Darker Than Black [2nd Season] generic discussion

[forgottendiary]

Originally Posted by Alchemist007

Yeah perhaps I'll pick up on it someday, it's a becoming habit of mine to pick up the manga of an anime I've seen long ago

same, same XD

[SuperKnuckles]

I'm pretty happy with the way anime is generally picking up the slack compared to how conversions were sort of haphazardly handled in the past (though some purists would argue that no doubt), because I'm flat out broke and fansubs are keeping me afloat.

So far, no real complaints for about a decade I've been doing like this. Either fansubs or fanscans for me.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by KaneDragon

Hei's Rave Music demands sacrifices!

That's exactly what i thought when watching this episode.

[V4sH]

I'll take this thank you. ^_^

also yeah Im glad there are ova's bridging the gap, but I dunno whether to be happy or aprehensive with that description...

and yes hei's rave music is awesome

[Ice Block]

/salute to November 11. Your legacy as MI6's best agent will always live on.

Originally Posted by orion

Maybe Mao transfers into the flying squirrel. That would be a good way to keep tabs on Suou.

The FSB guys killed the squirrel during the house raid.

Originally Posted by Megrim27

I agree about the emotional aspect. It's not that contractors have no emotions, it's just that it's constantly held in check by their rational brain. A contractor can feel anger, but won't seek vengence, as it serves no rational purpose. I think this is why all the contractors are portrayed in a very understated way, you never see any of them go "over the top".

I, too, believe that people should drop the flavor lore aspect regarding contractors' emotions. All the definitions given in S1 regarding dolls and contractors were merely people and authorities stereotyping a new race or species.

Okay, a few questions:

• Is August 7 (why not 8? ) an MI6 agent, or FSB? I read a post here a few pages back that he was from FSB, though his code name suggests that he's from MI6 (could be a double agent too). Anyway, here's hoping he'll leave an impact similar to November 11 by the end.

• Who are these guys (the ones tapping on the MI6 line)? The preview suggests that they're from the FSB, though they could be from the Syndicate too.
  
  (click to enlarge)

[orion]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

/salute to November 11. Your legacy as MI6's best agent will always live on.

The FSB guys killed the squirrel during the house raid.

No the guys fired shots but we weren't shown where and we weren't shown a dead animal carcas unlike the cat. So you can't assume that the squirrel died imo.

If the kids were the targets, then firing a shot into a kid's bedroom would not be a good thing to do imo esp since one of them is considered still to be human.

[V4sH]

just what I was gonna say, they shot at the squirrel, but nothing to say the squirrel was actually hit. If it was mao its safe to say he didnt get hit.
But since one was a contractor, and the other knew about it they would have erased her memory anyway, and since theyre twins they would have had to erase her WHOLE memory as they grew up together, even from before shion was a contractor, otherwise she would get suspicious, its a whole lot simpler for the FSB just to kill her too

[Ice Block]

Originally Posted by orion

No the guys fired shots but we weren't shown where and we weren't shown a dead animal carcas unlike the cat. So you can't assume that the squirrel died imo.

If the kids were the targets, then firing a shot into a kid's bedroom would not be a good thing to do imo esp since one of them is considered still to be human.

Ho ho, wanna play Battler eh?

• Three FSB personnel entered the room.
• No other person was inside aside from the three mentioned above.
• The cage was knocked down and broken by the first person (Soldier A) to enter.
• As can be inferred from the gunshots, at least half a clip was emptied onto the debris at a range of at most 1.5 meters.

Now, a few educated assumptions:

• Since the mission was carried out by the FSB, it is highly likely that the troops used are from the Spetsnaz GRU -- the best trained units of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation.
• Judging from Soldier A's reaction, we can assume that their mission was to recover the contractor Shion and terminate all possible threats.
• The noise caused by the breaking cage and subsequent movement by the squirrel has been automatically identified as a threat, and is marked for elimination.
• Taking into account the skill and reaction time of your average Spetsnaz soldier and the amount of ammunition used, I am fairly confident that the squirrel was killed.
• This is further evidenced by the fact that there was no sound of breaking glass (the impact sound was relatively uniform, albeit a bit drowned out), hinting that the salvo was concentrated on one general area -- the squirrel was not able to run and flee, or at least it tried and was immediately stopped.

• But then if it was Mao, then it is 100% safe to assume that the squirrel was able to miraculously flee from a trained Spetsnaz soldier's salvo, somehow managed to transfer to his cat body, and then after getting shot by April transferred again to the squirrel off-screen.

