Darker Than Black 2nd Season - Episode 03 Discussion / Poll

[TCman]

Finally, I have catched up with Darker than Black S2. In my opinion this is maybe the best action series in this season.

As for Hei's comeback, I am a little surprised that he has become a more ruthless killer than in Season 1; the Hei who helps an unknown boy to escape with the dol from the yakuza versus the Hei in Season 2 who handled quite harsh against Suou who's only a kid who has done nothing wrong.

And about Hei's lost ability of controlling electricity, I think he lost the ability due to the entrapment by the forcefield activated by the black ops of the Internal affairs department in combination with Suou's pendant. My theory is that the pendant has absorbed Hei's power which is originally his sister's (Pai) power and this power is transmitted/-planted to Suou. I also think Hei is no contractor anymore since at the end of the episode 2 in the epilogue, Misaki Kirihara said that BK201's (i.e. Hei or Li-kun as known in Season1) star is gone when she's looking at the stars with a telescope; this also indicates that Hei will not get his lost power back. Also that's why he stops Suou's killing (I think), but I don't know whether he get all his "humanity" back again.

So Suou gets the power that's originally from Pai, Hei's younger sister; Pai's other power is molecular reconstruction (next to controlling electricity ability), which is in my opinion very similar to alchemy like in the Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga. So in the end this is no Mahou Shoujo/magical girl show.

This show is really good, I am really looking forward to the next episode!

[DragoZERO]

I was hoping she wouldn't become a contractor. Would have been better if she was like Hei and didn't have a remuneration too.

It was a good episode though. They couldn't have picked a better animal for Mao to return as.

[kk2extreme]

it feels like remuneration is like using a credit card to me, you can prepaid the amount and spent it later or spent it now and pay later. Or you can paid all the money in advance and use the money w/o paying it back. Or in case of hei, he got his power/credit card from his sister, its like identiy theft where you are spending someone else's account but they cant bill you because you are not the owner of the account while the original owner could not be bill caz shes dead

[PiggyBank]

Originally Posted by orion

So if they are traveling north by ferry, would their next destination be Sakhalin or Kuril?

An alternate route could be Vladivostok ---> Vanino (40 hours), Vanino ----> Sakhalin, Korsakav, Sakhalin ----> Wakkanai, Hokkaido There's a trip guide for this route here.

*impressed* That's some thorough research, right there!

As for the soundtrack, so far I'm quite pleased with it. I can accept the rave, it's only Mao's new music that made me turn the volume down...
I might grow to like it tho, you never know. I wasn't convinced by some themes in S1, but I got used to them eventually

[Thoguht]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Like i said, i've excepted second season's score, though i don't think it's anyway near the same level as first seasons score.

Well, despite my previous classically-based comments, I do quite like the "slamming beat" of the mayhem scene in this episode. It sounds really great through my studio monitors

[orion]

Originally Posted by Joe_fh

As far as I know Sakhalin and Vanino are part of Russia. The sign on the street in the preview wasn't in Russian (as far as I can remember it was in the left part of the screen and there was a big one in the beckground before that) so from that I'd go with the Kuril Islands. Especially if you consider the fact that those islands are small and probably are a good place to hide.
Actually I'd like to point out a third option - the town called Sapporo in North Japan. It fits with the big buildings that were flooded in the preview. And it's still North and in Japan so it counts. And it has a river which might have caused the flooding.

Wiki says the Japanese are gone from Sakhalin but Koreans remain. Wiki also says that Kuril Islands have no Japanese on them but Ainu remain. Maybe this is in a kindler gentler time when Japan got the South Kuril Islands back.

But if you land in Takaoka, why bother to go to Sapporo when you can hop a train to Tokyo from Takaoka? Do you think this building looks like the one in the preview?

Vladivostok----> Fushiki Japan (2 days), Fushiki ---> Takaoka (20 minutes), Takaoka ----> Tokyo (5 hours)

This was obviously a kindler gentler time when he decided to leave on the day the ferry left and had time to get to it after the crap at the railroad station.

[Yu Ominae]

Well the wiki on Sakhalin mentions the current Russian gov't wants to construct the Sakhalin tunnel to link it with Hokkaido. So I wonder if it'll be in the next one, but I'm sure it's not going to be there.

[risingstar3110]

Awesome episode. So far Dtb S2 is still the best of this season (and have potential to be one of my most favourite this year). Can't remember when was the last time i feel chill send down my spine one moment, then burnt with excitement just some minutes after that. Awesome ^^

The pre-OP event really showed this anime is really "Darker than black" (at this rate new characters will get killed faster than being introduced). Thank to that, the OP sound 3x times as awesome.

