Yeah, this episode was rushed. There’s no denying that this episode lacked the emotional impact that it could have produced if it took things easy. However, I don’t think that the creators really intended this episode as entertainment, but rather as brainfood. A lot of weird stuff happened here, and you know what? I’m actually still interested. For a Bones Ending, it’s actually not that bad. Plus, that soundtrack was just bloody awesome.
First of all, Shion. I thought that he was really a huge bastard, however his goal was pretty gentle. It turns out that he set out to Tokyo in order to get to the gate, and create a completely copied world in which Suou wouldn’t feel out of place. He hid it well, but I think that he felt really guilty about what he did to her.
The mystery-element here is of course Yin, but we have to wait for the OVAs to get some concrete answers on that. What we do know is that her powers helped Shion complete his plan: she helped him create a copy of the entire earth, and she brought July and Suou there: two children who indeed shouldn’t be involved with these adult struggles. In this episode, it’s also made clear that copies can’t retain their memories for long, so that’s why Suou was experimented with with her necklace. So apparently, Yin also made sure that Suou and the others would be able to survive without this pendant.
Then, the motives of the woman of the CIA: she for some reason was very interested in Shion’s ability to create copies (Hmm, what if one of the twins that’s with her is a copy as well?), and her actions seem to revolve around that. We now know that she helped Shion create his copies, and my guess is that when Shion came with the plan of creating an entire new planet because he didn’t want to involve Suou anymore, I guess she found it an interesting idea and cooperated with him. Her ulterior motives still are a mystery, though.
Then there’s Yin: why the hell are there two of them? The OVA is really going to have to answer that question. Also, the prophecy: Izanami and Izanagi, who we assumed to be Shion and Yin, met, and yet nothing bad happened. Again some OVA material, or perhaps the white Yin was Izanami, and so the disaster could be averted.
Then: Suou and July behaving uncontractor-like. My guess is that it’s got something to do with Hei. He’s always been a big question-mark: he has his sister who lives in him, who may or may not have disappeared completely when his powers were taken away. My guess is that he has some sort of effect on children and teenagers, that allows them to retain their their personality.
In the end, before I started to watch this episode I really think that I’ve been a bit too much spoiled by endings that just spoon-feed their information to the viewer. This episode was a nice wake-up call and it showed the power that these “rushed endings” can have. This episode didn’t treat its audience like idiots, and instead it’s just one of those episodes where if you don’t think about it, you’re going to dislike it.
Overall, I may have said this a bit too often by now, but THIRD SEASON WHERE?! Ryuusei no Gemini really was a really well done side-story, but there’s still so much potential left here in this series. It’s another one in the increasingly long list of shows that desperately need continuations. And yes, I’ve heard about the rumours but I’m not going to get my hopes up until I see official confirmation.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I certainly did not see all that coming. For me it felt like a WTF episode. There were still a lot of plot holes which hopefully will be explained in the OVAs but there was just TOO MUCH left open ended, which is why it lacked the ending it could have achieved. I’m still confused about a lot of things, especially hei/Yin and the whole second earth thing. I mean, how can you copy all of that? And how can you see it in the fake sky? And WHO WAS THAT SHORT HAIRED YIN PERSON IN THE COFFIN?!
Rumours, since I saw the next part of Hajime no Ippo animated after an eight years pause they really just don’t matter.
I never understood what Darker Than Black was about. I only enjoy the kick-ass fight scenes.
You said that nothing happened when Shion and Yin met, but I think they created that “boy yin” in the coffin that woke up at the end. The one who killed Mr. Smith. It was said that they would “give birth” to something terrible.
That sounds like it could be the “final boss” type thing, thus sudgesting a new season.
I don’t cut them any slack here. DtB2 was much more focused than DtB, and I rather liked that. DtB created a world and revealed the histories of its characters, but it never told a cohesive story or gave itself a rationale and its ending was just a tacked on mess. DtB2 had the pretense of correcting this and punted at the end, either because they wasted so much time on side characters, because they wanted to leave a path to milk the frachise, or because they simply couldn’t tie it together.
I’d also say that Suou is dead. Suou was never anything more than a collection of memories that she accumulated by living. The life she leads in Shion’s playland doesn’t look anything like her life. It may look like the life Shion wished that he had experienced, but what of it? If you have a twin and its life turns out well and you get hit by a bus, it’s not much consolation. It doesn’t do anything to fix the world afflicted with the scourge of the gates, so it’s only a cheery ending in a completely superficial interpretation. They wanted to conclude Suou’s story, but they did so in a manner that made Suou unnecessary to begin with. The only role she ultimately played was getting Hei sober. In every other way she was a liability that hampered Hei’s progress.
