Even after twenty four episodes, this season seems to still not have any clue on where it wants to go or what the point of making a second season was, well besides a money grab.
Story - 4/10
The story picks up right as the last section left off, but unfortunately they decide not to do much when it came to building the drama and mystery, as we’re quickly given answers and resolutions that make the previous ending feel worthless and disrespectful to the viewer.
On the main storyline front, of Mikado working with the blue squares, there’s pretty much more of the same, with the gang going to beat people up under the guise of cleaning up the Dollars, while Mikado stays inside and watches. They did bring Masaomi back, as he’s started to worry about his friend, and after finding out what’s going on he reforms the Yellow Scarves with the idea he’ll save Mikado by stopping him.
The story of the Yakuza enforcer, Mizuki, ends up being the only real interesting bit over this entire season so far. Through him we learn a lot of important backstory on characters and we get a plot that doesn’t seem forced, or is there just to introduce someone. His thread still has him interacting with some pretty insignificant people, but overall he’s starting to become the only person you actually want to learn about or see on screen.
Once again the show tries to end on a shocking event, to keep you wanting more episodes for answers, but if they treat this like they did the Izaya story, well then it will really show how these writers didn’t care much for the audience.
Too much of this portion of the show is spent on giving episodes and back story to characters that really don’t need it. We get more episodes, that really only contain a few brief moments of storyline, to explore the creepy incestuous desires of Namie Yagira towards her brother Seiji. Another plot revolved around Shizuo’s day collecting money with his new partner Vorona, which felt like a was to give Shizuo some screen time, as he lacks it during most of the rest of the series. Lastly was the addition in the last dozen episodes of Ruri, who they waste a ton of time on with very little importance info being added around her.
There are bits and pieces of important information here and there, but they are hidden under mounds of useless junk, meant to entertain the lowest common denominator of fans.
Animation - 6/10
Nothing is different from the first portion of the show. There are a few costume changes here and there, and characters we know, but at different ages, adds a bit to the artistic side of the show, but that’s not really much.
Sound - 6/10
The opening for this second grouping of episodes was an interesting choice, but one I think worked well. It’s a funky song and reminds me of a song that could have also worked as a good GTO opening. On the other hand the ending is an awful sounding version of bad Japanese emo punk music.
One song that did become prominent in this dozen episodes and caught my ear, because it is just a little riff that sounds like the intro to “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges.
Besides that everything was similar to the first section, so it was overall a mild improvement.
Characters - 5/10
Mikado again is one of the more interesting characters in the show, but for these twelve episodes he has minimal screen time, with only a few key moments. I like how they really keep us questioning what is going on in his mind, and I really hope they don’t skimp on the conclusion to his story, as it has really great potential.
His new buddy Aoba also doesn’t have too much of a story, really just scheming, while making it seem as if he’s doing Mikado’s bidding. Like many of the lead characters in the show, his backstory is almost non-existent, with that time being spent instead on some worthless person that has no barring on anything.
Season one’s co-star, Masaomi, makes a big return during this section, and it could lead for an interesting showdown as the story starts to wrap up. Like Mikado he becomes a character with many more layers than you’d first expect, and I again hope they don’t screw up where they’re going with his arc.
An addition, and back story that actually was well done and built up a good character, was that of Mizuki Akabayashi. For the first time in this second season it felt like someone had a reason to be in the show, and that their storyline could actually prove to be entertaining. His ties also don’t feel forced, and his actions and direction all seem to have meaning to them, instead of just being random nonsense.
Cellty is doing much of the same as she has been; running errands for Izaya, watching out for Mikado, and dealing with Shinra. During their story we do get to learn the origins of the connection between Shinra, Izaya, and Shizuo, as well as the fact Izaya has had a twisted way of thinking for years.
The late focus on the story of Jinnai Yodogiri and his handler, Kasane Kujiragi is another that could either play out in an entertaining way, or just be another plot where they force an ending without actually providing any development, and since they wasted so much time on others they are quickly running out of episodes to do so.
As mentioned in the story section, too many characters were in the show, and given loads of screen time, that just didn’t do anything for the plot. More wasted time on Shizuo’z brother, Kasuka, and his fellow super star Ruri Hijribe, just don’t have any value yet, and they are leading up to some severe disappointment for fans if they don’t connect Ruri, and possibly a few others in the series, to a huge Baccano! plot line. Similarly there was no reason to have an exact replay of the Namie/Mika/Seiji triangle of creepiness, where any needed plot points could have been done in a more cohesive and interesting way.
So many others really just feel left out of this section. Shizuo is around, but nothing he does really plays an important role, he just seems there because he’s liked by fans. Even someone who is so important to the series, like Izaya, just feels like he’s in the shadows giving orders and popping up here and there. They start to give a bit of focus on the van gang, but almost more in passing, as they’ll pop in and make it seem like they’re going to have an important role, but then nothing seems to culminate.
The characters in Durarara were what made the show great, but this season they’ve completely forgot about all of the ones that actually play in to the story.
Overall - 5/10
While we certainly start to move on to “the bigger picture,” this section of the show yet again just seemed like adding more and more backstory to characters that may play in to the final arc, but don’t necessarily need so much time dedicated to them. By spending so much time on dozens of different threads, you can never really pinpoint which are important, but then again that might be the writer’s plans, as the important ones also seem very flimsy, not thought out well, and pretty much have no reason for being.
I think the worse part about all of this is that unlike season one, they have yet to make you actually care about anyone in the story. Even people we knew and enjoyed are just becoming uninteresting, and a waste of time. You can’t lack a good story and having poorly developed characters, while just trying to run on a wacky randomness, and that’s what we’re seeing so far.
Positive Reasons for Score:
* Mikado and Masaomi are becoming more and more interesting and layered characters.
* The addition of Miizuki adds a promising plot line.
* Touching on some of Izaya’s youth was interesting, but left much to be desired.
Negative Reasons for Score:
* They spend complete episodes on throw away characters.
* A number of stories appear to just be rehashes of what we saw in the previous season.
* They’re relying on being erratic, and jumping all over the place, way too much.
Ways to make the show better:
* Tidy things up, focus on who is important and stop jumping all over the place.
* Don’t substitute confusing the viewer, for writing good and complex mysteries.
* Build the back story of those we still don’t know, but who are important, like Mikado and Masaomi.
