What an awesome conclusion to the Gaiden-arc. The direction here was just perfect in hitting the right emotional notes. I love how well it made use of the build-up in tension of the previous episodes, and at the same time it also stood apart as a unique episode to Darker than Black.
So, we now know how Yin ended up with the ministry of community and affairs: they stood back from a distance, watching Hei struggle to get Yin back, and when everyone aside from Hei and Yin died, they grabbed their chances and took her while Hei was still… out cold, I guess. But that was nowhere near the main focus of this episode. The episode started getting awesome as soon as the illusionist started playing mind games on not just Hei, but everyone around him. It was interesting to see that he didn’t seem to care about money or power, despite having such a convenient ability. When Hei shocked Yin, I think that that was the point at which she really awakened, or at least lost the control of her real body, explaining why she was had to be kept in such a container in Ryuusei no Gemini.
Still, to think that it was Yin who caused the massacre of the previous episode. The way she so easily killed all of Amber’s former allies, in the same way she again released the souls of everyone here.
This episode also fills in the blanks of Hei’s development. Another big focus here was that we finally get to see Hei, showing himself emotionally vulnerable. As soon as he loses Yin (he thinks she died), he starts turning into the drunk that appeared at the first episode of Ryuusei no Gemini. I love how the creators animated his eye when the woman from the CIA contacts him. It’s there where he closes off his exposed self, and becomes stoic again.
The music really was brilliant here. Ishii Yasushi… his works are quite limited but I believe that his works really equal Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack of the first season. Again, it’s very different, but just as powerful.
As for a review about this OVA, I don’t think that I can say more about it than what I’ve done in these entries (I’m not really good at writing these reviews of OVAs that air only once every few months), unless a lot of people request me to. Now, for a sequel there are three possibilities:
– The creators are now secretly working on the third season, and will announce it in a few years. God, if this is true then I really wonder what that one will look like.
– We’ll get to see a few more OVAs in the future that will close off the entire series.
– There just aren’t any sponsors left interested in the series so it’ll die a silent death.
Obviously I’m rooting for the first, but I’m not going to get my hopes up until it actually gets confirmed. In the meantime, I’ll just eagerly anticipate Bones’ next major series. No offence to Heroman, but compared to the usual standard of Bones series, it just doesn’t live up.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
“It was interesting to see that he didn’t seem to care about money or power, despite having such a convenient ability.”. Reminds me of: “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”. Please watch “The Dark Knight”, if you haven’t yet.
The OVAs were awesome, and did all I hoped they would. I’ll start praying for more of this amazing franchise right now!
I’m praying for more too!
I started getting more and more disappointed in DtB when Ryuusei no Gemini was reaching its conclusion. But these OVAs really sparked my love for this series again. It’s pretty obvious the creators wanted to add more after Gemini, so I hope it doesn’t die.
Let’s hope they make more DtB. Bones is really a quality studio, their characters are just powerfully real (despite the fiction, of course).
Cheers for a great set of reviews!
According to 2ch, The director Okada Tensai said in the interview that he has done enough about DTB and has no motivation to make the sequel any more. but DTB is succeeded in DVD sales. so there is a hope.
Is this normal? when I visit this blog, some random audio started to play
@question, definitely not normal, ain’t hearing any audio on my end. Anyway, amazing to see DtB after the Gemini arc (which was very dull). Here’s hoping to a third season…and it won’t happen unless we purchase the OVAs and the second season.
question: yeah, there’s definitely something weird going on, but I have no idea what’s causing it. Do you get such a problem more often, or is it just this site?
Fukunaga!!!! Couldn’t resist posting this XD. I wonder if any one else will think Fukunaga from that screen cap.
Lol, Machi, I did! Fukunaga from Liar Game, right? I didn’t realize the resemblance until I read your post. XD
@post 7, it happened twice, only to this site
I will post my IRC comments but point out that your ‘hongo rocks. I didn’t even try to eat it raw but I do know the holes in the only current translation.
bad encode is bad. Like horrid. Way way CPU insane.
mini review: the last ep of darker than black is more better than the whole 1st and second seasons as far as action.
at the 8 min 37 sec mark I was all like “wtf?”.
