User reviews

I'm going to have to agree with the majority of viewers; this is a great anime with a unique story...though it might not be for everyone.

I noticed that one of the reviewers had the most inane childish review, mentioning nothing about the actual anime and just saying it was "crap". Really? In fact, that reviewer said it was "just a typical anime filled with nudity---no male nudity either!---and filed with satanic themes". There is absolutely no nudity whatsoever--save for a 'nipple' (in silhouette only) in the first opening and one single episode near the end (which has no private areas displayed)--and I have no idea why that reviewer believed it was about satanism.

I'm sure it was a useless trolling attempt on their part, but some people might actually believe that garbage the reviewer said if they weren't sure themselves.

As for the show itself, the animation was well-done; the music was unique (especially the first ending theme and Kurosawa's theme), rife with deep mini-plots, light humor, dark humor, and genuinely likable (and hateable) characters.

I do agree that maybe at one specific point I felt I might be losing interest, but I honestly don't believe that was the anime's fault. And sure enough, something occurred within the story immediately after that definitely fixed that.

As a show with little focus on sexuality , and instead on the deep and painful cycles of life, death, relationship and happiness...I know many will enjoy it.

I came across this anime accidentally, I do not watch a lot of anime, in fact I rarely find an anime that I can truly say I enjoyed immensely, but Darker than Black is definitely an exception to this.

I will admit after the first episode I wasn't completely convinced. It was vague and left me feeling a little jilted, but I found out the series runs in a two episode story arc, so of course I was confused. I watched the second and was intrigued. I had to know what happened next. I kept watching and I was left with the same feeling of anticipation. The good kind of anticipation when you know something really satisfying is going to happen.

Not only is the story great but the art and animation is fabulous. Very clean and smooth, the movements are fluid and fight scenes are very enjoyable to watch. The character designs are unique, even characters that look similar are distinct. The characters' designs are not the only good thing about them, they are also dynamic with their own personalities and almost every character is likable. I have to say it was actually the style of art that prompted me to watch this show, and it was a great decision on my part.

Although the ending may seem vague and leave questions unanswered, don't worry, the is a sequel on the way.

Overall, there is no lack of good things in this show. It is hard to describe which is something I find a good quality.

I'd give a 8.5 if I could. This anime has one of the most cool characters I've seen in anime, Hei. The dude's attitude carries this show, but that's not to distract from the other characters. All of the main four, even the girl who rarely says a thing (I really enjoyed the episode focused on her) are a blast.

The series is done in hour long vignettes, something not normally done in anime... and it takes the creators a little bit to get used to it. The first 7 or so episodes of this show were average and forgettable, but give DTB time and it finds it's place. Keep in mind, the beginning episodes are still necessary viewing for the mood and background it sets.

So is the beginning rough? Yes. 7.9 worthy? Hell no!

I know many a anime viewer such as myself who see's a score under a eight and thinks the show is a pass, but listen up. DTB IS NOT A PASS. This shows has everything to love in a anime and the ending WILL leave you satisfied.

I love these characters, I feel the thought in the writing, it is complex and has a philosophical message. This one moment near the end delivers some of the best symbolism I've seen. Truly this show is a powerhouse; a world in it's own. Even characters who come in for a few episodes have a grand purpose in the study of Hei.

Do not miss this show, it will have a impact on you and entrance you in pure coolness.

8.5/10

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.

This anime is amazing.

Darker than black is a neo-noir esque, action-packed thriller about a world where super beings exist, known as "contractors," and the many organizations they belong too, some notably being the CIA, MI6 and Japanese government.

The first few episodes don't immediately draw you in, however the tension and plot builds up slowly to introduce the setting. Sometimes it can get confusing, and I had to pause to google terminology due to the fact that not everything is explained fully. However, the animation is clean & simple and the soundtrack is jazzy.

What I enjoyed the most about this series is how interesting the main character is. Hei is a powerful contractor working for a secret organization. His daytime identity is Li Shengshun, a Chinese exchange student. What's interesting about him is that although he is extremely bad-ass, he is also has an emotional side unlike most contractors and can make mistakes. He's not super-powered like some anime protagonists.

This anime is not completely centered on Hei, but more on the different organizations and groups and how they interact. Which also gives him an air of mystery, as we do not know what he is doing.

Overall, the anime is great, dark in tone and has a great plot. It's set of characters are very three dimensional (it's nice to have female characters that have actual personalities for once). The story doesn't focus on romance nor sexuality, but more on awesome fighting scenes and its mysterious plot.

10/10

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 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.

Some titles are misleading, as such is 'Darker than Black'; though the series is graphic throughout, the story is considerably less 'dark' than many other of anime. I cannot really 'genre' it either; there are elements of the supernatural which are used so for 'Darker than Black' to feel very much like a super-hero story (I can't really stress that though). It's another sort of anti-hero tale which I can suppose one may even compare with 'Death Note'; again, it's a little less 'dark' than most other anime ('Death Note' included), and of the anti-hero concept used, the show uses it without abusing it. The show also has such stereotypical characters, but I can say that these characters do the subject matter justice (the character of Hei dose not seem totally without reason to be angsty). The subject matter in question is thoughtful and it fuels very interesting conflicts.