Then i have my teasing scene of Hei x Suou. Thank the director for being a psychic (even while it's kind of obvious). My biggest question is: they hide Suou's pantsu in that "restraint" screen because it will be too obvious fan-service, or was it an evil plan to make Suou seems totally in nude? Hei's also pretty evil, isn't he? Release her from his constraint, let her get dress, then start to tie her up again. He 's better to take responsibility later if Suou's ruined for marriage ^^

Sexy Tanya!!! (the FGB really know how to dress their female personnel). Black Reaper in action (his face is exposed now...). Then Magical Girl Lyrical Suou (actually i didn't think about it until reading this thread, since that was pretty cool screen due to anti-tank gun>> magical staff). Anyway, what kind of RPG party is it: an emotionless enemy-deflected boy, a human- concious-in-a-cat-body in a flying squirrel, a flat-chest anti-tank gun-slinger girl, and a drunken hobo ex-assassin main protagonist.....

I don't think Suou's remuneration is origami. It take her too long to start carrying out that remuneration

PS: the BGM is just too awesome. Most notably is the screen when Mao lead Suou to escape( can we name it "Flying squirrel comes to rescue"?). Never expected such kind of upbeat techno can fit such screen so well

[Zwei]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

I don't think Suou's remuneration is origami. It take her too long to start carrying out that remuneration

It is her remuneration. Hei's sister remuneration was to sleep, I think that takes longer.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Zwei

It is her remuneration. Hei's sister remuneration was to sleep, I think that takes longer.

I means every contractor try to carry out their remuneration as soon as possible. Then we have someone mentioned about how long it take for the group to go from their city to the port (10 days or something) so i expect that Suou had to carry out her remuneration as soon as she wake up

[Joe_fh]

Originally Posted by orion

Wiki says the Japanese are gone from Sakhalin but Koreans remain. Wiki also says that Kuril Islands have no Japanese on them but Ainu remain. Maybe this is in a kindler gentler time when Japan got the South Kuril Islands back.

But if you land in Takaoka, why bother to go to Sapporo when you can hop a train to Tokyo from Takaoka? Do you think this building looks like the one in the preview?

Vladivostok----> Fushiki Japan (2 days), Fushiki ---> Takaoka (20 minutes), Takaoka ----> Tokyo (5 hours)

This was obviously a kindler gentler time when he decided to leave on the day the ferry left and had time to get to it after the crap at the railroad station.

Didn't know japanese weren't living on those islands (since they're so close). That's interesting but then again there's not much to do there so why leave the country to go to some island where there are no jobs probably

Well I said that would be their best bet if they went South. Since in the preview they say "driffted to a city in the North" (or something like that) I think they got on a ship to Sapporo. It's a big port as well and it's the only big town North of Vladivostok (ok and East of it ) on that side of the Japanese islands. There are no ferry at the moment but they might be on a random ship and not a ferry. And by that time they migh even be one.

Of Course it wouldn't make sense to go to Takaoka,Toyma and after that go to Sapporo but then again Hei is drinking a lot Jokes aside that building really looks similar but a lot of buildings have ones that look similar. The ones that were more unique were the ones that were flooded and collapsed.

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

I means every contractor try to carry out their remuneration as soon as possible. Then we have someone mentioned about how long it take for the group to go from their city to the port (10 days or something) so i expect that Suou had to carry out her remuneration as soon as she wake up

Wait,wait Vladivostok is one if not the only ( ok probably a bit of exaggeration here) city in the world where the prot is right beside the train station so it probably took them 10 minutes So actually she started folding it right after she woke up. Also we see a lot of those in the preview and we see her holding the rifle thus she needs to pay her renumeration. And I doubt she'll be folding origami for fun in the middle of nowhere after her how life was destroyed,

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Joe_fh

Wait,wait Vladivostok is one if not the only ( ok probably a bit of exaggeration here) city in the world where the prot is right beside the train station so it probably took them 10 minutes So actually she started folding it right after she woke up. Also we see a lot of those in the preview and we see her holding the rifle thus she needs to pay her renumeration. And I doubt she'll be folding origami for fun in the middle of nowhere after her how life was destroyed,

I thought they must take a while to get on that ship and leave the port. Also I always avoid the review and only watch when it's really ambiguous. You spoiled my ep 4...... GIVE IT BACK.... (j/k through)


Anyway, about the "I doubt she'll be folding origami for fun in the middle of nowhere after her how life was destroyed", i am one of those who start to do random things as soon as i don't have anything to do or was deep in thought.
I do not know any origami, but there are more than dozen of occasions when i start to fold unknown object out of random piece of paper without realizing how pointless it's. Not only paper, i play with stationary, hairclip, rubber bands, or anything i can reach during those moments as well, unconsciously try to fit or lock them together, or try to create something out of them (one occasion in primary school i made a catapult out of spoon, rubber band, clips, plastic blocks..... during my school work revision). Still have that habit now
But it's out of topic through

[Joe_fh]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

I thought they must take a while to get on that ship and leave the port. Also I always avoid the review and only watch when it's really ambiguous. You spoiled my ep 4...... GIVE IT BACK.... (j/k through)


