Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini

Sooooo disappointed. I made an account just so i could whine about how dissatisfied i was with this follow up series. To avoid spoiling anything ill just talk about this in a very critical way. The first season had a episodic type feel (2 episode arcs) and that worked well for its story telling. This season moved away from it and had a full continuing story that revolved around a new character. I was annoyed by this child that i wanted to stop watching, im not sure what her character was suppose to represent but it didnt add any depth at all to the themes darker than black had in the first part. I probably can troll on and on about how much i disliked the presentation of the plot but to culminate all that, it ends on a very confusing, abrupt manner. The style and art was like the first so i dug it. The fights and inventive powers the contractors had are always cool, but the centralized story wasnt developed enough for me to give a rats arse. I hear they are making 4 ovas about WTF happened before, but i would have wished they had shown those things before instead of after. Too many questions unanswered with too many loose ends to have my satisfaction. I hope they make another series and instead of killing off the entire cast from before build on them and make the story have more depth and feel.

First of all this is my first review so it might not be the best but I'll try to explain whats needed to know briefly. Before I start I know that there is what I like to call the "in-between season" that came AFTER this one but I'm only judging this series based on the first & the second season because 4 OVA episodes aren't enough for me to justify how they turned this season. At the beginning this season starts as a mystery which is not really unusual for DTB however soon enough the mystery turns to be a confusion and more questions begin to raise in your thoughts like how there are some characters that are missing and no one mentions them and how the hell is this related to the first season?? unfortunately my friend this season will leave you with far more questions than answers. especially the ending. I don't know what the author was thinking when they thought of giving us the future then hey don't worry there's 4 OVA episodes that'll come soon and it'll explain the confusion. Well that doesn't always work. I understand that it is exciting when you show the results then you go back on show how everything led to this result but YOU DON'T DO IT FOR A WHOLE SEASON!!!! Overall I don't really want to say the second season was disappointing but rather confusingly disappointing. They made this season so gloomy and changed the characters personality 180 without really giving a good reason and then at the end it was like hey remember Yin the one you was wondering where the hell she was in the whole season well shes...bad?? DTB was one of my fav animes and the second season really screwed it over but It's hard to admit that since it is a good anime overall. To anyone who watched the first season I advise you watch the in-between season before you watch the second season so the level of frustrating would hopefully be less.

I think most of the people that wrote the reviews for this season of DtB were ones that were enraged right after watching DtB:RnG. What I'm trying to say is that these reviews are biased. In my opinion, I think that everyone, after watching DtB:RnG, should just let everything sink in for a couple of days and then write a review. This is because everyone should seriously admire the beauty of DtB:RnG because for a 12-episode season, it was seriously in depth and captivating. Trust me, I liked the first season of DtB WAY better than the 2nd, and I want a 3rd season as much as the next guy. However, I can see how good the 2nd season was and why BONES wished to end it here. Story: The story of DtB:RnG takes place a few years after DtB did and now it is about Hei trying to stop Yin from awakening and letting the "Izanami" come out. The storyline for this was great except it raised a few questions. One question for example is: Why is Yin the doll that becomes Izanami? Why can't it be literally any other doll out there? If the story really is following the Izanami/Izanagi Myth(Mitaka documents), who is Izanagi? Who is Katsuguchi? Other than this, the storyline was well thought out and it did well enough for to entertain the DtB fans and inspired them to keep watching. Art: The artwork took a HUGE turn because it was WAY better than the first DtB. The sinister/dark/gloomy look of Russia and Tokyo were good, but not great. Sound: The soundtracks especially the ending credits were good. However at times I found myself giggling at how "immature" the music was when someone was talking/when a serious scene was going on. Character: Ah, this raised the most criticism in DtB:RnG. Now instead of Hei/Yin being the main protagonists, a new Russian girl by the name of Suou is the MC. When I first knew about this, i was furious. I almost dropped the anime. However I'm glad that I didnt because only for the first like 2 episodes it only focuses on Suou. After about 2 episodes, you completely forget that Suou is the main character because Hei gets as much screentime as an MC should be getting. I personally really liked Suou because as a 13-15 year old, she was strong and tough as nails to be getting along with the new Hei. Even in depressing situations she never seemed to give up and she was always strong. On the other hand, even though most people HATED the new Hei, I really liked him. The new bum-drunkard Hei is still the same Hei in the end except he becomes a more harsh, unshaven, long hair-dont care Hei. This didn't bother me because lets think for a moment. Hei lost most of the things he ever had in the 1st season of DtB. Now in the 2nd season, Hei lost the only thing he had left: Yin. It makes sense that he would become a depressed bum after literally losing everything he ever had. However, as the time goes on in DtB:RnG, the relationship that Hei and Suou develop is beautiful and its mainly because of Suou that Hei slowly reverts into the Hei that we know and love. Enjoyment: Overall, DtB:RnG was very pleasing to me. Even though the usual feel of DtB is gone, DtB:RnG still maintains the strong characteristics that DtB had. Overall: In the end, this anime, if given time to understand it, was great. The possibility of BONES producing a 3rd season is close to 0 since it has been 5 years since DtB:RnG was produced, and the ending of DtB:RnG was very satisfying because it ended in a way for the viewers to interpret the future however way they want to.

