Wait, what happened to the animation budget!?
EPISODE 4
- This time, we pick up exactly where the last episode left off: Ryuugamine and company running from gang members. That spirals into a big mess when Celty comes across them while transporting some questionable cargo. Celty then stays back to fight off the gang. Then people talk. Then people have a hot pot party. Then more people talk. In all honesty, there wasn’t much to this episode, and it didn’t help my waning interest in the show (gee, I never thought I’d say that about Durarara!!).
- Unlike last week where there were some good and some bad, this week has neither and just came across as bland. For a series that originally got me interested due to its engrossing storyline, I can’t say that I was expecting this episode to be so void of that aspect. That’s not to say that there’s any sort of concrete plot at this point, but it would have been nice if this episode took the time to establish anything. I guess this season is just going to be an amalgamation of seemingly uninteresting side-notes that actually all come together to form one big payoff. I hope so, at least.
- Around this time, Mairu and Kururi are starting to get on my nerves. I’ve honestly always hated the whole “cutesy girls” trope in anime (How many anime don’t do that? 4?), so these two are just annoying now. They don’t have any sort of characters yet, so they don’t add much for me. Hopefully they’ll become more three-dimensional soon, but I’m doubtful right now.
That’s why I lead them to you!
- In the very end, this episode was just a big bike chase with a little bit of dialog and a little bit of action, and maybe a few explanations here and there. There’s the problem with this series up to now; it doesn’t have anything going for it in terms of interest. There is no central plot that is easy to get invested in, so instead, we have to get invested in little sub-plots, but even those aren’t rewarding as of now. I guess one could make the argument that we should get invested in the characters, and I would tend to agree with that sentiment. However, these characters aren’t utilized properly like they were in the first season. They aren’t given anything to do!
- It just seems like this season is too disorganized. I guess I’ll really have to wait until the end to truly pass judgment, but it’s not looking so good at this point.
EPISODE 5
- Well, episode 5 was better than episode 4, but just marginally. That’s mainly because this episode actually advanced the plot slightly by adding in new situations, characters, and motives. And the biggest positive: Kida is BACK. Hell yeah.
This would make a great postcard.
- Another positive was that we got to see more than 5 seconds of Heiwajima being, well, Heiwajima. This time, instead of just beating the crap out of a serial killer and some bikers, we see him beat the crap out of the bikers’ leader, then get tazed by a little girl! That’s much more spotlight than I thought this series was going to give to him, so naturally I’m happy that everyone’s favorite character got to be himself for a while.
- A neat aspect about that is how Celty was hired to find that little girl who tried to, uh, kill Heiwajima. Finally. Plot. GO WITH IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
- Now, on to the annoying aspects. First, most of the episode was narrated by Namie. It’s not so much the fact that she’s the one narrating more than it is that the episode is being narrated in the first place. There hasn’t been an episode being narrated like this yet, so why start now? The worst part is that it’s “hindsight narration”, as if Namie is looking back on the events going on and telling us about how “stupid that was”, or how “foolish he/she was”. That was more annoying than substantive.
- The second thing I didn’t like was Izaya himself. In the first season, he was sort of some omnipresent being who neither seemed good nor evil, almost as if he’s just a bystander who takes a bit too much pleasure in misery. Here, he kind of seems like he wants to go out of his way to be the direct cause of misery. I mean, it does mesh with his character, but his whole monolog where he was talking about the frailty of human souls just came off as corny. If he’s supposed to be a bad guy, then make him a bad guy. Don’t just give him all this pseudo-philosophical junk to spout. That gets old quick.
“You can’t run away! The story needs you!!!”
- Looking at both of these episodes, I kind of have to say that this series is turning out to be such a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s the story that Durarara!! is surrounded by is very captivating, but on the other hand, none of the elements that made the show special to me are present here. I just…I need this to get better.
