I think you disregarded one of the meanings of the Durarara OP. I feel it's not supposed to represent each of the characters, but how all of them are connected without knowing it. The Baccano OP is still better, but I think the Durarara OP is going for something a little different.
***** The Durarara opening shows a lot more about each of the characters than it's being given credit for. Mika has no nametag, establishing her as a mystery, while Seiji appears to care for her while his eyes are completely dead. Namie is angered by his relationship with Mika, and Shizuo is super strong rage guy in contrast with Izaya's cool-headedness. Togusa's rage at his van getting dirty prompts Kyohei to run away, while Walker and Erika smile like the airheads they are. Mikado is shy, Kida is outgoing and flirty, and Anri is content. Simon looks grim at first glance but is actually cheerful, and Celty is what ties everyone together. I'll give it a pass since it was his first video, but this is absolutely dripping with bias. He comments on the fierceness in Firo's eyes, but neglects Mika not being given a name at all, and even though he's apparently great at reading eyes, he doesn't notice that Seiji is basically a zombie.
Nathaniel Bacon I showed DRRR's Opening to my Sister. THEN, I showed her your comment. She BARELY understood anything! Put yourself in the shoe of a new viewer. DRRR's opening fails to catch the attention of a new viewer simply because they don't UNDERSTAND it. The OP also showed us names, and some things about the SOME of the characters. And that's pretty much it. If Openings are meant to be indefinite then they could have shown other things such as Mysteriousness, Sorrow, seriousness, comedy, love or ANYTHING that can catch the viewer's eye through some parts of an Opening.
While Baccano's OP is definitely the stronger of the two, I still think Durarara's manages to convey information and relationships pretty well, at least better than many of the OPs I have seen. I saw Durarara's first, so it blew me away. I will admit Baccano does a way better job, but I still think the former managed to do a job of planting concepts in my brain that I would be discussed further in the show.
Nice analysis as usual :) However, I find that Baccano's and Durarara's openings have different objectives. Like Baccano's OP wants to establish the characters individually while Durarara's OP wants to show the connection between all the characters, without them even knowing it. Just my opinion. I still really enjoyed this though :D
I agree with what you say I think it's better that durarara op transitions aren't like baccano opening because baccano shows its similarities with its characters while durarara transitions are shown through objects but not the way baccano does it durarara is showing more of connections rather than telling or hinting any info about the characters themselves I'm so sorry for this long explanation I'm just agreeing with what your saying
"It makes them seem like just generic anime characters when they are so much more than that." You ever think that was intentional? The show does a good job of trying to convince us of that fact or "normalcy" through the first arc. However as things fall apart and into play we realize there is nothing normal about these people.
Baccano definitely reveals more and is much better designed than Durarara as far as the OP's go, but it seems you may have misinterpreted the purpose of Durarara's OP. In Durarara we see seemingly ordinary individuals on the surface performing extraordinary things in the underside of the city, and the OP simply displays what the common people of Ikebukuro see when they see these people. Celty: Black Biker (actually a headless Dullahan searching for her head) Mika and Seiji: An ordinary couple (bonded by murder and plastic surgery) Namie: a CEO (who has an unhealthy obsession with her brother) Shizuo: a superhuman who tries to destroy this one guy every time he sees him with anything available (... yeah that's pretty spot on) Izaya: a guy easily outsmarting that guy (who's a trolling information broker responsible for almost everything that goes whack in town) Kadota's gang: A few guys hanging around town (Former notorious gang members and currently active Dollars members) Mikado: a timid high school kid (founder of the Dollars and a psycho to boot) Kida: goofball high school kid (founder and leader of Yellow Scarves) Anri: a shy high school girl (possessor of a demon blade. This part is actually a well disguised spoiler since she turns around and "cuts" the screen similar to Chane from Baccano) Simon: a peculiar sushi salesman (former Russian assassin) Shinra: a doctor (underground doctor, to be more precise) Durarara's OP simply shows one face of every one of the main cast to disguise the fact that they're actually something more. Other than that brilliant analysis, especially on everything you said about Baccano! Sorry for the long comment btw
Shizuo isn't spot on. Did you people even watch episode 7 and 17 of the first season?He is something else beneath the surface too. Much stronger emotions and convictions,he is always trying to overcome his rage and hates it also he hates his power. It seems like not only the citizens misunderstand him but also the viewers
Why do people keep undermining Shizuo's character to just "super strong man with anger issues that wants to kill Izaya" he's so much more than that. I could give paragraphs of analysis but I really don't feel like typing that much right now.
Actually, Shizuo is way more than just a guy who wants to kill someone that he hated since Middle or High School. He hates his power and tries his best to overcome that, and be someone that he's not. Basically, Shizuo is more so of a nicer guy than what anyone thinks of him.
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SERIES** Interesting point you bring up about the Durarara!! opening with Anri, Mikado and Kida. You mention that their frames just show them as 'Japanese high school kids being ordinary Japanese kids'. Which...is the exact faces they show each other during the first 12 episodes of the series. At this point, none of them knows each other's secrets and you see that dynamic change in the second opening, which, by then, we definitely know Mikado's secret and come to know Anri and Kida's. If we look at their part in the first opening, from the character's point of view, their frames actually make some sense.
Well you clearly missed some points of explaination and forshadowing for Durarara, also spoilers ahead: The opening is cut to show people that group together, rather than just the whole cast. You see the Yagiri group, the Shizuo group, the Dollars/Otakus, the highschoolers,the russian sushi place, which is the "gathering place" in this series and finally again Celty with Shinra. Now let's go through the introduction: -) The "couple" clearly shows no name for the female(Mika Harima) and stops at the male(Seiji Yagiri). Now Mika doesn't have a name, because it's a mystery, since she looks like the head of the Dullahan/Celty. So the missing name is a clear indication, that something with her is not right, since all other chars have a name tag. Now Seiji looks at first glance like he likes/loves her, but at the same time has cold emotionless eyes. This once again forshadows to a few things. Mainly him being a twisted personality. We then see him talking to the doctor(Namie Yagiri), which indicates, that they have some sort of relationship to each other. At the end she gets mad after he hangs up and throws the phone away. This is once again forshadowing for her sick brothercon personality, which makes her do pretty much everything to win his affection. -) The Shizuo group is exlpained properly. He is strong, Izaya is smart, they fight/hate each other. fine -) Now the Dollars group, which is arguably the weakest form of character introduction here. This shows 2 things: That the dollars are more or less goofballs and happy go lucky people, rather than a serious group. And that the driver(Saburo Togusa) loves his car. This is shown due to him and the car getting dirty and the guy with the cap(Kyohei Kadota/Dotachin), who is the strongest of them, getting scared and running away. The background shows, that the other two(Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa) are airheads, enjoying this more or less dangerous scene. -) Next up are the highschoolers. Now this is the most interesting, but also easily missable part. It shows 3 friends enjoying being together. Then the black haired(Mikado Ryuugamine) gets hugged by the blond guy(Masaomi Kida) and seems happy. But then, only for a few frames and a brief moment, you see sadness in Mikados facial expression. This shows, that something is bugging Mikado. He seems to enjoy being with them and has fun doing so, but something still nags him, which makes him sad, even though it's such an enjoyable moment for him. Later on we get the reveal that he's the founder of the dollars and actually a pretty f*cked up person himself. Then we see goofball Masaomi playing the Jester, which is pretty much him, unless he's fighting. Finally we see the girl(Anri Sonohara) standing a bit away from the boys, hinting at ther shy personality, before she "feels" something, turns around and kind of slices the screen. As later explained, she has the demon blade "Saika" inside of her and is pretty much a monster herself, which the cutting motion indicates. So by simply putting them as "highschoolers" and nothing more, you missed the biggest character introduction in this opening... -) Now we see the russian(Simon Brezhnev), doing what his whole purpose for the most part of the series is. Being a nice guy and handing out flyers. -) Lastly we see the male doctor(Shinra Kishitani), who smiles at the simple life the high schoolers are presumably living, when Celty drives by, once again indicating, that these two have some sort of connection. So yeah, the opening pretty much shows all the major parts of the first season, shows who belongs to which group of people and some hidden stuff about the Opening. Actually I'm kinda sad, that you did such a poor job with this, even though you put so much more effort into the other opening analysises. This seems more like a biased bash on a series, that uses a similar style of opening as another one, instead of actually going into depth...
Yeah what you said about Mikado, Masaomi and Anri is what I was hoping he would talk about. I didn't really think about the Saika bit, and probably self-consciously knew it made sense for her to spin around. Also I don't know what was so bad about Namie's shot, it describes her character perfectly even if you don't know her. She has a facade of meekness when talking to Seiji, but when hangs up, she goes back to being from what we can assume as a jealous and/or more serious person than her brother and doesn't care about him. Even though the last assumption is wrong, the shot clearly states that Namie feels the need to express this personality in her face, even though they're on the phone and can't see each other's faces. This hints that Namie is either really forcing this niceness to Keiji, or it is genuine happiness to talk to Keiji. Also it may just be me, but I feel that Durarara's visuals sync better with it's song than Baccano does. Baccano tries too hard to sync up when pausing to show the character's names and almost feels like it's lagging behind the music trying to catch up with it's catchy chorus. Durarara feels right on the ball with this, and does an especially great job of it in the beginning and the end. Durarara's pauses to show the characters names not only feels to match up with the music but with it's simplicity compared to Baccano at times makes you feel revved up for wanting to know more out of theses characters in a good way. My assumptions for most of Durarara's characters alone were very clear. I will admit that Baccano makes it quite clear who everyone's personality is like and to be able to do that in an intro is a very tricky thing to do right. Why I like Durarara's is because like I said, there's a bit of mystery to the character's mini introductions and misleads what kind of character you thought they'd be. Example, Shinra in every intro always looks like this nice guy you can trust but turns out to be an underground doctor, bit of a perv in a silly way, keeps to himself, and is in love with a headless woman. Durarara is a show where everyone has a story and not everyone is who you think they are from their outside appearance. If you look at the intro in that light, you'll see how it all works.
I think you failed to mention also that Masamoi's title card is yellow, hinting at his affiliation with the yellow scarves, and that Anri's is red, which a rather dark color for the "cute big boobed high school girl" you think she initially is. But other than that, perfect job! I totally agree.
Yeah I didn't even really think about that until now. But I think as long as we have this psychological subconscious feeling when looking at subtle hints like that, we are definitely getting it. Because if Kida's title card was purple or something, as the show goes on, we'd argue that makes no sense when we can see throughout the show he has connection to the yellow scarves. But since it already is yellow, the subtlety goes over our heads and right into our subconscious.
SPOILER Also Mikado's card is blue in every OP except the fourth. Moreover, Mikado has a blue tie, Anri has a red bow while Kida doesn't have a tie or bow.
I think having them appear as "generic anime characters" is the WHOLE point of drrr!!. It's when ordinary people band together, that extraordinary things can occur. Therefore, I will have to disagree with your comparison.
I have to think that Drrr's op is everyday life in the city of Ikebukuro, also the first cour of Drrr is slow paced and the characters don't have anything too complicated to them until later.
Derpy Man I understand that he's just comparing OP's, but you still need to see them in context. An OP is a preview and representation of the show. IMO, Drr's OP does a great job of fulfilling both of these criteria.
+derMemory Yen Press has picked up the novels in hardcover and the first one is set to drop in like May. If you really wanna support Baccano! then support it and pick up a copy.
This video was a little to a lot biased against Durararara!!! I learned a lot from the characters from their expression the EXACT same way I learned a lot from Baccano's op. While I do agree that Baccano's op is better executed. Durarara does not fully pale in comparison. I appreciate your video, but I just cannot fully agree on the points that you have made.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention one of the best parts of Baccano!'s OP: the fact that all of the scenes it shows are stuff that happen "off-camera", but are acknowledged in the show. For example, we see Miria and Isaac preparing for the robbery, without the outfits, and in another scene we see them, in the outfits, with the loot. It just fits in with the whole non-linearity of the show.
+Snowmanne not to mention the only time we see Dallas in the opening is when he's in the Hudson river, something that we never actually see in the show.
I think you missed the point of the Durarara opening. There is information in the opening. But that's not the point. They are just normal people in Ikebukuro. That's the entire point. They are trying to mislead the viewers. The Durarara opening is basically saying "things aren't alway how they seem". Sure at first glance they look normal but they're actually gang leaders, underground doctors , psychopaths, super natural creatures,etc.. Overall, I disagree. The Baccano op and Durarara op had two different goals: one is to give info and foreshadow future events while the other is trying to show that these ordinary people have more to them than meets the eye. That is all. G'day then! I'll be taking my leave before I rant on even more. ^-^
I already heard the sentence "Baccano is order within chaos while Durarara is chaos within order". I agree with that and I think this OP illustrates it perfectly. Sure, Shizuo and Izaya are the most striking characters in the intro, but that's because they are the two who stand out the most with Celty. They are the two Mikado is told from the start to beware. But Durarara's greatness is in hiding extraordinary traits within seemingly ordinary characters. The Dollars don't look like dangerous gang members, the high-schoolers just look like high-schoolers, the doctor looks like a doctor, etc. And the series won't tell us from the start why these characters are important, just to keep an eye on them... If the OP of Durarara was telling us everything about the characters, it would spoil half of the first season. Baccano doesn't have this need, we know from the start that its characters are all amazing madmen, whata interests us is what they do and how they interact. And even with this need for secrecy, Durarara still does an amazing job. This cut of Anri turning away that you criticized is one of my favorite parts of it. She tries to be friend with the two boys, but there is something she needs to hide and that's why she turns away. And the OP actually briefly shows us why since Anri is actually using her saber to slash at the screen, hiding her power in plain sight. I think you misjudged this second OP. Sure, it doesn't manage to do the same thing as Baccano's, but even if they look very similar, they weren't trying to do the same thing from the start. Baccano wants us to wonder "What will happen to these guys?" while Durarara expect us to ask "WHo are these guys in the first place?" since that's a central part of the show.
A summary of more than half of the comments: "While Baccano's OP definitely is better, I liked Drrrr's more because biasness." Now you don't have to read them yourselves.
