Just finished watching this which I enjoyed immensely because it was a bit odd. The plot follows Mikado Ryūgamine is a young man who longs for the exciting life of the big city. At the invitation of his childhood friend Kida Masaomi, he transfers to a school in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Masaomi warns him about people he doesn’t want to cross in the city: a violent man dressed like a bartender, an information merchant, and a mysterious gang called “Dollars.” And to top it off, Mikado witnesses an urban legend on his first day in the city: the “Black Rider,” the supposedly headless driver of a black motorcycle. The narrative follows all of the characters equally, showing how their lives intersect, creating a greater plotline from what each character knows about a common incident.

At first it’s hard to tell what the plot is really I mean it’s made up of characters that seem to have nothing in common apart from they live in Ikebukuro and how in fact all their lives are inter-linked. Sounds normal enough if it wasn’t for the fact that no one in this series is normal. I mean this is a real genre hybrid at first I didn’t know if it was a high school drama, a supernatural show, a show about hidden powers, gang warfare, romance or mystery but in truth it’s a mix of all these. It’s rather confusing at first but once you sit back and accept all these things and that it’s just how it is you can enjoy it so much more. I had no idea where this series was going to go the first half seemed to be about the nature of the very supernatural character Celty, a Dulahan fairy (headless rider) from Ireland that travels to Japan to get back her stolen head. Needless to say she soon discovers there are more important things than getting her head like where and how she belongs in this modern society and her true feelings. The second half is where the real plot kicks in as it turns out that there is so much more to the three main protagonists as their secrets and alternate lives are revealed and how it affects their new life. I like the animation style of this series plus the character designs there a little more lined and sketchy which gives it an interesting edge. The scoring also helps with how surreal and odd this series is it really adds another layer as it matches the tones as well as the unfamiliar and strange aspects of the series.

There’s a great cast of characters who all get equal screen time and time to tell their stories and how they fit into the bigger picture. Although don’t expect to know everything about them some things are left unexplained which adds to the mystery of the setting. You don’t need to know everything about a person to know where they stand and how they feel. This series is really about humanity, what it means to be human, how we feel about others, what we do to protect and keep others safe. How our different ideals and thoughts affect those around us, if you hide something to protect someone you could end up hurting them more. What is it we really desire, what are our fears and why we react the way we do and what are we truly looking for in life, what’s our place where do we truly call home. The show is full of these questions it’s about finding ones place and feelings and discovering what truly matter whether your human or not in the case of Durarara. The show has a mix of supernatural mysteries and the misunderstandings of youth strongly combined to complement each other and really make you think. You get very invested in the lives of these characters and want their safety and happiness to be confirmed. The main characters all go on a journey of self-awareness and discovery with the help of older characters who have found their place and have come to understand themselves. It’s actually quite beautiful and sad at times watching the conflicting emotions and trials of these characters and you do want the best for them.

That’s not to say this series is all drama and emotional back story having a supernatural element also means the fair share of odd goings on and hidden dangers, ranging from a mysterious slasher, hacking their way through the local population to Celty herself who rides a black motor bike wielding a scythe cutting down foes and protecting allies. There’s a fair bit of action as Celty uses her powers freely against those that oppose her and yet she herself is quite a gently and caring person that doesn’t really want to hurt anyone unless they harm her friends. There’s also the amazing character of Shizuo Heiwajima who is my fav character and not just cause he’s hot, tall with blonde hair, it because while being calm and peaceful most of the time he has a very short fuse. He berates himself as someone who hates violence but unfortunately has the temper of a volcano and once he is angered he is a bit mental. Once in a rage and that’s very often he displays superhuman strength and is known as the strongest man in Ikebukuro. He has the ability to bring out unlimited strength and while his weapons of choice are normally vending machines and road signs he is also brilliant in a hand to hand brawl. One of the most amazing scenes in the series is when people are being transformed into slaves of a sword that wants to love humans but can only do so by cutting them. This sword decides it loves Shizou so sends all its victims to attack him and show him its love. What ensues is a brawl between Shizou and about a hundred possessed people which is a brilliant fight scene, he runs across heads, punches people across town, picks up the entire mod at one point and just gets stronger and stronger during the fight, it’s awesome!!!!