This is a decent series and I suggest that any fan of anime (or of the TV show 'Heroes') should give this overlooked series an attempt.

7/10

The anime's story is interesting and unique, the animation is great as well.

Unfortunately the protagonists remain somewhat flat and uninspiring, the beginning of the show feels very "rushed" and confusing. The audience is just tossed into this world without pretty much any explanation until later episodes about what "Hell's Gate" actually is or even looks like which was kinda annoying to be honest.

Instead of providing the really interesting elements or focusing more on the supernatural powers and happenings the creators decided to add quite a few boring filler episodes with a totally irrelevant side story and boring characters towards the later midsection of the show as well. Those felt totally unnecessary and almost made me stop watching the show since it felt like such a waste of time at that point.

Overall I didn't hate the show and watched it all the way through but quite frankly: I would probably not recommend it to anyone over other great shows that are in the same genre but just more superior in the way of story telling and action.

5/10

I'm honestly quite conflicted about Darker Than Black. While the overall premise is interesting and fairly unique, I found the first half of Season One utterly unremarkable. I did not manage to connect to the characters (partially because most of them are 'Contractors' who don't have any emotions are thus as vivacious as wet cardboard) and found the plot mildly entertaining at best. Funnily enough, while the series was mediocre, it was at least consistently so: I rated every episode a 7/10; none were particularly outstanding, neither in a positive nor in a negative way.

Thankfully, the second half of the first season finally turned into a consistent story, and the final quarter is truly outstanding. Why the rest of the season wasn't written in the same way, I'll never understand.

Season Two is a complete change of pace. The protagonist switches from a cold-hearted mercenary in his twenties to a preteen girl, yet becomes much darker in the process. Funnily enough, I found it much easier to emotionally connect to that preteen girl (perhaps because she had actual emotions), and the entire season features a consistent plot that advances with every episode. While not every episode is consistently fantastic, the second season of Darker Than Black is at least consistently entertaining.

Then there is the final "movie", a four-part OVA. That one is solid gold. Set between the two seasons, it finally explains how the drastic shift in tone and characters of Season Two came to place.

In my opinion, the production value mirrors the quality of the storytelling. I was not particularly impressed by the animation, dialogues, or even soundtrack (despite being written by Yoko Kanno) in the first half of Season One, but I felt like it became much better later on. Season Two and the OVAs are great in every regard. I watched the English dub, which is good throughout the entire series.

All in all, I'd recommend Darker Than Black if you don't mind sticking through the first twelve or so episodes. If you're looking for instant gratification, perhaps you should look somewhere else.

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.

This series is one of my all time favorites. if you're someone who doesn't easily connect dots however, it is not for you. the story is incredibly captivating without needing to give you much information. A lot of the story is left open and the characters are incredibly dynamic. You spend the entire series trying to solve questions like what happened? What does that mean? what will happen next? The directors have a keen understanding of setting, narrative and foreshadowing. The series is different than most anime, as you aren't given all the details in some drawn out boring exposition speech. You are left to connect events through meticulous clues and hopeful symbols left by the writers. An expert use of dialogue as there is very little dialogue that is worth nothing. Every word is important to the overall story. Perfect and thought provoking. Got more attached to the main 3 contractors than pretty much any anime characters.

This anime series has a brilliant premise, interesting characters, great animation, music and sound effects, engaging action scenes and well written dialogue. It would seem that those would constitute a great anime show. Well, Darker than Black is good but it could have been a lot better, if one thing wasn't missing:

Character development. With the exception of episode 13 and 14 (the best ones, in my opinion) where we see a subtle, yet clear enlightenment of the side character Yin, there is very little character development in this series. The great titles like Death Note, Elfen Lied, Time of Eve or even the lighthearted Black Lagoon, always feature an emotional arc of one or more characters. They learn, they react, they change their attitude or moral stance because of the circumstances. We root for the characters, we empathise with them and we get closure when their character arc completes. This is missing in Darker than Black. The main character is conflicted but his attitude and behaviour stays almost constant throughout.

If not for the above, this would have been an outstanding series. As it is, it's still worth watching, but don't expect the thoughtful and emotional involvement that the best anime give.

I love this series. I'm someone who is always on the lookout for anime productions that aren't too weird and wacky, with ridiculous "fan service" and silly storytelling. This show fits the bill: it takes itself seriously and has a "Western" feel, in a similar fashion to other anime I enjoy like "Baccano!" and "Cowboy Bebop." Highlights include:

-A phenomenal English dub - simply one of the best I've EVER heard. Every character is perfectly cast. Special commendations must go to John Swasey as the grizzled badass Huang and Jason Liebrecht as the befuddled Chinese exchange student-by-day, cloak-wearing electric-powered masked hitman-by-night named Hei. As Hei's daytime identity Li Shenshun, Liebrecht channels friendliness and warmth; as Hei, Liebrecht gives the character both a mysterious apathy and a subtle, smoldering anger that crackles underneath the surface of his personality like the electricity his body generates to assassinate targets.