+Mother's Basement im so glad that i found What's in an OP through the jjba suggested video. although im not an avid anime fan, i really like knowing how about a lot of different things. lol i'd usually like to read the synopsis of a series rather than actually watching it i remember in an audio visual class, we had a similar assignment where we had to dissect the first 5 minutes of a film's cinematography and it was like torture. so props to you, man! even though small details are overlooked by most people, they become ingrained in our sub-conscience. this helps people predict the plot seemingly without actually giving any obvious clues. in effect, it makes the viewer feel smarter and makes the whole experience that much more memorable and enjoyable. so they really do make a difference! drrr is one of the anime that ive actually watched to the very end but i definitely agree that composition-wise, the opening was very much trying to ride on the coattails of Baccano while missing the crucial mechanics of what made it work. as an animation student, i really appreciate that you're bringing awareness to the amount of ingenuity and labour behind OPs. im really looking forward to more of these videos. thank you so much for sharing these!
*** SPOILERS *** The thing about the characters in Durarara is that you're not supposed to "know" the characters from the OP. I feel as though the opening is somewhat trying to mislead us, making us focus on the appearence of the charcters rather than who they truly are. For example with Mikado, we assume he's just a normal high school student when really he is the boss fo the Dollars. Of course we have characters like Shizuo and Izaya who are just striaght up "what you see is what you get" characters but the others aren't which is why I feel such an opening works. That's just my opinion though :)
TreeWithAChainsaw Have "You" ever heard of a review? He spent 5 mins on baccano and did nothing but praise it. While he only spent 3 on DRRR and basically trashed it the whole time. When reviewing 2 shows you're supposed to drag out pros and cons from both. Good reviews have perspective and this one didn't. The authors Narita and Yasuda are known for their perspective writing. Baccano OP shows the chaos when strong individual personalities meet. While DRRR OP shows the connections between all the characters and how they relate. For these shows and their openings you need to dig deeper. This reviewer honestly didn't even try on THE DRRR portion it's obvious that he enjoyed Baccano like most did. So yes I've heard about a review, have you? Oh also I reccomend you watch the reviewer Sayer7mage :) he's great.
But he very clearly discussed parts of the DRRR OP that he thought worked well (e.g. the opening shots of Celty and the shots of Shizuo and Izaya showing their dynamic well). Remember, he wasn't reviewing the shows themselves, just the opening. I think his opinion, whether you agree or not, is that the DRRR OP tells us that characters are connected but doesn't do as good a job of conveying information about the characters -- and that many characters in DRRR have much more depth to them than the opening would have you believe (e.g. Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri). Ultimately though, all I'm saying is that it doesn't really make sense to accuse a review of being biased, since reviews are based on the reviewer's opinion, and are therefore inherently biased. There's no objective measure of what makes something good or bad, it's about justifying your opinion of why you think it's good/bad. And I think it bears repeating that he never said he liked Baccano better, just that he liked the opening better
I completely agree with most things you said, except for the piece about how he gave the DRRR opening a fair shake. I understand that this is just this particular reviewers opinion, I get that. Vague OP reviews may work on other less descriptive anime. However when it comes to both DRRR/Baccano, both anime have deep character development/story building and just by actually watching the openings you can learn so much from them both. This is someone's comment that I saw earlier that goes into detail about the DRRR opening. Well you clearly missed some points of explanation and foreshadowing for Durarara, also spoilers ahead: The opening is cut to show people that group together, rather than just the whole cast. You see the Yagiri group, the Shizuo group, the Dollars/Otakus, the highschoolers,the russian sushi place, which is the "gathering place" in this series and finally again Celty with Shinra. Now let's go through the introduction: -) The "couple" clearly shows no name for the female(Mika Harima) and stops at the male(Seiji Yagiri). Now Mika doesn't have a name, because it's a mystery, since she looks like the head of the Dullahan/Celty. So the missing name is a clear indication, that something with her is not right, since all other chars have a name tag. Now Seiji looks at first glance like he likes/loves her, but at the same time has cold emotionless eyes. This once again forshadows to a few things. Mainly him being a twisted personality. We then see him talking to the doctor(Namie Yagiri), which indicates, that they have some sort of relationship to each other. At the end she gets mad after he hangs up and throws the phone away. This is once again foreshadowing for her sick brothercon personality, which makes her do pretty much everything to win his affection. -) The Shizuo group is exlpained properly. He is strong, Izaya is smart, they fight/hate each other. fine -) Now the Dollars group, which is arguably the weakest form of character introduction here. This shows 2 things: That the dollars are more or less goofballs and happy go lucky people, rather than a serious group. And that the driver(Saburo Togusa) loves his car. This is shown due to him and the car getting dirty and the guy with the cap(Kyohei Kadota/Dotachin), who is the strongest of them, getting scared and running away. The background shows, that the other two(Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa) are airheads, enjoying this more or less dangerous scene. -) Next up are the highschoolers. Now this is the most interesting, but also easily missable part. It shows 3 friends enjoying being together. Then the black haired(Mikado Ryuugamine) gets hugged by the blond guy(Masaomi Kida) and seems happy. But then, only for a few frames and a brief moment, you see sadness in Mikados facial expression. This shows, that something is bugging Mikado. He seems to enjoy being with them and has fun doing so, but something still nags him, which makes him sad, even though it's such an enjoyable moment for him. Later on we get the reveal that he's the founder of the dollars and actually a pretty f*cked up person himself. Then we see goofball Masaomi playing the Jester, which is pretty much him, unless he's fighting. Finally we see the girl(Anri Sonohara) standing a bit away from the boys, hinting at ther shy personality, before she "feels" something, turns around and kind of slices the screen. As later explained, she has the demon blade "Saika" inside of her and is pretty much a monster herself, which the cutting motion indicates. So by simply putting them as "highschoolers" and nothing more, you missed the biggest character introduction in this opening... -) Now we see the russian(Simon Brezhnev), doing what his whole purpose for the most part of the series is. Being a nice guy and handing out flyers. -) Lastly we see the male doctor(Shinra Kishitani), who smiles at the simple life the high schoolers are presumably living, when Celty drives by, once again indicating, that these two have some sort of connection. So yeah, the opening pretty much shows all the major parts of the first season, shows who belongs to which group of people and some hidden stuff about the Opening. Actually I'm kinda sad, that you did such a poor job with this, even though you put so much more effort into the other opening analysises. This seems more like a biased bash on a series, that uses a similar style of opening as another one, instead of actually going into depth...
Also did you even watch the vid properly?? He didn't just trash DRRR's OP you snowflake, he gave credit where it was due & said it had a strong start & finish but a bad middle which, unfortunately for DRRR, is what OPs mainly consist of.
You completely missed the point of Durarara!!!'s opening. The whole point of it is not to tell you the entire story, it's to tell you its metanarrative, and that narrative is that everyone is connected. And it does that flawlessly. When Celty bursts through the window like the badass she is, Mika turns around because she knows she's pursuing her, and Seji turns to comfort his "girlfriend". Afterwards, it cuts to Namie on the phone, showing a relationship between the two, and that something in that relationship is bothering her. It then cuts to Shizuo and Izaya fighting, showing the antagonistic relationship between the two, and then it cuts to the Dollars. It does this to show the relationship between Shizuo and the Dollars. It is deliberately there to feel forced because Shizuo was never really directly involved with the Dollars outside of his association with Celty. Yes, the Dollars are meant to be percieved as goofy, because outside of Kyohei, that's kinda what the Dollars are, they're kids and businessmen. The relationship between Anri, Masaomi, and Mikaru is critical throughout the series, ESPECIALLY in X2. That's why their relationship is shown nothing but chummy in the OP, because that's a key theme. The cut to Simon is deliberate because Simon is just a Sushi Salesman. He is extremely narrow minded in that regard, and his only association with the characters is when they actually show up to Russia Sushi and he gives advice. Shinra's cut is also to show his distant nature from the rest of the cast, as nothing more than a passerby. He doesn't associate directly with the cast, and is only linked with them through Celty, and his association with Celty is shown in the next cut, with the final establishing shot closing the metanarrative together. Honestly, this entire video just sounds like another "It's better cuz it's older" circlejerk. The exact same shit happened with Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill, even though they're basically apples and oranges. The fruit association is as close as you get with them. Same goes for Baccano and DRRR!, and it's even more stupid considering DRRR! IS LITERALLY REFERENCING BACCANO IN THE GODDAMN SHOW BECAUSE THE PASSWORD TO THE GODDAMN DOLLARS WEBSITE IS BACCANO.
Seems like you need a bit of background or have to watch it to get the point of Durarara!!'s OP, considering how much you wrote here. Baccano! gives you a lot of information from the start, or at least a lot of presumptions that hold true as you watch. Durarara!! does about as well, as much as he downplays it, but the connections are more subtle and not as exaggerated, which does weaken them. In fairness, they're both very enjoyable, but Baccano! does have the upper hand; not due to being first, but just the amount of detail that went into the composition and having more interesting, dynamic camera angles. In any case, both are strong openings. What do I know, though? I'm responding to a three year old comment! As for your final comment, both series take place in the same universe and have the same author, as I'm sure you know.
Interesting Break down. I agree that the cuts in Baccano are flawless but I think Durarara has a fantastic opening and doesn't need to show what every character is like. A OP of a show, IMO, is supposed to get you pumped about the show itself. It's the Animes job to tell/show us the characters personality. I think it's annoying when a OP gives away to much. Good Job non the less. I'm interested to see what you do next as some OPs are not a linear as these two.
muffinman5423 I agree that Durarara has a fantastic song, and I absolutely adore some parts of its opening, but in my opinion (and bear in mind I clearly care way too much about this one specific thing) an OP should also encapsulate what a show is about. Not just because it makes the OP itself more entertaining, but because that minute and thirty seconds is often all someone flipping through channels will give a show before moving on. an OP has to be a credits sequence, a music video, and a trailer all rolled into one in order to really benefit its show. I don't think an OP necessarily has to serve up as much information as Baccano's does in one go, but it should connect thematically with the show, and there has to be some weight to - otherwise it just becomes skippable. As for other OPs, some will definitely require a different approach. Not everything works as a comparison, after all. I feel like breaking down NHK, when I get to it, will be a real challenge.
+Mother's Basement Well, can you at least say that the show's second opening is great? It doesnt use cuts as much, but overall it's more revealing of most of the characters, and has one of the best songs ever.
I found Baccano several times more entertaining than Durarara. In fact, I think the only reason I finished the first season of Durarara was because I was waiting for it to get good. I do remember enjoying it by the end, but most of it was a drag.
El Psy I've watched all the seasons of Durarara and I have to say; It's a freaking master piece. First it might seem a bit boring but ffukkk it gets so deep. I also have watched Baccano but Durarara wins in my opinion :'D
Hana c Guess ill have to get round to giving it a try. But just because something may be deep. Doesn't mean its worth shit if it presents itself so poorly.
When you say Durarara is "riding on the coat tails" of Baccano and using nameplates because it worked for Baccano it sounds to me like you're trying to say DRRR stole that idea or copied it and did it bad. The intent of what you say could be different, but that's how I saw it. The whole reason the openings are so similar in terms of large cast display and character nameplates is because the original Baccano and Durarara light novels were written by the same person (Ryohgo Narita) and the Baccano and Durarara anime series were both produced/animated by the same studio (Brain's Base). Also, some characters in the DRRR op DO show personality, just not as bluntly as Baccano does it. Considering Seiji is with Mika (whose name is not shown in the OP, pointing to her as a significant and mysterious character at some part of the story) and he is on the phone with Namie, and we see Namie's serious expression as she hangs up, it shows to people who pay attention that there is a problem between Seiji and Namie (that problem being Seiji is with Mika and Namie wants Seiji for herself, but the exact meaning of that part is left for the anime to fully reveal because that's the point of that part of the plot in the show.) When Masaomi grabs Mikado around the shoulder, it sort of shows that Masaomi is more outgoing than Mikado, and it appears that Mikado is like the one who acts second, like Masaomi is the one who takes the first action. Anri's turning cut (as someone else pinted out) looks like a foreshadowing to her being the wielder of the Saika sword.
I'm sure he is aware that they are created by the same guy since he is aware that the anime adaptions were done by the same studio lol... He meant they were riding on the coat tails of Baccano in the sense that they got lazy with DRRR's OP & it shows. Even with all those points accounted for it does not change the fact that Baccano's OP is far superior at showing the audience its characters distinctly & their relationships with each other/with the story. Durarara's OP is far more generic & shallow imo & they didn't seem to put nearly as much effort into it as they did with Baccano.
You seem incredibly biased against Durarara. If someone turns, you criticise it. Also in my opinion the Durarara opening is not meant to tell you about the characters, If it did it would spoil most of the show. It is meant to show them as generic characters while showing the characters that stand out, e.g Izaya as interesting characters. Just read all the other comments. This was a waste of time, everyone seemed to have already said what I have.
All Durarara OPs are easily superior to me, while they may not tell you much they do get you hyped with excellent music. Baccano is an awesome show but I didn't take any interest in it's OP whatsoever. But yeah I've always cared more about the music than the visuals in OPs so that would explain it I suppose.
+KidSnivy69 It's not like I was trying to state facts. I wrote while using "to me" and "I've" so everyone should be able to tell that I was speaking for myself.
I disagree about one thing you said regarding Durarara. I can't argue about the quality of the OP or its editing. But I think that it's good the OP show you nothing about the characters. Baccano is short, and if we waste too much time in explaining our characters, we miss all the action, so the show use it's OP for that purpose. Durarara is longer, and way more slow-paced, so the show can spend it's time in explaining the characters, and the opening can ignore this issue. However, there is something even important. In Durarara you NEED to not know the characters. Part of the show idea is that at the beginning you THINK Mikado is just a regular high school student, Anri is just shy, Kida is just a funny guy. and so forth. When you see the op, you need to know as little as you can about the characters. Who is this black biker? Why is this guy smiling next to the moon? Why did this girl appear with no name? What connect the group in the van? You need to wander who are this people.
Baccano's OP was made back when they THOUGHT they had 24 episodes to work with, which is why some characters get more billing than the show itself would otherwise warrant (there's also two scenes cut out it, with Chane's slash leading into Maria spinning and twirling her swords before walking over to talk to Tick, which pans around and morphs into Tim talking with Adele before both react to a large explosion that cuts to Jacuzzi and crew's scene in the op). The anime was supposed to cover The Slash Cloudy to Rainy as well as Drugs and Dominoes more closely (including the the Vino vs Assassin Team fight and the confrontation with Gustavo was supposed to happen at the Daily Days), but they got informed after the first episode was already pretty much finished that there had been an error and they only had 13 episodes. Some of the storyboard art even includes Fred (who doesn't even appear in the anime) and Lua talking so her scenes were also supposed to be much more expanded. Jack was also in some of the early story boards, but since Fred was cut, they merged some of Jack's scenes with Nick (though unlike Fred, Jack actually does appear in the anime, with Jacuzzi's crew waiting to board, but they change it so he goes to set up the cargo recovery team instead of getting on the train).