But yes this series has a bit of everything from high drama, to supernatural mysteries, romance, horror, fight scenes and gang warfare. The gang storyline is very important to the series as they way that our protagonists are tied to the different gangs but that’s something I won’t spoil you have to watch to find out how good if a bit weird this series is!!!!

Dont forget to follow me on twitter @lonedreameryaoi and check out the Let Zoe Spoil You facebook page!!!!

So readers it’s a New Year and a new start now that the craziness of the last few months have calmed I’m hoping to spend some more time here on LZSY. Lots of movies and shows that I’ve collected that need watching and reviewing me thinks. Also hoping to add a few more details to the site try and get a bit more fancy I hope. So far the only thing I’ve managed to do is add a picture to the about page, I know wow so exciting but it’s a start. I also have started giving myself challenges for no other reason that I like to outdo myself. The December challenge was to watch all 5 seasons of How I Met Your Mother in that month. Obviously I passed that and have to say I am very pleased with myself that took some dedication since I had to fit it around work, the gym and the crazy busy Xmas season so yay go team me for dedication to television. This month I’m going for all three seasons of Leverage, which happens to be awesome. It’s like a strange mix of Oceans 11, Hustle and Robin Hood and basically you have a team of super thief’s that now help those that can’t. You know the theme evil corporation has all the money in the world to get corrupt lawyers and cover up any bad thing they do so the little guy doesn’t stand a chance when they find out about the corruption or that the company has destroyed a family member. The legal system doesn’t work for them or will take so long that the company can just get away with it. Well in come the leverage team taking law into their own hands and dishing out justice to the little man. The winning thing about this show are the characters, you have the Hitter, the Hacker, the Grifter, the thief and the Mastermind. They all have such interesting and great personalities you really do love them all and their so witty and a little mad each on. There’s lots of twists and turns, double plays and cons on top of cons that you’re never board and it make for very fun watching, plus the Hitter is played by Christian Kane who is buff and one sexy man!!!!

Any way so yeah my challenge is to take a series I haven’t seen that’s at least been going for 3 seasons and binge watch it in a month so if any of you have ideas on good TV let me know. I’m still watching movies and Asian drama’s but I go through fazes and at the mo its American drama’s. Of course I’m still watching anime I think I would shrivel up and die if I wasn’t watching anime. I need to get my butt together and review some of the series I watch last year I got through a fair few. Let’s see what did I watch: Eyeshield 21, Tale of Genji, Gundam 00, When the seagulls cry i.e. Umineko (please avoid this one unless you like being completely unsatisfied and slightly confused!!!), Working!! (This was great fun), Hipira, Kobato ( I hate to say it but for the first time ever there’s a Clamp anime that just didn’t work for me), Macross F movie( what was the point!!!!), Needless, Mouryo no Hakko, after many years of watching it the final series of Prince of tennis (god I love this show fan girl heaven), Hakuouki 1, Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho Tou: Dainimaku and I am still working my way through Bleach and Hitman reborn!!!
Wow you’d think I do nothing but watch TV but I also somehow manage to fit a social life, my gym schedule and Xbox time into my week as well. Also if you have an xbox and you havent played Lost Odessy then you must its a very addictive RPG that has been eating up alot of my time and it has been so worth it!!! Any way here’s wishing you a great new year and hopefully some fun reviews and great ideas for new shows and movies to watch. And lastly I have now set up a facebook page for LZSY under the name Let Zoe Spoil You!!

Based on a Shonen ai manga by Yoshida Akimi this J Drama is a beautiful and haunting tale of separation and companionship under the threat of ambition and jealousy and misunderstanding. It tells the tale of twin boys created in the lab to be perfection, strong and smart the ultimate humans. But this is also a story of how they are separated and the two very different paths they take. One of the brothers, Sei, grew up to be an elite bio-chemistry scientist in America. He was assigned to a project where he has to travel to a small island in Japan to investigate an unidentified virus that is spreading on the island. By a freak of nature, he found out that he has a twin brother, Rin, whose evil, dark personality is entirely opposite of him. But there is more to this tale Sei wasn’t always part of the bio-chemistry company no he was rescued at a young age by a women who was a scientist that developed a motherly bond for him and decided to take him away to raise him as her own. He grew up in a remote village and formed a bond with another local boy, the blind Moichi. The two were best friends, inseparable and even having their own secret codes to communicate with each other using a dog whistle. But happiness didn’t last long and the company found Sei, killing his mother, threatening Moichi and eventually bringing him back with them where he grew up to become an elite scientist for the company.

