Crunchyroll review - A headless fairy and Japanese gang wars

"Durarara!!" is a new masterpiece which combines a motley of unusual characters with a story rich with scientific experiments and controversy.

Produced by the same studio behind "Baccano!", this series has garnered plenty of attention for its fantasy characters. Some possess superhuman strength. Others are involved with genetic mutation experiments. One of them has no head. All of them live in the eclectic Tokyo neighborhood of Ikebukuro, where gang violence runs rampant.

This review covers episodes one through eight. Each episode is narrated by a different character in the series, with each person bringing their own unique characteristics and powers to the story. The series begins behind the perspective of an incoming high school student named Mikado Ryuugamine.

Although he comes from a rural neighborhood, he grows ever intrigued by the fascinating urban legends of Ikebukuro. Certainly the area is a dangerous hot spot for the Japanese color gangs, including an obscure group known as the Dollars.

But the area is also the home of a headless motorcyclist, known simply as Celty. Her background is based on a Medieval legend of the fairy named Dullahan, who carries her head under her arm and rides a headless horse. However, Celty isn't carrying her head anymore, because someone stole it. She's now a mere transporter who rescues innocent people. She's still hoping to find what she lost.

As far-fetched as the entire story is, the pacing of the series is excellent. There isn't any single time where you feel as if the characters are spending too much time in boring conversations. Something suspicious always runs amok in Ikebukuro. Gang members kidnap innocent people. Superhuman characters are battling hordes of gangsters. A sleazy gang boss calls his minions to kill off students.

And even if most of the story involves a bunch of high-intensity encounters with extraordinary fighters, a headless motorcyclist and a Russian wrestler, nothing ever feels wasted. Every event somehow progresses the plot in subtle ways.

This is a unique tale surrounding many people who are trying to discover something they loved which was lost. All the characters are caught in a swirling cloud of mystery, in a neighborhood where anything and everything is possible.

Image courtesy of photobucket.com

Click here to watch the series on crunchyroll.com

Eating Crunchyrolls - Winter 2010

I've been working on a slew of news stories and whatnot, but I should have free time this weekend to write some reviews of anime series on crunchyroll.com, the hottest anime streaming Web site.

Believe it or not, you can watch anime for free on this site, as long as you can stand all the ads which pop up from time to time.

It's a legit streaming site as well. If you want, you can pay a small monthly fee to watch anime at the same time as it is broadcast in Japan. This money will pay the bills of anime companies we know and love.

Right now I'm watching a variety of series. Look forward to seeing some fun reviews of:

"Soranowoto" - People have compared this to "K-On!", because it features teenage girl characters who act really cute. Actually, this is a war story about a girl who is inspired to join the military to play a trumpet. It starts off innocent, but eventually the series includes some frightening moments of post-traumatic stress.

"Hanamaru Kindergarten" - A show about an Dragon Quest 9 addict named Tsuchida, who supervises children at a Kindergarten school. The main story is focused mostly on a girl named Anzu, who tries to get Tsuchida to fall in love with her.

"Durarara!!" - A series set in modern day Ikebukuro, where color gangs are duking it out against each other and yakuza are kidnapping innocent people. An incoming high school student named Ryuugane Mikado is looking for fun and excitement in the city, but he ends up finding plenty of shady, dangerous characters as well.

"Gintama" - In the near future, aliens have taken over the world and samurai warriors are now out of work. However, three samurai are making ends meet, taking whatever odd jobs are available.

So look forward to whatever I think about reviewing next.

Image courtesy of photobucket.com