40. DARKER THAN BLACK - Kuro no Keiyakusha (Anime)

Raw image by Kenichi Kanemaki, BEE TRAIN, no infringement intended.

Summary:
Darker than Black - Kuro no Keiyakusha is another new series opening this week. There are no manga this show is based on, so don't bother looking. The first episode aired 12 hours ago, on Hokkaido TV or something, and I've already watched it. Isn't the internet amazing? Again, I will give a brief rating on the overall quality of the show: VERY GOOD. This review is also a mix of a preview and a first impressions, here we go!

Title frame, no infringement intended.

The first episode starts off with the police chasing down a French person (as revealed through a police report) who was running/jumping on top of large buildings... actually, parallel to the police cars (one has to wonder why they don't turn sideways to shake chasers off). They finally catch up, and the stair doors burst open: two cops now point guns at the man. The man smirks and does his psychic tricks. He flies into the air, outlined in blue, and immobilizes one of the cops. He gets away. A woman from an agency listened to a tapped cop report, and drives off. The man lands on a building at the other end of the city, and is very tired. At this time, he begins breaking off his fingers (wtf), and stops because he has heard a sound. He is suddenly attacked by a masked man in black. The psychic blonde guy levitates the masked man, but the masked man slings hooks at him and the railing, bringing himself down. Soon the man is beaten to a corner, and the masked man kills him by placing a hand on his face. The police (now referred to as "cops") show up and the mysterious woman shows up and they say something like, oh its about the Hell's Gate again.. Opening song starts.

Police with French Psychic, BEE TRAIN, no infringement intended.

The OP is actually J-Rock.. with a male band --- abingdon boys school --- singing "HOWLING". It's pretty average music, but the guitars fit well with the background sounds in the intro. The colors used are pretty cool, though, and there were many shots of Hei (Mr. Black).. very unnecessary.

Evil Hei and French Psychic, BEE TRAIN, no infringement intended.

So onto the episode! The Hei guy is now seeking an apartment, and finds one with an old couple as the landlords. He enters his unit while a woman steps out of her unit. He says hi, but the woman turns and leaves. Hei checks out his apartment. CUT TO: Strange woman in a bar, sitting with a man and across the table from another pair. The two men (with police badges) suddenly figure they should capture her, and stand up. Bar security blocks their way, and the woman runs away. When she runs into a park, she was tired and sees Hei with a telescope, stargazing. Hei helps her by pretending they were kissing, and fooled the cops. The woman thanks him and runs away (...). She gets into an alleyway, where some other people (not the cops) start showing up, she gets rescued by Hei again, and they walk until they get onto a bridge. A blonde psychic jumps out of a stone pillar and knocks Hei over the railing. The woman was drugged and taken to a basement. When she awakes she hears some stuff about psychic people, and the three men that were there ask her to become one of them. She refuses and tries to run. Suddenly, everything becomes all messed up; the lights flicker, the door becomes unlocked, and she runs outside, into the rain, into Hei (again!). She cries as if she finally realizes she could trust a stranger. (wtf does this sentence mean?!)

Hei getting punched by psychic, and the strange woman, BEE TRAIN, no infringement intended.

So um.. that episode synopsis took more than a few words. I will now summarize the good qualities this anime show possesses. ONE: It is set in a modern city, full of 3DCG-ed buildings and cars. TWO: The main character is a psychic (Hei), as well as battle scenes against other psychics. THREE: Black trench coats remind me of Witch Hunter Robin. FOUR: The techno/metal beats in the background are very fitting. FIVE: The characters are not ugly (a few of the faces actually look like they're from Ouran High). SIX: Production overall is very decent. SEVEN: Plot can sustain 10+ episodes.

Hei and strange woman in the rain, BEE TRAIN, no infringement intended.

And that's all I can think of.. yes its pretty generalized. I will continue watching this series. I don't really like the backwards story telling, and the strange woman/psychic and man/psychic romance-on-the-run thing, but I'll deal with that later. The production quality is high, as expected from BONES. The most pretty chars right now are In and Misuzu Ooyama, however, the first episode did not have lots of In, so we'll find out about her later.

Darker than Black Review Ratings
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Popularity:

-Male: [72%]
-Female: [28%]
-Japan: [92%]
-RoW: [8%]

Availability:

-Spoiler Info: [1/5 (Blogs)]
-Thorough Reviews: [0/5 (Blogs)]
-Raw Japanese: [1/1 (100%)]
-Possible Community Size: [5,000,000]
Jap: [3,800,000]
RoW: [1,200,000]
-Possible Fansub Speed: [7days-]
-Possible Seeder Number: [1000~]

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Total Ratings:

Appearance & Aesthetics

-Anime Theme/Colors: [9.0/10]
-Anime Aesthetic Direction: [8.7/10]
-Anime Script: [8.8/10]
-Watchability: [9.3/10]
-Attractiveness: [8.6/10]

-SS Ratings: [88.8%~]
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Review by SilentMic, research with help from Saiyaman.info and AniDB. No directly copied text whatsoever. Copyright 2007.