Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha

Darker Than Black- Overall Summary (No Elaboration on Story). - What a journey! Darker Than Black (first season anyway) is just a must watch anime for those of you looking for a no bullshit anime. However, if you are looking for tits and fan-service galore, than I implore you to watch something of a severely lower quality such as HOTD. If you are familiar with Cowboy Bebop and enjoyed it, chances are you will enjoy Darker Than Black. -The story is mostly, episodic , but does follow an overall story in the background, which becomes a lot more apparent in the later episodes. Although, the show will leave you in the moment that you long for more, it might be better for those of you who do not want confusion to stay clear of latter seasons. As the conclusion, in the first season is well reached. But I myself, did not heed to this warning given to me by other fans of the series, the later series are watched at the cost of severe decrease in writing and character development. But just WATCH THE SERIES! Most of you, who watch anime not for the tits and panty shots will not regret it!

Story-7: the story is fairly simple. A group of 'contractors' get introduced to the world when an area called 'hell's gate' appears in Tokyo. Contractors are people with certain powers who work for 'syndicate's'(that's all I'm going to say). The story follows one contractor called 'Hei' who works for a syndicate, every episode shows Hei performing a task for the syndicate he works for which usually last around 2 episodes. All in all, the story was simple but very well done. Art-8: the art in DTB looks unique and amazing. All of the character designs are out of this world and the background's and the way everything is drawn looks gorgeous. However, sometimes the animation in certain other things looked off at times, although this wasn't an issue. Sound-10: honestly, what else can you expect from yoko kanno? An absolutely beautiful soundtrack with every song working effectively in the scene it was played. Both of the opening themes are also some of the best I've seen. Character-7: overall, the characters in DTB were well done. Hei is a complete badass and you want to know more about him(although the series gives us vague snippets of his past near the end of the series), yin is just amazingly written, everyone else in hei's syndicate was also well written. Some of the other characters in my opinion were a hit and miss, including misaki who I didn't care for at all. I think that all of the contractors had Cool and intresting powers but they weren't developed enough which made me rate the characters a little lower than I should have. Enjoyment-6: the first 14 or so episodes were fantastic. Around episode 14 explains yin's past and that is probably one of the best episodes I've ever seen in any anime ever. I'm being serious. However, the final 12 episodes were a a complete drag to get through. They were boring and predictable. You knew exactly what was going to happen, 'Hei finds contractor he has to fight, he kills them, the end'. This is what all of the final 12 episodes were about(except for the final 2 which were great). At times I found myself having to try and watch some of the final episodes and just ended up Turning it off. I don't know why I didn't like the last half as much as the first but this is just what I think. Overall-7: is DTB worth your time? Absolutely. It is a fun and great looking series with good characters and an almost perfect soundtrack. But, the last half of the series drags far too much out. However this honestly depends on what you can stand and how patient you are with any series. However this isn't a bad series by any means, you should definitely go out and watch it if you have the time.

Darker than Black was a fairly pleasant anime to watch. I've heard a lot of good comming from this anime, so I've decided to give a try. I wasn't overly surprised by it. It is an original concept and a fairly good idea behind, but they never dwell enough into it. We get this world where two mysterious gates appeared who knows why and who knows how. It is never explained. Not only that. It also changes some humans into contractors, giving them abilities beyond what a normal human being can do. There is a price to pay that differs from person to person. Again, it is not really explained why that is. Not that the idea of people with superpowers is wrong, but a good explanation is needed. The contractors are linked to the Gate and...? It stops there. As far as the payment goes, some are quite plain and some are just gruesome, like eating cigarettes or children. They do mention at some point that it could be link to a trauma the contractor went through when he was still ''human''. Story wise, there is a lot of plot points (I mention them above) that kept me from enjoying the show as much as I would have otherwise. The two-parters episodes felt really episodic. The storyline still got across, but not enough. Character wise, Hei was a breath of fresh air. With his two personalites, going back and forth between them, he was really well played. As for his team... Some of them had a background, others didn't. It would have been nice to know at least a little but more about Mao. You have this talking cat, and we know he has lost his original body, but how? It is never answered, or nothing that is related to him. Yin is still weird. We got her history, but how did she became a doll? Dolls are never explaned either. The backgrounds characted are nice but there is nothing much to talk about. The animation was good, between slower/faster scene. Some of the action scenes were a nice balance of fast-pace action and slow-mo, to let us fully see what is happening. Expected nothing less from Bones. The drawings were good, but not great. Overall, I enjoyed this serie. The story plotholes were a big thrownback.

Tread carefully through this one now. Darker than Black focuses on the existence of people called "contractors" who have obtained supernatural abilities. Hei, a contractor with abilities related to electricity, is the protagonist. His struggle seems to be finding his actual purpose in the world besides being a killing machine. The actual origin of the characters and events in the plot are explained very vaguely; I'm assuming that they lead the audience to make their own interpretations throughout the show. Because of the lack of background storytelling, Darker than Black can become a little confusing at times, but nevertheless it remains to be a classic. There's so little to explain about this series, but I believe it mostly speaks for itself. You have to watch it to understand.

Having just finished this series, coupled with my inability to fall asleep… here’s a quick review. Darker Than Black follows the story of Hei, a contractor. A contractor is essntially a mutant. Humanlike in appearance, but with abilities. Abilities that range from gravity manipulation, to being able to make blood explode with a click of your fingers. Obscure, I know. Anyway, I won’t provide a detailed synopsis, as that can easily be done by a quick Google search. However, to give an understanding of what the series is about and whether you’d like it… I’ll sum it up like this: Think the blockbuster sci-fi Inception… Now, think X-MEN. If these two series got together, in a hotel room… with some Barry White and scented candles in the background… the outcome, 9 months later, would be Darker Than Black. I have watched the first series; which is 25 episodes long. The second series is now also out. And it is good, no doubt. There are many things it does superbly. The animation is crisp, high quality and vivid. The music is powerful and compliments the scenes perfectly, whether it is adrenaline fuelled fight scenes, or the more emotional ones. The characters too, are for the most part original and interesting. T However, and this is a big however, DTB falls down on the key areas for me. The story is at times too slow paced and you feel like saying “Okay, stop talking for 15 minutes and actually do stuff!” Aside from that, the information is at times too hard to follow. I found myself confused in several parts as to what was going on, who certain characters were, and why they were doing what they were doing. In the end, I found myself watching the last couple of episodes just to finish the series rather than becaus I really wanted to see what happened next. Overall, a solid sci-fi anime. If you like X-Men and Inception, you’ll probably like this. It is also quite a grown up anime, there are comedy and silly parts in it on occasion, but it is quite a mature series. All in all, from me, Darker Than Black gets a 7/10.

