Darker than black hei and suo. Darker than Black (TV series)

Why do you think Lately Have superhero movies become so popular? In my opinion, there are two reasons: firstly, they are always equipped with colorful special effects - thanks to Hollywood and modern technologies. Secondly, they play a role pipe dreams about your own superpower. Who wouldn't want to throw lightning bolts or become invisible? How many things could be created! The anime industry is not lagging behind, and uses the heroic theme to its fullest potential. Recently, more and more superhero titles have been appearing. But this time I suggest you go back in time a little and take a look at a rather old title, in which a gloomy urban atmosphere and the presence of people endowed with superpowers are harmoniously intertwined. This review is dedicated to anime Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha("Darker than black").

Brief information

Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha- anime produced by the studio Bones in 2007. Consists of twenty-five episodes plus one Special episode. It is based original scenario. A manga was released based on the anime. A sequel appeared in 2009 - Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini(it turned out to be much weaker than the first season), and in 2010, 4 OVA episodes appeared (goodness), describing the events that chronologically occurred between the first and second seasons. IN this review I'm only touching on Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha, that is, the first season.

Ten years have passed since then... Now I can’t even remember what I was like nice city Tokyo without a giant wall in the center. No one knows what happened that day and what is hidden inside. Only people could think of building a giant wall and hiding the truth behind it. Be that as it may, unusual creatures began to appear all over the world. Creatures with unique abilities contractors, and passive mediums dolls — That's what they were officially called a week after the wall was built. Special government services are involved in monitoring and monitoring them. To ordinary people who encounter contractors have their memories erased. All information about the existence of people with unusual abilities strictly classified. But the rumors cannot be stopped. Monsters... Cruel killers... Society treats them with fear and disgust. But the most mysterious of them is considered to be someone BK-201. The elusive and deadly contractor is main character Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha.

Characters

Set of characters in Darker than Black perfectly staffed - it’s difficult to single out just one. All characters are in place and are used to convey specific ideas. Extra characters actually no. Main character, Hey(translated as “black”) is the Batman of Tokyo: a dark guy with a mysterious past and excellent fighting skills, fighting villains, while being able to turn into an ordinary friendly Chinese student with the unremarkable name of Lee. For all his strength, he does not look pretentious or worn out by life. Such a character is interesting to watch, and you look forward to the revelation of details about his past, which from a plot point of view is done very well. The details of Hay's life are not revealed all at once, but gradually throughout the season.

Among the other characters I found the most interesting Yin. Using the example of Yin in anime, the question of human essence. What makes a person human? Thinking? Soul? Actions? Can a doll endowed with thinking but devoid of emotions be called a person? A question that humanity is yet to face, but nothing prevents us from speculating about it now, right? Sooner or later, technology will reach a level where a humanoid robot can no longer be distinguished from a human, and then the question of ethics in relation to robots will arise. Can a person who destroys a humanoid robot be considered a murderer? What if this robot had emotions and could experience pain? Everything is not as simple as it looks at first glance... Well, okay, that was lyrical digression. Yin is at her best not in the first season, but in four OVA episodes that chronologically show the events between the first and second seasons - be sure to check them out. In addition to Yin, I would note one more girl - the inspector, who allows you to look at the problem of relations between contractors and ordinary people from an unusual point of view, which is very important for the full disclosure of the plot.

Plot

The Darker than Black storyline consists entirely of two-part arcs, dedicated to adventure Hay and his team. Was this justified? plot structure? I think so. - this is one of those rare cases when I have no complaints about the plot. Maintained throughout the series high quality stories told, without any ups and downs. The lack of failures can be explained by the fact that the written script is not complex or excessively deep, and therefore it was not so easy to mess up in it, especially considering that no one pushed the writers into a time frame (twenty-five episodes is a lot). Is this the right approach? Who knows... Personally, I would prefer to watch a plot that is even in intensity, rather than constant ups and downs, when you are bored for ten minutes watching useless chatter, only to then get a minute of climax.

