Darker Than Black - Television Tropes & Idioms

Huang, Yin, Hei, Mao

"A night sky full of cries

Hearts filled with lies

The contract—is it worth the price?

A soul pledged to the darkness

Now I've lost it, I know I can kill

The truth is just beyond the Gate"

A Science Fiction Anime and Manga series produced by Studio BONES.

Ten years ago, an inscrutable and abnormal territory known as Hell's Gate appeared in Tokyo and altered the sky and decimated the landscape. The heavenly bodies disappeared, replaced by false stars. At the same time, people who possess various special abilities emerged. Kept secret from the knowledge of the masses, these individuals, known as Contractors, are able to murder in cold blood. Various nations around the world use Contractors as spies and agents, often resulting in violent battles for information. However, their abilities are gained at the expense of their humanity: they lack most human emotions, especially aversion to killing.

The story follows Hei, a Contractor working for the Syndicate in Tokyo battling various rogue Contractors, while covertly searching for both his sister Bai and Amber, a mysterious woman from his past.

A second season, subtitled Ryuusei no Gemini, roughly meaning Twins of the Meteor, began in October 2009.

Darker Than Black provides examples of:

Absurdly Sharp Blade: Either Hei's knives are these, or a crappy concrete is more of a threat to Japan than the Hell's gate and everything that came from it put together. Tons of stolen Imported Alien Phlebotinum in circulation justify this for elite operative's equipment, though.
- It could also be a testament to Hei's strength; he did snap the board of a bench in two from a frustrated smack, after all.
Action Girl: Kirihara, Mina in season 2.
Affably Evil: Most contractors other than Hei.
Affectionate Parody: The episodes with the Private Defective are an amusing parody of your usual private eye plot, including the idea (particularly associated with Raymond Chandler) of the detective essentially stumbling into solving the crime after being hired for a completely different reason.
Alas Poor Villain: Several of the Contractors — Bertha and Itzhak are particularly prominent, although nowhere near as much as Nick.
Alien Sky: On Earth, no less.
Amplifier Artifact: Several organizations hunt for damn thing, and not just because it's shiny.
An Ice Person: November 11 is a more lethal version, and his powers are complemented by April, who can create mini-hurricanes leading to rain.
Anime First
Anti Hero: Hei
Anyone Can Die: A lot of the core cast is dead at the end of the first season.
Arc Number: Just one number: 201. It crops up all over the place if you look hard enough.
Arc Words: "Hell's Gate" "BK-201" "PANDORA" "Evening Primrose" etc.
- "A rational decision, befitting of a contractor" is an odd phrase. It can be equally insulting or complimentary in any situation.
Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Contractors tend to have these, in addition to astonishingly appropriate powers.
Autobots Rock Out: When you hear the palm-muted guitar riff start going, get ready to see Hei do something balls-out AWESOME.
Awesome Mc Coolname: Guy Kurosawa isn't the real name of the detective; rather, he changed his name to something "cooler" sounding.
Awkward Ability: The "Who, me? Incredibly Bad Ass martial arts master?" sequence in episode 17. Hei is really quite bad at hiding his ninja skills.
Badass: Lots of em, but Hei takes the cake. He kicks more ass in 26 episodes than most Anime badasses do in 100.
Badass Abnormal: Hei, so very much.
Badass Biker: Hitotsubashi apparently was one, Kenji tries to be.
Badass Longcoat: Hei's default mission garb consists of a long black coat that's only bullet proof when he wears it — because no one else is badass enough.
- Thanks to the cold weather, practically everyone who lives in Russia.
Badass Normal: Most of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, especially Kirihara, especially considering that she's up against super powered people. Even more so, Huang, who helps out Hei himself on several occasions, even sniping other Contractors. Also, Hei, before he got his powers — fighting a Contractor head-on with choke wire is pretty badass. And in the second season he gets depowered, knocking him back down to this.
Bad Powers Bad People: or in this case, all powers bad people. Havoc is probably the best fit though as her power is so great it kills tons of people when deployed and her Remuneration is drinking the blood of children — it's definitely an understatement to say there is no possible way in which she could use her powers for good.
Beat Still, My Heart: A contractor with teleportation powers tended to do this.
Beautiful Dreamer: Invoked, when Amber deemed the scene of Hei watching his sleeping sister romantic-looking. Then again, for Amber he looks as romantic as possible in any situation.
Berserk Button: Anything involving mention of Amber or the whereabouts of his sister makes Hei a very dangerous person to be around.
Big Damn Villains: Sort of; Hei ends up saving Kirihara almost incidentally a couple of times.
Big Eater: Hei, with a Running Gag of onlookers commenting that he'll be fat when he's thirty. To a lesser extent Kirihara is known for eating very high fat foods, but she claims that she doesn't get fat because her job requires her to move around a lot.
Birds Of A Feather: There's great similarity between Hei and Nick, they get along very well and apparently feel sort of kinship, but there's also some... unfortunate circumstances.
- Another example is Hei and Kirihara, both of whom have stoic personalities and are big eaters.
Bishonen: The manga's art style sometimes turns Hei into one.
Bittersweet Ending: The genocide against Contractors has been defeated and some leaders of The Syndicate are dead or imprisoned. On the other hand, a lot of characters have died, and while it's theoretically good that Contrators are now revealed to the public, there is the obvious danger of what an evil Contractor could do. Finally, it seems plausible that there are still Syndicate leaders alive who could threaten the protagonists in the future.
Black Box: A lot of strange magitek came from the gates, such as the method of memories wiping/implanting, flowers from which sort of recreation drug is derived in a weird way, a plant which can be used to temporarily suppress Contractor traits, and in the OVA a substance which cures human allergies but also causes extreme drowsiness and short-term memory loss.
Black Eyes: Hei, leading to a Mind Control Eyes look. And his Code Name.
Blind Seer: Yin
Blind Without Em: Kirihara
Blessed With Suck / Cursed With Awesome: The main curse of being a Contractor is losing one's emotions and moral constraints, but most of those encountered retain enough emotion to be fairly pleasant (if amoral), and have gained cool powers. Their obeisance is an important determinant of whether the Contractor has a Blessed With Suck or Cursed With Awesome. Some of the former include having to break one's fingers, needing to cut oneself, and drinking childrens' blood (although the Contractors with the last two were mass murderers). On the other hand, other obeisances include needing to drink beer or write poetry. Then again, the guy who merely had to arrange pebbles was annoyed by the fact it's apparently meaningless compulsion.
- This Troper thinks that Wei is actually Cursed With Awesome. His power is exploding his blood, and his price is bleeding. It's not really a price, it's pulling a trigger to shoot.
Blond Guys Are Evil: About half of the Contractors are blond, and this goes along with the whole Evil Foreigner attribute of the vast majority of them.
Blood Splattered Wedding Dress: Alice's white party dress, after Wei turns on her
Bloody Murder: Wei's power.
Board To Death
Boat Lights: Maki, in a Shout Out to Souseiseki of Rozen Maiden.
Bodyguard Betrayal: Wei
Bodyguard Crush: Saito, to Kirihara
Body Surf: A contractor was using this ability to make murders look like suicides. And Mao is a Contractor who could Body Surf between animals, but when his real body was killed, he got stuck as a cat.
Book Ends: The first episode begins with the police trying to and failing to catch Louis, who has "gravity cancellation" powers. The epilogue of the last episode shows them successfully catching a Contractor with the same power.
Bottle Fairy: British agent April who loves her Remuneration of beer drinking
- Perhaps also the Contractor Shihoko who while in a relationship with Huang was able to match some pretty hard core drinking.
Breather Episode: Episode 23 is a lot less action-heavy than the Grand Finale that immediately followed it.
Building Swing: Hei does this regularly.
Bullying A Dragon: Some people apparently like to tell Contractors things to the effect of "you're less than humans and no more than killing robots". Of course, a Tin Man isn't supposed to give a damn about such prattle, but...
- Particularly hilarious is Huang's habit of getting pissed off at Hei and picking him up by his shirt. Hei never reacts, but one has to wonder what would happen if someone pointed out to Huang that he's trying to intimidate someone who could kill him if he so much as touched him.
Cannot Tell A Lie: Played for Black Comedy in the OVA. The heroine encounters a Contractor who she initially thinks is a pervert (his power involves teleporting out of clothing). He tells her that he has to kill her, because she learned of a code. When she protests that she didn't hear anything, he repeats the code back to her, as inability to lie is his Remuneration. This keeps repeating until he starts strangling her. At which point Hei comes to the rescue and throws a knife into his back.
Captain Ersatz: Maki looks like a white haired version of Souseiseki from Rozen Maiden and Amber looks identical to C.C. of Code Geass. November 11 is very James Bondish, although that might be simply National Stereotypes of what a British spy is like.
- Also, kind of an odd one overlapping with Actor Allusion: April has a low level version of Storm's powers in X Men and even looks slightly similar to her. The actress who voices her has also voiced many dubs of Halle Berry's movies, including her role as Storm in the X Men films.
Card Carrying Villain: The card is "I'm inherently heartless bastard and don't give a damn. No, really. Believe me. I can repeat." Most Contractors adopt such a ~~secure~~ convenient pose. Those who live on-screen long enough to fall out of "Bad Tin Man" role and turn out to be vengeful, cowardly, proud, affectionate, caring and so on, only more withdrawn than most. Huang turns out to be like that too, and manages to get along with Contractors better than either side would care to admit.
Catapult Nightmare: In the Interquel manga. Particularly interesting given Hei's repeated assertion that contractors don't dream. Although it may be due to the fact that he isn't a true Contractor.
Catch Phrase: November 11, worst comedian ever. This catchphrase, "Just joking" (immediately after a somewhat disturbing comment) is sufficiently annoying to other characters that it gets several Ironic Echoes throughout the series.
- There are also several occasions in which Hei's Berserk Button has been triggered and he gets angry enough to kill someone, leading Mao to cry out "Hei, no!" Significantly, Hei ignores this in the first episode but shows more restraint as the series progresses.
