The highly anticipated sequel to a widely popular dark action show with dead people all over the place. So, how do you follow-up an adrenaline-filled finish to season one? Can you top the emotion and the suspense? The choice was clear, let’s open with Japanese high school in Russia. Can I get an “OH YEAH!”

First off, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blonde Russian. Perhaps the writers were confusing Russians with their Scandinavian cousins to the west. Or perhaps they are just ignorant. I’ve come down with a case of foot-in-mouth disease. See the next sentence. Although, coming from an American such as myself it may be a bit bold considering the reputation of Hollywood. However, I point out their stupidities as well. Second, somehow I don’t see Russian high school boys acting like blushing girly Japanese guys when asking a chick out. And for fucks sake, isn’t this show supposed to be about people getting electrocuted?

Japanese high school in Russia, complete with cleaning duty. Can’t say I know anything about the Russian school system but I would hope they have janitors there. Think of the economic recovery that could be had in Japan if they didn’t have high schoolers cleaning their schools. Job creation people!

Now that’s more like it

Hoho even better. Finally we got some combat, and what a brutal way to go Teleport-kun. April’s ability was rather underwhelming on its own in season 1, and was only good in conjunction with November 11’s ice ice baby. The teleporting ability was pretty nifty until it was defeated by big drops of water.

Weak start to the episode with high school crap (which is appropriate in other shows but felt really out of place here), but by the end they were piling up the body count just like the good ol’ days. They even shot a cat and a squirrel, pretty rough stuff. Dunno if April is actually dead, people have come back in this show before, but a bodybag is pretty solid evidence, especially after getting cooked by Hei. And where’s my Yin?

Every second she spent on screen was a second wasted

It suddenly occurred to me, halfway through the fantastic Sunrise series Planetes, why Darker than Black felt so lacklustre towards its end. The two shows share a similar structure: both employ a episodic approach where each episode (or two, in DtB’s case) tells a short story about a minor supporting character or expands upon the main characters, and both tries to weave in a over-arcing storyline. It’s probably co-incidental that both shows have a (vastly different) near-futuristic setting.

What was the biggest difference between the two shows, I feel, is how much better this format is handled in Planetes. Not that Darker than Black is bad – far from it. There are moments when DtB tells a story so compelling that it’s hard to not fall for its charm. The problem is that DtB doesn’t spend much time on exposing us to its minor characters. By the time you start caring about them, they’ve already bit the bullet, kicked the bucket, and so on and so forth. There are instances like this in Planetes (the ninjas on the moon, for example), but that show makes you care about every character that it wants you to care about. Whether it is Cheng-shin, Edel, or even Lavie’s short moment in the spotlight, because you’ve been continually exposed to them during the show, you feel like you know them, and so you care about their personal struggles. I never felt any urge to learn more about Mao or how he felt in his cat body, and he’s one of the re-curring characters.

There’s another thing that I feel was lacking from DtB. It felt like the writers couldn’t decide what to focus on – the overriding conflict between Contactors and humans, or the peronal stories of the characters. For most of its first half, the only glimpse we get of the greater story is the knowledge that Heaven’s Gate has disappeared, and that the same could happen to Hell’s Gate. Amber didn’t even make an appearance until past the halfway mark, despite the fact that she was in the OP of the first 14 episodes. When the writers finally decide to tell us more about the Contractors’ world, they decided to place more focus on Hei’s story and the two got in the way of each other. To me, at least, DtB’s end is an unsatisfying, if not infuriating, one. Neither the mysteries about Hei nor the mysteries about Contractors were entirely solved. Only little hints were given about Hei’s past and his relationship with Pai and Amber. How did he come to obtain Pai’s power? How is the Syndicate related to Pandora? Why did that police guy have mechanical arms?

How did Contractors come to be?

Maybe it’s all intentionally vague, but to me it’s just sloppy writing. If Planetes can manage a plot about the Space Defence Front and the Jovian explorer, and still get us to care about its sizeable cast of characters, why couldn’t DtB do it? It’s all the more confounding to me because I hold Bones in much higher regards than Sunrise.

I feel that if Bones had focused on one or the other, Darker than Black would have been a much better show. I’d prefer that Bones spent more time in a continous plot line near the end (as Planetes did), instead of trying to wrap it all up in 3 episodes. As it stands, despite some terrific scenes and truly memorable characters, it’s little more than a show with great potential that failed to be fulfilled.

