Darker than Black ep.17

July 28, 2007 | 14 Comments

This one seems to be a one-off story but there are some Amber-after effects coming out of last week's episode. I do hope that this 2-parter will shed more light on the doll's background and mechanism. I just feel that lately they start to resemble the name that's been given to them. This is a contrast from the first doll on the show, Chiaki, who's as normal as any other humans until her programming over-rides her. Ever since then, however, other "Dolls" including Yin, seems to be emotionally stunted and robotic. This makes me wonder if there was anything special about Chiaki that makes her far more humane than the other "Dolls"? More importantly, I'd like to know how and why someone decided to make a "Doll" in the image of Kirsi. If Yin was created to remind someone of Kirsi, then wouldn't it be in their interest to infuse Yin with Kirsi's personality? If Yin is actually Kirsi, why do some characters treat her like a robot which can be re-booted easily?

The episode begins with Hourai showing Misaki the Claim of Responsibility made by evening primrose over the serial bombing case. The group demands that the police informs the public about Contractors' existence and for the Contractors to be given basic human rights. Upon hearing the name, Misaki wonders if there is any connection between evening primrose and BK-201. In response, Hourai tells her that what he's about to tell her from here on is a classified information. He then informs her that the lead terrorist is a former MI6 agent, "February", and her messier code is UB-001. 5 years ago, she was in the battlefield of the Heaven's gate. Meanwhile, Huang is in the middle of talking to the rep from his organization, asking the guy what happened between Amber and Hei back then. Despite his reluctance, the rep eventually informs Huang that Amber betrayed Hei and caused the annihilation of Hei's team in South America.

Meanwhile, Hourai informs Misaki that it was in South America that they observed the first twinkling star and it belongs to Amber. Immediately after that, a lot of stars began to twinkle in response including BK-201. However, everything within 1500km radius of the gate disappeared. At the same time, the foreigners who live in Hei's apartment are having drinking party. The landlady is unhappy about this because the group is drinking in the middle of the daytime. In reverse, she's very pleased with Hei, who's on his way to work. Later on that day at Hei's workplace, there's a customer who refuses to pay, claiming that he forgets his wallet. When the manager tries to stop him, the guy slams him aside. A man from Nakazawagumi clan called Sakurai suddenly enters the room. He wants the unruly customer to pay the bill and never to come back or else he'll incur Sakurai's wrath. The customer reacts to this comment by punching Sakurai.

Before the customer can get out, however, Hei bumps into him while trying to present the bill. The customer gets angry after looking at the amount and tries to punch Hei but Hei manages to block the attack with the metal tray. Despite the customer's best effort, Hei somehow manages to evade all of his attack, causing said customer to want to go for the kill. Before he can do this, however, Sakurai leaps into Hei's defense and...falls flat on his face. Thankfully Sakurai's aniki (note: 'aniki' means older brother but 'aniki' is often used by newer members within a Yakuza organization to refer to their longer-serving members) appears and knocks out the unruly customer with a choke hold. Soon, the unruly customer is beaten up by Sakurai's aniki and his henchmen in the alleyway. Hei decides to give Sakurai a hot towel to soothe the bruise. Hei knows that Sakurai's full name is Sakurai Kenji and in return, he introduces himself as Li.

After hearing Hei's name, Kenji tells the guy that he knew that Hei is a Chinese because back then he was using Chinese martial arts. Kenji also believes that Hei would have defeated that customer had Kenji's aniki didn't come and interfere. Their conversation comes to a halt when Kenji's aniki calls Kenji. After scolding Kenji, he tells Hei that Kenji owes him one and hands over a bunch of money to Kenji so he and Hei can go out eating. The two end up going to a Gyuudon place where Hei gulps no less than 16 bowls, causing Kenji to fear for his health. Later on, Kenji wonders if this is the secret to Hei's strength but Hei denies this. Afterwards, Kenji wonders if Gyuudon is enough because they have money but Hei refuses the invitation to go to a Host Club. They can't do this anyway because Kenji's motorbike suddenly produces smoke. Kenji, however, assures Hei that he'll take Hei back to his apartment since he's troubled Hei throughout the day.