During one ominous night, a part of Tokyo became what is known as “Hell’s Gate”, a field that seems to be closely tied to the emergence of Dolls, emotionless spiritual mediums, and Contractors, assassins with superpowers who only rely on their logic. Our main guy, Hei, is one of these Contractors, currently working for a mysterious crime organization only known as the “Syndicate”. Another thing you should know about Contractors is that after they use their powers they have to fulfill their contract by performing some specific activity, that is harmful and unpleasant to them. This element is one of my favourite things about the series, since it really helps to distinguish it from other series where people have superpowers, and it gives the show sort of it’s own personality. STORY 9/10 The first 22 episodes of Darker Than Black are broken into 2 episode arcs, which is the reason I initially started to watch this series. I am a big fan of episodic shows like Mushishi or Jigoku Shoujo but Darker Than Black is a little different. All of the arcs are somehow related to the main plotline or at least reveal something interesting about one of the main characters. The last three episodes conclude the story in a truly spectacular manner that leaves you wanting more. I’ve seen some shows with mysterious premise that have a terrible ending but Darker Than Black is definitely not one of these. Another thing about the series is that it never spells out for you what is currently going on. You have to figure out a lot of it by yourself by reading in between the lines but no matter how much you try some parts of the plot will remain unknown for the whole 25 episodes, which is why I took of the one point in the story ranking. There is a sequel though so there is still hope that it will shed some light onto the mysteries of Darker Than Black. CHARACTERS 6/10 In my opinion, characters were the weak point of this series mainly because of one thing, the main character Hei/Li/BK201/Black Reaper... I’ve seen some people who really like this guy, and I can kind of see why, but personally I think that he is the worst thing about this series. He really has two different personalities; one as an innocent transfer student who’s annoying as hell and another one as a cold-blooded killer who changes his face expression once per arc, at best. He goes through a fair bit of development but you can’t really tell that about him. Same monotone voice, same facial expression, same fighting style and even when he steps forward and does something big and unexpected it’s still more of the same. He’s not a broken character by any means; it’s just that I can’t stand him. Although the supporting cast was a little stereotypical they were well developed and most of the side characters weren’t underused. ART 9/10 Art is definitely another strong point of this series. It is not quite up to the likes of “5 centimeters per Second” but the animation creates a great, gloomy atmosphere that’s really at the core of the series. The abilities and the fights are animated skillfully, because even in wild and intense fights you always know what is going on and even when some of the fights aren’t that great, the animation usually makes up for it. The characters each have their unique look so you’ll never mistake them for others and even the CGIs manage to blend in quite well. SOUND 8/10 The first opening is kind of neat because it features lines that directly relate to the series but it also has a sequence where the opening titles appear in a way that kind of hurt my eyes, so I usually ended up skipping it. The second opening is solid but nothing captivating. Both endings are on the mellow side, but the second one is kind of odd and seems to be made for some romance/slice of life anime. The backing sound through ought the series is good and, again, helps to reinforce the atmosphere, although I am not a big fan of some of the strings-heavy classical pieces. I think some dramatic piano music would fit much better with a series like that. ENJOYMENT 7/10 Darker Than Black is a good series that has a good storyline with great ending. The technical aspects are also really well done, and the pacing is good too but the thing that bothered me a lot was the lead character who annoyed the hell out of me. However, I’ve seen a lot of reviews that praised the main guy so it might be just me and personal preference shouldn’t keep you away from seeing a solid series like Darker Than Black. OVERALL 7/10 Story 9/10 Characters 6/10 Art 9/10 Sound 8/10 Enjoyment 7/10 TOTAL 39/50 = 7.8/10 The review ratings round out to 8/10, but personally I rated it a 7 just because I don't think that it is quite as good as other animes I rated 8. The ratings round out to an 8 but, personally, I rated it a 7 just because I don’t think it’s quite as good as other animes I rated 8.

Despite very high ratings for this anime, I was quite disappointed with Darker Than Black. I was looking forward to something that would rival Code Geass, but it seems that I was not able to enjoy it as much as I did. STORY: 7/10 The story is original and interesting, however it could have been developed into a much more complex, full anime if there was more explanation and more episodes leading up to the ending. The whole thing seemed like little chapters that had little relevance to anything and the end was basically episodes 20-26. ART: 6/10 I have VERY high expectations for art, so this rating is not too bad for my standards. It could have been better. SOUND: 9/10 Pretty nice music starting from season two. I like the bgms when things start to get exciting. CHARACTER: 7/10 I felt there was not enough character development for me to feel attached to the characters. Had there been more background story to each character I'm sure the overall story would appeal more to me. ENJOYMENT: 7/10 I found myself bored quite a few times and skipped ahead of talking parts sometimes. It was a nice ending - a bit rushed - and the series was overall confusing. Not spectacular but not horrible. OVERALL: 7/10 In all honesty I was disappointed with the anime since it had such high ratings and fell short to my standards. HOWEVER, I am looking forward to a much better, more fast-paced and exciting second season!

Darker than Black was an anime that has quite an interesting plot at the begging. Its a real mystery and keeps you coming back for more. There is a well array of action based drama and character narration. Certain things happen throughout this anime that make say "man what the hell happened before all this started". Its a true demonstration of a mystery. The characters are quite interesting as well as their super human abilities go. Its fun to see how the main character deals with his foes. He has a unique style and personality As the story unravels you really become attached to it and just have to see how it all pans out. I fell like there could have been better reasoning for certain things in the anime and a stronger more defined "force of opposition" i suppose but in the end this anime wasn't about heroes. It was more so about the characters finding closure within themselves and thus a better understanding of the people they live amongst, which aren't always human. I say this anime is definitely worth the watch and there is actually a 2nd season on its way too so if you do enjoy Darker than Black youll have something to look forward to.