Now that I’ve got all that negative energy out of my system, I will go on and name a few things that I felt Darker than Black did do very well. When it did manage to make us sympathise with its characters, it tugged at our heart strings like a whale tugging on a steel cable. Even though most of the characters only lasted two episodes and felt like throw-aways, there are some exceptionally deep and complex characters. That they managed to make them seem so in the space of an hour is a feat, and in this regard Bones’ story telling didn’t disappoint. It also looked great. The character designs were simple and down to earth, just how I like it. Certain scenes also looked stunning – the surveillance ghosts being freed from the dead contractor in Ying’s arc and the falling petals of Wang’s arc took the cake.

Darker than Black started as my favourite show of the spring season, but somewhere along the line it lost its magic. Moments of brilliance continued to show through, but overall, it didn’t live up to its potential and failed to stay my favourite show that season (the honour would have to go to Gurren Lagann). Nonetheless, it’s an excellent series that I think everyone should watch. Even if you can’t find the time, watch episode 13 and 14; they are simply some of the best that anime has to offer.

This episode starts with a familiar face; April. She is shown leaving a club after drinking massive amounts. Once she gets outside she sees Amber and she starts to run towards her while making a call to November 11. He doesn’t pick up so she leaves a message saying that she just saw February. Just as she gets across the street Amber leaves in a black car. April is caught in a large explosion after trying to chase the black car.

November comes to see how April is doing in the hospital and he plays the message she left for him to the boss. In the message she states how she clearly saw February (April) as well as a small boy with odd eye colors. Later November’s boss mentions how they haven’t seen April for 5 years so why has she suddenly reappeared. He also mentions Amber being a double agent and leaking memory to other sources.

The Dark Green Spot is a subject throughout most of the episode Kanami explains it as a sun spot that happens once every several years. The spot is so concentrated it makes the sun look like an eye. Ever since the gate went up they haven’t been able to see the spot. So they are wondering what will happen the next time it occurs.

Hei is then shown helping the red and green eyed boy from before. He gets a necklace out of a tree for him. They then exchange names and we learn the boys name is Maki. They then talk about the necklace and part ways. Hei continues to walk down the street until he is intercepted by Mao and Huang who are there to brief him on his next mission. His mission is to recover the other meteor fragments.

Meanwhile, Maki is returning to what looks to be a bar. A man is questioning him as to why he returned and he said that he forgot his important necklace. He said it was blown away by the explosion, and was lost somewhere. He starts to refer to the man as Amagirl and they continue their conversation, apparently Maki has the meteor fragment and he can now reek havoc upon the city. He changes the subject and asks where Amber went, Amagirl tells him that she needs to be out there searching for the final key, and for all we know this could be anything. We then see Amber buying an umbrella on a clear day, what an odd girl!

It seems that when the Dark Green Spot happened in South America it wiped out their gate. Kanami is sure the same won’t happen to them. Meanwhile, we see Misaki and her supervisor walking down a hall talking about the recent explosions all over the city. They meet with someone and they ask for helping saying that something was stolen out of the gate (metro fragment?) and they need help to recover it. As they are talking they hear a large explosion from outside and the CIA building is being attacked.

November 11 is in a parking garage getting information when he is confronted by Hei. Hei tells him to return the meteor fragment; he says they don’t have it. November also talks about February or as Hei knows her, Amber. Hei is shocked that Amber is back, November tells him the explosions are her doing. November speeds away in his car and suspects where the next explosion will be and sure enough as he pulls up, there is a large explosion. He gets out of the car and sees Maki, he then uses his ice power and it seems like Maki lost. Maki ended up tricking November and he detonates all of his hand and foot prints behind November. (I hope he’s not dead ><)

We see Hei reminiscing about the time he spent with Amber and suddenly he starts running. Amber is then shown at Yin’s shop, it starts to rain.

Impressions: It seems to me like they are finally meshing all of the previous stories into one I am really enjoying it. I really liked this episode the November 11 episodes were my favorite and im glad to see them back. The only problem I had with this episode was all the damn advertising, I’ve been noticing pizza hut signs in every episode but in this one there is about 10 advertisements within the first 8 minutes it’s really getting out of hand. I can understand 1 ad per episode for realism but not 10 of the same company within feet of each other. New intro and ending this episode, I like the intro although it reminds me of initial D. The ending doesn’t fit the series at all the old intro and ending were a lot better in my opinion.

