Anime Hajime Review: Durarara x2 Shou (3 Year Anniversary Special Part 1 of 3)

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Durarara x2. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

It has been several months since the clash between the Dollars and the Yellow Scarves. Since then, the streets of Ikebukuro have stayed peaceful. Or at least, as peaceful as possible in a city filled with amazing people.

Even under the best circumstances, tension fills the air. At any moment something can throw this town into turmoil. There are those who seek such an outcome and there are those who fight against it. Then there are those caught up in the middle.

Every day, the news tells of unbelievable events. Cars and vending machines being hurled across the sky. A small internet community is growing to become the most influential entity in the area. And in the dead of night, residents may even hear the cry of the legendary headless rider.

In Ikebukuro, there really is no such thing as impossible.

Shou Cour Synopsis

Mikado Ryuugamine (voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga) feels he is growing accustomed to his new life. If nothing else, things have never been more exciting. But what he sees as improvements only disguise the hardships on the horizon.

When Mikado founded his group, the Dollars, he was taking on a huge responsibility. With more members joining, it’s difficult to maintain his vision for the organization. Especially when there are those whose motives aren’t quite clear.

Adding to the growing crisis, other outside forces have begun to make their way into the city. This ranges from the Russian mob to a frightening serial killer. To do anything within this town, someone’s toes will be stepped on. The only thing one can do is get out of the way when things break.

And break things do.

Now more than ever, Mikado must decide his place in this world he has chosen to enter. He needs to ask himself, "what is he willing to do”. More than that, what is he willing to give up? Should he hesitate too long, the worst possible outcome will present itself. It’s the thing that one can never let happen in Ikebukuro.

Mikado may allow someone to make that choice for him.

Shou Cour Positives

June 19th, 2015. | January 10th to March 26th, 2016. | February 19th, 2018.

When I see these dates together, they tell the history of this site. They indicate the mindset I once had and how it has changed over time. I find it curious that Durarara was the series to accomplish this.

To everyone, especially to new readers, it might be unclear what I am referring to.

June 19th was the day I posted my review of the first Durarara series. A quick look at the numbers shows this happened while the second season, x2, was airing. Knowing this, it's not unfair to assume I had plans to follow this franchise. Having enjoyed the original, that only adds to such an assertion.

March 26th, the day x2’s final episode aired, came, went, and then two years passed by. Thus, bringing us to February 19th and this post going live.

The episode-count and release history of this season made coming back daunting. Even if doing so has always been my intention. Months went by and there was nothing from me. It got to the point where there needed to be a special occasion if I ever wanted to return to this series.

Wouldn’t you know it, such an occasion came. Why not celebrate three years of LofZOdyssey Anime Reviews with Durarara x2? The original warranted such an honor, I say overinflating my ego. And if the first part of this season is an indication, I made the right call.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve already gone on and said some things that don’t make sense without context. Plus, regular readers have already noticed how the format of this review is off. This continuation of the Durarara series requires a unique strategy if I wish to cover it.

x2 contains thirty-six episodes. This is already longer than your average anime season. Then this season went further and split its story into three chapters. Or as this series calls them, cours. Each cour was a few months apart from each other. Hence why I said, “this show had an interesting release history.”

You would think after three years I would know what a “cour” is. From what I can gather, a cour is a three-month broadcasting period. In the past, I have referred to this scheduling as the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons. Adding to that, a single cour is a run lasting around ten to fourteen episodes. A double cour is twenty-four to twenty-six episodes and spans two consecutive seasons.

What is the difference between a cour and a season? The distinction comes down to how technical you want to be. Besides, correct terminology becomes moot since I review series after they air. But it’s always nice to learn something new.

Cour or season, it doesn’t matter. Since x2 came in three parts, so will this review.

These chapters looked and acted like a regular season. Each had their own set of positive and “negative” attributes. I write “negative” in quotations because it will be hard to say what’s a mistake until the end. It won’t be impossible to do, and we will discuss those aspects should they come up.

