Darker Than
Black: Ryuusei
no Gemini
Number of episodes: 12
Production Studio: Studio BONES
Fansub Release Viewed: BSS
Likelihood of US Release: High
Hei and Yin are on the run after betraying the Syndicate, and in Russia they meet a young girl who becomes embroiled in the conflict between various factions vying for power.
Episode Summary
Two years ago, Suou, her father and her twin brother Shion were out camping when a meteor struck nearby. Shion was injured in the blast and is now confined to his room in a wheelchair. Suou enjoys a normal school life, though she longs to visit her mother in Japan, a dream which causes her father to scold her. He also begs her not to spend too much time with her brother, whose altered status makes him dangerous to her.
The following day at school, Suou’s friend Tanya arrives late to class and seems to have a completely different attitude than normal. When Suou and her friends follow her after school, Tanya displays the powers of a Contractor, an individual with special skills who must atone for their use in a manner specific only to them. Suou sees Tanya enter a military vehicle, before rushing home to find the building under siege. Suou enters her home’s secret passageway system and follows her brother’s psychic instructions to dress in his clothes and retrieve a charm, and then encounters her father’s assistant Bella, really a Contractor named April. They escape to the woods, where April downs one antagonistic Contractor before encountering another, a man in a mask.
Thoughts
The original Darker Than Black was a series I saw early on in my quest to check out first episodes of new shows, and I could tell that it had potential. Unfortunately it fell to the back burner at the time and, once it was licensed halfway through its broadcast, I decided to wait on it until the DVDs were out. Due to a mix of circumstances including cutting down on my own spending and the fact that most of my friends continued to watch the fansub version of the show to the end, I never really had a decent opportunity to watch season 1. Now, in a season which seems to feature sequels and continuations to so many other series that I haven’t really seen, a real measure of success will be how much the new episodes both make sense to someone coming in cold and motivate such a viewer to seek out previous episodes. And so far, this is the one to beat.
I’d like to emphasize the fact that I feel like this series is accessible to people just coming in. This important aspect of sequels is often overlooked, and for what seems to be a perfectly good reason — who is going to be interested in a second season other than fans of season one? This was the entire philosophy behind the Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children film, to its own detriment; while I’ve played the game on which is was based and was able to understand what was going on in the film, it was quite obvious that the weak story and the introduction of some new characters were nothing more than a vehicle to display some pretty pictures and to provide as much fanservice as possible (fanservice in the “let’s toss in all of your favorite characters for brief cameos and show the main character acting like the emo twit he always was” sense rather than the “T and A” sense I’m usually complaining about). I, for one, think that there are ways to both satisfy an established fan base while being accessible to outsiders, and this episode struck a satisfying balance.
One can hardly watch a Studio BONES series without commenting on the action animation, which in this case doesn’t disappoint. The final action scene that takes place in the woods is especially flashy and employs some nice CG to convey the neat camera work, most notably scenes with the camera following behind traveling bullets. Knowing BONES and its occasional quality-control issues, I have realistic expectations going into the rest of the series, but I’m sure that the action scenes will continue to impress.
If I had to provide any negatives to counter my overwhelmingly positive impressions so far, I might note that the first half of the episode isn’t nearly as exciting as the second half. It’s mostly comprised of school-life situations, but honestly, how else could you introduce the new characters? The low-key opening scenes also help to contrast with the excitement near the end of the episode, so to consider this a serious issue would truly be a reach.
If action and sci-fi are your genres of choice, this series is definitely worth checking out. Newbies need not be scared by its sequel status either; there’s enough intro-level storytelling and catch-up that no one will feel too lost, but fans of the first season will probably be able to pick out more of the subtleties.
Pros
- Viewing the first season is helpful but not required, something refreshing when faced with a sea of sequels
- The action animation doesn’t disappoint
Cons
- The episode starts off a little slow
