Durarara was the very last new anime title to premiere on the dying Adult Swim Action block back in 2011 before it rebranded into the Toonami block, but as far as last hurrahs go, this was a beloved classic of a last hurrah. This title was a strange, quirky title that probably alienated casual, mainstream audiences, but hardcore anime fans absolutely dug the show. The leather clad headless motorcycle rider Celty became an anime icon and a popular character to cosplay at cons. To a lot of casual anime fans, the only thing they know about the show is that it has a sexy headless lady who rides motorcycles, but there are many more aspects of the show worth talking about.
Durarara was one only two anime based on a light novel to air on Adult Swim Action (Trinity Blood is the other title). Said light novel was written by Ryohgo Narita, author of Baccano!. Speaking of Baccano!, the two beloved comic relief bandits from said show cameo in Durarara. It’s kind of a surprise and a shame that Baccano! never got to air on Adult Swim, but that’s a topic for another day. What is Durarara about? Like I said earlier, this is one weird show that is hard to describe.
The series is set in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo, which the series portrays as a weirdness magnet. The series begins with ordinary high school student Mikado and his best friend Masaomi getting sucked into the weirdness and meeting the strange personalities that inhabit Ikebukuro. Aside from the iconic Celty, the other characters he meets are very strange in their own way. There’s the temperamental bartender named Shizuo, who has the superhuman strength to effortlessly toss around vending machines. Anri, another classmate of Mikado, has mysterious superpowers. There’s also the Russian sushi chef Simon who struggles with speaking Japanese, but is a martial arts master. The villainous and manipulative knowledge broker Izaya is probably the second most famous character in this series, with his establishing character moment being persuading a teenage kid to commit suicide. His evil charisma and ability to manipulate people to do things is uncanny. The series bounces from character to character as the citizens of Ikebukuro all share the role of protagonist.
Mikado tries to survive Ikebukuro and its supernatural and crime
related hazards. He turns out to be more than what he appears to be at first as creates a gang known as The Dollars as a way to add excitement to his life. Celty is the gang’s delivery woman. There are many different plotlines in this series, but the drama around the Dollars seems to the closest thing the plots have to a throughline. This series was a quirky and bizarre urban fantasy, but wasn’t a wall to wall action and spectacle showcase. It had action, but Adult Swim Action shows were famous for being about stuff other than just action. The fact that this show went entire episodes without throwdowns and the overall strangeness of the show kept it from being a Bleach level hit and it seemed like Adult Swim Action was entering its deathbed. Despite not reaching casual audiences, hardcore anime fans loved the creative characters and worldbuilding and were okay that there wasn’t an explosion every five seconds.
Adult Swim fans know what happened next in the history of its anime block. It rebranded to Toonami and the block’s showrunner shifted from Kim Manning to Jason Demarco. Quirky and experimental titles like Durarara were phased out on Toonami in favor of mainstream battle shonen. 2015’s Michiko and Hatchin, which I covered earlier, was probably the swan song of Adult Swim Action style programming. Fans of the Manning era and the Demarco era tend to hate the other era with a passion and Durarara is the endpoint of the Manning era of Adult Swim anime (okay it is unknown if the launch titles Toonami, Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins were Manning’s last picks or Demarco’s first picks, but Durarara was last show of the Adult Swim Action era and the last show we know for sure Manning picked for the block).
Durarara had a season two, but it never aired on Toonami despite how much of a cult classic season one was. In fact, season two is currently not streaming anywhere and has disappeared into oblivion. Season one is streaming exclusively on Hulu for those with nostalgia for the show, but the fact that season two, which concludes the show, has been sent to the void means you will get an incomplete experience.
Light novel author Ryohgo Narita’s works continue to be popular, as the anime adaptation of his light novel in the Fate franchise Fate/Strange Fake was a significant blockbuster for the Winter 2026 anime season. It is a shame that Baccano! and the second season of Durarara have disappeared into oblivion despite their immense acclaim. For those who love quirky and offbeat urban fantasy anime, Durarara is a classic.