The chapters are as follows. The first is the Shou cour. The second is the Ten cour. And the third is the Ketsu cour.

For this set of reviews, I want to warn you now. There will be a Synopsis at the beginning of each post. Durarara, for better or worse, can get complicated. Knowing what is happening in the narrative will help frame the show’s strengths and weaknesses. Please keep this in mind. While I can avoid doing this with Shou, the Ten and Ketsu reviews may need to go into spoiler territory.

I will avoid giving anything major away but going into some specifics may be unavoidable. Should it be necessary to do this, I will issue a proper spoiler warning.

One last thing, the Ketsu review will have a focus on the events that took place during its cour. Yet that review will serve as a final overview of Durarara x2 as well. This is when I will decide whether to recommend this series or not.

For Shou and Ten, they have their own question. If we were in the season's original run, “Is it worth waiting a few months for the continuation?”

I apologize for the wordy introduction. With our bases now covered, we can, at last, dive into the Shou cour.

As indicated earlier, it has been over two years between the first Durarara review and this one. Going into x2, I was worried it would be like DanMachi Sword Oratoria and Love Live Sunshine Two again. With such a big gap, with this series being the largest of the three, how much of this story had I forgotten?

To my surprise and to the first season’s credit, I remembered way more than I expected. There were a few critical things I couldn’t recall. For example, what happened at the end of Durarara? While this may not be the best way to start off, x2 understood something.

Even though it was a two-year viewing gap for me, there were five years between the end of Durarara and the airing of x2. I was once harsher on second seasons that did recaps. Now with a lot of sequels coming in my future, quick rundowns are a nice gesture. But like anything else, this needs to be done in a way that doesn’t bog down the here and now. That’s what the Shou cour avoided doing.

This chapter didn’t recreate the events of Durarara. Nor did it rely on people’s memory. What we got was enough information to move forward. There was an acknowledgment that things happened. As this current story was going, we could pick up those missing pieces.

Not to mention, this season had something going for it.

Returning Cast

Many characters didn’t require a reintroduction.

The Durarara franchise has filled itself with a massive supply of excellent personalities. No matter what will occur, it’s going to be entertaining. Of the returning cast, there were four who retained what made them fun to follow.

One was Anri Sonohara (voiced by Kana Hanazawa). While you could say there are many main characters in this series, Anri is part of the fundamental trio. She always manages to find her way to the center of the craziness. What separates her from her two other counterparts, she doesn’t feel useless.

When we get to the Ten and particularly the Ketsu review I want to remember I said that. I will explain why later on.

Anri appears to be a quiet and unimposing girl. This is her greatest advantage. She is an oddity of Ikebukuro who wields the possessed katana, Saika. Whoever she cuts with this cursed blade, they become her puppets. Not only that, she is a sword master who can stand her ground against seasoned fighters.

Two was Izaya Orihara (voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya). Up until the end of the Shou cour, Izaya has served as the series’ antagonist. Then something happened at the end of this chapter that could change his role. While I don’t think he will become a hero, he may turn into a reliable ally.

Izaya doesn’t possess any supernatural or superhuman abilities. That hasn’t made him any less dangerous though. He is an expert at parkour and fighting with a knife. He is someone you wouldn’t want to have an encounter with. Yet his most frightening skill is his ability to manipulate people. There are few he can’t conquer. One of the exceptions is his longtime and bitter rival.

Three is Shizuo Heiwajima (voiced by Daisuke Ono). He is the other half of the rivalry involving Izaya. Them running into each other on the street is enough for a brawl to break out. That’s a real problem since the quick to anger Shizuo is a walking atomic bomb.

Where Izaya uses his brains, Shizuo uses his brawn. Like some fighters, Shizuo will use what is around him as a weapon. Unlike other fighters, those items range from guardrails, vending machines, and even cars. I’m not saying he smashes people into these objects. No, he picks these items up and hurls them across city blocks without breaking a sweat. His scenes are not boring.

