DURARARA!! review

Durarara!! (two exclamation marks) is a Japanese urban fantasy, something which deserves more attention in and of itself. It's a genre sorely under-represented of late in all forms of genre media, where it's cheaper to represent the world as normal and lead the protagonist behind the scenes (it's an ordinary high school, but my boyfriend's a vampire!) rather than paint the metropolis itself as a place where anything can and does happen.

Adapted from a series of light novels, our hero is Ryugamine Mikado, a shy, retiring boy from the country who's moved to Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, upping sticks principally to attend a new school, but also in search of something to kick him out of his general adolescent malaise. His childhood friend Kida Masaomi acts as his guide to the big city, where after this initial stroll through the local tourist attractions (Ikebukuro being a real enough place) all the characters the show introduces gradually take up plot threads of their own and the overall picture slowly begins to unfold.

The first few plotlines begin fairly grounded - a painfully shy and introverted girl in Ryugamine's class who both friends have their eye on; a former student gone missing, or the growing undercurrent of gang violence plaguing the city. The fantasy creeps in slowly, if occasionally showily. Who's the girl with the horrific scar all the way around her neck? Or Shizuo Hewajima, the 'strongest man in Ikebukuro', capable of superhuman feats of physical exertion? Or the trickster Izaya Orihara, his nemesis? Or the enigmatic motorcycle rider who supposedly has no head?

The battle lines are roughly drawn up between the fantastic and the rational, with characters who are clearly more than human up against the activities of a mysterious pharmaceutical corporation nabbing lone girls off the city streets. But Durarara!! is never entirely black and white, with some very odd alliances cropping up and several plot threads resolved in fairly unexpected ways. Izaya is malevolent, for example, but he's not above a kind of altruism if it gets him closer to his ultimate goal. Ryugamine's much more than the innocent abroad he first appears, and his biggest secret thus far has a lot of painful knock-on effects for many around him.

It is a labyrinthine, somewhat Machiavellian web, and occasionally a little too convoluted for its own good. Several payoffs don't quite measure up to the amount of time the show spends dancing around the issue. But Durarara!! maintains an air of levity all the way through, clearly never taking itself entirely seriously - it deflates its characters' egos, it breaks the fourth wall and it has a knack for simple physical comedy that keeps the pacing engaging, if sometimes unsteady.

While the overarching story does touch on some fairly disturbing subject matter Durarara!! is also a curiously unhurried, almost dreamy piece of television at times. The production values are nothing exceptional, with only a few moments of truly dynamic animation but the art style is consistent and the soundtrack is truly distinctive - all repurposed classical standards, atonal free jazz, R'n'B stylings and some well-chosen J-rock opening and closing themes. The acting skirts a little too close to overeager shounen melodrama at times, but for the most part the cast turn in easygoing performances that suggest they're having almost as much fun as their characters seem to be.

Though again, the show can strike the viewer as a little too laid back at times, particularly given how bizarre and inhuman some of the principals ultimately prove to be. Some of the more significant plot twists feel a little too out of left field given the show remains so detached from the protagonists' inner lives. There's copious voiceover in many episodes, but it's still fairly enigmatic and arguably doesn't pave the way for the more esoteric moments as well as it should.

Nonetheless, while no masterpiece as yet Durara!! is still more than worth watching. In a flood of identikit harem comedies and banal superhero clones that at the time of writing shows little sign of abating, it stands out a mile. Captivating, intelligent and densely plotted yet playful, self-effacing and frequently very funny, so far it's arguably one of the strongest genre efforts from the industry in years, certainly one of the best of those few which aren't already shooting for a specific demographic from the outset. It has its flaws, but it doesn't outright pander and doesn't dumb anything down - it's simply hugely entertaining television that deserves to be picked up for a DVD release in the West as soon as possible.