Something of a soft reboot for the series after the initial trilogy and the year of Baccano! novels, Dulalala 4 is a massive return to form.Headless biker Celtie is surprised by a TV crew on the corner one night; they demand to no why she has no lights or license plate. Assuming they'll never be able to broadcast it, she explains that her bike is actually a horse, and it transforms...on live television. Oops. Before she knows it, there's a ten million yen bounty on her head, and every biker gang in the area is chasing after her...while she's got a dead body in her sidecar.
Meanwhile, a Russian hitman and a serial killer disguised as monster are fighting in a park when they accidentally piss off a man dressed as a bartender, who immediately hits them with a bench. The people that stop to help them recover from their wounds send ripples out through the plot, which covers the same time frame from four different points of view, all ending in the same car chase as Celtie's.
Particularly astounding is the introduction of evil strategist Izaya's deranged twin sisters, who proceed to deal with the bullies at their new school by weaponizing thumbtacks, stealing bras, and starting fires in bookbags, before going back to loudly reading porn magazines aloud in class.
Man, the anime version can't air soon enough.
Based on your review, this novel is pure madness. :)
ReplyDeleteThe trailer with proper footage of the animated series is up at: http://www.durarara.com/theater/
ReplyDeleteLooks pretty slick. Always nice to see a trailer with appropriate music instead of some shitty J-pop.
ReplyDeleteNo Youtube version yet, sadly.
If the trailer isn't lying (yeah, right), then this will have a larger budget than Baccano! had.
ReplyDeleteI see absolutely no evidence for that.
ReplyDeleteThe background music reminds me of Keishi Urata's work for Texhnolyze. In other words, if that was the real music from the show it would be awesome.
ReplyDeleteMemory might be failing me, but the backgrounds looked more detailed than in Baccano!
ReplyDeleteThere were about a half-dozen composers that worked on the Texhnolyze score (bringing in an unprecedented amount of styles), but I don't recall anything like this appearing in that series.
Similar in genre and atmosphere, not rhythm or anything. Quite vague, of course, but that type of music is not often encountered in anime. But, I haven't listened to Texhnolyze score in a while now, so I may be wrong. Now, when I am thinking about it again, Tsuneo Imahori, when he composes that type of electro-acid-jazz madness, is a better reference.
ReplyDeleteMost anime studios have been seriously increasing their budgets over the last couple of years. Brains Base's shows: Kurenai, Natsume Yuujinchou, Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou and Spice and Wolf s2 have all been following this trend (and have been awesome) so I don't see any reason Dulalala!! wouldn't.
ReplyDeleteRight, but Baccano was part of that. It looked great all the way through, never cut corners on the animation, and definitely looked better than the two episodes of Natsume Yuujinchou I saw.
ReplyDelete