  - It's not just Mao who says that. Kirihara tries to stop Hei from killing her treacherous boss in the last episode. He listens. Awwww. If you need proof that he's not all bad, that's it.
Cat Scare: Played around with in the first episode. Louis clearly hears someone talking to him, and looks toward where the sound came from- and all he sees is a cat. Then he turns back around and Hei is right there. But, as we shortly find out, the cat actually was the culprit behind the suspicious noise. And it was intentional. And in the second season, after April flees from the lab, a contractor throws a cat to scare her. And presumably to waste bullets.
- He does it again shortly afterward to help cover for Hei when he has to sneak out with police investigating in the next room.
Ceiling Cling: Sort of; when Hei was helping Kenji try to escape from Yakuza goons, he decided to help buy him some time. The method? Yin waits at the end of the hall. Mooks come to a screeching halt and ask where the guy they were chasing went. Yin just points up. Cue Hei dropping from overhead and hitting the nearest guy with a trash can, then kicking him into the rest of the group and knocking some shelves full of boxes over on them.
Character Filibuster: November 11's memorable speech on the dangers of second-hand smoke which gets an Ironic Echo later in the series when he's taken prisoner and needs a cigarette for his Remuneration.
- It gets quoted again at the beginning of the second season, but the recipient just says it's useless trying to get a Russian to stop smoking.
The Charmer: November 11, in between being a Jerkass.
Chick Magnet: Hei's magnetism is so great, even Emotionless Girls crush on him.
- And Magnificent Bastard sociopaths.
- By This Troper's estimation, the grand total of female characters who encounter him and don't appear at all attracted is three.
Child Soldiers: Kid gets Contractor powers? Well, will you look at that, we have a new operative. For instance, adolescent Mai immediately gets snapped up once her powers stabilize, Cute Shotaro Boy Maki is acting as Amber's bodyguard, and one of the flashbacks shows that Hei can't have been much more than 16 when he and Bai joined the fighting in South America, and he was the older sibling. And in the second season, two different girls around age 14 are immediately trained as assassins when their powers manifest.
Chinese Girl: But she gave her qipao to a childhood friend. And she's completely psycho.
Chinese People: Kind of a mix of examples. Alice and Wei are rather negative examples, being a psychopathic Mafia Princess and her equally psycho Contractor Battle Butler. Hei is Chinese and a Bad Ass martial artist, but in his Li persona presents himself as a friendly, unassuming Chinese immigrant. Kenji seeing how Hei wins the fight with troublesome client while feigning weakness, notices the skill and makes a comment to the effect that "it's true that all Chinese people are martial arts masters". Li's landlady jokingly mentioned attitude toward the Chinese idea of food, but other than that she cares not who came from where.
Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Kirihara's boss and Nishijima both do this occasionally; they're both high-ranking Syndicate members.
Code Name: Widely used by Contractors and Dolls in lieu of their "human" names; interestingly, Amber's favored name matches the code naming theme of Hei's group, but formerly had the code name of February when working for British intelligence.
- It's stated that she's worked for both and betrayed both.
Combat Pragmatist: Hei is many things; "honorable" is not one of them.
Conspiracy Redemption: Turns out Evening Primrose was trying to prevent a genocide of all contractors that the group Hei had been working for was planning. Hei has a bit of a temper tantrum at the suggestion that Amber, who he hates for whatever happened between them in South America may actually have the moral high ground.
The Corps Is Mother: Or, in this case, PANDORA, The Syndicate, MI6, the CIA, and pretty much everyone else who employs Contractors.
Cosplay Otaku Girl: Kiko
Covert Pervert: Turns out that one of Kirihara's coworkers, Mayu, writes smutty fanfic for Yaoi anime... and Yin reads it. You can blame Kiko for that.
Crack Pairing: Played with for laughs, see Loony Fan below.
Crowning Moment Of Awesome: See Taking You With Me and Dying Moment Of Awesome. Since Hei lives and breathes pure awesome, though, it can be hard to pick out specifics.
Crowning Moment Of Funny: Not much, but Huang slighting Mao into near-hissing only to be verbally drowned in vitriol by absolutely calm Hei might count. And there's the Private Defective team... "I'll totally sue you."
- This troper would like to nominate the time when a couple of door-to-door missionaries went after Hei. "Um... I just want to put away my groceries..."
  - "NI HAO!!!" Had this troper laughing so hard he had to pause the episode to catch his breath.
- And, after Mao wakes up in Amber's headquarters, he gives a long, dramatic monologue about how contractors always do the logical thing. What was it? "Meow."
- Another great Kiko moment was when she and a friend were complaining about Adaptation Decay of some unnamed series.
  "I can't let that writer live!" *Pulls out pen with an over-the-top sword sound effect familiar to anyone who's watched a certain show* "I'm writing his name in my notebook!"
- Then there's the time when Hei was infiltrating a restaurant and a violent, drunk customer decided he had a problem with the waiter. Result: Huge tough guy trying to beat up a cute, skinny little waiter who isn't doing that great of a job of hiding his epic ninja skills.
- "The stars are pretty."
Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: A lot of the last episode of the first season, assuming you can make any sense of it. And then there's episode 14... "Kirsi..." "No. Yin."
Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Friends of the Gate is a bizarre mix of Catholicism and Jehovah's Witnesses, except they worship Hell's Gate. They even have confessionals!
Curb Stomp Battle: First, Hei stomping all over Louis in the first episode. Somewhat later, he and Kenji took out eight or nine Yakuza goons, and Kenji's only contribution was distracting their leader enough to make his shot miss.
- Also, don't try to steal November 11's money. Seriously. It's a bad idea.
Cute Shotaro Boy: Played straight with July and subverted with Maki. Mainly because Maki is totally nuts.
Dead Little Sister: More like Disappeared Little Sister. Actually, she got merged with her brother when Heaven's Gate went critical.
Dead Star Walking Chiaki seems like she will become a major character and/or love interest for Hei but not only is dead by the second episode, but isn't even the real Chiaki.
Deconstruction: Contractors, with the extensive masquerade surrounding them, lack of mental inhibitions, the nature of their powers and being treated as living weapons to the degree that they're no longer considered human, could be called a deconstruction of superpowered humans in anime.
- This editor also sees a potential deconstruction of the anti-hero, in that Hei certainly fits that, but his less heroic qualities are a product of the warped mental state of a Contractor. Comparably, it's funny that November 11 has a lot of James Bond vibes, as he really isn't that much more sociopathic than the actual Bond.
Deconstructive Parody: The OVA spoofs the main series.
De Power: Havoc somehow lost her power, it's even unknown whether it was a side effect of Heaven Gate's accident, as a result of Gates' chaotic nature, from a strain or whatever. Because she also somehow lost her memory in process — again, it's unknown whether it was for the same reason or she was mind-wiped.
- Apparently Dr. Schroeder has been busy during the Time Skip, since the second season has someone setting a trap that does this to Hei. Just to add insult to injury, he lost his coat, mask, and knife in the process.
Dies Wide Shut: Havock dies with her eyes open, and the final sign that Hei's attitude toward her has changed is that he closes them before going after those responsible.
Disability Superpower: Yin was blind when human but her abilities as a Doll basically allow her to walk around without any problem.
Diving Save: ~~Subverted~~ ~~Double-subverted~~ Played with in the second episode.
Dying Moment Of Awesome: Havoc, ready to die but not to use her power again; Wei, fighting Hei while knowing the outcome and helping him as the last action; Amber, Ret Gone-ing herself so that Hei can stop the Syndicate's plan without removing Japan from the map; and several Taking You With Me cases: Huang, November 11.
Dynamic Entry: An incredibly Bad Ass one — after convincing Wei that he was dead, Hei took this opportunity to crash in through a window and kick him in the face, saving Kirihara and Saito in the process. Then he zapped the hell out of him through the blood Wei had gotten all over the floor.
Eagleland: Kirihara and November 11 are shown struggling against CIA agents who are presented as obstructive jerks.
- Probably the winners in the Obstructive Bureaucrat category are the guys at the embassy. When the police are dead sure they're going to get bombed, they refuse to let them help with security because they increased patrols, and obviously that's all that's necessary to cope with a supremely pissed-off superpowered ninja who's already bombed several other important buildings. Then, once the attack has already started, we have frigging brilliant moments like saying that an explosion right in front of their building doesn't matter because it's on Japanese territory.
- Possibly subverted in that Hei is working for the CIA at the beginning of the second season.
Ear Cleaning: Played with in an Innocent Innuendo situation.
Easily Forgiven: Towards the end of the series, Hei encounters Wei again now a follower of Amber who is under orders not to harm Hei. Despite the fact that the first time they met, Wei was gleefully murdering tons of people and Hei recently saw him doing more of the same in his new allegiance, Hei and friends join him in a car with relatively little hesitation granted, they were being hunted at the time by The Syndicate. During the ride, Wei is surprisingly affable, even getting along well with Huang. He then takes Hei to the desired location... and immediately starts attacking him out of a very un-Contractorish personal vendetta.
Easter Egg: In his Li identity, Hei (who has the Contractor designation BK-201) lives in Apartment 201. Also, in his documents◊: No 018-00201, AR201.
- In first episode of the second season there is a bus with a prominently displayed number "201" on the route plaque. It might be a coincidence, but there is no Route 201 in Vladivostok.
- Also BK-201 is actually his sister.
Eats Babies: Havoc's Remuneration is one step away from this.
Elemental Baggage: Averted with November 11. He's not much use if he can't get close enough to touch someone and there's no liquid around. However, he's pretty good at getting around this; he hangs around with April, and as Maki learned it's a bad idea to try to fight him in a building with a sprinkler system.
Eleventh Hour Superpower: Hei and Amber in the final episode. The unusual part is that it was already done once.
