Wakaranai

Rating:    

Quite contrary to its first season, Darker than Black season 2 never fails to impress, but this episode it went one better and raised the bar for itself with an uncompromisingly riveting, and superbly produced episode. Without the comic-relief distractions of the transvestite bar owner and her pseudo-son, the series has now completely plunged into its increasingly complex and intriguing plot, with awesome results. Suou and Hei now find themselves in an intensifying maelstrom of violence and espionage as all of the many players enter the fray with their own nefarious goals relating to Suou’s brother, Shion, and the Izanami plot. They now have to deal not only with the lethal Japanese Agency, but also the CIA, which Hei betrayed, and the Russian secret service, which have pursued them to Japan. More than any other, this episode was seeped with betrayals and scheming, as Misaki forms a dubious alliance with coworker, Shizume, and Suou and Hei are screwed over by the own contacts.

Now the series really feels like a fugitive/manhunt type story, where our protagonists find themselves alone, unable to trust anyone, and targeted by an increasingly deadly array of assassins. With the heroes both struggling to survive and also trying to grapple with each of their own confused morality, Darker than Black has really become edge-of-your-seat viewing. I just hope that they can not only keep up this pace, but accelerate it toward a mind-blowing finish. There were sincere emotional moments coming from the utterly captivating Suou, and the episode even featured one of the best-choreographed action sequences I’ve seen in a TV-anime. As I’ve said before, this series, in some ways, has the scale of a Hollywood film, but also conveys a poignant emotional story. The strong content is backed up by as good a production work as one could hope for, from the amazing voice cast, to the sleek art and animation, and it even has the temerity to offer one of the best anime soundtracks I’ve heard since Gits SAC, if not the best.

● Where the twins got to? When they were introduced like 3 episodes ago I kind of figured they’d have had some kind of role to play by now. I only miss them cause they’re cute.

● Suou’s attack using shards of glass was really brutal and surprisingly effective. I’m surprised she was able to throw them so strongly and precisely. I thought it was a really great scene though just because of how she continued to impale her victim with the glass with so little hesitation or emotion. It’s a good example of her contractor side really coming to the forefront.

● There were no more allusions to Suou/Hei pairing that sort of arose last week. I say sort of because it really depends on how you interpreted her behavior then. Was her kicking of Suou’s ghost out of jealousy, or frustration because of how Hei’s feelings for her tore down Suou’s determination to succumb to her contractor side? I think there’s a little bit of jealousy there. I quite like the idea of a subtle romantic interest coming from Suou. It’s certainly an interesting romantic subplot if true, given how Hei treated her just recently. But somehow I would still find her feelings believable. Hei never really hurt her anyway, at least not physically.

✔ Suou’s interactions with July this episode were priceless. Her trying to poke and prod a reaction from the doll was just so cute. Especially when she pinched his cheek in frustration and then rubbed it, apologizing. July and Suou are really adorable. It was also a nice moment when July heeded Suou’s prior advice and said he was in pain later on. Is there hope for contractors after all? I also had to laugh when Suou threw a snowball at Mao. So she has a playful side, eh?

✔ The final action scene was just totally awesome. The storyboarders/writers are good at coming up with interesting ways to orchestrate Hei’s kills; jumping off an adjacent moving truck, and rolling over the roof of a car to strangle the driver has gotta be one of the coolest yet. It was really exciting and well-animated!

✔ This episode was directed/storyboarded exceptionally well. Every scene seemed to have real visual depth and its own kind of atmosphere. This makes most anime look flat and uninspired, because you can really feel that a lot of thought was put in as to how to capture the scenes.

♡ My burning moe passion for Suou goes stronger and brighter with every episode! I just think she’s one of those rare characters who’s both extremely cute but also multi-faceted and compelling. She has a definite moe angle – given her situation you frequently feel like you want to protect and nurture her, but she’s also very strong in her own right. As I’ve said before, Hana Kanazawa has just nailed her. She’s totally my type of character. Suou: loli of the season!