Darker Than Black tackles the manifestation of paranormal abilities to humans and while it is not masterfully presented, I have learn to enjoy it.
Ten years passed after the incident that gave birth to Contractors, people who manifested paranormal abilities. Nowadays agency's hires Contractors for their own use, seldom even use them as they see fit; giving in to darker emotions and abusing that power. But in exchange from gaining this ability, they must always fulfill their renumeration. Hei is a powerful contractor hiding under the alias of Lee, masquerading as a Chinese transfer student when not undercover, who has the ability to generate electricity and for some reason he doesnt have a renumeration. Under an unknown government, Hei along with Yin, a spirit medium who is incapable of emotions otherwise known as Dolls, and Mao a contractor whose body is stuck on a cat, together they form a team working assassination and the likes.
The show seems to be fairly deliberately paced, without being too frantic.
Each arc consists of two episodes. And each one introduces a new well written story, which sometimes can be frustrating since it was better off being a long arc rather being episodic.Dont worry, the characters are likable, in fact I very much like every character. Problem is, they're lifespan. Knowing that its only episodic, you can expect that they'll kick the bucket before you get to know them. But at least the arc does just gradually advances the story a little and it is impressive how they were able to compressed such immersing stories in only two episodes.
This is not an action-oriented anime. It focuses more on the struggle of each Contractor goes through. Sure it has some decent action every now and then but most of them ends with disappointment. Hei's power is nothing more than a taser, which makes it hard to believe that he is actually one of the most powerful Contractor. Even so, the story makes up for it, well more often than not.
The characters acting are distinctive and good enough all around. We all know how interesting people with psychedelic powers clashing can be. But Hei, in particular wasnt the highlight of the show. Yeah, he does have an interesting past, that generally forms half of the premise of this show. But clearly he is your average wanna-be angst badass protagonist, even though he does prove to be a promising character. Furthermore, there were two other unlikable characters, the detective and his otaku sidekick. They were the comic relief of the show, and quite frankly I felit it was unnecessary. Their arc was pointless and dull. Every second of their screen time, is a second wasted. They were better off giving as a better background of any of Hei's team.
DTB is designed in such a way that the anime appears dynamic. It has detailed visuals and the animation is extremely fluid. The designs of each characters are not elaborate enough to be different but it does have its own physique. The sound was fairly average and OST was nothing special to be notable.
This easily couldve been the anime version of the critically acclaimed american tv hit series, Heroes. But its deficiency of substance, plot advancement and in depth characters had it put down.
What Hei does with his power and the impact he'll have on others is the raison d'etre of the show; the moody noir tone and offbeat writing are the reasons to tune in.
