Thursday, May 2, 2013

Review: Darker Than Black.


After just watching it again with a friend, I decided to review it while it is still nice and fresh in my mind.

Darker Than Black. The name is rather mysterious, and nonsensical. (btw, why is "sensical" not a word? if something can be "nonsensical" why can't it be "sensical"? English = not very sensical.) Because by definition it is impossible for something to be darker than black, black is the presence of all color in the spectrum. But despite its nonsensicalness, it is rather simply cool. The type of thing that you wish you had thought up to name a school paper or something like that, a saying that doesn't really make sense but makes you think about it a little, and after thinking about it you say to yourself, "Hey self, that doesn't make sense if you think literally, but if you use your imagination and a little abstract thinking, it can make some sense." You may be wondering what is so important about the name. "It is just a name you fool, tell us about the show." Which is logical, however I think that the Title fits the anime incredibly well. Darker Than Black is a show that often doesn't really make total sense, or at times not even a little bit of sense. There are a lot of moments that don't make sense, but you leave those moments still thinking that it was really cool. Just as an example that isn't really a story thing, the black reaper's knives and mask are broken regularly throughout the show, but never seem to stay gone for long. In short before doing the full review, this is one of my favorite anime's.

Story: Referring back to that overly long opening paragraph, the story follows a similar pattern as the name does. There are several places that have holes in them. This is the main draw of the story, it is very much so a "in media res" which is fancy-speak for a story that puts us right into the middle of a story without doing to much explaining. As the show progresses holes are filled in and dots are connected. Almost like a bread crumb trail, (I am very proud of that analogy btw) slowly but surely giving you tidbits on your way to the real prize at the finish. Which I have to admit, is not quite as great a prize as you might hope, but is still generally a good ending. 
The driving force behind us wanting to have the holes filled in are the characters. Which I think are really good, you have your Bad-Ass-Electric-Batman-Who-Isn't-Afraid-To-Kill-People, also known as the Black Reaper, and his mild mannered alter-ego Hei. Your sarcastic comic relief in a talking cat, Super-Mysterious-Scary-Person Amber. And that is just a few, most of the characters are very memorable and you genuinely care what is going on with all of them. Everyone has a mysterious background and ergo contributes to the bread crumb trail. 
Generally this is a story that is mainly character driven, many of the elements of pure plot are good, but the characters are what drives the plot to being really good. The end may be a little bit "meh" for some people, but it isn't really a bad ending.

Presentation: This is really probably what sets Darker Than Black apart for me, because while the story can be confusing at time, because the animation is always silky smooth and set to a great upbeat soundtrack, which I think is composed by that one person who does all the really good anime soundtracks, causing many times for "I don't really know what just happened. But it sure as poop was cool!" Every other part of the show has times where it falters a bit, but the presentation remains great throughout the show. Also, the dub is really good. Which is cool, because America.

Anything else that needs to be talked about? hmmmm..........

O right, you may be wondering why I don't discuss season 2. That is because we do not speak of season 2. 0_o

Basically to wrap up. Darker Than Black is a really good anime, not quite on that elite level of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. But it is still firmly on the second level of being really good. I think it is on Netflix, and you can buy the whole series for, umm. I don't remember what I bought it for, but it wasn't overly expensive, and it would be a solid buy. 
Until next time.
Manere Sitiem amicus.

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