Even though I’ll probably end up doing it anyway, I don’t really see why I would buy the discs for this show, because while it was mostly entertaining it’s not a finished product. I saw this looming on the horizon and hoped for an announcement of another 13 episodes to no avail. Bones does excellent animation, but pretty much any time they have to go off the rails with writing they create a giant mess. After dumping coins into the PSN slot machine to get the anticlimactic Xam’d, on top of almost every other Bones work I’ve watched, it’s like buying early Neal Stephenson novels; only a lot more expensive.
Wow, what an ending… Most animes don’t have endings this good. You’re spot on about the “spoon-fed endings”. I just love when things are left unexplained and you have to think about it. This is a gem of a story and it has been treated well.
Before watching it I re-watched the previous eleven episodes, and this time I notice how big Misaki’s role is. She kinda explained the story to me, maybe because her own personal journey to find the truth (and Hei) happens in parallel to ours (the viewers).
The only thing I don’t understand is what she meant with the her “wish”. This made me think that maybe Hei was the one who wished for Suou to be saved, at the expense of losing Yin. But that’s just a theory…
Suou’s ending was charmingly peaceful and cute. Then it cuts to the next scene showing the fake planet. Yeah… That’s the kind of escapism that only anime provides.
“Also, the prophecy: Izanami and Izanagi, who we assumed to be Shion and Yin, met, and yet nothing bad happened.”
they met indeed, but didn’t the white yin told hei that he could still stop whatever was gonna happen by killing her?
i really wish they’d make a third season.
Wow! What a great ending, thou I wished they one more ep to make the DTB2 more complete. Still despite the its size they did a great job. The biggest mystery of this ep is probably the very last scene when the CIA just die like that. Hopefully the OVAs will shed more light to what happened overall in DTB2.
hmm, somehow after watching this last episode I still feel its incomplete. Alot of questions still left unanwered. How did Yin become like that? why are there two Yin? yin & yang? why her code name suddenly changed to Izanami? did the project to create a new world started before Hei and Yin met? and yin was part of this project in the beginning? and her counter part is Yang (izanagi). When they meet, would this mean the creation of the new world is completed and Yin will bear a child (god of fire, maybe destruction to the existing world?).
at last.. an anime that makes people think..
I’m not as satisfied as the others with this ending, although I loved every episode of this season up until this one.
The problem I find is that while the emphasis of the entire season (series maybe, even) was on the development of Hei, Suou and Misaki.. but the last episode was entirely about prophecies, mysterious happenings and revelations about Shion.
At first, after still having about 4 minutes left in the episode, I was like ‘for an ending, this kind of sucks..’, then i watched the rest and was like, OoO…awesome…lol
I don’t see this ending as incomplete because its not really an ending, it’s a beginning (to quote Misaki). Most likely the OVAs wil fill in some gaps but I doubt we will ever have the whole story but thats how DtB is and its exactly why its so great.
A lot of people were wondering why their were two Yins. I thought that the one in black rep’d Izanami and the other was the true Yin, which is why Hei smiled at her when she told him to kill her. He was happy that to see her and that her true self hadn’t disappeared entirely.
Waht I want to know is how this second world works? I don’t think everbody on Earth can see since that CIA lady was looking at from some sort of machine but…hmn. Well, if Shion (with Izanami’s) help really did create another world that would explain why he was all crusty lookin at the end but…hmn. I wonder if Suou’s story is over. Hei said they’d always be together Hei is…somewhere (hope he doesn’t come back in season 3 lookin all beat up again) and does Suou still have her powers?
There’s too many questions to put them all down here but oh well, at least we’ll have something to think about until season 3….
I’m sure 150% that Yin is not dead! And I’m sure that she’s already returned to her own body when we saw the bright purple light being absorbed by Yin’s body..
Hei smile shows that it wasn’t meant to be that way when Yin ask him to kill him..
She’s gotta be with Hei at the lasp ep..
I’m sure of it!
I’m in the camp that says Yin is not “dead”. I think Hei killing Yin was a figurative statement rather that a literal one. Hei would be killing Yin’s evolved self. Yin has returned to her Doll state and is alive while Hei is carrying her away. Otherwise its really sad. Hei has sacrificed and lost a lot in this series. Letting him have a shred of happiness in the end would be nice. I’m sure the OVA’s will fill in a lot of missing info and help clear things up. Hopefully…..