And four is the person I would consider Durarara’s best, Celty Sturluson (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro). The other characters I mentioned are humans with special abilities, not Celty. She is an Irish Dullahan who has become quite the legend in Ikebukuro. Dullahan’s are apparitions who carry their heads in their arms and Celty has come to Japan to search for hers.

While on the hunt, Celty is a courier for the city’s underworld. The assignments she takes on are dangerous for most. Not for her. She can manipulate shadow-like material in ways limited only by her imagination. Yet despite her otherworldly existence, she is down to earth and a pleasure to be around.

Celty does try to keep a low profile given she is walking around without a head. But this isn’t a secret she is too concerned about getting out. Whenever she is helping her friends, she will do what is necessary. Even if it means creating an unnatural scene. It is her desire to assist those in need that has turned her into one of the best heroes in anime.

These four characters’ roles during the Shou cour have only elevated them. They have been key in making everything stay together. Important seeing how this story and this chapter ran at a million miles an hour in every direction.

This was the case before and I’m glad it came back. Except continuations should grow a narrative. If a story keeps doing the same thing over and over again, it will get boring. It’s important to add something.

In the case of the Shou cour, it added two things. The first was a foundation for a bigger narrative. We will see in the Ten and Ketsu cours what becomes of this. They have a lot to live up to, but they also have one hell of a start.

The second, if you can believe it, was the addition of fresh personalities to follow.

New Characters

With an already amazing cast, it’s nothing short of outstanding to think this series added to it. This was unexpected.

At the moment, I hesitate to call this a success. Doing so now would be premature. Let’s get through the Ten and Ketsu cours before we make such an assessment. What I will say, the Shou chapter did everything it could to give x2 momentum.

Durarara has a large collection of characters. Season two has only made that statement truer. As such, I will split the newcomers into two groups.

The first are characters who were fine on their own. Yet what made them memorable were the relationships they built. And by “memorable” I meant, “I want them to play a much larger role in the remainder of this season.”

The second is the people who have the makings to be on par with this series’ best. x2 only needs to give them a chance.

Heading into the former group, there are three members.

One, the Russian assassin Varona (voiced by Mao Ichimichi). If the Shou cour is going to be the only time we see her fight, that will be a shame. It’s not as if I was rooting for her, quite the opposite. I was more invested in what her role in this story was.

Anywhere else, Varona's skills and intelligence made her untouchable. None of that mattered in Ikebukuro. Seeing her struggle against the city’s strongest illustrated how far out of her element she was. As well as reaffirming how crazy this town is.

Two, the idol star Ruri Hijiribe (voiced by Saki Fujita). Like others in this series, she’s not a character you would call “innocent”. There was darkness to her. Except, as is the case with almost every other aspect of Durarara, there’s more going on below the surface.

Ruri may have committed horrific acts, yet the Shou cour didn’t give us the full details. Thus, it is still possible to feel sorry for her. This became even more so when she met the emotionless Kasuka Heiwajima (voiced by Daisuke Kishio). This chapter started a plotline with them I want to see more of.

Three, the young Akane Awakusu (voiced by Misaki Kuno). She was cute whenever she was on screen. But she became adorable whenever she was with Shizuo. These two formed a father-daughter bond.

There are many naïve characters in this franchise. Akane has an excuse since she is a child. Despite this, she never felt out of place in this world. Rather than a nuisance, she was a factor people had to account for. Her involvement in something brought in conflicting players.

Also, Akane is one of the very few people Shizuo can control his temper around. This gave focus to the unstoppable titan.

I’m not confident more will come out of each of these three characters. That worry doesn’t apply to them all, two of them had a decent enough story to end with Shou.

But if for some reason this trio has seen their time, I can accept that. As long as it means these next three characters get more screen time.

This is the second group of additions. I see a lot of potential with them and it would be a huge waste if they don’t leave a bigger impact in the Ten or Ketsu cours.

The first is Chikage Rokujo (voiced by Yuki Ono).

