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10 Responses to “Darker than Black is Better than Good”  

1. 1 bj0rN 153 comments Sep 28th, 2007 at 7:44 pm

   I love DTB. BONES havent failed us this time round again. Though I did wish it would be longer and more developed. =/

2. 2 Soshi 93 comments Sep 28th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

   The ending left me kind of ‘meh’. Lots of unresolved threads floating around but still, DtB is love!!!!!!

3. 3 Beowulf Lee 29 comments Sep 29th, 2007 at 11:31 pm

   I somehow get the impression that Darker than Black is a lot more popular in Japan than in the English anime community. If enough fans bitch, perhaps they’ll make an OVA ending.

   And, Amber is hawt, but who is hawter? Amber or CC?

4. 4 tj_han 1442 comments Sep 30th, 2007 at 12:23 am

   I’m not sure why you think so Beowulf. Apparently in Japan, StrikerS is the most popular anime among the otaku crowd and Dtb rates rather low.

   In the English community, we tend to not be as fascinated with the element of moe.

   If I had to pick, Amber is hotter because she’s selfless while CC is a tad more selfish (but still selfless in the end of course).

   Speaking of which, Mai came back and died in a flash.

5. 5 Mcsmigly 1 comment Sep 30th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

   I don’t think Mai “died” again, at least not in the physical sense. Amber’s power is to manipulate time. She can give flashes of the future to others (like the egg) but can also allow people to enter the suspended time state with her like she did (for the EPR member with the messed up eye) the first time Hei nearly killed her. So she simply brought all of Hei’s acquaintances (knowing that he is the key to the future of all contractors’ survival) into the suspended time state (physically) and then also brought Hei…all in an attempt to persuade Hei realize he can be both a human and a contractor.

   Though I’m a bit confused here. His sister’s power is stated to be the ability to produce electricity to change the form of molecules such as turning a human into a contractor. So once she died I’m guessing she used her power on herself which seems to have changed her from being a contractor to a doll/soul/lost soul in the spiritual state which she then somehow joined with Hei…or just gave him her power by some other means. Therefore, the last picture depicted seems to be the soul of Bai/Mai/whatever Hei’s sister’s name is….

   Yet I would’ve like a little more clarity about the origins of the gate and the existence of contractors….and I’m just guessin that Heaven’s Gate is unnapproachable by humans and contractors alike after the big flash incident for these reasons/assumptions. First, since the lens/artifact allowed Hei to see the real stars and his sister at times, it appears that it responds to his ability to manipulate molecules but on an emotional/desire level. Since the South America incident is where his sister died, the artifact must have reacted with his sister’s desire for Hei for which the only means seem to be to give him her powers which basically turned him into a contractor and then all other contractors into spirits of dolls (amber probably manipulated time to escape this fate). But since Hei’s true desire was to end the violence he created heaven’s gate accidentally blocking all humans from entering the field (and becoming contractors?)……………

   all just speculation, feel free to criticize

6. 6 Xerox 2 comments Oct 1st, 2007 at 2:09 am

   DtB could’ve been better, but honestly, I think you’ve got it the other way around, it’s way better than Last Exile (the ending was terrible) and Eureka 7. And, I liked the not so big bang ending. DtB isn’t a big bang show, it’s calmer, darker (ha).

   Anyways, I hear there’s an episode 26 somewhere. Not sure if the rumors are true though.

7. 7 homeless_homo 39 comments Oct 1st, 2007 at 8:59 am

   OVA coming in 08….last I heard

8. 8 Stuffs 3 comments Oct 4th, 2007 at 9:27 am

   That picture of the last scene i think it illustrates a possible recreation, like a 1.5 Season that constits of serveral OVA’s jam packed of imformation about what happend and whats going to happen, or like Another gate appearing and being called the Gate of Life and it Destroys a Contractors Contract leaving them nothing but an empty shell such like a Human with no emotions, i think that could be a cool twist of fate. Also Hei having emotions he shoulda made sweet love to some ladies!! (j.k that would have ruined the replection of the show) But indebtly we deserve a huge giant 5 hour long explanation of things or the start of another plot like Dark Than Black : The Brown Eye or Darker Than Black : Purple. er something retarded like that? :O But in all id give this show a 6/5 just because i thought the animation was very sophisticated and left a brand in my brain.