I'll give them credit for changing the approach in the second season but at the same time I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as the first season. While the girl has an interesting story I'm still ultimately more interested in the story of the Grim Reaper who spends a lot of the series moping around and powerless. The show still has it's moments though and the powers and their penances are still cool and original. The music is once again absolutely brilliant and the animation is quitre strong. The ending was a little bit confusing and unsatisfying for me. Hopefully we'll get another season that is more like the first as this felt more like a mini-series/spin-off.

I've never been so angry with an anime before, this was like a slap in the face for DTB fans. To start the story was about a little girl becoming a contractor she either puts up with getting slapped around by our main leading character or staked by lolicons, so child abuse seems to be the general aspect of this story and Hei being betrayed as a drunk child beater ticks me off, he's my favorite character! The story dragged through pointless crap, got to the point where I justed started skipping through it. I honestly don't know what they were thinking this new girl was just annoying.

I'm inevitably going to talk a lot about the first season in this review, due to having watched the both of them back to back - note that I haven't watched the OVA's supposed to connect them just yet. I don't there's any issue with that however, due to the fact that there's no reason anyone should be watching the second season first, and because there's quite some differences compared to the first season. Where the original series got to drag on at leisure with it's episodic structure, having very little progress at all for most of it's run, the this series was only half the original's length and had to stick to a strict timetable to be able to tell it's story. Where the first season could develop a great array of good characters with detailed backstories due to this, the second season by comparison was able to create better main characters due to their development with the main story, but the side characters for the most part were left very unfinished and were offered absolutely no closure on. Overall I greatly preferred the structure and main characters of the second season and due to that found it even more interesting to watch than the first season I already liked plenty. I believe the short length of the season prevented it from reaching it's potential, and especially the ending was highly unsatisfactory. I liked how the series established a good number of strong characters right from the beginning, and did so through showing their personalities in action. This is an improvement over the first season and a necessary one at that. Due to not having the luxury to create in depth backstories for every character like in the first season they had to make strong first impressions to establish them instead - it's also arguably just a superior way to introduce characters, period. This lead to some unfortunate consequences also, however. The characters were introduced perhaps even too fast, stealing the focus from each other frantically all over the first episodes. This was another consequence of the short length, presumably, as was the fact that most of these side characters ended up receiving no development at all despite being at times very important to the story. A good number of them ended up dying off surprisingly quickly, used seemingly just to develop the main characters, while the others were completely forgotten. In the end, I think a lot of them should have been ditched completely to create an even more focused experience. What this resulted to was establishing the actual main characters even better, making them more interesting - if not likeable - right from episode 1, compared to the first season where they all had long arcs to establish them but barely actually developed at all. This set up a very good ground to build their bonds between each other, which were the driving forces of the entire plot. This is probably the best part of the entire anime, the fantastic development of the characters in the middle episodes of the season. Sadly none of the characters received what they deserved with the end of the season. Most of them were simply forgotten completely in favor of trying to desperately wrap up a decent ending. What the main characters got in turn were was some incredibly vague and surreal garbage that starkly contrasted