Yes that one ep is truly better than the whole 1st and 2nd seasons combined (excluding the “omfg im going to die and barely dodged “back in the day” around ep 20 something in season one and the “omg im drunk and beating down elementary school kids” in season 2). As a final ep to an anime it is epic. Thumbs up.
one other side note: She is supposed to be blind. I am also supposed to be. Her apparent ability to see was never explained. I know why I can.
Ill also say that your post was way too fast. Those 10 folks who posted know ‘hongo or are faking. It will be off the page before anyone who has a 2nd opinion can reply. Just saying…
I am so confused right now. Don’t get me wrong, Gaiden has done a lot to fill in the gaping holes of the second DtB season, but I still have no idea what the hell Yin is. Obviously she can copy Contractor’s powers, kill people and steal their souls..and there’s two of them, and some kind of promise…and apparently she causes either the destruction of Contractors/world or turns it back to normal? And she’s connected to the Gate? WHAT?
Amazing OVA… It blew the second season out of the water
This relationship between Hei and Yin is just amazing, I cant have enough of it
Needs 3rd season badly
This is my theory based on certain clues (so it’s probaby all wrong LOL):
A government project yielded the beings now called the Moratorium, super-evolved humans with non-human thought processes. The Gates and the false sky are either results (created by the first Moratorium) or a cause of this (the survivors of the Gate phenomenons opening became the first Moratorium). The first Dolls, superhuman blank slates, were created with the Moratium, by the Moratorium or from the Moratorium (by human interference or just all by themselves). The Contractors are a side effect of the project trying to create (or make more) Dolls, programmable superhumans with Moratorium-like abilities (possibly even unexpectedly resulting in the Gates being created).
The humans think they have the superhuman types figured out but as Amber says the superhuman psyches are not above changing.
Izanami is basically Yin’s superhuman psyche and is more like the first Moratorium than any superhuman before her. But Yin’s human psyche made a wish to return all of Izanami’s ‘samples’ to a better life and Izanami made a deal with Shion (Izanagi) to accomplish this, since his duplication ability was perfect for the task. A new being was created as prophecied (Yin’s twin, which I call Niy) which is neither Doll, Contractor or Moratorium.
The ‘shooting star fragments’ are simply objects from inside the Gate particularly infused with its properties (allowing Contractors to like the first superhumans).
I sometimes picture it like the first super-evolved humans simply leaving their physical bodies beind and the government studying these bodies, finding a way to ‘re-program’ them. In attempts to create more ‘Dolls’ the government tries to duplicate the phenomenon but somehow causes the huge Gates to appear and the Contractors begin appearing in the general populace.
It was a nice OVA, but felt kind of like getting a steak after asking for dessert: not what I wanted. Plenty of action and fanservice (the woman in ep. 2, Amber, two girls in ep 2 epilogue etc), but little character exploration on the level of 1st season.
Just go and rewatch the Yin episodes to feel the vast difference between simple and straightforward presentation of OVA and elegant feel of the original.
Same goes for music. It fits action scenes well enough, but for more subtle moments Ishii fails to reproduce the magic of Kanno. Again, in the Yin episodes of original Kanno’s solo piano piece makes the whole episode work, but in the last, most emotional, episode of OVA, the music is a little off. Organ? Chorus? Was it really a good choice? The piano and violin piece also doesn’t resonate on emotional level. In OVA, music is solid BGM, but for me it did not stir emotions the way Kanno’s music did.
I am reading the manga series right now actually. So I may have just spoiled some things for myself, but oh well. I wanted to see how the animes turned out compared to the manga. The manga is so fun to read and it looks like the animes are going to be fun to watch too. Thanks for the great reviews on Darker than Black!