A person does not know what real loneliness is when he is alone in a room. And when the room is full of people, and one of them is a traitor.
Sign contracts. Walls are built instead of bridges. And someone stole the moon and the sky, replacing them with fake stars. So now the gods of this world shine from heaven. And when the stars are falling, you don't want to make a wish at all. After all, a wish made under the death of a fighter will most likely turn out to be gloomy.
By the way, it makes no sense to think about why this series at the same time wants to attach the label "noir", and at the same time not. In fact, "Darker Than Black" essentially incorporates almost all genre diversity. recent years, and of course it can't do anything on its own. The stamps swell. Therefore, I want to call it the loudest nonsense of all this time. However, when the head flickers familiar word"noir", this shortcoming immediately fades in the darkness. In that world where beautiful and treacherous women rule the show, where the hero merges with the antihero, and the danger trivially hides in the shadows, everything exists - irony, romance, action, detective, drama, and psychedelia - and at the same time none of this No. Noir, like matter. The color scheme is a stellar glow reflected in the surface of the lake.
Ridiculous, of course, but extremely interesting that the young Li Shen Shun, an exchange student, is the most ordinary-looking guy. Timid, insecure, moonlighting wherever he can. Everyone simply adores him, and not only for the outstanding collarbone line, but also for his gentle character. It's all just a mask. As soon as the eyes turn away from him, the colors again flow from the face. Because in fact he is the Black God of Death, as he was called by the cops. And without superpowers, he is more dangerous than many who have signed a contract, but with supernatural power it's doubly scary. At night, he puts on a white mask with an ominous smile and destroys the same contract soldiers as he does in the city next to the Gates of Hell - almost the Strugatsky Zone ... no, the Tarkovsky Zone ... By the way, the smiling white mask still reminds a little of the revolutionary V, but nothing else not related.
Now you don’t even have to try to find noir in pure form, in whatever form. Noir is extremely outdated since the post-war economy stabilized and the American people regained faith in a brighter future. And here it is the result of the search for new potential bottoms this genre: Blade Runner, No Country for Old Men and Sin City. By the way, "Darker than Black" has even less in common with noir than the aforementioned tapes.
And if a black cat is hiding in a dark room, Tensai Okamura clearly does not want to turn on the light and check. With amazing enthusiasm, he infuses his series with noir suspicion, legends and fatal lyricism. He makes riddles, but does not ask the audience to find their own answers. Riddles remain rhetorical. But damn adorable. How to conclude a Contract? What happens if you don't pay the price? What is actually a Gate? And why is the Wall necessary? And too much has already been said about this to consider it only metaphorical symbols.
One thing Tensai has definitely succeeded in is regret. The Japanese generally proved that they do not know how to regret correctly. This feeling translates either into sky-high pathos speeches and landscapes with a tear-jerking melody, or into a black, cynical silent camera slide. And in "Darker than Black", which is, in fact, a collection of short stories, each two episodes long, it is the most natural, canonical, even somewhat American.
Yes, be it wrong, this is regret, here there is the same philosophical Zone that Tarkovsky once squeezed out of the Strugatskys. One has only to overcome the huge Wall, and there, in the empty streets, the contractors are looking for answers to the questions that they ask themselves. They die alone. They save each other. They kill each other. And again looking for answers.
Contractors, they are, as sources say, no longer people. They suppressed their emotions, became deceitful monsters who value their lives above all else. Dolls are mediums whose personality was destroyed, and only information important for existence was left. But here's the irony - it seems that over time they will be able to become people faster than people themselves. Rare glimpses of their humanity are more valuable than the strongest words of the masters. And their payment for power adds human colors to them and makes them philosophers. They don't know why they sometimes smoke, or lay out pebbles, or bend the corners of all the wanderers in the book. From the outside, it looks so much like those meaningless habits that are so characteristic of real living people.
This is what the conversation is about. Lee (Hei, Black God of Death, BK-201) is overly human even with his perpetually bored face. Yin is too human, a doll with an absent gaze of purple eyes. Yes even black cat and she is human. By the way, how else, in this case, to separate people from non-humans? After all, the light falls equally on everyone, and in the rain everyone gets wet at the same time quickly. Any comparisons seem artificial and contrived.
