Darker Than BLACK (eps. 1-2)
Okay i've just started a new anime series called Darker Than Black. I have heard good things about it so i decided to watch the first two episodes. Since the story seems to be in two episode arc's i'll review both episodes at the same times.
First up...episodes One & Two.
Episode One: "The Star of a Contract Fell... (Part 1)"
The episode begins with a flashback showing a girl standing in a lake, starring at the falling stars above her. There is a telescope placed not far from her. Fast forward into the present time, a man is running away from the police and is shown jumping from a rooftop to another rooftop. Just when he thinks that he's safe, however, the emergency door is kicked open and a bunch of policemen point their gun at him, asking him to raise his hands and turn around. As he turns around, however, the man's eyes start to glow red and all of a sudden, one of the officer is levitated and is thrown away into the sky. While the main detective is shocked, the man uses the opportunity to run away by levitating himself off to another building. The detective finally realises that his opponent is a "Keiyakusha" (Contractor) and informs a woman who's sitting inside the car about this. Another female reports to the same woman that the target is a French agent known as "Louis".
As soon as she hears this, the woman orders the police to move to the east. She informs them that their target is a Keiyakusha called Louis and his ability is "Gravity cancellation". She also tells them that she allows the use of guns and for her subordinates to not hesitate to shoot the target. Meanwhile, Louis lands on top of another building and starts breaking off his own fingers. All of a sudden, a man's voice can be heard asking Louis if that's the cost/compensation for his 'Contract'. He thinks that it looks painful. D'oh! When Louis looks at the source of the voice, however, he only hears a cat purring. Louis immediately turn around again and wonders if the one who was talking to him was a "Doll". However, he ends up facing a man whose face is covered by a white mask and wears an all black outfit. Louis uses his power to throw the masked man into the air but the man uses cable with hooks to grab onto the railings and another one to capture Louis.
The cables quickly choke Louis, allowing the man to pin Louis down to the ground. The man then asks Louis about a stolen 'item' but Louis claims that he doesn't know anything. The man quickly produces a knife and stabs Louis' arm with it. Louis eventually admits that the 'item' is with a woman. He wants to know which organisation the man comes from becuase he'd give it to them. The man then contacts a girl called Yin how much more time he still has left before the police arrive. The girl informs him that he only has 3 minutes because the police has passed point A. Another voice tells the man that this is a good time to withdraw. The man, however, moves to Louis and tries to crush his skull. The other voice tells the man, whose name is Hei, not to kill Louis because they can still use him. Hei ignores the order and coldly tells Louis that just seeing the face of Louis' kind makes him want to vomit. Hei then proceeds to crush Louis' face, instantly killing him.
At the same time the female detective sees a falling star and tells herself how it's been 10 years since 'that' appeared in this city. She admits it's hard to imagine how it was before the wall existed in this city. No one understand what happened back then and what is contained within it. How mankind could create a tall wall which encloses what is now known as "Hell's Gate". The existence of exceptionally powerful people called "Contractors" and passive psychic mediums called "Dolls" were then identified one week after the Gate's appearance. The next day inside the police HQ, the detectives are in a meeting to discuss Louis' death. A female detective points out that during the investigation, they find another Contractor with a code name of BK-201. However, the number was unidentified and the investigation was marked as unsolved. Another detective wonders if the rumour about the curse of the Contractor was true.
As for the 'item', the team managed to get unauthorised access to highly classified information from the Pandora's Centre at the National Research Institute. The woman is identified as Shinoda Chiaki, a 26 years old who graduated with a Master degree and whose thesis was about the physical characteristic of the gate. She has been working at the National Research Institute until she went missing 2 weeks ago. The lead detective reminds the female detective, Kirihara Misaki, that it is important that their enemy does not obtain this information because it endangers the safety of the nation. Misaki then narrates about how a normal person who meets with a Contractor might have his memory wiped. Although informations about Contractors are of highly guarded, people are filled with fears and starts to associate Contractors as either ghost or killer robots. Unknown to Misaki she unknowingly drives by Hei, who is looking for a place to stay.
Hei arrives at a place which leases apartments but the landlady thinks that he's the electrician from the local electronic shop who's here to fix the TV. After tapping the TV a couple of times, some kind of static electricity suddenly comes out and the TV is okay again. Eventually Hei corrects the misunderstanding and he introduces himself as a Chinese student called Li Sheng Shun. Before they can enter his apartment, however, a woman comes out from the apartment next door. The landlady greets the woman by calling her "Haraguchi-san" and introduces her to Hei. After Haraguchi left the apartment complex, a man's voice can be heard informing another man inside a coffee shop that they got the right target. At the same time Li can be seen inspecting every areas in his apartment, likely for possible surveillance device as opposed to for damages. He then lets the water run and opens the window. Well, the apartment looks like it's smelly and mouldy.