I know you have a line up in mind for 2022, but would you ever consider giving Baccano! an in-depth review? It'd be nice to see you return to the subject of your first video (AKA: why Baccano! kicks ass) after all these years as some sort of anniversary special.
I think you downplayed and missed alot of what was done in durarara!!'s OP. Specifically the anri scene has her turn back to the way they came from signifying a nonspecific facing her past and distress as her past catches up to her. Which I think is intended to be vague as to not detail the slasher and so it can set up the red herring of the creepy teacher. This is actually really important that it is with anri and not the others respective pasts catching up with them as it is Anri's past of involving the slasher that is ultimately the inciting moment to the 3 way power struggle that takes up the second half of the season.
You missed a lot of things in the durarara op such as Celty riding around ikobukra and passing our main characters shows that all the main characters are connected in a way The scene with izaya and shizou show that they both have a distinct hatred for each other The scene with izaya looking sinister as you say also shows him looking over the city Which tells us that he thinks of himself as a higher being The scene with makato and the others shows us that they are all close I can name more but you get the point remake this and actually observe I get the feeling you don't like durarara don't let personal feelings get in the way of making a good video next time ok
I also think that some of the character actions that are a bit confusing to first-time viewers (such as Namie throwing her phone) make more sense once you start watching the series.
Would you be willing to re-evaluate Durarara's OP? I think people have given a lot of examples as to why it works, and I agree with them. Durarara is all about the ordinary becoming extraordinary, and the insane becoming ordinary. Everyone is normal in the eyes of one another, but to others (such as the viewers), they're far beyond ordinary people, and everyone's lives are heavily interwoven in ways the characters don't even realize. Baccano's intention is to impress us, but Durarara wants us to believe everyone is just an average, run-of-the-mill person, just as we see strangers in real life. I personally believe Durarara speaks very true to life. You see someone walk by you in the store and you don't know what their life is. You think to yourself they're just another family man, maybe a teacher. But what you don't know is that perhaps that man is the truck driver that brought you the soda you just purchased. That man could even work at the distribution plant that gave it to the truck driver. The woman at the register might have a sick grandmother who was part of a gang in her youth. A gang that perhaps your elderly neighbor was part of once upon a time, though he never mentions it when you bring him his groceries. If you looked at my great grandmother before she passed away, you never would have known that she had many husbands, one of them abusive, and that she worked in a factory for many years. You would have never known how many trips to Hawaii she took, or how much she loved swimming with the fishes whenever she got the chance. All things considered, especially compared to the rest of my family, my great grandmother had a very exciting life... but passing her on the street, you'd think she was just some milk and cookies grandma who spoiled her grandchildren. And yet, if you went to someplace like Seattle, where violence is common, an exciting lifestyle would seem typical and boring. That's what Durarara is all about.
the characters are just going on about their day not knowing they’re connected that’s the point. Durarara is about the human web and how we all effect each other more than we know.
André M. Well we finally got that special...after we hit 200,000. Well it wouldn't be on the mother's basement channel if it wasn't delayed for quality purposes. not that I'm complaining.
I think it’s pretty insulting to say that durarara was riding Baccano’s coattails. I don’t believe the middle was just filler at all. It’s fine for you to like baccano or think it’s better but keep in mind they are both very different from each other despite their similarities. Coincidences and The world is smaller than you think are very big with the creator. Durarara often uses physical proximity to do the changes between characters to show how often these characters walk by each other in every day life. Anri touching when she turned around and sweet her hand over the camera was to represent the swiping of her blade, Sika. And you seem that introduces the Van gang it’s very clear that kadota is the leader by how cool and confident he is. While not liking something is valid even without a reason it’s sad to see a show that’s so obvious receive unjust criticism.
in my opinion there was some hidden depth to the dollars scene. Erika tosses the drink to Walker showing a connection between the two. She does it while right next to walker making her seem excessive/reckless seeing that it sails past him to Kadota who was quite a distance away. Walker missing the can shows that he isn't all there but is quick enough to spot the can flying past. When the can explodes in the van Walker is happy vs the embarrassed/shocked kadota and the surpised Erika Kadota, catches the can showing his relationship with Erika and Walker as he is always around to help clean up after them. However not everything is cool and calm as situations out of his control cause craziness...and an exploding soda can. also Anri acting weird could be the influence of Saika, As Mikado is someone she might love and Masaomi is basically a emotional barometer for her.
Doc_Ock_Rokc also in the part of Mika and Seiji, you can see that Mika is aware of Celty (the one that Seiji is truly in love, her head) and you can see the scars of the surgery she went into. Seiji looks with a blank face at the face of Mika and then he is interrupted by the cellphone and they make a twist while listening and having a change of face (acting even angry because he's interrupted). Then Namie is happy talking in the phone happily then turn off the phone and she change his emotion and threw it. also Anri turning around because she's the one who reacts better to danger (because of Saika) then they show all what is happening in the show in a fragment, then they show Simon acting like he don't care and just selling his sushi, the kind of attitude he always has. Then they show Shinra the underground doctor, watching from afar the group and they show Celty next (showing a little connection between them), then all the people go to eat there, showing that all of the characters(even the normal people) in Ikebukuro had a connection. I think +Mother's Basement has some bias against Durarara, the analysis on Baccano was flawless, from someone who clearly watched and loved the show, on the other hand Durarara you can note that you are doing and analysis from something you don't like (or not as much as Baccano).
aand the color of each of the 3 main characters has a relationship, Mikado blue (blue's squares future leader), Masaomi Yellow (yellow's scarves former leader) and Anri Red (the Red of the eyes of the people that got possesed by Saika)
Durarara's opening isnt meant to show us who the characters are but instead to show us how the characters are connected, they show this really well through the seamless transitions to each character's personal shot And also the fact that they dont show Mika's name is amazing because it's one of the main mysteries of the first arc
I just found out your channel and while I love every videos of "What's in an OP" series, this is the only one I strongly disagree and think you completely miss the point of Drrr OP.
But isn't it the whole point of Durarara!! that most caracters are supposed to look like normal people? But that everyone of them isn't and has some kind of secret or something that makes them abnormal? I think the Durarara Opening nailed it for their own show. The reason that you think that the Durarara!! opening doesn't work is because you compare it to Baccano! Both shows are really different. :) But that is your opinion ofcource. I'm just saying why I disagree. (Still a awseome analysis though)
I don’t think you gave Durarara‘a opening the careful, open-minded consideration that it deserved. There’s actually a LOT to unpack there, if you look into it a little more deeply. The characters’ actions *do* make sense, and they tell us as the audience a lot about who they are, what makes them tick, etc. I’m not going to rehash and analyse the whole thing, but if you scroll through the other comments people have left, I think you’ll see that there are lots of little moments in the opening that can be analyzed.
Wow, I just found you through a random suggestion on here and I'm really impressed. I looooove anime ops (it's where I've found most of my favorite bands from) and to see someone do a frame by frame analysis of them makes me super happy. Also, anyone who uses Tsuritama footage is a good person to me.
Well I don't think Durarara!!'s OP is bad necessarily, evn quite better than alot of openings, but it does fall short when being compared to the masterpiece of Baccano!'s OP, but does symbolize the show. You didn't really see the point. You were supposed to originally see only the shallow sides of the characters, and it was pushing them as generic. The twist of the show is how strange seemingly normal people can actually be, and how there is always a deeper meaning to what you see of people lives, and how they go through their own realities as the respective main character. Izaya really sums up the meaning of the show, I think, during his tirade against suicide girl.(lol I'm bad with names) Seeing any deeper meaning of these characters would just ruin the twist and feel of the show, and the huge plot turns and chaos it always has. The point of the OP was more to show the unusual connections between seemingly unrelated characters, and how they don't even know themselves their relations. The only characters shown with intrigue, Shizu-chan, Izaya, and Celty, are meant to be shown with something more, hinting to the fact that they become such huge drivers of the plot, and as characters to hook you.They are not for the purpose many others were, because they were never meant to be shown as normal characters. They were always the strange, interesting characters that even in-world were showed to be crazy, unique parts of their realities you don't usually see in real life, the set up cracks in the facade of normalcy. They are what originally hint there there is much more. I think that if looked at with a different perspective, you could see the Durarara!! opening to be a perfect sum up of the show. Even the way scenes cut to each other in the OP, seemingly chaotic and unrelated, alludes to the hugely chaotic climaxes you get in show, where everything comes together on a grander scale in a way you would never expect.
my friend just recently got me into baccano! and we watched until the final 3 episodes of season 1. wanted to show her this video and the audio made me pause and think "this is going to give the wrong impression" so i sent like 5 others videos of your's to her first.
Durarara has many characters that are interesting and very lovable. The story is amazing, many plot twists are well written, and it is humorous sometimes as well. There is many action moments and it does contain quite alot of swears but it is a really great series I highly recommend it is definitely one of the tops on my favorite animes list. I hope this helps, if you have any questions you're welcome to ask! ^.^
I also just wanted to say how much you've positively impacted my experience with anime. I remember watching this and your what's in a op series years ago and it really opening my eyes to how much artistic effort some anime put into their openings. I can still hear the whispers of "watch baccano" years later in my subconscious xD
Damn, while I do think you are looking way deeper into the openings than the average viewer, I really loved this video. You picked up on some amazing subtleties in the Baccano opening that I never even realized and I consider Baccano one of my favorites of all time, I really am astounded by the amount of information shown in Baccanos opening. Great video man, loved it! Cant wait for more!
*SPOILER* I'd also like to add that the switch between the alcohol and the elixir also represents the confusion of which was which at the end of the Baccano!
The DRRR!! OP is supposed to not tell much about the characters. If it did then it would ruin later plot points. Also, I like to think on the better side of things, when the music doesn't match up with the imagery I think that is what is supposed to represent the show's chaos. Baccano did that too; but, with it's music instead. Every show's opening is supposed to have different dynamics that separate them from other shows. The DRRR!! OP hides the character's true selves which can represent a basis for the whole show, (even the main character, Mikado.) If DRRR revealed more about their characters then there would be no gigantic plots twists. You really should watch DRRRx2!! to understand what I'm talking about. (A lot gets revealed in the second season, especially about the main character, Mikado.)
I know that this video is five years old at this point, but I'm compelled to point out that, while "chain" has some *very* good symbolism value, Chané's name is pronounced "Sha-neh". Although Ladd's VA consistently pronounces her name wrong ("Cha-neh") in the dub!
If you want to have a good comparison between ops, make sure you are free of bias. While you did do a good job analyzing Baccano!'s opening, you did not go nearly in depth with Durarara!! Therefore, it was easy to tell you liked Baccano! much more. While that is perfectly acceptable to like Baccano! more, please try to keep your video free of bias. Durarara!!'s opening is also complex if you look at it closely enough. I respect your opinion in this matter, but try to look at Durarara!!'s op as you did Baccano! I think what you find may surprise you. Thank for reading, if in fact you did read.
Did you seriously miss the point of freezing on Mika Harima? It specifically shows the scar around her neck, at the start of the OP with Celty looking around for her head, to indicate something is up. Namie is hardly being "careless" with her phone. She's just letting her emotions overtake her at that moment to contrast the air of a calm professional that she would otherwise give off. Also, I feel the need to point out that Kyouhei is clearly showing any sane person's reaction to messing up Saburo's van. Characters passing soda cans around is a common trope and it's pretty obvious the entire sequence is there to remind you that these otaku nerds are playing up that trope only to be hit by reality. Walker's face is clearly going "Oh? Erika, you're doing the soda-tossing trick?" Lastly, Masaomi working so hard to maintain their fun group dynamic and the other two appreciating that fact to the degree they'd keep their own problems to themselves to maintain the illusion is pretty key to their entire character arc as a unit. Hence the still shot focusing on their smiles. The same thing is used to end on Shinra smiling as Celty's about to pass by before remembering he has to move onto his usual work. This is textbook character mannerisms in a few movements. He loves Celty, is scatterbrained and takes pride in his work.
no offence but as long as drrr's opening song is so kickass makes me melt with awe there's nothing that could ever make me enjoy baccano's op more also, a minor point, but the shot of the doctor tells us a little bit about her - she's warm and smiley when talking to her brother, but the smile fades into a cold indifference as soon as she's done
I absolutely agree with your views of Baccano, however, I think you missed one part of the reason Durarara is the show it is, and why they may have done the op as they did. In the beginning, they try to make the town seem casual, and very gradually build things up to what they are. It would spoil so much to reveal the yagami pharmacy stuff, as well as the fact that those 3 highschoolers are actually leaders of gangs (well... Saika army is different, but let's ust say gang for simplicity). The key to Durarara is it's mystery, and that is exactly why the op is so vague
Great video as always. But for me, the biggest difference between the two openings is how they work in those little recaps. For Baccano, it plays after chane and before nice. The jazzy bgm continues and then, explosion! nice and jacuzzi are introduced with the songs climax. Durara puts the recap between Anri and Simon, the song continues as well, but leaves less impression, because jazz just does a far better job of being background-music. And then we get thrown back into the opening, but not into the songs climax or into a great scene, but into simon handing out flyers, as Durarara's songs only real climaxes are in the earlier parts of the opening, when Celty and Shizuo are introduced. Baccano's recap just makes more sense as well, Durara just gives us some random sequences from a few episodes back, while Baccano always showed what happened just before (or is that wrong? that's how i remember it).
Hey Geoff, what do you think of the 2nd Durarara OP in season 1? Personally I believe that it's an improvement from the first OP both in terms of how smooth the cuts are, and how much it tells you in each scene. It still feels like it tries to hard to take from the style of the Baccano OP, and it doesn't live up to Baccano's but that's a pretty high bar in the first place. But it does a great job at telling us all we need to know in the 1 1/2 minutes that it has especially with the little details, and the song and visuals really fit the feeling of that arc of Durarara. And unlike the first OP, the cuts to other characters dont feel forced.
I've seen both of the series, although I think baccano is the better anime, I consider all of Durarara's ops better than guns and roses. But that's just my opinion
I would definitely say this is probably your worst What's in an OP video. In the Durarara!! opening there is a lot of stuff that shows how the characters are like by their actions/expressions on their faces. And lots of times where you said that cuts didn't sync up to the song, they actually were synced up to the song. Also the OP was mainly showing how the characters all were connected to each other. I do like your content, I think your analysis on OPs are usually amazing. But this video was a big flop. The Baccano! OP is definitely better in my opinion but the Durarara!! OP is good too.