However, noir is what it is. He does not open the way for the heroes to escape. Does not divide heroes into good and evil. He pulls the fools out of the crowd to throw them back into the darkness. Welcome to rain and melancholy. Loneliness and theft. Fatal encounters and betrayals. Here, out of place, the parodic character reveals the secrets of being and the future, and the most bitter disappointments turn into even more bitter deceit. And excessive lyricism turns actions into an echo of other actions, forcing the eyes to be involuntarily surprised by their own insight. It all looks like tinsel hung around things that are inconspicuous and uninteresting at first glance. Here already in some way Sinkaev's passion to be alone quietly whimpers - and from the general mass, from dialogues and actions, pots, telescopes, corners of rooms begin to quietly stand out. This n-th secret bottom seems to completely unfold the romance of sad and unhurried confrontations between monsters and people and monsters with monsters, again turning it into a discordant and downtrodden, but from that it is such an ideal regret. Regret is worse than the wildest hatred. Regret is sadder than the most empty desire. Darker than the darkest thoughts. Darker than black.
Dark side blues
10 years ago the world changed. Some of the people became contractors, having entered into a contract with an unknown force and acquiring various abilities. In addition, mediums appeared - people (dolls) more like “vegetables”, devoid of personality and memory. This is how the darker than black anime starts.
A paranormal zone called the "Gate of Hell" appears in Tokyo, which is surrounded by a wall. The secret services begin to hunt for contractors, either by attracting them to themselves or by killing them.
Hey - main character, a contractor nicknamed "The Black Reaper" with the ability to manipulate electricity, works for an organization, performing various tasks and constantly clashing with his past. His team includes the emotionless Yin doll girl, the former police officer Huang, and the talking cat Mao.
Anime Darker than black (darker than black) is an extremely interesting mixture of fantasy, action, detective and noir with a well-thought-out universe that is slightly different from ours.
IN Lately often there is a theme about a person endowed with incredible abilities, whether it be films, TV shows or anime. However, in "Darker thab black" the contractors are something like cold-blooded, calculating bastards, main goal which is self-preservation. The concept of conscience and morality becomes something distant and forgotten, and “Everything for yourself” comes to the fore. Due to their blunted senses, such superhumans become ideal weapons for killing, ready to fulfill any order.
However, you have to pay for everything, even in the Darker than black universe. For the use of their abilities, each contractor pays a special price. For some, this is the harmless eating of eggs, laying out pebbles, and for some, this is breaking fingers on own hand. At the same time, the fee is more of a psychological dependence than a physical one.
Hey is unique. He pays no price, is the most irrational contractor, differing in atypical behavior from others who have own life above all. So living during the day the life of an ordinary transferred student, and at night turning into the black god of death, Hei seems to rush between the world of people and the world of contractors, not allowing him to turn into a completely soulless killer.
If I could describe the show in two words, it would be gray days adventures of the protagonist in the company of a doll girl, talking cat and a man of the old school from the same sandbox as all the brethren. At the same time, a feature of the series is the division of each mini-story into two series for each story, which are practically unrelated.
Regardless of the fact that the trump card of "Darker than black" is a fantastic entourage, excellent graphics, simply excellent dynamics of battles, the heroes themselves, their feelings and past come to the fore. Everything obeys the law of the blues: a slow narrative, a gloomy city and the same grim heroes. This state of affairs will not suit someone at all, forcing them to stop watching this creation after a couple of episodes, but we advise you to be more loyal, because “Darker than Black” is a rare and by no means bad creation.
Why do you think superhero movies have become so popular lately? In my opinion, there are two reasons for this: firstly, they are always supplied with colorful special effects - thanks to Hollywood and modern technologies. Second, they play a role pipe dreams about his own superpower. Who wouldn't want to throw lightning bolts or become invisible? How many things could be done! The anime industry is not far behind, and uses the hero theme to its fullest. There are more and more superhero titles coming out lately. But this time I suggest you go back in time a little and take a look at a rather old title, in which a gloomy urban atmosphere and the presence of people endowed with superpowers are harmoniously intertwined. This review is about anime Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha("Darker than black").
