Darker than Black 2 – Episodes 01-03

Nope, we’re not dead… we just had a little thing known as COLLEGE start up again.  I’m in a slight break in my schedule after my first set of midterms, and I finally had time to make a post.  So I decided to get started w/ Darker than Black 2.

So 3 episodes in to DtB2 and the only real word I can come up w/ summing up my thoughts is: disappointment.  Don’t get me wrong… I really like the series so far, as an anime… but not so much as a sequel to DtB.  It just seems to be missing what made the first season really good.  I’ll just run through what I feel is lacking w/ this season thus far.

I have major problems with the characters.  In the first season, Hei, Yin, and Mao made a great team of morally-ambiguous protagonists.  The entire first half the series fleshed them out REALLY well.  With only 13 episodes this season, there’s no way they’ll be able to flesh out the new characters a well.  Suou thus far has been a whiny bitch and I honestly don’t care what happens to her.  But most annoying/disappointing is how Hei’s personality has changed.  In the first season, he was the definition of suave.  This season… he’s become emo… WTF!

Plot progression hasn’t been that great either.  It’s a little too…. linear.  Also, I’ve facepalmed at certain developments.  I mean… seriously, they got rid of Hei’s ability in favor of Suou going mahou shoujo.  And more annoying… THEY BROUGHT MAO BACK FROM THE DEAD AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I mean c’mon BONES, I thought you were better than that… did you seriously have to pull the come-back-from-the-grave card.

Now as I said, despite my issues w/ the season thus far, I am liking the show in general.  The first episode was amazing and captured everything that made the first season good.  I really hope the episodes down the line will be more like that.  The plotline w/ Yin missing is probably the most interesting thing in the show thus far.  I really hope that that’ll be the main focus of the season.

All in all, the way DtB2 has gone thus far seems to indicate that there’ll probably be at least one more season left after this.  There’s still a ton of stuff regarding the Syndicate, PANDORA, Hell’s Gate, and Contractors in general, that they haven’t even begun to cover.  Enough material to take up 1-2 seasons.. w/o introducing new threads.

EPISODE 1 RATING: 9/10
EPISODE 2 RATING: 8/10
EPISODE 3 RATING: 7/10

_tekky99

PS I’m gonna finish covering the summer series.  Also none of the other fall shows interested me enough for me to blog them.

6 Comments

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  By Silver, November 1, 2009 @ 9:29 am

  I bet you are gonna delete any post that will totally disagree with what you said. First of all you did a negative review on the first free episodes. You can say it just gives off a bad vibe, but to go all the way to say it’s shit is childish. I bet that around ep. 12 – THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE SEEN LATELY – or whatever. Darker than black always had a murky side to it… – you never find out a lot of things about the under-layers – you always know as much as a character does – which is fine by me… by the way – it is episode 3 – you wanted episode 1 – Hei comes in a room sits on a chair – ok now let’s talk!!! – the syndicate was actually founded in the year… for 24 minutes. Jeez, now that would be fun (if the post has not been deleted yet, you will have already called me a twat 3 times – or even worse). Next thing – Mao did not die… he just lost his control over the cat in that area since his power weakened. His real body is alive and well – but he can’t go back in it – that’s the remuneration he payed – he can only take over animals – get the trick? And Hei is not emo… he is just misguided – figures since now he bears a bigger burden than before… far from emo – he seems just confused. Emo’s don go drinking vodka and helping people. They just indulge in self pity and a complete lack of a wish to fight with the difficulties of life… I would say that in 12 episodes a lot of things will be revealed – but it’s true they can’t fit everything so there just might be another season. So stop bitchin and watch the thing – talk about the episode at hand not 1-3 4-6 – or better yet just watch the whole show and give off a proper impression. This show requires a little brain to watch.

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  By Richard the Fish, November 2, 2009 @ 5:21 pm

  Just to let you know, you may be interested in reading the concurrently running DtB manga that is being subbed (by whom, I forget; just check out OM) as the material covers the block of time btwn this series and the end of the first season. Just thought I’d let you know.

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  By tekky99, November 2, 2009 @ 5:49 pm

  okay, i have no idea why you’re getting so worked up over a BLOG POST. You and I are both entitled to our opinions. And yes, while my post does resemble something of a rant, you clearly misunderstood core aspects of my post.
  1) I never ONCE said that the first 3 episodes were shit. I said that the first 3 episodes left me disappointed. Considering how the first season took a while to grow on me but then blew me away, it’s very possible that this season will do the same.
  2) You can make whatever excuses you want arguing Mao never actually died. And yes, it was never explicitly said/shown that Mao was dead.. the fact of the matter is this: the majority of viewers thought he was dead. Therefore, for the majority of viewers, Mao has come back from the dead. As for myself, I absolutely HATE it when a character comes back from the dead for ANY reason.
  3) Yes I agree I went overboard with Hei. I just loved his character in the first season, so it kinda irks me seeing him in this “weakened” state. He isn’t emo, I apologize for that.
  4) Finally, this is an episodic blog. We specialize in doing episode-by-episode posts. If you don’t like that, find another blog to read. The only reason why I did a 3-episode post was to catch up w/ the airing date.

  Also congrats! believe it or not, your response is the first flame-reply on this blog. Thanks!

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  By okami789, November 3, 2009 @ 1:19 pm

  GAAAAAAGH!!!!!
  the thing i hate about it is Hei.
  he’s not EMO, but he’s more like a wierd hobo-drunk man when only TWO stinking years ago he looked like he could be in high school.

  In DtB, Hei was the thing i liked the most in the anime. He rocked. now hes just… well, a child-molesting drunkard who does’nt shave.

  Kinda makes me wish that Kirihara would suddenly come and show him a Before/After of himsef.

  I bet theres a bunch of Hei fans ripping their hair out right now.

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  By okami789, November 3, 2009 @ 1:20 pm

  and hes alot meaner. maybe its the alchohol

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  By kenji, November 23, 2009 @ 7:12 am

  Hei is weakened because Yin gone missing (he thought that yin is dead, probably)

  so it’s not a bad start at all

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