what had been established of the world thus far. While the supernatural is an important part of the story, the general feel of the series is also focused on cold hard reality in which the characters live in. I have similar conclusions on the first season, but the incompleteness made it even worse in this case. Again, there's no way around the fact that the series needed more episodes. The ending was incredibly rushed, but even beyond that the series is missing many important parts. The side characters were left husks despite strong characterization, the main plot was very vague and ended as soon at it was established, and a lot of the attention to detail that was present in the first season is gone now, due to the simple lack of screen time. The production of the show was all around good, and overall even better than the first show. It did however lack a lot of the attetion to detail that made the first season so interesting, as well as the humor was almost completely gone - probably since it didn't fit the tone of the story as well. In conclusion, I really liked the show. Thinking as a whole, I think the first season was a way more satisfactory and complete viewing experience, but I honestly think the second season showed a lot more talent on the writers' part at least. The original was entertaining, something I'd watch when bored, but the focused experience and interesting characters of the second season really grabbed me, compelling me to watch it all in one go, always wanting to find out what happened next. Sadly the conclusion was less than satisfactory. I'd say it's about as good as the first season, with both lower ilows and higher highs, and overall being more to my liking in style.

Surprisingly, I had a little more enjoyment on this season than Kuro no Keiyakusha. The story is focused on Yin and even if it's the same universe, it differs a lot from the season1. I enjoyed this season more because it's a new way to see the characters. Unfortunately, there is still this lack of something in the story to give this anime an amazing power. But the end let you like you need more, because it ends worth than season 1. I mean there's this "fake end" you have in canceld TV-shows which doesn't fills your attends. Don't get me wrong, I still like it, but I'm ashamed to see that it could ahve been ways better.

Many people described this 2nd season of DtB as a shitty show which is nonsense and not worth watching. But I think they are wrong and this season is truly great after the 4 OVAs was released. Bones made a risky move with this show: first they gave us a vague and messy show and then they give explanations. Story: 8 There are 2 parallel stories in this show: The adventure of Suou and the story of Hei searching for Yin. While the 2nd is quite hard to understand, the 1st is still absorbing and good. Don't let the 2nd interfere with it and you will find it interesting Now I will talk about Hei's story. It was vague and quite messy without the 4 ovas, I agree with this, but with those 4, it is clearer and more concise. It's very good and deep, but most of the viewers can't understand it, so I give it an 8. It's quite funny that Bones was successful in tricking us during the whole story. They intentionally make us believe in something wrong and then we feel that this show is full of plot holes. I can't tell you what it is because it is a big spoiler, but if anyone want to have the true answer to this series' story, leave me a message. Art: 9 The action scenes are still awesome, in fact, they are longer and more breath-taking than those in the first season. There are only a few contractors, but their powers are interesting and cool, like Mizuki's energy saber or the Magician's true magic... Hei was designed as a drunken hobo but when he put on the mask and black suit, he is still cool. Sound: 9 The opening song is great, the back ground music is awesome! When Hei first appeared, it was the BGM that made me feel like jumping out of the chair and dancing :D The ending song is quite normal though Character: 8 Hei turned into a hobo and that was quite disappointed, but that will make people think: "What happend in the 2 years gap?" Suou is an interesting and strong-willed girl too, and Mao is still the funny part of the show. Enjoyment: 9 When I finished watching it, the OVAs was still not released, so I feel very uneasy about the ending, like when I watch "The end of Evangelion" but when I watch the OVAs and understand all of the meaning of this show, I have to say this is truly great. Overall: 8