5:05 I beg to differ. I can decipher the characters personalities with those ones you you past by. Celty is determined to get where she's going with little care of those around her. The girl is attracted to Celty for a brief second, teasing the fact that they might be connected, before turning to her boyfriend. He looks at her in bliss before calling the doctor, who's body language suggests she's pleased to help him during the call but when it's over she looks at it in a mixture of sadness and frustration, implying she isn't very happy about something (most likely their relationship) before giving into the frustration and throwing her away. See? And I figured most of that out before watching the show. The simplest of things can say a lot sometimes, you of all people should know that. ;P
Holy shit this is an old one, had no idea it was the first entry in the what's in an op series. I absolutely love it! Also, whatever happened to that gankutsuou what's in an op analysis?
You missed the point of Drrr!'s OP. It was to show that characters group together, in their own worlds(Celty on her bike, Harima x Seiji , Namie off being evil, the Dollars goofing off, and Anri ,Kida, and Mikado being normal teenagers) and then concluding at the Russian hangout place with Shinra and Celty passing by. I find it disappointing that missed this considering what you've done in the past. P.S. HAH fuck you internet, I figured this out after my viewing!
solid analysis. later OPs got better, though, i think. and the EDs flip. granted, neither says a whole lot, but then EDs are rarely terribly complex or busy - i think an understated ED is generally better, anyway. it's a winding down thing, after all. anyway, Baccano!'s ED is a very bland cycle of the characters with very little imagery to suggest anything about them. meanwhile, Durarara!!'s ED still is, in essence, just a cycling through of the cast, but it says quite a bit more - not as much as Baccano!'s OP, to be sure, but that is an OP so apples and oranges. first off, most obviously, Mikado's sitting up on top. being, more or less, the main character, this is an innocuous enough position for him to be the first in frame, but of course there's the symbolism of how he's (at least kind of... certainly, as much as anyone in the first season) the most in-control of the goings on in Ikebukuro. on the flip-side, we have Celty at the bottom, who - at least in relation to each character's goals and such, has the least agency, only being able to chase after intangible leads. still, she's also the base of the stack, and without her, pretty much the entire plot couldn't occur. as for the rest of the characters, their placement roughly corresponds with a chain of relations connecting each character together. with a couple of arguable exceptions, each person is clinging to the character with the most direct relationship with them. and those exceptions can, perhaps, be handwaved as being runners-up as the character(s) that they *would* be most closely related to are more closely related to other characters and so were needed elsewhere in the stack. so, that in mind, a quick rundown: Kida Masaomi, as Mikado's best and oldest friend in Ikebukuro, hangs off of Mikado's leg. his splayed limbs and cheerful expression suggest an outgoing personality with a mischievous streak. Anri clings to Masaomi as our first and most minor case of that "runner-up" connection i mentioned earlier, as Mikado would probably be the more direct connection as they're the two getting ship-teased throughout the series, but Kida is obviously the better choice to be hanging off of Mikado, so... additionally, due to the both of them being pretty introverted and shy characters, they actually don't interact with each other directly that much, especially early on, and the more outgoing Kida does actually act as a bridge for that particular gap, so an argument can certainly be made that this positioning is fitting. additionally, her eyeline kind of seems (to me, at least) to be directed more towards Mikado than Masaomi, so there's that. Simon... is kind of just there. which is true in the show, so fair enough. still, it wouldn't be hard to argue that he could be better suited elsewhere, but nothing really stands out specifically as a better spot. however, given the way that Simon is a common acquaintance who connects even the most disparate of characters, it is fitting that he's the one connecting the main trio to the rest, as they are arguably the most isolated, having the least direct involvement in the various gambits and machinations throughout the rest of the show. they may each set various balls rolling, but for the most part, it takes a while for those balls to actually catch up to them. off of Simon hangs Shizuo and Izaya. Izaya hangs off to the side and isn't really needed to keep the chain going, suggesting his meddlesome nature, involving himself in things that he doesn't really need to be in. additionally, he's positioned above Shizuo, looking down at him, suggesting how he generally has the upper hand in their encounters. in addition to his unfriendly sneer, he's also brandishing a knife - aside from Celty's (non-brandished) scythe, the only weapon in the entire image - which alludes to his villainous role. the way that he's just hanging off there also suggests that he could be - or even go to - anywhere else in the chain, and this also reflects his role in the story, being someone who does just flit around from group to group as he needs to, inserting himself into whatever's going on, and using it only to benefit himself (again, citing the fact that he isn't really helping continue the chain any). Shizuo hangs off of Simon, which makes sense given that those two - out of all the characters in the stack, at least - do have the closest relationship with each other. he looks decidedly angry, which is, of course, understandable to anyone who's seen the show, and the black streak of the background behind his raised foot suggests motion, as if he were kicking at Izaya. however, the way that Izaya's basically standing on it to give himself a higher position in the stack suggests the way that Izaya uses Shizuo's strength against him. next we Kyouhei's gang. Erika and Walker are the ones who link them to the above part of the chain, which makes sense as they are the most outgoing of the group. Kadota appears beneath them with a disgruntled look, suggesting the "grumpy dad" relationship he has with them - often irked, but still helping them out, regardless, because that's the kind of person he is. Saburo tags along behind because... well, he tags along behind (even though he's the actual driver in the gang doesn't mean he gets to drive the plot to any degree). now for the biggest case of "runner-up", Seiji who clings to Saburo's ankle because he need to be in there somewhere in order to continue the chain. then again, i wouldn't be surprised if there's *some* way that connects them, given how many interconnections there were between characters in this show. it's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Anime. anyway, he and Mika cling onto each other, however, while his face shows an expression of utter adoration while staring into Mika's face, he's only got one arm wrapped - fairly loosely, at that - around her, which suggests (albeit in "only makes sense once you already know" sort of way) how he isn't really that attached to Mika beyond her face. Mika, on the other hand, is all over Seiji. granted, he also needed a hand free to join the stack, but nothing says that convenience and symbolism can't coincide. especially when you consider that the next character doesn't actually hang on to anyone. Namie is Seiji's sister, so of course those two are next to each other, but her head also brushes up against Mika's thigh hinting at their passing connection. she's otherwise closed off, not actually reaching out to anyone, which is pretty much her character. then, of course, being his previous employer, she is followed by... Shinra who stands upside down, not only facing Celty and only Celty, the love of his life, but also suggesting how off his rocker he is. still, it's an otherwise natural pose that still obeys its own gravity, so i guess it works for him. and even though he reaches out to her, he still doesn't *quite* touch Celty, which references his own difficulties in pursuing a relationship with her.
I Agree With All The Points Here But Honestly I Think Of Baccano's OP As A Brief Introduction Of All The Characters Just Like It's Mentioned Here But Durarara's OP Is Like A Teaser For What's Going To Happen In The Show
I don't really agree with your assessment of the Durarara!! intro. Baccano!'s entire structure was so different from Durarara!! that comparing how their intros introduce the characters is kind of meaningless. Baccano! starts at the end and then slowly rolls up what happened to bring us there, each of the characters is a genuine mystery, and that is why the intro works. You can hint at things that happen in the future and the viewer can feel clever when they understand the connection. The characters of Durarara!!, with the notable exception of Celty and Shizuo who are clearly gifted with supernatural powers, are introduced to us almost exclusively as normal, or generic people and the intro depicts them as such, to a point where they look kind of boring. I have to wonder, if it was up to you, what should they have hinted at even? Most of the things they could have hinted at would have been massive spoilers for what was to come, and take away from the viewing experience, in my opinion. The second intro for example does a lot more to tell you about the interconnections you as the viewer know about to that point, and I will say I find it kind of unfair to just look at the first one in that regard. Except for Anri turning around suddenly. That's just bullshit.
I've always really liked the Durarara opening, and I still do, but now I do see how the Baccano opening holds up much better. It's actually frustrating, now that I think of it, that the Durarara opening would ride on the Baccano opening's coattails like that. Yes, it is fun even if it doesn't convey as much, and yes, it is fun to see it allude to Baccano, written by the same author. But it only helps people to draw direct comparisons between the two anime, and while they are very similar (the writer has a distinct style of storytelling and a distinct interest in the juxtaposition of gangs and the supernatural), I think that a lot of what people like about Baccano doesn't exactly translate to Durarara. Personally, I enjoy Durarara more than Baccano, not because I think it does anything necessarily better, but because it's different in a way that resonates with me more, and I see far too many people dismissing it as "like Baccano but worse" when it's far more helpful to criticize it as a stand-alone experience. Side note, now that I've looked through the comments, I see that this opinion isn't necessarily unheard of ^_^ or at least the first part. And there is a definite argument to be made that the point of Durarara is more that everyone is an important badass in their own way, even if they seem to be totally normal or uninteresting, in which case the opening does suit it quite well. Still, the fact that it mirror's Baccano's opening style just opens it to comparisons and it definitely fails at a lot of what Baccano does right, despite doing a lot right itself.
I've watched Baccano! a total of 3 times since I stumbled across it two years ago, and I keep finding myself encouraging my friends to watch it. It is definitely my favorite anime.
I can´t really agree as I love both openings but I like Durarara´s OP better. Baccano´s opening is awesome but that what you presented as a disadvantage of Durarara´s OP not telling us anything about the characters is what I actually find an advantage as I was totally curious after watching the opening of Durarara and it was actually the deciding factor of me watching the show. I agree that the transitions are smoother in Baccano but I did not mind poorer quality of a transition between Anri and Simon as animators used that weak point to make a quick recapitulation of last episodes. I do not know how common is that to put a recap into the opening but I really loved that idea. Anyway, great analysis, I really enjoyed it.
Even though everyone already said this, I think you're missing the point of DRRR's OP. But since everyone and their mother has already made paragraph long comments about that, I do have to say this. The transition between Anri and Simon makes way more sense when viewed in each individual episode, because they have recaps in between those parts.
I'd say the song for Durarara is well better than the visuals, but it's well easier on Baccano's part since they're not supposed to hide their personality since the show is all about them while DRRR! IS about depth of characters and the invalidity of assuming who people are and how they react to circumstances based on how they look. It's not an excuse for the DRRR! opening but what would the opening be if not showing off all the initial cast without giving away the perception of innocence or noninvolvement?
Look I understand that you may not like durarara or its opening but I feel like you don't understand the meaning of the opening.The opening isn't supposed to show who the characters are. Its supposed to show the connections that they have between them. More than once in the show they have said something about the city bringing them together in some sort of way. I don't think durarara was coping the other one I think it was something like it withal different construction. And really? Its awful because it doesn't sink up to the music? Really is that what we are doing. Because there are plenty of openings I can get on for that. All because its like it doesn't mean its coping. Not to mention Durarara does it for every opening.
totally disagree ops in drrr are fabulous if you watched the show carefully, these shots do tell anough about their personlity, just like in baccano the only reason i've heard from you is: baccano - look at his/her face expression, it tells us much; drrr - this is the only thing we really get from this scene i don't understand your logic, i think both shows have great ops and are great themselves
One thing: Doesn't the artwork look the same and can people just like what they like. Ankther youtuber mentioned that Durarara is supposed to be a anime where people who seem ordinary come together coincidentally lives in the same city as Izaya that messes everything up. Main thing in durarara is that everyone may seem ordinary but really they all have a story which few people read from.
You do make some good observations but I have do disagree with your opinion on durarara. All the characters are introduced in the opening, and nothing ,or at least very little, about their characters are spoiled for the audience. I'm not a big fan when anime op's give major spoilers
I'm sorry but this video is way off lol. durarara has alot of hidden meanings in the character openings (anri "slicing" the screen, mikado looking sad after masaomi looks away, etc)
I think you disregarded one of the meanings of the Durarara OP. I feel it's not supposed to represent each of the characters, but how all of them are connected without knowing it. The Baccano OP is still better, but I think the Durarara OP is going for something a little different.
+Gametrap still made an afwull jod in that, a lot of scene arent connected, baccano made a better work in that too XD
+Gametrap check out my reply..on MB's first comment lol...... i find spreading good information..to be my top goal, ergo.. why i like his videos.
+miguel com What scenes aren't connected?
***** The Durarara opening shows a lot more about each of the characters than it's being given credit for.
Mika has no nametag, establishing her as a mystery, while Seiji appears to care for her while his eyes are completely dead. Namie is angered by his relationship with Mika, and Shizuo is super strong rage guy in contrast with Izaya's cool-headedness. Togusa's rage at his van getting dirty prompts Kyohei to run away, while Walker and Erika smile like the airheads they are. Mikado is shy, Kida is outgoing and flirty, and Anri is content. Simon looks grim at first glance but is actually cheerful, and Celty is what ties everyone together.
I'll give it a pass since it was his first video, but this is absolutely dripping with bias. He comments on the fierceness in Firo's eyes, but neglects Mika not being given a name at all, and even though he's apparently great at reading eyes, he doesn't notice that Seiji is basically a zombie.
Nathaniel Bacon I showed DRRR's Opening to my Sister. THEN, I showed her your comment. She BARELY understood anything!
Put yourself in the shoe of a new viewer. DRRR's opening fails to catch the attention of a new viewer simply because they don't UNDERSTAND it. The OP also showed us names, and some things about the SOME of the characters. And that's pretty much it.
If Openings are meant to be indefinite then they could have shown other things such as Mysteriousness, Sorrow, seriousness, comedy, love or ANYTHING that can catch the viewer's eye through some parts of an Opening.
While Baccano's OP is definitely the stronger of the two, I still think Durarara's manages to convey information and relationships pretty well, at least better than many of the OPs I have seen. I saw Durarara's first, so it blew me away. I will admit Baccano does a way better job, but I still think the former managed to do a job of planting concepts in my brain that I would be discussed further in the show.
Nice analysis as usual :) However, I find that Baccano's and Durarara's openings have different objectives. Like Baccano's OP wants to establish the characters individually while Durarara's OP wants to show the connection between all the characters, without them even knowing it. Just my opinion. I still really enjoyed this though :D
I agree with what you say I think it's better that durarara op transitions aren't like baccano opening because baccano shows its similarities with its characters while durarara transitions are shown through objects but not the way baccano does it durarara is showing more of connections rather than telling or hinting any info about the characters themselves
I'm so sorry for this long explanation I'm just agreeing with what your saying
+Matthew Cool me too, both anime are really enjoyable! except that I saw Baccano first.
Trash
chong ky I was just thinking this
this guy gets it
"It makes them seem like just generic anime characters when they are so much more than that."