Emotionless Girl: Yin, though she wasn't always that way.
Empty Shell: Dolls effectively have to be programmed to perform functions as basic as sleeping or dressing themselves. While it is possible (and, from what we're shown, not too uncommon) for a Doll to eventually develop emotions and the capability for independent thought, their default mindset is this.
Estrogen Brigade Bait: Hei and, to a much lesser degree, November 11.
Everybody Remembers The Stripper: In retrospect, it probably wasn't the most brilliant idea to make the episode where November 11 lounges around naked be the same one where he dies — otherwise, you end up with fan memorials that get a little mixed up.
Evil Counterpart: Nick fits in having the same electric power as Hei and a similarly sensitive personality, but also possessing a Contractor's willingness to kill. Wei might also qualify, in that like Hei, he is Chinese, and seems to be the Contractor who most enjoys murder, in contrast to Hei, who is one of the more pacifistic.
Evil Foreigner: Several Contractors have this distinct slant to them.
Evil Has A Bad Sense Of Humor: November 11, worst comedian ever.
Evil Sounds Deep: Not really evil per se, but Hei's voice drops quite a bit when he switches out of his Li act.
Evolutionary Levels: Harvest, from the manga, fails biology forever.
Expospeak: A good part of Episode 1.
Extreme Doormat: Dolls. Even ones that grow beyond their Empty Shell persona have elements of this.
Extreme Omnivore: One Contractor has to chew up and spit out something as her Remuneration. It's not food.
Eye Always Shut: Amigiri
- And when he's being Li, Hei's eyes are shut most of the time. This makes for some rather unnerving Eye Takes when the show decides to remind us that the whole thing is an act.
Eyes Of Gold: The appropriately named Amber. Also April.
Fair Cop: Kirihara.
Fake Memories: Not completely fake, but "M.E." works both ways. At least with Dolls.
Fake Out Make Out: Episode 1. It's part of the brutally subverted Meet Cute.
Faking The Dead: Hei in ep.10. He got his own blood all over his mask and threw himself off a building to fool Wei, only for Wei to have a bit of a nasty surprise when the Black Angel of Death crashes through a window a few minutes later, kicks him in the face and electrocutes him through the blood all over the floor.
- It's also pretty clear that Mina Swami thought he died in the explosion that ensued when he got the Meteor Shard from Nick.
Fan Disservice: The show has a very unsettling use of the Sex Bot idea in showing a Doll purchased by Yakuza to be used as a sex slave. There is nothing erotic at all about the way the boss examines her naked, treating her more like a piece of furniture than anything.
- On a humorous note, the OVA has a rather unattractive guy having the same "teleport out of clothing" power as the Sexy Secretary mentioned below.
Fan Nickname: Chinese Electric Batman◊ has become one for both Hei and the series itself, for obvious reasons.
Fan Service: see Innocent Fanservice Girl and Go Go Enslavement. And "...girls need it too" (yeah, it's November 11).
- And also fanservice of the normal variety as of season 2.
Fantastic Racism: As mentioned above, humans do not consider Contractors to be human, with one noticeable discussion between a white man and a black Contractor that has certain... implications. Which might count as lampshading, given the strong anti-racism message (especially present in the last few episodes).
Female Gaze: Spoofed in the OVA with Hei's "delicious collarbone" (*snerk*).
Femme Fatale: Amber.
Fictional Counterpart: "Mcdoness burger"; November 11 flies into Japan on a "Lufanser" plane
Finger Lickin Evil: Wei has been spotted licking blood off his hand.
Fingore: Twice, for different reasons.
First Episode Spoiler: Actually, second. Li is a contractor assassin and the cat can talk. In a similar vein, exactly what Hei can do isn't really clear until November 11 figures it out, counteracts it, and explains it to us.
Follow That Car: played with (April vs. Amber).
Follow The Leader: It uses the same "exclusion zone just dropped on us - weird artifacts - contraband" setting as Roadside Picnic and is close in spirit. Show all "inside the Gate" scenes without main characters (especially "Hell's Gate First Reconnaissance") to someone who knows Picnic but not DtB and ask where they came from... That's not counting an alleged wish power of the ~~Golden Ball~~ Gate. Though its circumstances, scale and focus are all different, making it more "the next step" than "following".
- Within the anime genre, there are some similarities to Ergo Proxy (Re-l and Kirihara and Vincent and Hei), Witch Hunter Robin (Gray And Gray Morality involving Differently Powered Individuals), and Elfen Lied (living security systems, although much much less squicky in this show)
- And of course X Men
- Don't forget sCRYed (supernatural disaster splits part of Japan off from the rest and grants a percentage of the population special abilities).
Fragile Speedster: Goran originally seems more of a Lightning Bruiser, being slightly chunky, but then turns out to be more like one of these when he is horribly killed when April makes it rain while he is running.
Frozen Face: Yin. The extent of which is uncertain (as she is an Emotionless Girl), but she has shown extreme difficulty in the physical act of smiling. She got around it in episode 14 by using her fingers.
Fusion Dance: Bai somehow lives on inside of Hei, giving him her powers yet having him remain as a human
Gainax Ending: Episode 25 bears more than a passing resemblance to the final episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion complete with a "congratulations" segment.
Gangsta Style: A Yakuza goon thinks this is good for impressing people. He shouldn't have bothered.
Gas Leak Coverup: Not a Contractor who lost control. And this even aggravates the real problem.
Genki Girl: Kiko.
Gilligan Cut: Variation: when Saito is telling Kirihara that they're keeping watch on the MI6 agents in a hotel, November 11 comes up and interrupts him. Then Kirihara gets a call from Kano informing her that they lost track of them. No kidding?
Girl In A Box: Poor, poor Havoc. Also, the smuggled Doll in ep. 17 - being a Doll, she was treated more like a packed thing than a concealed girl.
The Glasses Gotta Go: In more fanservicey scenes with Kirihara. She looks good in any suit, but let's face it — in uniform and glasses she resembles a hungry female mantis a bit too much. Subverted in that she spends most of her glasses-free time squinting like crazy because, like most glasses-wearers outside of fiction, she actually needs them.
Glowing Eyes Of Doom: It's generally a good idea to start running if you see this. Of course, it probably won't help you if the Contractor who just activated their powers is after you, but you might at least not end up as collateral damage.
Go Go Enslavement: When Alice persuades Kirihara to come to her birthday party, she makes Kirihara wear a qipao which exposes a lot of flesh. Alice then reveals she's crazy and tries to kill Kirihara, who spends the episode escaping in the outfit.
Gonk: Huang's lack of prettiness is acknowledged in-universe.
Grand Theft Me: Mao is a possessor who eventually lost his own body and ended up in cat's. In ep. 7 they met another contractor with a similar power, and he had lost his original body too.
Grappling Hook Pistol: Used by Hei in both the usual way and as a weapon - its cable gives a circuit to his electric powers. However, usually Hei either throws a knife or it's clearly visible snap hook, not a grapple. When he fired some or other sort of grapple very far (embassy, EPR hideout) he used a crossbow.
Gratuitous English: "Hell's Gate" "BK-201" etc. And don't get us started on the written English. Regarding the BK-201 example, November 11 always speaks Japanese, both when it makes sense (talking to Japanese characters) and when it's just Translation Convention. However, he always pronounces BK-201 in (Japanese accented) English.
- And the Memetic Mutation-tastic first opening. "NOW I'VE LOST IT. I KNOW I CAN KILL."
- Quite a few background documents and suchlike are... well, supposedly in English. Don't look at them too hard if you actually speak the language.
Grey And Gray Morality: From the first episode to the last, thanks to punchclock villainy.
Grievous Bottley Harm: November 11 does a variation on this. When cornered by Syndicate agents employed by his boss, he picks up a bottle of an alcoholic beverage and freezes it. When the aftermath of the fight is shown, there is a room full of corpses pierced by these spikes.
- Someone also tried it on Hei (as Li) when he was infiltrating a Yakuza-owned restaurant. It... didn't really work. Like, at all.
Guns Are Worthless: Played straight for most of the season, and even gets directly invoked, then gets brutally subverted during last few episodes, starting with November 11's death.
- Similarly, Hei is generally totally unconcerned with mere bullets- except that when Huang shot him when he wasn't wearing his bulletproof Badass Longcoat, he spent the rest of the episode limping along, barely able to walk.
Harmless Freezing: Averted with November 11 who either cannot do this or chooses not to.
Hero With Bad Publicity: Hei is wanted by the police, and one episode has Kurosawa looking for Yin (in her human identity), and getting the impression that Hei is involved in child-trafficking.
- In the police's defense, Hei isn't exactly the most upstanding citizen. At his most heroic he's committing murder, breaking into maximum-security areas, and blowing up the American embassy.
Hey Its That Voice: Our hero is voiced by Tenma in Japanese and Lavi/Train in English.
Hollywood Evolution: The show doesn't practice this trope, but some of the crazier Contractors believe in it, referring to themselves as the next step in evolutionary progress.
Hollywood Tactics: Played with. Some Contractors combine "When All You Have Is A Hammer" approach with power-drunk individualism into shining tactical idiocy up to just standing in the open field or behind weak cover and randomly hurling damaging effects at heavy-armed troops. Martial artists and experienced operatives are immune to such failures. Lampshaded by Wei, who mocks a gravity-controller for paying no attention to his surroundings once he has Hei down.
- For a really good point of comparison, November 11 was the top British agent, and he had powers that were fairly weak when lacking a convenient source of water. On the other hand, August 7th has the power to do pretty much anything. November 11 lasts almost the entire first season and goes out in a pretty awesome way; August 7th last about 5 minutes
Hot Springs Episode: Invoked by Kiko (she's Cosplay Otaku Girl, after all). And promptly averted by her own indulgence.
- The newest chapter of the interquel manga is an omake set during the events of the first season. A hot spring has a rock supposedly from the Gate, so most of the cast goes to investigate (and Kiko's there for some reason as well). Thus, you have male-geared fanservice from the female cast as well as female-geared fanservice as a naked November 11 flirts with Hei.
How Do You Like Them Apples: Amber declares they are her favorite fruit and is shown eating one before beginning her eventually aborted plan to use the Gate to wipe out the human residents of Tokyo as opposed to all Contractors.
Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Amber and her minion, Amagiri
Hyperspace Arsenal: Where does Hei keep all those knives, anyway? He also somehow fits his Badass Longcoat into his pocket.
Iconic Item: Hei's mask, coat, and knives. The second season appears to be absolutely determined to humiliate him, because he lost all of them a couple episodes in.
Immune To Bullets: Hei's Badass Longcoat is handy.
Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: A tear shed for Havok. Also Maki, except offscreen and without the tear shedding.
Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Lots. Mostly of a Black Box nature.
Improbable Aiming Skills: In the episode 26 OVA: Kirihara effortlessly shoots one of Hei's knives out of the air. Head on.
- Luke managed to shatter an incoming knife-and-cable, but at least he swept it with a force whip.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: The sexy secretary contractor referenced below has the power of phasing out of her clothing and walks around naked without any suggestion of shame. The male contractor November 11 acts in the same way when she phases him out of his clothing (although another male contractor is weirded out by her behavior and tells her to put some clothes on). In both cases, this is less innocence than just not caring.
Innocent Innuendo: Ear Cleaning.
- The second season has this with Yoko administering moxibustion to Genma, which is his Remuneration. Again, it's only "innocent" with respect to the female participant. His human partner apologizes for her lack of skill with burning the herbs, as it is her first time. He comments, "Your first time? How quaint."
Instant Knots: The worst is averted for good, but Hei's snap-hooks are ridiculously well-balanced and efficient, always properly looping and locking on the cable.
Intellectual Animal: Mao, a talking cat. Justified in that he used to be a human with the ability to possess animals who ended up losing his original body.
Interquel: The manga Darker Than Black - Shikkoku no Hana, which is set between the end of the 1st anime and the beginning of the second season. Also, the four special episodes going to be included on the Blue Ray releases of the second season.
Inverse Law Of Utility And Lethality: Averted. Almost all the contractors have purely offensive powers, and are employed accordingly as assassins or special operatives. They don't hold back on them, either. Justified, as Contractors don't flaunt their status. Those who got on screen participated in some action or other and there wasn't much place for anything less dangerous than teleportation or Doppelganger power.
- Still applies occasionally, though; while Hei can use cool zappy powers to pick locks and fix broken TVs, there's no way in heaven or hell that Havok could possibly use her powers for anything nonviolent. Especially when you consider her remuneration.
Invisible To Normals: Observer apparitions are visible only to Contractors and Mediums.
- This once blew a contractor's cover, when Alma noticed her staring at what to her should have been empty space.
Ironic Echo: November 11 seems to be on the receiving end of this a lot. For instance, his "Smoking kills" speech gets parroted back at him when he's tied up and needs a cigarette for his remuneration, his "I Was Just Joking" non-jokes are made right back at him, and Hei, completely on accident, repeated his last advice to Kirihara to her almost word-for-word.
- Also common with Bond One Liners. For instance, November 11's "I knew we'd work well together" echoes what his victim said to him at the beginning of their meeting and was immediately followed by him freezing the guy to death. And when Hei fought Wei, Wei had the bad taste to say, "Looks like I'm faster than you." Guess what Hei said after proving him wrong? [[hottip*:There is one important difference there; Wei used watashi while Hei used ore.]]
Iron Woobie:
Havoc: Promise me one thing, though. If... If I revert back to my former self, kill me right away.
Its Personal: Wei bears a grudge against Hei for defeating him in a fight; on the more heroic side, November 11 and July act contrary to their supposedly emotionless personalities and seek revenge on Maki for injuring April.
It Was With You All Along: A Soul Fragment, sort of.
I Was Just Joking: November 11, worst comedian ever.
Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: One of the first scenes. Also, when Hei encounters Havoc (and assumes her to be just as monstrous as she was previously), he slaps her and then breaks her fingers to elicit information on his sister. He does feel remorseful when he realizes that she is no longer a monster, but it's still pretty disturbing behavior on his part.
Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Huang
The Kid With The Leash: Subverted. It looks like Alice has Wei's leash, but he kills her with absolutely no provocation, remorse, or warning.
Karma Houdini: Surprisingly subverted at the very end. Eric Nishijima is backstabbed by his boss, his boss is then exposed by Kirihara. However season two shows that not everything is resolved with their Organization.
Kill Em All: Most of the principle and reoccurring characters die during the final four episodes, leaving Yin, Hei and Kirihara as some of the only survivors. Mao's body is still alive, but his human mind (which was stored on a database somewhere else) had the plug pulled, effectively killing him.
Knife Nut: Hei
Knocking On Heathens' Door: The Friends of the Gate.
Lack Of Empathy: Combined with Tin Man, this pretty much sums up the contractor mindset.
Laser Guided Amnesia: Memory erasing is rather widely used to maintain Masquerade. Moreover, part of stolen memories can be "uploaded" (at least in Doll's empty mind) to counterfeit an original person.
Left For Dead: Bertha thought she'd managed to stop the heart of Hei, who restarted it immediately using his electrical discharge. Hei almost fatally electrocuted Wei, just after Faking The Dead, but he didn't need to kill him, just get him out of the way. Still, everyone fell for it, including the police.
Less Disturbing In Context: Just try to explain that the show's not that violent to someone who walks in on Havoc's "blood of children" line.
Licking The Blade: Wei
Little Black Dress: Poor Hei gets shipped with everyone.
Look Behind You: "The stars are pretty." "What? I don't see..." *has vanished*
Loony Fan: Also a Crowning Moment Of Funny. If you want to know how it feels when yer brain implodes, imagine the "pairing" of the all-stealthy Black Angel of Death and loudmouthed Kiko. And she tried. Enthusiastically.
- Amusingly, the OVA has a Contractor-hunting officer who is just as even more anime-obsessed than Kiko and becomes this towards both Hei's masked persona (although she doesn't realize he's a Contractor) and as Li (she can tell from similar body structure they are the same person) and Kiko remarks angrily something like "only I can stalk him".
Lovable Traitor: Technically, in his infiltrations Hei worked against Yakuza, PANDORA and (secondary to the target, but still) police. Now look at his interaction with Kenji, Nick and Kirihara in his undercover identity. He didn't even play with them, he's really like that. Much the same for pseudo-Chiaki.
Loves My Alter Ego: Kirihara fulfills this in not connecting Li with BK-201, most egregiously, in one episode, she sees the back of "BK-201", which at this moment is Hei dressed in his normal Li clothing. Later, she sees the back of him at a mall and actually puts a "barrel" of lipstick to his back to arrest him. Hei uses his Li persona to completely allay her suspicions. In fairness, there is an implication given that she makes the Hei/Li connection on her own in the last episode that Kirihara subconsciously realizes who BK-201 is but doesn't want to acknowledge it.
Mac Guffin: A number of Hei's missions involve him stealing crystals or other things which came from the gate and not only is that goal not revealed until he completes it, the significance of the products isn't either.
Mad Scientist: Dr. Schrader. He's actually a nice and chatty guy, but thinks it's really great idea to indiscriminately eradicate some portion of humanity (thus cornering said people into trying Throw Away Country trick just to stop him) and bet the whole Earth (it's already all under Alien Sky undeniably connected to Gates and Contractors, remember?) on the validity of his theories. In a single experiment. Which is supposed to be non-repeatable even if successful. Why not, indeed?
- It helps that his reaction to Hei interfering in an attempt to destroy the Gate, leaving The Syndicate's plan shot to hell, is absolute glee that he got something so cool to study the results of.
Mafia Princess: A psychotic one who was the childhood friend of Kirihara and tries to kill her with the help of Wei, her "pet Contractor".
Magic Prerequisite: The basis of a Contractor's powers.
Magical Defibrillator: Literally, but as such not quite an example of the trope. Bertha stopped Hei's heart briefly, only to quickly learn that this isn't the most effective way of taking down someone who can generate enough electricity to immediately start it again.
Magnificent Bastard: Amber
Major Injury Underreaction: It's never directly stated, but there is arguably an implication that Contractors are fairly resistant to injury. Wei is always cutting himself and is never weakened by blood loss; November 11 pulls Hei's dagger out of his arm, and despite needing a bandage, doesn't have any permanent damage; April is caught in an explosion, and while covered in bandages afterward has no injuries or scars in her next appearance; Hei suffers some pretty serious damage in the course of the series, even having his heart stopped at least once, but is able to shrug it off and keep fighting.
Malevolent Masked Men- Hei, from most characters' perspectives. He's a scary guy.
The Man Behind The Man: Kirihara's boss (of the Contractor-hunting police) is also the boss of The Syndicate, which has been planning a genocide of the Contractors from the very beginning.
Masquerade: Very few people know the truth about the Contractors, and one organization's goal is to reveal their existence to the public. It works.
Mask Power: Hei.
Meet Cute: Deeply subverted with Hei and Chiaki. It's no coincidence they are neighbors or that he keeps bumping into her and saves her life. He is following her as part of a mission. His befriending and flirting is also to an extent just acting and it turns out it wasn't the real Chiaki anyway, so no relationship actually occurs. With real Chiaki, anyway.
- Closer to normal with Hei and Kirihara. Their meetings really are coincidental, and setting aside certain impediments, they seem to get along really, really well.
Mega Nekko: Mina and Kirihara
Melee A Trois
Memetic Mutation: Post the first line of the first Opening Theme on /a/ and see what happens.
- To a lesser extent, many fans enjoy taking a page from Mayu by jokingly fixating on Hei's clavicle.
- Chinese Electric Batman!
- Veteran's Day (11/11) has been commandeered in honor of November 11. Naked pictures◊ are inevitably involved.
Merlin Sickness: Amber's remuneration is getting younger
Mind Control Eyes: Dolls have these, as does Hei in less expressive moments since he's rarely drawn with pupils.
