This is Anime (Durarara So Far)
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I knew after I watched this Episode (Episode 2) of Durarara I had to blog about it. I knew it even more after the second time I watched it. I hadn’t really realized that the second season of Darker than Black had left me hungry and unsatisfied until I got a full helping of that story telling development in this episode. As Jason Miao said (who managed to get his post out before me [BLAST] and thus left me not wanting to write that much), I liked Baccano, but marathoning it wasn’t good for the series: “It’s a series that begs to be digested, thought of, and mulled over before the next episode.“ However, I must say you can definitely tell Durarara is the second series written by Narita. His development of the story has been refined and the adaptation in this second episode was fantastic (though I haven’t read the source material).
What I’ve really been missing is that sense of completeness: Hence the reason a lot of us Darker than Black fanboys/girls were crying so hard at the loss of the two episode arcs. They gave us a snapshot of Rio last time, but in this episode they developed her character showed us constant motifs of the dinner table, the pictures, and the cell phone as a way of reinforcing the problems present in her current life and finally culminated the entire thing with a speech and an attempt to end it all. The line “Because the world isn’t as cruel as you take it to be.” has been running through my head since I heard it. Why? The line isn’t particularly good, taken out of context it’s ok at best. But, when put to the feeling inherent with the melancholy piano and the incredible trip she had just been put through it was perfect. It was perhaps the most amazing thing anyone could have said to her at that time. What I liked even more is how they developed this into “And the girl wondered if she’d someday be able to tell someone those same words”.
What’s more they even developed the other characters while leaving us with a sense of completeness with regards to Rio. They showed us the complexity of a character wearing a helmet who can’t speak using words without expression. There’s another generalization about this show: The characterization is great. We start off with a feel for who characters are, but we slowly watch them develop and pull off their masks. There was a time (not too long ago) when I equated the wearing of a mask by a character with depth of character. Not any longer: These characters have something more. It’s the Dullahan’s subtle shake of her head as she sees a vending machine fly into the air; It’s getting a philosophical speech from a pompous ass who is trying to talk you into committing suicide. The thing is I can think of many reasons why he would do this, but I appreciate the anime leaving it a mystery, because it’s not something we have to know yet or ever. The characters are who they are long before we meet them and only if we’re lucky (or not so lucky depending) will we get to see what made them into who they are. From now on, whenever I talk about masters of character dialog and interaction I’m going to have to include Norita and Brain’s Base. I love how this show started Episode One with a really fuzzy picture of a place where a lot of things are going on. As we travel into the world it will become more vivid, clear, and beautiful.
Narration is so rarely used and whenever it is I normally feel it’s to ill effect (id est: They use it to explicate on something because they totally fail at showing it). In Durarara the narration is exactly what it should be: A unique perspective on the events they’re showing us and not necessarily plot summation. Sure she blatantly told us the point of the story, but she left a lot more purposefully out for us to watch and discover. I’m stoked, I hope we get more of it. I love how the narrator can just look right through the character’s masks.
Thank you Durarara!! for filling a hole that I didn’t even know I had. This is why I watch anime.
The OP and ED are great. Though the Durarara OP is in the same style as Baccano I have to say I like this song a lot more. It’s great with the timing and the opening shots of our Dullahan on her motorcyle. It leaves me wanting more, more, more. I also appreciated that it started and ended with the Dullahan after tangenting off onto the other characters. More about why in the stuff I have to say about the ED.
The ED enhances the feeling that all of our characters are connected by quite literally having them support and stand on each other. It also clearly shows us the shadows in a jagged line which to me is the most interesting part. It symbolized the Dullahan (the focus of our show) connecting all of the characters which is a large part of what this show is (She seems to have a power over shadows: Thus their connected shadows symbolizes…). She’s the connecting line that ties all of these stories together or she interacts with all the characters and thus brings them together. You can’t help but feel with the OP and ED that the animators really get it. They read this story and thought about its message enough to come up with great imagery to show the message in animated form. This is nothing less than art. Using something to create meaning.
The OP:
The ED:
This show is going to have a lot to comment on in the future so I’ll pardon myself for not really doing this episode justice. If there aren’t anymore great episodes I’m definitely coming back to this episode to give it the attention it deserves.
One more great episode like this though and Durarara’s status is going to change to Epic! (5 out of 5 stars).
If for some reason you still have reservations about watching this show (which is doubtful if you made your way through a tl;dr post like this) I’ll give it one final plug. I like it for many of the reasons I liked the original season of Darker than Black. Jason Miao wasn’t that fond of Darker than Black and when I say dislike I mean he dropped it when it was originally coming out. For some reason we both seem to like this show a lot (and apparently for different reasons). Thus, you should give it a go. Chances are you’ll like it. From the looks of my pole though most of you have already figured that out.
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11 Comments
Durarara is indeed an Anime to follow. The neko rider is cool. For someone who can’t talk, she sure can convey some deep meaning into what she types into that cellphone/pda of her’s.
You not doing this episode enough justice? You’re too modest. This is a great write-up! I’d be shocked if no one picks up this show after they’ve read everything in this review.
