Darker Than Black

Synopsis:

Ah Tokyo, this large metropolis seems to be a magnet for all types of natural disaster. Well, it's also the center of attention for supernatural catastrophes as well as a strange anomaly dubbed as Hell's Gate appears in Tokyo destroying life, wreaking havoc on the landscape, and replacing the sky with it's own roof over the world. Along with this epic event strange individuals started appearing that displayed bizarre powers called contractors, but these powers have a price each time they are used... the cost of their own humanity. Hei, is one such contractor. Taking on the appearence of a kind-hearted man from China while "off duty", Hei is actually the masked assassin named The Black Reaper working for an unnamed organization simply known as The Syndicate eliminating any target set before him using the power of electricity mixed with his own quick reflexes. Along with fellow Syndicate members Yin (the spirit medium) and Mao (a talking cat), both working together to finish jobs assigned to them under the supervision of Huang who, unlike his team-mates, is not a contractor. Though through Hei's most recent assassination assignments his past and the mystery of Hell's Gate catches up with him dragging what few friends he has into the turmoil.


Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 26 (25 + 1 OVA)


Review:

Trench coat wearing assassin dude with a mask named The Black Reaper that appears after something called Hell's Gate has opened. Sounds pretty cool huh? Well... it is. Darker Than Black doesn't waste any time in getting the audiences attention with it's cool looking protagonist and slick stylized battles with other contractors that posses some strange ability. But, after a couple of episodes of that, Darker Than Black knows that it already has your attention and can start presenting some of the more subtle elements of the story while keeping your attention at the same time. And this works, to a certain point. Eventually, you're going to start missing the energy that the first few episodes came across with which does return to some degree but what we're given just sort of feels that it's not enough. Luckily, Darker Than Black's mysterious plot line helps to replace that gap left by it's own introductory episodes to pull you along and find out just what they hell is going on in the world today. But, while you will start to learn about Hei the series will also branch off and start delving into each characters past which can get downright boring. Hey, I'm usually all for character development but it's usually if the people onscreen are interesting but here we're looking at... a talking cat, an autistic acting young girl, and a short fat dude with a big-ass nose. Sorry... not interested. Well... okay, Yin's story (the girl who's a medium) was a little interesting but it didn't clear up any mystery about her at all and the episodes spent showing you her past doesn't give you a conclusion that you already figured out on your own. For everyone else, what you have to sit through really isn't all that interesting and is just wasting time.

Darker Than Black, an anime that puts itself at a fork in the road and took the wrong path. Instead of working a bit more on the mysterious plot it presents itself with it opted for character development instead. Usually, that's the best option but with the level of complexity behind the story here this anime should have worked more on that than trying to explain it's lackluster side characters. In the end, I gotta admit, you're left wanting more because you will feel as if Hell's Gate wasn't explained enough but is that because of poor storytelling or the series just wasting too much time on unappealing characterization. Well, I guess that's what 2nd seasons are for which Darker Than Black has had it's announcement of. Will that explain what we really want to know? Who knows, as it is Darker Than Black is a decent series but don't be surprised if you're left with an empty feeling just because it was spending too much time showing you things that... you just didn't care about, leaving the more interesting parts rushed with no real sense of closure.

Darker Than Black (opening)

Recommendation: |Average|

*Note - Well I'll be damned, no typos from FUNimation in the subtitles and they stopped using that idiotic angle option of the DVD player. Too bad it's wasted on an average series that doesn't deserve more than a rental.