For the last couple days, I haven’t had a sufficient amount of motivation to do any reviews due to the ample amount of (interesting) screen-captures, time, and most notably, content required. Furthermore, having your girlfriend over, playing Blazblue every waking moment, along with website design inbetween doesn’t help either. Oh, and did I mention classes, work, or taekwondo? Combined with a lethargic line-up of winter anime shows, I almost feel as though crochet (a type of knitting) would be more exciting. Until now, the consistent din of my Playstation 3 controller and PC mouse have been the primary source of my entertainment.

In the past, I used to take the time to watch a show without anything in the background…lights included, but this season’s line-up calls for a different routine: watching tidbits of a show in-between Blazblue matches. Not very exciting, I know. After watching the marvelous Durarara!! I was literally speechless. To say I wanted to raid my dictionary and thesaurus was an understatement.

I won’t divulge much about episode 2, but just know it focuses on the “suspicious,” frizzy-pigtailed girl who was kidnapped in the previous installment. The audience finds out why she was out in the first place, why she didn’t throw up a question-face when being kidnapped, and what happened to her afterward.

For this review, the outstanding theme will be simplicity. However, take note this isn’t the only fold of DRRR!!’s greatness. Not by a long shot. Unlike Ningyo’s wonderfully put reviews (and titles might I add), which point out things I never remotely stop to think about, this review will consist of what makes this show a true magnum opus (greatest work of art). But what makes a great show, let alone a good show? Barely the other day, Scamp and a couple other writers were talking about what makes a “good anime,” and it made me realize I never sat down to think about something as serious as that. When trying to pin associations to good and bad, a bundle of inconsistencies and paradoxes arise.

For example, DragonBallZ and Bleach are a couple of the most successful shows to date for a number of reasons. They immediately draw people in with the first episode, have an insane amount of episodes (more than 35), contain bad guys who are twice as powerful as the main character, and an ever-growing ensemble of characters. But…on the flip-side, one can probably point out twice as many faults such as incredibly stupid filler episodes (technically bad enough), bratty characters who are better left out (Chad/Saado in Bleach or Krillin in DBZ), recycled animation, inconsistent laws of gravity (DBZ & Bleach flying nonsense), and a number of other silly reasons. Despite the blaring imperfections, these two shows have something many don’t. Originality & promise. Even though we all hate sitting down to watch even half of these series, the promise to see something incredibly cool or original is practically garanteed. Who in the hell knew Super Sayan was real, or that there was even a 4th one!? For all the audience knew, KaioKen was the shit, and that was it. In Bleach’s case, witnessing Ichigo’s ability to control hollow abilities was mind-blowing.

In addition, the viewer MUST remember what a series “public” goal is. By that, I mean what genres a specific show falls under. Azumanga Daioh falls under comedy & slice of life, therefore if it fulfills being incredibly funny and relatively true to real life (which it did), then it succeeds with grace. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to experience other things like charm, multi-faceted characters, and the urge to not want to finish for fear of having nothing to do after, then it runs the risk of becoming a true hit. Likable character designs and other things like that factor in too, but before you go and say something about Hanamaru Kindergarten, try not to instantly call upon your biased tastes, but instead keep in mind what & who the series is targeted for.

Now back to Durarara!! Amidst the originality & promise, this show brims with multiple stories. Something I feel goes back to Soul Eater. ALL of the cast was interesting, and had their own little thing going on for them. Durarara!! makes it know in episode 2 that there’s much more to each character, than a name and subtitled past. We’re lucky enough to get an entire episode’s span of the kidnapped girl, nickamed “Miss Magenta,” when most of us probably thought she was didn’t matter much. Blend the previously mentioned with a unique storytelling mechanic known as “3rd person omniscient,” rarely used in anime, and we’re now getting somewhere. In addition, the animation is subtle, but powerful; a nice foil for this winter. This show also has one of the BEST scores I’ve EVER heard in my life. In regards to musical scores and anime, I’m not too keen on soundtracks and only have Elfen Lied, Final Fantasy, and Yume Miru Kusuri (dating sim), but this is top grade.

To conclude this rant, Durarara episode 2 is obviously only the 2nd of many episodes, but has shown itself to be one of the potential BEST anime shows of 2010. I’m not a hardcore conissoir of anime or what EXACTLY makes a great show…well a great show, but I do know DRRR!! certainly isn’t a series you want to sleep on.

Mystery: 9/10
Storyline: 10/10
Animation: 9/10
Character Development: 11/10
Pacing: 10/10

Overall Outlook: 11/10 Wonderful