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Considering the series ended about a week ago this is probably way overdue. Either way, as a follow up to a highly successful series it had alot of hype going for it. Sadly this sequel doesn’t live up to its expectations falling short due to its incoherent, random story, unexplained plot points and several ignored characters. Whether it serves as a lead-up to a proper sequel is debatable but it brings up so many unexplained plot holes that its entirely possible. Even so, it’s hard to ignore how much this falls short of its predecessor.

What the original Darker Than Black had going for it was being a generic anime that somehow compounded together to become something fantastic. With a simple concept of people who sell their souls to become mindless killing machines with superpowers it manages to turn it into an engaging drama filled with conspiracies between power-hungry organisations. It didn’t help that it had an attractive set of characters that are given quite a lot of backstory.

In comparison, the second season is set quite a long time after the first. (2 years if I’m correct.) This leaves a large amount of story cut out which are supposebly going to be explained when the DvD/BD releases roll out. The story starts out quite simple, there’s a girl called Suou who lives in Russia having a normal life. It turns out that her twin brother is wanted by the military because he posesses a meteor fragment which is special for reasons not explained other than it has to do with experimental research. Her life turns into hell when one of her friends becomes a contractor and begins to shun contact, leaving her to go home and find that everybody is dead or missing and so begins her escape until she meets Hei, the protagonist from the first season, who’s also looking for her. While this doesn’t sound too different from the other plots in Darker Than Black, this is the tipping point. Everything that happens after starts to ride an exponential scale of rediculous leaving a sour taste feeling like it’s a story made up in the producer’s spare time which, considering BONES’ other work, they could’ve done so much better

For almost the whole show we see that Hei and Suou are being chased by multiple governments because they want this so-called meteor fragment. Naturally, this would prove to be a plot point on why they would want to chase such a thing. Perhaps it had special qualities allowing it to be used in some kind of special weapon. In the end, it’s never explained why they want it so much and its only purpose is a major character development for a character but its use is so insignificant that one would have to question why they would bother to chase after it. By the end of the show the MI-6 and CIA get involved for no purpose other than to prove that it’s a huge issue. There’s almost no reason at all why they would be present and for the most part, their presence is limited to only a few minutes of screentime at best. The story would be almost exactly the same if they had been removed. What I really didn’t like was the return of one of the major characters in the last season. Her presence in the story seems only to fulfill the wishes of fans to see her return. She does almost nothing in the show and anything she does do can be replaced with another character to full effect. It would’ve been better if they replaced her with another character as it vastly contrasts her personality from the first series. (To those who’ve seen the show, you know what I’m talking about. To those who haven’t, you can probably guess who.)

If you can ignore the absurd storyline and plot points then you could probably get by watching it as long as you don’t think too hard but there’s the case of the cast. For the most part the cast is quite likeable with the return of some notable characters, sadly the new cast doesn’t even remotely compare. (Except Burger-kun.) In the first series the contractors were presented as not being killing machines, which this season makes them out to be, but rather emotionless, logical people (Or like to switch between the two.). While this is slightly hand-waved by Hei halfway through the show, it still doesn’t stop it from detracting from the mood. Then there’s the case of many new character’s backstory especially Suou, which you might as well just ignore because, even by the standards of the anime, its so absurd that you can’t help to feel that it was chucked in as an ill-planned plot twist. What also hit me deep down in the sensitive spot which can almost decide whether I watch an anime or not is the personalities of a character. I hate the determinator types that have no basis for the actions. Not being able to lose for fear of the world being destroyed is a good enough reason for me but trying to confess your love to a girl then seeing her horrible mangle your friends infront of your eyes and continuing in trying to win her affection? Please. There’s no reason why anybody would even want to do this. A girl which was love at first who ends up almost killing your friend? It’s a bit like the situation with me and Sadako (The Ring). While she may serve as fetish fuel for me, there’s no way in hell I’m going to go near her. What stops this determinator is seeing a long lost relative get killed infront of said girl. And then there are the chessmasters. The people who are orchestrating the incident. They serve almost no point apart from saying, “I’m doing this for ___ reason.” That might be not a problem if they delved into some backstory involving but they have absolutely no reason for being there (especially since this was told in the last 5 minutes of the show). Not all of the new cast was unlikeable though. Some of the new contractors shown aren’t too bad characters (Only two of them and you know who.)

Luckily there is an upside to what as been mostly a negative review and that is the animation and soundtrack. The animation is absolutely fantastic (or average considering BONES’ track record). Every character is done in such detail that they are quite unique and the animation is fluid. The battle scenes are well choreographed and are a blast to watch. The only downpoint is that those scenes don’t last very long. The OP and ED are quite good but not up to par with the previous season’s in my opinion. I don’t like them but I don’t hate them either. (And why does From Dusk Till Dawn have only 1 song on the single? Not even an instrumental.) The sound-track is fantastic though it’s easier to just hear it for yourself than explaining it.

In the end, for all the negative things I said about the show, I still enjoyed it. While a good work in its own right, it doesn’t live up to its predecessor, ending up feeling like some sort of filler arc. If only they sat down and thought things out more it could’ve turned out to be a much better a show than it is. Luckily it’s looking highly likely there will be a sequel sometime down the track, hopefully arriving after this sour taste disappears. Those who were fans of the original series will enjoy it. If you had mixed feelings, it’s better to stay away and being a sequel. No this is not a good place to start the series. A good series that’s far better than most things last season but doesn’t live up to the high standards.