Meanwhile, the two detectives are now seen inside a nightclub trying to find more information about Shinoda Chiaki. One of the girls who accompany them happens to be Haraguchi. When the girls change their shift, Haraguchi informs the pimp about something. One of the detectives think that Haraguchi looks similar to their target but the other is not sure. When she comes out from the club wearing her jacket, however, she casts a glance towards the detective, raising their suspicions. Before they can give a chase, however, they've been surrounded by the pimp's henchmen. As a result, they have no choice but to reveal that they're policemen working undercover. Meanwhile, Haraguchi is running to a park and ends up meeting Li, who's in the middle of observing the stars with a telescope. Upon seeing Haraguchi looking scared and the detectives not far from them, Li takes her behind a tree and kiss her, causing the detectives to think that they're just a couple.
After the detective left, Li reverts back to his shy student personality. Haraguchi notices Li's telescope and asks him if he was observing the night stars with it and wonders why he looks at the fake stars above. Haraguchi then realises that she's seen Li before so Li tells her that he's her next door neighbour. Haraguchi, however, tells him that she must leave now and proceeds to leave Li alone. While running on the street, Haraguchi feels as if she's being followed by someone so in the end she decides to hide herself in an alley. After she saw two men passing by the alley, she looks relieved only becomes horrified again when another man covers her mouth. The man turns out to be her acquintance, someone called Jean. Haraguchi immediately asks Jean what happened to Louis but Jean claims that Louis has other things to attend to. Jean then changes the conversation and asks Haraguchi if she still has 'it' and asks her of its whereabouts.
Haraguchi suddenly becomes suspicious of this and tells Jean that Louis asked her not to tell anyone of its whereabouts other than himself. In response, Jean tries to subdue Haraguchi using a handkerchief. Just as Haraguchi about to pass out, however, Li knocks out Jean using his telescope. Li tries to take Haraguchi to safety but when they get into a stone bridge, Haraguchi tells her to run away. As soon as she said this, Jean materialises out of a structure nearby and knocks Li over the railings, sending him over down to a railway track just as a train pass by it. Upon seeing this, Haraguchi realises that Jean is a Contractor but before she can run away, Jean already captures her. When Haraguchi regains her consciousness, she finds herself inside a warehouse with two other men. Haraguchi notices that Jean is in the middle of lining up stones in perfect order. Jean tells her that this is the cost for his contract. Uh, lining up stones?
Jean then informs Haraguchi that Louis has died and asks Haraguchi if she's aware that Louis is a Contractor as well. He also wants to know about the man that he just met but Haraguchi claims that she just met the guy. Haraguchi tries to run away but the door is unfortunately, locked. At the same time, Yin can be seen submerging her legs in the water, allowing her to track the whereabouts of Haraguchi by using networks of water around her. This includes the tap water inside the building where Haraguchi is being detained. All of a sudden the light goes off and a static electricity cuts the circuit to the electronic door, allowing Haraguchi to open it. Haraguchi immediately flees the area but is being followed immediately by Louis and his henchmen. Before they can get to her, however, a black cat jumps on them. Haraguchi herself manages to run into the street and eventually meets with Li again. Li ends up embracing her as she cries on his shoulder.
*cue fangirliness*
Hei is the main character of the anime and after watching just the first episode is completely yummy and a new bishie to add to my ever increasing list. Appears he works with a group of people who i've not really met yet. When Hei isn't out killing people he's a transfer student called Li Shen Shun and is so cute and shy.
At the end of the first episode its all left up in the air but thats a good thing because it makes you wanting more which is what has happened to me. I'm wanting to know why the Hell's Gate was built and why Hei is the way he is...looking forward to episode two.
I am liking the animation style and it has a nice dark atmosphere...i'm looking forward to the rest of the series and i'll post a synopsis of the episode (sorry for the long one...once i start its hard to stop) and my thoughts.
