Durarara! 1 – Headless Bikewoman

So what myths lie in your city?

I was asking myself the question because Taipei had no urban legend, or at least, I was not aware of any.

But the show has intrigued me with its seemingly plain and yet engaging storytelling. Mikato is an average Japanese teenager student and yet he manages to be quite lucky. He meets all the most interesting people that may relate to his life in someway on the very first day he goes to Tokyo. Actually, I saw a lot of interesting things on my first visit to Tokyo as well. For example, I watched Little-Non performing live in Akiba and managed to talk with Nozomi-san (nicest person on earth) – I told her I was a “baka gaijin” and I she jumped out from right behind her desk and assured me that I was not (long story, ask me later). Akiba was so nice then because no ippanjin cared to go there and gawk at everyone else and no stupid police and government officials telling people to “clean up” their acts and stores. That was 2004. Enough with my personal story.

But that was Tokyo: mysterious, exciting, totally different for a surburb boy like me (I lived near DC for more than 10 years). As a matter of fact, a prostitute (she did not look anything like your average adult workers. She was probably a call girl) came into my room and I had to tell her in my poor Japanese: “Wrong room.” I…Yeah, you know. I do kinda regret it because she was pretty.

Tokyo in this show is even more mythical, I mean, the headless bikewoman. That’s right, woman. Because it was a woman’s figure that I saw on my computer screen and the guys bumped into a woman with a scar on her neck. The color of her facial skin was different from her neck.

It may not be the 80’s Tokyo, but it is still oddly appealing. Of course, crime is more rampant than what people in Japan would like you to believe. It is safer than a lot of large cities in other countries, but don’t count on it if you go there.

I found the internet interactions realistic and the animation interesting. The animation is much like Soul Eater just a hell lot less wacky. But the realism is appealing. There is more to the headless horseman myth in this one and I hope to find out more as the show goes on.

Oh and…I think I see a black Russian in the show!!! Awesome! I only wish they animate him so he dances in that famous Russian style and raps in Russian fusion English fusion Japanese. That’d be the coolest fucking thing in anime history…
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Watch Durarara on Crunchyroll (Taiwanese need not apply – I didn’t make that rule)