I was so exicited when I first heard that Studio Bones was making a new season of Darker Than Black. Then... images of 13-year old girls started cropping up, later it was revealed that one of these teenage girls would be featured in the series as a main character. Personly, Suou, her twin brother and her friends ruined the whole season for me. Whether Bones found out that teenage girls, like myself, who hacked their parental controls and faked their age to watch the first season, then thought that because teenage girls like the series better than the males for whom the anime was originally made for that they would actually put silly little girls in a violent assassin/cop science-fiction anime. The reasons why so many girls watched the series is because it wasn't made for them, they didn't want to see a bunch of jolly femnale teenagers go depressed, if they wanted that they only had to watch some shoujou anime, not a shouen. The season disapointed me, but I still watch it, good God I own it on DVD. I enjoy watching it, though I would much rather watch the first season. There were points in the 12 epsiode season where I really, really enjoyed watching it, mainly, they were the episodes of momment that had a lack of young females, but there was even scenes with then I liked. Story. When I first read about Darker Than Black season two I thought that it would explain more about Hei and his mysterious life in South America with Amber and Pai before Heaven's war. However, we never actually found out more about that matter, which, of course, disapointed me. Still I like the idea of organisations at war with each other, which what Darker Than Black is mostly about, first season and second season. The mystery in the series always kept me on the edge of my seat every time I watched it for the first time. Art. The art and animation was brilliant as most animes from Bones are. The anime has high quaity animation and art without doubt. Sound. The voice acting was good in the Japanese versions, but the first season was dubbed by Funimation (like most of Studio Bones anime are), which probably means that the second season will be poorly dubbed by them too. Such a shame. The music featured in the anime was good, yet the two songs that were in the opening and ending I disliked. But hey, we're all entitled to our own say. Character. Well, some of the characters changed a lot, most Hei, who turns from an assissin bishouen to a drunk and homeless tramp. By the second episode I wanted to reach out into the animation and cut off his pony tail, it just annoyed me so much. Characters like Suou and her friends, being typical defenseless character irritated me as they could never stick up for themselves. Except for Suou and her brother, who seemed to kill anyone who got in their way them ran back crying to either Hei or their father. Enjoyment. Okay, so after all my ranting about the season, I still enjoyed it very much so. However, I would only recommend it to someone who had watched the first season. Overall. Overall I rate the season seven. There are some aspects that I dislike and others where I thoroughly enjoy it.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Darker than black: gemini of the meteor. A lot of people think that studio bones screwed up making season 2. But, you dont see the bigger picture. Gemini of the meteor showed -spoilers- Hei without his power. Without his sister and without Yin. He was broken after the events that transpired after The black contractor. We saw another side to Hei and we saw what it did to him with the way he interacted with Suoh and July and even Mao. Upon finding out Yin was alive, he reverted back to his old personality and look. The oly thing i have to complain is that he lost his mask and didn't get a chance to wear it, but those are minor details.

