Durarara!!x2 Ketsu

To begin off, I'd like to point out one thing: Seeing Shizuo ride a bike going over 60 mph in episode 5 made the rest worth it. Although the story was a bit of a turn off because it involved a lot of miscommunication, it really portrayed what lengths people will go to if they truly believe in something, whether it be for good or for harm. I very much recommend this series as something to learn from, because it definitely shows that clear communication of feelings and a sharp understanding of a situation are the most important aspects of today's society.

I just want to say, early 2016 is a year of DRRR's rising when many MAL users have been focusing on a certain time leaping anime, most of them forget this. Durarara!!x2 Ketsu is the 3rd and final sequel of Durarara!!! (DRRR shortly) after DRRRx2 shou and ten. Imagine that DRRR was a Phoenix, DRRR reaches it's peak when around 2010, since many newcomers come one after another, DRRR was slowly buried. At least in 2015 DRRR have it's sequel twice so she slowly rise from the ashes. But the problem is, DRRR rise too slowly and come back to live with more wings than before.Many people confused how much wing DRRR's have in their previous live? Some of them just enjoy the new wing and continue to watch, but some of them are looking to the old wing that they loved before and can't find it. This review aren't suitable for the one who doesn't know DRRR before, they should read the the prequel reviews. But I give some general explanation of it. DRRR are adaptation of light novel by Ryohgo Narita, the story are focused to it's character rather than usual linear storyline. While usually and anime made their MC to be most interesting, yet we see DRRR made their MC just 'normal' character compared to the others. Almost all characters on DRRR were interesting to the extend of no other anime can't mimic it. You can't see characters like Izaya, Shizuo, Celty, and Shinra in your everyday anime. Not to mention some of them aren't even considered human. You can see tons of characters, tons of theory, tons of relation, tons of conflict. One word to describe this, COMPLICATED!. (oh I forgot to said that the OST and BGM are godly present too...) The conclusion is, DRRR have high base value, no matter how the story goes or how many new characters introduced, it would remain the same as DRRR we once loved. For the watchers who come this far, you should now what I mean. So, don't doubt the baby Phoenix who even doesn't fully hatched from her eggs, she has potential to born better than her previous life with more wings, the new one has begun to shine, and the old one can reappear with beautiful feathers than before. In the end when she's reborn, the Phoenix can fly beautifully. DRRR x2 Ketsu have successfully deliver the potential of previous DRRR. Of all the complicated characters and conflict, it didn't lost the purpose of the story : (Mikado - Masaomi - Anri), (Shizuo vs Izaya), and (Celty x Shinra). And what make me satisfied the most is everything was resolved. It's just sad that we can't see DRRR anymore (T^T). Story : 9/10 (Great, everything resolved beautifully) Art : 8/10 (Although slightly below standard of animation nowadays, it's still good) Sound : 9/10 (DRRR sound, BGM, opening, and ending always fun to listen) Character : 10/10 (This is the strongest DRRR point, perfect) Enjoyment : 10/10 (My personal enjoyment of this series is perfect) Overall : 9.2/10 (Great Series) Must watch to everyone who watched DRRR before, if you're open minded person, certainly you will enjoy this.

Durarara!!x2 Ketsu, which I will shorten to DRRR Ketsu, for laziness reasons, was just a bundle of crazy, all over the wall fun. If you have seen Baccano, then would know the same writer of this series Ryogo Narita loves his stories with, no main characters, no real plot, and no real ending; but with that being said we still have major and minor characters, a story that makes senses, and a ending that resolves the book left open. i found that the story effectively intertwined the characters in Celty's literal and figurative spider web, most of the characters were either connected directly to Celty orinfluenced by Celty's unnatural presence, which I found to be very cool. However there are so many motivation and plots they are really easy to lose if you don't pay attention, so you have to be on alert when watching DRRR Ketsu, (Actually all DRRR's). The art and sound, looked and sounded the same from the other Durarara series, which is not a bad thing at all, aside from the the opening which I really enjoyed, but I've enjoyed almost all the DRRR openings. The characters are very diverse, edgy, cool, and very plentiful, but the problem is they are a much too plentiful. i honestly become lost with which character was who and who did what, and why he or she was here or there. The over abundance of characters was too much, but the major major ones I kept track of. I can say I've really enjoyed the ride Durarara has taken me on, and Ketsu did justice to close DRRR out and give the fans a proper not so end, ending. Very happy with DRRR Ketsu and would recommend this anime to anyone.