Studio Bones has long developed a special style of storytelling, which it tries to adhere to in most of its creations. Of course, Darker than Black was no exception. The style lies in the fact that, despite the general seriousness and gloom of the narrative, elements are unobtrusively introduced into it that slightly defuse the situation. These can be either characters added solely for comedic purposes, or some funny scenes or even episodes. You don’t have to look far for examples: this is absurdity like writing your own in toilets mobile phone, committed by Yato, which are adjacent to discussions about life and death; c - constant bickering between Edward, Winry and Alphonse, adjacent to one of the deepest philosophies that I have encountered in anime; and finally in Darker than Black- series in which the main characters are a private detective and his young assistant, or a set of little things like Hay's gluttony, adjacent to discussions about minorities with superpowers.

I am sure that someone will now grimace and say: “But because of such stupid moments, the atmosphere of tension suffers!” Even though these words make sense, I don’t agree with them. On the contrary, it is the comedic moments that make the psychological and dramatic scenes that follow have such a powerful effect. Firstly, due to the fact that comedic moments bring the characters closer, and subsequently the viewer empathizes with them more strongly. How stronger man laughs at first, the more he will empathize with the characters in the end. Secondly, Constantly watching the drama and psychology is very exhausting— it’s unlikely that anyone would want to be in constant tension for twenty-five episodes (and this is, no less, more than eight hours of real time), and comedy allows you to make up for it a little emotional resources . So I think the style used by the Bones studio is more than justified, which has already been proven in practice many times.

Even though the plot is somewhat superficial, it touches on some very interesting issues. First of all, it is the relationship between social minorities endowed with advantages and ordinary people. The problem is not new, and has been touched upon in many books and films (you don’t have to look far for an example - take latest movies Marvel, the relationship of ghouls and people in or the relationship of magicians and ordinary people in Avatar: The Legend of Korra), however, it does not lose its relevance, because there is no clear answer. How should such relationships be regulated? Who should compromise? If one of the parties begins to take advantage of ( ordinary people– in quantity, contractors – with superpowers) when conditions are imposed, a conflict may arise in which innocent people will suffer. Darker than Black shows what happens if the minority and the majority cannot (or do not want) to come to an agreement. Another interest Ask, touched upon in the final episodes of the season, goes like this: “Is it worth sacrificing the minority to save the majority?” . Is it possible to hide behind good intentions when you agree to the murder of tens of thousands of people, many of whom are innocent people, in order to save millions of other lives? Once again a question that is not so easy to answer.

Panache

As strengths I would highlight the drawings character design And implementation of battles. The characters look original - what is one dark-skinned female agent with blue hair and a fur coat on his shoulders. You won't meet two in Darker than Black similar characters, making them all easy to remember. Speaking about battles, I would like to note that the artists did not overload them visual effects, due to which maximum attention is paid to the abilities of contractors. It's a shame that Darker than Black doesn't have a lot of fight scenes or action. From weaknesses The drawings can be distinguished by rustic background images and the absence of non-standard angles. Because of this, the picture sometimes looks gray and lifeless. However, the advantages of drawing outweigh the disadvantages - the Bones studio did a great job. For 2007, the art is very good.

Music

First opening Howling performed Abingdon Boys School has long been included in my collection of the best openings. The most powerful guitar riff in best traditions Metallica Simply inimitable, even the less expressive vocals didn’t spoil it. Second opening Kakusei Heroism ~ The Hero without a Name~ performed An Cafe is also cool and dynamic, although it doesn’t sound as powerful as the first one. First ending Tsuki Akari performed Rie Fu unremarkable though female vocals not bad at it. Second ending Dreams performed HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR it turned out so-so. The background music varies greatly: powerful rock is replaced by elegant jazz, blues, and simple instrumental compositions. The music copes with conveying the required mood, and this is the main thing.

Ratings

Characters – 8.5. Quality main characters. Lots of original minor characters, adding variety and depth.

Plot – 9.0. An extremely smooth plot with virtually no ups and downs.

Drawing – 8.5. A very worthy drawing for its time. The character designs were especially good.

Music – 8.0. Excellent openings, ordinary endings. The background music pleasantly surprises with its variety of styles.

Conclusion

Darker than Black represents that rare case, when it is very difficult to find flaws in anime. Yes, it cannot boast of super-bright characters or an intricate multi-level plot, however average level each component is at a very high level high level. There is a dynamic, varied, albeit simple plot. There is an interesting problem. There are original and well-used characters. High-quality art and music – yes. And, most importantly, the anime uses the classic Bones atmosphere of tension, diluted from time to time with comedic inserts. For me personally Darker than Black gave me a lot of pleasure. Isn't that why we watch anime?

