Darker Than Black is one of those works of art that fall under common classification but in fact belongs to the category of uncategoryzable.
DtB world has a depth — could even make a good RPG, which is more than can be said about settings built around some specific plot. Artwork and aestetics are fine, plot is less important than a tension or Character Development, but neatly binds everything together.
In DtB the Universe never bothers to explain what it does to mortals, or why exactly this way. Unknown forces just walk their own path and it's better not to stand where they tread. No reason to think Expo Speak is the final truth and not a handful of wild guesses and wide generalizations, especially as these characters don't know important facts about their own work. Authors of DtB apparently know well what decision-making is about, as they place characters in such situations: no one provides them ready lists of one "right" and one or two "wrong" solutions. They have almost no information, and few scrap they have are certainly incomplete and unauthentic, while time flows like a water between fingers: "late" is "right now" and few seconds later it may be "too late". DtB has a sensible approach to unusal powers: they may improve non-linearity of the plot, but not make and solve all problems, so the story does not turns in "supermen tale". Hei accomplishes missions and survives not as much due to his Contractor ability as his ninja skills, sound tactics and being in a good form.
Darker Than Black has no primitive "morals to the fable" or fairy tale -style "choices". There's no crossroads, no convenient road signs. Characters just stand amid some or other adorned ruins, hear unintelligible sounds and try to understand what's going on, who is their enemy and what to do. It's not a fable about knights on white horses fighting "Forces Of Evil" scrambling from under beds at night, nor a fable about knights on black horses fighting encroaching "Forces Of Good" at day and each other at night. Maybe "why, they lucky they survived all this at all" attitude makes it "Dark Fantasy" or something, but it's not the point. It's not a fable at all. Just an interesting story about living people.
One View On The Dark.
Darker Than Black is one of those works of art that fall under common classification but in fact belongs to the category of uncategoryzable.
DtB world has a depth — could even make a good RPG, which is more than can be said about settings built around some specific plot. Artwork and aestetics are fine, plot is less important than a tension or Character Development, but neatly binds everything together.
In DtB the Universe never bothers to explain what it does to mortals, or why exactly this way. Unknown forces just walk their own path and it's better not to stand where they tread. No reason to think Expo Speak is the final truth and not a handful of wild guesses and wide generalizations, especially as these characters don't know important facts about their own work.
Authors of DtB apparently know well what decision-making is about, as they place characters in such situations: no one provides them ready lists of one "right" and one or two "wrong" solutions. They have almost no information, and few scrap they have are certainly incomplete and unauthentic, while time flows like a water between fingers: "late" is "right now" and few seconds later it may be "too late".
DtB has a sensible approach to unusal powers: they may improve non-linearity of the plot, but not make and solve all problems, so the story does not turns in "supermen tale". Hei accomplishes missions and survives not as much due to his Contractor ability as his ninja skills, sound tactics and being in a good form.
Darker Than Black has no primitive "morals to the fable" or fairy tale -style "choices". There's no crossroads, no convenient road signs. Characters just stand amid some or other adorned ruins, hear unintelligible sounds and try to understand what's going on, who is their enemy and what to do.
It's not a fable about knights on white horses fighting "Forces Of Evil" scrambling from under beds at night, nor a fable about knights on black horses fighting encroaching "Forces Of Good" at day and each other at night. Maybe "why, they lucky they survived all this at all" attitude makes it "Dark Fantasy" or something, but it's not the point. It's not a fable at all. Just an interesting story about living people.