9. 9 Not Important 1 comment Mar 17th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

   Darker than Black was Better than Bad. The whole thing to amounted to a great soundtrack done by the legend herself. Thats it. Nothing else about this series is worth mentioning. The character designs are not that great, the scenes are done in a bland and boring manner, the character development either does leave you with a reason to care or enough information to matter. This series was not bad by any means, just average. So lets break it down, shall we.

   Plot: Pick an anime, any anime that involves humans versus …..well anything. Ghost, aliens, devils, etc. in the end there is a war going on between us and them. Darker than Black is the same. We humans are in a constant power struggle with Contractors. And as usually the line of good and evil is not so clearly defined. Humans use Contractor to kill other Contractors, but the Contractors do the same. Anyone with moral character of any kind in this series are either killed off quickly, or simply to pointless to matter. The core is explained very well throughout, but the back story and details are fuzzy and confusing. There are random references to science “stuff” that honestly doesn’t matter one bit. The plot was therefore Plainer than Toast.

   Character Design/Development: The writers of this show didn’t care so why should I? The characters who got the most development time are semi-minor characters, mean they are involved with the primary plot, but aren’t important to it. This ultimately is proven with their painfully obvious impending deaths. This leaves you with several very important characters who you don’t know enough about to care. I remember Yin, Huang, and November 11 because they got the most side story time, but they are not the lead characters (Amber, Hei, and Kirihara). While each and every character looked unique and lived in a world that wanted so badly to be real, they all turned about the be carbon copies of cooler characters from other anime series. They are all single minded, non-dynamic, selfish nothings. In the end, all were Thiner than Paper.

   Sound: The soundtrack was great. Yoko Kanno is all I will say about the soundtrack. The in anime sound was also very well done. A lot of attention was paid in this department, I wish it would have spread to other section of my review. It was Cooler than This anime.

   Overall: I will keep this short since I obvious don’t like Darker than Black and will soon be forgetting it. It was more Boring than Sleep. I can’t honestly say I would care to own this anime or have it dubbed at all.

   Side Note: And before you jump on me about it, I like my dubbed. Some things can get lost in translation, but when done well, it can also be amazing. I always watch in both languages if I like it and tend to be partial to whichever I watched first. I hate all the editing and altering that is done to anime during the dubbing process and actively help organizations end it. We are making headway, be happy. I want my anime translated and thats all; stop right there.

10. 10 random 1 comment Apr 13th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    Um……The last scene/picture is NOT Hei’s sister Bai, but Yin’s spirit Medium. (Bai’s spirit is not like that, the only person that can see her is Hei, and it’s basically an opaque bai. Doll Mediums has that weird flower/cluster thing in them……)
    Although i have no idea what that means, but keep in mind that it was Yin who pulled Hei out of that “swirly thinging” when REAL sky/stars were coming back, she basically saved him.
    I have a LOT of questions in which i hope that BONES will be able to answer, either with a few more OVA’s OR hopefully a new season! One of them being, the last scene where Yin’s spirit medium was standing on top of the water! WTH does that mean? Although every contracter has disappeared, i am pretty sure that Yin is still alive (Or else whe wouldn’t ask Hei to stay with her and not leave her alone int he world), she’s one of my fav. characters so i personally want to know where she’s gone.
    2. Bai, She’s a mystery. i don’t think that she altered the molecules of Hei, but somehow her spirit or powers are within him. The question is “How?” Or “Why?”. Although i think that it’s got something to do with Hei’s Human/Contract boundary breaking, on what defines “A Contractor” with “A human” mind, but how exactly? And also, i think that she’s dead.

    and there are many more questions which are very confusing altogther…..I just hope that BONES gives us more eps.! DTB’s story is too complicated for it to finnish this way! Although I am sort of satisfied with the ending, but everytime i think about all those magnificent lose threads just flying around in my face, I just can’t stop thinking about it!!!! argh!!!! IT’S DRIVING ME NUTS!!!

    Sigh* also EPS26 (the OVA) was a nice ep. to watch, but i was hoping that it would answer some of the questions unanswered, buuuuuuuuut I guess i will have to keep on crossing my fingers and hope for the best……..new season, new season, new season……more OVA’s, more OVA’s, more OVA’s!

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