8.5/10

Rudean, special for site

P. S. I have a habit: when I watch anime, I always try to pay attention to Russian and english lettering, used in it. These could be signs on the streets, documents or signatures under photographs. In Darker than Black, apparently, the scriptwriters limited themselves to software translation. Just take a look.

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Review of the anime Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha (“Darker than Black”) was last modified: September 9th, 2018 by Rudean

Here is how it was. Izanami can grant wishes. Xion asked to take the souls of Suo and July and transfer them to the world he created so that they could live happily there.

Then Hay came. Yin asked him to kill himself. Instead, Hei made some kind of wish, something like “I want to be together with Yin.” His wish came true. He ended up with Yin, who was already separated from Izanami.

A girl resembling a yin was shown rising from a coffin. short hair. During this, the words were spoken: “So what about the one whose birth was spoken of in the prediction? How will this birth affect our world?” That is, in in this case It is implied that this girl who rose from the coffin was Izanami, but not Yin. This is confirmed by the fact that that girl absorbed the souls of the people standing nearby.

Yin, as stated, is alive, but unconscious after being separated from Izanami, so to speak.

To solve all the problems, it was necessary to kill Yin and then Izanami would have died, but Hei did not do this. Izanami is alive and the new “Organization”, in which the well-known girl cop is a member, will have to deal with Izanami.

And Hei and Yin, separated from all these problems, are now together in an unknown place. But they are not dead. They are, so to speak, in a separate world created by Hei’s desire. Apparently this is a world for dolls and Contractors. Two dolls with yellow hair also entered there. Before entering, they said something like: “The gates have opened again, let’s go there, let’s go there.”

To understand this, you had to watch Ova. OVA is not a separate series. This is a plot that stands between seasons 1 and 2. And there we understand how Yin became part of Izanami. And then, after watching the ending, you can understand what kind of white Yin and black yin(White - Yin, black - Izanami).

Well, in general, the ending is clear in principle. You just need to think about it a little)

A person learns what true loneliness is not when he is alone in a room. And when the room is full of people, and one of them is a traitor.

They sign contracts. Walls are being built instead of bridges. And someone stole the moon and the heavens, replacing them with fake stars. This is how the gods of this world now shine from heaven. And when the stars are falling, you don’t really want to make a wish. After all, a wish made for the death of a fighter will most likely turn out to be gloomy.

By the way, there is no point in thinking about why this series at the same time wants to attach the “noir” label, and at the same time does not. In fact, Darker Than Black essentially covers almost everything genre diversity recent years, and naturally does not cope with anything separately. The stamps swell. That’s why I want to call it the loudest nonsense of all this time. However, when the familiar word “noir” flickers in your head, this flaw immediately fades into darkness. In the world where beautiful and treacherous women rule the roost, where the hero merges with the antihero, and danger trivially hides in the shadows, everything exists - irony, romance, action, detective, drama, psychedelia - and at the same time nothing of this No. Noir as matter. The color scheme is a starry glow reflected in the surface of the lake.

It’s absurd, of course, but extremely interesting that young Li Shen Shun, an exchange student, is the most ordinary-looking guy. Timid, insecure, moonlighting wherever he can. Everyone simply adores him, not only for his outstanding collarbone line, but also for his gentle character. But all this is a mask. As soon as glances turn away from him, the colors drain from his face again. Because in fact he is the Black God of Death, as the cops called him. And without superpowers, he is more dangerous than many who have entered into a contract, but with supernatural power he is doubly scary. At night, he puts on a white mask with an ominous smile and destroys contract soldiers like himself in the city near the Gates of Hell - almost the Strugatsky Zone... no, the Tarkovsky Zone... By the way, the smiling white mask still reminds a little of revolutionary V, but nothing else not related.

Nowadays you don’t even have to try to discover noir in pure form, in any form. Noir has become extremely outdated since the post-war economy stabilized and the American people regained faith in a brighter future. And here is the result of the search for new bottoms of potential of this genre: Blade Runner, No Country for Old Men and Sin City. By the way, Darker Than Black has even less in common with noir than the aforementioned films.