You ever think that was intentional? The show does a good job of trying to convince us of that fact or "normalcy" through the first arc. However as things fall apart and into play we realize there is nothing normal about these people.
Baccano definitely reveals more and is much better designed than Durarara as far as the OP's go, but it seems you may have misinterpreted the purpose of Durarara's OP. In Durarara we see seemingly ordinary individuals on the surface performing extraordinary things in the underside of the city, and the OP simply displays what the common people of Ikebukuro see when they see these people.
Celty: Black Biker (actually a headless Dullahan searching for her head)
Mika and Seiji: An ordinary couple (bonded by murder and plastic surgery)
Namie: a CEO (who has an unhealthy obsession with her brother)
Shizuo: a superhuman who tries to destroy this one guy every time he sees him with anything available (... yeah that's pretty spot on)
Izaya: a guy easily outsmarting that guy (who's a trolling information broker responsible for almost everything that goes whack in town)
Kadota's gang: A few guys hanging around town (Former notorious gang members and currently active Dollars members)
Mikado: a timid high school kid (founder of the Dollars and a psycho to boot)
Kida: goofball high school kid (founder and leader of Yellow Scarves)
Anri: a shy high school girl (possessor of a demon blade. This part is actually a well disguised spoiler since she turns around and "cuts" the screen similar to Chane from Baccano)
Simon: a peculiar sushi salesman (former Russian assassin)
Shinra: a doctor (underground doctor, to be more precise)
Durarara's OP simply shows one face of every one of the main cast to disguise the fact that they're actually something more. Other than that brilliant analysis, especially on everything you said about Baccano!
Sorry for the long comment btw
Good one
Shizuo isn't spot on. Did you people even watch episode 7 and 17 of the first season?He is something else beneath the surface too. Much stronger emotions and convictions,he is always trying to overcome his rage and hates it also he hates his power. It seems like not only the citizens misunderstand him but also the viewers
Why do people keep undermining Shizuo's character to just "super strong man with anger issues that wants to kill Izaya" he's so much more than that. I could give paragraphs of analysis but I really don't feel like typing that much right now.
Actually, Shizuo is way more than just a guy who wants to kill someone that he hated since Middle or High School. He hates his power and tries his best to overcome that, and be someone that he's not.
Basically, Shizuo is more so of a nicer guy than what anyone thinks of him.
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SERIES** Interesting point you bring up about the Durarara!! opening with Anri, Mikado and Kida. You mention that their frames just show them as 'Japanese high school kids being ordinary Japanese kids'. Which...is the exact faces they show each other during the first 12 episodes of the series. At this point, none of them knows each other's secrets and you see that dynamic change in the second opening, which, by then, we definitely know Mikado's secret and come to know Anri and Kida's. If we look at their part in the first opening, from the character's point of view, their frames actually make some sense.
good point
Well you clearly missed some points of explaination and forshadowing for Durarara, also spoilers ahead:
The opening is cut to show people that group together, rather than just the whole cast. You see the Yagiri group, the Shizuo group, the Dollars/Otakus, the highschoolers,the russian sushi place, which is the "gathering place" in this series and finally again Celty with Shinra.
Now let's go through the introduction:
-) The "couple" clearly shows no name for the female(Mika Harima) and stops at the male(Seiji Yagiri). Now Mika doesn't have a name, because it's a mystery, since she looks like the head of the Dullahan/Celty. So the missing name is a clear indication, that something with her is not right, since all other chars have a name tag. Now Seiji looks at first glance like he likes/loves her, but at the same time has cold emotionless eyes. This once again forshadows to a few things. Mainly him being a twisted personality. We then see him talking to the doctor(Namie Yagiri), which indicates, that they have some sort of relationship to each other. At the end she gets mad after he hangs up and throws the phone away. This is once again forshadowing for her sick brothercon personality, which makes her do pretty much everything to win his affection.
-) The Shizuo group is exlpained properly. He is strong, Izaya is smart, they fight/hate each other. fine
-) Now the Dollars group, which is arguably the weakest form of character introduction here. This shows 2 things: That the dollars are more or less goofballs and happy go lucky people, rather than a serious group. And that the driver(Saburo Togusa) loves his car. This is shown due to him and the car getting dirty and the guy with the cap(Kyohei Kadota/Dotachin), who is the strongest of them, getting scared and running away. The background shows, that the other two(Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa) are airheads, enjoying this more or less dangerous scene.
-) Next up are the highschoolers. Now this is the most interesting, but also easily missable part. It shows 3 friends enjoying being together. Then the black haired(Mikado Ryuugamine) gets hugged by the blond guy(Masaomi Kida) and seems happy. But then, only for a few frames and a brief moment, you see sadness in Mikados facial expression. This shows, that something is bugging Mikado. He seems to enjoy being with them and has fun doing so, but something still nags him, which makes him sad, even though it's such an enjoyable moment for him. Later on we get the reveal that he's the founder of the dollars and actually a pretty f*cked up person himself. Then we see goofball Masaomi playing the Jester, which is pretty much him, unless he's fighting. Finally we see the girl(Anri Sonohara) standing a bit away from the boys, hinting at ther shy personality, before she "feels" something, turns around and kind of slices the screen. As later explained, she has the demon blade "Saika" inside of her and is pretty much a monster herself, which the cutting motion indicates. So by simply putting them as "highschoolers" and nothing more, you missed the biggest character introduction in this opening...
-) Now we see the russian(Simon Brezhnev), doing what his whole purpose for the most part of the series is. Being a nice guy and handing out flyers.
-) Lastly we see the male doctor(Shinra Kishitani), who smiles at the simple life the high schoolers are presumably living, when Celty drives by, once again indicating, that these two have some sort of connection.
So yeah, the opening pretty much shows all the major parts of the first season, shows who belongs to which group of people and some hidden stuff about the Opening. Actually I'm kinda sad, that you did such a poor job with this, even though you put so much more effort into the other opening analysises. This seems more like a biased bash on a series, that uses a similar style of opening as another one, instead of actually going into depth...
This is pretty much what I would say if I really had nothing else to do, so I'll just say: I agree.
Yeah what you said about Mikado, Masaomi and Anri is what I was hoping he would talk about. I didn't really think about the Saika bit, and probably self-consciously knew it made sense for her to spin around.
Also I don't know what was so bad about Namie's shot, it describes her character perfectly even if you don't know her. She has a facade of meekness when talking to Seiji, but when hangs up, she goes back to being from what we can assume as a jealous and/or more serious person than her brother and doesn't care about him. Even though the last assumption is wrong, the shot clearly states that Namie feels the need to express this personality in her face, even though they're on the phone and can't see each other's faces. This hints that Namie is either really forcing this niceness to Keiji, or it is genuine happiness to talk to Keiji.
Also it may just be me, but I feel that Durarara's visuals sync better with it's song than Baccano does. Baccano tries too hard to sync up when pausing to show the character's names and almost feels like it's lagging behind the music trying to catch up with it's catchy chorus. Durarara feels right on the ball with this, and does an especially great job of it in the beginning and the end. Durarara's pauses to show the characters names not only feels to match up with the music but with it's simplicity compared to Baccano at times makes you feel revved up for wanting to know more out of theses characters in a good way. My assumptions for most of Durarara's characters alone were very clear.
I will admit that Baccano makes it quite clear who everyone's personality is like and to be able to do that in an intro is a very tricky thing to do right. Why I like Durarara's is because like I said, there's a bit of mystery to the character's mini introductions and misleads what kind of character you thought they'd be. Example, Shinra in every intro always looks like this nice guy you can trust but turns out to be an underground doctor, bit of a perv in a silly way, keeps to himself, and is in love with a headless woman. Durarara is a show where everyone has a story and not everyone is who you think they are from their outside appearance. If you look at the intro in that light, you'll see how it all works.
I think you failed to mention also that Masamoi's title card is yellow, hinting at his affiliation with the yellow scarves, and that Anri's is red, which a rather dark color for the "cute big boobed high school girl" you think she initially is. But other than that, perfect job! I totally agree.
Yeah I didn't even really think about that until now. But I think as long as we have this psychological subconscious feeling when looking at subtle hints like that, we are definitely getting it. Because if Kida's title card was purple or something, as the show goes on, we'd argue that makes no sense when we can see throughout the show he has connection to the yellow scarves. But since it already is yellow, the subtlety goes over our heads and right into our subconscious.
SPOILER
Also Mikado's card is blue in every OP except the fourth. Moreover, Mikado has a blue tie, Anri has a red bow while Kida doesn't have a tie or bow.
I think having them appear as "generic anime characters" is the WHOLE point of drrr!!. It's when ordinary people band together, that extraordinary things can occur. Therefore, I will have to disagree with your comparison.
+Arutemisu Just because they're ordinary doesn't mean they are personnalityless, THANK GOD.
+Senolaps Beffroi Thats not even a word.
You have to remember he's comparing the OPs not the shows themselves
I have to think that Drrr's op is everyday life in the city of Ikebukuro, also the first cour of Drrr is slow paced and the characters don't have anything too complicated to them until later.
Derpy Man I understand that he's just comparing OP's, but you still need to see them in context. An OP is a preview and representation of the show. IMO, Drr's OP does a great job of fulfilling both of these criteria.
I hope Baccano comes back. One day...
+derMemory Yen Press has picked up the novels in hardcover and the first one is set to drop in like May. If you really wanna support Baccano! then support it and pick up a copy.
+Wesley Washington holy crap really??! thats a surprise i'll definitely do that :3
+Wesley Washington I'm so pumped to finally get the light novels officially in english! before, i've only been able to read fan translations online.
Same
This video was a little to a lot biased against Durararara!!! I learned a lot from the characters from their expression the EXACT same way I learned a lot from Baccano's op. While I do agree that Baccano's op is better executed. Durarara does not fully pale in comparison. I appreciate your video, but I just cannot fully agree on the points that you have made.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention one of the best parts of Baccano!'s OP: the fact that all of the scenes it shows are stuff that happen "off-camera", but are acknowledged in the show. For example, we see Miria and Isaac preparing for the robbery, without the outfits, and in another scene we see them, in the outfits, with the loot. It just fits in with the whole non-linearity of the show.
+Snowmanne not to mention the only time we see Dallas in the opening is when he's in the Hudson river, something that we never actually see in the show.
In the first novel Isaac and Miria talked about robbing a candy store. They robbed a candy store in the OP.
I think you missed the point of the Durarara opening. There is information in the opening. But that's not the point. They are just normal people in Ikebukuro. That's the entire point. They are trying to mislead the viewers. The Durarara opening is basically saying "things aren't alway how they seem". Sure at first glance they look normal but they're actually gang leaders, underground doctors , psychopaths, super natural creatures,etc.. Overall, I disagree. The Baccano op and Durarara op had two different goals: one is to give info and foreshadow future events while the other is trying to show that these ordinary people have more to them than meets the eye. That is all.
G'day then! I'll be taking my leave before I rant on even more. ^-^
I already heard the sentence "Baccano is order within chaos while Durarara is chaos within order". I agree with that and I think this OP illustrates it perfectly. Sure, Shizuo and Izaya are the most striking characters in the intro, but that's because they are the two who stand out the most with Celty. They are the two Mikado is told from the start to beware.
But Durarara's greatness is in hiding extraordinary traits within seemingly ordinary characters. The Dollars don't look like dangerous gang members, the high-schoolers just look like high-schoolers, the doctor looks like a doctor, etc. And the series won't tell us from the start why these characters are important, just to keep an eye on them... If the OP of Durarara was telling us everything about the characters, it would spoil half of the first season. Baccano doesn't have this need, we know from the start that its characters are all amazing madmen, whata interests us is what they do and how they interact.
And even with this need for secrecy, Durarara still does an amazing job. This cut of Anri turning away that you criticized is one of my favorite parts of it. She tries to be friend with the two boys, but there is something she needs to hide and that's why she turns away. And the OP actually briefly shows us why since Anri is actually using her saber to slash at the screen, hiding her power in plain sight.
I think you misjudged this second OP. Sure, it doesn't manage to do the same thing as Baccano's, but even if they look very similar, they weren't trying to do the same thing from the start. Baccano wants us to wonder "What will happen to these guys?" while Durarara expect us to ask "WHo are these guys in the first place?" since that's a central part of the show.
A summary of more than half of the comments:
"While Baccano's OP definitely is better, I liked Drrrr's more because biasness."
Now you don't have to read them yourselves.
+WinterWind "Better" is pretty subjective though.
+WinterWind Everything's biasness in the end. Being bias is not a crime, subjectivity is what makes art art.
Obara I only said "Biasness" to sum up everyone's reasons.
+WinterWind "Biasness" is not a word guys!
Miskir Weldezion Did not know that. Thank you I suppose, but I'll leave it anyway.
I've been hit with a copyright claim from Bandai, so if you can't see the video, that's why. I'm working on getting it back up.
Mother's Basement you should make a review to soul eater's op
+Mother's Basement im so glad that i found What's in an OP through the jjba suggested video. although im not an avid anime fan, i really like knowing how about a lot of different things. lol i'd usually like to read the synopsis of a series rather than actually watching it
i remember in an audio visual class, we had a similar assignment where we had to dissect the first 5 minutes of a film's cinematography and it was like torture. so props to you, man!
even though small details are overlooked by most people, they become ingrained in our sub-conscience. this helps people predict the plot seemingly without actually giving any obvious clues. in effect, it makes the viewer feel smarter and makes the whole experience that much more memorable and enjoyable. so they really do make a difference!
drrr is one of the anime that ive actually watched to the very end but i definitely agree that composition-wise, the opening was very much trying to ride on the coattails of Baccano while missing the crucial mechanics of what made it work.
as an animation student, i really appreciate that you're bringing awareness to the amount of ingenuity and labour behind OPs. im really looking forward to more of these videos. thank you so much for sharing these!
+Mother's Basement also, i see that you have sakamichi no apollon in the intro. is it because you thought it was very well made or ...?
thisisnotacat that's the reason. I think it's a solid intro.
+Mother's Basement What do you think for the second op for Durarara
*** SPOILERS ***
The thing about the characters in Durarara is that you're not supposed to "know" the characters from the OP. I feel as though the opening is somewhat trying to mislead us, making us focus on the appearence of the charcters rather than who they truly are. For example with Mikado, we assume he's just a normal high school student when really he is the boss fo the Dollars. Of course we have characters like Shizuo and Izaya who are just striaght up "what you see is what you get" characters but the others aren't which is why I feel such an opening works.
