Ryohgo Narita is a Japanese light novelist and the creator of Durarara!! He won the Gold Prize in the 9th Dengeki Novel Prize for Baccano!. He began Durarara!! not long after, and has since gone on to expand his original series as well as author and co-author many other novel and manga series.
History[]
Narita was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Saitama Prefecture. During college, he submitted Baccano! The Rolling Bootlegs for the 9th Dengeki Novel Prize in 2002 and tied for the Gold Prize. Baccano! was made into an anime TV series in 2007. He began Durarara!! in 2004 and the first three light novels were made into an anime TV series in 2010. The 13-volume light novel series was concluded in 2014, and he is currently writing its sequel series, Durarara!! SH; a spinoff series featuring Izaya Orihara, one of the primary antagonists of Durarara!!; as well as many other ongoing works and collaborations.
Works[]
Narita's works feature an ensemble cast - a large cast of characters whom the story follows equally. Each story is a blend of first, second, and third person narration. He has said that he rarely has a main character in mind when writing his stories; he would prefer if the reader decided who the main character is.
Though his stories seem to take place in ordinary times and places, he simultaneously sets them in two unreachable worlds: one, a world where the supernatural exists as a part of daily life; and two, the underworld. He refers to this aspect of his works as "the extraordinary within the ordinary."
He frequently includes cultural, historical, and literary references in his works from a wide variety of places and periods. His stories that take place outside of Japan often contain Japanese elements, including characters of Japanese origin and many cultural references.
Most of Narita's original works exist within a shared universe known as the Naritaverse.
List of works[]
| Title | Media | Volumes | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baccano! | Light Novel Manga Anime |
22 (LN) 3 (manga) 16 episodes (anime) |
February 10, 2003 – present (LN) February 10, 2016 – present (manga) July 26, 2007 - November 1, 2007 (anime) |
| Durarara!! | Light Novel Manga Anime |
13 (LN) 14 (manga) 65 episodes (anime) |
April 25, 2004 - January 10, 2014 (LN) December 26, 2009 – present (manga) January 8, 2010 - March 26, 2016 (anime) |
| Durarara!! SH | Light Novel | 4 | April 10, 2014 – present |
| Etsusa Bridge | Light Novel | 4 | December 10, 2003 - May 10, 2006 |
| Vamp! | Light Novel | 5 | May 28, 2004 - October 7, 2010 |
| Bleach: Spirits Are Forever With You | Light Novel (co-authored) | 2 | June 4, 2012 |
| Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF | Light Novel | 1 | July 26, 2012 |
| Dead Mount Death Play | Manga (collab) | 13 chapters | October 20, 2017 – present |
| Fate/strange Fake | Light Novel Manga |
4 (LN) 2 (manga) |
January 10, 2014 – present |
| Hariyama-san, Center of the World | Short Story Collection | 3 | October 2005 - October 2009 |
| Kuroha & Nijisuke | Manga (collab) | 1 | October 26, 2016 - January 26, 2017 |
| Polyphonica | Anime (co-teleplay) | 12 episodes | April 3, 2007 - June 19, 2007 |
| Red Dragon and Chaos Dragon | Anime, Game (character creation) | 12 episodes | July 2, 2015 - September 17, 2015 |
| Stealth Symphony (collab) | Manga (collab) | 2 | August 4, 2014 |
| Toaru Jihanki no Fanfare | Light Novel | 1 | June 26, 2010 |
Trivia[]
- Narita is known for making many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Often his editors humorously include them in the published works.
- Narita writes extremely quickly. However, health complications frequently keep him from maintaining his intense publishing schedule.
- He is a fan of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, the prequel to Devil Survivor 2 and Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, and mentions in his afterword to Durarara!!x5 that he has played the game at least two times through.
- Narita said in an interview after the release of the first episode of the anime that he "still needed to reflect upon" the fact that fans started to see Izaya and Shizuo as the "bacon lettuce" (the author's way to refer to BL) pair of the series. For April Fool's Day, he wrote a "bacon lettuce" gaiden at the urging of his editors. The short story revolved around Erika's BL fantasies involving Izaya and Shizuo. The author stated that he was made to re-write it many times by his friend as he was not making it "BL enough." Narita himself has repeatedly stated that he does not understand the ship and thus had a lot of difficulty in writing it.