The Mind Is A Plaything Of The Body: Mao needs Applied Phlebotinum to compensate for a cat brain. When his link to PANDORA's database is cut, he rapidly reverts to acting like a cat.
- He got better. Using a backup copy of his mind. This Troper applauded.
Mineral Mac Guffin: The Meteor Fragment.
Miniature Senior Citizens: Hei's landlady and the Mad Scientist from the later episodes
Missed Moment Of Awesome: All the buildup to the final fight between Hei and Wei, and they skip over nearly all of it? Absolutely criminal.
Mission Control: Huang and Yin
Moe Moe: Amber and Yin. Amber may be a subversion, however, since she uses her apparent cuteness to further her own goals.
- And in the second series, Suou.
- Hei tries to play this up as well when pretending to be "Li Shenshun" as part of his Obfuscating Stupidity. Sometimes it works a lot better than others.
Mood Whiplash: Often present, as an arc will start off with some humor, but become grim by the end.
Mook Horror Show: Considering the cat scares and Hei's Stealth Hi Bye abilities bordering on Offscreen Teleportation (Not to mention his rather brutal information-gathering tactics), one could be forgiven for thinking he was the villain up until the end of the second episode. The second season continues this, with Hei showing up and scaring the crap out of Suou by killing her father and April.
Motive Rant: The Director delivers one of these to Kirihara in the last episode; combined with Villainous Breakdown, since he starts strangling her in the middle of his rant. The Hei shows up and pwns him in a matter of about 3 seconds.
Mugging The Monster: November 11's first appearance in Episode 5.
Multinational Team: Hei is Chinese, Huang is Japanese, and Yin is Scandinavian. Who knows where Mao is from.
Mundane Utility: Electricity-based power can be used to fry someone, crack an electrical lock, defibrillate a heart — or to repair a TV. Telekinetic whip helps to slice people and concrete alike into bouillon cubes — or remove caps from bottles (along with half of a neck).
Murder Is The Best Solution: Most Contractors seem to think so.
My God What Have I Done: Shihoko's remuneration, oddly enough. After she uses her powers, her feelings and morals return to normal and she has a complete breakdown.
Nakama: Both Hei and co. and the British agents despite both being entirely composed of card carrying villains.
- The term is actually used in the episodes with Maki, as when November 11 is kidnapped, July goes to Kirihara for help and refers to November and April as his Nakama (translated in the subtitles as "friends"). When Kirihara tells November 11 about this, he is at first surprised, but then shows caring towards July, demonstrating complexity beyond what is expected of a Contractor.
- The Tokyo Municipal Police unit dedicated to capturing Contractors also counts as a Nakama, as they are quite close and affectionate with one another, and Kirihara refuses a promotion at least partially because she doesn't want to leave her team.
Naked First Impression: Played with, since the naked party is a man, and the other is a cat... yeah.
Names To Run Away From Really Fast: PANDORA, which is a great example of ironic naming. Their stated goal is to study the Gate and its effects and protect the public. Of course, Pandora is known for releasing the Sealed Evil In A Can...
- And seriously, would you want to be anywhere near someone nicknamed "The Black Angel of Death"?
- Played with in the case of Havoc. She certainly earned the "run away now" title when she had her powers, but now everyone just wants to give her a hug and make her feel better.
Narm Charm: The Gratuitous English lines at the beginning of the first opening should by all rights sound stupid. Instead, they're slightly awesome, in an over-the-top, Memetic Mutation kind of way.
The Nasty Party: Thrown by Alice
Nice Guy: Hei's cover. Also, Nick. Of course, he's also actually a Contractor.
No Holds Barred Beatdown: Hei does this regularly anyway, but if he has any reason to connect someone to his sister they're in for a truly staggering amount of pain.
No Name Given: The main Contractor/Doll characters are all known by code names. We do learn that Yin's name was Kirsi and November 11 introduces himself as Jack Simon (although this does sound suspiciously like a "John Smith" kind of alias). It's not clear if Hei is the real name of that character or not- it means "black" in Chinese which matches the pattern of code names used by the rest of his team.
- Probably isn't since he gives his sister's real name in the last episode (it's Qing), which means his is also a code name more than likely.
Nonstandard Character Design: Gai and Kiko do not look like they belong in this show. This is undoubtedly intentional. Dr. Schrader is even worse.
No Plans No Prototype No Backup: Subverted. The Mad Scientist thinks that his plan has been stopped because Amber and company blew up his particle accelerator, but it turns out his bosses had made a backup copy.
No Tell Motel: November 11 and co. find Havoc living in one of these.
- In the second season, Hei and his group take up reference in what amounts to one of these — an abandoned Love Hotel in a part of Sapporo that was apparently flooded badly during the Time Skip. Thus, the protagonists (and presumably others living in the area) are essentially squatters.
Not Of This Earth: The setting has strong Roadside Picnic style setup, so it has lots of strange things ranging from small plants to Dolls' and Contractors' abilities to the Alien Sky. Some of weird stuff found Black Box applications.
Not So Different: There's a lot of moments that show the audience how the protagonists and some of their antagonists aren't really different. For instance, the episode explaining Bertha's past parallels it with flashbacks of Yin's past and shows a similarity between the two; November 11 is told by the Evening Primrose members that he should do what's logical and join them, and he recalls telling Hei the same thing- although, November 11 concludes they are very different, as Hei acts illogically, while November 11 thinks it's logical not to join Evening Primrose; Hei's advice to Kirihara in one of the last episodes to "trust no one and rely on her intuition" is pretty much word-for-word the same warning November 11 gave her, causing her to do a bit of a double-take.
Not So Stoic: Havock deliberately provokes Hei into this by badmouthing his sister. But any other time a Contractor or Doll shows emotion also counts, such as when Yin starts crying in Ep. 14 or when Maki goes full-on Yandere.
Not What It Looks Like: The time when Kirihara ran into Hei in a department store- buying a wig and a bra. They were to help disguise a doll, you pervs.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Hei in his "Li Sheng Shun" persona.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Syndicate seems to use these as an added safety net. Also, there's the morons at the American embassy.
Offscreen Teleportation: Hei's Stealth Hi Bye abilities often reach this level.
Oh Kitty: Played seriously, with Yin when human, where she was blind and her music teacher was having an affair with her mother that they hid from her, but she discovered evidence of it anyway. Besides her connection to her Nakama, this may be one more reason why she doesn't go with the music teacher when he comes looking for her.
Omake: Two chapters' worth in the manga plus the OVA
Opaque Lenses: November 11 sometimes wears these and tends to act particularly insincere when doing so. Notably, there's a scene shortly before his Heroic Sacrifice, where November teases Kirihara while wearing the glasses, but then takes them off and acts in a more caring manner.
Our Souls Are Different: The subtitles of one episode indicate Hei describing Contractors as being soulless, which is intended to characterize the fact that they are in some sense shells of humanity.
Parrot Exposition: Parodied in "dumb-wrestling" between Kurosawa and Norio. One can almost see the shower of sparks from their mental brakes. - Case? - Contract? - Former wife?
Percussive Maintenance: Hei in the first episode with the landlady's TV (although he probably just used his electricity powers to fix it).
Personality Powers: A couple of examples- Mai is a schoolgirl at the "going through a phase" stage of life, and suffers from Power Incontinence causing her to horribly burn people to death when she becomes emotional; Wei's murderousness is sympolized by his blood-fueled powers; Brita is a Sexy Secretary and has the power of teleporting out of her clothing and the Renumeration of kissing (this one might overlap with Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance)
Person Of Mass Destruction: Havok before she was depowered. And, for that matter, Hei's Dead Little Sister during Heaven's War.
Pettanko: Kurosawa frequently makes jibes about Kiko's lack of cleavage. Furthering the parody of private detective tropes, she threatens to sue him for sexual harassment, something which never happened to Sam Spade.
Phenotype Stereotype: MI6 agents November 11 and July, who are blond-haired and blue-eyed, but then averted with their partner April, a black British woman.
- All the Americans seen are blond as well.
Phlebotinum War: "Third South American War, also known as Heaven's War".
Pillar Of Light: Side effect of CY-463's power is "pretty". And then even "prettier" when he turns out to be a greater bastard than one would expect. By orders of magnitude greater.
Playing With Fire: Mai and Maki, in different ways.
Plucky Comic Relief: Kurosawa, Kiko, and Saito all of whom survive the series
Pointy Ears: Wei, a Contractor with the ability to use his blood as a weapon has pointed, elf-like ears for no apparent reason.
Popsicle Splat: November 11 does this intentionally.
Power At A Price: Arguably, the premise of the whole show. Superpower Lottery gives you a superpower but you must pay the price for using it. When it's something that you can do yourself, like breaking your fingers or smoking, it's compulsive. When it's aging forward or backward, it triggers after each using. Also, the show strongly implies that the main price which all Contractors must pay is losing your humanity and becoming an absolutely rational... being. There are at least two ways of using the power and not paying the price, though both aren't cheap either. Losing your body is really a price to pay. Or gradually turning into walking plant.
Power Glows: Contractors using their powers are surrounded by a cool-looking blue aura, and their eyes glow red. This is taken Up To Eleven when Hei gets a little... upset... near the Meteor Shard, which makes the entire neighborhood and everyone in it glow.
Power Incontinence: Contractors who enter "Moratorium" aren't forced to undergo Remuneration, but lose control and begin unconsciously using their powers while slipping into trances. If the power involved is setting stuff on fire, this can be very bad. The odds of regaining control are slim.
Powered By A Forsaken Child: Effectively, cyborg ghosts. Though it seems that comatose Dolls weren't put into this state on purpose, just not everyone is so lucky to become merely Extreme Doormat in first place.
Power Perversion Potential: The power to teleport someone out of their clothes? Seriously?
Power Trio: The MI6 agents.