This episode starts with a flash back with Yin running in on her mom on the phone. Her mother tells her that her father died in a plane crash. Back in the present Yin is still headed towards her home town on a train with her teacher and the detectives. Yin is still insisting that she won’t go back. The two contractors Itzhak and Berta are headed the same way as the train Yin is on. They easily get by a police checkpoint and continue towards where Yin is going.

Meanwhile Yin notices that they are being followed by the contractors and tells her teacher. So they get off the train with the detectives are oblivious to what has happened. Yin and her teacher make it to an abandoned house and they find a piano inside. Yin begins to play and she starts to have visions of her mother, there is an image of her mother saving her life from an oncoming truck. While this is going on Hei is on his way there on a train.

Hei runs into Gai on the way to Yins position and tells him to get lost; Gai thinks that he is a stalker. Hei wants nothing to do with him and shocks him unconscious. Yin senses Hei coming and her teacher goes to intercept him. Hei asks her teacher why he took her but he realizes that she left by herself. Yin’s teacher says that Hei is working with Yin doing some shady things. He confesses and Yin starts to run towards him but the building started to shake. They run outside and it’s Berta and Itzhak attacking.

Hei runs towards Berta who is about to take down the house and he stops his heart with vibrations, he fight back by using his power to restart his heart. He then shoots out his belt cable and proceeds to kill her with electricity. Itzhak starts to run towards the car and is shot down by Huang who was waiting with a sniper rifle off in the distance. Huang takes aim at Yin but can’t pull the trigger. After they die Yin starts to cry and her teacher is still trying to get her to go back home. She puts her finger on his lips and Hei shocks him. The episode ends with Yin using her finger to push up her face to make a smile.

Impressions:

I didn’t like this episode too much, although I did enjoy how more of Yin’s back story was shown. I also enjoyed how they’re showing her and Hei having real emotions, like there some kind of special contractor or doll. I still don’t like those detectives, they need new comedy relief! Next week November 11 is back!

This episode starts with Yin playing the piano for her teacher. He tries to give her a pointer but she lashes out at him, he just calmly says that she needs to put more feeling into it. Her mother says that she’s not old enough to understand. Yin then starts talking about the moon and how she loves its silver rays so much. It then shows Yin thinking about an airplane accident and Hei and Mao getting briefed on a group of contractors after them. The Astronomy Division gets a signal pointing them in the direction of 2 contractors.

We cut to a large women standing at a railing when a man in a car pulls up. They start talking but notice that they are being watched by the division. The man then uses his power to suck them into him. He notices that they are being watched by the river (this is Yin’s doing) and he trying to suck that one up but Yin falls down in the alley she was spying in a breaks the surveillance. It cuts to the detective office (not these guys again) and inside is Yin’s piano teacher, he wants to find Yin.

We see the contractors that we saw at the river and this time they have names. The man is Itzhak and the woman is Berta. They are talking about there remunerations (price for their powers) and Berta asks for a pack a cigarettes for hers. Hei is talking to Huang on the phone and they are talking about Yin, she has been missing since last night. Although dolls can’t think for themselves so he thinks she may have been kidnapped. Yin is actually watching someone play the piano in the park; thinking about her teacher and mother. Yin is bumped into by Kiko (one of the detectives), she is so surprised to find Yin for her client so fast so they go get a drink. Kiko goes to call Gai (other detective) that she found Yin and they are at a restaurant. Yin at this point is already walking out of the place onto the street.

Yin wanders into an empty lot where Itzhak is waiting. He tries to catch her but is stopped by Mao pouncing on his head followed by Hei putting him in a headlock. Hei suddenly notices Berta behind him ready to use her powers and he jumps aside. Berta lets out shockwaves and some of the nearby building starts to collapse, Hei runs to Yin and manages to save her. As Yin is running away she is found by Gai and Kastinen (Yin’s teacher). It cuts to Itzhak and Berta in a car, Berta starts to eat the cigarettes she was given earlier. Meanwhile Hei is getting scolded for letting Yin be taken by Gai. A train is shown with Gai, Kiko, Kastinen and Yin on it. Kastinen says that it would be best if they went home, Yin responds by saying I won’t go back.

Impression:

Not a bad episode but I was hoping those detectives would never be shown again. They do add some comedy but that’s not why im watching this show. I like the new contractors; they don’t have ridiculous powers like some of the other characters. Also finally some Yin back story and it seems like everything will be revealed next episode.