That's just my opinion though :)
EliteMaestro true. I was wondering if anyonewould mention that. It leaves the person surprised as you watch the show.
I like both Durarara and Baccano but this just felt so biased towards Baccano.
...have you never heard of a review before?
TreeWithAChainsaw Have "You" ever heard of a review? He spent 5 mins on baccano and did nothing but praise it. While he only spent 3 on DRRR and basically trashed it the whole time. When reviewing 2 shows you're supposed to drag out pros and cons from both. Good reviews have perspective and this one didn't. The authors Narita and Yasuda are known for their perspective writing. Baccano OP shows the chaos when strong individual personalities meet. While DRRR OP shows the connections between all the characters and how they relate. For these shows and their openings you need to dig deeper. This reviewer honestly didn't even try on THE DRRR portion it's obvious that he enjoyed Baccano like most did. So yes I've heard about a review, have you? Oh also I reccomend you watch the reviewer Sayer7mage :) he's great.
But he very clearly discussed parts of the DRRR OP that he thought worked well (e.g. the opening shots of Celty and the shots of Shizuo and Izaya showing their dynamic well). Remember, he wasn't reviewing the shows themselves, just the opening. I think his opinion, whether you agree or not, is that the DRRR OP tells us that characters are connected but doesn't do as good a job of conveying information about the characters -- and that many characters in DRRR have much more depth to them than the opening would have you believe (e.g. Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri).
Ultimately though, all I'm saying is that it doesn't really make sense to accuse a review of being biased, since reviews are based on the reviewer's opinion, and are therefore inherently biased. There's no objective measure of what makes something good or bad, it's about justifying your opinion of why you think it's good/bad.
And I think it bears repeating that he never said he liked Baccano better, just that he liked the opening better
I completely agree with most things you said, except for the piece about how he gave the DRRR opening a fair shake. I understand that this is just this particular reviewers opinion, I get that. Vague OP reviews may work on other less descriptive anime. However when it comes to both DRRR/Baccano, both anime have deep character development/story building and just by actually watching the openings you can learn so much from them both. This is someone's comment that I saw earlier that goes into detail about the DRRR opening.
Well you clearly missed some points of explanation and foreshadowing for Durarara, also spoilers ahead:
The opening is cut to show people that group together, rather than just the whole cast. You see the Yagiri group, the Shizuo group, the Dollars/Otakus, the highschoolers,the russian sushi place, which is the "gathering place" in this series and finally again Celty with Shinra.
Now let's go through the introduction:
-) The "couple" clearly shows no name for the female(Mika Harima) and stops at the male(Seiji Yagiri). Now Mika doesn't have a name, because it's a mystery, since she looks like the head of the Dullahan/Celty. So the missing name is a clear indication, that something with her is not right, since all other chars have a name tag. Now Seiji looks at first glance like he likes/loves her, but at the same time has cold emotionless eyes. This once again forshadows to a few things. Mainly him being a twisted personality. We then see him talking to the doctor(Namie Yagiri), which indicates, that they have some sort of relationship to each other. At the end she gets mad after he hangs up and throws the phone away. This is once again foreshadowing for her sick brothercon personality, which makes her do pretty much everything to win his affection.
-) The Shizuo group is exlpained properly. He is strong, Izaya is smart, they fight/hate each other. fine
-) Now the Dollars group, which is arguably the weakest form of character introduction here. This shows 2 things: That the dollars are more or less goofballs and happy go lucky people, rather than a serious group. And that the driver(Saburo Togusa) loves his car. This is shown due to him and the car getting dirty and the guy with the cap(Kyohei Kadota/Dotachin), who is the strongest of them, getting scared and running away. The background shows, that the other two(Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa) are airheads, enjoying this more or less dangerous scene.
-) Next up are the highschoolers. Now this is the most interesting, but also easily missable part. It shows 3 friends enjoying being together. Then the black haired(Mikado Ryuugamine) gets hugged by the blond guy(Masaomi Kida) and seems happy. But then, only for a few frames and a brief moment, you see sadness in Mikados facial expression. This shows, that something is bugging Mikado. He seems to enjoy being with them and has fun doing so, but something still nags him, which makes him sad, even though it's such an enjoyable moment for him. Later on we get the reveal that he's the founder of the dollars and actually a pretty f*cked up person himself. Then we see goofball Masaomi playing the Jester, which is pretty much him, unless he's fighting. Finally we see the girl(Anri Sonohara) standing a bit away from the boys, hinting at ther shy personality, before she "feels" something, turns around and kind of slices the screen. As later explained, she has the demon blade "Saika" inside of her and is pretty much a monster herself, which the cutting motion indicates. So by simply putting them as "highschoolers" and nothing more, you missed the biggest character introduction in this opening...
-) Now we see the russian(Simon Brezhnev), doing what his whole purpose for the most part of the series is. Being a nice guy and handing out flyers.
-) Lastly we see the male doctor(Shinra Kishitani), who smiles at the simple life the high schoolers are presumably living, when Celty drives by, once again indicating, that these two have some sort of connection.
So yeah, the opening pretty much shows all the major parts of the first season, shows who belongs to which group of people and some hidden stuff about the Opening. Actually I'm kinda sad, that you did such a poor job with this, even though you put so much more effort into the other opening analysises. This seems more like a biased bash on a series, that uses a similar style of opening as another one, instead of actually going into depth...
Also did you even watch the vid properly?? He didn't just trash DRRR's OP you snowflake, he gave credit where it was due & said it had a strong start & finish but a bad middle which, unfortunately for DRRR, is what OPs mainly consist of.
Your review on Durarara!! was incredibly biased. When you compare something like this, it's important you don't rely on your own opinions.
You completely missed the point of Durarara!!!'s opening. The whole point of it is not to tell you the entire story, it's to tell you its metanarrative, and that narrative is that everyone is connected. And it does that flawlessly. When Celty bursts through the window like the badass she is, Mika turns around because she knows she's pursuing her, and Seji turns to comfort his "girlfriend". Afterwards, it cuts to Namie on the phone, showing a relationship between the two, and that something in that relationship is bothering her.
It then cuts to Shizuo and Izaya fighting, showing the antagonistic relationship between the two, and then it cuts to the Dollars. It does this to show the relationship between Shizuo and the Dollars. It is deliberately there to feel forced because Shizuo was never really directly involved with the Dollars outside of his association with Celty. Yes, the Dollars are meant to be percieved as goofy, because outside of Kyohei, that's kinda what the Dollars are, they're kids and businessmen.
The relationship between Anri, Masaomi, and Mikaru is critical throughout the series, ESPECIALLY in X2. That's why their relationship is shown nothing but chummy in the OP, because that's a key theme. The cut to Simon is deliberate because Simon is just a Sushi Salesman. He is extremely narrow minded in that regard, and his only association with the characters is when they actually show up to Russia Sushi and he gives advice. Shinra's cut is also to show his distant nature from the rest of the cast, as nothing more than a passerby. He doesn't associate directly with the cast, and is only linked with them through Celty, and his association with Celty is shown in the next cut, with the final establishing shot closing the metanarrative together.
Honestly, this entire video just sounds like another "It's better cuz it's older" circlejerk. The exact same shit happened with Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill, even though they're basically apples and oranges. The fruit association is as close as you get with them. Same goes for Baccano and DRRR!, and it's even more stupid considering DRRR! IS LITERALLY REFERENCING BACCANO IN THE GODDAMN SHOW BECAUSE THE PASSWORD TO THE GODDAMN DOLLARS WEBSITE IS BACCANO.
Seems like you need a bit of background or have to watch it to get the point of Durarara!!'s OP, considering how much you wrote here. Baccano! gives you a lot of information from the start, or at least a lot of presumptions that hold true as you watch. Durarara!! does about as well, as much as he downplays it, but the connections are more subtle and not as exaggerated, which does weaken them. In fairness, they're both very enjoyable, but Baccano! does have the upper hand; not due to being first, but just the amount of detail that went into the composition and having more interesting, dynamic camera angles. In any case, both are strong openings.
What do I know, though? I'm responding to a three year old comment!
As for your final comment, both series take place in the same universe and have the same author, as I'm sure you know.
I feel there is bias against durarara
...have you never heard of a review before?
@@TreeWithAChainsaw a trash review, he didn't get ANYTHING from the Durarara Opening
Interesting Break down. I agree that the cuts in Baccano are flawless but I think Durarara has a fantastic opening and doesn't need to show what every character is like. A OP of a show, IMO, is supposed to get you pumped about the show itself. It's the Animes job to tell/show us the characters personality. I think it's annoying when a OP gives away to much.
Good Job non the less. I'm interested to see what you do next as some OPs are not a linear as these two.
muffinman5423 I agree that Durarara has a fantastic song, and I absolutely adore some parts of its opening, but in my opinion (and bear in mind I clearly care way too much about this one specific thing) an OP should also encapsulate what a show is about. Not just because it makes the OP itself more entertaining, but because that minute and thirty seconds is often all someone flipping through channels will give a show before moving on. an OP has to be a credits sequence, a music video, and a trailer all rolled into one in order to really benefit its show.
I don't think an OP necessarily has to serve up as much information as Baccano's does in one go, but it should connect thematically with the show, and there has to be some weight to - otherwise it just becomes skippable.
As for other OPs, some will definitely require a different approach. Not everything works as a comparison, after all. I feel like breaking down NHK, when I get to it, will be a real challenge.
+Mother's Basement Well, can you at least say that the show's second opening is great? It doesnt use cuts as much, but overall it's more revealing of most of the characters, and has one of the best songs ever.
@@mothersbasement Not always. Then what would be the point in watching and finding things out as you go. If OP is not supposed to reveal too much.
No lie tho, Durarara!! kicks all the ass in existance.
I found Baccano several times more entertaining than Durarara.
In fact, I think the only reason I finished the first season of Durarara was because I was waiting for it to get good.
I do remember enjoying it by the end, but most of it was a drag.
El Psy I've watched all the seasons of Durarara and I have to say;
It's a freaking master piece. First it might seem a bit boring but ffukkk it gets so deep.
I also have watched Baccano but Durarara wins in my opinion :'D
Hana c Guess ill have to get round to giving it a try. But just because something may be deep. Doesn't mean its worth shit if it presents itself so poorly.
Yesssss it does my friend
Durarara!! is my fucking life. Dude, it got to me on such a personal and deep level, I fucking love that show.
When you say Durarara is "riding on the coat tails" of Baccano and using nameplates because it worked for Baccano it sounds to me like you're trying to say DRRR stole that idea or copied it and did it bad. The intent of what you say could be different, but that's how I saw it. The whole reason the openings are so similar in terms of large cast display and character nameplates is because the original Baccano and Durarara light novels were written by the same person (Ryohgo Narita) and the Baccano and Durarara anime series were both produced/animated by the same studio (Brain's Base). Also, some characters in the DRRR op DO show personality, just not as bluntly as Baccano does it. Considering Seiji is with Mika (whose name is not shown in the OP, pointing to her as a significant and mysterious character at some part of the story) and he is on the phone with Namie, and we see Namie's serious expression as she hangs up, it shows to people who pay attention that there is a problem between Seiji and Namie (that problem being Seiji is with Mika and Namie wants Seiji for herself, but the exact meaning of that part is left for the anime to fully reveal because that's the point of that part of the plot in the show.) When Masaomi grabs Mikado around the shoulder, it sort of shows that Masaomi is more outgoing than Mikado, and it appears that Mikado is like the one who acts second, like Masaomi is the one who takes the first action. Anri's turning cut (as someone else pinted out) looks like a foreshadowing to her being the wielder of the Saika sword.
I'm sure he is aware that they are created by the same guy since he is aware that the anime adaptions were done by the same studio lol... He meant they were riding on the coat tails of Baccano in the sense that they got lazy with DRRR's OP & it shows. Even with all those points accounted for it does not change the fact that Baccano's OP is far superior at showing the audience its characters distinctly & their relationships with each other/with the story. Durarara's OP is far more generic & shallow imo & they didn't seem to put nearly as much effort into it as they did with Baccano.
Durarara in a nutshell: this guy knows that guy because he's friends with the guy that knows that guy.
You seem incredibly biased against Durarara. If someone turns, you criticise it. Also in my opinion the Durarara opening is not meant to tell you about the characters, If it did it would spoil most of the show. It is meant to show them as generic characters while showing the characters that stand out, e.g Izaya as interesting characters.
Just read all the other comments. This was a waste of time, everyone seemed to have already said what I have.
Man I was shocked that your first video was a fucking op comparison
All Durarara OPs are easily superior to me, while they may not tell you much they do get you hyped with excellent music.
Baccano is an awesome show but I didn't take any interest in it's OP whatsoever.
But yeah I've always cared more about the music than the visuals in OPs so that would explain it I suppose.
That's more opinionated
+KidSnivy69 Isn't everything outside of science?
Willian Gabriel This guy doesn't seem to understand that
+KidSnivy69 It's not like I was trying to state facts. I wrote while using "to me" and "I've" so everyone should be able to tell that I was speaking for myself.
Ah, so this was his first video.
I disagree about one thing you said regarding Durarara. I can't argue about the quality of the OP or its editing. But I think that it's good the OP show you nothing about the characters.
Baccano is short, and if we waste too much time in explaining our characters, we miss all the action, so the show use it's OP for that purpose. Durarara is longer, and way more slow-paced, so the show can spend it's time in explaining the characters, and the opening can ignore this issue.
However, there is something even important. In Durarara you NEED to not know the characters. Part of the show idea is that at the beginning you THINK Mikado is just a regular high school student, Anri is just shy, Kida is just a funny guy. and so forth.
When you see the op, you need to know as little as you can about the characters. Who is this black biker? Why is this guy smiling next to the moon? Why did this girl appear with no name? What connect the group in the van? You need to wander who are this people.
Baccano's OP was made back when they THOUGHT they had 24 episodes to work with, which is why some characters get more billing than the show itself would otherwise warrant (there's also two scenes cut out it, with Chane's slash leading into Maria spinning and twirling her swords before walking over to talk to Tick, which pans around and morphs into Tim talking with Adele before both react to a large explosion that cuts to Jacuzzi and crew's scene in the op).
The anime was supposed to cover The Slash Cloudy to Rainy as well as Drugs and Dominoes more closely (including the the Vino vs Assassin Team fight and the confrontation with Gustavo was supposed to happen at the Daily Days), but they got informed after the first episode was already pretty much finished that there had been an error and they only had 13 episodes.
