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To begin my anime review for the 2nd to the last episode of Durarara!! (which I found a really unneeded review to date), lemme give you a few thoughts of mine on its general plot, and animation.
Durarara!! really has some unique stuff here, starting from the originality of its plot. I haven’t watched an anime that has Durarara!!’s episoding. It doesn’t focus on the main character (like what most anime do) in an episode and doesn’t necessarily have the “need” to show the main character in that episode; it would rather focus on a different character for a few episodes. Then after completing an episode, it starts to make up the missing pieces from the opposite side, and complete it uniquely.
Durarara!!’s first opening theme song, "Uragiri no Yūyake (裏切りの夕焼け; Betrayal of the Sunset)” by Theatre Brook, wasn’t really as good as its first ending theme song, "Trust Me" by Yūya Matsushita. “Trust Me” was more of an entertaining song than the first one that really caught my ear when I heard it compared to “Uragiri no Yuuyake”. The opening theme song did catch my ear but that was only probably only because of how they made the video of the opening theme song. (They really did well on it, putting different elements even “just as the” opening theme song like the relationship feeling in the near-end of the opening song.)
The second opening theme song, "Complication (コンプリケイション)" by ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D, was the best among the opening theme songs it had. And I say it’s not because of the video (there wasn’t much, anyway), but because of the just how awesome the music is. It’s probably because of the tempo that suddenly changes to a fast one freely. Although there wasn’t much difference in the original version of the song, it was probably better in one way or another, but... I can’t seem to put it how they would really take the intro to 45 seconds. I think around 30 seconds or less was better. (I kind of noticed that they did do a good introduction, but 45 seconds was probably too much. Still, awesomeness tells me it’s the best song this season!)
As for the second ending theme song, "Butterfly" by ON/OFF, I probably liked it as good as the first opening and ending theme songs. Good pick for an anime with 24 episodes. I’ve never seen much good anime songs lately, so I praise Durarara!! this way, not just of the plot but also of the music.
My thoughts in episode 23:
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But what really caught my interest was the superhuman Shizzy-chan (Shizuo). After getting two (stupid) shots from stupid idiots with one in the stomach and one in the leg, he thought that he just fell because of the rain. (Impressive, Shizzy-chan!) Now, he walks to Shinra’s place bleeding, looking like “Hi, treat my wounds.” And while Shinra gets scared of Shizuo, he just begs for forgiveness on top of a table while he leaves the forceps in Shizuo’s leg. Oh, I just love Shizzy-chan’s superhuman life, and the scene where Shinra chases Anri, who ran away, while running and stops halfway, and for some reason, he has his call off. Does that mean someone attacked him while calling or did he just faint while running and the cellphone was destroyed as he fell to the ground?
All the while, Kida is still somewhere in the city, confused and still having doubts about Anri and Mikado. After receiving a call from Horada who knew that Mikado is the leader (which was obviously set up by Izaya), he gets a notice that he’ll be killed with Mikado (which the gullible Horada thought that they were working together). While his suspicions on Mikado and Anri were going down, he tries to call everyone in Yellow Scarves from what it looks like. Though what’s interesting is, who Maruyama Ou is, which was shown in the cellphone while dialing his number.
Now, the messed situation is really getting messier; Kida has finally resolved to kill Horada, and have the big showdown with the Yellow Scarves, which is dominated by the Blue Squares on the inside. (And I honestly was surprised that assuming the Yellow Scarves agreed with killing Kida and Mikado without Blue Squares in the gang.) At least it’s safe to say now that it’s because of the Blue Squares, particularly Horada, that caused the Dollars to get hurt in such a way.
While Anri is recklessly in search for help of his “children” of Yellow Scarves, Kida is having a showdown with the Blue Squares, and Celty & Mikado is in search for Kida by asking help from Simon. It was kind of nice for Simon to tell Celty via her own cell to save Mikado. And now, Anri, Celty, and Mikado are off to the base of Yellow Scarves.
Showdown’s on! Problem is, why is the Blue Squares standing like decorations or could be attacking blindly or simply just attacking solo. That was kind of ridiculous but at least we know that it’s the reason why Kida’s the leader of Yellow Scarves with his awesome attacks that doesn’t look like it’ll give you a one-hit KO. Pretty awesome too for Kida getting hit on the head twice, and blood flowing on his face. It was epic and mature of Kida to do that (but naïve as well).
So, now, Celty and Mikado reaches the territory of Yellow Scarves just after Anri arrived.
What makes this weird is why Celty made such a “grand” entrance by stopping in the center of the Yellow Scarves. I mean, why would Celty do that when he knows that Mikado is on her back. He’d be like, “Go attack them Celty with your scythe while I duck down!” Or will it probably it’ll end with Mikado’s reasoning?
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As the second to the last episode, they really left many things undiscovered.
Saki called the Russian Sushi restaurant to tell him about that person. I assumed that it would be about Kida and what’ll he do since Simon did meet up with him while (from how he looked like) delivering something. It could also be Izaya... Who knows? Saki could be smart too, to know how things move around, knowing that Saki is like an Izaya fan. Oh yeah, it could also be both. They are connected with the current messed up situation right now.
Why did Mikado ignore Kida’s phone calls? I mean, I wouldn’t as his best friend, or as someone who also needs “help”. Or maybe Mikado just didn’t want to answer Kida’s calls ‘cause he is pissed off with the problems he is having on his own?
Why did Mikado shut down Dollars? Even someone as smart as Mikado wouldn’t shut his group down for some little reason like that. (I call it ‘little’ because he’s smart... or at least that’s what I think.) He should know that he is fighting with a gang; a gang that would, usually be full of idiots to think that would simply think that it’s a trick (as seen in this episode). At least we know well that he’s still naïve, if that’s what they’re trying to point out.
Whom was Namie calling? Does this mean that she really is a busy woman even at the side of Izaya or does that simply mean that there’s something really deeper in this story with a would-have sequel but would have to end next week?
"Off the track" part of the episode:
I really liked how Celty is holding on Mikado’s shoulder when she was explaining about Kida and Anri, shaking it as though she is the one in distress while talking but is actually just holding the cellphone (or whatever it is) for him to read. It’s pretty impressive to make it look a bit realistic. (I just love Durarara!!.)
The talk with Simon was somewhat... good. It’s one of those typical dramatic dialogue where someone explains what “things” really are all about, and the person being convinced says the name of the person who’s trying to convince you. Hmm... There’s really nothing wrong with it. I would say it’s good. Besides, I couldn’t even have done it better, anyway.
When Kida appeared in the Yellow Scarves territory, it was ridiculous; Kida was given a way by the Blue Squares. He should have at least have been surrounded by them when he was in the middle. It would probably appear better.
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Sometimes, it feels anticlimactic this way (how I’m imagining things right now) after looking at the preview well (i.e. Izaya’s face isn’t shown; that probably means that something happened to him, Mikado is using his laptop with a dark background which probably is the Dollars website; it probably means that Dollars is back on action). My excitement in waiting for episode 23 probably wouldn’t be better than when I am waiting for episode 24 now.
Please leave a comment if you have any corrections on my review or opinions. Oh yeah, the image sequencing is a bit messed up. I "made up" my own image sequencing so it'll be weird if you compare it with episode 23. I'll improve it so don't worry, if you are worrying about it (lewl).
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