The more episodes I watched the more I got into it. GODDAMN is this anime good. Mystery is interesting , characters (depending on tastes here) are mostly stoic but have some traits to them , ost is fantastic , fights while few have surprisingly detailed movements and impact and the final 5 episodes are GREAT! It's very episodic in nature and has some of the bad things Cowboy Bebop had where it introduced new characters in it's episodic arc (this time it's 2 episodes per mini-arc) only for the same character to be off-ed at the end of the episode. While it's not ALL characters, that trope from CB does appear and it can annoy a couple of people and in general not many can stand a show that's so episodic in nature (which is ME) which is why I am giving it a 9/10. But I think if a show could be so episodic and still left such an insanely good impression to me surely it's a good anime. But man even some of the mini-arcs are so good and fun to go through. The power system is unique and expansive enough as to not get stale and to make up new stuff everytime it's on screen. I watched till episode 15-16 not being too impressed and then the next day I finished the whole show and immideatly started re-watching it and holy crap. I've not had the pleasure to rewatch something as much as DTB. This anime specifically will confuse you. It's not avant garde , it's not psychological but the mystery stuff is so laid thin that if you blink ONCE you may miss something important. A minor information spouted at a seemingly random point in episode 8 can become relevant suddenly in episode 24 and it makes the scenes that much cooler once you remember and put the pieces together. I'm not even giving a synopsis of this anime because it's Land of the Lustrous type deal where it is really just going to be a better experience if you go COMPLETELY blind with the only information in your face being the anime cover lol. It's not a shounen where first 2 minutes it goes ''HELLO MY NAME IS BUCK BUZUMAKI AND TODAY IS MY FIRST DAY IN HIGHSCHOOL FULL OF KIDS WHO HAVE SUPERPOWERS!!!"' It's a slow burner and it tests your patience with all of the information slowly being revealed and other pieces of it getting attached one to another. It's GOOD! Gud anime

(Check my profile for a link to my personal site with more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!) Written October 29, 2016 2:22 am EST --- Well, I found this pretty boring. A total “less than the sum of its parts” show. I want to show it some base level of respect in that it was an earnest attempt at an anime-original series that at least seemed to have some ambition, but not really the wits to make it into anything of worth. It jams a bunch of interesting ideas into a single space but there’s a lot more to writing than a good premise. In a nutshell, Darker Than Black (DTB) follows a group of four people working for “The Syndicate” (its only given name) who take on various secret missions involving contractors, a group of humans who suddenly awake to having supernatural abilities. There’s also a heavy political thriller overlay with a red tape talk among the police and government, mostly from the perspective of the deuteragonist Misaki Kirahara. The protagonist is Hei, a Syndicate member who’s a contractor himself with the ability to control electricity. Darker Than Black takes off with little exposition, beginning at the start of nothing in particular as it follows just another one of Hei’s missions. The majority of the setting has to be picked up in context, which is something I prefer at the expense of unnatural dialogue that’s addressing the audience, but none of this effort in deciphering Darker Than Black‘s majorly bloated world ever pays off. There’s a paranormal mystery here, with the rise of the contractors being started by the sudden appearance of “Gates” several years ago that cause a bunch of unknown phenomena that’s being researched. Most of the time spent elaborating on anything about the gates and contractors ends up being useless because you’re given an explanation of how both work at best but never what any of it means in the story or thematically, nor do you learn anything’s origin. It’s hard to put into words how completely nothing this story ends up being. It literally goes nowhere by the end of the show. But if the overarching plot isn’t the focus, which makes all the chicken feed details about the Gate and political jurisdiction boring as shit and pointless for not adding to any other finalized elements of the show such as the characters, then you’d at least hope the setting and self-contained stories would be worth the price of involvement. You’d be wrong, though. Any details or character development regarding our main characters is at the lowest priority and instead most of Darker Than Black is centered on two-part episodic adventures with one-off characters and stories that are derivative, too minor to get attached to, and delivered with a lackluster script with poorly placed comedy and straight character archetypes and listless art direction, animation, and direction. Every two-parter ends up in excessive melodrama that’s difficult to buy into as minor characters dump their life stories on Hei or whatever, and our main characters are stoic and repetitive to the point that seeing them interact with these new situations isn’t interesting in the way Cowboy Bebop could make it with a more dynamic cast and smoother dialogue. Speaking of, there’s a one-off character in one of the episodes who’s a carbon-copy of one from Cowboy Bebop, both being spirited young guys who get involved with the mob to protect a girl in some way and they keep pestering the main character to teach them their “kung-fu” techniques. The political drama elements are complete fluff, a lot of whining about international governments and jurisdictions between Kirahara and her crew with very little of this extraneous detail being necessary or interesting. It often feels like episode padding as Kirahara stands around in her office being prattled about the technicalities of her mission. Who fucking cares? You don’t even see a single country other than Japan to understand their perspective. This rarely effects the big picture or the main characters and these parts don’t offer unique insight on society or give an interesting twist to the setting. It’s just dull procedural red tape being carried about by nobodies far away from where the action is. We don’t need five to ten minutes explaining Kirahara’s mission or why she can’t go into a building because the U.N. or whatever the fuck won’t allow it, goddamn get on with it. Talk about something we actually need to know. One of the most recurring parts of DTB’s setting is the contractors, something that sounds like it could be impossible not to have some fun with. An interesting idea about contractors is that each one has a “price” to pay for using their power, hence the name. These vary wildly and someone’s price can be smoking a cigarette while another one has to painstakingly arrange rocks in a certain pattern. You’d expect them to play with this element in some way, basing the contracts off the characters somehow to add development or some sort of psychological hang-up, but this happens only once or twice and most prices are completely arbitrary. Not to mention, they’re also useless. It’s said at one point in the series that it’s (merely) rumored that a contractor who doesn’t pay their price will die a gruesome death, but you will literally never see this happen nor is it ever a threat. Despite this purported restriction on contractors that might make the characters and the use of their powers more interesting, there are never any rules given on when a contractor needs to make their payment, and you get several scenes throughout the series of contractors just firing off their powers constantly without needing to stop or never having to consider that they’d need to pay their price. Imagine if, in the middle of battle, someone had to avoid using their power but couldn’t because they were in a position where they couldn’t fulfill their contract if they did so. It seems so obvious, but this caveat is written into the series for absolutely no reason. If you want superpowered mutants then just have them, don’t include a rule that’s not going to be upheld for any sort of world consistency just so you can have the occasionally stupid scene of a woman eating a bunch of cigarettes as her price. Another thing about contractors is that they’re kept hidden from society and to those that know of them they’re seen as calculating, self-centered, and emotionless. This is such a bogus part of the story’s drama because in as early as the first episode the viewer can clearly see this isn’t true at all, and it all feels artificial when it’s obvious that contractors behave no differently than humans. There are also “Dolls,” which aren’t contractors but completely emotionless (for reals this time I guess) humans who have the ability to survey the landscape in different ways, such as through water or glass. This is such a weirdly specific distinction that I don’t know why there needed to be another class of humans running around and it goes to show how bloated (and dare I say, pretentious) the setting is for no reason. There’s so much extraneous detail and organizations that the show comes across as complex, and perhaps it is, but that has nothing to do with the intelligence of its building blocks or the cleverness of their chemistry. Who the fuck is the old lady star gazer, why is the whole bit with star monitoring and contractors each representing a star a thing, and why is Kirihara so stupid that she doesn’t realize Hei is in every area where his star activates when he’s undercover. Yoko Kanno does the music here but it’s easily the worst soundtrack I’ve heard from her. It’s nothing special, and I never would’ve looked up the composer—I coincidentally found out. This show is really lame. I wish it lived up to even a fraction of its potential but it doesn’t. The stand-alone stories are long, dull, and bland. The main characters are a base level of likable somehow, but aren’t given enough development, or have all of their …