-A fascinating setup, where part of Tokyo is taken over by a bizarre spatial anomaly and the world's intelligence agencies employ individuals with X-Men-like abilities to do their dirty work; each time these contractors use their supernatural abilities they have to "pay the price" in some fashion, whether through an OCD-style tick or some form of self-harm.

-Great side characters, including a variety of MI-6 operatives from the UK, one of whom is probably one of my favorite anime characters ever: the suave, sarcastic blond British hitman/contractor named Jack Simon, codenamed November 11. Troy Baker gives such a great performance.

-A wonderful narrative arc during the first season, whereby each fascinating member of the main cast, which also includes detectives with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and a private detective named Guy Kurasawa, is given an episode focusing solely on them. This is an anime with very strong episodic writing; there's a lot of emotion to be found in the stories of these mysterious, broken individuals, and it's one of the only anime series I've ever seen that actually earns its angst.

There's a second season too, which isn't as good as the first and introduces new characters. The first season is where it's at. This is an anime to treasure and savor - one of my absolute favorites.

I like the uniqueness of the story of this anime. This anime is full of mystery but in some aspect I feel bored because of some boring conversation in some episode. The animation of this anime is good because they used some HD graphics on it. But the color and the style of the anime is like old school.

The plot of this anime is kinda creepy. not totally creepy. It gives me creeps because of my excite on what's next.

. In episode 2-5 I ask to myself that what is a doll or contractor. they didn't deeply explain some unknown words in the anime so that some of the audience gets confuse.

I recommend this anime if you are looking some psychological, mystery and paranormal anime.

Let me start by saying, that many people will usually consider this "great" anime, simply due to the many years of hype and the studio backing it. Sporting some decent songs produced by the famous Yoko Kanno helps as well. With that knowledge alone, people will usually be expecting something the likes of Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo. Unfortunately the biggest expectations usually tend to let us down quite frequently.

As far as anime goes, Darker than Black is one that takes few risks and offers very little rewards. While you might hear or see that the series is "gritty" and "gory", it only really shares those two in very specific scenes and easily gets beat by other animes such as Elfen Lied, and while Datker than Black isn't here to give us a gore fest, it still provides with some decent scenes. The bad side?, they really only come sparingly.

Many categorize the series as Noir or the abruptly formed, "neo-noir", and as a fan of such classics as Casablanca, The Big Sleep, and Gilda. I can't say I see it. Wearing a mask and a black trench coat, does not a noir make. There are zero silhouette shots, no femme fatales and the only person that smokes happens to be an uninteresting geezer with a bad case of the Mondays.

The first few episodes are pieced together quite well, but eventually, the plot hits a fork in the road and becomes more about mysteries wrapped in enigmas, rinsed and repeated till they become cliché. At around this time two episodes usually contain the same plot as the director decided he needed two episodes to conclude a very short story.

Ultimately, the characters aren't appealing and the lead (Hei) becomes as stiff as the rest of the cast. The character development is sluggish if at all any. Even the slapstick characters seem to just fall short. The fight scenes are worth the wait, but suffer from quick panels and don't really bring us in on the ride.

Darker then Black feels average, I can't say I will recommend this anime to anyone who enjoys either Noir or animes altogether. Frankly, its too sub par to be considered "good", and in an age where the "next big thing" is still being wished for, DBT isn't even a tease.

This is probably one of my favorite shows. HEI IS A BEAST OF A CHARACTER. He is constantly switching personalities from that of a silly exchange student to the serious contractor he is which is so easily depicted by his eyes whenever he is done pretending to be happy they drain from all life and it really just makes you wanna curl up into a ball and do nothing forever. If you are looking for a show to really just give you an existential crisis then Darker than Black is your show. CHARACTER ATTACHMENT IS CRAZY. It is so deep as well as very smart and emotionally draining. After watching it for the first time I proceeded to show it to my sister who watched it in one day and was left with no idea what to do with life. This series is so dark (the title is very fitting) with the creator having no conscious which is what makes it so good. You will also find a huge attachment to the characters that remain constant and even those that are temporary. Only thing I wish was different was that there was more to watch, really an amazing show.

I cannot say this is a classic anime TV-Series, but its one which had me glued to me seat through two season and an OVA. I normally class everything using simple classifications, A: I can re-watch it and enjoy every minute. B: I can watch it and love it, but on a re-watch it's a struggle. C: I can get to the end in the first watch, but it's a struggle and D: I cannot complete a first watch. This sits at the lowest rank of A. The main pull is the mystery, why is Hei so different from the other contractors is the main mystery as well as what has happened to the earth and what is the Syndicate. Some of the other characters are excellent as well, the November 11 and April characters are great and I really felt for them. Misaki Kirihara is good as well and you really hope she becomes Hei's friend, if not lover. Finally Yin and Mao are excellent as well, with Mao providing the comic relief. This is no Ghost in the Shell, buts its reasonably close. I would most certainly advise anyone to watch it. Note, while the description seems silly, this is anyone but. This is an adult anime with adult themes, but nothing too gross, so all the family can enjoy it.