Reviews Anime / Darker Than Black

Great Show

There is only one bone I have to pick with DtB, and that is the ambiguity of the setting. After a certain point, it will become clear that the creators aren't just lazily inventing a world whose foundations they didn't bother to think up, but it is nonetheless jarring to have to infer so much based on so little, and still come away with a poor understanding of how the world of these characters works and why it came to work that way. However, the mechanism of the plot, the powers, and so on are secondary to the character development and the deconstruction of super-humanity and the show functions quite well without it.

The emotive depth of the story is amazing. The characters aren't, for the most part, very fleshed out, and it is actually a point of the DtB universe that contractors and dolls are flat and basic - but what this essentially does is it enables the viewer to sympathize with them not because of how human they are, but because they, in spite of their inhumanity, do not deserve to be used, mistreated, and killed - not by virtue of being equal to us, but by virtue of being alive, and having us respect that life.

The animation was a bit simplistic at times, especially the faces, but the fight scenes make up for it in spades. However, it makes one wonder whether the deeper issues tackled by the show were accidental. The series looks completely shonen, so it is almost incongruous that it would also bother to do anything in the vein of deconstruction, true pathos, or philosophic thought. There's a good bit of cliche, and a good bit of deus ex machina, and yet, the series persists in successfully examining and redefining the nature of superheroes and their treacherous place in the world.