It's really good, a bit dark and edgy but that's how I like my anime. Every episode is a two parter, so each arc is pretty self contained. Secondary guest characters get lots of time to be fleshed out which is nice. Even if they are killed off or thrown away at the end of the arc you still get time to come to understand and enjoy them. I will admit that the protagonist Hei is more than a little cliche but he's well written and voiced enough to still be emotionally resonant. Every other major character is fairly interesting and gets just the right amount of spotlighting, the entire show is supremely tightly written with fantastic pacing. The show also runs the full gamut of human emotion, some episodes are crushingly dark and sad while others are much more light hearted. So it avoids feeling overwhelming and never lets you get inured to one feeling or the other. Animationwise is alright, about average for its era nothing extremely great nor awful. Character designs are generally grounded and basic except for Yin and Kiko, which I think is intended to foreshadow their friendship. Sound and music is great, especially the intro tracks. Both versions will be stuck in my head for a long time yet. Although I can't say the same about the second outtro which I found frankly annoying. Also for those who don't like fan service Darker than Black generally avoids it, except for one character near the end who must be naked to use her powers. Everyone else is portrayed fairly seriously and without much room for eroticisim. Over all this show gets my highest recommendation. Its very well put together and doesn't have anything I feel I'd need to warn potential viewers of.

Darker than Black has got to be one of my favorite adult-oriented anime out there. As the title suggests, this series deals with the morally grey, and dark parts of the underworld crime scene. DTB takes place in a dystopian world where certain people have powers, known as “contractors” and “dolls.” An important aspect of the show is that “contractors” don’t have emotions, and act as rational beings, however, our main character, Hei, seemingly has both powers and emotions. The series is episodic, with each one bringing the viewer a step closer to understanding the implications of such people and appearances of powers in the world. What makes this show shine is its characters, specifically Hei and Kirihara, but the recurring side characters also add charm to the show. The world-building is intriguing always leaving the audience wanting more, and ever so slowly revealing important missing pieces to the full equation of how and why the world came to be. I first watched this show in my early teens, but even then, I could understand how this series showcased that animation is not just for kids and holds so much potential in adult-oriented genres. Having rewatched the show as an adult, I can attest that it is just as entertaining and even more intriguing than I remember. Take each episode to be a character study, showing us, rather than telling us, the way the world has and has not changed since the appearance of the “gates” and “contractors.” All, in all, I never feel like I’m wasting my time rewatching the show, it has phenomenal pacing, timeless animation, and a great story. I admit not everyone will like this show, as it might not be their cup of tea, but I sure as hell did.