And regarding the issue why Shion asked Suou to change into his clothes... it's basically to lead the FSB (and even MI6 and others) away from Shion, using Suou as the decoy. And as we already saw, it worked on April and then it even worked on Hei (since he is after the meteor fragment, we can assume that he is effectively looking for Shion, as he's the one that's significantly associated with it as of this episode). This leads me to believe that the FSB may not know who is who, and may even think Shion/Suou are one and the same. The reason why they did not take action earlier may be because they had not found out about Shion before, since he was dormant and basically sealed away in his secret room. Hei, however, was already tracking April since the start of the ep so he may have gotten some inside information (from Yin hopefully ).

[Solafighter]

Thats some great analysis, Ice Block.

[forgottendiary]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

Ho ho, wanna play Battler eh?

• Three FSB personnel entered the room.
• No other person was inside aside from the three mentioned above.
• The cage was knocked down and broken by the first person (Soldier A) to enter.
• As can be inferred from the gunshots, at least half a clip was emptied onto the debris at a range of at most 1.5 meters.

Now, a few educated assumptions:

• Since the mission was carried out by the FSB, it is highly likely that the troops used are from the Spetsnaz GRU -- the best trained units of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation.
• Judging from Soldier A's reaction, we can assume that their mission was to recover the contractor Shion and terminate all possible threats.
• The noise caused by the breaking cage and subsequent movement by the squirrel has been automatically identified as a threat, and is marked for elimination.
• Taking into account the skill and reaction time of your average Spetsnaz soldier and the amount of ammunition used, I am fairly confident that the squirrel was killed.
• This is further evidenced by the fact that there was no sound of breaking glass (the impact sound was relatively uniform, albeit a bit drowned out), hinting that the salvo was concentrated on one general area -- the squirrel was not able to run and flee, or at least it tried and was immediately stopped.

• But then if it was Mao, then it is 100% safe to assume that the squirrel was able to miraculously flee from a trained Spetsnaz soldier's salvo, somehow managed to transfer to his cat body, and then after getting shot by April transferred again to the squirrel off-screen.

And regarding the issue why Shion asked Suou to change into his clothes... it's basically to lead the FSB (and even MI6 and others) away from Shion, using Suou as the decoy. And as we already saw, it worked on April and then it even worked on Hei (since he is after the meteor fragment, we can assume that he is effectively looking for Shion, as he's the one that's significantly associated with it as of this episode). This leads me to believe that the FSB may not know who is who, and may even think Shion/Suou are one and the same. The reason why they did not take action earlier may be because they had not found out about Shion before, since he was dormant and basically sealed away in his secret room. Hei, however, was already tracking April since the start of the ep so he may have gotten some inside information (from Yin hopefully ).

and yes pretty please with the Yin part D:

[V4sH]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

Ho ho, wanna play Battler eh?

• Three FSB personnel entered the room.
• No other person was inside aside from the three mentioned above.
• The cage was knocked down and broken by the first person (Soldier A) to enter.
• As can be inferred from the gunshots, at least half a clip was emptied onto the debris at a range of at most 1.5 meters.

Now, a few educated assumptions:

• Since the mission was carried out by the FSB, it is highly likely that the troops used are from the Spetsnaz GRU -- the best trained units of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation.
• Judging from Soldier A's reaction, we can assume that their mission was to recover the contractor Shion and terminate all possible threats.
• The noise caused by the breaking cage and subsequent movement by the squirrel has been automatically identified as a threat, and is marked for elimination.
• Taking into account the skill and reaction time of your average Spetsnaz soldier and the amount of ammunition used, I am fairly confident that the squirrel was killed.
• This is further evidenced by the fact that there was no sound of breaking glass (the impact sound was relatively uniform, albeit a bit drowned out), hinting that the salvo was concentrated on one general area -- the squirrel was not able to run and flee, or at least it tried and was immediately stopped.

• But then if it was Mao, then it is 100% safe to assume that the squirrel was able to miraculously flee from a trained Spetsnaz soldier's salvo, somehow managed to transfer to his cat body, and then after getting shot by April transferred again to the squirrel off-screen.

And regarding the issue why Shion asked Suou to change into his clothes... it's basically to lead the FSB (and even MI6 and others) away from Shion, using Suou as the decoy. And as we already saw, it worked on April and then it even worked on Hei (since he is after the meteor fragment, we can assume that he is effectively looking for Shion, as he's the one that's significantly associated with it as of this episode). This leads me to believe that the FSB may not know who is who, and may even think Shion/Suou are one and the same. The reason why they did not take action earlier may be because they had not found out about Shion before, since he was dormant and basically sealed away in his secret room. Hei, however, was already tracking April since the start of the ep so he may have gotten some inside information (from Yin hopefully ).

I salute your battler-esque deductive skills Ice Block

[orion]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

Ho ho, wanna play Battler eh?

• Three FSB personnel entered the room.
• No other person was inside aside from the three mentioned above.
• The cage was knocked down and broken by the first person (Soldier A) to enter.
• As can be inferred from the gunshots, at least half a clip was emptied onto the debris at a range of at most 1.5 meters.