This was a good ending in that Suou was resolved (spoiler: she lives in her brother’s heaven). But nothing else resolved either on or off the screen. For starters, Suou realizes she loves Hei, but she’s now fine living a school girl’s life in Earth 2??? Were all the hard-won memories with Hei so fragile to be destroyed so easily even if explained? And then there are all the characters from the main line (Gemini feels like one more of the first season’s arcs). What does Hei want? Yin– but how does that go down? What does Yin want??? I’d really like to know since she’s an important character in Gemini (and she had such great treatment in the first season). Evil Shion wakes up and he wants… to be evil of course, how exactly? Misaki awakens as a part of Syndicate 2 but never gets her huggle time ;_; especially with the (suberb) taunting she endures and Hazuki’s awesome scene with Hei (so sad!) And then there’s the super informant and her goth-loli twins. Why did she help and what does she want? The twins? (Dress July up like Sakutaro?) So many questions that warrant a good telling. Yes, it leaves thinking space, but too few hints for off-screen resolution.
3 words, which you’ve already said:
THIRD SEASON WHERE?!!!
i wish Yin isnt dead yet, and I believe so. A part of her still resides somewhere, afterall we saw another Yin, maybe Shion granted Yin a wish by using his ability, and if u we are to believe that Hei actually did “kill” Yin, there is another Yin. Even so he carried Yin towards a bright star, which might be the new earth. And from there the 2 earths might be linked, wtih Suou uneasy about something is missing in her memories, and so like any humans who strives to solve a riddle behind any mysteries.
Thats how i would like to interpret the forthcoming events
I wonder what the CIA lady gains in return of helping Shion…so many unanswered questiong yet to be enlighten!
Cant say if I hate the ending, but the riddle is killing me, want an answer!
July played quite a role in this sequel, it was kinda surprising considering he played such a minor role in the first one.
So, I kinda grew attached to him xD, i hope we get to see more of July.
Third season ? apparently it won’t happen, they currently do not planing to do it.
read Okamura ( Dtb director ) interview here
http://yunakiti.blog79.fc2.com/blog-entry-4391.html
I was thinking about some of the things that were said in the few episodes. Perhaps Hei himself was Izanami, and Yin was Izanagi. They said their meeting would mark the 9th month of Izanami’s pregnancy. It could be possible that Hei and Yin conceived a child and the one awakening in the coffin we see at the end is their offspring.
Another possible theory is that when Hei stabs Yin at the end of the episode, her essence is consumed by him which resurrects the BK-201 star. Perhaps the being we see at the end is Hei and Yin in one body; after all, it did look sort of like Hei with white hair and lavender eyes.
Agh, I hate unanswered ending. But from what I can interpret, it paved the way for Second #3. The question whether there is another second depends on whether they have the money for it and the audience’s demand for another sequel. I personally prefer the mystery of DTB world to be answered and a happy ending so I can move on and watch another series already.
I heard they are coming out with 4 episodes OVA on the DVD gapping between S1 and S2 explaining what happened to Hei and Yin. I also saw an Amber look-alike as the enemy, so expect some old-fashion catfight. They need Amber back for S3 or maybe a new, better look-alike. And an ending already.
I would just like to clear up on few things~ and ask few questions that linger in my head~
I have rewatched both series and tried to find answers to the unanswered questions, from me and other people…
These’re all spoilers of course
First of all, Yin = Izanami, Shion = Izanagi (some people say it’s the other way, but w/e)
Shion made a copy of the Earth (minus the Gates), except that his powers as a contractor weren’t strong enough, so the result was a much smaller Earth – reason why it looked like a moon. From hearing from a lot other people in other forums, it looks like there are no contractors or Dolls existing on that Earth. Maybe contractors and dolls need the Gates to exist?
Shion’s wish seems to have Suou and her “nakama (patner)” – (he prob wouldn’t have included nakama if Suou hadn’t told him about it, remember when they were walking outside to see the “moon”?)live on the copied Earth. But about the copied Earth, he (for some reason) needed Izanami’s help.
The boy that looks like Yin and comes out of the coffin would most likely be a copy of Izanami made by Shion. Whether it’s for a trade or just because to fill in the prophecy, I don’t really know the reason. I would like to guess that it was a trade though…
I have no idea about Yin… My guess is that Izanami is dead, but Yin is alive? Yin and Izanami could be two different beings maybe? Need to wait for OVA for this…
The copied Earth, (referred to as “heaven” in the prophecy) is run by the computer system that the Madame Oreille (forgot the name) and Dr. Pavlichenko made. It records the memories or all people on Earth on a day-to-day basis, and is somehow used to help the copied Earth live “normally” as possible I guess… My question is, a copied human will need the meteor fragment to have their memories last… but where is the source of their meteor fragment?
More like, third season when?
Darker than Black is one of the best anime series of all time, but this second season was a major letdown. Although the ending was designed to make you think, it leaves to much up to guesswork. I hate how many of the main characters changed so much between the two series. The Hei from DtB would never have turned out as the abusive drunk in DtB 2. Misaki also didn’t have as major of a part and lost most of her brave resourcefulness she had in the first season. This should have been made for a whole different series instead of ruining the characters from DtB. It should be given more of a 65/100.