Durarara!! is quickly turning into one of my top favorites of this season. I absolutely love the way they weave each separate story element together to tell a potentially compelling tale. The characters are interesting, the detached stories told in different perspectives are interesting, and sure as heck, I’m even sucked in by the philosophical aspects of it! I may just be scratching the surface by saying I find Durarara!! very original in terms of presentation. Even if some of the events were repeated like in this episode, I still felt they were executed with a very fresh approach. I won’t be placing my expectations too high yet but I certainly look forward to more surprises. :D
@Meimi
I think part of the reason she does convey deep thoughts is because we get to project our feelings onto her mask. I’ve seen it done before with dolls (which had no eyes mouths, or noses). Basically as the story progresses you emote with them because you are left to imagine what their face is saying to you. It’s pretty cool.
@Keiri
Thanks for the compliment. Honestly this episode was so good I felt like I was missing some of the truly genius stuff. I actually wanted to expand on the cellphone, dinner table, and pictures motifs. There was a lot of focus placed on them.
For instance the first time they show the Dinner Table Rio is laughing and slowly her expression darkens with each successive time they show the table (I’m don’t remember how many times they went back there). The reason our pompous ass can so casually bring it up later (with a devestating effect on our character) directly relates to the set up they did in the beginning of the episode showing us it was a big deal to her. Her cell phone became a symbol of her relationship with the pompous ass and her only source of support. The longer the episode went the more she relied on it or could be seen crouched over it in her room. Thus when the pompous ass reveals himself to be a betrayer and not a support at all she jumps off the roof. (I’ll now use a metaphor because I can) It’s like she had been standing on a dinner table and slowly each of the legs had been removed until she was balancing on the pompous ass’s leg alone. Then bam it’s gone and she falls. Truly remarkable stuff.
It’s not so much that any one element is original, it’s the presentation as you say. The way they put all of those elements together is unique. The narration with the imagery, with the music, with the characterization. This is an example of using your median to its full potential. I can’t wait to get into other characters slowly. By the end we should have a complete picture of a community instead of just a couple characters against the world. Now all we need are some giant robots LMAO.
Keeping your expectations low is probably a good thing. Hopefully it won’t disappoint us.
Really good write-up. I, being the dumbass I am, require other people to do the harder, deeper thinking for me sometimes. XD
Thanks dai. Lol, you’re not a dumbass, I’ve read your posts so I’m the ultimate authority on the manner.
Sharp observations and analysis on your part there! :)
This is just another of my trivial waffling but I think what this series may be trying to do is test us viewers on how well we are able to detect and understand the more inconspicuous things on a deeper level. For a shallow viewer like me, it took me a repeated watch of the episode to notice and absorb what Rio wanted to accomplish in her situation. During the first watch, I was simply left wondering why some events didn’t occur as expected, for instance, a conflict within the family especially after Rio dropped the photos in the mailbox for her mother to pick up. Of course, this could have been due to the possibility of her never opening the envelope or is merely trying her best to put on a brave front for the sake of her family. Although the events that followed were somewhat anticipated, what I found fascinating was how all those interactions in between with said pompous ass shaped her into the character she is and explained the decisions she made towards the end, especially when she defied pompous ass’ expectations by plunging off the building. It was slightly predictable due to, as you say, the initial set up, but it was nevertheless still overwhelming.
My interpretation was that his goal for the entire thing was to try and get her to jump off the building. The reason I think this is because of the Dullahan’s final question to him “Were you responsible for the other suicides there as well”? It is an implication of someone who just likes having the power to control people to that extent.
As for why nothing happened with the family, I thought the narrator provided another good option. I believe she said someone like the parents could have already resolved it when Rio wasn’t around. Rio’s mother didn’t know the pictures were sent to her by Rio, so it almost makes sense for her mother to think this was her and Rio’s father’s problem. Thus they could have both decided not to show their marital problems in front of Rio. Sadly, this is ultimately what pushed Rio into a feeling of isolation, other than pompous ass’s communications.
There was actually one piece of pompous asses logic I didn’t agree with, with respect to her character. I can’t remember what it was now though… :P.
I liked DtB2.
This has been your obligatory fan-flailing of the post.
(I also like Durarara (Dullalala? Dullarara?) so far and would totally get into it if not for one hindrance: I can’t remember names to save my life. At least in Baccano! the names of their large cast were all absurd which made things easier, but now it’s just one vague jumble of Japanese after another. Your syllables! They mean nothing to me! I only remember that you chuck vending machines!)
:twisted:
I can definitely understand where you’re coming from. I had to look up Rio’s name on another blog and refer to most of the characters by a major character design point. Like our Dullahan or Pompous Ass. I hope that at some point I’ll learn their names, but these first two episodes certainly haven’t inspired it yet. I guess that’s a big problem with huge casts (though I don’t remember having this much trouble with Code Geass, but hey those names were ridiculous too).
It almost adds to the tension though, only being able to recognize a character at face value. For some reason I think that adds to their type of storytelling. They start as a confusing jumble and slowly start to develop into individuals. Is it any wonder I know Rio’s name and call our Dullahan, Dullahan. I actually think it could be cool.
:???: I should have known when I wrote that, that this would be the post you read. Still I meant what I said. It’s not that I didn’t like DTB 2, it’s just that I wanted more than it provided and here’s an anime that’s giving me those pieces I was missing. :)
I know it was an amazing episode because I was so engrossed in the story itself that I just about completely neglected to deliberate on the meta aspects of the storytelling (and have to come here and read you talk about it instead :P ).
Great post, and even if you say that you haven’t done the episode justice, that’s already a lot that you pointed out there that’s really worth appreciating :)
I’m glad my blog could be of some service. I ended up thinking about this episode a lot so I wanted to be able to present something really beautiful to truly appreciate the work put into this episode. That was my main complaint with my write up :(.