Darker Than Black

This show hits many of the marks that would in hindsight classify it as a pillar in the anime genre. The show has character, style, atmosphere, and thrilling action sequences backed by a sleek killer soundtrack composed by none other than Yoko Kanno.

The issue with the show, however, is it comes short on a couple different axis', those being a cohesive narrative and lackluster character development.

While the shows starts off with episodic story arcs that finish and end per one to two episodes (which are imo the best parts about the show), around the second half of the season, the show then goes deep into this convoluted overarching narrative that in the end falls flat on it's face. By the finale, your left scratching your head at what had just happened exactly, as the show gives little time to dwell and explain what was happening. It's as if in Cowboy Bebop, the last 4 episodes they discover a plot that a government was trying to commit mass planetary genocide and they had to resolve this crisis in 3 episodes time.

Hei is our lead man in this adventure, and while his stoic and mysterious nature is interesting, some episodes it felt as if he had no personality at all. During the end of the season, they recap on his past and why he holds animosity towards certain other characters, it felt as if one issue resolves while another is just left with more questions than answers.

Overall, the show has all the style and character to get in the upper echelons of it's media contemporaries, but unfortunately falls short in mostly in substance and narrative focus.

I think it was Vonnegut who said their are only 12 story arcs, it's just a matter of how well you tell them. This show brilliantly smashes them all, while developing characters in unconventional ways. A mysterious alien presence grants powers to seemingly random individuals, with a certain price for said power. What's brilliant is how little people care for reality, and willingly settle for the propaganda. For instance, the stars are replaced with different stars, but how often does the average person even look up at night? It's a trivial rearrangement for most people, despite the cosmic implications. "Contractors" and "dolls" have some solid stereotyping, yet we see distinct moments where those stereotypes are both true and false. Couple this with emotional events that span entire lifetimes, and a myriad of brilliant characters, and I find myself just rewatching and rewatching.

Oh, and it really helps that the animation is brilliant, and the dubs are flawless. It seems they spared no expense on this, and I sorely wish it were revisited by the original crew.

I got into Darker Than Black because of its creators- Tensai Okamura has made some real nice works before, notably Wolf's Rain. In that series, he also worked with Yoko Kanno, the composer of some of the best soundtracks I have heard in my life, most importantly Cowboy Bebop. However, this series isn't as good as those mentioned earlier, but it is still good.

The problem with DTB is that it starts bad. It's just confusing, we don't know what's going on and we don't know the characters, so it's hard to care about them. Not only that- what I expected that would save the series, the music (I believe that music is as fundamental as anything else) wasn't that great either. Kanno's music just didn't stand out, and even the opening and closing themes weren't hers.

However, if you have patience, there's a point where we get to know the characters. Some story arcs get really interesting and when a episode ends, you will want to see the other to know what is going to happen. And it gets fun and turns out to be a nice experience. However, I would only recommend it to anime fans- not the general public. There's still a lot more series in the same vein of DTB that are much better and you should see them before this one.

This is what the American series Hereos could have been like if it was written for adults.

It features super-powered people who are real people, their powers come at a real price and not a token moral price as is used in children's comics.

The story unfolds gradually with us getting to know more of the main character's back story from episode to episode.

The powers are interesting as is the background of fear and manipulation and the fact that it finishes is one series rather than dragging on to squeeze extra money out of the idea is appealing.

The plot is intelligent with no bad or annoying episodes and the ending is surprising and consistent, there is a small bit of comic relief but this is a dark story.

I hadn't watched any anime in years but this one dragged me in from the first episode and I didn't regret it.

Darker Than Black is not an average anime. It has something special in it, the story, the characters, the music, the moral, and those feels. I have seen many anime over the years but, this ranks above every one of them. It is supernatural but it stay so close to reality that you get lost in it some how. "Every step is taken at a price, regardless of feelings it has to be paid."It echos in my ears and make me reconsider my actions. Being an anime it describes all the emotions inside a person, what he has to do in order to make the right decision. It is truly remarkable. The dialogs are so meaningful that they make you think about thing. I will always remember what Hei said "If you pretend to feel a certain way, The feeling can become genuine all by mistake." If you want to watch an anime, then i would definitely recommend you this. Darker Than Black?????? YES!!!! Evey life has something darker than black.