Durarara!!

[countfrylock]

during the second half most of the characters got pushed aside =(

[_Star_Wolf_]

I like the second half a little more just because **noel** goes down

[Sketchor]

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countfrylock wrote:

during the second half Celty got pushed aside =(

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Pretty sure that's what you really meant.

I must admit my perceptions of this show were higher when I saw just the first half and the second half didn't quite mesh as well for me. It was interesting in it's own right but it got reaaaaaaaly convoluted in a hurry.

[TheBigOFan72]

In my eyes the second half is better. That's where sh!t got real for me.

[Chappi_The_Rabbit]

The 1st half definitely had most of the characters present for the time and each had their moment to shine, like I really enjoyed the presence of the Van Gang with Kadota being awesome and Erika & Walker's antics, but when the 2nd half comes along, there's still a presence of the major popular supporting cast (Celty, Shizuo, Izaya), but overall the focus went more to Mikado, Kida, and Anri who just weren't that interesting compared to the numerous amount of side characters that get utterly shafted in the 2nd half (the Van Gang's appearance is minimal, we know little to nothing about the Cop, Tom Tanaka, or Simon & his coworker, and even Seiji, Namie, and Mika are cut short). This might have to do with the source material itself, as the novels switch off between a different group of the characters per volume after the 1st one, and the characters that you might have wanted to see more of in one novel have more of a presence in another and whatnot.

[cidthekittyisfun]

yea i agree. the 1st half had alotta fun character development and interaction and seemed to focus on everyone the 2nd half suddenly switches and its about that one trio.. i dont mind that trio...i just kinda wish they didnt seem to forget about everyone else but them >_<

[countfrylock]

it's like watching young justice and expecting to see robin featured a lot....your gonna be disappointed

just as you'll be disappointed if your expecting to see celty featured as the main character in the anime

it seems that way during the first half but during the second half they just focus too much on maosaomi mikado and anri

the three characters i care the least about......

[TheFlawGuy]

I'm back, and let me just put my words in because I HATE this complaint. It's the one complaint I can't stand to see. No, not the second half is worse than the first half. I'm talking about the second half focusing on the boring characters.

Again, I have to ask why people think the second half (and I mean the ENTIRE second half) focused on Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri. The Yellow Scarves arc? Yes. The Slasher arc? No. I seem to recall that focusing on Anri, Shizuo, and Celty. Masaomi and Mikado were barely in that arc. In fact, Mikado was practically non-existent in the entire second half until the last four to five episodes, as he had little screentime and importance. People not thinking that the Slasher focuses on Shizuo as well as Anri just confuses me. The only reason I think people don't think the Slasher arc focuses on Shizuo (despite the fact that his frustration about controlling his strength was a major part of the arc, the entire reason the Slasher army was made was to get to him, the fact that he learned some control, and...seriously, why do people not consider him a main character in the Slasher arc?) is because people think he's a joke character. Why? I don't know.

I honestly think people focus on the three because: they're teenagers and they were the focus of the last arc. In regards to the second half pushing characters aside, I can safely say as a novel reader that ALL the arcs do this. They change main characters and side characters with each arc. While it didn't carry out to anime form completely, each arc focuses on a different set of characters. In fact, the arc that happens after the Yellow Scarves arc...

Spoiler

focuses on Celty, Kasuka, and a new character that I won't name. Most of the other characters show up too, but they're supporting. Another arc focuses exclusively on Izaya, Shinra, and his sisters while Celty is a supporting character. Barely anyone else shows up in that one. The reason that Celty is considered the main character is because she shows up in and plays a part in every arc. None of the other characters, including Mikado and Anri, do that.

Oh, and I should bring up that if you ever find out how to read the Yellow Scarves novel (the third one), it was even more of a letdown than the anime. More than half of it was Masaomi's background, a quarter of it was Celty, Shinra, and Shingen (for some reason, they moved those events to the Slasher arc), and the rest of it was basically Izaya trying and failing to get his war going on. Anri and Mikado literally had no importance in that arc originally. Episodes 21 and 22? Besides Shizuo getting shot and Anri going to Celty's house (after the events of Episode 19), those episodes never existed in the original novel.

[Poke_Nirvash]

While I agree that the first half is better than the second, I have a few points of disagreement with you there, Chaps.

First off, the Van Gang didn't have as much minimal screentime as you think. Hell, when I watched the second half, I saw them appear in almost every episode, and they had plenty of screentime. Whenever I see someone bring up that complaint as a flaw in the second half, I just think to myself: "What."

Second, while Seiji and Mika did have shafted screentime, Namie appeared quite a bit. Simon and his coworker show up quite a bit often as well, especially near the end (loved that scene where Simon punched Izaya). And I have to agree that Tom got very little screentime; I forgot that he even existed.

Lastly... I can't really say whether Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri were interesting characters or not, but they were certainly less interesting than Shizuo and Izaya. And even with their uninteresting-ness, I still enjoyed the second half's episodes.

But my thoughts on the positions? The first  half may be better than the second, but overall the series was fun, exciting, and awesome; the best series I've seen this year. No amount of backlash against the show will falter from my love for it.

[HardcoreHunter]

Yes sad that they dropped the whole celty looking for her head thing.

[itsacoaster]

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_Star_Wolf_ wrote:
I like the second half a little more just because **noel** goes down

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This.

