Durarara!!x2 Episodes 1+ 2

After blogging Akuma no Riddle, Zankyou no Terror, and then FSN UBW, I figured it might make for a nice change of pace if I blogged an anime that I could actually consider good without any significant hangups. I don’t want to do the kind of analysis that Yuribear and Death Parade would require for a proper blogging and I just don’t have much to say about Parasyte, so by process of elimination I’ve decided I’ll be blogging Drrr week-to-week. Admittedly, saying I have no hangups about Drrr isn’t true. Mikado and Anri are fairly useless characters and the entire second half of the first season was pretty disappointing. But because of its eccentric atmosphere and charismatic characters, I still feel safe recommending Drrr to most anyone.And if you’re after charistmatic characters, these first two episodes have them in spades. I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of Izaya and Shizu-chan, but enough interesting new characters have been introduced that it’s fine. Admittedly, I’m not too keen on Emilia’s character right now, as she doesn’t really bring anything new to Drrr’s usually diverse cast. However, the Orihara twins have quite the dynamic going for them. This author’s pretty good at exaggerating personality traits to make them more entertaining, and the fact that the twins are willfully doing this makes them ideal characters for the series. Additionally, I’m finding Aoba’s ability to make such witty retorts when confronted with a group of bullies pretty entertaining.However, I’m a bit concerned by the lack of direction this season is showing. As poor as season one arguably was in the plot department, we still had the search for Celty’s head to tie the series together. We might not have had it by episode two, but I think the first season did a better job of overcoming this deficiency. The second episode felt more like a contained story than part of an ongoing series (after all, the suicidal girl was never prominently featured again), yet the author was still able to introduce Celty and Izaya’s characters. The viewer wasn’t left starving for a conflict, and the main story of Drrr was still advanced.Oh, we have some hints of a plot for this new season. There’s a serial killer named Hollywood and there’s some sort of zombie-like thing running around. Neither of these things, however, relate to our characters as of yet. They’re just random incidents that they happen to be aware of. The only real contender for the main plot would be the hunt for Celty’s true identity. It’s pretty obvious how this relates to at least Celty, and it’s certainly something that could drive a plot.And yet it just doesn’t feel that compelling as a central plot right now. First off, I’m not sure how this is anything new. Supposedly, Celty’s a legend in Ikebukuro, so it’s safe to assume that a great number of people would want to know her identity. Now a rich person wants to know her identity, which is fine and all, but I assumed people were lining up to “unmask” Celty beforehand. Second off, I’m not entirely sure how bad it would be if Celty’s “identity” got out. Everyone saw her headless at the Dollar’s gathering in season one, and yet now she’s afraid of being found out? Yeah, sure, that weird guy’s willing to throw some money around to get Celty into the show business, but we don’t know how sinister he’s willing to let his methods become.To be clear, this flaw isn’t nearly as big as it would be in any other anime. When the charisma of your characters is the driving force of your series, a plot feels more like an add-on than a necessity. I’d still like Drrr to give some focus to its smorgasbord of events, but in the mean time, I’m still entertained.