Pre Mortem One Liner: Not a prominent feature, as the style is more realistic than "Calling Your Attacks", but Hei once said something like "Wipe That Smile Off Your Face" to a Contractor just before zapping him to death.
- Although he doesn't succeed in killing him at that point, when he first confronts the body-stealing Contractor, Hei says something like, "So you kill people and make it look like suicide; how about I try the same thing with you?"
- In his first appearance, November 11 has one. A gangster tried to double cross him, and ends up frozen in the middle of a street. After begging November 11 not to kill him, the gangster reveals the location of the package November had intended to pay for. November 11 pats him on the shoulder and says something like "I knew we'd work well together". As November walks away, the guy freezes into a Human Popsicle and smashes on the street.
  - This was also an Ironic Echo, since the guy had said the same thing to him at the beginning of their meeting.
Private Defective: Let's face it, in the setting where ready answers just don't exist and nothing should be taken for granted, any Wrong Genre Savvy guy without a helping hand of narrative causality is doomed to become pawn at worst and clown at best anyway. Attempts to find normal answers for abnormal questions and ignore the weirdness only makes his shots fall so wide of the mark that he's almost safe.
Product Placement: A billboard featuring the name @Nifty (the company sponsoring the webcasts of the show) is prominently seen in the city. Also, Pizza Hut and Coca-Cola logos can be seen at various times. See also "The Keiyakusha Conspiracy: Nifty and Pizza Hut are sighted together."
Psycho Electro: Averted, as Hei is one of the more mentally stable and humane Contractors as is Nick who has the same power. When his urge to find his sister does not turn him into violent Jerk Ass.
Punchclock Villain: Arguably Hei himself since pretty much every episode consists of him receiving (sometimes morally dubious) assignments from The Syndicate via his handler, Huang... who might also be counted as he doesn't like it much either and joined The Syndicate not of his own volition. Given the whole The Man Behind The Man thing going on, even Kirihara and her colleagues are involuntary punch clock villains. November 11, April, and July also have this dynamic, being a rather friendly group protective of each other.
Punny Name: While it may or may not be accidental, this is a series that has a cat who is very nearly named "Meow." Of course, it might just be because it's Chinese for "cat."
- Which is in itself punny.
Ransacked Room: Happened to Chiaki.
Razor Floss: Luke's telekinetic whip.
Reality Is Out To Lunch: Let's just say this place was named "Hell's Gate" for a reason...
Reality Warper: In a way Amber's power, as she can alter time, as well as Hei's/Bai's which involves altering matter on a quantum level.
Redemption Equals Death: Several characters, most heartbreakingly Havoc.
Red Eyes Take Warning: Contractors' eyes glow red when they use their powers.
Red Right Hand: Arguably Wei's pointed ears and Maki's Boatlight eyes. Although they aren't acknowledged as odd in-series, they are certainly a sign that the characters are up-to-no-good.
- Kirihara's boss, who turns out to be part of The Syndicate, wears black gloves to cover up his prosthetic hands.
Required Secondary Powers: At least, Contractors are mostly immune to the effects of their powers. Mai walks Out Of The Inferno intact (and her clothes too), and when Hei and Nick electrocute each other they aren't even knocked out. Lampshaded in the second example when Nick wonders why the hell that didn't work.
- Actually, the second example was due to the two characters unknowingly making an electrical circuit by touching each other. They're shown to hurt each other later.
- Rather amusingly, the Fragile Speedster in the beginning of the second season appears to lack nearly all of the Required Secondary Powers for his Flash Step ability.
Reset Button: Played for laughs in the OVA. After circumstances conspire to reveal Hei's identity and Saitou confesses his Bodyguard Crush, Mao promptly charges in with a tube of something that turned out to be an experimental allergy medicine created by the chemical department of the Gate research group that had the bizarre side-effect of erasing the memories of non-contractors. This neatly prevents any of this from effecting much of anything.
Retirony: Hei shows concern for Huang by telling him to stop smoking or else he will shorten his life; Huang is killed soon afterward.
- Actually, if you pay attention, he had already been shot when Hei said that. Although whether Hei realized this is debatable.
The Rival: Wei to Hei.
Roofhopping: along with other acrobatics; also, Book Ends.
Running Gag: November 11 is just joking and Hei will get fat when he hits thirty.
- The secondhand smoke rant is becoming one as well. First November 11 gives it, then Amigiri gives it to him, then April gives it at the beginning of the second season.
Sacrificial Lamb: Chiaki Shinoda. Twice.
Sassy Secretary: The comical detective has one in a young girl who is both a Cosplay Otaku Girl and a Yaoi Fan Girl. Basically, Kiko is kind-hearted, but a little too crazy to be good companion or reliable partner.
Scary Shiny Glasses: In one of the last episodes, a leader of The Syndicate and one of Kirihara's superiors gets these when plotting to wipe out all Contractors.
- Similarly, Nishijima's glasses flash all menacing-like when he's discussing his orders for the Syndicate to assassinate Hei's unit.
Secret Identity Identity: Hei is arguably three people- the "Black Reaper", a mass murdering contractor; Li Sheng Shun, a kind and courteous everyday guy; and "Hei", a person who falls somewhere between these two identities.
Sexy Secretary: One contractor, whose power is to teleport people out of their clothing and whose Remuneration is kissing people.
Shell Shocked Senior: Havoc, and to a lesser degree Hei.
Ship Tease: Most of episode 23 consists of Hei and Kirihara on what is, essentially, a date. Kiko certainly thought so.
Shirtless Scene: November 11 isn't the only one who can provide fanservice. Of course, Hei being... well, himself, he doesn't even notice the attention he's attracting.
Shock And Awe: ...How the hell was this not on the list yet?
Shoo Out The Clowns: The Private Defective and his Sassy Secretary appear less frequently as the show progresses but are shown again during the Bittersweet Ending.
Shout Out: Several, including ones to Bones' other series Ouran High School Host Club. Also references Death Note, and Code Geass at various points.
- The last episode is potentially an extended shout-out to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Single Stroke Battle: This aesthetic was subverted when Hei fought Wei in episode 10. It had most of the usual traits: the two characters charge at each other, it goes to slow-mo as they pass each other, and they both stop in one place and look dramatic before the results become clear. However, those results were actually faked; neither of them managed to hit the other one, and the blood on Hei's mask was actually his own, put there to fool Wei into writing him off as dead. As a result, the supposed loser crashed in through a window a few minutes later and beat the crap out of the supposed winner.
Slow Motion Pass By: Always done in real time, but the same idea.
Smoke Out: When November 11 almost caught Hei, Huang drops a bomb that has the dual effects of melting the ice that was gluing Hei's feet to the floor and giving him a chance to disappear.
Smoking Is Cool: Although he hates having to do it, November 11 has smoking as is Remuneration and is shown doing so in a cool-looking way following the times when he uses his powers (generally to kill people).
- Subverted in his introductory episode of the anime, when he first makes his "smoking kills" speech. He takes a huge drag on his cigarette and then hacks the smoke out.
Smug Snake: Eric Nishijima
Soul Fragment: It Was With You All Along. And mediums, as proven by CY-463.
Soundtrack Dissonance: The especially peaceful Ending Theme.
Spoiler Opening: If you don't pay attention to the OP the first two times around, it can come as quite a surprise that innocent, bumbling Li is a contractor.
- In season 2's first OP, new-heroine Suou is shown carrying and then sniping with an anti-tank sniper rifle. Doesn't help the situation that in the second episode (and the first episode to have an opening, as the premier did not) has the aforementioned BFG in the episode, practically screaming Chekhovs Gun.
Spy Versus Spy: A serious version with numerous intelligence agencies battling one another for control. However, they were all being manipulated by The Man Behind The Man in order to keep the contractors distracted fighting each other.
Stalker With A Crush: Maki has an obsessive affection for Amber and tries to kill Hei because of this and likely would have tried the same against Amber's other followers.
- Also, quoth Kiko, "Only I can stalk him!"
- And when we first see Kirihara in the second season, she was watching Hei's star through a telescope, which is probably the closest it's possible to get to stalking him when he's not intentionally staying in one place. Lampshaded when her friend at the astronomy department suggests that she really needs to get over him and find another guy.
  - Also, in a rather less subtle example in the second season, Mina asks Kirhara if she's saving her virginity for Hei.
The Stars Are Going Out: Or rather falling, or appearing, or disappearing, or getting brighter, or getting dimmer, or any of a number of other things, depending on what Contractors are doing. The normal stars have been out (or at least hidden) since the Gates appeared.
Start My Own: The motivation behind Evening Primrose.
Stealth Hi Bye: One reason Hei is known as Chinese Electric Batman. He has a very distinct tendency to disappear if he's out of someone's sight for even a second. Arguably the most impressive was when he disappeared from right in front of Kirihara during the time it took her to put on her glasses.
The Stoic: Since Contractors are stoics by nature, damn near half the cast. Hei in particular.
Stuff Blowing Up: Of particular note is Maki, whose power is blowing up anything he's left handprints on. But plenty of stuff goes boom even without his help.
Super Empowering: The Mad Scientist mentions offhand in the last episode that Hei could grant normal humans Contractor powers. His reaction when he learns this is likely to be interesting, to say the least.
Superpower Lottery: Some Contractors have rather useless powers with a high price to pay, while others are very powerful with a small Remuneration (like drinking beer) apparently as a result of the unpredictability of the Gate. The cake taker though is Hei himself, who has the ability of manipulating matter on a quantum level (though he's only aware of the electrical attack his sister used it as) and a remuneration of sleeping, which he doesn't even have to fulfill due to unusual means by which he acquired his powers.
- Amber may have done even better. She can manipulate time, stopping or rewinding it as suits her wishes. Her remuneration is getting younger- she could have theoretically used this to make herself immortal.
