Darker Than Black [1st season] generic discussion

[wao]

Hm, I was going to stay up to watch the latest of this, but after reading the various impressions on this episode... I think I'm not in so much of a hurry to watch it after all.

Spoiler for unfounded opinion:

I did get a bad feeling after translating the episode blurbs, because it seems like things happen too fast and too suddenly - I don't know how to say it exactly.

But if the 2ch thread where there's people saying they enjoyed the episode even for the previous episode (which doesn't seem to have gone down that well with you all...) doesn't even have anyone saying they liked this episode this time... it might just mean something.

Oh, this sounds all so irritatingly arrogant and "I told you so~"-like, but I guess I'll mention post hoc that I don't quite like the scriptwriter for these two arcs (Kurasumi Sunayama). Hated his Blood+ episodes (and I mean I really hated them), at any rate... but well.

Apparently the animation isn't the usual Bones quality this ep either.

But let us only make judgements after seeing the actual thing... me, though, I'm going to sleep first.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by monir

Like Kaioshin there!? Just kidding. Just to slightly venture into the comparison territory, Bones isn't a good comparison for KyoAni work such as Haruhi in my humble opinion. If Kaioshin is willing to compromise with "Production I. G." instead of "Bones" in that sentence, then I wholeheartedly will agree with him.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I find Production I.G's work to be incredibly inconsistent though. Especially in Raideen where no character seems to look the same from scene to scene.

However, this show has that same slickness, attention to detail (giving texture and life to things that would normally be overlooked) and consistency that Haruhi was famous for (At least as far as episode 03).

I find that a lot of studios seemed to be embarassed by how bad Haruhi made their shows look animation-wise in 2006 and that recently there's been a huge upswing in detail and consistency among most studios (Bones, Sunrise and Gonzo specifically) in an attempt to play catchup (and I think they have caught up now that they are actually putting in the effort). Overall if Haruhi did nothing else, it seems to have gotten the other studios to stop being so stingy on animation, especially where it counts.

Haruhi was nothing special animation wise and neither is Darker than Black, probably among the lower-tier Bones' shows when talking about visuals, but I've had this same discussion so many times in this forum I don't really know if you want to get this storm going...

[terrus]

Just out of curiosity has anyone here heard the fact that the series is going to adapted into a manga wich will be published in Monthly Asuka (a magazine that has a majority of mangas wich are based off of, or are spinoffs of animes i.e Neon Genisis, Code Geass, CowboyBeBop)? If the manga series were adapted by Yūji Iwahara the series orginal charcter designer (who himself has published a number of short enthralling mystery/sci-fi mangas similar to darker than black) i would defentily read it. i would suggest reading his largest series 'King of thorns' first if you are intrested here is a link to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibara_no_%C5%8C.
I also recomend his new series Nekton while not as dark as his other works and it is more similar to his slightly cutesy first work 'Chikyu Misaki' it still think it's a great read. One thing i love about this series and what attracted me to it in the first place is his charcter designs wich are consitant to his orginal designs as you could see the Darker than black charcters apearing in his mangas.

[flou]

Just saw episode 9. God bless n*co n*co.

Spoiler:

I didn't think it was a bad episode at all. I'm not really sure what the people at 2chan were talking about . The beginning of the episode started off pretty bloody and ended that way. A few characters were introduced such as Kirihara's dad, Alice, and Wei who have all been pretty interesting thus far. I'm really looking forward to ep. 10 which is looking out to be a bloodbath (and according to spoilers, it will be )

Alice and Wei are proving themselves to be complete psychopaths with the creepy laughter and the bees *shudders*. Wei's power turns out to be pretty bloody; he basically splashes his blood on people and wherever it lands (as soon as he snaps his fingers), it explodes, sort of like what's-his-face from Speed Grapher.

The end of the episode and the preview has me pretty excited: Hei (posing as a waiter/dishwasher) and Kirihara (along with Saito) meet up and it looks like they're going to have to work together to get out of the hotel. I wonder how Hei's going to hide his identity (he shows up in the preview at one point with his mask). Also, in the preview, there's a sequence with Saito covering Kirihara with (presumably) Wei's blood on his back and then a transition to Wei snapping his fingers, so Saito's fate is currently in question

Anyway, the episode felt like a return to DARKER THAN BLACK style after the last two episodes which I liked, but had a different feel as compared to the rest of the series. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to write a research report, study for three SAT subject tests, and do 50+ hours (NOT an exaggeration) of summer homework T_T

[flou]

Originally Posted by terrus

Just out of curiosity has anyone here heard the fact that the series is going to adapted into a manga wich will be published in Monthly Asuka (a magazine that has a majority of mangas wich are based off of, or are spinoffs of animes i.e Neon Genisis, Code Geass, CowboyBeBop)? If the manga series were adapted by Yūji Iwahara the series orginal charcter designer (who himself has published a number of short enthralling mystery/sci-fi mangas similar to darker than black) i would defentily read it. i would suggest reading his largest series 'King of thorns' first if you are intrested here is a link to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibara_no_%C5%8C.
I also recomend his new series Nekton while not as dark as his other works and it is more similar to his slightly cutesy first work 'Chikyu Misaki' it still think it's a great read. One thing i love about this series and what attracted me to it in the first place is his charcter designs wich are consitant to his orginal designs as you could see the Darker than black charcters apearing in his mangas.