Some pics to whet your appetite
he group Hei works with:
From left to right: Huang, Yin, Hei, Mao,
Hei from the opening
Hei as a Li Shen Shun
Episode Two: "The Star of a Contract Fell... (Part 2)"
As Li carries Chiaki home, she tells him about how each shooting star signifies the death of a Contractor. On that day 10 years ago, the real starry sky disappeared and this fake sky took its place. Governments were afraid of the spread of information about heartless Contractors and soulless Dolls, so they use ME technology to delete the memories of anyone who comes into contact. The reason that Chiaki knows all this is because she worked at the laboratory for a long time. She recalls that her parents died in an accident when she was in high school, but she had seen them actually get killed by a Contractor. Since then, she has felt entranced. Elsewhere in town, Kirihara Misaki is telling the two male detectives about Jean and his matter-exchange-type teleportation ability. She also warns them to be careful, particularly with BK-201. By this time, Li and Chiaki arrive back at her apartment, but they find that the inside has been ransacked. When Li tries to get her to change clothes and starts to leave for his own room next door, she clings to him because she doesn’t want to be left alone.
Lying on the floor in Li’s dark room, Chiaki comments on how this room seems strange even though she should be used to the arrangement - it seems fake. She reveals that she’s only lived here two weeks and, for the first time, felt like she was really alive. Chiaki doesn’t know whether the her who researches all the time or the her that’s here now is the real her, but more than anything else, she was excited about Louis coming for her. Li offers to run away together and says that coming here and meeting her was fate, but the two soon get interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the metal walkway outside. These footsteps belong to the two detectives who enter Chiaki’s apartment looking for clues. Once inside, they hear a sound outside the window, but when they go to investigate, all they see is a black cat on the wall. Li and Chiaki meanwhile get out of Li’s apartment and head to a restaurant in town where he reveals that he’s got an acquaintance who’s working in Macao foreign trade. She realizes that he wants to illegally enter China, but he also says that they need a lot of money for this. Since they don’t have that money, Chiaki thinks that they can sell some of the classified information she has instead.
Because Li is still calling her Haraguchi, Chiaki finally tells him her real name - Shinoda Chiaki - and he formally introduces himself too. The waitress then brings an entire cart worth of food to their table, and Chiaki is shocked to find out that Li is going to eat it all. Starting to drink a little, she tells Li that he’ll get fat - he might be okay now, but he’ll definitely be fat by the time he turns 30. The two end up having a good laugh, however Chiaki suddenly stops when her eyes become lifeless for a moment. She returns to normal as soon as Li asks if she’s okay, though she then excuses herself to use the restroom. While she’s gone, the man sitting behind Li - one of his partners - warns him to quickly get what they’re after. Li then notices Jean’s two men are coming into the building, so he gets up and heads towards the bathroom. When Chiaki comes out, he rushes her towards the back, but the two of them still get seen by their enemies. Chiaki and Li take cover in the kitchen as one of their pursuers starts shooting with a gun, though Li manages to create a smoke screen by getting their enemy to shoot the flour. The black guy uses his power to explode a bag of large beans, causing them to fly at a high velocity in every direction. The beans kill the two chefs in the room, and they cut Li’s arm as he tries to escape out the back door.
Blocking off the back entrance with a locker, Li buys himself some time as he runs off with Chiaki. By the time the two men go back out the front entrance and around to the rear, Li and Chiaki are gone. As the guy with the gun calls up Jean to report what happened, the black guy eats a dandelion. Meanwhile, all of Li’s partners meet by the water that Yin still has her feet dipped into. Huang wonders if Hei has betrayed them because he’s moving strangely and hasn’t killed the woman yet. Mao the cat agrees that Hei has changed, and he then asks Yin what Hei is doing. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know because he’s in a place without water. At this moment, Li and Chiaki are at the bottom of some stairs somewhere in the middle of the city. She bandages up his arm wound and blames herself for what happened. Chiaki thinks that it’s impossible for them to run away from their pursuers, but Li just places his hand on her cheek and notes how her tired face is like the dead. Indeed, she is tired and places her head on his lap. Starting to talk about her past, Chiaki reveals that the thing she can’t forgive herself for is how the appearance of the Contractors charm her. She explains that the Contractor who killed her parents had still been a child, and although she could not see the child’s face, that sparkling became engraved into her mind because of how beautiful it was.
