People in CDCF thought we should make a Darker Than BLACK thread, so here it is. This anime was my obsessive love before my current obsessive love, and I adore it. It hit a really nice balance of realism-darkness without unrelenting-misery darkness in a genre that often doesn't have a lot of that, and I am more than slightly in love with the main character. I will loudly declare the nonexistence of any theoretical second season, but hey, if anyone else likes that second season which definitely does not exist, feel free to talk about what it might theoretically involve here too! All are welcome in the pit of suffering, oppression, and really cool superpowered action sequences.
dtbbbbbbbbb I agree with this! Although I somehow got sidetracked like 3/4 of the way through the first season, because I have an incredibly short attention span for visual works. Yin is my favorite. ._. Yin needs love. And I really enjoy the psychological element of "characters who (at least theoretically) have very limited human emotion."
I'd definitely recommend watching to the end, because ~plot twists~ and reveals about Hei and exactly how outrageously awful his life is. Or at least watch the joke OVA episode about slash fic and allergies and Hei's sexy collarbone and overly-amorous cats. (The show's also super-rewarding on a rewatch since the plot and setting is so jigsaw-y and you go "oooh, THAT'S what that was about" a lot, but I recognize that most people do not have the patience and are not in the decidedly unhealthy mental state I was in when I watched it through something like three time back-to-back. :::PPP)
I loved Li eating so much food and everyone being baffled by it. Just, Kirihara having to put up with this truly ridiculous exchange student cooking all the time.
My favorite part of it is that Spoiler there is no supernatural reason for it. It's not his remuneration for his powers. He just eats that much. Which is even funnier to me because I own the DVDs and turns out his dub voice actor fell for that fakeout.
Can I also mention that I really, really love Kirihara. Just in general. Spoiler And the fact that she totally figured it out sometime in the middle of episode 23 and didn't say a word. That episode in particular brings me so much joy, with the complicated subtext. <<<333
Oh hey Darker than Black hello I really like the little points we get throughout the series that point out how Contractors aren't actually "evil" they're just a little emotionally numb and that's exacerbated by being used as superassassins because world governments cannot into treating superpowered people well. And then how Spoiler Amber's team is actually the FRIENDSHIP COALITION. Because they ran into each other while trying to kill each other and then friendship happened. Tiny Maki the tiny murderbomber bombed his way to my heart. Also! November 11. November 11 is pretty much the best. The whole MI6 squad was great really. July's weird sort-of friendship with Suou was probably the best part of the Season That Did Not Happen.
And Japanese Lesbian Catwoman, who needed to be rescued from gross writers and put into something that actually does the poor woman justice instead of going "hur hur she hits on girls, that's hot." I bet that without the various espionage agencies forcing them into an underground guerilla war, a lot of contractors would settle out somewhere around a Seebs-ish attitude toward other people. With the exception of some remunerations, they're not compelled to hurt people, they're just not compelled not to. Going out of their way to hurt people is effort with little payoff while if they're nice they get things they want and it's easier to get more things in future, so why bother? (I know Kirihara has a line somewhere- I think the Shikkoku no Hana manga?- where she mentions that Contractors rarely kill bystanders because that's a pointless waste of effort.)
Yeah, that was definitely something I liked about Darker Than Black. Rational and lacking emotional empathy does not mean cruel. A lot of the humans are cruel. The Contractors are aptly named: they're doing their jobs as efficiently as they can, and most of the time cruelty is inefficient.
Exactly. And it's kind of a theme of the overarching narrative that for all that normal humans keep insisting that contractors are soulless remorseless emotionless killers, people who aren't contractors are just as capable of doing the same horrible things, and in fact in many cases have done worse things overall, without a gun being held to their head like it is with most contractors.
It was really really good. It's entirely a shame that the second season super didn't happen. I feel like we should all just collectively write a second season, which would be much better than the one which did not happen.
(Incidentally, since I remain overly proud of this stupid post, I invite everyone to consider the horror that would be Tumblr.txt in the DtBverse.)
Oh, god. That's... amazing. Teenagers being Contractor Kin? "Hey, if you take these drugs, they'll totally dull your emotions"? Contractor RPF? Considering Seebs' contractor power now.
A friend also pointed out that hilariously inaccurate (and rather offensive) "contractor AU" fanfic that would spring up like mushrooms after a rain.
idk, but my remuneration would probably be something like sleeping, and therefore I'd actually have an excuse for sleeping till five in the afternoon. (as for powers, idk. I like illusion stuff, but that doesn't feel fitting for the setting.) those would be FUCKING HORRIBLY AMAZING okay, but "your fav is a contractor" type blogs. contractor headcanons.
Draco Malfoy is a contractor. tbh, I'd be a better doll than a contractor. I am very much the beta-wolf "gather data give data to boss" type.
