Anime review: Durarara!!

Mikado Ryugamine recently moved to Ikebukuro to attend school with his longtime friend Masaomi Kida. The two kept in contact with one another via a chat room during the years they were apart, and now that Mikado is living in the big city, Masaomi lets his fun-loving side off the chain as he gives his friend a prime tour of the area. He points out all the different people in Ikebukuro that Mikado should consider either befriending or staying as far away from as possible. When a girl named Anri Sonohara catches Mikado's eye, the two boys sport a friendly rivalry over her. Much of what is covered in the first episode seems relatively normal; akin to slice-of-life anime. But it quickly becomes apparent that there are greater forces at work in Ikebukuro - some human in origin, others not.

There are two major story arcs in Durarara!! and one minor one that comes into play during the last few episodes as a means to wrap everything up. The first arc is primarily centered around Celty, the headless rider, as she is viewed by nearly everyone in Ikebukuro as a sort of urban legend. Many have seen her for a brief moment as she speeds by on her motorcycle, but only a select few like Shizuo Heiwajima and her love interest Shinra know anything about her. While Celty is concerned first and foremost with recovering her lost head, her actions indirectly influence those around her. This formula allows the main trio of Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri to round out effectively, and also introduce the supporting cast including Russian sushi chef Simon, former Blue Squares gang members Kadota, Walker, Erika, and Saburo, as well as the complicated relationship shared between Mikado's classmate Seiji and Mika, a girl who is obsessed with him.

Whereas the first story arc sprinkles the fantasy elements throughout, it primarily presents a fictional look at life in Ikebukuro, with a gradual shift from the everyday school and work routine to the influx of gang activity. The second arc explores said gang activity more in-depth, and things eventually come to a head between the Dollars, the Yellow Scarves, and a third group tied to an elusive slasher. There is a much heavier emphasis on dark fantasy elements, and Celty becomes less of a plot device and more of a fully realized character as she wrestles with letting go of her past to lead a relatively normal, human life with Shinra. The pacing slows down, but for the benefit of storytelling. The pool of characters shrinks a bit, with most of the supporting cast taking a backseat to Mikado, Masaomi, Anri, and Celty.

Throughout the entire series, Izaya, an information broker, is shown playing a hodge-podge board game that combines Shogi, Checkers, and Chess onto a single board. Izaya never plays against anyone but himself, and the pieces are clearly meant to represent the major players and gangs in Ikebukuro. Izaya prides himself on his ability to manipulate people and relishes in the results of their interactions. Early on, it is implied that he is at the center of everything, but just what he hopes to accomplish is never fully explained. Near the halfway point of the series, the story seems to direct the focus toward one valuable interest, but as this point is reconciled shortly thereafter just what exactly Izaya gained from the whole scenario is not so much as even hinted at. Thankfully, the other characters see impressive development and stories that come full circle. While some are written out long before the final episode, there is a sense of satisfaction that comes with the closing of each of these individual subplots.

Durarara!! has some solid animation throughout. Environments tend to be heavily shaded, while character models are bright and colorful. Crowds in the background are usually rendered as grey silhouettes with black outlines, unless a large gathering is important to a scene. While this might seem a bit lazy on the part of the animators, it keeps the focus on the main events at hand. As a whole, the animation presents a nice balance of realistic and stylized views of Ikebukuro. The soundtrack is nicely varied, with some loud and jazzy tunes accompanying Shizuo's fights and quiet themes of suspense building the atmosphere of uncertainty about Izaya. A few of the songs are used a tad too frequently, and it would have been nice to hear some variations of songs like the slasher's theme.

Durarara!! does well to balance a number of different genres and as a result carries a unique air about it. There are so many characters at play, but each has their own important place in the big picture, and for the most part they are all quite likeable. Though the story is paced well and most plot points are resolved before the finale, there are a couple of major points left ambiguous, and it feels like the creative staff could have made one more episode to clear those off the record. Still, Durarara!! is a nice blend of real world issues and fantasy elements, and never loses its identity as a fun-filled series.