I have no idea how the light novels are written, but it didn't work so well in anime form. Honestly, the first 9 episodes were a complete bore for me, and the series really kicked into gear starting with episode 10. Character development is fine, but only if the show is actually going somewhere. And it was going nowhere. Celty was a bigger focus in the first 9 episodes, but the whole "I'm searching for my head" thing was about as interesting as watching paint dry, and the show was better off when that story was tossed aside in favor of the main character trio.

The second half of the show actually redeemed the whole product for me. The plot became semi-linear again, and there was actually plot development alongside character development! It was pretty entertaining and made it all worth watching. I must admit, during the original run, I gave up after the 8th episode, and decided to catch up when a friend told me that it kicks into gear in the second half. I'm glad I decided to pick it up again.

It felt to me that many of the characters introduced at the beginning were wasted, like they never should have been introduced in the first place. I think it would have been better if the anime were made as more of an adaptation rather than staying faithful to the original stuff. I'm not sure if that's really the case, but that's the way it came off to me.

I'm giving the whole series a 6/10 on MAL. Better than Kekkaishi and worse than Paranoia Agent. I'm tempted to give it a 5 just because I'm so upset over the first 9 episodes, but the home stretch was entertaining enough to redeem it.

[TheFlawGuy]

Actually, the first nine episodes were BECAUSE the anime was trying to be an adaptation instead of staying faithful to the original stuff. If you ever read the manga or the novels, you'll find that it is plot development alongside character development. The anime, for some reason, wanted to introduce all of its characters before going into the story. Maybe it's because Baccano was so poorly received in Japan or something.

Oh, and no one really cared that Rio never showed up again. She was never in the opening, so people knew not to care about her.

[itsacoaster]

Ah, thank you for clearing that up. Either way, whatever they were trying to do didn't work for me until the 10th episode.

[helpme]

the fights and crispin freeman is what made me watch it

if nor for those 2 I would probly bewatching something else

[ben0119]

I was upset that Celty and the search for her head were pushed aside, but I actually was loving the three friends and how their relationship was developing.  However, I about wanted rip my hair out when it turned out that DRRR would dip into the cliche well of "these people are friends but some crazy stuff happened and now there's a misunderstanding and they have to fight each other but they wouldn't if only they knew, Omigosh it's so tragic!"

Ugh... why... why would you do this?  That was why I loved Moribito so much.  There were several instances where the characters could have gone to war with each other, but they just talk it out and explain things, and react like rational, normal human beings.  The fact that the characters didn't react in a cliche and unrealistic, illogical, unthinking manner was a shockingly pleasant surprise.  Just as the decision for DRRR's author to take a story with great promise and do this schtick was shockingly unpleasant surprise.

The idea of the three friends fighting each other for no reason was such a contrivance and one that I hate the most.  It wasted so much time.  I'm glad they eventually figured things out and patched up the friendship, but that BS should never have happened in the first place.  It really is one of the plot cliches of stories that I detest the most.  The idea that these people won't explain things to each other as any real person would, and forcing the audience to feel horrible because of this nonsensical "tragic and unfortunate" misunderstanding.  Grrrr....

Oh, and Celty giving up on finding her head, and shacking up with that deceitful, scheming, greedy, disgusting creep that is Shinra didn't help matters.  She should have cut his head off after she found out what he did.  He doesn't love her, he just wants her to himself.   He's a creep that will do anything to further his sociopathic goals and perversity.  The fact that this wasn't resolved and left to linger as a possibility that Celty might actually forgive and stay with that scumbag is beyond infuriating, to say the least.

[countfrylock]

The whole thing with Saika was never resolved either...are we just gonna be okay with the fact that Anri still has the demonic blade?

[ben0119]

Yeah, you'd think she'd actually want to rid herself of that curse.  I mean, she went through some decent development and I think her mental state was improved, and she came to some understanding about herself as a person and the situation with Saika, and things in general.  But... Anri still has Saika.

If it's one of those things that turns out to be "Oh this is my cross to bear in life, my punishment for being such a horrible person blahblhalbhalhbalhba I'm a self-loathing emo" then I'm going to be even more aggravated.  The scene where Homer Simpson pulls more of his hair out after finding out each of his children are born, comes to mind.

[countfrylock]

also didn't like how they made shizuo more threatening than celty even though celty's a dullahan and no matter his strength shizuo's still a mortal man
celty really didn't get any action time at all....and even when she did she just knocked some people down...we never got to see what her powers could do in combat

[ben0119]

Shizuo was fine the way he was.  I actually felt he was on equal or somewhat lesser footing with Celty, which is alright.  

We know from a few scenes that Celty is badass and has some great special powers and fighting ability, but you're right.  She was extremely underutilized.  Most of what she did involved taking out low-level thugs, saving stupid people, running errands, or being window-dressing for other people's stories.  We never really got to see her go toe to toe with a credible opponent, now that I think about it.  She probably could have taken out all those cops by herself, too.  I didn't get it.

So, I think the issue was that Celty didn't get to do enough, whereas Shizuo got plenty of times to shine and show his stuff, which is why he looked superior, though I don't think this is technically the case.

I imagined that the scene of the headless rider character slicing through the thug with a shadow scythe in Adult Swim's promo for the show was just a teaser of the true awesomeness this character would show, when that was probably the most exciting thing she did in the whole show.  

[countfrylock]

it's just stupid that celty was treated so poorly in the anime....she's the coolest character in the show and she barely does anything at all