It must be their demonic panache

because otherwise I can't possibly explain why I gave up on Mitsudomoe after 2 episodes and finished Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san in two days. Both of these seinen comedies border on gross for comedic relief, but somehow where middle-school triplet girls couldn't make me stay a bunch of perverted chibi monsters from hell did. Okay, one of them had Izaya's voice, but that sure isn't all of it! Maybe I prefer my butt jokes without kids, thank you.

What I liked about Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san is probably how they managed to serve some spot-on observations on human nature in a purposefully gross nature, and made fun of both characters and the audience. For example, there is this Belzeebub demon, supposedly a prince of hell who looks like a penguin (and talks in Izaya's voice, yes). In the beginning he mostly grosses you out, then you get used to him, then he shows some amazing princely potential (of the twisted kind, obviously - at his best moments he reminded me of fic!Dracos of the realistic kind) skyrocketing to some tragic levels and then he plunges back into a - quite literally - pile of shit. It's like the storytellers are making fun of you and your expectations and stereotypes in the first place while pretending to toy around with the characters.

Belzeebub in his penguin and princely forms. I like it how he essentially looks the same *giggle*

And somehow many characters managed to have some character growth withing 13 half-sized episodes. Sakuma, who starts of as a sensible yet naive college girl working part-time as a detective assisstant by the end of the series is halfway to the crazy and dark that all other cast are. She's turning (or revealing herself to be) quite greedy, manipulative, better at summoning and considerably less green behind the ears. The only one who doesn't change from minute one is Akutabe the detective. He is one helluva grim-looking expert on the demonic stuff, and looks like he just came from hell more that all the demons togethers. At one point I thought he might harbour something for Sakuma, but it seems that no, he was still mostly just the grim short-tempered boss he seemed to be.

Don't try to read too much into either the anime or my musings on it, and you might enjoy it. Just keep the kids away from it:)

Durarara! and my brain goes lalalala

I have just finished marathoning Durarara!!

I have these thoughts in my brain, but they are mostly incoherent and and essentially impressions, so please bear with me.

The summary of a summary - it was ond  helluva fun ride, but I have no clear idea what it was about (but I have my guesses). You should watch it too, because chances are you'll be just as perplexed and entertained - and glued to the monitor - as I was.

I might come up with a more coherent post later, but for now for the purposes of scrambling together at least some words and stringing them into sentences a list will have to do.

1. This anime rocks the warped wave so proficiently that I'll never agree with its shounen tag. The sheer amount of creeps, freaks and weirdos per capita threatens to overwhelm the capita in question. You're in for a fest of dysfucntional relationships, and the scariest bit is that by mid-series you'll be growing mushy on some of those (some, okay? Because I can never endorse an ototo-complex, for obvious personal reasons). The unrivalled cherry on top of this wacko-fest is Izaya the creepypie, the mastermind of all things Durarara whose motives, I believe, all boil down to I-was-bored. And you'll totally get why 99% of Durarara fanmixes are Shizaya. Just saying. I can recommend the best ones, too *hoho*

1.2. To Hei fans: Shizaya is a canon slash, too. Dotachin's sidekicks said so.

2. I have no idea what was the main point of the show (except providing excellent entertainment). Was it about gang wars? Internet? Mythology? Creeps? High school life being the epitome of abnormality? Love to humankind and bazillion ways it can go wrong? *I wish I was kidding*

3. The diversity of the cast is really commendable. There are some recognizable types, but they're not prevailent, and you really enjoy your show one creep at a time. I meant, one character at a time *ahem* The greatest part is changing your opinion 180 degrees about one or another character every second episode - that says something about the coolness of plot twists and character depth, methinks. My best friend who marathoned with me can testify to the fact that I was exclaiming "This is the most warped guy in the whole of the series!" or "They can define dysfunctionality!" about different characters every time.

4. Did I mention it was riveting? You never know everything that's in store for you, even with setting your imagination loose and making the wildest guesses (ah, whatever brilliant mind allowed the Japanese to defy common sense in storytelling? Bless'em)

5. It certainly deserves rewatching, even probably more so than Darker than Black did, because I'm sure I missed a lot of plotpoints. And as someone said, the master magician can make you enjoy the same trick twice, first showing the trick and then explaining it. I think seeing the story come whole by noticing the important - in hindsight - elements might make it an altogether different kind of fun.

PS. Did you know how hard I tried not to post spoilery pictures here? There is just so.much.awesomeosity in stock, just you wait! *gleeful*