Now, a few educated assumptions:

• Since the mission was carried out by the FSB, it is highly likely that the troops used are from the Spetsnaz GRU -- the best trained units of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation.
• Judging from Soldier A's reaction, we can assume that their mission was to recover the contractor Shion and terminate all possible threats.
• The noise caused by the breaking cage and subsequent movement by the squirrel has been automatically identified as a threat, and is marked for elimination.
• Taking into account the skill and reaction time of your average Spetsnaz soldier and the amount of ammunition used, I am fairly confident that the squirrel was killed.
• This is further evidenced by the fact that there was no sound of breaking glass (the impact sound was relatively uniform, albeit a bit drowned out), hinting that the salvo was concentrated on one general area -- the squirrel was not able to run and flee, or at least it tried and was immediately stopped.

• But then if it was Mao, then it is 100% safe to assume that the squirrel was able to miraculously flee from a trained Spetsnaz soldier's salvo, somehow managed to transfer to his cat body, and then after getting shot by April transferred again to the squirrel off-screen.

And regarding the issue why Shion asked Suou to change into his clothes... it's basically to lead the FSB (and even MI6 and others) away from Shion, using Suou as the decoy. And as we already saw, it worked on April and then it even worked on Hei (since he is after the meteor fragment, we can assume that he is effectively looking for Shion, as he's the one that's significantly associated with it as of this episode). This leads me to believe that the FSB may not know who is who, and may even think Shion/Suou are one and the same. The reason why they did not take action earlier may be because they had not found out about Shion before, since he was dormant and basically sealed away in his secret room. Hei, however, was already tracking April since the start of the ep so he may have gotten some inside information (from Yin hopefully ).

You're not Beatrice or Ronove and this isn't Umineko so the Red Truth doesn't count.

The cat could have been released as a distraction for the FSB guy and not be "Mao". "Mao" could have already transferred into the squirrel the day before via that window scene if that was really "Mao". Cats with bell collars is not a rare thing. Also, that squirrel is prob a mascot for the second series. It even has a character post on the official website.

Also, the clothes switch could have been to assure Suou's safety. Primary targets were the father and Shion. Shion still needs Suou so he asked her to do a clothes switch. She is also carrying a part of the meteor fragment (as a necklace) which someone said earlier is an amplifier of contractor's abilities. She prob hasn't awakened yet imo.

Shion already knew that the FSB was coming also. He was long gone. Dad wasn't needed anymore apparently.

DtB2 poster does feature a sniper Suou with contractor eyes so it's only a matter of time imo.

[Joe_fh]

A really great start. Lot's of stuff nappened and you guys already mentione most of it.
There's no guartnee that cat was Mao btw. I mean he wouldn't jum a contractor. And Mao knew about April. Unlike Hey Mao was thinking rationally for the most part and he always considered all the options. I doubt jumping in front of an armed prson is conisdered rational especially from a contractor's point of view. It was probably just a cat.
But who knows?
And on the other hand Hey really seemed like a bad guy in this epiosde. And the way he was looking at the end of the episode - he could kill someone only with that look XD

I agree about the clothes swith thing but it seems Shion only wanted to escape and didn't really care about the meteor fragment since he gave part of it to Suou....maybe to be a more convincing decoy?
And that Tanya girl...she was featured as one of the new characters so I think she still has a major role to play.
I guess it will be really intense since it will only be 12 episodes....but come on it's DtB after all. Can't complain at all from what was shown in this episode - it started off with a really interesting plot.

Oh and the music rocked ^^

[Shinji103]

So it's really going to be 12 episodes?

Well I can't say I'm really surprised; take away the non-main plot episodes from S1 and it'd probably be about 12 episodes too. Since S2 is just going to be one long plot instead of arcs, it figures.

[Zwei]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

So it's really going to be 12 episodes?

12 episodes and 4 OVA's or so I heard.

[Sakabatou77]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

Ho ho, wanna play Battler eh?

• Three FSB personnel entered the room.
• No other person was inside aside from the three mentioned above.
• The cage was knocked down and broken by the first person (Soldier A) to enter.
• As can be inferred from the gunshots, at least half a clip was emptied onto the debris at a range of at most 1.5 meters.

Now, a few educated assumptions:

• Since the mission was carried out by the FSB, it is highly likely that the troops used are from the Spetsnaz GRU -- the best trained units of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation.
• Judging from Soldier A's reaction, we can assume that their mission was to recover the contractor Shion and terminate all possible threats.
• The noise caused by the breaking cage and subsequent movement by the squirrel has been automatically identified as a threat, and is marked for elimination.
• Taking into account the skill and reaction time of your average Spetsnaz soldier and the amount of ammunition used, I am fairly confident that the squirrel was killed.
• This is further evidenced by the fact that there was no sound of breaking glass (the impact sound was relatively uniform, albeit a bit drowned out), hinting that the salvo was concentrated on one general area -- the squirrel was not able to run and flee, or at least it tried and was immediately stopped.