Note: This will be a review of the series in its entirety (both seasons and the Gaiden OVAs). Overview: Anyone who's seen "Watchmen" or any of the recent "Batman" movies likely knows that the superhero genre and film noir make for a surprisingly effective combination. Such films take away the glamour normally associated with superheroes and place them in dark, gritty scenarios that they would likely find themselves in a more realistic world. "Darker than Black" is essentially the anime answer to such a concept, taking the superhero/film noir combination and marinating it with the flavour of "X-Men" or the "inFamous" video game series, and the result is a very original and highly intriguing show, even if the quality is far from consistent. Story (7.5/10): Set in a alternate version of modern-day Japan, "Darker than Black" revolves around mysterious, superpowered beings known as Contractors, called such because they all have powers that they can use in exchange for some kind of payment, in the form of something they must do every time they use their powers. These payments can be pretty much anything from smoking to breaking their own fingers to getting older with each use of their power, though while some of them have it worse than others, their payments are never to the point where their powers are more trouble than they're worth. However, most people don't even know that Contractors exist, with many of them roaming around and secretly causing trouble for people and others working for secret organizations to track such people down and stop them from wreaking havoc. Hei, our protagonist, is an example of the latter type of Contractor, working for a mysterious organization known as the Syndicate who lives a double life as a civilian under the alias Li Shenshun. Part of a four-man team, Hei spends the series investigating various Contractor-related incidents, often getting more than he bargained for in the process and eventually uncovering a sinister conspiracy that threatens to reshape the entire country. Now, keep in mind that I've only been describing the first season. There are two seasons in the anime which both have their own separate plotline, and while they are related to each other, they're largely self-contained. The first season has 25 episodes and a bonus episode and consists mostly of two-parters, only half of which tie in to the overarching story. The second season has 12 episodes and abandons the previous format in favour of one single sequential story. In-between these two seasons is also the Gaiden OVAs, which I would definitely recommend watching if you want to properly understand the second season, and thankfully they're dubbed with the rest of the series so you won't have to worry about watching them in Japanese if you don't want to. There's a great air of mystery that perpetuates the story throughout, which is helped by the fact that the series rarely goes out of its way to explain anything to you. In the event that it does explain something, chances are that it'll turn out to be false. In fact, everything you end up learning in the first episode and a half turns out to be misleading at best and complete lies at worst, with the final half of the second episode completely altering everything you thought you knew up until then. As such, you would certainly do well not to take anything you hear at face value. Notably, while we do learn where Contractors came from, exactly how someone becomes a Contractor is never fully explained. The unreliable exposition becomes especially relevant in regards to the nature of Contractors themselves. While most aren't even aware that they exist, the few that do view them as heartless machines incapable of empathy, with even Hei himself having this belief. Overtime, however, it becomes more and more clear that this isn't true, with many Contractors (again, including Hei himself) proving to be just as capable of compassion and kindness as humans and many humans proving to be just as cruel as Contractors. It gets to the point that you'll honestly wonder if there's any difference between the two groups at all, other than the obvious fact that one group has powers while the other doesn't. However, while "Darker than Black" strongly values subtlety for the most part, one thing it isn't at all subtle about is its anti-smoking message. Every time someone smokes in the series, it's seen as disgusting and/or pathetic, a supporting character gives a long-winded lecture regarding the dangers of second-hand smoking and one of the main characters claims that the only people who smoke are kids trying to look older or weak people who can't get through life without a crutch. While I can certainly see where they're coming from, since I decided when I was a teenager that I would never smoke, the whole thing just feels heavy-handed and more like something you would find in a realistic crime drama rather than a superhuman conspiracy thriller. In other words, it felt like the writers were trying too hard to put a message where it just didn’t belong. The second season is comparatively lightweight about the message, with it only being given a brief call-back in the first episode, but by then a heavy-handed message is the least of the show's problems, with many of the second season's attempts to distinguish itself from the first backfiring, and the season only even coming close to matching the first once it goes back to doing what the anime does best, which is definitive proof that changing aspects of a story can end up making it worse sometimes. One last thing I should mention is that the endings of both seasons are quite confusing, with the second season being especially guilty of this, so you should definitely be prepared to have your mind screwed at the end of both stories. That's not to say the endings are bad per se. You just shouldn't expect everything to make sense or be explained, which is ultimately true to the anime's spirit. Art & Animation (8.5/10): "Darker than Black"'s first season may have been released in 2007, but it nevertheless has fantastic, high-quality animation that still looks impressive even in the 2020s. The characters and environments are very well-drawn barring a few rough edges, the fight scenes are fast and fluid and the effects of the various Contractor powers are almost consistently a treat to behold. The animation quality does have an overall drop in the second season, but the difference is small enough that you would have to be paying really close attention in order to notice it. Sound & Dialogue (9/10): "Darker than Black"'s soundtrack is composed by Yoko Kanno of "Cowboy Bebop" and "Ghost in the Shell" fame, and it definitely shows. While no particular tracks come to mind when thinking about the music, it nevertheless almost always serves to enhance whatever emotion a scene is trying to invoke. The first opening isn't one I'm a particularly big fan of, but the second and third openings are ones that I could listen to over and over again and never get tired of, and I really liked all three ending themes too. The voice acting is also excellent, with Jason Liebrecht giving a fantastic performance as Hei, and Brina Palencia, Kent Williams, Kate Oxley, Alison Viktorin and John Swasey all doing great jobs as Yin, Mao, Misaki, Suou and Huang respectively. The dub features a strong supporting cast as well, including Laura Bailey, Caitlin Glass, Robert McCollum, Travis Willingham and even Troy Baker, in one of his early voice acting roles years before he deservedly became one of the biggest veterans in the video game industry. Characters (7.5/10): Throughout the series, Hei displays two very different personalities- as a civilian, he is Li Shenshun, a Chinese exchange student who is goofy, awkward and very kind to the people around him. When on duty, his true, drastically different personality emerges- that of a cold, ruthless, pragmatic and humourless man who is perfectly to employ extreme …

Its alright but could have been so much better I like the concept of people with powers but to use them they come at a cost, which gives it a nice little twist. I just rewatched this and its been about 13 years since ive seen it so I had forgotten most of it and was pretty much watching i for the first time again. After rewatching it, i found out why I don't remember much of any thing about it. While this series has some cool ideas it never really comes together with all of it to make any thing really great. It feels like ideas that are good but are jumbled about. The story never feels like it has any solid foundation and just kind of meanders about. Has some decent characters which helps a bit but the story never grabs you to want to know what happens next because its to all over the place. The art style and animation are pretty good and I like the opening song. The Voice acting is solid. I just finished watching it a few days ago and im having a hard time trying to put this review into words because it just feels so disjointed.

One of the most criminally underrated shows of its era. There's no denying that this show was produced in the twilight years of Studio Bones' heyday, and that the serial format is not everyone's cup of tea. However, everything else is great. The writing is mature, and I'm not sure there's any other anime that does Western superheroes as much justice. Likewise, the worldbuilding and character design is top-notch. It's rare for action anime to properly account for the world politics, and I appreciate how much it's done here. MI6, CIA, DGSE, the Triad -- they're all present, and appropriately evil. The characters who represent these interests are amazing, too. This isn't the best anime, but it's still my favorite. If you're an avid comic fan who's disappointed by the lack of well-done, relatively faithful superhero anime, this is the show for you.