Brief information
Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha- anime produced by the studio Bones in 2007. Consists of twenty-five episodes plus one Special episode. It is based on original scenario. A manga was released based on the anime. In 2009, a sequel appeared - Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini(it turned out to be much weaker than the first season), and in 2010 4 OVA episodes (fitness) appeared, describing the events that chronologically occurred between the first and second seasons. IN this review I only affect Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha, that is, the first season.
Ten years have passed since then ... Now I don’t even remember what it was glorious city Tokyo without a giant wall in the center. What happened that day, and what is hidden inside, no one knows. Only people could think of building a giant wall and hiding the truth behind it. Be that as it may, all over the world began to appear unusual creatures. Creatures with unique abilities contractors, and passive mediums dolls — so they were officially named a week after the wall was erected. They are controlled and monitored by special government services. To ordinary people, faced with contractors, erase the memory. All information about the existence of people with unusual abilities strictly classified. But the rumors cannot be stopped. Monsters... Violent killers... Society treats them with fear and disgust. But the most mysterious of them is considered to be someone BK-201. Elusive and deadly contractor - this is the main character Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha.
Characters
Set of characters in Darker than Black Perfectly equipped - it's hard to pick just one. All characters are in their places, and are used to convey specific ideas. There are virtually no extra characters. Main character, Hey(translated as "black") is the Batman of Tokyo pouring: a dark guy with a mysterious past and excellent fighting skills, fighting villains, while able to turn into an ordinary friendly Chinese student with an unremarkable name of Lee. For all his strength, he does not look pretentious or exhausted by life. Such a character is interesting to watch, and you look forward to revealing details about his past, which, from a plot point of view, is done very well. The details of Haye's life are not revealed all at once, but gradually, throughout the season.
Among the other characters, I found the most interesting yin. On the example of Yin in the anime, the question of human essence is raised. What makes a person a person? Thinking? Soul? Actions? Can a doll endowed with thinking, but devoid of emotions, be called a man? A question that humanity is yet to face, but nothing prevents us from speculating about it now, right? Sooner or later, technology will reach a level where it will no longer be possible to distinguish a humanoid robot from a person, and then the question of ethics regarding robots will arise. Can a person who destroyed a humanoid robot be considered a killer? But what if this robot has emotions and can experience pain? Everything is not as simple as it looks at first glance ... Well, okay, that was lyrical digression. Yin is best revealed not in the first season, but in four OVA episodes that chronologically show the events between the first and second seasons - be sure to check them out. In addition to Yin, I would note another girl - the inspector, which allows you to look at the problem of relations between contractors and ordinary people from an unusual point of view, which is very important for the full disclosure of the plot.
Plot
The storyline of Darker than Black consists entirely of two-part arcs dedicated to the adventures of Haye and his team. Was it justified plot construction? I think so. - this is one of those rare cases when I have no complaints about the plot. Maintained throughout the series high quality stories to tell, without any ups and downs. The absence of falls can be explained by the fact that the written script is not distinguished by complexity and excessive depth, and therefore it was not so easy to screw up in it, especially considering that no one drove the writers into time frames (twenty-five episodes is a lot). Is this the right approach? Who knows... Personally, I'd rather watch a plot that is evenly saturated than the constant ups and downs, when you get bored watching useless chatter for ten minutes, only to then get a minute of climax.
Studio Bones has long developed a special style of storytelling, which it tries to adhere to in most of its creations. Of course, Darker than Black is no exception. The style lies in the fact that, despite the overall seriousness and gloom of the narrative, elements that slightly relieve the situation are unobtrusively introduced into it. It can be either characters added solely for comedic purposes, or some funny scenes or even series. You don't have to look far for examples: it's absurd, like writing your own mobile phone committed by Yato, which are adjacent to arguments about life and death; c - constant skirmishes between Edward, Winry and Alphonse, side by side with one of the deepest philosophies that I have met in anime; and finally in Darker than Black- series in which the main characters are a private detective and his young assistant, or a set of trifles like Hay's gluttony, adjacent to arguments about minorities with superpowers.
