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Siren Visual Announces Durarara!!×2 on Boxing Day
posted on by Jon Hayward
Siren Visual unwrapped one more present on Boxing Day, revealing the acquisition of Durarara!!×2 on their Facebook page. The series will be streamed within a week of it's Japanese airdates (early January 2015) on AnimeLab and be available with English subtitles for Australian viewers.
The release was first hinted at by Siren Visual changing their Facebook header on Monday the 22nd of December, but they could not confirm the acquisition to ANN at the time.
Durarara!!×2
A half a year after the events of the first season, Ikebukuro has begun to return to normal. High school is in session, Izaya is back to scheming and Celty, the legendary headless rider, is still chased by the police as she rides through the town. But a few unusual things have slipped into the mix. Gradually, thanks to outside elements, Ikebukuro will be thrown back into chaos.
Durarara!!×2 continues to adapt Ryohgo Narita's Durarara!! "high-tension suspense action" light novels and follows on from the 2010 Durarara!! anime series. Takahiro Ōmori is directing Durarara!!×2 at new studio Shuka with series composition by Noboru Takagi. Takahiro Kishida is designing the characters for the series and Makoto Yoshimori is providing the music. Eri Yamazaki is designing the props, Hiromi Miyawaki is in charge of the color key, Norikazu Kamibayashi is serving as CG producer, Kazuhiko Seki is editing, Jin Tamura is in charge of photography and the name of the animation's production group will be Ikebukuro Dollars (the same as the first season).
Durarara!!×2 will be broadcast across three split cours (quarters of a year) but the number of episodes per cour has yet to be confirmed. The first set will be Durarara!!×2 Shō ("understanding") and start in January 2015, Durarara!!×2 Ten ("motion") will start in July 2015 and the set will finish off with Durarara!!×2 Ketsu ("conclusion") in January 2016. The promotional video mentions that the sequel series will conclude the story from the original light novel series.
The main cast from the original anime is returning to reprise their roles and you can view the new cast and character designs for the series here.
The opening theme will be "Headhunt" performed by OKAMOTO and the ending theme will be "Never Say Never." performed by Three Lights Down Kings. In addition Saki Fujita, the voice of Ruri Hijiribe, will be performing the background song "little world" which was written by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, the voice of Mikado Ryūgamine.
Ryohgo Narita's Durarara!! "high-tension suspense action" light novels were launched under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint in April 2004 and the series concluded it's run in January 2014 after 13 volumes. The series inspired a ongoing manga series in Square Enix's GFantasy magazine since 2009 and this manga has been translated and published in English by Yen Press. A second series, Durarara!! 3way standoff -alley-, is adapted from the video game of the same name and illustrated by Izuko Fujiya, the series has been published in ASCII Media Works' Monthly Sylph magazine since July 2013.
Durarara!! finished it's run with Ryohgo Narita announcing in the 13th volume author notes that the first arc ends at the conclusion of the volume. Narita was quick to assure fans that the series will continue into a second arc to be published under the name Durarara!! SH that will take place two years in the future
Aniplex of America has licensed the series and will stream the show in North America on Aniplex Channel, Hulu, and Crunchyroll. Aniplex of USA has released a English subtitled trailer that you can view below;
Siren Visual acquired Durarara!! back in October 2010 and has since released the series as both a two part collection and a single complete edition on DVD and later Blu-ray. They do not have exact dates and times yet but will stream Durarara!!×2 on AnimeLab within a week of the Japanese airdates in January 2015.