As a disclaimer, Chikage is walking a dangerous line. He is one of those characters where if he is in a certain situation he will act a certain way. Or at least his entire personality is telling me that will be the case.

Chikage is someone who will beat a person within an inch of their life if they disrespect a lady. What worries me is what will happen should a female fighter challenge him. I’m not convinced he will accept. The excuse he will give will be because he doesn’t fight women. He had no qualms about violence and he got pretty brutal. But if his opponent is a girl, I’m betting he will lose his resolve. I’ve seen too many characters from too many series play this card and it's annoying each time.

So we’re clear, going around picking random fights isn’t a positive quality anyone should have. But if two warriors consent to a faceoff, that’s the only thing that should matter.

To be fair, this hesitation of mine is speculative. Although these circumstances came close to happening in Shou, they never actually did. x2 could still surprise me. If it does, I will like Chikage more as a character. Should I be right though, it will be difficult for it to affect this season as a whole. This is especially true knowing these other characters are around.

Of this trio, these next two come as a pair. They are the twins Mairu and Kururi Orihara (voiced by Eri Kitamura and Hisako Kanemoto). As the younger sisters of Izaya, you could imagine how this duo would be extraordinary. I figured as much too. What I didn’t think would happen was this series giving one of the best introductions to a character ever.

Izaya noted how odd his sister’s personalities were. He even admitted they would be the perfect targets for bullying. However, anyone who would try would regret it. He was right.

I won’t go into full details, but the twins did have to deal with a group of bullies. Once, and I doubt they will have to do it again. How Mairu handled the problem was intense. Kururi’s method was less so, although it did involve a lot more fire.

In addition, these two allowed another newbie, Aoba Kuronuma (voiced by Hiro Shimono), to have a strong intro as well. Yet unlike Mairu and Kururi, I’m not as interested in him. He is a character that needs someone to play off. Fortunately for him, it wouldn’t be hard for this someone to be this pair.

This franchise has plenty of characters to pull from. But I can imagine how having these many options can come back and bite x2. That’s assuming the Ten and Ketsu cours don’t bring in anyone else. Too bad the end of the Shou cour indicated that’s what’s going to happen. It will be up to the rest of this season to balance this out. Only time will tell.

Continuity

At any given minute during the Shou cour, there were like five different things going on at once. More often than not, these things were happening at different points in this story. To make it more complicated, these plotlines appeared to have nothing to do with each other. At a glance, it looked like a mess.

Although this was the case, this chapter never got out of hand. It was easy to follow. There never came a point where I found myself lost or wasn’t sure what was going on. If there was one thing the Shou cour did, it was making it so this was one large, interconnected world.

Be sure to keep an eye open while watching. Don’t forget to look at what is going on everywhere during a scene. Certain background characters will stand out. That’s because they aren't background characters. They are people this story hasn't introduced yet.

Don’t think the Shou cour was clever in doing this. x2 called attention to these instances. It wouldn’t be wrong to see these times as awkward. They were. Except Durarara gets a pass since these were important clues to help keep track of what was happening.

What made the start of this season so fun was seeing how these separate events came together. Nowhere was this more entertaining than in the opening four episodes.

In terms of narrative progress, not much happened during this first section of this chapter. Except they weren’t a waste of time. Instead of doing a full, slow recap of the original series, the Shou cour had the characters do things.

Nothing got complex. Nothing got that dire. The real meat of this season didn’t start until episode five, No One Knows What the Future Holds. What the beginning of this chapter did was demonstrate how things were going to go down. When actual events did come, we the viewers could map out the plot in our heads. This was an effective way to illustrate every detail has a purpose.

Only the Shou cour could do this to this scale. From here on out, I expect this season to have dilemmas that need solving. This chapter ended in a way that points to this being what’s going to happen. From what the story was setting-up, things are going to get more volatile. I’m looking forward to it.