The DtB manga sadly isn't going to be drawn by Iwahara-sensei, but someone else (unknown).

[Joojoobees]

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

Ep 8

Didn't like the fact that the only link between the contractor Hei and co were chasing and the detective story was just a coincidence. I mean, other than the kickass fight scene at the beginning of the ep, there didn't really seem to be much of a point to them being in this ep.

Speculation alert!

Spoiler for connections:

Facts: Remember how the villain was hunting down bottles of something made by the perfume company? That same perfume company was owned by the widow's "late" husband. That husband had an intense desire to smell something other than the widow. The villain lost his original body (which probably means it died). The villain had an intense desire to smell something (a sock).

Inference: If the perfume company were involved in research related to the Gate, the owner (widow's husband) was probably involved. If it involved Gate research, the owner might have become a contractor. If the owner became the contractor/villain he would have lost his body/died. He would know about the bottles the other executives had, and presumably want to get them. He would still be smelling something other than the widow.

Conclusion: the villain is the widow's "dead" husband.

Therefore the two stories were intricately intertwined.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by terrus

Just out of curiosity has anyone here heard the fact that the series is going to adapted into a manga wich will be published in Monthly Asuka (a magazine that has a majority of mangas wich are based off of, or are spinoffs of animes i.e Neon Genisis, Code Geass, CowboyBeBop)? If the manga series were adapted by Yūji Iwahara the series orginal charcter designer (who himself has published a number of short enthralling mystery/sci-fi mangas similar to darker than black) i would defentily read it. i would suggest reading his largest series 'King of thorns' first if you are intrested here is a link to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibara_no_%C5%8C.
I also recomend his new series Nekton while not as dark as his other works and it is more similar to his slightly cutesy first work 'Chikyu Misaki' it still think it's a great read. One thing i love about this series and what attracted me to it in the first place is his charcter designs wich are consitant to his orginal designs as you could see the Darker than black charcters apearing in his mangas.

Sadamoto's Evangelion is published in Shounen Ace... shoujo-esque Angelic Days was published in Asuka.

[MrProphet]

Episode 9 was alright.

Genga quality slipped here and there, the Chinese were painfully stereotypical and the plot was predictable, but had lots of laughs. Let's just say that it was worse than your usual BONES episode, but not that bad.

The plot goes like this.

Spoiler for episode 9:

Kirihara meets a foreign agent at night who is trying to pass on some information about Hong Kong gangs. He is however killed by an unseen Contractor who blows a hole in his body.

While Misaki is brooding at the crime scene, her father, some big shot, stops by and invites Misaki for a dinner at a fancy hotel. When they are finished and Dad leaves, Misaki bumps into her old aquaintance, Alice Wang, who is accompanied by her elven bodyguard Wei, who is OBVIOUSLY the big bad contractor from before.

Alice invites Misaki to her bif birthday party at the same hotel and they share a little yuri moment and reminisce about the time when Korihara was a Class President and has befrended the yanki-ish Alice in school. Oh, and Konomi was also their classmate. Misaki is dressed up as Chun Li, with bonbons and all, and they go to the party.

In the hall Misaki bumps into Saito, who is undercover as the waiter, and the hilariously blushing Hei, who is so hungry that his stomach keeps grumbling all over the room. Saito befriends Hei, who keeps easily draining information from the hapless policeman.

Alice's father and other mafia bosses get read to discuss their nefarious plans when Alice invites Misaki to get a view of her rooftop garden. The garden, though, is made of stone flowers. Alice gets all weird on Kirihara, picks up of the bees in the garden and stings herself. Kirihara falls through the bushes and discovers Alice's father murdered by the same contractor who killed the foreign agent. All at the same time, the freakishly elven Wei kills the rest of the mafia bosses. His contract is to slice his wrist and drop blood on people, which then burns holes through them.

Alice points a gun a Kirihara but lights go out and Misaki is able to hide in the bushes where she bumps into Hei.

The story is laughably predictable, but seeing Hei blush was funny. Overall, it was a mediocre episode, but it wasn't at boring as the last two.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

The story is laughably predictable, but seeing Hei blush was funny. Overall, it was a mediocre episode, but it wasn't as boring as the last two.

Weirdly, I think of 7-8 as the height of the series along with 1-2.

[MrProphet]

Naw, the best ones are undoubtedly those about Mi6. 7-8 were nothing to get exited about.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

Naw, the best ones are undoubtedly those about Mi6. 7-8 were nothing to get exited about.

I thought 6 wasn't really that well executed and at times turned too melodramatic... 7-8 had actual good animation, real noir yet laid-back mood and probably even the OST was cooler in it. 1-2 were nicely low-key and dark yet not really "let's be gritty and shocking" like 3-6.