I am sure that someone will now grimaced and say: “But because of such stupid moments, the atmosphere of tension suffers!” Although these words make sense, I do not agree with them. On the contrary, it is thanks to the comedic moments that the psychological and dramatic scenes shown after have such a strong effect. First, due to the fact that comedic moments bring the characters closer, and subsequently the viewer empathizes with them more strongly. How stronger man laughs at first, the more he will empathize with the characters at the end. Secondly, constant observation of drama and psychology is very exhausting- hardly anyone wants to be in constant tension for twenty-five episodes (and this, no less, more than eight hours of real time), and comedy allows you to slightly replenish emotional resources. So I think the style used by the Bones studio is more than justified, which has already been repeatedly proven in practice.
Even despite some superficiality of the plot, it touches on some very interesting issues. First of all, these are relations between social minorities endowed with advantages and ordinary people. The problem is not new, and has been touched upon in many books and films (you don’t have to look far for an example - take latest movies Marvel, the relationship of ghouls and people in or the relationship of magicians and ordinary people in Avatar: The Legend of Korra), but it does not lose its relevance, because there is no single answer. How should these relationships be managed? Who Should Compromise? If one of the parties begins to take advantage ( ordinary people- quantity, contractors - superpowers) when conditions are imposed, a conflict may brew in which innocent people will suffer. Darker than Black shows what will happen if the minority and the majority cannot (or do not want to) come to an agreement. Another interest Ask, touched upon in the last episodes of the season, sounds like this: "Is it worth sacrificing a minority to save the majority?" . Is it possible to hide behind good intentions when you consent to the murder of tens of thousands of people, among whom there are many innocent people, in order to save millions of other lives? Again, a question that is not so easy to answer.
Panache
As strengths drawings I would highlight character design And implementation of battles. The characters look original - what is one dark-skinned female agent with blue hair and a fur coat on her shoulders worth. There are no two similar characters in Darker than Black, which makes them all easy to remember. Speaking about the battles, I would like to note that the artists did not overload them visual effects, due to which maximum attention is paid to the abilities of contractors. It's a pity that Darker than Black doesn't have a lot of action and combat scenes. From weaknesses drawings, one can distinguish rustic background images and the absence of non-standard angles. Because of this, the picture sometimes looks gray and inanimate. However, the advantages of drawing prevail over the disadvantages - the Bones studio did their best. For 2007, the drawing is very good.
Music
First opening Howling performed Abingdon boys school has long been part of my collection of the best openings. The most powerful guitar riff in the best traditions of Metallica is simply inimitable, not even the most expressive vocals spoiled it. Second opening Kakusei heroism ~ The hero without a Name~ performed An Cafe also cool and dynamic, even though it doesn't sound as powerful as the first one. First ending Tsuki Akari performed Rie Fu unremarkable though female vocals good in it. Second ending Dreams performed HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR turned out like that. Background music varies greatly: powerful rock is replaced by elegant jazz, blues, or simple instrumental compositions. The music copes with the transfer of the required mood, and this is the main thing.
Ratings
Characters - 8.5. Quality main characters. Lots of original secondary characters that add variety and depth.
The plot is 9.0. An extremely smooth plot, in which there are practically no ups and downs.
Drawing - 8.5. A very good drawing for its time. The character designs were especially well done.
Music - 8.0. Great openings, average endings. Background music pleasantly surprises with a variety of styles.
Conclusion
Darker than Black represents that rare case where it's very hard to find flaws in an anime. Yes, it cannot boast of super-bright characters or an intricate multi-level plot, but the average level of each component is very high. high level. There is a dynamic, diverse, albeit simple plot. There is an interesting problem, yes. There are original and well-used characters. High-quality drawing and music - is. And, most importantly, the anime uses the atmosphere of tension, classic for the Bones studio, from time to time diluted with comedic inserts. me personally Darker than Black gave a lot of pleasure. Isn't that why we watch anime?
8.5/10
Rudean, special for website
P. S. I have a habit: when I watch anime, I always try to pay attention to the Russian and English inscriptions used in it. It can be signs on the streets, documents or captions under photographs. In Darker than Black, apparently, the writers limited themselves to software translation. Just take a look.