First of all, if you're reading this you're probably a close friend or follower of mine, perhaps just some stranger who has a huge interest on animes or maybe a stalker (hahaha, i hope its the last option) But if you are just a random fella who dug deep to find a useful review, I really appreciate your kindness and hope you find what you seek as a review. I actually already wrote a review on Darker than Black anime, but i think it was very short and boring (and i cant guarantee if its not boring this time lmao). Well, it's just DTB is one of my top favorite animes for a weird reason and that's why I think I should give a bigger effort for this review. Well there actually isn't anything special about DTB. Even thought I have said it's one of my favorites, it definitely isn't the one that I can watch again when I'm bored. No no no, there really isn't anything unique or different about this anime. The storyline is very slow paced and the manga is even more boring. But then why did I enjoy this anime so much? This isn't really a review that talks about how is the anime like, this review here is about why I like this masterpiece. Well, let me explain it. Story: With the appearence of mysterious structures called "Heaven's Gate" and "Hell's Gate", the sky is gone and replaced by a fake one. And thus, "Contractors" get in the scene. The contractors are people who have supernatural powers in exchange of paying an "obeisance". Society is unaware of the contractors' existence, while they are only known by high ranking people like polices or CIA. Our main character Hei, going by the name Li Shengshun the Chinese exchange student, is secretly the infamous contractor the Black Reaper (also known as BK-201) who works with the mysterious Syndicate to eliminate the troublemaker contractors. Althought Hei is the protagonist and we certainly have a main cast, I still wouldn't say Hei isn't really the protagonist. The protagonist is different for many episodes, almost in each episode of DTB the plot takes place around ordinary citizens (who eventually comes to contact with a contractor). Hei during these episodes usually play a minor role (and sometimes doesn't even do anything). But he is certainly involved in each story and meets with episode's protagonist. Contractors are usually the people who eventually lose their personalities and turn very dull and emotionless. Hei is also the same way, even thought he seems like a quit sympathic and good looking person on the outside as Li Shengshun, he is the empty box whenever he turns into Black Reaper. I think Hei grew more humane in the end of everything, after interacting and helping all those people in each episode. And this story folks, isn't actually the story of Hei. It's the story of ours, the audience. We are the ordinary people who come to contact with contractors in these episodes, we are the ones who met Li Shengshun the Black Reaper. (Yeah, it might have sounded very stupid what I just wrote but) I think DTB is a very great show to put yourself in protagonists' shoes. Except this fascinating feature of DTB anime, I think the story overall wasn't so unusual and also the storyline was kinda slow paced and boring but I wouldn't it was the kind of story that you mustn't watch at all costs. Since the way how story was told I can easily say DTB is still quite awesome. The plot twists were also very good. It had a very good finale too. Cast: Well, well, well. We do have a pretty good main cast here. Some Chinese kid, a girl who is as blind as a bat, a geezer and a talking cat. Well there is also the ordinary people who were introduced throughout the whole story but I'm not going to be talking about them here. They are already great characters anyway. So let's start with the main cast. Hei is a really cool MC and I LOOOOOOVE HIM. He is so awesome and probably one of my favorite anime characters of all time. The way he is disguised as a completely different person and has a different persona, I bet he would have won a few Oscars if he existed in real life. He is definitely ten out of ten. Yin, is a good character, i guess..? I don't have much to say about her since I'm more focused on other characters but I think she is way better than many other anime heroines. She is a kind of Rei Ayanami (let's say like that). Huang, is a great guy. His character arc was tragic and great. I have struggled many times on understanding Huang's personality until I watched his arc and I think he is as awesome as other characters. Mao is definitely the best boi. The cat with the deep voice. Damn, who would have made a cat not just can talk but talks with a very deep voice (his voice isn't actually deep but I think his voice actor made a great performance while voicing him) his original body is gone so he resides in a cat's body. Kurasawa Gai is definitely the best detective in all animes. Misaki Kirihara is absolutely the best female character in the whole anime. The villains were quite annoying ones but I think they were fine too. I don't think of Amber as a villain since she isn't really intending to hurt Hei. She identically looks like CC from Code Geass so maybe I can still like her. She is fine too. Soundtracks: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH THOSE SOUNDTRAAAAAAAAACKS!!! They were awesome, guys. Even if you aren't willing to watch DTB, you should still listen the soundtracks if you are into good music. "Water Forest" and "Can You Fly?" are the best soundtracks I ever listened in an anime. Without these soundtracks, DTB might have been a very useless anime. The way how musics were so good and also the storytelling was great this show with a usual story turns into a masterpiece. Find those soundtracks guys, they will blow your minds. Art: Not much to say. It's a very usual choice of artwork. It's identical to many other anime characters. But I think we all can agree how iconic Hei is.