Li suggests that it would have been better if she had lost her memory about the Contractor, but Chiaki feels that if she lost it, then she would lose herself. Eventually, she opens up the heel of her shoe to reveal a key and hands it to Li. As she’s doing so, she asks him if he has feelings that he cannot erase even though he wants to erase them. He responds by saying that Contractors are not humans - they are killing machines who wear human skins. To keep their risk at a minimum, they always kill witnesses, and Li feels that they are liars and traitors. The next day, the two take the train and eventually arrive at an area filled will coin-operated lockers. Chiaki’s key opens one of these lockers and inside is a book. Li, however, soon notices that Jean and his two men are coming after them, so they start hurrying away. On the street, he sees a police car and some officers in front of them, so he orders her to forget. She suddenly stops in her tracks and fall unconscious because of what he said, but Li continues walking. As the policemen rush to her side to help her, Jean and his goons keep chasing after Li. On a highway somewhere, Misaki is driving along when she gets a report that the French men have been spotted and another one talking about BK-201’s movements. But what surprises her the most is the third report telling her that Shinoda Chiaki’s dead body has been found lying face-down in a river.
The Chiaki that had collapsed now suddenly reawakens, steals a policeman’s gun, and runs off with it after firing a single shot. Li meanwhile pulls out his black coat and puts it on before he stops to read the book. He finds it filled with blank pages, and by the time he’s finished flipping through it, Jean and company have caught up. They know that he’s a Contractor and have figured out that he’s the one who killed Louis. Chiaki appears at the other side of the empty lot that Hei is standing in and can’t believe what she just heard. In response, Hei reminds her of what he said about Contractors being liars. Jean remarks that the mouse has walked into a trap, and this causes Chiaki’s eyes to turn lifeless again. One of Jean’s men then raises his gun at Chiaki, so Hei gets in the line of fire to protect her, but the bullet ends up coming from behind him because Chiaki is the one who fires. After Hei falls to the ground, Jean explains that this woman is not Shinoda Chiaki, but rather a Doll with her memories. They were using her as a trap to lure out Hei. One of Jean’s men then shoots Hei a few more times in the back to finish him off. He comments on how easy it was, but Mao then speaks up and reveals that Hei’s jacket is bullet-proof.
By the time the guy with the gun turns around to look at Hei again, Hei is already back up and tosses his cable at the guy’s throat. Hei pulls the guy in and uses his powers to kill him, so the black guy responds by exploding his dead comrade’s body. Hei manages to get out of the way and throws his cable at the black guy. He is only able to catch the black guy’s left arm, but that’s enough for him to use his power to kill the guy. Jean then attempts to use his matter-exchange teleportation power on Hei, but surprisingly, Chiaki gets in the way and gets her still-beating heart taken out instead. With his attack failed and his allies dead, Jean escapes by replacing by exchanging himself with water. Huang then arrives on the scene and wonders if this was a decoy too. When he asks why Hei didn’t kill the doll, Hei explains that she wasn’t a doll - she was alive. Huang nevertheless still thinks of her as a doll and of Contractors as killing machines. Their job isn’t done yet because Jean is still on the loose, so Mao has Yin track him down through her water-enabled sensing powers. Hei thus is able to find Jean quickly, and though Jean tries to swim further out into the water, it’s too late for him.
In the aftermath, the police find Jean’s body and later come to Li’s apartment to inquire about Haraguchi. Since Li tells them that he just moved here, Misaki gives him some contact information. She starts to leave, but then turns around and stares at Li’s door for a moment. When the detective asks her about it, she says that it’s nothing.
Note: I’ll be using “Hei” whenever he’s wearing the black coat and “Li” whenever he isn’t.
With this episode itself, they appear to be revealing things little by little and dropping plenty of hints. We saw that the black guy had the power to make things explode, but he appeared to have to eat flowers as the cost of his contract. Jean was able to exchange the location of matter with teleportation, but that wasn’t enough to help him against Hei’s powers which might be some sort of electricity. It’s not entirely clear what the cost of Hei’s contract is, though with all the food and cooking he does, eating might just be it.
From what we’ve seen so far and from future episode titles (wikipedia does come in handy ^_^), it’s clear that Darker than BLACK will be taking a very bi-episodic approach (telling story arcs in sets of two episodes each). Like they did with these first two episodes, I assume that characters and things in the world will be explained and expanded on little by little. I like this approach but i hope they don't do it for the whole of the series or if they do i hope that each arc helps with the next and the overall plot development
Time for the fangirl stuff
Hei just gets yummier and yummier. He's very nice and adorable as Li especially when he goes to eat all the food that was ordered...just so >.< But then we have him when he's Hei...i loved how he pulled his long black coat out of the back pocket of his jeans...that made me laugh. He looks nice in his coat and kicks ass but when he has his mask on...i don't know why but its even nicer (i think i have a thing for masked men).
Not only is Hei yummy but the bad guy Jean was also very nice...shame he got killed. Then there is also a policeman that is quite cute...his names not been mentioned yet.
I am really looking forward to watching more of the episode and in how the plot develops with Hei.