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Review anime Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha ("Darker than Black") was last modified: September 9th, 2018 by Rudean
The anime "Darker Than Black" caused mixed impressions, as the ending was left unclear and unrevealed. In addition, the second season is much worse than the first: the main character is no longer our beloved Hay (they show it from the other side), many new characters have appeared, some have not been revealed, and twelve episodes are not enough to keep the pace of the previous season. But the anime is, and it's good. Interesting and intriguing. But there are still many questions that relate to its ending.
So, let's begin.
Who is Izanami?
To understand who Izanami is, it's best to watch the four OVAs that came out in 2010, after the second season. In them you can find many answers to questions that interest us. First, Izanami is not Yin. But only the spirit that was released in the body of Yin.
You, of course, ask why Yin, and not any other doll? Because Yin has evolved much faster than other dolls. The anime says that the dolls, like the contractors (after the events of the first season), began to evolve, that is, become smarter, more capable, began to feel. Therefore, for example, many contractors committed suicide, feeling guilty for what they had done.
Yin evolved faster because Hei was nearby, whom she had romantic feelings for. She fell in love with Hay. IN last episode OVA we see two Yin: one in black, the other in white. The one in black is the personification of Izanami. The one in white is Yin. It is closely related to Japanese mythology.
“Izanami became very angry with Izanagi and sent eight ugly women of the Yomi country after him. He, having drawn the sword of Ame, but Ohabari, fled from them. At one point, he threw his headband on the run, and when it turned into a bunch of grapes, eight ugly women stopped and began to eat him. Then Izanami herself rushed in pursuit of Izanagi. However, by that time, Izanagi had already reached the border between Yomi country and the rest of the world and blocked the passage between them. big rock. At that moment, he sensed Izanami's presence on the other side of the cliff and suggested that she terminate their union. Izanami replied that in this case she would kill a thousand people in one day, but Izanagi answered her that he was ready to build one thousand five hundred houses for women in labor a day.[Wikipedia].
A second question emerges from this.
Who is Izanagi?
On the forums, those who watched the anime are divided in opinion. Some believe that Izanagi is Zion. Others say it's Hay. But who is Izanagi really?
For starters, in the latest OVA, Yin is talking to a silhouette who asks where is he? And Yin replies that he is inside her - Yin. Therefore, can we conclude that this glow is Izanagi? Probably we can. When Yin gathers the required number of souls of contractors, then this glow will take shape. Yin will help to take shape, in return it will fulfill the desire of Yin, but it is too early to do this, because Yin is waiting for Hei. However, we can also consider that something glowing is Izanami, which has not yet taken shape, because Yin did not collect enough souls. “Izanami replied that in this case she would kill a thousand people in one day, but Izanagi answered her that he was ready to build one thousand five hundred houses for women in labor a day”[Wikipedia].
Now let's talk about whether Izanagi is Hei or Shion. It was said that if they met, it would be the end of the world for humanity or something. In general, the Gates of Hell will open, perhaps something similar will happen, as in South America(can we conclude that then Izanami also awakened, but in the body of Hei's sister Pai? Therefore, Pai died, and transferred her powers to Hei). So, in the 12th episode of the second season, somewhere at the 13th minute, Madame says that the two met - Izanami and Izanagi. As we understand it, Yin and Xion met, who disappeared somewhere from Suo. After all, Hei at that time was not yet next to Yin. He came a little later. Therefore, we can say that Sion is Izanagi. Their meeting opened the Gates of Hell.
As a result of this meeting, a copy of the Earth was created, where dead contractors were sent (for example, Suo, July and others are there) in order for it to be permanent, they used a meteorite that Suo wore in the form of a pendant. He retained the memories because she was also a copy created by her brother. And again we turn to the legend about Izanami and Izanagi.
“Izanagi and his consort Izanami stood on a sky floating bridge and looked down, asking each other if there were lands below them. To find out, the gods lowered what was made of precious stone spear and found the ocean. When they lifted the spear, the water that flowed from it solidified and turned into the island of Onogorojima (a self-frozen island)."[Wikipedia].
