There Hasn't Quite Been Another Anime Like Durarara

gamerant.com:

Cowboy Bebop famously defined itself as «the work which becomes a new genre itself,» which could mean that it would inspire works that follow it to echo its storytelling, or that nothing else could compare. Looking back at the popular anime of the last two decades, Durarara!! feels like something equally undefined, and not a single other show feels quite like it.

Durarara started as a light novel written by Ryohgo Narita in 2004, the same mind behind Baccano and more recent tales like Fate/Strange Fake. The story was first adapted to animation in 2010 by studio Brain's Base before getting a three-part sequel that aired from 2015-2016, this time animated by studio Shuka. The story begins with Mikado Ryuugamine's arrival in the Ikebukuro, a small district of Tokyo, as he becomes engulfed in a sea of rumors, legends, gangs, specters, and other assorted revelries. In just the first season alone, an absurd number of characters take the spotlight as everyone's stories clash and coalesce in unexpected ways.

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There are plenty of anime with dramatically intertwined plot threads, but few with as many characters to work with and fewer that intersect so many plots with such ease. And for as often as this show's tension swells to a crescendo to punctuate these stories clashing, it warrants praise for how casually and cool it goes about weaving the tales up to those points.

Gen Z anime fans may recall falling in love with the series in their youth during middle school and high school, as ripe a place to become enamored with Durarara as any other. There was so much to latch onto so quickly that it felt like there was something for everyone and between the visuals and