Hei/Li about to enjoy his food
Hei
Hei with Huang
Jean (bad guy)
The cute policeman
First up...episodes One & Two.
Episode One: "The Star of a Contract Fell... (Part 1)"
The episode begins with a flashback showing a girl standing in a lake, starring at the falling stars above her. There is a telescope placed not far from her. Fast forward into the present time, a man is running away from the police and is shown jumping from a rooftop to another rooftop. Just when he thinks that he's safe, however, the emergency door is kicked open and a bunch of policemen point their gun at him, asking him to raise his hands and turn around. As he turns around, however, the man's eyes start to glow red and all of a sudden, one of the officer is levitated and is thrown away into the sky. While the main detective is shocked, the man uses the opportunity to run away by levitating himself off to another building. The detective finally realises that his opponent is a "Keiyakusha" (Contractor) and informs a woman who's sitting inside the car about this. Another female reports to the same woman that the target is a French agent known as "Louis".
As soon as she hears this, the woman orders the police to move to the east. She informs them that their target is a Keiyakusha called Louis and his ability is "Gravity cancellation". She also tells them that she allows the use of guns and for her subordinates to not hesitate to shoot the target. Meanwhile, Louis lands on top of another building and starts breaking off his own fingers. All of a sudden, a man's voice can be heard asking Louis if that's the cost/compensation for his 'Contract'. He thinks that it looks painful. D'oh! When Louis looks at the source of the voice, however, he only hears a cat purring. Louis immediately turn around again and wonders if the one who was talking to him was a "Doll". However, he ends up facing a man whose face is covered by a white mask and wears an all black outfit. Louis uses his power to throw the masked man into the air but the man uses cable with hooks to grab onto the railings and another one to capture Louis.
The cables quickly choke Louis, allowing the man to pin Louis down to the ground. The man then asks Louis about a stolen 'item' but Louis claims that he doesn't know anything. The man quickly produces a knife and stabs Louis' arm with it. Louis eventually admits that the 'item' is with a woman. He wants to know which organisation the man comes from becuase he'd give it to them. The man then contacts a girl called Yin how much more time he still has left before the police arrive. The girl informs him that he only has 3 minutes because the police has passed point A. Another voice tells the man that this is a good time to withdraw. The man, however, moves to Louis and tries to crush his skull. The other voice tells the man, whose name is Hei, not to kill Louis because they can still use him. Hei ignores the order and coldly tells Louis that just seeing the face of Louis' kind makes him want to vomit. Hei then proceeds to crush Louis' face, instantly killing him.
At the same time the female detective sees a falling star and tells herself how it's been 10 years since 'that' appeared in this city. She admits it's hard to imagine how it was before the wall existed in this city. No one understand what happened back then and what is contained within it. How mankind could create a tall wall which encloses what is now known as "Hell's Gate". The existence of exceptionally powerful people called "Contractors" and passive psychic mediums called "Dolls" were then identified one week after the Gate's appearance. The next day inside the police HQ, the detectives are in a meeting to discuss Louis' death. A female detective points out that during the investigation, they find another Contractor with a code name of BK-201. However, the number was unidentified and the investigation was marked as unsolved. Another detective wonders if the rumour about the curse of the Contractor was true.
As for the 'item', the team managed to get unauthorised access to highly classified information from the Pandora's Centre at the National Research Institute. The woman is identified as Shinoda Chiaki, a 26 years old who graduated with a Master degree and whose thesis was about the physical characteristic of the gate. She has been working at the National Research Institute until she went missing 2 weeks ago. The lead detective reminds the female detective, Kirihara Misaki, that it is important that their enemy does not obtain this information because it endangers the safety of the nation. Misaki then narrates about how a normal person who meets with a Contractor might have his memory wiped. Although informations about Contractors are of highly guarded, people are filled with fears and starts to associate Contractors as either ghost or killer robots. Unknown to Misaki she unknowingly drives by Hei, who is looking for a place to stay.
Hei arrives at a place which leases apartments but the landlady thinks that he's the electrician from the local electronic shop who's here to fix the TV. After tapping the TV a couple of times, some kind of static electricity suddenly comes out and the TV is okay again. Eventually Hei corrects the misunderstanding and he introduces himself as a Chinese student called Li Sheng Shun. Before they can enter his apartment, however, a woman comes out from the apartment next door. The landlady greets the woman by calling her "Haraguchi-san" and introduces her to Hei. After Haraguchi left the apartment complex, a man's voice can be heard informing another man inside a coffee shop that they got the right target. At the same time Li can be seen inspecting every areas in his apartment, likely for possible surveillance device as opposed to for damages. He then lets the water run and opens the window. Well, the apartment looks like it's smelly and mouldy.
