Darker Than Black 2nd Season - Episode 04 Discussion / Poll

[Strange]

Man, even July is doing the fake-smile now. Yin is so gone.

I thought it was a good episode. I wish they didn't have a transvestite, though. Only two Japanese animes thus far have pulled it off--Ouran and One Piece. The others, like in this episode, just come off as stupid.

[LightningZERO]

Ok....Mina Hazuki is a lesbian and interested in Misaki. Misaki is apparently a virgin, and keeping ti for BK-201

[orion]

Misaki is so waving a death flag. She's in love with Hei and working for the enemy who figured it out already and would prob use her as a hostage.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by orion

Misaki is so waving a death flag. She's in love with Hei and working for the enemy who figured it out already and would prob use her as a hostage.

It's not a 100% death flag until she admits her feelings, and i think we all know that will never happen.

[hei]

Originally Posted by Battler-kun

Just watched it.
I will drop this series. Perhaps i am picking it up some time in the future.
But right now i am too disappointed. It feels too different now from S1.
Hei is like a babysitter now.

I have to search for a real grim dark anime.

I can understand your disappointment because I feel the same way. Simply, there are too many things that make me uncomfortable to watch the show. For example, it is really painful for me to watch the nude henshin (transformation) scene, which is an old trick of mahou shojo animes to lure boy viewers.

Anyway, my advice is to come back a few episodes later. I think that the reason why DtB 2 is so different from S1 is probably because of the senario writers. In Season 2, two new writers, Hiroyuki Yoshino (ep 2-3) and Mari Okada (ep 4-5), came in. Considering their previous works (for example, My Otome & Komoto no Jikan, respectively), the current situation of S2 is not surprising. Thankfully, writers of S1 are planned to be back in the later episodes, so the show should improve then.

[forgottendiary]

ep4 tweets:

Spoiler:

-That magical girl sequence never fails to make me go WTF. I mean, really? Pink with silvery twinkly feathers? Silhouette with the percussion-filled bgm???
-Was the tranny a lame parody of Asuka Langley?
-Why do I feel so happy every time Hei slaps/hurts Suou around?
-Gee, Hei. Since you've so much money to blow on booze, would a trip to the barber hurt?
-Again: I NEED YIN. I don't even care if it's another naked flashback sequence.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by hei

Anyway, my advice is to come back a few episodes later. I think that the reason why DtB 2 is so different from S1 is probably because of the senario writers. In Season 2, two new writers, Hiroyuki Yoshino (ep 2-3) and Mari Okada (ep 4-5), came in. Considering their previous works (for example, My Otome & Komoto no Jikan, respectively), the current situation of S2 is not surprising. Thankfully, writers of S1 are planned to be back in the later episodes, so the show should improve then.

You can come back in a few episodes, though nothing will have changed, even if the script writers from the first season will return. You'll still be seeing the same second season that you people seem to dislike for reasons i don't understand.

Originally Posted by forgottendiary

-Was the tranny a lame parody of Asuka Langley?

Don't tell me you think that just because they have the same hair style?

[Bordix]

Amazing how a flying squirrel can take down two men at the same time Mao just missed the opportunity of becoming a cat again, thats too bad. Liked him more when he was a cat.

and for some reason I like seeing July and Suou together, they just look so damn adorable. Now all we need is Yin...

Spoiler for Hei:

Didn't know you were an ass man

[forgottendiary]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Don't tell me you think that just because they have the same hair style?

It was so painful to look at. The green dress = bluish green uniform from Eva.
Then there was the red hair and the A10 nerve clip-like RED hair accessory. *facepalm*

[g_silver]

Whaa... I like the way that Suou break that fat guy's arm
look like she become more and more interesting character to me

Want to see result after training,
I guess, in later episode, we will se Suou fight with Hei for sure...

[hei]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

You can come back in a few episodes, though nothing will have changed, even if the script writers from the first season will return. You'll still be seeing the same second season that you people seem to dislike for reasons i don't understand.

Are you an anime producer? How do you know that nothing will have changed later? People like it or hate it for their own reasons, especially when it's a cultural product. So what?

For your information, I did not say I will drop it now and come back later. Actually, when writers of S2 were announced, it was expected that the first half of S2 would be much different (in a negative way for me) from S1. So I have been planning to endure it for a while.

[Zwei]

Originally Posted by Bordix

Spoiler for Hei:

Didn't know you were an ass man

It looks like he's looking at his next victim or something.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by hei

Are you an anime producer? How do you know that nothing will have changed later? People like it or hate it for their own reasons, especially when it's a cultural product. So what?

For your information, I did not say I will drop it now and come back later. Actually, when writers of S2 were announced, it was expected that the first half of S2 would be much different (in a negative way for me) from S1. So I have been planning to endure it for a while.