- English Review (Translated version) "Darker than Black" is an anime of a very remarkable level, no doubt one of those that are worth seeing. And although my first contact was more like a handicap, being sincere. The first minutes start in a frenetic way, pure action. Maybe a priori this doesn't sound bad at all, okay... but if you add a huge amount of strange names, unknown data and constant doubts, more than getting the effect of trapping the viewer, what happens is that you disconnect from the story due to excessive confusion. That's what happened to me, at least. Luckily, that feeling was rather short-lived and dissipated as the episodes went by. It's not that the viewer suddenly goes from having no idea what's going on on the screen to knowing all the facts of the plot. Not at all. It is precisely these details that are known very, very slowly in each of the episodes. What changes then? Well, to begin with, the way in which this plot is presented. And the structure they choose for it. For me, one of the strong points of "Darker than Black" is that it is organized in such a way that it becomes almost a procedural series, without being completely so. In groups of two episodes they present us stories that normally have a beginning and an end during the time that the couple of episodes last. And at the same time that these self-concluding stories finish and end, in the background they show us data, clarifying details, clearing up doubts, connecting facts and characters... of the main plot, of the protagonists, of the world and its functioning. This way until we reach the final stretch, where the central narrative axis of "Darker than Black" goes from the "background" to the front page and takes all the protagonism, as it is logical. In my opinion, this structure is a great success. First of all, it offers versatility, since it can be moved between genres very easily and/or change the tone, thanks to the fact that every two episodes we have a "new" story that is blank in that sense: drama, comedy, action... there is time for everything. Also because these stories are perfectly integrated and connected with the main plot, little by little we get to know the details of the world and the characters, which is appreciated so as not to get bewildered (which happened to me in the first scenes). I can't really think of a more efficient structure for "Darker than Black", it fits like a glove. The cast of characters is also a plus. It's true that they may not be the most charismatic characters in the history of anime (due also to their... "nature"), but in the end you get attached to practically all of them, and that's not usually something easy to achieve. I could name many of them, like Hei, Yin, even Mao, November 11 or Amber, each one with their personalities, well differentiated from each other. There are a very large number of secondary characters due to the "short story" structure, and yet, even appearing in just one, two episodes, there are so many characters worth remembering. But I personally choose Misaki Kirihara, without a doubt my favorite, because of her design, personality and evolution. Talking about design, precisely his great quality in that sense helps a lot to make the character section so good. An outstanding as for character design, because it is not easy to have such an extensive and varied cast as for designs in a visually realistic anime like this "Darker than Black". It is really incredible the great diversity in the physical aspect of the characters and the little redundancy in their traits. I'm already getting into the technical sections, another aspect that is quite good. As I said, the character design is great. Artistically you may like it more or less, but I think it is undeniable that the level of drawing and animation is high. Above average without any doubt. And to me personally in realistic and urban style it seems to be one of the best I've seen. The sound section, although it stands out a little less, also borders on good level. Especially with regard to the ambient OST, the melodies themselves. The two openings and the two endings do not excite me too much, though. Perhaps the second ending is the most remarkable in this sense. - Spanish Review (Original and faithful version) "Darker than Black" me parece un anime de un nivel muy notable, sin duda de esos que merece la pena molestarse en ver. Y eso que mi primer contacto fue más bien tirando a deficiente, siendo sincero. Los primeros minutos arrancan de forma frenética, pura acción. Quizá a priori esto no suene mal del todo, de acuerdo... pero si le unes una enorme cantidad de nombres extraños, datos desconocidos y dudas constantes, más que conseguir el efecto de atrapar al espectador, lo que ocurre es que lo vas desconectando de la historia debido a una confusión excesiva. Eso fue lo que me ocurrió a mí al menos. Por suerte, esa sensación duró más bien poco y se fue disipando con el paso de los capítulos. No es que de pronto el espectador pase de no tener ni idea de lo que ocurre en pantalla a conocer al dedillo todos los datos de la trama. Para nada. Precisamente esos detalles se van conociendo muy, muy a cuentagotas en cada uno de los capítulos. ¿Qué cambia entonces? Pues para empezar la forma en que se presenta esta trama. Y la estructura que escogen para ello. Para mí uno de los puntos fuertes de "Darker than Black" es que está organizado de forma que se convierte casi en una serie procedimental, sin llegar a serlo del todo. En grupos de dos capítulos se nos van presentando historias que normalmente tienen principio y final durante el tiempo que dura esa pareja de capítulos. Y a la vez que estas historias autoconclusivas acaban y terminan, de fondo se nos van mostrando datos, aclarando detalles, despejando dudas, conectando hechos y personajes... de la trama principal, de los protagonistas, del mundo y de su funcionamiento. Así hasta llegar a la recta final, donde ya el eje narrativo central de "Darker than Black" pasa del "background" a la primera plana y toma todo el protagonismo, como es lógico. Todo un acierto esta estructura, en mi opinión. Primeramente ofrece versatilidad, ya que se puede mover entre géneros con mucha facilidad y/o cambiar el tono, gracias a que cada dos capítulos tenemos una historia "nueva" que está en blanco en ese sentido: drama, comedia, acción... hay momento para todo. También debido a que estas historias están perfectamente integradas y conectadas con la trama principal, poco a poco vamos conociendo los detalles del mundo y los personajes, lo cual se agradece para no empacharnos de desconcierto (lo que me ocurrió en las primeras escenas). Realmente no se me ocurre una estructura más eficiente para "Darker than Black", encaja como un guante. El plantel de personajes también es un punto a favor. Bien es cierto que quizá no sean los más carismáticos de la historia del anime (debido también a su... "naturaleza"), pero al final se les coge cariño a prácticamente todos, y eso no suele ser algo fácil de conseguir. Podría nombrar a muchos de ellos, como Hei, Yin, incluso Mao, November 11 o Amber, cada uno con sus personalidades, bien diferenciados entre sí. Hay una cantidad muy grande de secundarios debido a la estructura de "historias cortas", y aun así, incluso apareciendo en apenas uno, dos capítulos, hay muchísimos personajes dignos de ser recordados. Pero yo personalmente me quedo con Misaki Kirihara, sin duda mi favorita, por diseño, personalidad y evolución. Hablando de diseño, precisamente su gran calidad en ese sentido ayuda muchísimo a que el apartado de personajes sea tan bueno. Un sobresaliente en cuanto a diseño de personajes, porque no es fácil tener un plantel tan extenso y a la vez variado en cuanto a diseños en un anime visualmente realista como es este "Darker than Black". Realmente es increíble la gran diversidad en el aspecto físico de los personajes y la poca redundancia en sus rasgos. Me meto ya de lleno en lo…

Darker than Black has its own balance of gives and takes, but I feel it's a series that compensates itself well for its flaws, and is worth giving a shot. The overall "plot" may suffer due to the show's quasi-episodic format, but the unique world that the writers create—and the way it is presented to the viewer—is still very alluring. You get thrown into this bizarre sci-fi landscape and learn more about it with each passing episode, drip by drip. I understand that for some, the lack of context Darker than Black initially provides can be frustrating; explanations are kept to an absolute minimum, and barely enough information about the world is given in the first episode to keep the viewer afloat. However, I find this to actually be one of the show's greatest strengths. Being able to piece together all the mysteries this foreign reality has to offer is a lot of fun, and a breath of fresh air from some series where backstory is literally spoon-fed to you. That being said, I found that the finale did leave many of my questions unanswered and wanting more. But the ride itself was, undoubtedly, something special. The art, animation and sound design are all incredibly well done—definitely the quality you would expect from Bones. (In fact, I find the art style and shading reminiscent of FMA:B....) All of the action scenes are handled incredibly well, with smooth and fluid choreography, and the nonaction scenes don't suffer as compensation. Furthermore, the sound design and soundtrack hold up and benefit the scenes themselves. While nothing here is really so spectacular it redefines the industry, it certainly holds up to any standards a modern action anime faces. The characters themselves might be the strongest element of the series. Admittedly, the shortness of each disjunct arc leaves many side characters feeling kind of one dimensional, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't well fleshed out within that dimension. And the central characters are strong enough to hold out on their own regardless. They don't get a TON of development, either, but they are still well written and benefit from the small snippets of backstory provided to help flesh them out. My favorite thing about them—especially with the main syndicate team—is their chemistry with each other. Their unique personalities and traits complement each other excellently; every interaction is thoroughly entertaining, comedically or otherwise. Would they have beneffited from a little more backstory? Perhaps. But again, this show tries to avoid spoon-feeding you as much as possible. If you're still on the fence about Darker than Black, watch the first four episodes/two mini-arcs and see how you feel. Atmosphere, the action, and the MC are undoubtedly the show's strongest traits, and by then you'll have gotten a pretty good taste of all three. If you decide its not for you, you at least won't be dropping the show in the middle of a plot arc. But if you are a fan, rest assured you'll be able to enjoy plenty more where those came from (although the series' end WILL still leave you with a couple of burning questions, as well as cravings for Pizza Hut).

