Durarara!! General Overview

Sapphire Pyro's most anticipated new anime on the upcoming season: Durarara!! (デュラララ!!) [also known as Dulalala!!, DRRR!!, and Dhurarara!!...read more about its romanisation here]

I already made something like this before, but this new one's gonna be more detailed. This post will consist of all the general news/information that I could find so far.
I hope you find this general overview helpful, and be convinced to read and/or watch it already because this is . . . totally awesome! Go fan crazy with me! NOW NOW NOW!!! Hahahahahha!

(UPDATED: Organized this . . . and updated some information)

[ NOVELS ]

Durarara!! is a Japanese light novel series written by Ryohgo Narita, with illustrations by Suzuhito Yasuda. As of July 2009, six volumes have been published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint.

Volume 7 will be published on January 10, 2010.

[ MANGA ]

A manga adaptation by Akiyo Satorigi started serialization in the shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy on April 18, 2009.
The first volume was released on December 26, 2009.

[ ANIME ]

An anime adaptation was announced in the wraparound sleeve of the sixth volume of the light novel. The anime is produced by Brain's Base and is scheduled to air on January 7, 2009 on MBS, TBS, and CBC.The media distribution website Crunchyroll is listing the Durarara!! anime series among its list of "All Anime Titles" on its website's main page.

Director: Takahiro Omori
Series Composition: Noboru Takagi
Original creator: Ryohgo Narita
Original Character Design: Suzuhito Yasuda
Character Design: Takahiro Kishida
Art director: Akira Ito
Chief Animation Director: Akira Takata
Mechanical design: Tatsuo Yamada
Director of Photography: Hitoshi Tamura
Action Director: Tatsuo Yamada
Assistant director: Shinya Kawazura
CG Producer: Norikazu Kamibayashi
Color design: Hiromi Miyawaki
Editing: Kazuhiko Seki

[ MUSIC ]
Soundtrack will be by Makoto Yoshimori. Like Baccano!'s soundtrack, they consist of jazz music~

Opening Theme: Uragiri no Yūyake (Betrayal of the Sunset) by Theatre Brook
Ending Theme: Trust Me by Yuya Matsushita
(See More DRRR!! Music Related Stuff in This Post)

[ GOODIES: DVD ]

The first DVD Volume will be out February 24, 2010!
There are news that this series will have a total of 12 Volumes. But I don't know if that has been 100% confirmed yet.
(See More DRRR!! DVD Related Stuff in This Post)

[ GOODIES: OTHERS ]

Desktop Calendar for 2010.

A shopping bag that will be out on next year as well.

[ TRAILER and PROMOS ]

RAW Version of the Subbed Trailer | Official Trailer | Second Official Trailer | Commercial | Durarara's 12-Minute Perfect Guide Special | Trailer Portion of the 12-Minute Special | DVD Commercial

[ STORY ]

Ryuugamine Mikado is a boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city. At the invitation of his childhood friend Masaomi, he transfers to a school in Ikebukuro. Masaomi has warned him about people he doesn't want to cross in the city: a champion fighter, an informant, and a mysterious gang called "Darazu." Nervous from Masaomi's stories, Mikado witnesses an urban legend on his first day in the city, the Headless Rider astride a black motorcycle. From then on, the existence of supernatural cases and a gang called the Yellow Turbans will rise to the surface, and Ikebukuro will pushed to the breaking point.

[ CHARACTERS and CAST ]

Many unusual people gather here in Ikebukuro, Tokyo--- a youth who yearns for an un-mundane life, a hoodlum, a stalker denpa-girl, a young man who deals in information ‘for fun’, a black-market doctor, a high-schooler obsessed with magic, as well as a ‘headless rider’ riding a bike painted black.
These unusual people begin a series of abnormal stories that never fail to create headaches. But, although their personalities are all twisted— they still talk about love.

