Ok, straight to business...
A little while ago I watched We Without Wings, Under the Innocent Sky (Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai); now, I know what you're going to say.. I've read what other reviewers have said about this show, but just hear me out.
Yes, it is Harem, and Ecchi; and yes, there is a lot of fan-service in it; sure, so the first few episodes don't make a whole lot of sense; and it's heavily censored, and you know how I feel about censorship (although the censorship in this show is sexual, not violent in nature). But once you get past alllll of that, it actually is a good story. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I won't tell you what it's actually about, but once you get around episode 6 and the stories all start coming together, the fan-service lessens, and the plot really becomes clear, that's when it gets good. Although the female characters are mostly flat, archetypal portrayals of women, the male characters are quite engaging. Chitose is funny and endearing, Kakeru is colorful and funny, and the King of Gretagard is hilarious. But my favorite character is by far Dora. When the short, 12-episode series came to a close, I wanted more. I wished it had been 24 episodes, if for nothing else, more Dora.I had read in the comments on Crunchyroll people comparing it to Durarara!!, which I had always avoided because it had never seemed interesting to me. Someone even said they both had "the same plot" (which is untrue), so it intrigued me into watching Durarara finally.
There are a few similarities between the two, but they are not the same at all. There are some double-identities going on, it takes place in modern Japan, and some of the characters are in high school. They both have an enormous amount of characters, they both make references to other Animes, they both have a couple of rival gangs, and they both have a big black guy whose Japanese isn't perfect, but that's about it.For one thing, Durarara is neither Ecchi nor fan-service, and the female characters are much more interesting. Celty is now one of my favorite characters in Anime, even without a head, and so is Shizuo, in spite of his temper (or because of it?). Izaya is diabolically entertaining, and the rivalry between he and Shizuo is fun.
This one was the right length at 24 episodes, though the ending begs for a second season. All of the characters are compelling, with the exception of Mikado, who I think is a bit of a boring protagonist. I don't think it's coincidence that Dora in We Without Wings wears almost the exact same outfit as Izaya.
Both shows I felt were a bit lacking in the endings. I would have loved to see WWW go on for 12 more episodes, and a second season of Durarara.
If I had to pick one of the two, I'd go with We Without Wings, simply because I liked the animation style and some of the humor better. And I just love Dora so much. But I must warn that there is some very raunchy humor, too, and one sex-scene, late in the show, which caught me off-guard. But, without giving anything away, I liked the plot twist, and there were some really lovely moments. Hell, my headline on Crunchyroll is a quote from the show.