Some of the storyboard art even includes Fred (who doesn't even appear in the anime) and Lua talking so her scenes were also supposed to be much more expanded. Jack was also in some of the early story boards, but since Fred was cut, they merged some of Jack's scenes with Nick (though unlike Fred, Jack actually does appear in the anime, with Jacuzzi's crew waiting to board, but they change it so he goes to set up the cargo recovery team instead of getting on the train).
I know you have a line up in mind for 2022, but would you ever consider giving Baccano! an in-depth review? It'd be nice to see you return to the subject of your first video (AKA: why Baccano! kicks ass) after all these years as some sort of anniversary special.
I think you downplayed and missed alot of what was done in durarara!!'s OP.
Specifically the anri scene has her turn back to the way they came from signifying a nonspecific facing her past and distress as her past catches up to her. Which I think is intended to be vague as to not detail the slasher and so it can set up the red herring of the creepy teacher. This is actually really important that it is with anri and not the others respective pasts catching up with them as it is Anri's past of involving the slasher that is ultimately the inciting moment to the 3 way power struggle that takes up the second half of the season.
You missed a lot of things in the durarara op such as
Celty riding around ikobukra and passing our main characters shows that all the main characters are connected in a way
The scene with izaya and shizou show that they both have a distinct hatred for each other
The scene with izaya looking sinister as you say also shows him looking over the city Which tells us that he thinks of himself as a higher being
The scene with makato and the others shows us that they are all close I can name more but you get the point remake this and actually observe I get the feeling you don't like durarara don't let personal feelings get in the way of making a good video next time ok
I also think that some of the character actions that are a bit confusing to first-time viewers (such as Namie throwing her phone) make more sense once you start watching the series.
+BlueMoonSamurai true true
I was literally using the op of DRRR to predict major plot points before they come
How it started vs how it's going, mic edition :P
Would you be willing to re-evaluate Durarara's OP? I think people have given a lot of examples as to why it works, and I agree with them.
Durarara is all about the ordinary becoming extraordinary, and the insane becoming ordinary. Everyone is normal in the eyes of one another, but to others (such as the viewers), they're far beyond ordinary people, and everyone's lives are heavily interwoven in ways the characters don't even realize. Baccano's intention is to impress us, but Durarara wants us to believe everyone is just an average, run-of-the-mill person, just as we see strangers in real life.
I personally believe Durarara speaks very true to life. You see someone walk by you in the store and you don't know what their life is. You think to yourself they're just another family man, maybe a teacher. But what you don't know is that perhaps that man is the truck driver that brought you the soda you just purchased. That man could even work at the distribution plant that gave it to the truck driver. The woman at the register might have a sick grandmother who was part of a gang in her youth. A gang that perhaps your elderly neighbor was part of once upon a time, though he never mentions it when you bring him his groceries.
If you looked at my great grandmother before she passed away, you never would have known that she had many husbands, one of them abusive, and that she worked in a factory for many years. You would have never known how many trips to Hawaii she took, or how much she loved swimming with the fishes whenever she got the chance. All things considered, especially compared to the rest of my family, my great grandmother had a very exciting life... but passing her on the street, you'd think she was just some milk and cookies grandma who spoiled her grandchildren.
And yet, if you went to someplace like Seattle, where violence is common, an exciting lifestyle would seem typical and boring. That's what Durarara is all about.
the characters are just going on about their day not knowing they’re connected that’s the point. Durarara is about the human web and how we all effect each other more than we know.
Oh wow, you're almost at 100,000 subscribers! Great job, man!
WE DID IT!
Mother's Basement YAY!
Almost 200,000 and no 100,000 special yet
André M. Well we finally got that special...after we hit 200,000. Well it wouldn't be on the mother's basement channel if it wasn't delayed for quality purposes. not that I'm complaining.
Nobody gonna mention that 0:00 birth of a legend?
Well this is obviously biased
I think it’s pretty insulting to say that durarara was riding Baccano’s coattails. I don’t believe the middle was just filler at all. It’s fine for you to like baccano or think it’s better but keep in mind they are both very different from each other despite their similarities. Coincidences and The world is smaller than you think are very big with the creator. Durarara often uses physical proximity to do the changes between characters to show how often these characters walk by each other in every day life. Anri touching when she turned around and sweet her hand over the camera was to represent the swiping of her blade, Sika. And you seem that introduces the Van gang it’s very clear that kadota is the leader by how cool and confident he is. While not liking something is valid even without a reason it’s sad to see a show that’s so obvious receive unjust criticism.
Wow your microphone is also OP these days compared to this.
anyway, good video ;)
in my opinion there was some hidden depth to the dollars scene.
Erika tosses the drink to Walker showing a connection between the two. She does it while right next to walker making her seem excessive/reckless seeing that it sails past him to Kadota who was quite a distance away.
Walker missing the can shows that he isn't all there but is quick enough to spot the can flying past. When the can explodes in the van Walker is happy vs the embarrassed/shocked kadota and the surpised Erika
Kadota, catches the can showing his relationship with Erika and Walker as he is always around to help clean up after them. However not everything is cool and calm as situations out of his control cause craziness...and an exploding soda can.
also Anri acting weird could be the influence of Saika, As Mikado is someone she might love and Masaomi is basically a emotional barometer for her.
Doc_Ock_Rokc also in the part of Mika and Seiji, you can see that Mika is aware of Celty (the one that Seiji is truly in love, her head) and you can see the scars of the surgery she went into. Seiji looks with a blank face at the face of Mika and then he is interrupted by the cellphone and they make a twist while listening and having a change of face (acting even angry because he's interrupted). Then Namie is happy talking in the phone happily then turn off the phone and she change his emotion and threw it.
also Anri turning around because she's the one who reacts better to danger (because of Saika) then they show all what is happening in the show in a fragment, then they show Simon acting like he don't care and just selling his sushi, the kind of attitude he always has. Then they show Shinra the underground doctor, watching from afar the group and they show Celty next (showing a little connection between them), then all the people go to eat there, showing that all of the characters(even the normal people) in Ikebukuro had a connection.
I think +Mother's Basement has some bias against Durarara, the analysis on Baccano was flawless, from someone who clearly watched and loved the show, on the other hand Durarara you can note that you are doing and analysis from something you don't like (or not as much as Baccano).
aand the color of each of the 3 main characters has a relationship, Mikado blue (blue's squares future leader), Masaomi Yellow (yellow's scarves former leader) and Anri Red (the Red of the eyes of the people that got possesed by Saika)
Durarara's opening isnt meant to show us who the characters are but instead to show us how the characters are connected, they show this really well through the seamless transitions to each character's personal shot
And also the fact that they dont show Mika's name is amazing because it's one of the main mysteries of the first arc
oh wow, the audio quality - you've come a long way bud
var null I know right
I was looking for comments about it. I sounds like he's just talking into his phone or something. Definitely more professional these days.
I just found out your channel and while I love every videos of "What's in an OP" series, this is the only one I strongly disagree and think you completely miss the point of Drrr OP.
Do you dislike Durarara or something? Because I feel like you did not put in much effort to explain it's OP
Paladin X welcome to his channel dude
But isn't it the whole point of Durarara!! that most caracters are supposed to look like normal people? But that everyone of them isn't and has some kind of secret or something that makes them abnormal?
I think the Durarara Opening nailed it for their own show.
The reason that you think that the Durarara!! opening doesn't work is because you compare it to Baccano! Both shows are really different. :)
But that is your opinion ofcource. I'm just saying why I disagree.
(Still a awseome analysis though)
the reason that durara gives us less info is because we aren't meant to know alot about the characters. we have to figure it out for ourselves.
While Baccano overtly tells it's story in the OP much better, Durarara's Ops become more enjoyable the further into the story you get.
I don’t think you gave Durarara‘a opening the careful, open-minded consideration that it deserved. There’s actually a LOT to unpack there, if you look into it a little more deeply. The characters’ actions *do* make sense, and they tell us as the audience a lot about who they are, what makes them tick, etc. I’m not going to rehash and analyse the whole thing, but if you scroll through the other comments people have left, I think you’ll see that there are lots of little moments in the opening that can be analyzed.
Wow, I just found you through a random suggestion on here and I'm really impressed. I looooove anime ops (it's where I've found most of my favorite bands from) and to see someone do a frame by frame analysis of them makes me super happy.
Also, anyone who uses Tsuritama footage is a good person to me.
I think the people in the comments are forgetting that this is a commentary about the openings, not the whole anime itself.
Well I don't think Durarara!!'s OP is bad necessarily, evn quite better than alot of openings, but it does fall short when being compared to the masterpiece of Baccano!'s OP, but does symbolize the show. You didn't really see the point. You were supposed to originally see only the shallow sides of the characters, and it was pushing them as generic. The twist of the show is how strange seemingly normal people can actually be, and how there is always a deeper meaning to what you see of people lives, and how they go through their own realities as the respective main character. Izaya really sums up the meaning of the show, I think, during his tirade against suicide girl.(lol I'm bad with names) Seeing any deeper meaning of these characters would just ruin the twist and feel of the show, and the huge plot turns and chaos it always has. The point of the OP was more to show the unusual connections between seemingly unrelated characters, and how they don't even know themselves their relations. The only characters shown with intrigue, Shizu-chan, Izaya, and Celty, are meant to be shown with something more, hinting to the fact that they become such huge drivers of the plot, and as characters to hook you.They are not for the purpose many others were, because they were never meant to be shown as normal characters. They were always the strange, interesting characters that even in-world were showed to be crazy, unique parts of their realities you don't usually see in real life, the set up cracks in the facade of normalcy. They are what originally hint there there is much more. I think that if looked at with a different perspective, you could see the Durarara!! opening to be a perfect sum up of the show. Even the way scenes cut to each other in the OP, seemingly chaotic and unrelated, alludes to the hugely chaotic climaxes you get in show, where everything comes together on a grander scale in a way you would never expect.
my friend just recently got me into baccano! and we watched until the final 3 episodes of season 1. wanted to show her this video and the audio made me pause and think "this is going to give the wrong impression" so i sent like 5 others videos of your's to her first.
I just watched Baccano and I thought it was fucking awesome, it quickly reached my top 10. Should I watch Durarara? Are they simmilar?
Durarara has many characters that are interesting and very lovable. The story is amazing, many plot twists are well written, and it is humorous sometimes as well. There is many action moments and it does contain quite alot of swears but it is a really great series I highly recommend it is definitely one of the tops on my favorite animes list. I hope this helps, if you have any questions you're welcome to ask! ^.^
Phoenix Haven Thanks mate, I'll add it to my "To-Watch" list :D
I also just wanted to say how much you've positively impacted my experience with anime. I remember watching this and your what's in a op series years ago and it really opening my eyes to how much artistic effort some anime put into their openings. I can still hear the whispers of "watch baccano" years later in my subconscious xD
Damn, while I do think you are looking way deeper into the openings than the average viewer, I really loved this video. You picked up on some amazing subtleties in the Baccano opening that I never even realized and I consider Baccano one of my favorites of all time, I really am astounded by the amount of information shown in Baccanos opening. Great video man, loved it! Cant wait for more!
*SPOILER*
I'd also like to add that the switch between the alcohol and the elixir also represents the confusion of which was which at the end of the Baccano!
The DRRR!! OP is supposed to not tell much about the characters. If it did then it would ruin later plot points. Also, I like to think on the better side of things, when the music doesn't match up with the imagery I think that is what is supposed to represent the show's chaos. Baccano did that too; but, with it's music instead. Every show's opening is supposed to have different dynamics that separate them from other shows. The DRRR!! OP hides the character's true selves which can represent a basis for the whole show, (even the main character, Mikado.) If DRRR revealed more about their characters then there would be no gigantic plots twists. You really should watch DRRRx2!! to understand what I'm talking about. (A lot gets revealed in the second season, especially about the main character, Mikado.)
I know that this video is five years old at this point, but I'm compelled to point out that, while "chain" has some *very* good symbolism value, Chané's name is pronounced "Sha-neh". Although Ladd's VA consistently pronounces her name wrong ("Cha-neh") in the dub!
If you want to have a good comparison between ops, make sure you are free of bias. While you did do a good job analyzing Baccano!'s opening, you did not go nearly in depth with Durarara!! Therefore, it was easy to tell you liked Baccano! much more. While that is perfectly acceptable to like Baccano! more, please try to keep your video free of bias. Durarara!!'s opening is also complex if you look at it closely enough. I respect your opinion in this matter, but try to look at Durarara!!'s op as you did Baccano! I think what you find may surprise you. Thank for reading, if in fact you did read.
Did you seriously miss the point of freezing on Mika Harima? It specifically shows the scar around her neck, at the start of the OP with Celty looking around for her head, to indicate something is up.
Namie is hardly being "careless" with her phone. She's just letting her emotions overtake her at that moment to contrast the air of a calm professional that she would otherwise give off.
Also, I feel the need to point out that Kyouhei is clearly showing any sane person's reaction to messing up Saburo's van. Characters passing soda cans around is a common trope and it's pretty obvious the entire sequence is there to remind you that these otaku nerds are playing up that trope only to be hit by reality. Walker's face is clearly going "Oh? Erika, you're doing the soda-tossing trick?"
Lastly, Masaomi working so hard to maintain their fun group dynamic and the other two appreciating that fact to the degree they'd keep their own problems to themselves to maintain the illusion is pretty key to their entire character arc as a unit. Hence the still shot focusing on their smiles.
The same thing is used to end on Shinra smiling as Celty's about to pass by before remembering he has to move onto his usual work. This is textbook character mannerisms in a few movements. He loves Celty, is scatterbrained and takes pride in his work.
no offence but as long as drrr's opening song is so kickass makes me melt with awe there's nothing that could ever make me enjoy baccano's op more
also, a minor point, but the shot of the doctor tells us a little bit about her - she's warm and smiley when talking to her brother, but the smile fades into a cold indifference as soon as she's done
I absolutely agree with your views of Baccano, however, I think you missed one part of the reason Durarara is the show it is, and why they may have done the op as they did. In the beginning, they try to make the town seem casual, and very gradually build things up to what they are. It would spoil so much to reveal the yagami pharmacy stuff, as well as the fact that those 3 highschoolers are actually leaders of gangs (well... Saika army is different, but let's ust say gang for simplicity). The key to Durarara is it's mystery, and that is exactly why the op is so vague
actually, if you know kanji, the characters' names in durararararara tell you a lot. perhaps too much :) about certain characters
Damn the quality of your videos has Got better and better but your writing has been amazing since the start apparently
yes, i finally found your first video, and on the way i watched dozens of yor videos.
good job dude!