Just finished Darker Than BLACK - Ryuusei no Gemini. I had mixed prejudices about this anime before i watched it, i read some reviews saying it was so poor in comparison with the first series, but at the same time i couldnt wait to watch the sequel as the first series was so brilliant. I purposefully waited a while before watching the second series because i knew i would make too many comparisons if i didnt. I have judged this anime in its own right, it would score lower if i was rating it as a sequel. Story - 7 - I really loved this story, it wasnt necessarily the sequel to series one as it didnt pick up where the old one left off and revolved around a completely different story. However i thought it was a great story arc with the exception of the ending which i feel fell into place a little to brutally and didnt make complete sense. That aside it was fantasticly compelling :D Art - 7 - Maybe a bit generous on the art mark, its pretty generic stuff nothing spectacular but what i love about these series is if you're paying enough attention you see logo's of real companies all over the place woven into the scenes. (Look out for the Sony laptop) Sound - 9 - OP and ED were great, Abingdon Boys School impressed me yet again Character - 8 - Some awesome new characters as well as new sides and developments of old characters. I really empathised with the main character Suou, not because I necessarily knew how she felt but because as characters go she was well crafted. I dont want to go into too much detail for spoiler reasons but some of the development of old characters was interesting and horrifying at the same time. Cant wait for season 3 to build on all of this. Enjoyment - 10 - As i left DTB alone after season 1 to avoid being overly critical of this series i can honestly i thoroughly enjoyed it. It makes a great stand alone story in its own right so long as you dont have too many expectations Overall - 8 - I said at the begining that this was based on Ryuusei no Gemini alone and i have to say its a great series on all aspects so long as your expectations arent too high

It's honestly baffling to me how this anime has a score of 7.45 as of writing this. Don't let the rating fool you though, it's due to people not having watched gaiden first. (2010 DTB OVA) ✎ Story 7 ✎ Weak point of season two, and it's not even that bad. The problem with the story is that it doesn't really answer a lot of the questions from season 1. It's also no longer following an episodic format. The plot could work as a standalone series, and Hei's redemption arc was really rewarding. ✿ Art 9 ✿ Unique characters with good animation. -1 for reusing some of the ability scenes. ♪ Sound 10 ♪ IMO the strong point of Darker than Black. Even though I missed the jazz from season one, the up beat beep bop fight music was interesting enough to make up for it. The way they use music to create emotions is godlike. ☯︎ Character 8 ☯︎ The two main characters had some really good character development, and overall felt realistic given the circumstances. Aside from that there wasn't really any development in the other ones. A lot of mysterious and interesting characters. 🗿 Enjoyment 8 🗿 Tbh, dropped this anime after 4 episodes first time watching it. However after watching DTB Kuro no Keiyakusha Gaiden, a 4 episode OVA filling the gap between the two seasons, it all made sense. ★ Overall 8.4 ★ It's a good anime, if only it had third season to answer all of our questions *pensive*. I personally think having a season long arc instead of an episodic format was a nice change. ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ Anyways, who's idea was it to use the iMovie "mystery" sound 😭😭

This is my personal review/opinion of the show: I NEVER rewatch animes. I dunno why. Maybe it's difficult to watch a show again knowing what happens already, so maybe that makes it boring for me. But for Darker than Black, there is rare exception. I NEVER get bored of that anime. Even if I know what's going to happen, it's always exciting to see it on screen or to try and notice something I didn't see the first time. I've rewatched the anime four times already. It's just that good of a show :') It's also one of the first animes I've seen, so that kinda gives it a bigger advantage other other animes I've watched. However, I don't know how on earth I managed to bear through this second season. The second season is the complete opposite of what was a masterpiece of a first. I haven't seen the second season in almost a year now, but I'm fresh off of my fourth binge on DtB's original. I do vividly remember watching the second season though. I remember being very disappointed and having to take frequent breaks during episodes because it was just so boring and oddly paced. The story didn't really make sense at the time, either. I had to look up the plot on Wikipedia to get a better grasp on what was happening since it was too rushed and jumbled up. The theme and atmosphere were flipped on its head and lost that iconic charm to it that the first season had. The main character was pretty annoying and kind of gave me Mary Sue vibes. It just seemed centered around her too much, when who I was really there for was Hei, November 11, Kirihara, and the rest of the iconic cast. But it seemed like they didn't get enough screentime, so that was kinda depressing :'( Even if they did, the characters were still changed drastically. Hei's personality is totally flipped, so he isn't that cool and badass Chinese Batman anymore, but instead, a lame and abusive alcoholic. and MAO IS A SQUIRREL?! WHAT? That was also an odd change. Overall score is a 5. I think newcomers or people who don't compare it to the first season would find some enjoyment in it. But people who are die-hard DtB fans will probably give their hopes up on this one. Rant over.