Supreme Chef: Hei, according to the manga omake. He certainly has good reason to be.
The Syndicate: Literally.
Take A Third Option: Hei at the end
Taking The Bullet: Subverted in the second episode, but played straight when Kirihara's second-in-command gets in the way of a blood splatter from Wei. Or maybe not so straight, since Hei shows up and zaps the hell out of Wei before he can actually detonate it.
Taking You With Me: Huang. Well, pulling one's foes into street race with an opportunity to be caught in one big fireball as a main prize is truly badass way to die.
- November 11 gets an impressive one as well, killing several of his treacherous superiors, all members of The Syndicate, but dying in the process
  - Nod to killing his boss in that very scene with his own glass of bourbon.
Talking Animal: Mao.
Team Pet: Mao for Hei-tachi, and July for the MI6 Power Trio.
Tear Jerker: More than you'd expect. Episode 14 is a big one.
- The end of Episode 4, too.
Techno Babble: Everything involving the Gate
Tele Frag: A Contractor with swap-teleport powers kills by replacing victims' vital organs with inanimate objects.
Tempting Fate: "Don't test my patience, KABOOM!". He should have seen it coming, though.
That Man Is Dead: "The man you knew as Li no longer exists."
Theme Naming: Most of the Syndicate agents are codenamed based on colors, such as Hei (black), Bai (white), Yin (silver), Huang (yellow), and Amber. MI6 agents are named after months and days, such as November 11, April, July, and February.
Theyd Cut You Up: There are references to PANDORA practicing human experimentation on Contractors. In fact, its mentioned that initially, various countries did this, until a U.N. treaty intervened. You might think that the U.N. would stop this, but instead, all they did was demand that countries would share their research.
Those Two Bad Guys: The third episode has a Caucasian assassin paired with a black Contractor and the two are a good fit for the trope and definitely call to mind Pulp Fiction. More sympathetically, Bertha and her partner have philosophical discussions establishing them as Punch Clock Villains, in between trying to kill Hei.
Those Two Guys: Kirihara's subordinates, Saito and Kano. Also Plucky Comic Relief Kurosawa and Kiko.
Throw Away Country: More like throw away Continent, being most of South America after the "Heaven's Gate" incident.
Time Stands Still: Amber's power.
Tin Man: Nearly every Contractor or Doll encountered.
Tokyo Is The Center Of The Universe: A poster child for the trope.
Tomato In The Mirror: Chiaki, episode 2.
Too Dumb To Fool: The incompetent detective notices how Hei (in his Li identity) is always there when something odd is going on, and is suspicious of him. Notably, Kirihara, who is much smarter and more competent doesn't pick up on this. Well, not until the last episode, at least.
Trademark Favorite Food: Most of the time Hei is shown eating, he favors bowls of noodles; also, April generally drinks Guinness.
Tragic Monster: When Mai goes Moratorium, she causes a lot of unintentional damage, including burning her best friend and her dad to death.
Trenchcoat Switcheroo: Kurosawa accidentally takes the identical trenchcoat of a Contractor involved in industrial theft and murder. The Contractor discovers the switch when he goes to pay for a meal and discovers nothing but a phone sex advertisement in the pocket.
Tranquil Fury: Being The Stoic, when Hei is angry, he gets furious in a very cold and brutal way. On the other hand, the norm for Contractors is more like Dissonant Serenity, killing in horrible ways with an attitude of boredom and/or amusement.
The Triads And The Tongs: Chen Long Tang.
Trojan Prisoner: Accidental one. Yakuza guys thought a Doll is just one more sort of illegal goods and didn't even blindfolded her. Hei, Mao and viewers learned something new about Dolls, and Yakuza were surprised by a superpowered ninja "somehow" homing right on their hideaway. Duh...
Two Faced: Wei after Hei fries him.
The Unmasqued World: Hei (very intentionally) blew The Masquerade at the end of the first season. His former bosses were not pleased.
Unreliable Narrator: We get a healthy dose of Expo Speak early on, from a scientist who studies things that are under The Masquerade, no less. The next thing we see? Our expo-speaker does not even know who she herself is. Given her purpose, she presumably got no really sensitive information at all. So, have a happy dish of common oversimplifications and tampered memories. You're on your own.
- In general, 90% of what is said in the first couple of episodes is either misleading or an outright lie.
The Un Smile: Yin had to use her fingers to smile. Unlike most instances of this trope, however, it was cute rather than freaky.
- July in the second season. He, too, is a doll. It's... not as cute, shall we say.
Villainous Breakdown: The Syndicate leaders do not react well to Hei blowing both their genocide plan and The Masquerade to tiny little pieces.
Villainous BSOD: Shihoko's remuneration requires her to suffer these, every time.
- Havoc could also be said to be going through an incredibly severe one.
Villainy Discretion Shot: In the time prior to the series, Hei killed tons of people, probably mostly rogue Contractors, and this is very much downplayed. Also, it's clear that Havoc was a horrific mass murderer prior to losing her powers and regaining her morality and personality, but because she is presented sympathetically, it makes sense the audience isn't shown her "in action".
Warrior Poet: Literal, but subverted. Itzhak's remuneraton is writing poetry, but he doesn't really have the attitude down, what with the sheer volume of dolls' observer apparitions he's stolen.
Weapon Of Choice: Hei fights with throwing knives and a choke wire. Handy since they conduct electricity.
What Is This Feeling: Dolls and Contractors
What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway: Some powers are nearly universal, but many are too weird or noticeable to use freely. That's not counting their random price.
What Measure Is A Non Human: Both Contractors and Dolls are considered no-longer human and may actually think of themselves this way but frequently show hidden depths. Dolls are quite passive at best and catatonic at worst, and Contractors' typical self-centered attitude and "When All You Have Is A Hammer" style don't show that people who treat them as a sort of killing robots are too wrong either.
What Measure Is A Non Super
When All You Have Is A Hammer: Played with: many Contractors act like walking guns with a single type of ammo, up to using Hollywood Tactics. Others are more flexible. Still others are quite capable even without using their powers at all.
When She Smiles: What first made Amber fall in love with Hei.
White Haired Pretty Girl: Yin.
Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Played for laughs. Kurasawa is terrified of cats.
Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs: A rare main character example in Hei's undercover missions, all of which involve him taking some kind of menial job. Lampshaded when the Private Defective wonders why he keeps showing up.
- Played with further in the manga omake, with stuff like his growing bad reputation and Kiko's interpretation of this habit.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Contractors appear to be utterly lacking in conscience (as poor Mai put it — "Why?"). And/or have some quirk wired to the Berserk Button (Hei:sister, Wei:victory, Nick:sky Maki:crush, November 11:smoking). The few "how I became Contractor" stories we've seen suggest that it could be the other way around and people who are already about to go crazy may contract some unusual power.
The Woobie: Havoc. Not bad for a reviled mass murderer who literally drank the blood of children.
- In season 2, Genma invokes the trope in hopes that it can apply to him ("Hey, having an unfortunate past can score me some Moe points!")
A World Half Full: For all the dark tone and Bittersweet Ending, it's still generally more idealistic than not.
Worthy Opponent: Wei. Almost as good martial artist as Hei. Sheds blood easily, but after all starts with his own and is not masochistic. He wants a "return match" with Hei knowing that Hei will survive out of pride, but otherwise is polite and helpful to the end, even though he does not fall into Defeat Means Friendship or Friendly Enemy.
Writer On Board: Someone on the writing staff clearly doesn't like smoking
- November 11 delivers a Character Filibuster against second-hand smoke
- Kirihara considers smoking a disgusting habit
- Kurosawa is a chain smoker as part of his attempt to ape private eye tropes, but Kiko breaks his Private Eye Monologue by complaining about the smell, and it's clear that it doesn't improve his already poor hygiene and body odor.
- Bertha said she could chew anything, but...
- And, of course, November 11's cigarette packs are all black with "DEATH" written on them in big letters. Subtle.
  - Actually, they're a real UK brand. November 11 probably chose them because he found it funny.
Wrong Genre Savvy: As noted above, Kurosawa; also, the female protagonist of the OVA is a Cosplay Otaku Girl who thinks she's in a shoujo story and that Hei is a romantic hero.
Yakuza
Yandere: Maki would be good friends with Rollo of Code Geass — he is similarly a Cute Shotaro Boy whose affection for another character makes him act in a violently sociopathic way towards potential "rivals".
- Before that we have Mafia Princess Alice, a childhood friend of Misaki's that became a wee bit too dependent on her. She did not like the idea of Misaki becoming a cop (and therefore leaving her), so she decided that she needed to die.
Yaoi Fangirl: Kiko only tolerates her work environment because she gets to watch Boys Love on the job. Mayu is just as obsessive, if not worse.
You Cannot Please Everyone: Kirihara likes and even has a crush on Hei's Li persona and is dedicated to hunting his BK-201 identity.
You Can See Me: There's no way to tell a Contractor or Doll from normal human without their help, and two ways with it. First is a telltale sight of eyes glowing red and a cool aura of blue light. Second (also applied to Dolls) is a suspect ogling an ~~obviously empty place~~ observer apparition. Granted, only other Contractors, Dolls and people controlling this specific Doll can know it's there, but one Contractor's cover was blown by this mistake on-screen.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: A number of characters, usually Contractors and Dolls, have impossible hair colors like green, pink and white.
You Have Failed Me: The Syndicate, transmitted through Hei's handler Huang often threatens to kill its members should they fail to complete a mission. Not surprisingly since their ultimate goal is to kill all Contractors.
You Suck: Kurasawa's comments about anime in the dub of Episode 7
You Watch Too Much X: When his assistant mentions that their latest client appears to have been brainwashed in episode 14, Kurasawa responds appropriately by claiming she's been watching too much anime.
- Of course, this time she's right.
Your Mileage May Vary: Hei is a total Bad Ass who bends what are usually immutable rules about how Contractors work and has to beat women off with a stick. Whether his many flaws compensate for it or not depends on your interpretation.

