Dec 30, 2012
Bad. Simple. The original Darker Than Black series was phenomenal, they used an intuitive way of telling a story though a bi-episodic manner (bar the last few episodes), but apparently a standard over-arcing storyline using a singular episodic structure reigns supreme. It would be ignorant and stupid to say that a bi-episodic structure is what would have made this a good series, as this specific story just couldn't be told in that way. Still, the fact remains that they decided on removing what, in my opinion, was one of the key features that made Darker Than Black a fantastic series.
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I'd like to mention at this point that I only saw the first two episodes before I had enough and dropped it, so don't bother reading the rest if you don't think my opinion is 'valid'.
Phew, okay, second point. Hei. In this series they creators seemed to think that Hei's character is something that people wouldn't mind being moulded to suit a certain situation. We see Hei in episode 1(?) talking to a member of the FBI getting work or something similar from him. This angered me because why the hell would Hei work for the FBI, it just isn't coherent from the last series. After Hei's removal from the Syndicate in the last series I would have expected him to go freelance or anything but work with the FBI. It's like if he worked with MI5, it just wouldn't (and shouldn't) happen, why? Because it's just not something that is coherent or easily justifiable. Also, giving away as minimal spoilers as possible, messing with a main character like they did at the end of episode 2 is just, dumb, illogical, and an insult to fans.
I don't want to end on a bad note when it comes to something Darker Than Black related as the first season is something I love and recommend regularly to people, so I'll talk about what I liked about the series (or, at least, what I saw of it). They managed to keep a magnificent art style to the series with very fluid animation, and they upheld a reputation of providing exceptional opening and ending themes. What was also good is the fact that they left a lot things in the first two episodes that could have had a huge impact later on in the series providing a 'Woah, that was fucking cool' feeling in audience members.
So, I'll conclude by saying that this series demonstrated more reasons as to why this is the biggest disappointment to Darker Than Black fans in the first two episodes than reasons as to why this is worth actually watching. I'll try Darker Than Black: Gaiden to see if this franchise has redeemed itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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