History YMMV / DarkerThanBLACK

* MagnificentBitch: [[TheSpook The elusive, mysterious]] Amber betrayed MI6 to work for TheSyndicate, eventually leading the deadliest squad of Contractors in Heaven's War. Realizing the Syndicate's true intentions and using her powers to see and rewind the future countless times, Amber manipulated the Syndicate and her own side to seal off Heaven's Gate, which caused a massive disaster that rendered most of South America uninhabitable. Returning in modern day Japan, Amber orchestrates a series of bombings while kidnapping the scientist behind the Saturn Ring project, manipulating her former lover Hei and the world's intelligence agencies to place Hei close to Hell's Gate so he can seal it as well and prevent the Saturn Ring project from killing all the world's Contractors. After settling things with Hei, Amber sacrifices herself to rewind time and give him a chance to choose a third option, later revealing she had foreseen that possibility and left guidance in the new world Hei had made.

** ''Gaiden'' OVA: [[FauxAffablyEvil Claude]], real name Shichi/Xi-Qi, is the BigBad who stands out from the normally amoral superpowered Contractors by his [[FantasticRacism outright hatred of normal humans]]. Claude torments his enemies before killing them by using his [[MasterOfIllusion powers]] to masquerade as one of their loved ones and seeks to turn Yin into the PersonOfMassDestruction Izanami. Claude is even callous enough to turn her into Izanami when she is in a base of Contractors, knowing that this would mean that her powers would kill everyone on the base, showing he cares nothing for his own kind even while trying to make a world where they rule over regular humans.

** ''Flower of Darkness'' manga:

*** The girls' academy volleyball coach, [[HumansAreTheRealMonster Daisuke Mioka]], is a handsome, charming man who takes advantage of his young students by seducing them and secretly making videos of the sex to sell on the internet. When one student finds out, Daisuke tries to win back her trust by having a group of his friends rape her, before sweeping in to act as the hero who saves her. Daisuke also promises his friends that he will be "a little late" so that they can begin violating her before he arrives.

** ''Gaiden'' OVA: Claude[[note]]real name Shichi/Xi-Qi[[/note]] is the BigBad who stands out from the normally amoral super-powered beings known as Contractors by his outright [[FantasticRacism hatred of normal humans]]. Claude torments his enemies before killing them by using his [[MasterOfDisguise powers]] to [[ManipulativeBastard masquerade as one of their loved ones]]. His motivation is to turn the heroic Yin into the PersonOfMassDestruction known as Izanami. He is callous enough to turn her into Izanami when she is in a base of Contractors, knowing that this would mean that her powers would kill everyone on the base. Although he claims that his goal is to create a world where Contractors rule over humans, his cruelty and constant chaotic choices show Claude is nothing more than [[TheSociopath a sociopath]] who is willing to hurt anyone just to keep himself entertained.

*** [[BigBad Harvest]] serves as an EvilCounterpart to [[TheProtagonist Hei]]. While Hei embraces his humanity, Harvest considers humans to be weak and pathetic. Harvest possesses the titular "[[GreenThumb Flower of Darkness]]" which can be given to a person to grant them powers. He chooses to [[ManipulativeBastard make those powers dependent]] upon one condition: that the person kills his or her best friend. To make things more interesting for himself, he also gives the best friend a Flower. Harvest is angry when he is told that Hei is morally superior to him. In reaction, and to [[ItsAllAboutMe stroke his ego]], he distributes Flowers to all of humanity in an effort to prove to himself that there is no such thing as morality. However, when his plans are foiled, Harvest reveals himself to be a [[EvilIsPetty petty monster]] by trying to destroy the planet out of sheer petulance and frustration.
*** The manga also reminds readers that sometimes HumansAreTheRealMonsters. The girls' academy volleyball coach, Daisuke Mioka, is a [[BitchInSheepsClothing handsome, charming man]] who takes advantage of his young students by seducing them and secretly making videos of the sex to sell on the internet. When one student finds out, Daisuke tries to win back her trust by having a group of his friends rape her, before sweeping in to act as the hero who saves her. He promises his friends that he will be "a little late" so that they can begin violating her before he arrives. Upon being confronted with what he's done, Daisuke says that women want to be have sex with him and [[NeverMyFault they are the ones to blame]].

* {{Magnificent B|astard}}itch: Amber. No surprise considering her powers to [[spoiler: travel through time]] gives her the upper hand to manipulate people and events.

