[In 500 Words] Durarara!!x2 Ketsu

One way or another, the twisted story of Ikebukuro had to end. After 5-cours and a grand total of 60 episodes not including OVAs, I've watched this tale unravel from beginning to end. The highs, the lows, everything, and honestly, it has been one of the most memorable journeys for me in my time of watching anime. That just comes from how much happened in this franchise and how much there is to talk about, especially in the case of this second season. Durarara has been a fascinating tapestry of the human experience from a humble beginning to this extraordinary ending, an eye-opening commentary on the nature of how people exist within society that ultimately came down to one simple moral expressed through its impossibly insane characters: no one is negligible.
     A bartender knocking on the door of your apartment could end up being a misunderstood monster with incredible strength. The biker that sped by your car on the freeway could be an ancient creature from Irish folklore who presides over the dead. The movie star you see in the latest blockbusters could actually be also the masked serial killer you see in the news. The quiet girl in the back of your classroom could be living a life tortured by visions shown to her by the demon living in her head. And the normal highschool boy you pass everyday in the street desire for the extraordinary could lead him down a path there's potentially no return from.
     Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and I hope you've had a fine day thus far. Today, we finish this 3-part series. Today we finish Durarara, chronologically, if not thematically. If you're just arriving, make sure to check out part 1 and part 2 of this series before you go onto this last part, because once I'm done this final 500-word essay, only the review of the first season remains, where I'll give my final thoughts on this franchise's thematic significance. Right now though, it's time to take a look at how this twisted tale ended, and whether after all of this build-up, Ketsu is worth being called the last chapter of series. Let's get started.


In 500 Words

Durarara always had to begin and end with Mikado Ryūgamine. His search for the extraordinary has been the main thematic pin holding the story of Durarara together since day 1, especially in !!x2, which has made his slow descent into darkness front and center, and Ketsu now has the responsibility to wrap up an epic character arc that has spanned over 60 episodes, along with whatever left over plot-threads have yet to be resolved. I didn't like Ten that much since its sloppy work basically is the reason why Ketsu won't be getting a higher score at the end of this review, but what it did do was let the cream of Durarara's story rise slowly to the top. Put simply, Ketsu is the best Durarara has ever been; a fascinating correlation of the show's insanity with the real human emotion that has made !!x2 so shockingly complicated, and damn do the episodes fly by. You can feel the narrative of what the franchise has built up over the years crash down inevitably on these characters without mercy. Everything is high stakes. Every decision made by every character is going to drastically affect how everything plays out, and in a spiral of emotional turmoil for both the characters and the audience, it's anybodies guess whether this ending will be a happy one.

Ikebukuro spirals further into chaos.

But somehow, even after all this time, it still feels rushed, a fault that can be attributed to Ten not getting the unimportant stuff out of the way first. While Ketsu is mostly brilliantly built-up emotional arcs, it still has to wrap up a ton of loose ends, and doing so takes it a fair amount of time, time that should have been given to the main arcs which we've been waiting 60 episodes to see culminate, especially what can be argued to be the arc of the franchise's main character. And while once we get to end, what transpires is spectacular and satisfying, but really could have been more so if it had just a few more episodes.

The end of his dream.

Let's be straight here, while other important arcs are trivialized, the most tragic is Mikado's. It's his story that has pushed Durarara to its absolute best moments, and in Ketsu, it's best than its ever been, especially in the penultimate episode's finale which is so goddamn amazing that it seemed to me the first time that Durarara had been able to stand side-by-side with its cousin Baccano. If more time had been given to the arc, Ketsu would be no doubt have risen above anything the franchise has accomplished so far, but it simply has a rushed conclusion that stops it from being an incredible finale, a finale which really would have blown me out of my seat. Ketsu is a great ending to to this story, but if a few decisions had been different over the span of this franchise, it may have been able to find a place in my all-time favorites. But it still comes close.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10



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