You must’ve heard of this one at least once.
"Countryside young lad Ryuugamine Mikado moves to the city of Ikebukuro as per invitation of his friend, Masaomi Kida, so they can go to the same high school. Mikado longs for an exciting live in the city, but you know how the saying goes…
A man who conspicuously dresses as a bartender, has angers issues and can lift cars without straining. An informant who loves to screw with everyone’s lives. Gangs fights. A headless monster who know how to ride a bike and works as delivery. Yup, the lad isn’t going to get bored."
Durarara!! (Also known as DRRR!!) was originally a light novel adapted to anime. As most of these adaptations go, it got the anime community hyped up and was looked foward to from 2010 to 2016… understandably so, since it was pioneer on the ‘modern society clashes with supernatural’ premise. However, this is not what made it popular– as you can see, similar premises haven’t stopped showing up in the last decade, so how did DRRR!! Manage to maintain its spot as one of the favorites?
Was it due to an outstanding animation? Not really.
There’s no high-budget animation in DRRR!! like in Kimetsu no Yaiba… or anything made by Ufotable. But one doesn’t need high-quality visuals to attract people. While looks do matter, if the content is garbage then it’s all for nothing.
What DRRR!! Lacks in visuals is made up for thanks to its unique narrative style. The main plot, subplots and character plots are interconnected; sometimes, especially in the latest seasons, it can come off as dull… but overall it has a nice pace that adds to the ongoing tension on-screen.
Now… if the summary didn’t cue you in the fact this is not a happy-go-lucky sort of story, well, this is not.
We got three ‘main’ characters: Ryuugamine Mikado, Masaomi Kida and Sonohara Anri.
Mikado comes from a country and wants to experience an exciting live in the city, but he also hides a rather interesting skillset for a weakling.
Meanwhile, Kida is a former gang leader, who got involved with the local troublemaker Izaya Orihara and ended getting a third-party severely hurt due to his own stupidity. He quit the gang and is currently trying to live as normally as possible.
As for Anri… she’s a broken individual struggling with a certain voice inside of her, one who wants to ‘love’ all humanity… as in ‘cut’ them. Literally.
The anime isn’t gory but there is violence; they neither overdo it, nor gloss over it. People gets hurt, people bleeds, people loses a limb or two, people kills, someone is run over, etc. Basically, what you’d expect in anime that features gangs and the mafia.
And despite that, I’d say what makes a stronger impression isn’t the violence, but the psychological aspects of the characters. It makes you worried, really. ‘These people will do anything…’ because they will, they’re really unpredictable and that’s the major appeal the series has.
Just to name a few: the guy who loves a monster, the guy who is obsessed with a monster’s head, the lovesick high school girl who was toyed with by her teacher… and created a monster as result, etc.
Honestly, what makes DRRR!! Great is that EVERYTHING is weird, so people takes things in stride to a certain level: Is Shizuo throwing expending machines at Izaya, again? “Meh.” Are the guys from the Russian Sushi place actually Mafiosi? “Probably, but at least they know how to cook.” Is Harima Mika utterly insane? “Undoubtedly, keep away from her.”
It also brings up the question ‘Who the monster really is?’
DRRR!! Tries to sell is a story of suburban mystery and insanity, and I say it sells it rather well.