Additionally, Ryuusei no Gemini contains examples of:

Actor Allusion: Arguably with Hei's appearance this season. His voice actor also voices the protagonist of Monster who similarly goes from clean-cut to "sexy hobo".
Anything That Moves: Genma makes some creepy comments about Suou being cute, hits on Yoko, but also declares love for Hei. Incidentally, he also talks about wanting to find a woman to hurt him. Genma has some issues.
Back For The Dead: April
Bag Of Holding: This actually is August 7's ability.
Beard Of Sorrow: Hei starts to develop one at the beginning of Season 2.
Bifauxnen: Mina Hazuki from the second season. She even has Mitsuki Saiga as a VA.
Big Eater: Apart from Hei, the second season introduces a Contractor who must eat hamburgers as remuneration for his powers. He carries around a giant back full of burgers for this very reason, and is rather reluctant to use his powers since he's become sick of constantly eating hamburgers.
- Hei has apparently stopped doing this during the Time Skip, though.
Boat Lights: Shion's normally bandaged eye is paler than the other and is missing a pupil.
But Not Too Foreign: Suou and Shion are half-Russian, half-Japanese.
Complete Monster: Ilya Sokolov, a creepy motherfucker even by Contractor standards. Just in case he wasn't horrifying enough, he casually revealed that he had been a Serial Killer before he became a Contractor.
Creepy Twins: No, not Shion and Suou. The third episode showed us a pair of Doll twins who did the alternating-speaking thing, proclaiming that the end has begun when Suou gained her contractor ability.
Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Hei. Episode 7. Need more be said?
- Yes. More detail: July was abducted by the person who had been helping the gang get past security checkpoints. Suou rushed in to save him, and the end result was that she, July, and Mao were caught by a Contractor who was established as a Complete Monster within less than ten minutes of screentime. They're tied up in the back of his car, and things are looking bad- then Hei jumps onto the roof of the car from a passing truck, punches out the driver's-side window, and gets a choke wire around the bad guy's neck. Despite the fact that Hei was depowered, said Contractor's ability was to create a neurotoxin in victims' brains that caused them to lose consciousness, the car was still going at full speed, and there were other cars going by, Hei managed to take him down from outside (not much the worse for wear even though he got dragged behind the car a little ways) and get the kids and Mao out safely. Damn. And then when Suou expressed the proper amount of awe, he just shrugged it off and said she should be thanking July for distracting the guy at the right moment.
- Suo deserves some credit for using what Hei had taught her about knife throwing and turning a couple of shards of glass into a really frightening weapon. Much like Hei when angry, she was in such a Tranquil Fury that Mao had to call her off.
Dead Star Walking: Given the promos for the second season, it seemed as if April would become a major character. Then Hei shows up and quickly puts an end to that notion.
Deconstruction: Beyond the general deconstruction of superpowered people as explained above, Suou undergoes a Transformation Sequence very much like a Magical Girl when using her Contractor powers to materialize her gun. Unlike other magical girls who solve their problems with violence, though, it can be reasonably assured that anyone who gets hit by one of Suou's blasts isn't going to get up later and join her team.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Hei in Episode 4.
Drowning My Sorrows: The year's gap between the two seasons does not appear to have been kind to Hei, if the hip flask is any indication. Or maybe it's just part of the "Sexy Hobo" look he appears to be cultivating. When Mao pointed it out, his response was pretty much just, "Shut up."
Ensemble Darkhorse: Goran, who in his less than half-episode of screentime managed to acquire a veritable real-life Instant Fandom.
Eye Scream: When the Fragile Speedster ran through a rain which killed him because of friction and inertia, the last thing he saw was a raindrop. Very, very close to his eye. This Troper is thankful for Gory Discretion Shot.
Fan Nickname:
- Goran, the FSB agent in Season 2 who gets offed by April within minutes of appearing is affectionately referred to as "Burger-kun" due to his remuneration of eating burgers.
- Japanese Lesbian Catwoman for Mina Hazuki due to her powers and remuneration of having to kiss men, one which she is not happy with at all.
- Hobo Hei - Thanks to Wild Hair and Perma Stubble
Flash Step: A rare example which lacked almost all Required Secondary Powers. Count.
- Lack of super-stamina ("My muscles gonna hurt tomorrow").
- Lack of super-inertia-controlling (he bumped into a tree after a sprint and couldn't change his direction instantly to save his life).
- About the only one he does have is friction immunity, since he isn't set on fire by the air around him. It's kind of surprising to see a so fragile speedster in a setting full of Reality Warpers.
Fragile Speedster: The reason "Burger-kun" didn't last long.
Fun With Subtitles: One fansub chose to replace Hei's request for the meteor shard with "I will let you go if you blow me."
Gainaxing
Glorious Mother Russia: Second Season = Brilliantly averted! Not only are there no bears on the streets, but the school, class-rooms and lifting the chairs got this Russian troper nostalgic... And even in Russian signs and words there are rare MINIMAL mistakes. Best and accurate portrayal of Russia EVER!
- Also the weapons used are not the usual Kalashnikovs and SVD, but Russian modern special forces weapons. Which are a lot less known, but authentic.
- The series is generally one of the best-researched in this aspect, as this LJ community might attest.
- The ending gave us the title translated into Russian, but with some letters mixed up and a few missing. Guess what? The next episode they CORRECTED it. Shown Their Work indeed!
- It loses points for the overabundance of blondes, though; Russia is not filled with Scandinavians!
  - Russia is ENORMOUS and contains a lots of places with different ethnic makeups and huge phenotypic variations. There are lots of blondes in the Far East, due to large part of initial settlers being from the North-West (there are still a lot of Estonian villages near Vladivostok), and the series reflects the ethnic makeup of the area pretty faithfully.
Half Identical Twins: Suou and Shion
He's Just Hiding: Theories that Mao body-jumped into Suou's pet squirrel before he was killed by April turned out to have been correct.
Inertia Is A Cruel Mistress: A contractor who appears in the first episode of the second series has the ability to move fast enough to literally dodge bullets, but it seems his burst of super-speed only lets him run in a straight line. For the brief time that we see him, he runs face-first into a tree because he couldn't stop in time, and then April kills him by making it rain while he's activating his ability. The speed that he's going at results in every single raindrop having the effect of a bullet.
Jerk Ass: In between seasons, Hei has apparently decided not to bother trying to act even remotely civil. Though he seems to be getting better...
Laser Blade: Hazuki's Contractor ability is that she can turn anything into one of these
Lolicon: Where to start? Many, many shots of an unclothed junior high girl, Hei's groping act, and most recently, having said girl belly-dance in front of store windows to "train her abdominal muscles." Is that how Hei got so ripped?
- In Hei's defense, despite his general jackassery in the second season, the groping was accidental, since he thought she was Shion at that point.
- And she has a creepy stalker who's being played as a Dogged Nice Guy despite being at least 5 years older than her. Ew?
Magicians Are Wizards: August 7 has an interesting case of this — he's a former Stage Magician with a price of giving away his trade secrets for the power of real magic (or, spacial manipulation power that makes for a good approximation).
Meaningful Name: Could be a coincidence, but do note who shares Suou's surname.
- Any coincidence is fairly unlikely, because there's a) the fact that while her's is indeed a pretty common Ukrainian surname, its most popular spelling is "Pavlyuchenko", "Pavlichenko" being a somewhat rare variant, which makes an incidental mixup of spelling less likely, and b) the whole sniper motif.
Mood Whiplash: The first episode of the second season is also a great example, as about 80% of it is your typical anime high school comedy and then several people are killed, two of them by Hei's hands in a way that makes him appear to be the villain.
Narm: Ep. 6. Apparently the way to show grief over a tragic death is to bawl and stuff your mouth with cakes. It doesn't work here.
Never Trust A Trailer
Nightmare Fuel: Nika and cockroaches — just... gah!
Not Quite Dead: Mao!
- Suou's dad.
Perma Stubble: Hei appears to have acquired this. It does not detract from his status as resident Estrogen Brigade Bait.
- Possibly justified by Hei being Asian; as many can attest, growing a beard is hard.
Psycho Lesbian: Hazuki
Rogue Protagonist: Since we currently have no idea who all the different groups are or what happened during the Time Skip, Hei appears to be at first. Now it turns out that it was Yin who went rogue, although her Face Heel Turn appears to have been forced.
Sequelitis: YMMV, of course (and boy does it ever!), but a solid few of the fanbase are very and vocally disatisfied with the new tone.
Shotacon: Apparently, little boy Dolls are very popular in-universe. Yeeeesh. And considering what's-her-name had been examining July while he was naked, no, there ISN'T a non-horrifying way to interpret that.
Small Girl Big Gun: The second season OP prominently features Suou wielding a WWII PTRD antitank rifle. It's 2 meters long, weighs 18 kilograms, uses 14.5x114 cartridges^*
^{heavy machinegun caliber, 1.5x-2.5x energy of .50 Browning depending on the type}
, and has a huge recoil despite the ginormous muzzle brake. The only people who shoot it from the hands in Real Life (there were a couple) looked like Space Marines. Suou gaining the Contractor power to materialize this beast and swing it around without regard to weight or recoil is pretty hilarious. The Rule Of Cool is a wonderful thing.
Stalker With A Crush: Kirihara is trying pretty hard, considering that the target of said stalker-crush is a ninja who's not even in the same country.
- Ironically enough, a completely different ninja has taken up stalking her.
Stalking Is Love: Even more creepy than usual for this trope, since the stalker is considerably older than the stalk-ee and still treated as a Dogged Nice Guy.
The Stinger
Took A Level In Jerkass: Hei has developed/been derailed in an unpleasant direction.
Training From Hell: Hei puts Suou through this after she becomes a Contractor.
Transformation Sequence: Suou has one when she activates her Contractor ability and summons her BFG. It seems to be happening in real time. Given the deconstructive nature of Darker Than Black, place your bets now as to when she gets attacked during it in a brilliant display of Dangerously Genre Savvy.
Twelve Episode Anime
Twin Switch: The twins are constantly being mistaken for each other.
Unperson: Suou and presumably Nika
Wild Hair: Hei, at the beginning of the season. He keeps it tied back later.
Writer On Board: This season's vice is alcoholism, although April repeats November 11's famous anti-smoking lecture in the first episode, for old times' sake.