And if there is a black cat hiding in a dark room, Tensai Okamura clearly does not want to turn on the light and check. With surprising enthusiasm, he imbues his series with noirish suspicion, legends and fatal lyricism. He asks riddles, but does not at all ask the audience to find their own answers. Riddles remain rhetorical. But damn charming. How to conclude a Contract? What happens if you don't pay the price? What exactly is the Gate? And why is the Wall needed? And too much has been said about this to consider these only metaphorical symbols.

One thing Tensai definitely succeeded in was regret. The Japanese have generally proven that they do not know how to regret correctly. This feeling results either in sky-high pathos speeches and landscapes with a soul-stirring melody, or in a black, cynical silent sliding of the camera. And in “Darker Than Black,” which is, in fact, a collection of short stories, each two episodes long, it is the most natural, canonical, even somewhat American.

Damn it, it’s a regret, here there is the same philosophical Zone that Tarkovsky once squeezed out of the Strugatskys. One has only to overcome the huge Wall, and there, on the empty streets, the contractors are looking for answers to the questions they ask themselves. They die alone. They save each other. They kill each other. And again they are looking for answers.

Contractors, as sources say, are no longer people. They suppressed their emotions and became deceitful monsters who value their lives above all else. Dolls are mediums whose personality has been destroyed and left only information important for existence. But here’s the irony - it seems that over time they will be able to become people faster than the people themselves. Rare glimpses of their humanity are more valuable than the most strong words masters And their payment for strength adds human colors to them and makes philosophers out of them. They don’t know why they sometimes smoke, or lay out stones, or fold the corners of all the wanderers in the book. From the outside, this is so similar to those meaningless habits that are so characteristic of real living people.

This is what we're talking about. Lee (Hei, Black God of Death, BK-201) is too humane even with his eternally bored face. Yin is too human, a doll with a vacant look in her lilac eyes. Yes even black cat, and she is human. By the way, how else can we separate people from non-humans in this case? After all, the light falls equally on everyone, and in the rain everyone gets wet at the same time quickly. Any comparisons seem artificial and far-fetched.

However, noir is what it is. He does not open the path of salvation for the heroes. Doesn't divide heroes into good and evil. He pulls the fools out of the crowd to throw them back into the darkness. Welcome to the rain and melancholy. Loneliness and theft. Fatal encounters and betrayals. It’s not even out of place for a parody character to reveal the secrets of existence and the future, and the most bitter disappointments turn into even more bitter deception. And excessive lyricism turns actions into echoes of other actions, causing the eyes to involuntarily be surprised at their own insight. It all looks like tinsel hung around inconspicuous and uninteresting things at first glance. Here, in some ways, Shinkaev’s passion for being alone begins to quietly whine - and from the general mass, from the dialogues and actions, pots, telescopes, and corners of rooms begin to quietly stand out. This nth secret bottom seems to completely unfold the romance of sad and leisurely confrontations between monsters and people and monsters with monsters, again turning it into a discordant and downtrodden, but therefore so ideal, regret. Regret is worse than the wildest hatred. Regret is sadder than the emptiest desire. Darker than the darkest thoughts. Darker than black.

Dark Side Blues

10 years ago the world changed. Some of the people became contractors, entering into an agreement with an unknown force and acquiring various abilities. In addition, mediums appeared - people (dolls) more like “vegetables”, devoid of personality and memory. This is how the anime Darker Than Black begins.

A paranormal zone called the "Gate of Hell" appears in Tokyo, which is surrounded by a wall. Intelligence agencies begin to hunt for contractors, either attracting them to themselves or killing them.

Hei is the main character, a contractor nicknamed “Black Reaper” with the ability to control electricity, works for a certain organization, performing various tasks and constantly encountering his past. His team includes an emotionless doll girl, Yin, a former policeman, Huang, and a talking cat, Mao.

The anime Darker than black is an extremely interesting mixture of fantasy, action, detective and noir with a well-thought-out universe that is slightly different from ours.

Recently, there has often been a theme about a person endowed with incredible abilities, be it films, TV series or anime. However, in Darker Thab Black, the contractors are somewhat of a cold-blooded, calculating bastard whose main goal is self-preservation. The concept of conscience and morality becomes something distant and forgotten, and “Everything for oneself” comes first. Due to their dulled senses, such superhumans become ideal killing weapons, ready to carry out any order.