Meanwhile, the two detectives are now seen inside a nightclub trying to find more information about Shinoda Chiaki. One of the girls who accompany them happens to be Haraguchi. When the girls change their shift, Haraguchi informs the pimp about something. One of the detectives think that Haraguchi looks similar to their target but the other is not sure. When she comes out from the club wearing her jacket, however, she casts a glance towards the detective, raising their suspicions. Before they can give a chase, however, they've been surrounded by the pimp's henchmen. As a result, they have no choice but to reveal that they're policemen working undercover. Meanwhile, Haraguchi is running to a park and ends up meeting Li, who's in the middle of observing the stars with a telescope. Upon seeing Haraguchi looking scared and the detectives not far from them, Li takes her behind a tree and kiss her, causing the detectives to think that they're just a couple.
After the detective left, Li reverts back to his shy student personality. Haraguchi notices Li's telescope and asks him if he was observing the night stars with it and wonders why he looks at the fake stars above. Haraguchi then realises that she's seen Li before so Li tells her that he's her next door neighbour. Haraguchi, however, tells him that she must leave now and proceeds to leave Li alone. While running on the street, Haraguchi feels as if she's being followed by someone so in the end she decides to hide herself in an alley. After she saw two men passing by the alley, she looks relieved only becomes horrified again when another man covers her mouth. The man turns out to be her acquintance, someone called Jean. Haraguchi immediately asks Jean what happened to Louis but Jean claims that Louis has other things to attend to. Jean then changes the conversation and asks Haraguchi if she still has 'it' and asks her of its whereabouts.
Haraguchi suddenly becomes suspicious of this and tells Jean that Louis asked her not to tell anyone of its whereabouts other than himself. In response, Jean tries to subdue Haraguchi using a handkerchief. Just as Haraguchi about to pass out, however, Li knocks out Jean using his telescope. Li tries to take Haraguchi to safety but when they get into a stone bridge, Haraguchi tells her to run away. As soon as she said this, Jean materialises out of a structure nearby and knocks Li over the railings, sending him over down to a railway track just as a train pass by it. Upon seeing this, Haraguchi realises that Jean is a Contractor but before she can run away, Jean already captures her. When Haraguchi regains her consciousness, she finds herself inside a warehouse with two other men. Haraguchi notices that Jean is in the middle of lining up stones in perfect order. Jean tells her that this is the cost for his contract. Uh, lining up stones?
Jean then informs Haraguchi that Louis has died and asks Haraguchi if she's aware that Louis is a Contractor as well. He also wants to know about the man that he just met but Haraguchi claims that she just met the guy. Haraguchi tries to run away but the door is unfortunately, locked. At the same time, Yin can be seen submerging her legs in the water, allowing her to track the whereabouts of Haraguchi by using networks of water around her. This includes the tap water inside the building where Haraguchi is being detained. All of a sudden the light goes off and a static electricity cuts the circuit to the electronic door, allowing Haraguchi to open it. Haraguchi immediately flees the area but is being followed immediately by Louis and his henchmen. Before they can get to her, however, a black cat jumps on them. Haraguchi herself manages to run into the street and eventually meets with Li again. Li ends up embracing her as she cries on his shoulder.
*cue fangirliness*
Hei is the main character of the anime and after watching just the first episode is completely yummy and a new bishie to add to my ever increasing list. Appears he works with a group of people who i've not really met yet. When Hei isn't out killing people he's a transfer student called Li Shen Shun and is so cute and shy.
At the end of the first episode its all left up in the air but thats a good thing because it makes you wanting more which is what has happened to me. I'm wanting to know why the Hell's Gate was built and why Hei is the way he is...looking forward to episode two.
I am liking the animation style and it has a nice dark atmosphere...i'm looking forward to the rest of the series and i'll post a synopsis of the episode (sorry for the long one...once i start its hard to stop) and my thoughts.