** [[spoiler: The callous and horrible way in which Tanya kills her other best friend/crush Nika.]]

** [[FantasticRacism Claude (real name Shichi)]] from the {{OVA}} Gaiden is the nastiest Contractor in the anime. While most Contractors are simply amoral, the human-hating Claude is a relentless {{sadist}} who enjoys tormenting people by disguising himself as their loved ones to get a rise from them. His ultimate goal is to awaken [[EldritchAbomination Izanami]] to commit genocide on his fellow Contractors, solely [[ForTheEvulz for the fun involved]]. He compounds this by unleashing Izanami's powers to murder a group of Contractors who simply wanted to live in peace.
** ''Flower Of Darkness'' manga: The Contractor [[BigBad antagonist]], Harvest, serves as an EvilCounterpart to Hei. While Hei embraces his humanity, Harvest [[FantasticRacism considers humans weak and pathetic]] and [[ManipulativeBastard offers humans in mental torment his Black Dandelion]], the "Flower of Darkness," which will grant them power at the price of [[DealWithTheDevil murdering their best friend]]. The flower strips the victim of morality and restraints, and Harvest he often gives it to the target as well to see who will kill the other first. Harvest's motivation is he was once informed he was inferior to the then fully human Hei. Unable to accept this, Harvest opens the Black Dandelion to infect every human in Tokyo, and from there on the rest of the world, to turn humans into amoral monsters like him so he can judge for himself if morality is necessary and there is "nothing within me." Defined by his [[ItsAllAboutMe selfishness and narcissism]], when the Black Dandelion is stopped, Harvest declares "'''I alone am the future! '''" before using his enhanced powers to attempt to simply obliterate [[OmnicidalManiac the remainder of the planet]].
** Also from ''Flower Of Darkness'' comes [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Coach Daisuke Mioka]]. Daisuke is the handsome young coach of an all girls academy, but is also a serial womanizer and [[HotForStudent has affairs with his impressionable, starstruck students]], making web porn of them. When one of them, Azusa, finds out, Daisuke tries to silence her by convincing her best friend, his cousin, another conquest, to talk to Azusa so he can save the day from a group of his friends who want to rape them. Daisuke mentions to his friends to go ahead, but he'll just be "a little late" so they can have their fun and later drugs a teacher so he can sleep with her. When Hei is talking the newly empowered Azusa from leaving Daisuke alone, he gloats how happy he made her and how [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming it's all the fault]] of [[HeManWomanHater women for what he's done]] and tries to fry Azusa with a stun gun, which enrages the normally taciturn Hei into trying to kill him in cold blood.

** This seems to be a common view of Suou; some fans even think that her [[SpotlightStealingSquad spotlight stealing]] is ''entirely'' responsible for [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot ruining an otherwise decent plot]].

** Goran, who in his less than half-episode of screentime managed to acquire a veritable real-life [[InstantFanClub Instant Fandom]].

** Episodes 11 and 12. Hei and Nick became close ''very'' quickly, spent a whole night watching the stars together (and made plans to go watch them again afterward), and Hei [[spoiler:looked really sad and heartbroken after Nick "betrayed" him.]]

* JerkassWoobie: [[TheHandler Huang]] [[spoiler:was a cop until his best friend was horribly killed... by the woman Huang loved, who he discovered had just been using him to get to said best friend. He was left with no choice but to join the Syndicate or have his memories wiped, which he feels would be like killing his friend all over again.]] This resulted in Huang being a [[NobleBigot bigotted]] {{jerkass}}.

* LesYay: Buckets aimed at Misaki. She doesn't reciprocate much, though. In all fairness, pretty much every character has at least a little attraction for her, not just the women.
* [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]]: Amber. No surprise considering her powers to [[spoiler: travel through time]] gives her the upper hand to manipulate people and events.

* TheScrappy: Norio, for being a [[{{Wangst}} whiny]], semi-delusional and just generally annoying paedophile stalker PlayedForLaughs and [[StalkingIsLove (attempted) sympathy]] who hits the wrong side of WhatMeasureIsANonBadass ''hard''. This is even lampshaded by the voice actors in the Darker than Black radio.

** And, after Mao [[spoiler:wakes up in Amber's headquarters]], he gives a long, dramatic monologue about how contractors always do the logical thing. When he get caught by the others for trying to non-chalantly walk out of the room, he tries to logically respond with a [[spoiler:"Meow."]]

** "[[AlienSky The stars are pretty]]."
** Most of the [[{{OriginalVideoAnimation}} OVA]]. It's basically an [[BonusMaterial omake]] parodying the main series, particularly mocking Hei's ChickMagnet status and the fact that a WhiteMaskOfDoom and [[BadassLongcoat a change of clothes]] really shouldn't be ''that'' effective of a disguise. Highlights include slightly loopy {{fangirl}} Mayu crushing on him due to his "sexy collarbone" and writing him into her yaoi fanfic (which ''[[CovertPervert Yin]]'' reads), and what is possibly the absolute silliest ResetButton in the history of fiction.