However, you have to pay for everything, even in the Darker than black universe. Each contractor pays a special price for using his abilities. For some it is harmless eating eggs, laying out pebbles, but for others it is breaking the fingers on their own hand. In this case, the fee is rather psychological dependence, rather than physical.

Hey is unique. He does not pay any price, is the most irrational contractor, distinguished by atypical behavior from others who own life above all. So, living the life of an ordinary transferred student during the day, and turning into the black god of death at night, Hei seems to rush between the human world and the world of contractors, not allowing himself to turn into a completely soulless killer.

If I could describe the series in a nutshell, then these are the gray everyday life of the protagonist’s adventures in the company of a doll girl, talking cat and a man of the old school from the same sandbox as all the brethren. At the same time, a feature of the series is that each mini-story is divided into two episodes for each story, which are practically unrelated.

Regardless of the fact that the trump card of “Darker than black” is its fantastic surroundings, excellent graphics, simply excellent dynamics of battles, the heroes themselves, their feelings and past come to the fore. Everything obeys the law of the blues: a leisurely narrative, a gloomy city and equally gloomy heroes. This state of affairs will not suit someone at all, forcing them to stop watching this creation after a couple of episodes, but we advise you to be more loyal, because “Darker Than Black” is a rare creation and is by no means bad.

The second season of the anime series has ended Darker than Black 2, which lasted 12 episodes. In history there was a place for both well-known characters and new faces.

The main character was Suo Pavlichenko, and the location was chosen Russian city Vladivostok.

Among the old acquaintances remained Hei, Mao, who moved to new uniform, July, Kirihara, etc. What happened between the seasons will not be directly discussed; for this purpose, four OVAs will be released along with the discs of the second season.

Meanwhile, the gap between the two seasons is not the only thing that leads viewers to misunderstandings. Bones famous for creating open-ended anime such as Xam'd, DtB, Eureka Seven And Soul Eater , so DtB 2 was no exception. On the one hand, this was facilitated by the small number of episodes themselves, on the other hand, that the creators decided not to reveal their cards until the very end - which caused confusion. Therefore, conclusions about the end of the second season are up to each individual.

This article is the result of a collection different opinions supplemented by the opinion of the author himself.

A brief retelling of the events of the last episode.

Suoh meets with Shion and they go to the gate. Hei meets with Yin, or rather with her shell, and also goes to the gate for her soul.

Kirihara, along with Mao, meets with Madame Oreily, who shows the supercomputer.

Shion disappears and Suoh meets with July.

Hazuki meets with Genma and they have a fight. July leads Suo to the half-dead Shion and Yin. Shion dies, July falls unconscious, Suo takes out the PTRD and aims at Yin.

The meteorite fragment on Suo's chest breaks into pieces, and Hei appears. Scary and Incomprehensible Things are happening. Yin suggests that Hei kill himself. Kirihara sees Hei and Yin for a moment, then a flash of light envelops everything. Suo is alive, her parents are alive and she was late for school.

Kirihara and Kabayashi leave the Gate.

Now what happened?

Shion leaves Suoh at the center of the gate to make a deal with Yin, which he subsequently tells Suoh. The exact terms of the deal are unknown. One of the opinions is this. Shion is capable of creating physical copies of anything, including humans, but is unable to give them souls. In the past, ME was used for this purpose. But the creation of a new Earth requires the infusion of a large number of souls, and this is where the role of Yin begins. According to the theory, all the killed (or committed suicide, if you prefer) contractors whom Yin saw gave her their souls. This theory is indirectly confirmed by the fact that on the new Earth Suo meets people who died on the old one: her father, mother, etc. The purpose of creating a new Earth is to give the contractors normal human life, and the cost of the transaction is Shion's life.

Suoh doesn't remember anything about " past life", due to the destruction of a pendant with a fragment of a meteorite. As explained in the series, the meteorite is needed to retain the memories of the "cloned" people. If you carefully examine Madame Oreily's supercomputer, you will notice a huge sphere - a meteorite that supposedly fell on Dr. Pavlichenko and his children. After the transaction is completed, this ball is no longer there.

Suoh supposedly lost her contractor abilities also due to the destruction of the pendant. It may have contained the sealed power of Hei. In this case, by destroying it, Yin would return Hei’s abilities.