It slightly pains me to write this review because I have to write it completely based off this season alone, which dropped my overall Darker than Black score for me. And please note that this review in no way is based off the first season as well. Darker than Black is set in a world where these mysterious and deadly things called Hell's Gate and Heaven's Gate appear and with it came along humans with super powers (called contractors because they each have a toll to pay for their power) and dolls, who are lifeless humans. There are many different organizations that are trying to uncover the truth of the Gates and part of one of them is Hei, the main protagonist. Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini still follows this plot but now everyone is racing to get ahold of Izanami and Izanagi, the new turning points to the story. Story 6/10 - I couldn't grab hold of what was happening during a lot of the anime. The characters were jumping from place to place and a very weak plot was followed during this point. The storyline then picked up towards the end but it was still quite confusing and everything seemed a little rushed. The ending itself just left you mind blown (in the worst way possible) and the details leading up to it seemed random and pety. Art 10/10 - This is an area where this anime cannot drop at all. As the rest of the series, the art was exceptional. The scenery was always well done and the amount of detail put into the background always shocks me. The fighting scenes are always done well and just seem oh so cool. Sound 7/10 - The sound was decent and could have been a lot better. At the start, scenes which lacked complete excitement were over played with heart racing music which made the misplacement really easy to pick up on. Sometimes emotional sound tracks played while the scene lacked emotion which again was easy to pick out. But as per the first season, the OP and ED were amazing and really suited the style of the anime. Characters 8/10 - The characters in this season took on a girly aura, there seemed to be a lot of feelings and love which felt out of place. We saw a whole new side of Hei this season and new characters were introduced. Most characters played a short role but their character art and personality were still unique. Shou was the main character in this season and she is portrayed as an innocent young girl which is different to see in such a dreading future and she is shown to see spots of happiness. We also get to see a deeper side of July. Overall, I give Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini a 7/10. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first season or the OVAs but it was still a good watch. There were enjoyable scenes but I feel as though it had a lot more potential.

I....I wanted to like this show. I really did. The first season could have been better, but that's a different story. Perhaps I had high expectations, but when have the sequels ever beat the original? Darker than Black's universe easily could have brought epicness and awesomeness in a second season; instead, my hopes are dashed and I am left wondering: what happened? Story: 7/10 WHAT HAPPENED HERE. This isn't a second season; it should be the first season of a different show in the same universe. The main character is now a side character and is replaced by a Russian girl?? I don't understand. I wanted to like the direction the story went, but it was just....bleh. And not to mention nothing was memorable. No scenes, no places, no plot twists - it all melded together like a gushy banana. No one wants a crushed banana. Besides the fact that nothing really stood out, the story chugged along anyway, grinding my nerves down to dust. Art: 9/10 The artwork was, as expected, gorgeous. There never really was a time where I doubted what world this was, and how depressing everything is. Happiness is as rare as safety, and they kept the artwork stellar the entire time. This was where the show really shone; from here, it goes downhill very quickly. Sound: 8/10 The sound was good as well. The intro and ending were both fresh and new from the first season instead of recycled, and it was a nice addition. Still, the original soundtrack was better. This one wasn't bad, however; the moments where epic music was needed, there was epic music. The voice acting, was, as usual, stellar. Character: 6/10 I....I was disappointed here. Hei becomes this.....this pitiful excuse of what he used to be. Mao...what happened to you? The main character was whiny. And her power was so unorthodox from what everyone else had. There were hiccups and random unnecessary scenes here and there, and the characters themselves seemed static and unchanging. No one was memorable enough to really remember if and when they stopped appearing in the story, and continually I had trouble trying to remember the minor characters because there seemed to be so many of them. Overall, it was a disappointing cast. Overall: 7/10 This fell far flat from my expectations and I was thoroughly disappointed to where the story led to and eventually ended on a weird note. The storyline seemed to stray far from the original, and the characters remained flat and irritatingly normal most of the time. I was expecting bigger and better - but I got a slimmed down version of what should have been something extraordinary. I stand by my score.