My rating: 8.25 (out of 10)

Anime review: Spice and Wolf (season one)

“No one knows when the people of this village began to say ‘the wolf is running’ to describe the ripe wheat swaying in the wind. Where e’re the wind lays flat the ears of wheat, they become trampled by the wolf. And should a poor harvest befall, the crops are eaten by the wolf. In the beginning, there was nothing - there was only warmth. And then, a promise was made. The cycle of encounters and farewells continued with favor, until one day humans came to achieve abundance on their own, and there was no need to be faithful to their promise anymore…”

Spice and Wolf takes place during the late middle ages, a time when feudal lords and regional governors control towns and the lands that surround them. The world is becoming more globalized and the nations of Europe have decided to focus more on building up their economies by trade routes than staking claim to resources through means of military prowess. Kraft Lawrence, a travelling merchant, is making a sale in one of his usual towns and visits his friend and fellow merchant Chloe while there. The town is in the midst of an age-old ceremony celebrating another bountiful wheat harvest for the year. The ceremony is based around the folklore of Holo the wolf god, who supposedly once made a deal with the townspeople to give them a plentiful harvest every few years in exchange for years of poor harvest that would follow, in so allowing the land to recover.


Following the ceremony, Lawrence is approached by the real Holo, who has taken on the form of a young woman, though she bears the ears, tail, and fangs of a wolf. Holo explains that the people of the town have become self-sufficient in their farming techniques and no longer require her helping hand. She asks if he would allow her to travel with him so that she might return to her homeland, far to the north. After some convincing that these events are actually occurring, Lawrence agrees to Holo’s wishes, though he makes it clear that his business with other merchants is still priority.

Holo and Lawrence play off each other as a curious dynamic. Holo claims to be very wise in the study of mankind’s nature, though it becomes obvious as the show progresses that she can still further her knowledge of humans. She promises to Lawrence that she will pay him back for any expenses along their journey, and though her words seem empty at first, she proves a useful partner in earning Lawrence large returns on his inventory. Her obsession over apples and occasional over-analyzing of people may be quirky, but Holo keeps her wits about her and is quick to react to when in a dangerous situation.


Lawrence, on the other hand, is an honest merchant who hopes to make a fair share of profits off his items, though he knows this will not be an easy task to accomplish. His years of experience put him a bit ahead of the competition but he is wary of shady traders. He constantly teases Holo, and although he finds her a bit eccentric and perhaps annoying at the start of their journey, he finds her to be an invaluable partner in trading his merchandise and getting out of trouble with thugs.

As for the other characters, the only two of real notable mention are Chloe and Nora, a shepherd who is employed by the church. Chloe’s involvement with Holo and Lawrence is key in getting the first major events of the story off the ground, as it is revealed that she is under the employment of Medio Trading Company, and wishes to turn Holo over to the church after discovering that Holo is a deity. Nora becomes a prominent character late in the first season, as Lawrence pays her to provide them safe passage to Rubenhaigen, where he wishes to sell suits of armor. Nora ultimately becomes involved in a plan to free Lawrence and Holo from a debt they become trapped in, and thus learns how to define herself instead of having others tell her what to do with her life. The rest of the characters in Spice and Wolf don’t play particularly large roles, usually appearing in two or three episodes at most and providing obstacles for Lawrence and Holo to overcome. This allows more development on the major characters, but it would have been nice to see a few more characters of relative importance.


The art style of Spice and Wolf is superb, with bright colors exemplifying the vast open country fields and darker shades setting an uneasy atmosphere for tunnels in the under-cities. Shadows dance off candlelight and the moon blankets the countryside in a cool blue glow. The animators obviously put a lot of time and effort into every scene, as no detail is left bland. The soundtrack is most fitting, with instruments largely comprised of woodwinds and classical strings. The opening vocal theme fits the fairly serious mood of the show much better than the peppy ending theme, the latter of which I found to be rather annoying. While the Japanese voice actors are well-suited to their respective characters, the English voice actors do an impressive job as well. The work done on the English release of Spice and Wolf really shows how much Kadokawa and Funimation have improved their standards in recent years.

There is no filler content in Spice and Wolf, and while it might take viewers a while to catch on to the major story arc, the end result is truly satisfying. It isn’t often that a series can feel action-packed without involving fight sequences or high-speed chases. But that’s exactly what Spice and Wolf does. The series maintains its tense air and espionage style by showing how Lawrence and Holo are able to outwit their foes. The inclusion of an economic learning experience as the series plays out forces viewers to do a little thinking as they watch. Some of the characters could have used a little bit more fleshing out and some episodes are more entertaining than others, but all in all this is an enjoyable series that fans of fantasy, drama, and action series alike can enjoy.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)

Anime review: Samurai Champloo

(Warning: minor spoilers in paragraph seven)

Fuu is a girl who has always dreamed of finding the samurai who smells of sunflowers. She has no means of achieving this goal until two samurai, Jin and Mugen, pick a fight in the restaurant where she works. After rescuing them from execution, Fuu makes Mugen and Jin promise not to kill each other until after the quest has been completed. Fuu is by far the strongest of the three characters and gains the largest focus. She constantly looks towards the prospect of completing her goal, yet is afraid that the friendship she develops with Mugen and Jin might come to an end and she would be left alone.