** If Youtube is any indication, "UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ" has become one in reference to Gemini's trance-filled OST.

** [[FanNickname Chinese Electric Batman]]!
** Veteran's Day (11/11) has been commandeered in honor of November 11. [[http://omaemo.dasaku.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/november-11-tribute.jpg Naked pictures]] [[BestKnownForTheFanservice are inevitably involved]].

** Hei will die. But his soul will choose to go back in time, the time when he was happiest, and he will be at season 1 first episode. Suou who loves Hei wants to be with him too and wants to be in a time when Hei'd love her, but since he already loves Yin she'll go back in time before Hei is born, and become his mother.[[note]]This copypasta jokingly places Hei, Suou, and Yin in the roles of three primary characters in the ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series. Said explanation is a note because it's also the [[spoiler: ending to the ''second game.'']][[/note]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Those who do agree are generally the same people who think that Suou [[SpotlightStealingSquad gets way too much screen-time]] and therefore like to call her [[MarySue "Mary-Suou"]].

* {{Woolseyism}}: The first two episodes make more sense and fit the tone of the rest of the series quite a bit better in the dub; in particular, they changed Jean's completely-inconsistent-with-everything-else comments about "installing a personality" to something like "Contractors have feelings too" and replaced Mao's inexplicable line about Hei's coat only being bulletproof when ''he'' wears it with an excellent DeadpanSnarker moment along the lines of "Hei doesn't just wear that coat as a fashion statement."
* JustForFun/XMeetsY: This show is essentially what you would get if ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' was written after watching the entire run of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' back-to-back.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The first two episodes make more sense and fit the tone of the rest of the series quite a bit better in the dub; in particular, they changed Jean's completely-inconsistent-with-everything-else comments about "installing a personality" to something like "Contractors have feelings too" and replaced Mao's inexplicable line about Hei's coat only being bulletproof when ''he'' wears it with an excellent DeadpanSnarker moment along the lines of "Hei doesn't just wear that coat as a fashion statement."

* TheScrappy: Norio, for being a [[{{Wangst}} whiny]], semi-delusional and just generally annoying {{lolicon}} stalker PlayedForLaughs and [[StalkingIsLove (attempted) sympathy]] who hits the wrong side of WhatMeasureIsANonBadass ''hard''. This is even lampshaded by the voice actors in the Darker than Black radio.

** Though many were somewhat mollified towards the end, when the {{lolicon}} subtext was turned down and [[HesBack Hei stopped acting so obnoxious]].

* FanPreferredCouple: Hei/Yin. The art for the series makes them look like an OfficialCouple but the series portrays the exact nature of their [[ImpliedLoveInterest relationship as ambiguous]]. Yin developed feelings for Hei in the first season, the manga provided them with more ShipTease, and the OVA ramped this UpToEleven. However, they both have trouble expressing their emotions properly and Hei is a MasterOfTheMixedMessage so his protectiveness towards Yin could be his BigBrotherInstinct acting out. The official website states that Hei "feels strongly" about Yin and various staff members think of it as romance.

** If you [[LaughablyEvil somehow]] still harbored any sympathy for Genma, the throwaway comment in the last episode that [[spoiler:he was the one who killed Youko and the implications of having raped her prior or even worse; after her death]] pushes him straight into CompleteMonster territory.

* SelectiveSquick: In general, the more {{squick}}y you find {{lolicon}}, the less you'll like the second season. If you can ignore the subtext completely and don't mind Hei's [[TookALevelInJerkass jerkification]], it's actually quite good, but for others... [[{{Sequelitis}} yeah]].

