This is not an otaku in-joke show. Probably. Vital Statistics Title: Durarara!! JP Title: デュラララ������ Studio: Brains Base Director: Takahiro Oomori Based On: Ryohgo Narita's light novel series Release Information Licensor: Crunchyroll Airs: Fridays at 11am PST Episodes to date: 1     The Story  Cat-Ear Motorcycle Helmet FTW Mikado Ryuugamine, a young man with what is apparently a really cool name, is something of a country bumpkin who moves to Ikebukuro, Tokyo to attend a really sweet school along with his best friend Kida, who moved there a few years prior. During their reunion they wander around the Ikebukuro area and Mikado is introduced to a variety of Kida's friends and other random acquaintances around Ikebukuro, as well as a few people Mikado probably does NOT want to come across again, and even an urban legend...a headless motorcyclist.  While all of this is going on, three men kidnap a young girl per the commands of some "higher ups," and the headless motorcyclist rather spectacularly saves her, beating one man in the face with her motorcycle (and you thought just popping a wheelie was cool?), and pounding another one's head into a wall, and chasing down the third. The Review That's about all that happens so far, and it's not unlike the first episode of Baccano!, which is also something of an adventure to meet a variety of characters. So, if you totally dug the first ep there, you'll probably enjoy Durarara!!'s first episode as well. The feeling of sort of free-falling adventure is definitely there, even if the aesthetic is more modern rock and less jazzy '20s.  Ikebukuro is kind of an interesting place in Durarara!!. It's kind of like Cheers, and Kida is introducing Mikado around to the regulars. I've seen this kind of sense of the different parts of Tokyo before, that you'll run into people all the time...I'm not sure how much basis in reality it has given how populated some of those areas are, but it makes the audience feel like part of the crowd, so that's not a bad thing!  I'm definitely intrigued by the supernatural properties of this mystery motorcyclist, though I wouldn't say I'm blown away by the story just yet...it feels like it'll be a bit of a slower build, starting from the beginning rather than in medias res (for those of you who didn't take high school creative writing courses, that's "in the middle of the action" more or less).   Let's see...I'm sure I need hardly say that both the visual style and audio style are great, and some of the soundtrack music is fantastic, although I didn't hear the spiffy song from the trailer that really got me going.    A few technical notes on Crunchyroll's release: the biggest being that frequently a long line would be off-center, causing it to cut off on the right side (see above). I could always figure out what the text was, mind, but it was still distracting.   I also wish Crunchyroll could add a few slides at the end of the show for translation notes-- there are several mentions of cool or weird names and jokes and things that are thoroughly missed by a western listener, I think, and it left me curious about them with no way to figure them out, really. It may be that their license doesn't permit for that, however (as it would probably technically be seen as an alteration of the materials).  All in all, this is probably the most enjoyable thing I've watched this year, but it's only January 8th! Still, I expect that this'll be a pretty good romp. Check back in later for a more thorough review as more episodes air!
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