Is Hay still alive?
Hey didn't die. He survived and even regained his abilities as a contractor, as his star lit up in the sky again. How did he get them back? Unknown. But a little further I will write what I think about it.
There are two options: either Hay stayed on our Earth, or went to another dimension, such as a fake Earth, but for contractors and puppets. The first option is confirmed by the fact that the star burns in the sky on the planet where the events of the anime take place, that is, Hei is somewhere here. But at the end of the anime, two twin girls, mediums said that the Gates of Hell are open. “Let's go see, let's see,” they said, and their spirits disappeared somewhere. It is possible that they went to the world that they created after the meeting of Izanami and Izanagi, and the entrance to it is the Gates of Hell, where only contractors, dolls, and mediums enter. It is possible that Hei is there with Yin.
Is Yin alive?
In the last episode, in the last minutes, we see Hei carrying Yin's body in her arms. It doesn't show what dimension it is, where it goes, and it doesn't show what happened to Yin. We see only Hei's back, Yin's lifeless body (which may be alive or dead - unknown). We put forward two options for the development of events. First - Hei killed Yin, and carries her in his arms dead body. Thus, we explain why nothing happened to the world, because Hei killed Yin. But we were not shown that he really killed her, and he hardly could. When Yin asked for it in the last episode, Hei only smiled. So he knew how to bring back Yin without killing him. In addition, if Hei had killed Yin, then nothing would have been born (as was said in the prediction), and in the last episode we see that someone similar to Yin climbed out of the coffin.
Therefore, I am more inclined to the fact that Hei did not kill Yin. She is alive, just unconscious, after being separated from Izanami. As we can see, Hei is carrying the naked body of Yin in her arms, not just in black, not in white. And her hair does not glow, which means that this is the real Yin, whose body was lying in that container. In addition, in the anime, it was said that because of the opening of the Gates, worlds open, apparently, Hei, along with Yin, went into one of them.
How could Hei save Yin?
We heard that inside the gate, Izanami grants a wish. The policewoman also wanted to guess, but did not have time. So maybe Hay made a wish? For example, Yin's wish for him to regain his contractor's powers and have his star lit up in the sky again, as we know the glow at the end of the OVA promised to grant Yin's wish. And then Hay also guessed. For example, for Izanami to leave Yin's body, or something like "I want to be with Yin forever." And so they stayed together. But Mao said that you have to give something for your desire, what then did Yin or Hei give?
Who got out of the coffin?
I believe this is the glow that Yin was talking to. Maybe it's Izanami. Since Hei did not kill Yin, the prophecy came true, so something was born that would change lives (both contractors and people). It is likely that inside Izanami's coffin, because she took the souls of the contractors that were nearby. And that's exactly what Izanami can do.
And the fact that she was born, says once again that Hei did not kill Yin.
Something like this. I hope that you liked it and that this article helped to understand the ending of Darker Than Black.
A person does not know what real loneliness is when he is alone in a room. And when the room is full of people, and one of them is a traitor.
Sign contracts. Walls are built instead of bridges. And someone stole the moon and the sky, replacing them with fake stars. So now the gods of this world shine from heaven. And when the stars are falling, you don't want to make a wish at all. After all, a wish made under the death of a fighter will most likely turn out to be gloomy.
By the way, it makes no sense to think about why this series at the same time wants to attach the label "noir", and at the same time not. In fact, "Darker Than Black" essentially incorporates almost all the genre diversity of recent years, and naturally cannot cope with anything in isolation. The stamps swell. Therefore, I want to call it the loudest nonsense of all this time. However, when the familiar word “noir” flickers in my head, this flaw immediately fades into darkness. In a world where beautiful and insidious women rule the show, where the hero merges with the antihero, and the danger trivially hides in the shadows, everything exists and irony, and romance, and action, and detective, and drama, and psychedelic and at the same time none of this No. Noir, like matter. Color scheme stellar glow reflected in the surface of the lake.