Having watched this series (including the first season) right after steins gate, I can't help but to notice this ridiculous harem "trend" infecting what I thought to be almost perfect series that deserve a score of 10. This is what I think: most productions of Bones lack substance when it comes to romance. Yes, I understand Darker Than Black is not a romantic drama, but if you're going to add romance in there, add it well or leave it out altogether. Don't turn the main character into a lolicon just because you want him to stay "cool" and "nice". I personally don't think there is anything wrong with the characters themselves, neither with their development. In fact, Darker Than Black has many entertaining and well contrasted characters along with in depth development of the main ones we really care about. It's a show that greatly involves the audience to the point of affecting them. It's also not one-sided. Most antagonists get their deserved consolation. Even the minor characters are well developed. They are not just there as plot fillers. Compared to the first season, this season has less action but more of a story to it. I like this contrast between the two seasons. The relaxed pace makes the story more realistic. This season doesn't explain many unanswered mysteries in season one, however. I kind of like it since it would mean that this series won't end yet, and we still might see even more interestinc characters along with their stories that would unravel the mysteries one by one. But, if they add more to this harem, I won't even consider watching it. Darker Than Black would be much more honest as a story if they stop introducing more girls to the series and focus more on unraveling the mysteries from now on (if they don't make season 3, I would rate this show a 5, seriously) I usually prefer action thriller with a touch of romance, but not this time. I don't think it's possible now to introduce any love after basically killing off the girls in the harem one by one and then introducing more to compensate.

What can I say? DTB Ryuusei no Gemini met all of my expectations. Although it centered on the existence of the girl, Suou, and not much of Hei and the casts from DTB 1, the excitement, storyline and transcendance of the anime made me watch out for it every week until the end. It still has the mysterious aura DTB 1 gave me and left me hanging with lots of questions. But this does not make one frustrated of the anime. In fact it made me wonder..."will there be DTB 3?". If you like animes that makes you use your head and analyze, science fiction,and interpersonal relationships then this is one is for you. Especially that the Black Reaper BK201 is a very complicated character and well drawn to the point that most of us thinks he's handsome. All in all, it's thrilling, sad, puzzlingand downright enjoyable.

Summary: Darker Than Black's 2nd season is a better, but very different show than the 1st. Those tuning in expecting to see more of Hei being a cool guy and fighting villains like Batman will be very disappointed, as he becomes a secondary character to Suou, a middle school girl with all kinds of connections to contractors and an apocalyptic prophecy. It becomes something like a tragic magical girl story fused to the general neo noir structure and setting of the 1st season. However, the 2nd season benefits greatly from a focus on a single main story rather than the series of tenuously connected mini arcs that was season 1, and Suou is a more interesting character than anyone in season 1 was. Unfortunately a vague plot that leaves you with more questions than answers prevents it from being what it could have been, but it is an improvement on the original, though people that enjoyed the first season will likely disagree strongly. Positives: + Suou is a good character. She's interesting, sympathetic and a tragic figure that isn't drowning in melodrama. I was very into following her arc, the development of her character, and how she reacted to some Big Secrets From Her Mysterious Past that I won't spoil. + The focus on a single storyline, in contrast with season 1, is a blessing. Season 2 allows you to stay with characters for the long haul and follow their progression. Rather than a series of unmemorable one-off stories and characters, there is more depth to season 2 because it has the time for it. + Art and animation looks outstanding for being more than 10 years old at the time I write this. Negatives: - Vague plot and ending that answers few of the questions raised throughout both the first and second series. There really aren't even enough clues to do informed speculation or theorizing on some of the big questions, like what are the Gates? - Yin's disappearance and transformation is never satisfyingly explained. It would be one thing to remove her from the series the way they did if they showed the backstory of what happened between her and Hei and what caused her to turn into what she did, but you never get those answers, and they are never even really hinted at. - Hei's transformation into Daniel Craig James Bond. The last thing I needed was another gritty, broken down former hero that's a jaded alcoholic wrestling with his personal demons now. I don't mind that they made a significant change to his character from the 1st season, but I have had enough of this archetype and wish it had been anything else. - The weird pedophile guy that could turn into The Thing from Fantastic 4. Did we really need a pedophile and a serial child killer in the same series?

