Where Does Durarara!! Take Place? Real Locations
Location Guide · 4 min read
Published October 22, 2026
Durarara!! takes place in Toshima, Tokyo, the ward built around Ikebukuro Station and the tangle of exits, arcades and konbini around it. In Japan the anime airs as デュラララ!!, abbreviated DRRR!! in some official material. We have verified 52 real locations: 48 of them sit inside Toshima's Ikebukuro cluster, and the remaining four cross into neighboring Shinjuku. The series premiered in January 2010, sixteen years ago, and most of what it filmed is still standing.
Where does Durarara!! take place?
Toshima holds 48 of the 52 confirmed spots, almost all of them a short walk from Ikebukuro Station's east side. The station itself is worth knowing before you plan a route: it opened in 1903 and today is shared by four operators, JR East, Tokyo Metro, and the private Seibu and Tobu railways. Around the east exit, our catalog confirms the row of everyday businesses the anime's opening sequence turns into a map: Sunshine Street, Paris Miki's optical shop, the Palermo bar, and the LAWSON at the station's east side. Ichiran's Ikebukuro branch, a set of coin-operated lockers, and a cluster of shops along Sunshine 60-dori round out the rest, the kind of ordinary backdrop a story about an urban legend needs to feel like a real city.
Episode 3 alone contributes ten of the confirmed sites, more than any other episode, including HOTEL VARKIN, a Caffè Veloce branch by the east entrance, and Menya Musashi Niten. Episode 1 adds eight more, among them the east exit itself, Round One Ikebukuro, and Hattendo. The pattern holds across the list: this is a show that spends its establishing scenes walking the same few blocks around the station rather than jumping across the city, which is exactly why the map clusters as tightly as it does.
Shinjuku: the other cluster
Four confirmed spots sit across the ward line in Shinjuku, all tied to different episodes rather than one scene. Shinjuku Central Park Fujimidai is a viewing plaza inside Shinjuku Central Park, the park in western Shinjuku that sits in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and some of the city's tallest towers. Chokoji Temple and the Robert Indiana sculpture "LOVE" fall in the same general area, and ZUG2WANG, from episode 4, rounds out the small set. None of it asks for a special trip on its own, but it fits into a longer day built around the Ikebukuro core.
Is Raira Academy in Durarara!! a real school?
No. Raira Academy is the school name the story uses for its main cast, and the Japanese Wikipedia's own breakdown of the characters groups them by that name. Our catalog has no matched real campus under it. What is real is everything around the fictional school: the station platforms, the shopping streets, the pharmacies and convenience stores the anime uses as its actual backdrop. Visit those, and leave the campus itself off the itinerary.
Getting to Ikebukuro
Ikebukuro Station is the hub for the whole map. JR East and Tokyo Metro both run through it, alongside the private Seibu and Tobu lines, so a single Suica or Pasmo card covers nearly every stop on this list. The Shinjuku cluster is a few stops away on the same JR Yamanote loop line, close enough to fold into the same day without adding a second ticket.
Which studio animates Durarara!!?
Brain's Base animated Durarara!!, adapting Ryohgo Narita's light novel series with character designs by illustrator Suzuhito Yasuda. The anime premiered in Japan on 8 January 2010, which makes this its sixteenth year. The franchise has kept going well past the original broadcast: a sequel light novel series, Durarara!! SH, began in 2014, and a stage play adaptation announced for spring 2020 was postponed by the pandemic, finally staging in Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka in August 2021.
Keep exploring
- Where Does Botan Kamiina Take Place? Its tenth ending sequence detours to Rikkyo University and Nishi-Ikebukuro Park, the same ward this map covers.
- Open the anime map. Every verified location in Japan, searchable by title.