Ridiculous, of course, but extremely interesting that the young Li Shen Shun, an exchange student, is the most ordinary-looking guy. Timid, insecure, moonlighting wherever he can. Everyone simply adores him, and not only for the outstanding collarbone line, but also for his gentle character. That's just all this mask. As soon as the eyes turn away from him, the colors again flow from the face. Because in fact he is the Black God of Death, as he was called by the cops. And without superpowers, he is more dangerous than many who have signed a contract, but with supernatural power, he is doubly terrible. At night, he puts on a white mask with an ominous smile and destroys the same contract soldiers as he does in the city near the Gates of Hell almost the Strugatsky Zone no, the Tarkovsky Zone By the way, the smiling white mask still reminds a little of the revolutionary V, but nothing else makes them related .
Now you don't even have to try to detect noir in its purest form, in whatever form. Noir is extremely outdated since the post-war economy stabilized and the American people regained faith in a brighter future. And here it is the result of the search for new bottoms of the genre's potential: Blade Runner, No Country for Old Men and Sin City. By the way, "Darker than Black" has even less in common with noir than the aforementioned tapes.
And if a black cat is hiding in a dark room, Tensai Okamura clearly does not want to turn on the light and check. With amazing enthusiasm, he infuses his series with noir suspicion, legends and fatal lyricism. He makes riddles, but does not ask the audience to find their own answers. Riddles remain rhetorical. But damn adorable. How to conclude a Contract? What happens if you don't pay the price? What is actually a Gate? And why is the Wall necessary? And too much has already been said about this to consider it only metaphorical symbols.
One thing Tensai has definitely succeeded in is regret. The Japanese generally proved that they do not know how to regret correctly. This feeling translates either into sky-high pathos speeches and landscapes with a tear-jerking melody, or into a black, cynical silent camera slide. And in "Darker than Black", which is, in fact, a collection of short stories, each two episodes long, it is the most natural, canonical, even somewhat American.
Yes, be it wrong, this is regret, here there is the same philosophical Zone that Tarkovsky once squeezed out of the Strugatskys. One has only to overcome the huge Wall, and there, in the empty streets, the contractors are looking for answers to the questions that they ask themselves. They die alone. They save each other. They kill each other. And again looking for answers.
Contractors, they are, as sources say, no longer people. They suppressed their emotions, became deceitful monsters who value their lives above all else. Dolls are mediums whose personality was destroyed, and only information important for existence was left. But here's the irony it seems that over time they will be able to become people faster than people themselves. Rare glimpses of their humanity are more valuable than the strongest words of the masters. And their payment for power adds human colors to them and makes them philosophers. They don't know why they sometimes smoke, or lay out pebbles, or bend the corners of all the wanderers in the book. From the outside, it looks so much like those meaningless habits that are so characteristic of real living people.
This is what the conversation is about. Lee (Hei, Black God of Death, BK-201) is overly human even with his perpetually bored face. Yin is too human, a doll with an absent gaze of purple eyes. Yes, even a black cat, and that one is humane. By the way, how else, in this case, to separate people from non-humans? After all, the light falls equally on everyone, and in the rain everyone gets wet at the same time quickly. Any comparisons seem artificial and contrived.
However, noir he is. He does not open the way for the heroes to escape. Does not divide heroes into good and evil. He pulls the fools out of the crowd to throw them back into the darkness. Welcome to rain and melancholy. Loneliness and theft. Fatal encounters and betrayals. Here, out of place, the parodic character reveals the secrets of being and the future, and the most bitter disappointments turn into even more bitter deceit. A musical melodies from Yoko Kanno evoke those same doomed notes of melancholy that once sounded in Cowboy Bebop. And excessive lyricism turns actions into an echo of other actions, forcing the eyes to be involuntarily surprised by their own insight. It all looks like tinsel hung around things that are inconspicuous and uninteresting at first glance. Here already in some way Sinkaev's passion to be alone quietly whimpers and from the general mass, from dialogues and actions, pots, telescopes, corners of rooms begin to quietly stand out. This n-th secret bottom seems to completely unfold the romance of sad and unhurried confrontations between monsters and people and monsters with monsters, again turning it into a discordant and downtrodden, but from that it is such an ideal regret. Regret is worse than the wildest hatred. Regret is sadder than the most empty desire. Darker than the darkest thoughts. Darker than black.
