Darker Than BLACK » Review

Disclaimer: The intention of this review is just to voice my personal opinion about a series. I am not trying to analyze it from an objective point of view. This is not to show how good or how bad an anime is. This is just to show how I feel about it. Also, this is not spoiler-free. Read at your own risk. To get a more accurate rating, lower my rate by 1. For example, if I give an aspect “9″, you should take it as “8″. The reason? I’ve been raised up to take that 8/10 is barely good and 7/10 is barely satisfactory, and I can’t force myself out of this system.

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ANIMATION: 9/10

  • Animation: 8.5/10
  • Art: 9/10

Action is fine (there’s not much anyway, this is not an action filled anime and I’m not an action maniac so I really don’t care much). The ordinary movements are well-crafted as well and feel very fluid. Darker Than BLACK sure doesn’t have the most beautiful art or the best action out there. But that doesn’t mean they are not good (oh well, of course). While I don’t find them particularly standing out, I like the color scheme used in there. The day scene looks eye-pleasing while the night scene looks quite stylish. One good thing is that the art and animation stays constant throughout the whole series.

SOUND: 9/10

  • SFX: 8/10
  • Voice acting: 8/10
  • Theme songs: 8.5/10
  • Soundtrack: 9/10

I don’t pay particular attention to SFX, but as far as I concern, nothing unpleasant is noticeable. I like the sound when Hei is using his wires and daggers. The voice actings are okie, neither good nor bad (it’s more like because I don’t concert at all). However, I have to say that Hei’s voice sometimes sounds unnatural (when he’s angry), though he sounds pleasantly sweet when being Lee.

For the theme songs, it’s a good thing that I hate none of them, even though I found ED2 “Dreams” unmemorable (but at least I like the verses) and ED1 “Tsukiakari” dull (it’s Rie fu’s song after all). The OPs are better, especially “Kakusei Heroism”. Sadly, none of them reach the climax either. So that means they all are better than average but not really stand out of the crowd.

Last is the score, done by Yoko Kanno. This is arguably the best aspect of Darker Than BLACK . Personally, I think the music play a great role supporting the animation and adding the emotion. They doesn’t stand out individually (although some of them are). Regardless, the music here has a very distinctive style (jazz!!!!) and very emotional. However, the downside of it is that it doesn’t give a wide range of variety, plus the fact that some tracks are used repeatedly. This somehow decrease the soundtrack’s value, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I still love the soundtrack very much (although it’s a bit too jazzy for my taste). There’s even some vocal tracks (including the awesome “No One’s Home”!).

CHARACTERS: 9/10

Next to story, characters is another aspect that is either loved or hated. Some people say that the cast in Darker Than BLACK is dull and there’s not much of character development. I myself, however, feel that characters is one of Darker Than BLACK’s strongest point and the aspect that I love most. It’s true that there’s not much of character development, as we only get to see bits of the characters. However, they are all memorable (at least to me) with just those bits. It’s not a lie that I can sympathize with most of them, even the ones that only appear for 2 episodes. They leaves enough good impressions on me that I don’t easily forget about them. There’s not one person that I really dislike (well, except Amber, but that’s just mainly because she loves Hei, ha ha. However, in the last episodes, I don’t find her unlikable anymore). I don’t know if it’s a strange thing to say but I love anime and manga (or any kind of narratives) in which I don’t hate any characters despitefully and thoroughly (I may dislike some parts of a person, but I would love other parts). This helps stabilizes my emotions when watching a series and enjoy the whole thing, no mater whom that are on screen. This is a mere personal preference, but that explains why I find the cast in Darker Than BLACK so great.

Beside that, their appearances is also a reason. We don’t have a hero with fancy hair style here. And we have a policewoman who looks like a police woman: hair tidily tighten, wearing pants instead of skirts, flat shoes instead of high heels, etc. Also, we don’t get characters with strange hair colors (no pink!!!) or oversize breasts (no F cup!!!), either. You see what I mean? The visual design is really real and practical and no place for fan service (huray to Yūji Iwahara – the original character designer). Even though Hei is my most favorite character, I like Misaki’s appearance the most.

Also, this is one completely irrelevant thing but I want to say it: Darker Than BLACK is the series thus far that I know that kills a lot of characters. There’s at least one person die in each arc and most people die in the end.

STORY: 8.5/10

It’s been a while that I watch an anime and completely have no clue what it will lead to. There’s no teen heroes, no romance, no crazy villain who wants to rule the world, no mortality thrown into your face, etc. This is a fresh start. However, too bad that it’s not executed as well as it should. While the story is quite innovative and has many room to expand, it just can’t do it right. They waste some episodes for unimportant things and left many questions unanswered. Moreover, the story is divided into bi-episodic arcs and that makes the flow even less smooth. That’s said, this is the most aspect that Darker Than BLACK gets complained about. Now, then why do I give it a 8.5 out of 10 for the story? Because despite all I’ve just said, I still enjoy the story through and through. With Darker Than BLACK, every episodes seems shorter than normal and I, not even once, feel that I should skip something. But ironically, one of the reasons I keep looking forward to the next episode is because I want to know what’s going on but in the end I never know. It ends rather uninterruptedly and that is completely unsatisfying. Darker Than BLACK would be an anime with awesome story if they can somehow reasonably explain all the mysteries and questions they raise. I would give the story a 9.5 out of 10 if only considering how much I like it. Vice versa, it would get 7/10 at most if I were to judge objectively, since it has quite a lot of (fatal) flaws beside great potentials.

VALUE: 8/10

It’s rather hard to rate this. The biggest reason with Darker Than BLACK is that it has both big greatness and big flaw. Considering the flaws with how much I still love it, I decide to give it an 8. Completely subjective and may be overrated, I know, but it’s how I see it.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
As said above. I totally enjoy the series. I don’t regret watching it in the first place, and wouldn’t mind watching it again.

OVERALL: 9/10

Darker Than BLACK is kind of a “hit or miss” anime. As for myself, I enjoy it thoroughly, despite its many flaws. 9/10 is overrated, I know, but I think it would be either 6-7/10 or 9-10/10 (hit or miss, I said). Here I rate it based on how much I enjoy it. There has never an anime that I can unhesitatingly say that I can watch it over and over again (at least, not until Gundam 00 appears). I love the main character Hei as well as the remaining cast. I love the music (both OPs, EDs and the score). I love the fact that there’s no fan services, no cheesy romance and the story is not twisted to please the fan. And I love the feeling that I couldn’t guess which way the story is going (although this turns out to be bad, ha ha). Because of all that, I can forgive the very loose story. In the end, the most important thing is that I enjoy it. I really do. And it doesn’t matter that something is bad or something is not good because it doesn’t affect my enjoyment at all.

Because I know Darker Than BLACK has some big flaws, I wouldn’t say “highly recommend.” But if you want a serious anime without fan services, has an interesting plot (which is badly executed but greatly told, because I’m hooked from the beginning, only to find out that almost nothing is solved in the end) and good music (Yoko Kanno!!!), you could give this a try.