Anyway, about the "I doubt she'll be folding origami for fun in the middle of nowhere after her how life was destroyed", i am one of those who start to do random things as soon as i don't have anything to do or was deep in thought.
I do not know any origami, but there are more than dozen of occasions when i start to fold unknown object out of random piece of paper without realizing how pointless it's. Not only paper, i play with stationary, hairclip, rubber bands, or anything i can reach during those moments as well, unconsciously try to fit or lock them together, or try to create something out of them (one occasion in primary school i made a catapult out of spoon, rubber band, clips, plastic blocks..... during my school work revision). Still have that habit now
But it's out of topic through

Well this is place where we can talk about the previews of the next episode.
And I haven't said anything to spoil anything (My guess about what will happen hext is as good as yours) besides you're joking

That aside previews usually are very misleading in general. They show random scenes that look connected and you really get the wrong idea from them

Yes doing random things when you're bored is normal. It's not only you I go all random when I don't have anything to do as well. My point us that this seems to be her renumeration since shed did it after she used her ability and fits quite well with everything else. It's not that she couldn't be folding origami for fun. it's just that her situation makes this highly unlikely and folding the fits in with the whole contracotr thing.
Well we'll see it clearly nex episode

[tieria.erde]

all i'd say for now is that tanya should have a pathetic death

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by tieria.erde

all i'd say for now is that tanya should have a pathetic death

I was really surprised she didn't die. I thought for sure she'd be gone by the end of this episode from the preview at the end of episode two.

But she shouldn't have a pathetic death. She is a victim here.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

I was really surprised she didn't die. I thought for sure she'd be gone by the end of this episode from the preview at the end of episode two.

But she shouldn't have a pathetic death. She is a victim here.

I also thought she was going to die in this episode, though i'm not surprised that they'll keep her around for future drama later in the series. Plus i wanna see how much hair she ends up pulling out by the end.

[Sakabatou77]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

Anyway, about the "I doubt she'll be folding origami for fun in the middle of nowhere after her how life was destroyed", i am one of those who start to do random things as soon as i don't have anything to do or was deep in thought.
I do not know any origami, but there are more than dozen of occasions when i start to fold unknown object out of random piece of paper without realizing how pointless it's. Not only paper, i play with stationary, hairclip, rubber bands, or anything i can reach during those moments as well, unconsciously try to fit or lock them together, or try to create something out of them (one occasion in primary school i made a catapult out of spoon, rubber band, clips, plastic blocks..... during my school work revision). Still have that habit now
But it's out of topic through

I have my own theory on this matter. I for 1 don't think she has a price to pay, and say that because she's always made origamis; even in school. If she was a Contractor from the start, she would have been spotting spectres left and right, (unless Bones have some reason why she hasn't,) and if she was, then yes that would be her price. However, since we know she has "Contractor like symptoms," she still shows emotions when she's not in a hypnosis state.

Another thing: Unless the sub version I have was written wrong, she never had said, "I have to pay my price." What I have is this. "Contractors must pay their remuneration after having used their powers. I have become a Contractor."

Now, in my opinion, you can look at it 3 ways. Yes she has to pay a price. Another is that she thinks she has to pay a price and makes origamis from habit, or she wonders why she doesn't have to pay a price as she makes an origami.

If the last statement is right, then Bones is trying to make people think she has a price to pay.

People will probably look at my statement and say, "That's just stretching," and they could be right. But like I had said, these are only my theories, and as you can see, I don't have 1, but 3.

[hero147]

You guys are over-analyzing this, folding cranes is her renumeration. A better topic to discuss is why her renumeration is folding cranes. As the story goes, from what I can remember, when an individual folds 1000 cranes, a wish comes true.

[Strange]

Originally Posted by hero147

You guys are over-analyzing this, folding cranes is her renumeration. A better topic to discuss is why her renumeration is folding cranes. As the story goes, from what I can remember, when an individual folds 1000 cranes, a wish comes true.

It's not overanalyzing, at all. We know Hei had no renumeration to pay, and if his power did indeed transfer to Suou, she'll have no renumeration either. She could very well be folding cranes because she knows contractors must pay a price for their powers, and she's doing what she believes she needs to do, when there is no actual need.

Much like Hei suppressing his emotions in season one, when there was no need to; he still did it, because that's what Contractors did.

[Sakabatou77]

Originally Posted by hero147

You guys are over-analyzing this, folding cranes is her renumeration. A better topic to discuss is why her renumeration is folding cranes. As the story goes, from what I can remember, when an individual folds 1000 cranes, a wish comes true.

Okay, maybe she's folding them so she can make a wish.

Originally Posted by Strange

It's not overanalyzing, at all. We know Hei had no renumeration to pay, and if his power did indeed transfer to Suou, she'll have no renumeration either. She could very well be folding cranes because she knows contractors must pay a price for their powers, and she's doing what she believes she needs to do, when there is no actual need.

Much like Hei suppressing his emotions in season one, when there was no need to; he still did it, because that's what Contractors did.

Good point!