I finished watching an anime series I discovered not too long ago on Funimation's website. I've known of this series for a while, but only now have I finally watched the first season.
Darker Than Black.
Huh. How does one describe DTB? Well, it's by Studio Bones, it's got music by Yoko Kanno, and it combines many different genres. You could say it's like Cowboy Bebop. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it's like a cross between CB and the X-Men, only DTB is not as cliched and directionless as CB, and is more subtle than X-Men.
On a technical scale, DTB doesn't disappoint. The animation is above-average, the artistry for both backgrounds and characters is good but not great, the music fits the mood, (though I honestly believe Yoko Kanno will never top her work on CB) and the voice-acting in Japanese is pretty good. The English dub is competent, but I didn't find it as nuanced as the Japanese voicetrack. Luckily for me, the entire series was available in Japanese with English subtitles.
But that's not what DTB's strongest point is. Its strongest point is in the writing. There is close-to-no filler in this entire series. Every word of dialog, every action, every image serves a purpose. It helps that DTB was not originally a manga, novel, or video game series; it was originally the first season I just saw. Not only that, the setting really goes into detail as to what it would be like if beings like the contractors really did exist in our world. The characters are almost never black-and-white in terms of morality; someone who may seem a friend one moment will become an enemy the next, and vice versa. The group of perennial characters in the series (known only by the codenames Hei, Yin, Huang, and Mao) are not always a stable group, or nakama. (stupid otaku slang!) In every organization, people will always have their own thoughts on a situation, even if it clashes with the wills of their superiors. Not only that, characters don't know everything; this is a mystery series, not just for the viewers, but for the players as well.
But it's not just a mystery series, it's a little bit of everything. It's got action scenes that tend to be short, yet exciting and to the point. It's got drama, with some episodes generating the most heart-rending moments I've ever seen in a television series. It's got comedy, especially in the form of two bumbling private detective who are semi-regular characters. It's got a little bit of sexual fanservice, though thankfully none of that feels out of place. There's even a little bit of Evangelion-esque weirdness in a few key moments. The best thing about this is it doesn't feel jarring when DTB goes from one mood to another; the transition is always natural.
If there's only one flaw, it's like, much like in Death Note, you can't look away for a second. Like I said, almost every scene contributes something. Look away, and you might miss a visual clue. Stop listening for a moment (or stop reading the subtitles for one second), and you may miss an important piece of information. This is not something to watch at a party. Not only that, there are some things that you the viewer must figure out on your own. Thankfully, unlike Ghost in the Shell, the information in DTB isn't too dense, but don't get lazy.
Now, some episodes are better than others. That is to be expected from a tv series, but there was not a single episode in the first season that made me say, "Wow. That really sucked!" This plagues some other anime series I've seen, even those I like, but not so in DTB. On my scale of 0 to 10, no episode ranks lower than an 8, but a few hit the perfect 10. DTB was able to score consistently high, something not even Trigun, Scrapped Princess, Haruhi, and the anime version of Kurokami accomplished for me, and that's probably the best thing I can say about the series. At its best, DTB is a modern masterpiece. At its "worst", it still is a hell of a lot better than most other works of Japanese animation. You need to watch this show at least once; it has a style all of its own, and it makes you think.