Some pics to whet your appetite
he group Hei works with:
From left to right: Huang, Yin, Hei, Mao,
Hei from the opening
Hei as a Li Shen Shun
Episode Two: "The Star of a Contract Fell... (Part 2)"
As Li carries Chiaki home, she tells him about how each shooting star signifies the death of a Contractor. On that day 10 years ago, the real starry sky disappeared and this fake sky took its place. Governments were afraid of the spread of information about heartless Contractors and soulless Dolls, so they use ME technology to delete the memories of anyone who comes into contact. The reason that Chiaki knows all this is because she worked at the laboratory for a long time. She recalls that her parents died in an accident when she was in high school, but she had seen them actually get killed by a Contractor. Since then, she has felt entranced. Elsewhere in town, Kirihara Misaki is telling the two male detectives about Jean and his matter-exchange-type teleportation ability. She also warns them to be careful, particularly with BK-201. By this time, Li and Chiaki arrive back at her apartment, but they find that the inside has been ransacked. When Li tries to get her to change clothes and starts to leave for his own room next door, she clings to him because she doesn’t want to be left alone.
Lying on the floor in Li’s dark room, Chiaki comments on how this room seems strange even though she should be used to the arrangement - it seems fake. She reveals that she’s only lived here two weeks and, for the first time, felt like she was really alive. Chiaki doesn’t know whether the her who researches all the time or the her that’s here now is the real her, but more than anything else, she was excited about Louis coming for her. Li offers to run away together and says that coming here and meeting her was fate, but the two soon get interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the metal walkway outside. These footsteps belong to the two detectives who enter Chiaki’s apartment looking for clues. Once inside, they hear a sound outside the window, but when they go to investigate, all they see is a black cat on the wall. Li and Chiaki meanwhile get out of Li’s apartment and head to a restaurant in town where he reveals that he’s got an acquaintance who’s working in Macao foreign trade. She realizes that he wants to illegally enter China, but he also says that they need a lot of money for this. Since they don’t have that money, Chiaki thinks that they can sell some of the classified information she has instead.
Because Li is still calling her Haraguchi, Chiaki finally tells him her real name - Shinoda Chiaki - and he formally introduces himself too. The waitress then brings an entire cart worth of food to their table, and Chiaki is shocked to find out that Li is going to eat it all. Starting to drink a little, she tells Li that he’ll get fat - he might be okay now, but he’ll definitely be fat by the time he turns 30. The two end up having a good laugh, however Chiaki suddenly stops when her eyes become lifeless for a moment. She returns to normal as soon as Li asks if she’s okay, though she then excuses herself to use the restroom. While she’s gone, the man sitting behind Li - one of his partners - warns him to quickly get what they’re after. Li then notices Jean’s two men are coming into the building, so he gets up and heads towards the bathroom. When Chiaki comes out, he rushes her towards the back, but the two of them still get seen by their enemies. Chiaki and Li take cover in the kitchen as one of their pursuers starts shooting with a gun, though Li manages to create a smoke screen by getting their enemy to shoot the flour. The black guy uses his power to explode a bag of large beans, causing them to fly at a high velocity in every direction. The beans kill the two chefs in the room, and they cut Li’s arm as he tries to escape out the back door.
Blocking off the back entrance with a locker, Li buys himself some time as he runs off with Chiaki. By the time the two men go back out the front entrance and around to the rear, Li and Chiaki are gone. As the guy with the gun calls up Jean to report what happened, the black guy eats a dandelion. Meanwhile, all of Li’s partners meet by the water that Yin still has her feet dipped into. Huang wonders if Hei has betrayed them because he’s moving strangely and hasn’t killed the woman yet. Mao the cat agrees that Hei has changed, and he then asks Yin what Hei is doing. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know because he’s in a place without water. At this moment, Li and Chiaki are at the bottom of some stairs somewhere in the middle of the city. She bandages up his arm wound and blames herself for what happened. Chiaki thinks that it’s impossible for them to run away from their pursuers, but Li just places his hand on her cheek and notes how her tired face is like the dead. Indeed, she is tired and places her head on his lap. Starting to talk about her past, Chiaki reveals that the thing she can’t forgive herself for is how the appearance of the Contractors charm her. She explains that the Contractor who killed her parents had still been a child, and although she could not see the child’s face, that sparkling became engraved into her mind because of how beautiful it was.
Li suggests that it would have been better if she had lost her memory about the Contractor, but Chiaki feels that if she lost it, then she would lose herself. Eventually, she opens up the heel of her shoe to reveal a key and hands it to Li. As she’s doing so, she asks him if he has feelings that he cannot erase even though he wants to erase them. He responds by saying that Contractors are not humans - they are killing machines who wear human skins. To keep their risk at a minimum, they always kill witnesses, and Li feels that they are liars and traitors. The next day, the two take the train and eventually arrive at an area filled will coin-operated lockers. Chiaki’s key opens one of these lockers and inside is a book. Li, however, soon notices that Jean and his two men are coming after them, so they start hurrying away. On the street, he sees a police car and some officers in front of them, so he orders her to forget. She suddenly stops in her tracks and fall unconscious because of what he said, but Li continues walking. As the policemen rush to her side to help her, Jean and his goons keep chasing after Li. On a highway somewhere, Misaki is driving along when she gets a report that the French men have been spotted and another one talking about BK-201’s movements. But what surprises her the most is the third report telling her that Shinoda Chiaki’s dead body has been found lying face-down in a river.
