DURARARA!!

(C) Ryohgo Narita/ ASCII MEDIA WORKS/IKEBUKURO DOLLARS, MBS

All dangerous guys gather in Ikebukuro, Tokyo…

It is an ensemble-cast animated TV series which has elements of fantasy and action.

A high school student MIKADO moves to Ikebukuro and meets his old friend MASAOMI. Masaomi guides Mikado around the town and introduces him to his friends.

Mikado learns there are a lot of eccentric people in Ikebukuro: an underground informer in Shinjuku, IZAYA, and a man with superhuman strength who hates Izaya, SHIZUO. And a rumor about a mysterious gang group (called “color gang” in Japan), Dollars. Above all, he accidentally encounters a woman of Durahan (headless fairy in Ireland legend), CELTY.

Mikado enters a gate of extraordinary days he has longed for.

REMAKE

This is a really interesting story which has many attractive characters and a thorough plot thread. Every character’s episode is well constructed, and they are mixed and built carefully. A whole series also gets more and more exciting towards the climax. The anime will grip your interest once you start to watch.

A hard component for remake may be the setting, Ikebukuro. In the series, this town itself plays an important role as if one of the characters. Ikebukuro is unique place, not only as a youth town with big shopping malls, but also as a center of subculture. Actually, it has a lot of “otaku” mecca like Akihabara. Furthermore, in the past, some “color gangs” appeared at night in a part of the area. Like this, Ikebukuro has its own taste and atmosphere.

Japanese audience (particularly in Tokyo) knows it well. They love the anime including its special air of the location. It can be said that it adds a good spice to the story. In fact, many fans visit Ikebukuro in order to see the exact place and compare it with the animation, called “Seich-Junrei” (pilgrimage to sacred places) in Japan.

If you want to make it into, for example film adaptation, in foreign countries, you have to understand that it means you must discard the essential element.