Right now all I'll say is if you want to watch a episodic anime with lots of action then this is the right one for you. Now I will say the character development is kinda good even one backstory made me tear up. The place where this anime falls short is explaining the mysteries of what on earth hells gate/ heaven gate are and why they came to be. Even though I was pretty confused for the first 4 episodes I'm happy I kept watching because around episode 5 the story really picks up. It gets kinda preachy around the end but what can you do with a story about inhuman humans. All around this anime was good, it doesn't leave you disappointed if you don't expect too much.

Since Darker than Black pulls from a multitude of sources related to people with superpowers hunted by the government and seemingly emotionless characters developing emotion, a review of the show benefits from talking extensively about Dark than Black's handling of these tropes in relation to other properties. Elements of Darker than Black can be seen in the entire X-men franchise (notably X-men: Days of Futures Past and Wolverine and the X-men), Batman Beyond, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, the 2009 film Push, Ghost in the Shell SAC, and the 2004 film I,Robot. Amidst all these stories, Darker than Black stands out as a crime drama with action rather than an action-adventure with drama because it is the most successful in delivering a hefty emotional package. That is to say, I would advise viewers to look at Darker than Black as a character driven story rather than a plot driven story that derives its appeal from some convoluted sci-fi concepts and secret agents with superpowers in a gritty urban setting. This is because many other reviewers have found DtB disappointing mainly because it fails to actually provide the answers to the baffling world it sets up. As the series doesn't provide many answers even though it makes it seem like it will, this is valid criticism. However, perhaps due to the fact that I knew this going in, I would argue that the lack of answers is almost negligible in the face of what DtB aims to do and manage to accomplish in bringing its characters to life. While its plot is unfocused and incoherent in regards to unraveling its mysteries, it is deliberate and well thought out with regards to revealing more about the main characters and weaving the supernatural elements of its world into compelling arcs for life-like supporting characters. Instead of giving some technobabble explanation for contractors, dolls, and the Gate, we get explorations of how the superpowers of the contractors/dolls impact their humanity and how their experiences lead them to evolve beyond emotionless killing machines with purely rational, self-serving motives. In the first few episodes, we explore the how human a doll can be, the downward spiral of a girl as she becomes a contractor, the humanization of a contractor who's lost her powers, and the role of our physical bodies in forming who we are. This is not a standard action flick that operates by rule of cool. There are two episodes dedicated to each arc so we get time to get attached to characters as they're fleshed out and to allow for more complex stories. By contrast, many action flicks like Batman Beyond also try to tackle the psychology of the villains/supporting characters in a gritty urban setting, but the limitation of a single episode leaves a lot on the table. Yes, many of sci-fi concepts can be found in cyberpunk series like Ghost in the Shell SAC (such as the concept of robotic dolls and what exactly makes you, you- is it just your brain or is it your body too?). In general, the concept of people with superpowers being used and seen as less than human has been milked for decades with the X-men franchise and various pulpy YA novels. Yet using a cliche concept doesn't make something bad nor necessarily pull from its entertainment value. DtB executes these concepts well by grounding them in characters that feel real. This leads to its great dialogue and characterization. In real life, most of the time when you meet people, they sound pretty generic and it takes a while to see how unique their personality is. However, there are certain intonations in their voice, particular ways of phrasing their sentences, body movements, etc, that allude to their personality. It's hard to capture these subtleties in fiction, so often writers have to oversaturate the colors to make things appear more real than they are. DtB doesn't go this route. It excels at bringing characters to life using a few lines of dialogue and subtle actions that are natural, mature, and unique to each character. Adults act like adults, not teenagers. Teenagers act like teenagers, not adults or elementary schoolers. Characters are not exaggerated to make them more memorable or convincing, but rather their portrayal is subdued with specks of color tastefully added on to give the implication of a three dimensional human being without spending much time with them. For example, with November 11's introduction, he's conducting a deal with a mob boss and takes issue with one of the henchman smoking. Dressed in a white three piece suit, he proceeds to recite a speech about all the dangerous chemicals in a cigarette, pronouncing long pharmaceutical words and talking how bad smoking is for the body. Later, it is shown that his payment for using his powers is that he has to smoke. Little things like this do a ton to paint a minimalist portrait of a person. Even without these touches, the dialogue is natural, believable, and clever enough to make for real characters. This is why I do not agree with nor understand reviews that say that all the characters were flat. DtB gets away with this minimalist style of characterization because its tone convinces viewers (or me at least) to give it the benefit of the doubt. We believe in the implied lines because the humor is suitably dry (and quite funny), it knows when it's taking itself too seriously (using humor to mask philosophical or emotional parts that might come off as pretentious), and the action is well choreographed and realistic. By realistic, I mean that the superpowers have clearly defined limitations and there is a flow of logic to how they're used in the fights that the audience can understand. The writers don't have to rely on ass pulls like power of friendship or some other deus ex machina to resolve the conflicts. Rather, Hei's victories are a result of him outsmarting his opponents and knowing how to play around the powers in the fight. Why is Hei more like Batman than Kirito, both badasses with a fondness for long black garments? Well first of all, Hei is silent and lets his actions do the talking. He doesn't scream loudly to win. Secondly, like Batman in Batman The Animated Series, the way he wins is genuinely clever (like restarting his own heart with his electric powers). As a result of the rules set for the fights, all the action sequences are engaging and exhilarating precisely because of the limitations of the powers. In addition, Hei's action sequences serve to bolster his character. If a character doesn't say much but shows competency and cleverness in his actions, then that character is automatically likable. We rarely get a direct message about Hei's thoughts, and it is unclear how much of his interactions with others is just another part of his facade. Yet this understated murkiness combined with the logic we see in his actions makes him cool and consistently interesting to watch. Others have found Hei to be "electric Chinese Batman" and another one of those badass types, and I can see why, but for me, the mystery surrounding his character protects him from being shoehorned into a cliche. Plus, Hei's antihero status is handled pretty well, because unlike most shows, DtB actually has the balls to make Hei do things that make him a dick, like actually committing murder or indirectly causing the deaths of innocent people. The typical badass trope of having all the women fall for the main guy is turned on its head, as Hei gets women because he psychologically manipulates emotionally vulnerable women. Another thing that helps DtB nail the tone is how the superpowers are handled. Each superpower comes at a cost and takes energy out of the user. Therefore, they can't be stretched and abused by the writer. Unlike the mutants of the X-men, you don't just get these awesome god-like powers that objectively make your life better than that of a normal human (like Wolverine's healing ability that lets him survive pretty much everything). This all lends to a feelin…