(order: left to right)

• Mikado Ryūgamine (Toshiyuki Toyonaga)
  He's a pretty regular guy, but longs for an 'unordinary' life. Performs well under pressure/in dangerous situations. He later becomes a leader of a gang in order to turn a situation to his advantage.
• Masaomi Kida (Mamoru Miyano)
  He's Mikado's childhood friend; an easy-going guy, but actually was once the leader of a gang.
• Anri Sonohara (Kana Hanazawa)
  She's a quiet girl who's top of the class, who feels she lacks certain personality traits. Turns out possess the cursed item, and takes over a certain group where she gets absolute control.
• Izaya Orihara (Hiroshi Kamiya)
  He's an information dealer who hates Shizuo with a passion and calls him "Shizu-chan". He uses all the information in his hands and manipulates people. He wants to incite an all-out gang war in Ikebukuro.
• Shizuo Heiwajima (Daisuke Ono)
  He's a rather non-descript guy who wears a bartender's suit, until you discover his incredibly short fuse and insane strength. He injured his muscles trying to pick up something heavy when little, which broke down the mental limits we usually impose on our muscles and uses them to their full potential. He hates Izaya for framing him for a crime in the past.
• Shinra Kishitani (Jun Fukuyama)
  He's a black market doctor and his parents work for Nebula. He lives with Selty and is in love with her.
  
• Selty Sturluson
  She is also known as "The Black Rider" or "The Headless Rider", she is a Dullahan from Ireland who came to Japan looking for her stolen head. Her motorcycle is actually a horse in disguise.
• Kishitani ??? (???)
  Shinra's father.
• Kyouhei/Kyōhei Kadota (Yuuichi Nakamura)
• Walker Yumasaki (Yuuki Kaji)
• Erica/Erika Karisawa (Ayahi Takagaki)
• Seiji Yagiri (Kazuma Horie)
  He left school to spend more time with the girl of his dreams.
  
• Namie Yagiri (Sanae Kobayashi)
  Seiji's older sister and highly adores him. She'll do anything for her brother.
  
• Simon Brezhnev (Семён Брежнев, Seymon Brezhnev) (Takaya Kuroda)
  A Russian man that works at his friend's sushi restaurant. He's a nice fellow but also a very strong fighter.
  
• ???? (Ueda Yuuji?)
  He's a school teacher at Raira Academy and there are rumors of him being a perverted one.
  
• ????
• Tom Tanaka (Katsuyuki Konishi)
  Shizuo's boss.
  
• ????

I'm not sure which is Kinnosuke Kuzuhara (voiced by Keiji Fujiwara). I only found out about this recently. Will update once I know.

[ EPISODE ]
As of now it's scheduled to have 12 episodes to be aired on the upcoming season. But there are rumors of it having a total of 24 episodes.

Posts that are tagged as both Durarara and Anime: Episode contain my impressions on each episode.

[ FAN TALK ]

Is my excitement to watch the anime series not yet that obvious? Haha!

This got attention mainly because of the weird title. I got more interested when I find out that the story seems awesome (I'm really fond of twisted stories with a great variation of characters) and that the author of this series is the same as Baccano!'s, which is one of my top favorite series of all times!
There had been some translations available of the novel and the manga, and as I've expected, the series is definitely fantastic!
Greater news was that the staff and studiobehind the anime adaptation is almost the same as the ones behind the Baccano! anime! And that's definitely one of their masterpieces! I also greatly adore their other shows, namely Natsume Yuujinchou and Spice & Wolf.
What pleased me as well is the voice cast! True, a good cast doesn't really much have to do on the quality of the anime in general, but at least we'll definitely hear good voice acting skills . . . and their voices are just that mesmerizing~ I'm happy that even with just the cast, many people will be checking this out. I don't really want fans to watch this series just for the cast, but still, the more the merrier. This series deserves popularity.

By the way, my favorite character in this series is Izaya. I find him cute and awesome . . . also freakin' evil (I don't like it that he's heartless even to women though) and very hilarious (yay to crushing of pink cellphone! LOLz)! And oh he laughs like a lunatic!!! Hahahahah! OH I LOVE HIM!!!!! *hugs*
He's definitely twisted, and oh boy his interactions with Shizuo are so fun~ "IIIZAAAAAAAAYAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!" Bwahahahahahh!!! Yes, tortured Izaya is fun (pwned when hit by a trashcan~)
Not only with Shizuo of course. He's fun when around other characters as well, whether he's messing with him or the other way around. Oh gawd I love this crazy guy. And it appears that he's one of the most popular DRRR!! characters already. Haha!

Notes/Credits:
- Durarara!! Official Site
- Anime News Network
- Wikipedia
- Baka-Tsuki
- Great thanks to Elkin for the most of the character info and the teaser
- Great thanks to Majikayo and mikage for the manga scans