[nubby]

Wow eps 9 was pretty good, I don't know why you would say it's just ok. The quality was top notch too. The arc is pretty interesting and I can't wait for the next eps. One thing I can't seem to figure out is if this arc takes place before or after Misaki met Hei in eps 2.

BTW, the eps 7-8 were crap.

[wao]

Finally watched 9. Oh who cares if it's predictable and stuff, it wasn't painfully bad at all... I enjoyed it just for Hei if anything Damn I loved the way

Spoiler:

he just magically appeared near the end and just said "uh, doumo!". Awww, so cute. And it's so creepy the way he's so ^_^ and nice with Saitou but then look at him in that way... needless to say, I really enjoy looking at that.

Also, next ep - who thinks

Spoiler:

Saitou has got his death flag waving? I think he might kick the bucket. Possibly.

[nubby]

Originally Posted by wao

Also, next ep - who thinks

Spoiler:

Saitou has got his death flag waving? I think he might kick the bucket. Possibly.

Spoiler:

I don't think he will die... I have a feeling this eps takes place before eps 1. Misaki should have recognized Hei right away, especially after Saitou said his name was Lee. But then again, she had bad eye sight. At the end of eps 2, Misaki thought she recognized Hei from somewhere but if this arc takes place before eps 1-2, how can Misaki forget about Hei so quickly?

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

Genga quality slipped here and there, the Chinese were painfully stereotypical and the plot was predictable, but had lots of laughs. Let's just say that it was worse than your usual BONES episode, but not that bad.

im glad someone else noticed

ep 9 ~

Spoiler:

whow whow whow! Misaki is hot looking in that chinese dress :3

just your standard for half but things really took a turn when alice stung herself with that bee...i take it those flowers are from the gate and having the bees sting her is like taking a dose of some drug? O.o

the elf guys has some wierd technique there...unescapable? hopefully Saitou wont kick the bucket

and the connection between alice and misaki...i expect another tearful ep next time >__<

[grey_moon]

I think 7 and 8 was more about Mao and some insight into the contractor powers. If a contractor loosing his body can mean that they no longer need to remunerate, does that mean they regain their humanity too?

I can understand why Mao still works for the Syndicate even if he did, since he is tied into their network. I suppose he could find a dolphin or whale to hop into if he did want to break away.

[arkon]

Originally Posted by 7Th

I'm still amazed at how silly the people in this forum are when it comes to appreciate animation.

About as silly as pretending to know enough Japanese to do decent TL comparisons

[hipeach]

Originally Posted by wao

Finally watched 9. Oh who cares if it's predictable and stuff, it wasn't painfully bad at all... I enjoyed it just for Hei if anything Damn I loved the way

Spoiler:

he just magically appeared near the end and just said "uh, doumo!". Awww, so cute. And it's so creepy the way he's so ^_^ and nice with Saitou but then look at him in that way... needless to say, I really enjoy looking at that.

Also, next ep - who thinks

Spoiler:

Saitou has got his death flag waving? I think he might kick the bucket. Possibly.

the thing that is painfully bad is that

Spoiler:

Alice transformed from such a cute and nice looking girl into a fugly alien witch over the years

For Saitou, nope

Spoiler:

I'm sure he won't die, characters like him won't die until the last episodes.

On the other hand I'm sure

Spoiler:

Alice will be killed by Wei in the most cliched way. Remember Wei is a Contractor and Contractors are emotionless killers, so falling in love with a Contractor is definitely not good

[monir]

Apology ahead for I'll be going a bit-off topic:

Originally Posted by 7Th

Haruhi was nothing special animation wise and neither is Darker than Black, probably among the lower-tier Bones' shows when talking about visuals, but I've had this same discussion so many times in this forum I don't really know if you want to get this storm going...

I don't believe most of us who have posted here consider DtB special because of it's animated motion. What stands out about this show is the vast amount of background detail that sometime also includes some intricacy. I also like the character design for this show. As for Haruhi, since I've no idea how you judge/rate animation, I would just disagree with you in that example for now, and will leave it at that. In the meantime, I'll see if I can locate a post of yours in the forum that has your take on animation as a subject to get a better understanding on your take.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin

I find that a lot of studios seemed to be embarassed by how bad Haruhi made their shows look animation-wise in 2006 and that recently there's been a huge upswing in detail and consistency among most studios (Bones, Sunrise and Gonzo specifically) in an attempt to play catchup (and I think they have caught up now that they are actually putting in the effort). Overall if Haruhi did nothing else, it seems to have gotten the other studios to stop being so stingy on animation, especially where it counts.

Wholeheartedly agree with this observation though studios like Production I.G. has always been ahead of the game. KyoAni's influence is that the studio is gorgeously animating show that has otherwise generic script. Ohter studios that also pump out tons of those generic script in anime every season, thanks to KyoAni, now their work don't appear anything special even though the mold of those works are pretty much the same. Haruhi is the exception, of course, in regards to script.

Anyway, I'm done off-topicing the thread. Looking forward to episode 9.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by arkon

About as silly as pretending to know enough Japanese to do decent TL comparisons

Actually... I didn't did those comparisons and just copied them from a TLtor friend from another forum, which is probably even worse.