Years later Sei returns to Japan to help find a cure for a deadly virus that has been released into a small island. The entire Islands population has been killed and there is fear that this virus will spread to main land Japan. Sei comes to work on the virus; aloof and cold he is distant from the other scientists and acts with an air of superiority. Through a twist of fate he happens to be working at the same research facility that Moichi is helping with some tests on enhanced hearing in blind patients. Sei and Moichi are reunited and the obvious bond and friendship is still there between them. Sei shows real emotions only when concerned to Moichi and wishes nothing more to spend his life with him. Being based on a shonen ai manga (boys love) it is obvious that there’s more to this relationship than just friend ship, it implies a much deeper bond between them and you see real love between these boys. The care about each other and through out the series are willing to risk themselves for each other wishing nothing more than to live a normal life together. All this happiness and normality is ruined by the introduction of Sei’s long lost twin brother who doesn’t share Sei’s moral grounding and sanity. He is jealous of this friendship he wants his brother to join him and use their intellect for much bigger things. Rin seems nice enough to start with but he proves that he is far more calculating and manipulative than his brother; he plays mind games as well as toying with the feeling of those around him. He manipulates his girlfriend to carry out a lot of his dirty work and he has a sexual relationship behind her back with his bodyguard and childhood friend Takeru. Though this too in its own twisted way seems to have more to it, he does seem to have genuine feelings for his friend even though they share their bed with others as well.

It soon becomes apparent that it was Rin that created this virus; the island was a test to see how well it worked before releasing it in Japan. His goal to destroy the population of Japan and then using his own anti virus choose who lives and dies rebuilding Japanese society as he sees fit. He is quite evil and shows very little compassion towards anyone other than his Friend/lover/bodyguard Takeru. There are twists and turns along they way, politics about the state of modern Japan, conspiracy’s between the government and the bio-tech firms, manipulation from powerful families with invested interests and these two brothers stuck in the middle of it. Their different up bringing having shaped the people they became and the decisions they made. There is also a fair amount of tragedy. From the tone of the story you know from the beginning that this is going to have a tragic ending it’s all very Shakespearian and I knew I was in for tears. Do watch this drama with a box of tissues nearby especially for episode 8. But saying that you know there isn’t going to be a happy ending, the ending itself is perfect for the story it’s the only logical way it could have played out. By the end the Brothers have taken away so much from each other yet have started to understand each other they know what they need and what they want from each other and maybe in death only then can they find the peace they never found in life. After all they have lost all they love and care for in life, they were never meant to have been in the first place, created by science for the ambition of men with power, no chance of a normal life and they’ve hurt each other to much too really forgive each other. There own genetic mutation is failing them its only a choice of who will live out who, which twin will see his final sunset, which twin will give the other what he wants while the other waits for his unavoidable fate. It tragic and sad but sometimes a sad ending is really the only good choice.

The series is filmed with a lot of soft lighting and sombre moods; it has a gentle tone until things become more dangerous and frantic. Also noth the parts of Rin and Sei are brilliantly acted by Ito Hideaki. A note of interest is the use of Stings Desert Rose as the opening theme as well as using an instrumental reprise version of the song through out the series. The heart of the series lies in the relationship between Sei and Moichi, the love and understanding they share and how they complete each other. Even Rin and Takeru share a relationship similar but too twisted by their more brutal upbringing they can not love and share on the same level their ideas of love and companionship have been poisoned. The series is quite stylised even with the obvious fact that the brothers have superpowers and are inhumanly strong, they can achieve great feats but this is understated and not over done. I for one as a slash fan enjoyed this series immensely but also because of its more subtle and delicate approach. It was as much about the relationships between the characters and the human drama as it was about looking cool and have superhuman fighting and playing cat and mouse games. I recommend this little gem of a drama, well worth a watch.