Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Darker Than Black



With the confirmation of the second season in our pocket (see here), I guess it is really time to review the first season of Darker Than Black. It has been almost 2 years since I've seen Darker Than Black, so today i tried to catch up by watching 4 random episodes in order to be able to review the series.

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 superhero story. It features superpowered 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 show also has such stereotypical characters, but I can say that these characters do the subject matter justice. The subject matter in question is thoughtful and it fuels very interesting conflicts.

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 this anime in years but I can really say that this one dragged me in from the first episode and I didn't regret it.



Art 9/10
Sound 8.5/10
Storyline 8.5/10
Characters 8.5/10
Overall 8.5/10

4 comments:

Cid said...

What's the Gore Rating on this one?

Maniak said...

Gore? Doesn't have any...some blood here and there but no gore...4 i guess

Cid said...

I appreciate you answering my question!

Anamae said...

Thanks for the recap, I'm also going to follow season 2 and definitely needed a refresher on the first.