** ''Flower Of Darkness'' manga: The Contractor [[BigBad antagonist]], Harvest serves as an EvilCounterpart to Hei. While Hei embraces his humanity, Harvest [[FantasticRacism considers humans weak and pathetic]] and [[ManipulativeBastard offers humans in mental torment his Black Dandelion]], the "Flower of Darkness," which will grant them power at the price of [[DealWithTheDevil murdering their best friend]]. The flower strips the victim of morality and restraints, and Harvest he often gives it to the target as well to see who will kill the other first. Harvest's motivation is he was once informed he was inferior to the then fully human Hei. Unable to accept this, Harvest opens the Black Dandelion to infect every human in Tokyo, and from there on the rest of the world, to turn humans into amoral monsters like him so he can judge for himself if morality is necessary and there is "nothing within me." Defined by his [[ItsAllAboutMe selfishness and narcissism]], when the Black Dandelion is stopped, Harvest declares "'''I alone am the future! '''" before using his enhanced powers to attempt to simply obliterate [[OmnicidalManiac the remainder of the planet]].
** Also from ''Flower Of Darkness'' comes [[HumansAreBastards Coach Daisuke Mioka]]. Daisuke is the handsome young coach of an all girls academy, but is also a serial womanizer and [[HotForStudent has affairs with his impressionable, starstruck students]], making web porn of them. When one of them, Azusa, finds out, Daisuke tries to silence her by convincing her best friend, his cousin, another conquest, to talk to Azusa so he can save the day from a group of his friends who want to rape them. Daisuke mentions to his friends to go ahead, but he'll just be "a little late" so they can have their fun and later drugs a teacher so he can sleep with her. When Hei is talking the newly empowered Azusa from leaving Daisuke alone, he gloats how happy he made her and how [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming it's all the fault]] of [[HeManWomanHater women for what he's done]] and tries to fry Azusa with a stun gun, which enrages the normally taciturn Hei into trying to kill him in cold blood.

* LeaveThePlotThreadsHanging: The complete lack of explanation for the [[EldritchLocation Gates]], AlienSky, and the like generally works well enough that resolving exactly what's going on would probably be a bit of a letdown.

** Hei will die. But his soul will choose to go back in time, the time when he was happiest, and he will be at season 1 first episode. Suou who loves Hei wants to be with him too and wants to be in a time when Hei'd love her, but since he already loves Yin she'll go back in time before Hei is born, and become his mother.[[note]]This copypasta jokingly places Hei, Suou, and Yin in the roles of three primary characters in the ShadowHearts series. Said explanation is a note because it's also the [[spoiler: ending to the ''second game.'']][[/note]]

** The second OP isn't bad, either - it just has the misfortune of [[ReplacementScrappy turning up after]] ''[[SugarWiki/Awesome Howling]]''.

** Most of the {{OVA}}. It's basically an {{omake}} parodying the main series, particularly mocking Hei's ChickMagnet status and the fact that a WhiteMaskOfDoom and [[BadassLongcoat a change of clothes]] really shouldn't be ''that'' effective of a disguise. Highlights include slightly loopy {{fangirl}} Mayu crushing on him due to his "sexy collarbone" and writing him into her yaoi fanfic (which ''[[CovertPervert Yin]]'' reads), and what is possibly the absolute silliest ResetButton in the history of fiction.
* [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: A lot of the last episode of the first season, [[GainaxEnding assuming you can make any sense of it]]. And then there's episode 14... [[spoiler:"Kirsi..." "No. Yin."]]

* HarsherInHindsight: For Troy Baker, who said in a Funimation commentary that at the time he played November 11, he had recently chose to quit smoking.

** To a lesser extent, many fans enjoy taking a page from Mayu by jokingly fixating on Hei's clavicle. It's gotten to MemeticSexGod levels.

* MemeticSexGod: Hei. C'mon, just [[EvenTheGuysWantHim check out]] those ''[[MemeticMutation collar]][[FemaleGaze bones]]''.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
** See TakingYouWithMe and DyingMomentOfAwesome. Since Hei lives and breathes pure awesome, though, it can be hard to pick out specifics.
** He pulls some seriously awesome stuff in the last episode, though, and there's some more clear-cut moments in the second season.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny:

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: A lot of the last episode of the first season, [[GainaxEnding assuming you can make any sense of it]]. And then there's episode 14... [[spoiler:"Kirsi..." "No. Yin."]]
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** Well, it's by YokoKanno, so what do you expect? "GO Dark" and "[[AutobotsRockOut Deadly Work]]" in particular. The first OP is also impressive, even given the NarmCharm and MemeticMutation.
** The second OP isn't bad, either - it just has the misfortune of [[ReplacementScrappy turning up after]] ''[[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Howling]]''.
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Go figure. The show's love of the DevelopingDoomedCharacters trope makes it hard to get attached to anyone who shows signs of character depth.
* FanficFuel: Several of them. Some include...
** How the Gates appear in the world.
** What did the characters in the series did before, during and after the Gates show up and also what they did prior to the start of the show.
** Some write their own fics to not take Gemini of the Meteor into account.
** [[HeroOfAnotherStory Others include Contractors/non-Contractors who try to take on the Syndicate and other like-minded factions.]] While some work together with Hei/Yin and Misaki.
* FanonDiscontinuity: Some people ignore the second season entirely.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The American fanbase loves November 11.