Mugen is a potty-mouthed wanderer who constantly wants to pick fights with anyone stronger than him. Fighting is all he’s known, so when he first enters the restaurant where Fuu works, he picks a fight with a group who are threatening to cut off her fingers. This is not out of sympathy, but rather from his drive to defeat them. Most of Mugen’s humorous sequences are drawn less out of his actions, but more from the unfortunate situations he finds himself in. Despite this, he manages to keep his head straight and plays things off as no big deal whenever Fuu becomes worried for him.


Jin is the most serious of the three main characters. He is incredibly focused due to his years of training in the dojo, yet he is looked down upon by his fellow samurai for killing his own master. Jin is not the most expressive, but still shows concern for Fuu when she becomes emotional. Jin isn’t often the butt of the joke in Samurai Champloo, rather he consistently dishes insults at Mugen in the midst of general conversation, half of which fly completely past Mugen’s head.

The contrast in Mugen and Jin’s characters plays off one another in clever ways. While some of it is more obvious than others, subtle things, such as their mannerisms or conversations add to the irony of the two samurai working together. This is balanced with more in-your-face and slapstick humor, with Fuu’s unusual eating habits and Mugen’s unfortunate luck with women. All in all, the humor of Samurai Champloo is carried out quite well, though many of the show’s funnier moments occur in the first half, whereas the second half becomes much darker and more serious.

The individual episodes are a mixed bag, with some being absolutely brilliantly scripted and others being mediocre filler. That said, there are no episodes that can really be considered as ‘bad’, but those that are sub-par seem so much less than those that obviously had plenty of thought put into them.


The first five episodes or so are incredibly repetitious, as they involve the typical design of Fuu getting into a spot of trouble, Jin and Mugen trying to kill each other only to find they must begrudgingly work together to defeat a greater foe, and Mugen and Jin inevitably saving Fuu’s hide. This may turn some viewers off from the series, but if they choose to stick with it, the story does play out fairly well in the end.

Late in the series, Mugen and Jin encounter an assassin sent to kill them. This unfolds a story arc that is meant to build until the finale, but is only so effective in doing so. The problem lies in episodes 22: “Cosmic Collisions” and 23: “Baseball Blues”. “Cosmic Collisions” causes Jin, Mugen, and Fuu to become sidetracked and help dig for a long-buried treasure in exchange for a cut of the share from a royal descendant. Things seem out of place to Fuu, and it is revealed that the men digging for the treasure have actually been dead for five-hundred years. The end result is that the royal descendant calls upon a meteorite to strike the excavation site, and the entire episode is passed off as a bad reaction to the mushrooms Jin and Mugen ate at the start of the episode. “Baseball Blues” is a slightly stronger episode, closing up loose ends for a few of the minor characters. This is easily a much funnier episode, but its blatant historical inaccuracies combined with a weak plot makes it seem as so much less than most of the other episodes in the series. Both episodes are used as filler content, but they might not have seemed so weak had the events therein occurred earlier in the series.

Surprisingly enough, the hip-hop tracks work ingeniously with the overarching themes of the series. These are easily most prominent in fight sequences, but still powerful during more calm sequences, such as when Jin reflects on his years training in the dojo. The three major contributors, Nujabes, Force of Nature, and Fat Jon, utilize sounds that are distinctly different, but culminate into a soundtrack that flows together wonderfully.


The art style plays off the soundtrack in more ways than viewers might realize, and vice-versa. While the series does take place in ancient Japan, the inclusion of modern day occurrences, such as urban clothing and graffiti, push this combination to a satisfying peak that is a bit exuberant but not so much that it detracts the focus of the story. The inclusion of beat-boxing only appears in one episode, and is included simply for humor.

Samurai Champloo pokes fun at material both modern day and that of the ancient world. The violent Spanish priest and Hollander disguised as a samurai searching for “manly love” may be a tad offensive, but are clever plays on different cultures, while the interaction between the three main characters boils up a fair share of irony and situational humor. The fight sequences of Samurai Champloo are intricately planned and executed in fluid and interesting dynamics. Things only becomes repetitive on a few occasions, and while some episodes are stronger than others, the overarching story is pretty good. It could have used some finishing touches, but overall Samurai Champloo is one of the better TV-MA action series in anime today.

My rating: 8.25 (out of 10)