Anime Club: Durarara

Hello everybody! For this week’s anime club we have the fantastic character driven series Durarara!

DURARARA!

CREATED BY: Takahiro Omori

NO. OF EPISODES: 38

GENRE: Action, Suspense

YEAR: 2010, 2015-

COUNTRY: Japan

Mikado Ryūgamine, a young boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city moves to Ikebukuro to attend Raira Academy with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida, who he has not seen since he was young. After the two meet at the train station, they set out at night to the streets of Ikebukuro. Masaomi warns Mikado about people he doesn’t want to cross in the city, such as the violent and superhumanly strong man Shizuo Heiwajima, the information broker Izaya Orihara, and the mysterious gang known as “The Dollars.”

After running into some of the side characters, Mikado sees a local legend called the “Black Rider”, who rides around Ikebukuro on a black bike that occasionally neighs like a horse, and who is rumored to have no head under her helmet. The “Black Rider” is Celty Sturluson, an Irish dullahan who is in Ikebukuro looking for her stolen head. The narrative follows all of the characters equally, showing how their lives intersect and creating a greater plot line from what each character knows about a common incident.

I decided to give Durarara! after watching the older yet similar Baccano!. As I have not finished the second series yet, this review will only be regarding Durarara!. I actually started watching it, having no real expectation as what I was about to see. The massive amount of characters that each get their own part of the story is phenomenal, I wouldn’t be able to fit all of those characters into one episode. I guess it does help that we are able to see different events in the relative same time period, just changing scene angles. There is so much depth among all of the characters with their backstories and relationships that it is hard to rationalize, but not too hard. Did I mention the animation style? It is very crisp and clean, as well as being well presented.

So far, there isn’t much I can say that I don’t like about Durarara!. While it is indeed helpful, it becomes quite tiresome watching similar events in a handful of episodes. The storytelling becomes a little confusing, but after watching Baccano! I was definitely be able to keep up with it. There are a handful of characters that I didn’t necessarily like, but hey, they serve their purpose and they serve it well.

PROS:

Similar to Baccano!.
Massive amount of characters.
Character depth.
Clean animation

CONS:

Different scene angles.
Story is somewhat confusing.
A few unlikable characters.

SCORE: 8.0 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

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All check out my lengthier video game reviews over at Nerd Bacon Games.

04.08.15

by Señor con Queso

Anime Club: Into the Forest of Firefly Light

Hello everybody! For this week’s anime club we have Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light.

INTO THE FOREST OF FIREFLY LIGHT

CREATOR: Takahiro Omori

STARRING: Ayane Sakura, Koki Uchiyama, Shinpachi Tsuji, Izumi Sawada, Hayat Taya, Kanehira Yamamoto, Masanori Machida, Hiroki Goto, Asami Imai, Mami Uchida, Kumiko Tashiro

GENRE: Romance, Supernatural

YEAR: 2011

COUNTRY: Japan

The original Into the Forest Firefly Light manga and subsequent film tell the story of a six-year-old girl named Hotaru Takegawa, who gets lost in a forest inhabited by a yamagami, or mountain spirit, as well as yōkai (strange apparitions from Japanese folklore). She is found by a mask-wearing, human-like entity named Gin, who informs Hotaru that he will disappear forever if he is touched by a human. Gin then leads Hotaru out of the forest. Hotaru returns to visit Gin in the forest over the next few days and they become friends despite the limitations on their interactions. Although at summer’s end she must leave Gin to return to the city and her studies, Hotaru promises to return to visit him every summer holiday.

As the years go by, Gin hardly ages while Hotaru physically matures and grows closer to his apparent age. Upon reaching adolescence Hotaru begins to struggle with their budding romance and their uncertain future together, while Gin wishes he could touch and hold the young woman that Hotaru has become. When Hotaru reaches high school, Gin takes her on a date to a festival in the forest hosted by the spirits. The night ends in tragedy when Gin mistakenly touches a young boy who sneaked into the spirit festival, though before he disappears, he and Hotaru embrace and confess their love for one another. The story ends with Hotaru accepting her pain and moving on with her life. The 2011 anime film adaptation of the story follows all of the events from the manga, adding only a few additional scenes.

I heard a lot about Into the Forest Firefly Light for its great story, despite it being so short (45 minutes). It was a movie that people deemed was almost equal to others like 5 Centimeters per Second. I finally watched it after my friend pushed and pushed me to see it and I was definitely not disappointed.

While being a bit draggy and short, Into the Forest Firefly Light was still a fantastic movie. I didn’t expect myself to be as drawn in as I was and the final impact of emotions at the end showed me how great of a movie it was. I will NOT forget what this movie did to me. It’s showings of innocent love touched me and I’ll definitely won’t forget it in the future. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys pure romance and won’t mind crying over a little heartbreak.

PROS:

Characters.
Relationships.
Comparative to 5 Centimeters Per Seconds.

CONS:

Overall themes.
Sure, follow the spirit into the forest.
Length.

SCORE: 7.0 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

Remember: Like Media In Review @ https://www.facebook.com/MediaInReview?ref=hl Follow Media in Review @ https://twitter.com/Media_In_Review.

All check out my lengthier video game reviews over at Nerd Bacon Games.

03.04.15

by Señor con Queso

Anime Club: Baccano!

Hello everyone! For today’s anime club we have the multi-story awesome character driven Baccano!

BACCANO!

CREATOR: Takahiro Omori

GENRE: Black comedy, Crime, Fantasy,Romance

NO. OF EPISODES: 16

YEAR: 2007

COUNTRY: Japan

Aboard the ship Advenna Avis in 1711, a group of alchemists summon a demon in the hopes of gaining eternal life. The demon gives them an elixir of immortality and the method of ending their existence, by “devouring” one another, and grants the summoner Maiza Avaro the formula of the elixir. Maiza and most of the alchemists decide that no one else must become immortal; only Szilard Quates opposes. That night, the alchemists begin to disappear, devoured by Szilard. Realizing the threat posed by staying together, they scatter across the globe.

I initially watched Baccano! as a recommendation from my day job as a freelancer over at Watchmojo.com. Lets just say I wasn’t disappointed. I absolutely loved this series, and I would recommend it to anyone. There is a nice balance of interesting story as well as plenty of gore (a kid is murdered at least three times, but don’t worry he’s immortal). There is a massive amount of characters, but this is okay as there are plenty of moments for all the characters to expand and grow. I am not even going to mention the comedy. I was laughing constantly.

Baccano! is incredibly underrated for how awesome the series really is. Despite this, I still have plenty of gripes about it. I initially was confused by the sheer amount of characters, as like I stated above, each one of them get plenty of screen time to develop as full characters. In order to fit all of their stories into a short 12 episodes, they constantly jump between multiple years and can get very difficult to keep track of. This does result in multiple scenes being shown multiple times from different viewpoints.