the author anyways, the adaptation is pretty much completely accurate without leaving out any details. compared to a lot of other anime adaptations, the durarara anime is the most accurate.
the problem really is just that its been so long since durarara first aired that the hype has gone down. the breaks were necessary for the studio, but as a result, it also has broken up the flow of the story. if you watch durarara in one sitting, its pretty good actually.
can’t wait to see how 3 confrontations to end:
Shizuo vs Izaya
Mikado vs Masaomi
Airi vs… idk, is it more vs mad teacher or Saika as entity itself?
When you get caught up, you’ll see that not only can Mikado shoot someone, he can do all sorts of “yup, that boy’s out of his mind” sorts of other things too. It’s a little hard to see how he can be saved without some serious plot armor at this point.