• But then if it was Mao, then it is 100% safe to assume that the squirrel was able to miraculously flee from a trained Spetsnaz soldier's salvo, somehow managed to transfer to his cat body, and then after getting shot by April transferred again to the squirrel off-screen.

And regarding the issue why Shion asked Suou to change into his clothes... it's basically to lead the FSB (and even MI6 and others) away from Shion, using Suou as the decoy. And as we already saw, it worked on April and then it even worked on Hei (since he is after the meteor fragment, we can assume that he is effectively looking for Shion, as he's the one that's significantly associated with it as of this episode). This leads me to believe that the FSB may not know who is who, and may even think Shion/Suou are one and the same. The reason why they did not take action earlier may be because they had not found out about Shion before, since he was dormant and basically sealed away in his secret room. Hei, however, was already tracking April since the start of the ep so he may have gotten some inside information (from Yin hopefully ).

I'll play batter.

In my opinion, watching the anime, I didn't see the squirrel get shot and killed, and if you don't see it happen, you cannot assume the squirrel is dead. You can show all your evidence, but if you didn't see the squirrel get pulverized, then don't assume it's dead; especially since this is a fiction story.

And plus, this is Bones.

[V4sH]

this seems to be getting rather convoluted, either;

A. squirrel is mao, therefor its 100% he was not shot

or

B. Squirrel wasn't mao, therefore why do we even care if it was shot?

[Strange]

Originally Posted by V4sH

this seems to be getting rather convoluted, either;

A. squirrel is mao, therefor its 100% he was not shot

or

B. Squirrel wasn't mao, therefore why do we even care if it was shot?

If the squirrel was indeed mao, that pedo...

[willyvereb]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

Ho ho, wanna play Battler eh?

• Three FSB personnel entered the room.
• No other person was inside aside from the three mentioned above.
• The cage was knocked down and broken by the first person (Soldier A) to enter.
• As can be inferred from the gunshots, at least half a clip was emptied onto the debris at a range of at most 1.5 meters.

Now, a few educated assumptions:

• Since the mission was carried out by the FSB, it is highly likely that the troops used are from the Spetsnaz GRU -- the best trained units of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation.
• Judging from Soldier A's reaction, we can assume that their mission was to recover the contractor Shion and terminate all possible threats.
• The noise caused by the breaking cage and subsequent movement by the squirrel has been automatically identified as a threat, and is marked for elimination.
• Taking into account the skill and reaction time of your average Spetsnaz soldier and the amount of ammunition used, I am fairly confident that the squirrel was killed.
• This is further evidenced by the fact that there was no sound of breaking glass (the impact sound was relatively uniform, albeit a bit drowned out), hinting that the salvo was concentrated on one general area -- the squirrel was not able to run and flee, or at least it tried and was immediately stopped.

• But then if it was Mao, then it is 100% safe to assume that the squirrel was able to miraculously flee from a trained Spetsnaz soldier's salvo, somehow managed to transfer to his cat body, and then after getting shot by April transferred again to the squirrel off-screen.

And regarding the issue why Shion asked Suou to change into his clothes... it's basically to lead the FSB (and even MI6 and others) away from Shion, using Suou as the decoy. And as we already saw, it worked on April and then it even worked on Hei (since he is after the meteor fragment, we can assume that he is effectively looking for Shion, as he's the one that's significantly associated with it as of this episode). This leads me to believe that the FSB may not know who is who, and may even think Shion/Suou are one and the same. The reason why they did not take action earlier may be because they had not found out about Shion before, since he was dormant and basically sealed away in his secret room. Hei, however, was already tracking April since the start of the ep so he may have gotten some inside information (from Yin hopefully ).

Nice one, but you're missing an important thing:
Why the heck would the soldiers shoot on a squirrel? I mean even if they know about contractors able to swithc bodies.
I think they shot in a general direction and we didn't hear the sound of breaking glass or else, because it's anime. It's made by people who tend to do mistakes. And because it's anime Mao can perfectly survive it thanks to his plot-armor even if they aimed at him. Not to mention we don't even know:
-If Mao is alive after the happenings of first season
-If Mao is still working with Hei(If he survived). For a contractor joining up with somone who made enemy with the whole world is a certainly irrational choice.
-If Mao transfered himself into the squirrel. Or he was ever inside that cat(the one got shot in the end)...

In short it's rather pointless debate...Beato would be seriously bored by it.

[forgottendiary]

Originally Posted by Strange

If the squirrel was indeed mao, that pedo...

Urk...pedophilia and bestiality...do not want, do not want D: