This anime is almost a full 7 years old at this point, but at any rate I just watched it. I don't think anime should be like a lot of things in life that have a shelf life and after are tossed away. So even if it isn't an anime that came out this season I don't think it should deter you from watching it. Join the hype train late. Join it when there's no one on it. Whatever. Anime is about your own preference and finding your own little niche anyways.
So I started this anime after watching a "My Top Favorite Anime" type video as I often find myself doing once I've finished doing work (or before I start my work because haha procrastination). The premise seemed interesting, but I actually stopped watching it for a solid three months. And then I picked it back up. Because although the first episode is convoluted and it seems nonsensical I figured that there must be a reason why so many people like it. Also gang anime. I like gang anime. Fun fact: all my friends are shocked when I say I like some of the gang anime out there because I seem like such a slice of life/shoujo girl and while they're not wrong I do dabble in other genres!!
{Spoilers, probably}
I have to say that at the start it's not very engaging. You might argue otherwise, but my friend and I both agree that the first episode doesn't hook you as intensely because of how rapid-fire it happens and you're kind of lost as to how all the characters are connected. I can't say it gets better right away. There's a lot of double identities, overlapping mysteries, pasts and ties with other people, things of that nature. But I think that's part of the appeal. It's about the mystery and wanting to figure out how all the pieces come together. Oh boy and when they do it's extremely satisfying. I think the best part is the sort of dramatic irony they've got going on where you figure out the puzzle before the characters even do. For example, in the Dollars group chat, at first all of the members are pretty much clueless as to who the others in the chat are except for Izaya but he's special since he's a shady information broker anyways. The most dramatic part of this whole thing though, and what really brings this anime into a multilayered dimension is the fact that the trio that the story revolves around all live double lives. Anri is secretly the mother slasher Saika, Masaomi is the OG literally of the Yellow Scarves, and Mikado is the creator of the Dollars. What's really interesting is when they all get immersed in their separate sects and all wonder about each other. All of them show empathy for the other two and do their best to keep them safe. The situational irony is not lost on the audience.
Besides the complicated relationship between the main three, there's also an overlapping web between the gang members and other characters that are featured. The most overarching one would be Izaya because as the information broker he's closer to the puppet master than any of the others. He's an easy character to hate, but at the same time he's pretty ingenious. The true anomaly is Celty. If you've ever heard of DRRR chances are the first thing that pops into your head is the Black Rider with their cat helmet. She's like the mascot of DRRR I think, or at least the most iconic. She's a bit of a mystery and adds a lot of magical realism to an anime that otherwise would've been more along the lines of a regular crime drama. She also serves as a connection as well as a buffer in between the main trio. It seems like a lot of the adults are more aware of the situation at hand rather than the kids and that serves as another interesting thing to hypothesize about while watching the show. It'd take a long time to go into, but the amount of overlap with all the characters is amazing. Even the ones that only make brief cameos serve a purpose. No one is a filler and that in and of itself is a hard and beautiful thing to master.
I wouldn't say that this anime is for the faint of heart. You definitely have to be ready for some stabbing, some swinging crowbars, slicing cars in half with freeway signs (Heiwajima I'm looking at you), and demon possessions. But it's more suspense than anything that keeps you on your toes. Suspense and uncertainty.
If you didn't get this before when I was doing more of my blurb a few paragraphs up, I really enjoyed the characters. They were definitely different from what I initially thought. Sure, Masaomi was the archetypical perverted jokester, but he's surprisingly protective. He doesn't let that teacher get his way with Anri and he's a pretty respectful kid, gang aside. He's got a moral code and he's a trusting kid, until of course Izaya disturbs him forever because of what happened with Saki. I still can't get over the convoluted way in which it alluded to him having problems with Anri but he apparently loved Saki the whole time. Maybe I just took some signals wrong, but it seemed to me that his relationship with Saki wasn't the best. And oh my goodness when it was revealed that Anri was Saika I died. That was one of the other mysteries that didn't make sense until they revealed it and I audibly gasped. It was great. You wouldn't have expected that. She seemed like such a flat character...until she wasn't. Same goes for Mikado. You never would've thought that he was main character material. He was kind of cowardly, he didn't really assert himself as class rep, more like meandered into it. He moved to the big city almost on a whim and because of Masaomi to make a name for himself. And in the process of revealing his back story he became more than just a flat character turned main character. He's the most relatable to the everyday person. Most everyone wants to be special in one way or another, they don't want to become boring and irrelevant so it's easy to relate to Mikado. At first he appears to just be the guy with the funny name, outshone by his more flirtatious and outgoing friend Masaomi, in fact for a second there it seems like Anri could end up with Masaomi instead of Mikado. But Mikado really pulls through and serves as the kind of norm turned special case character. I could probably go on for days about characters but it'd end up a jumble.
Overall this was a masterpiece. I definitely recommend you watch it even if you don't think it's your style. If anything you'll definitely appreciate the amount of time this took and the complexity that surfaces. There's so much going on and it ties itself into a pretty bow by the end that you can't help but sigh in satisfaction when you're done. 11/10 sincerely
P.S. I don't have any screenshots because I watched this on Netflix and it doesn't let me screenshot heh
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