The Chiaki that had collapsed now suddenly reawakens, steals a policeman’s gun, and runs off with it after firing a single shot. Li meanwhile pulls out his black coat and puts it on before he stops to read the book. He finds it filled with blank pages, and by the time he’s finished flipping through it, Jean and company have caught up. They know that he’s a Contractor and have figured out that he’s the one who killed Louis. Chiaki appears at the other side of the empty lot that Hei is standing in and can’t believe what she just heard. In response, Hei reminds her of what he said about Contractors being liars. Jean remarks that the mouse has walked into a trap, and this causes Chiaki’s eyes to turn lifeless again. One of Jean’s men then raises his gun at Chiaki, so Hei gets in the line of fire to protect her, but the bullet ends up coming from behind him because Chiaki is the one who fires. After Hei falls to the ground, Jean explains that this woman is not Shinoda Chiaki, but rather a Doll with her memories. They were using her as a trap to lure out Hei. One of Jean’s men then shoots Hei a few more times in the back to finish him off. He comments on how easy it was, but Mao then speaks up and reveals that Hei’s jacket is bullet-proof.
By the time the guy with the gun turns around to look at Hei again, Hei is already back up and tosses his cable at the guy’s throat. Hei pulls the guy in and uses his powers to kill him, so the black guy responds by exploding his dead comrade’s body. Hei manages to get out of the way and throws his cable at the black guy. He is only able to catch the black guy’s left arm, but that’s enough for him to use his power to kill the guy. Jean then attempts to use his matter-exchange teleportation power on Hei, but surprisingly, Chiaki gets in the way and gets her still-beating heart taken out instead. With his attack failed and his allies dead, Jean escapes by replacing by exchanging himself with water. Huang then arrives on the scene and wonders if this was a decoy too. When he asks why Hei didn’t kill the doll, Hei explains that she wasn’t a doll - she was alive. Huang nevertheless still thinks of her as a doll and of Contractors as killing machines. Their job isn’t done yet because Jean is still on the loose, so Mao has Yin track him down through her water-enabled sensing powers. Hei thus is able to find Jean quickly, and though Jean tries to swim further out into the water, it’s too late for him.
In the aftermath, the police find Jean’s body and later come to Li’s apartment to inquire about Haraguchi. Since Li tells them that he just moved here, Misaki gives him some contact information. She starts to leave, but then turns around and stares at Li’s door for a moment. When the detective asks her about it, she says that it’s nothing.
Note: I’ll be using “Hei” whenever he’s wearing the black coat and “Li” whenever he isn’t.
With this episode itself, they appear to be revealing things little by little and dropping plenty of hints. We saw that the black guy had the power to make things explode, but he appeared to have to eat flowers as the cost of his contract. Jean was able to exchange the location of matter with teleportation, but that wasn’t enough to help him against Hei’s powers which might be some sort of electricity. It’s not entirely clear what the cost of Hei’s contract is, though with all the food and cooking he does, eating might just be it.
From what we’ve seen so far and from future episode titles (wikipedia does come in handy ^_^), it’s clear that Darker than BLACK will be taking a very bi-episodic approach (telling story arcs in sets of two episodes each). Like they did with these first two episodes, I assume that characters and things in the world will be explained and expanded on little by little. I like this approach but i hope they don't do it for the whole of the series or if they do i hope that each arc helps with the next and the overall plot development
Time for the fangirl stuff
Hei just gets yummier and yummier. He's very nice and adorable as Li especially when he goes to eat all the food that was ordered...just so >.< But then we have him when he's Hei...i loved how he pulled his long black coat out of the back pocket of his jeans...that made me laugh. He looks nice in his coat and kicks ass but when he has his mask on...i don't know why but its even nicer (i think i have a thing for masked men).
Not only is Hei yummy but the bad guy Jean was also very nice...shame he got killed. Then there is also a policeman that is quite cute...his names not been mentioned yet.
I am really looking forward to watching more of the episode and in how the plot develops with Hei.
Hei/Li about to enjoy his food
Hei
Hei with Huang
Jean (bad guy)
The cute policeman