Shou Cour Negatives

As of now, there aren’t many things I can say Durarara x2 has done wrong. It’s way too early to even consider that. Even if there are aspects I hope get fixed in the Ten and Ketsu cours. For now, what I have are concerns. And I’ve already mentioned my biggest.

There are a lot of characters in this series. Will there be enough time to give everyone an adequate amount of development? That depends.

I understand that some of the characters I enjoy may not get the chance to do much. An adaptation must cut and change things. That’s assuming the source material did a full job at characterization. Surprise, I have never read Durarara. Thus, I can’t claim whether it did or didn’t. For the anime though, there is a precedent. Both good and bad.

It was the characters that allowed this series to stay in my mind for two years. This franchise does know how to leave an impact. It’s done so again with Mairu and Kururi Orihara. Except, after their incredible introduction, they didn’t do anything. That doesn’t make sense to me. How was this pair not more involved in the second half of this chapter?

This is why this is a concern, not a fault. The Ten and Ketsu cours, only one needs to have a story arc that focuses on these two. If that’s not possible, there needs to be some reason why the story brought them in. Otherwise, we only have a cool moment and nothing else.

Because of this, I know these characters exist and I have an idea of what they can do. If they don’t become more integral to the plot, that’s all I’m ever going to be thinking about. This will become a huge problem should an issue arise they could solve, but don’t. x2 has committed itself to following Mairu and Kururi’s story through.

Except there’s one huge dilemma. If it were only the twins, that would be one thing. It’s not just the twins though. There are so many characters, new and old, who are in the same boat. Since I suspect even more are coming, this season is promising a lot.

I would be remiss if I said I wasn’t, again, concerned.

The Second Half’s Dead Weight

The Shou cour contained two story arcs. The first of the two was excellent and the second was also pretty strong.

It was during this second half where we got the characters Varona, Akane Awakusu, and Chikage Rokujo. Plus, Celty, Shizuo, and Anri had standout moments of their own. There was fun action, funny comedy, and edge-of-your-seat intensity. There were a lot of things to like.

Unfortunately, the focus of this arc was on this franchise’s most boring character. That is none other than the so-called “lead” Mikado Ryuugamine.

Remember when I said Anri was a member of Durarara’s main trio. So was Mikado. There’s also Masomi Kida (voiced by Mamoru Miyano) but he didn’t do much in the Shou cour. Whether Masomi does or doesn’t do more later, I would still rather follow Anri.

Going back to Mikado, he wasn't remarkable. I’m not saying that because there were a ton of other characters who were. By his own merits, there wasn’t much to him. Whenever this chapter cut back to whatever he was doing, things slowed down.

To make things worse, Mikado lacked confidence. He was gullible. Where everyone else influenced the events around them, it was the other way around for him. When a series has characters taking charge, there’s a disconnect when someone doesn’t do that. Also, Durarara had supernatural beings on its roster too. Things don’t look great for our main lead.

You could argue this is part of Mikado’s character progression. I agree with that. This is why I’m still only concerned. And why I’m looking forward to the Ten and Ketsu cours. At the end of episode twelve, Adversity Makes a Man Strong, there were hints of a different kind of Mikado. If what I saw is the character he will become, then I’m worried for nothing.

That notwithstanding, while we were with Mikado, it was a drag. Critical or not, this was a dull section.

Shou Cour Final Thoughts

Would the Shou cour make me want to wait three months for a continuation? Easily. Had I been watching this season during its original run, that in between would have felt long.

This season did a phenomenal job of bringing us back into this series. It capitalized on the original’s memorability and ran with it. It gave us more outstanding characters to follow. It set up a slew of new challenges to face. It created the foundation for this to become something amazing. All the while being entertaining as hell.

Yet that success brought with it expectations. High ones at that. The Shou cour did what it needed to do. It kicked off what has the makings to be a brilliant continuation and series. And it did it in a big way. It's up to the rest of this season to follow through.

We will continue our look at Durarara x2 with the Ten cour on Wednesday, February 21st.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? How would you advise Durarara x2 and the Shou cour? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.

I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.