From the style of the opening sequences to the most impactful of story beats, Durarara
is an examination of sonder - the concept that any random passerby is living a life
as complex and vivid as ones own.
The flow of the narrative itself is enough to make this clear, but the aesthetics portray
this succinctly as well, as those who are not immediately relevant to the story are
greyed out NPCs, not given a face.
Because once they are identified, the mystique is gone.
Something needs to distinguish that the stories presented are just a few of many, and through
leaving most of the populace unidentifiable, this scope and message is maintained.
But sonder is just one primary element of numerous, merging with others to paint a cohesive
thematic picture.
An even more prominent idea here is of the ever intermingling, colliding, evolving nature
of community.
How simple proximity and minimal degrees of separation can make it so that genuine society
can build through the most tangential and mundane of actions.
Culture seems to be this abstract, untouchable concept that one would assume is formed through
careful tradition and gradual development.
But Durarara states that this is not always the case.
It examines how one small action can lead to a monsoon of consequence.
How life is a series of coincidences and how much of a farce history and the present can
really be.
The aura built around the leader of the dollars through word of mouth, the Legend around the
headless rider (epi 4)..
This is not order - it is exaggerated mythos propagated by simple chance and humans doing
what they do.
The essence of this is beautifully organic, the chips falling where they may before our
eyes as the story gains momentum.
It’s nonsense and it suggests that we’re all just colliding into each other as we try
to forge our own path, unaware of how profound our tiny actions end up proving to be.
And Ikebukuro is where is all happens - the variables and moving parts acting like the
beating heart of the city as an entity - simultaneously entropic and uniform.
Character development is interesting in this nArrative in that sometimes the biggest revelation
is these people ending up in the same place they were originally , and all the better
for it.
As communicated through the constantly changing, yet routine-like and cyclical nature of the
plot, the city and characters like Mikado, life is paradoxical at times.
Everything changes, so everything stays the same.
There are those seeking a thrill, those looking for freedom and happiness, the ones simply
wanting to live a functional life, and detached onlookers, active observers emotionally removed
enough to find the whole spectacle as joyous as pure theatre.
With interpersonal intelligence and resourcefulness, someone like Izaya, fixated on chaotic consequence,
can tap into this and giddily start the first domino - using unpredictability to predict
where the interesting things may occur.
Izaya acts as a pseudo choir, his devilish playfulness enticing the audience to check
out how cool this shit is and how much it says about the human condition, society, and
the nature of memetics.
We may not know exactly where we’re headed, but we do know what we want in the moment,
the type of person we aspire to be.
These instincts will guide us forevermore, permanently leaving our mark on the history
of both where we reside and the people around us.
And over time, those marks may grow more bolder than we ever could have imagined.
Many thanks for watching.