Great video as always. But for me, the biggest difference between the two openings is how they work in those little recaps. For Baccano, it plays after chane and before nice. The jazzy bgm continues and then, explosion! nice and jacuzzi are introduced with the songs climax. Durara puts the recap between Anri and Simon, the song continues as well, but leaves less impression, because jazz just does a far better job of being background-music. And then we get thrown back into the opening, but not into the songs climax or into a great scene, but into simon handing out flyers, as Durarara's songs only real climaxes are in the earlier parts of the opening, when Celty and Shizuo are introduced. Baccano's recap just makes more sense as well, Durara just gives us some random sequences from a few episodes back, while Baccano always showed what happened just before (or is that wrong? that's how i remember it).
hey man, you wanna redo this with the sho-ten-ketsu openings?
I think your problem with durarara’s op is that you compare it to a completely different show
I've never read "while I do think..." more times in a single comments section
My guy recorded this with his iPod touch
Hey Geoff, what do you think of the 2nd Durarara OP in season 1? Personally I believe that it's an improvement from the first OP both in terms of how smooth the cuts are, and how much it tells you in each scene. It still feels like it tries to hard to take from the style of the Baccano OP, and it doesn't live up to Baccano's but that's a pretty high bar in the first place. But it does a great job at telling us all we need to know in the 1 1/2 minutes that it has especially with the little details, and the song and visuals really fit the feeling of that arc of Durarara. And unlike the first OP, the cuts to other characters dont feel forced.
I've seen both of the series, although I think baccano is the better anime, I consider all of Durarara's ops better than guns and roses. But that's just my opinion
I would definitely say this is probably your worst What's in an OP video. In the Durarara!! opening there is a lot of stuff that shows how the characters are like by their actions/expressions on their faces. And lots of times where you said that cuts didn't sync up to the song, they actually were synced up to the song. Also the OP was mainly showing how the characters all were connected to each other.
I do like your content, I think your analysis on OPs are usually amazing. But this video was a big flop. The Baccano! OP is definitely better in my opinion but the Durarara!! OP is good too.
You gotta do Cowboy Bebop soon
5:05 I beg to differ. I can decipher the characters personalities with those ones you you past by. Celty is determined to get where she's going with little care of those around her. The girl is attracted to Celty for a brief second, teasing the fact that they might be connected, before turning to her boyfriend. He looks at her in bliss before calling the doctor, who's body language suggests she's pleased to help him during the call but when it's over she looks at it in a mixture of sadness and frustration, implying she isn't very happy about something (most likely their relationship) before giving into the frustration and throwing her away. See? And I figured most of that out before watching the show. The simplest of things can say a lot sometimes, you of all people should know that. ;P
I finished both shows and I have to say, Baccano was way more enjoyable and well-made than Durarara
Idc if I don’t know who they are I’ll learn soon and the durarara is still fire 🥰🥰 Idc if it’s not in sync it’s still a nice anime 😍
hey, can you do a rework for this 2? and the other Durarara ops ?
Am i like, the only one who likes durarara's intro better?
Hello from 2022, this is still a good video
Aw shucks!
@@mothersbasement hope y’all are doing well. I’m enjoying both reading and watching chainsaw man
Holy shit this is an old one, had no idea it was the first entry in the what's in an op series. I absolutely love it! Also, whatever happened to that gankutsuou what's in an op analysis?
You missed the point of Drrr!'s OP. It was to show that characters group together, in their own worlds(Celty on her bike, Harima x Seiji , Namie off being evil, the Dollars goofing off, and Anri ,Kida, and Mikado being normal teenagers) and then concluding at the Russian hangout place with Shinra and Celty passing by.
I find it disappointing that missed this considering what you've done in the past.
P.S. HAH fuck you internet, I figured this out after my viewing!
A Vento Aureo “parody “ led me to the first OP analyzed here...
This was the work of
A FRIENDLY STAND!
XD
solid analysis. later OPs got better, though, i think. and the EDs flip. granted, neither says a whole lot, but then EDs are rarely terribly complex or busy - i think an understated ED is generally better, anyway. it's a winding down thing, after all. anyway, Baccano!'s ED is a very bland cycle of the characters with very little imagery to suggest anything about them. meanwhile, Durarara!!'s ED still is, in essence, just a cycling through of the cast, but it says quite a bit more - not as much as Baccano!'s OP, to be sure, but that is an OP so apples and oranges.
first off, most obviously, Mikado's sitting up on top. being, more or less, the main character, this is an innocuous enough position for him to be the first in frame, but of course there's the symbolism of how he's (at least kind of... certainly, as much as anyone in the first season) the most in-control of the goings on in Ikebukuro. on the flip-side, we have Celty at the bottom, who - at least in relation to each character's goals and such, has the least agency, only being able to chase after intangible leads. still, she's also the base of the stack, and without her, pretty much the entire plot couldn't occur.
as for the rest of the characters, their placement roughly corresponds with a chain of relations connecting each character together. with a couple of arguable exceptions, each person is clinging to the character with the most direct relationship with them. and those exceptions can, perhaps, be handwaved as being runners-up as the character(s) that they *would* be most closely related to are more closely related to other characters and so were needed elsewhere in the stack. so, that in mind, a quick rundown:
Kida Masaomi, as Mikado's best and oldest friend in Ikebukuro, hangs off of Mikado's leg. his splayed limbs and cheerful expression suggest an outgoing personality with a mischievous streak.
Anri clings to Masaomi as our first and most minor case of that "runner-up" connection i mentioned earlier, as Mikado would probably be the more direct connection as they're the two getting ship-teased throughout the series, but Kida is obviously the better choice to be hanging off of Mikado, so... additionally, due to the both of them being pretty introverted and shy characters, they actually don't interact with each other directly that much, especially early on, and the more outgoing Kida does actually act as a bridge for that particular gap, so an argument can certainly be made that this positioning is fitting. additionally, her eyeline kind of seems (to me, at least) to be directed more towards Mikado than Masaomi, so there's that.
Simon... is kind of just there. which is true in the show, so fair enough. still, it wouldn't be hard to argue that he could be better suited elsewhere, but nothing really stands out specifically as a better spot. however, given the way that Simon is a common acquaintance who connects even the most disparate of characters, it is fitting that he's the one connecting the main trio to the rest, as they are arguably the most isolated, having the least direct involvement in the various gambits and machinations throughout the rest of the show. they may each set various balls rolling, but for the most part, it takes a while for those balls to actually catch up to them.
off of Simon hangs Shizuo and Izaya. Izaya hangs off to the side and isn't really needed to keep the chain going, suggesting his meddlesome nature, involving himself in things that he doesn't really need to be in. additionally, he's positioned above Shizuo, looking down at him, suggesting how he generally has the upper hand in their encounters. in addition to his unfriendly sneer, he's also brandishing a knife - aside from Celty's (non-brandished) scythe, the only weapon in the entire image - which alludes to his villainous role. the way that he's just hanging off there also suggests that he could be - or even go to - anywhere else in the chain, and this also reflects his role in the story, being someone who does just flit around from group to group as he needs to, inserting himself into whatever's going on, and using it only to benefit himself (again, citing the fact that he isn't really helping continue the chain any).
Shizuo hangs off of Simon, which makes sense given that those two - out of all the characters in the stack, at least - do have the closest relationship with each other. he looks decidedly angry, which is, of course, understandable to anyone who's seen the show, and the black streak of the background behind his raised foot suggests motion, as if he were kicking at Izaya. however, the way that Izaya's basically standing on it to give himself a higher position in the stack suggests the way that Izaya uses Shizuo's strength against him.
next we Kyouhei's gang. Erika and Walker are the ones who link them to the above part of the chain, which makes sense as they are the most outgoing of the group. Kadota appears beneath them with a disgruntled look, suggesting the "grumpy dad" relationship he has with them - often irked, but still helping them out, regardless, because that's the kind of person he is. Saburo tags along behind because... well, he tags along behind (even though he's the actual driver in the gang doesn't mean he gets to drive the plot to any degree).
now for the biggest case of "runner-up", Seiji who clings to Saburo's ankle because he need to be in there somewhere in order to continue the chain. then again, i wouldn't be surprised if there's *some* way that connects them, given how many interconnections there were between characters in this show. it's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Anime. anyway, he and Mika cling onto each other, however, while his face shows an expression of utter adoration while staring into Mika's face, he's only got one arm wrapped - fairly loosely, at that - around her, which suggests (albeit in "only makes sense once you already know" sort of way) how he isn't really that attached to Mika beyond her face. Mika, on the other hand, is all over Seiji. granted, he also needed a hand free to join the stack, but nothing says that convenience and symbolism can't coincide. especially when you consider that the next character doesn't actually hang on to anyone.
Namie is Seiji's sister, so of course those two are next to each other, but her head also brushes up against Mika's thigh hinting at their passing connection. she's otherwise closed off, not actually reaching out to anyone, which is pretty much her character. then, of course, being his previous employer, she is followed by...
Shinra who stands upside down, not only facing Celty and only Celty, the love of his life, but also suggesting how off his rocker he is. still, it's an otherwise natural pose that still obeys its own gravity, so i guess it works for him. and even though he reaches out to her, he still doesn't *quite* touch Celty, which references his own difficulties in pursuing a relationship with her.
I Agree With All The Points Here But Honestly I Think Of Baccano's OP As A Brief Introduction Of All The Characters Just Like It's Mentioned Here But Durarara's OP Is Like A Teaser For What's Going To Happen In The Show
I don't really agree with your assessment of the Durarara!! intro. Baccano!'s entire structure was so different from Durarara!! that comparing how their intros introduce the characters is kind of meaningless. Baccano! starts at the end and then slowly rolls up what happened to bring us there, each of the characters is a genuine mystery, and that is why the intro works. You can hint at things that happen in the future and the viewer can feel clever when they understand the connection.
The characters of Durarara!!, with the notable exception of Celty and Shizuo who are clearly gifted with supernatural powers, are introduced to us almost exclusively as normal, or generic people and the intro depicts them as such, to a point where they look kind of boring. I have to wonder, if it was up to you, what should they have hinted at even? Most of the things they could have hinted at would have been massive spoilers for what was to come, and take away from the viewing experience, in my opinion. The second intro for example does a lot more to tell you about the interconnections you as the viewer know about to that point, and I will say I find it kind of unfair to just look at the first one in that regard.
Except for Anri turning around suddenly. That's just bullshit.
I've always really liked the Durarara opening, and I still do, but now I do see how the Baccano opening holds up much better. It's actually frustrating, now that I think of it, that the Durarara opening would ride on the Baccano opening's coattails like that. Yes, it is fun even if it doesn't convey as much, and yes, it is fun to see it allude to Baccano, written by the same author. But it only helps people to draw direct comparisons between the two anime, and while they are very similar (the writer has a distinct style of storytelling and a distinct interest in the juxtaposition of gangs and the supernatural), I think that a lot of what people like about Baccano doesn't exactly translate to Durarara. Personally, I enjoy Durarara more than Baccano, not because I think it does anything necessarily better, but because it's different in a way that resonates with me more, and I see far too many people dismissing it as "like Baccano but worse" when it's far more helpful to criticize it as a stand-alone experience.
Side note, now that I've looked through the comments, I see that this opinion isn't necessarily unheard of ^_^ or at least the first part. And there is a definite argument to be made that the point of Durarara is more that everyone is an important badass in their own way, even if they seem to be totally normal or uninteresting, in which case the opening does suit it quite well. Still, the fact that it mirror's Baccano's opening style just opens it to comparisons and it definitely fails at a lot of what Baccano does right, despite doing a lot right itself.
I've watched Baccano! a total of 3 times since I stumbled across it two years ago, and I keep finding myself encouraging my friends to watch it. It is definitely my favorite anime.
I can´t really agree as I love both openings but I like Durarara´s OP better. Baccano´s opening is awesome but that what you presented as a disadvantage of Durarara´s OP not telling us anything about the characters is what I actually find an advantage as I was totally curious after watching the opening of Durarara and it was actually the deciding factor of me watching the show.
I agree that the transitions are smoother in Baccano but I did not mind poorer quality of a transition between Anri and Simon as animators used that weak point to make a quick recapitulation of last episodes. I do not know how common is that to put a recap into the opening but I really loved that idea. Anyway, great analysis, I really enjoyed it.
Even though everyone already said this, I think you're missing the point of DRRR's OP. But since everyone and their mother has already made paragraph long comments about that, I do have to say this. The transition between Anri and Simon makes way more sense when viewed in each individual episode, because they have recaps in between those parts.
I'd say the song for Durarara is well better than the visuals, but it's well easier on Baccano's part since they're not supposed to hide their personality since the show is all about them while DRRR! IS about depth of characters and the invalidity of assuming who people are and how they react to circumstances based on how they look. It's not an excuse for the DRRR! opening but what would the opening be if not showing off all the initial cast without giving away the perception of innocence or noninvolvement?
Look I understand that you may not like durarara or its opening but I feel like you don't understand the meaning of the opening.The opening isn't supposed to show who the characters are. Its supposed to show the connections that they have between them. More than once in the show they have said something about the city bringing them together in some sort of way. I don't think durarara was coping the other one I think it was something like it withal different construction. And really? Its awful because it doesn't sink up to the music? Really is that what we are doing. Because there are plenty of openings I can get on for that. All because its like it doesn't mean its coping. Not to mention Durarara does it for every opening.
totally disagree
ops in drrr are fabulous
if you watched the show carefully, these shots do tell anough about their personlity, just like in baccano
the only reason i've heard from you is: baccano - look at his/her face expression, it tells us much; drrr - this is the only thing we really get from this scene
i don't understand your logic, i think both shows have great ops and are great themselves
Baccano’s OP is great. Durara’s is ok. However. Both op songs alone are great and both anime are wonderful
One thing: Doesn't the artwork look the same and can people just like what they like.
Ankther youtuber mentioned that Durarara is supposed to be a anime where people who seem ordinary come together coincidentally lives in the same city as Izaya that messes everything up.
Main thing in durarara is that everyone may seem ordinary but really they all have a story which few people read from.
You do make some good observations but I have do disagree with your opinion on durarara. All the characters are introduced in the opening, and nothing ,or at least very little, about their characters are spoiled for the audience. I'm not a big fan when anime op's give major spoilers
I'm sorry but this video is way off lol. durarara has alot of hidden meanings in the character openings (anri "slicing" the screen, mikado looking sad after masaomi looks away, etc)
You have come a long way