After six years & sixty episodes (not including specials), Ketsu sees Narita Ryohgo's Durarara (DRRR) adaptation finally come to an end. Director Takahiro Omori's apparently masochistic determination to finish the job with DRRR like he couldn't with Baccano has disappointed many, with interest in DRRR having been deeply eroded by the passage of time & the production & story problems that have dogged X2 from the start. But whether or not there are many people left who wanted it, we finally got an ending: one that we could only hope was better than the wet fart the first series ended on so long ago. As hasbecome expected of DRRR, Ketsu opens by once again dumping a heap of plot points & characters into the first episode & gradually unravelling how they all interact with each other. This has always been a strong point of DRRR &, while Ketsu is picking up pretty much exactly where Ten left off, it still manages to give itself a needed momentum boost in its first couple of episodes to keep viewers engaged as the story finally moves to a finale. The way characters drop in & out of each others orbit as they go about their business in Ikebukuro, never as coincidentally as it might first appear, is what has distinguished DRRR from its competition & continues to do so even at this late stage. Unfortunately, also as has become expected of DRRR, after the first three or so episodes things slow down considerably as the show focuses more on which characters & stories are going to be the most important. Given that this is the final part it's what one would expect to happen, but in doing so it reminds one of one of the glaring problems with DRRR, because once again the focus is on Mikado, Masaomi & Anri, three characters who have long since been eclipsed by the other goings on in the city. While Masaomi trying to save Mikado from becoming embroiled into the goings on in Ikebukuro has been a central pillar of DRRR since it began, it's also a story that has been stuck on loop for almost as long. Ketsu sees the Dollars & Yellow Scarves on what feels like their third showdown as Masaomi once again seeks to destroy the Dollars to free Mikado from their grasp, despite the audience being well aware that Mikado is much more involved than he Masaomi knows. Even if you consider, as I do, Sho to have been in part a ret-con of the ending of the first series, it's hard to not feel so fed up with this protracted plot to the point that seeing it resurrected & resolved again is just frustrating. Meanwhile Anri & her relationship with the demon sword Saika has become entangled in a story so convoluted as to make it hard enough to follow, let alone care. Saika has gone from being, as it were, the physical manifestation of Anri's insecurities from an abusive childhood & the horrific murder-suicide of her parents, to by Ketsu there now being three Saika wielders, one of whom has Spiderman powers because why not, & seemingly everyone in Ikebukuro who isn't a named character being a thrall to one of them. By the time of the big finale Anri's continued “Am I a monster or human?” dilemma feels almost insignificant compared to what's going on around her, while the Saika part of the big event being orchestrated in part by Haruna & Takeshi seems like it happens for the sake of having everyone in one place for the finale. Convoluted is a word that best describes DRRR at this point. Throughout X2 it's been fairly apparent that the mind boggling number of new characters that have been added to DRRR are primarily meant to distract from how the main characters have been stuck in a loop. The end credit character scroll of Ketsu is now so crammed with characters that you need a help sheet to name them all. While some of these characters have been welcome additions, it's hard not to watch all these faces passing by & think “who are these people & why should I care?” Several of those previously important characters, meanwhile, have suffered for DRRR's refusal to end or let them move on. Izaya, who began as the apparent antagonist & scheming mastermind behind everything in Ikebukuro, by the the end of Ketsu just seems like an angst ridden kid. At first, this dressing down of a character who clearly had delusions of grandeur was a welcome turn of events, a reminder that he only seemed a big fish because Ikebukuro is such a small pond. It also played into the overall theme of monsters vs humans & how many in DRRR, Izaya included, were regular people who found themselves in a place where the exceptional & supernatural seemed normal & thought “me too!” Despite that, though, it's hard to really see what the point of Izaya's story was once this change in perspective occurred around the end of Sho; nor does his ongoing fight with Shizuo seem like anything more than a pointless schoolboy feud that continued for the sake of the over the top action scenes it allowed for. Celty, meanwhile, has suffered what one might call the Ned Flanders effect. You don't have to spend long reading opinions on DRRR to see that a lot of fans liked Celty best when she was acting like a flustered girl around Shinra. While this did have the positive effect of humanising an inhuman character, by Ketsu it's been played up to such a point that it's her main character trait. The resolution of her story, finding her head & dealing with the expected fallout from her regaining her memories, ultimately just ends up as serving as a Dullahan ex Machina way to resolve the climax of the series without anybody dying. Those production issues that have been a constant source of comment from the beginning of X2 remain, as well. Indeed, it's so accepted that at this point bringing it up is like beating a dead horse. While Ten fortunately put the low point of missing inbetweens & wonky character art that plagued Shou behind it, Ketsu still looks poor by the standards of its contemporaries. Most notable is the singular inability for the artists to make the 3D backgrounds mesh with the hand drawn characters. At no point does it look like the characters are part of their environment & while to a degree this is a problem that can be found in almost all anime made today, the lower production quality of X2 makes it stand out like a sore thumb. That's not to say everything about Ketsu is a disappointment. While the presence of several of DRRR's better support characters is notably lacking, characters like Erika, Verona & Shizuo continue to have at least some role without feeling token or forced. Not every character resolution feels disappointing, or at least in instances like Celty & Shinra it's hard to see how it could have been expected to play out differently. & even if ultimately Ketsu ends in a surprisingly similar way to the first series, it doesn't feel as much of a cop out as it did then. It's just a shame that so much of the focus of Ketsu, & the resolution of DRRR as a whole, seems focused on characters who, in a sense, have long since been outgrown by the world they inhabit. Indeed, arguably DRRR as a whole long since grew beyond the ability of its author to resolve it in a satisfactory way. Still, at least we got an ending. X2 may have been a let down for many, both in story & production terms, but at least they tried to give DRRR a proper resolution rather than leaving it as one of anime's many half finished casualties of a business model that sees animation as a promotional tie in to another media source. The story may have got convoluted & much of its resolution feels like a disappointment, but at least they decided to stick with DRRR's signature mix of interwoven narratives rather than following Shaft & Oisin's example of dropping the pretence that the Monogatari series is anything more than a series of barely connected short stories that happen to share characters. Indeed, focusing on the individual plot lines in DRRR is to in some ways miss what made it such an engaging series for many of its fans. Like a Jackson Pollock painting, it's not so much the individual trails of paint that you focus on, but instead let yourself be absorbed by the whole. When DRRR was good, it was very good (my arbitrary score for the two series as a whole would be around 7), & while it never transcended to the levels of excellence, at least it could usually claim to be interesting, a claim fewer & fewer anime seem to be able to make as aesthetics & sentimentality become ever more the standard. Alas, to continue with the laboured art analogy, Ketsu is the culmination of what was perhaps DRRR's fundamental flaw: if you mix too many colours, it all ends up brown.

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