“Durarara” on Adult Swim: a 15th Anniversary Retrospective

[RoyalRubble]

From the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com.

"“Durarara” on Adult Swim: a 15th Anniversary Retrospective"​

"Durarara was the very last new anime title to premiere on the dying Adult Swim Action block back in 2011 before it rebranded into the Toonami block, but as far as last hurrahs go, this was a beloved classic of a last hurrah. This title was a strange, quirky title that probably alienated casual, mainstream audiences, but hardcore anime fans absolutely dug the show. The leather clad headless motorcycle rider Celty became an anime icon and a popular character to cosplay at cons. To a lot of casual anime fans, the only thing they know about the show is that it has a sexy headless lady who rides motorcycles, but there are many more aspects of the show worth talking about.

Durarara was one only two anime based on a light novel to air on Adult Swim Action (Trinity Blood is the other title). Said light novel was written by Ryohgo Narita, author of Baccano!. Speaking of Baccano!, the two beloved comic relief bandits from said show cameo in Durarara. It’s kind of a surprise and a shame that Baccano! never got to air on Adult Swim, but that’s a topic for another day. What is Durarara about? Like I said earlier, this is one weird show that is hard to describe."

Click here to continue reading.

 

[Golden Geek]

I thought Durarara!! was super cool when it was on ASA (even though I didn't always follow it) and what I wanted more of on the block - then again, I was ten (yes, it's been that long), and that was because some of the anchors of the block had been there for so long before me they were hard to get into.

Toonami very quickly shifted those hopes and went beyond what anyone imagined in 2011 AS would be picking up in the future. Is it possible we might've seen Baccano! on a continued ASA? It would've even been a solid companion show with Deadman Wonderland.

 

[Conttactt]

This show was actually what got me back into anime after a long hiatus. I was still in high school when this started, and I was deep into an “anime is teh suck” phase because one, liking anime was a social death sentence back then, and two, it was that harsh downturn period for anime in the west where offerings were slim anyway.

I’m not sure what drew me to watch this. I saw the original promo for it on AS, and I just had to tune in. This authors storytelling method is very fragmented and hard to follow, which is what kept me tuning in consistently because I had no idea what was going on and felt the only solution to that was watching more.

I still remember AS airing bumps about how low the ratings for this show were, and how they should just cancel it, so I was always nervous it wasn’t going to finish its run.

Anyway, it’s a shame the Crunchyroll lockout persists, because this authors newest title, Dead Mount Death Play, would have been a decent Toonami pick.