I never said i was an anime producer. Whenever someone has said they've had a problem with this series, they mention how this season isn't as dark as the first, when the first season wasn't a dark series to begin with. Going by the first four episodes, and the whole of the first season, the chances of that happening are very low.

& i wasn't speaking directly to you. More along the lines of the people you were aiming your post at. Sorry if my post came of as just aiming at you.

Originally Posted by Zwei

It looks like he's looking at his next victim or something.

Trust me, that scene looks a lot worse when just looking at screenshots.

[Zwei]

I loved this episode, looks like Hei x Suou's relationship is that of a typical Master x apprentice for now.

Looks like we got introduced to another lolicon but this time it's pretty much confirmed.

And as expected, Misaki is saving her virginity for Hei.

[qwertyman]

Better episode than the last. The action sequences of episode 3 were iffy at best, and Suou's powers aren't distinguished enough (yet, at least) to make for the unique fighting scenes that the first season had. Go go character development.

I like this season just as much as the first one because it hits on the topic of what happens to how people who turn into contractors feel. And I guess I'm one of the few who think this way but, I like seeing Hei (albeit, a worn-down one) being forced to interact with a contractor on a regular basis, despite the fact that he has declared that he hates them and wants many of them dead, especially one as childish as Suou.

[RedWing]

Violenece against women campaigners would not be pleased with this episode.

[Kadrias]

Hei needs to stop acting like an abusive daddy. ):
Mao should've switched to that cat.
Suou and July are really cute "siblings". (I just have a thing for blankfaced characters.. but when they both fake-smiled I burst out lauging. Ah, July, I think that smile's just a liiittle too big.. lol.)

[LightningZERO]

Nice episode, not as great as the first few, but still enjoyable. I really enjoy it when the series focuses on Suou's transformation into a Contractor. I like the slowly change of Suou's thought process and how she sees taking photos as something weird and unnecessary.

Mao owns this episode. He's really hilarious!

I can do without the magic-rifle-summoning scenes and the guy in dress, and also his son. But I think something will happen to the son next episode.

[wandering-dreamer]

Didn't like this episode as much as the previous ones, the only parts I really did like were the parts with Kirihara in them (I always root for the normal people in worlds full of magical ass-kickers ). Didn't really get the point of the training (although I did lol at how Suou had to do one handed hand stands because she needed to keep her skirt up) and did that transvestite lady give Suou feminine products?!?

[Kaoru Chujo]

1. I'm rewatching season one as we go forward here, and I'd say that the first six episodes of that were pretty dark compared to this (woman to doll to dead; girl to moratorium to contractor to dead). Ep7 (lost cat detective agency), however, was more comic than anything we've seen here yet. I love season two, but I can sympathize with the people who don't. Certainly there's more fanservice here: I'm happy with it myself, but I can sympathize with those who aren't.

2. Okada Mari, who wrote the script for episode 4, didn't just do Kodomo no Jikan, she did many episodes of Simoun, as well as being the lead writer on true tears and Toradora and Canaan and Bantorra and Vampire Knight. I'm not sure KnJ is the best example of her work. But she's certainly not the darkest writer, as hei (the poster) rightly says. However, she is just one of the episode writers here, carrying out someone else's plan, and not the lead writer. No lead writer is credited, which means to me that the show is firmly in the hands of Okamura Tensai...and of the producers representing the firms who provide the money. I wouldn't be surprised if the extra fanservice is at their behest. But maybe Okamura hired writers who could do the new tone he/they wanted for this show.

3. In that screencap of Hei watching Suou's midsection, he is not being an "ass man," lol, he is training her, making sure that her belly muscles are strong enough for the kind of elusive fighting she shows later. Not that the scene isn't meant as fanservice. She could have defeated that whole gang easily, if she wasn't distracted by her belly-ache. Of course, at her age (13, according to the official site), I thought it might be something other than ramen that caused her discomfort. More fanservice?

4. I wonder how old Norio really is. Could he be as young as 16 -- or even 14 (his dad wonders if he's going through puberty)? If he were that young, the difference in ages between him and Suou would not be so remarkable. The scene from the preview of Suou and July sleeping together in the bathtub was awfully kiddy-cute, though. Neat idea. Both embody such a contrast between youth and power.

5. I'm normally pretty revolted by violence against women in anime. Too darn much of it, if you ask me. But to be truthful, I didn't find this as awful as some other shows have been. Maybe because it fits so well with Hei as a contractor at the end of his rope. Gives him more depths to recover from. Or not. I just wish people didn't enjoy seeing it. Scares me for the future of society. I thought we were getting past that.