this is a rant overall and not much of your typical review so in turn it got spoilers aswell my gripes : 1)story wise so many unresolved things and uncertain ending leaving u not satisfied and a very bizarre stoyrtelling ,this is written while having watched the ova they made AFTER the 2nd season then going back practically shion had the power to not only copy the whole world with its inhabitants body's but also copy a full sized moon and somehow like hid them in it or smth ?thats the part im not following completely maybe he created both a new earth and a new moon but earth was obstructed by the moon ??) so their final plan,their absolute trump card were just to abandon humanity and just copy everyone and send them away in a capsule ... souo's resurrection didnt mean anything at the end,just brought her back dramatically to be among hei's harem perhaps they implied that either a) everyone's memory preserved in the me system will eventually fade away without a similar meteor core and then they go on just saying yep it will work without it,with no core in sight on any of the cloned humans or no alternative explanation given so are they just gonna forget everything and be soulless dolls after a while,is that a triumph for humanity in the end ? the ""experiment "" is then considered null,purposeless and thats the only conclusion to draw or b) a theory that yin not only takes the souls of the deceased but also the memories and she can transfer them,it was never confirmed and we still dont know why the hell did souo's soul return to earth,assumptions that it was izanami at the time arent good enough but then people on the real earth are still there so it doesnt even matter if it's correct its a fallacy,their souls cant exist in both their original body and another cloned one i still dont understand why they couldn't just kill izanami not to mention this overly complex,inconsistent ending and how things came to be specially how souo got revived,they misinformed us greatly if u werent closely keeping up and disregarding some of the dialog they say which just adds on the confusion i was ok with the s1 ending even tho it was a cheese middle ground it was justified but holy hell was this shit,he scaraficed everyone,both human and contractor and himself facing unknown alien that is prophesied to destroy the whole world and he just says im gonna save yin,im gonna save this doll i know nothing about her or her past ,this being i somehow became in love with in less than a day (presumably as it depicted in the ova ) no context other than they ran and absolutely nothing in between them in part 1 happened not even im,hei was just nice back then,to everyone at that for god's sake he grieved over that doll of that woman at the beginning that had already died and all what was left some of her memories in a programmed doll 2)art wise its not as good looking as the first season and there weren't as many good fighting choreography and it seemed off most the time in comparison 3)sound wise there werent that much memorable osts but the op and ed were alright so i will give them that 4) characters wise the characters were so bland in comparison and even hei lost his glory and glimer and got reduced to a soulless drunken for the most part no one else was remarkable ,way too few normal human being with you know,characters and personalities most the cast was a contractor and wasnt that rich in alot of diverse ones and even then most were obnoxious 5)enjoyment wise :nothing ,there wasnt anything redeemable or anything retained from the alright first season i probably just kept at it for the sake of it and to kill time and i somewhat found the first few ep decent atleast it was a different story to say the least maybe souo had smth to do with it,she kept me interested ,perhaps im a pedo now i dont know if i would consider that a merit

I thought this was gonna follow the first season where hei is the main character but it introduced some character out of nowhere to take the place of hei yin disappears no explanation read some forums to figure out what happened after the events of the first season. Overall it all comes down to this being out of place and not belonging where it is you cant simply timeskip the anime and ad new characters and a new story and expect it to be good there wasnt any buildup of hei story showing how it lead him to the stage in life he is at now