Since it's raining and Kenji's motorbike stops working when the two arrive at Hei's place, Hei offers Kenji to stay at his apartment. Kenji finds it strange that Hei's room barely has anything in it but Hei explains that he just goes to sleep when he goes home. Hei then explains that he's not doing much outside his working hours because he's an overseas student studying in Japan. Their conversation comes to a halt when Kenji hears a loud rock guitar noise. He is surprised to know that this happens all the time, making him wonder how Hei could study in a place like this. Hei explains that once he got used to it, it's not so bad. Kenji disagrees and thinks Hei just accepts his fate and decides to have a word with the gaijins downstairs. He goes downstairs and knocks down the door to their room and starts scolding them. In return, he gets scolded by the landlady for breaking the door. As a result, everyone ends up working together to fix it.

Much to their surprise, the landlady offers them to have a great lunch with her so everyone goes to sit together in her dining room. Kenji quickly finds out that the dark-skinned girl in the gaijins group actually comes from the Philippines. She explains that she works here so she can send monthly allowances to her father and brother who still live in the Philippines. Kenji thinks it must be difficult but the girl denies it and jokes about how Japanese are rich and perverted. As for the spiky-hair dude, he claims to be a rock evangelist. The overweight guy is a self-proclaimed otaku who comes all the way to Japan to study anime. Kenji is impressed with all of the countries that these people come from, causing him to realize that this is an international apartment. His words, however, come to a halt when he realizes that Hei has consume so much food as usual despite having eaten so many Gyuudon. Despite this, Hei's appetite seems insatiable.

After lunch, Kenji and the other gaijins plan to drink together but Hei politely refuses because he has to meet someone. After Hei left, Kenji can't help but notice how lonely Hei seems to be. Meanwhile, Kenji's aniki, whose name turns out to be Hitotsubashi, is in the middle of talking to a Yakuza leader and another Yakuza middle-management called Ooshita. Ooshita is unhappy that Hitotsubashi invaded his territory so Hitotsubashi gets a soft warning from the leader. Despite this, the Yakuza leader wouldn't turn this matter into anything serious. Back to Hei, it turns out he was on his way to see Mao and Huang. He informs the two that Hitotsubashi was seen in the store (presumably the bar where Hei works). Huang thinks some goods will arrive there soon and suggests that Hei does not interfere with it. Hei doesn't seem to mind either way. Mao wonders about Kenji but Hei assures Mao that they don't have to worry about the guy.

Hei returns to the apartment in time to see Kenji fixing his motorbike. After thanking Hei, Kenji decides to leave the place as well. That evening, Hei decides to go to work but upon seeing him, the manager of the bar panics. He stops Hei and tells him that the bar will be closed for 3 days because there'll be construction work on the restrooms. Meanwhile, Kenji is informed by Hitotsubashi that the group is splitting up. Hitotsubashi also has a job for Kenji and shows him a crate containing a doll which awakens when Hitotsubashi orders her to do so. Hitotsubashi explains to a shocked Kenji that it's a special doll which will do whatever he orders her to do. There are rich people who want her so it's up to Kenji to take care for her in the next few days. Later on, it's apparent that Hitotsubashi leaves the doll to Kenji because he thinks Kenji is too dumb to ruin the doll. He assures the others that Kenji won't betray him.

Meanwhile, Kenji laments his decision to become a hitman but quickly snaps out of his self-pity state and decides to talk to the doll. After several unsuccessful attempts to communicate with her, Kenji wonders what will happen to her later. That night, Misaki talks to Kanami about BK-201 and other evening primrose members. She feels uncomfortable going after them without knowing if these guys are their enemies and without knowing their intention. Kanami, who's on her way to sleep decides to tell Misaki to meet her tomorrow instead of talking about it now. Meanwhile, Hei and Mao has break into the bar and finds out that the manager has been knocked out. Huang thinks that they've been recognized but Mao denies such thing happened. Since Yin can't trace the doll, Hei suggests that they call the mission off. Huang, however, reminds him that it's not their decision to call off the mission. Hei decides to go back to his apartment and much to his surprise, finds Kenji and the doll waiting for him. Kenji kneels down upon seeing Hei and asks him to hide them for a while.

Preview

Impression:

That was a rather light and entertaining story. I kind of like the part where the landlady screams at the gaijins because I've had the same experience as those gaijins and our group weren't actually that bad. We were simply sitting near a lake at night and talk quietly to one another. I don't think we made that much noise (certainly there was no rock guitar involved) apart from the occasional subtle laugh. For some reason, however, someone was annoyed and throw us an egg. It missed us but it was a startling experience. The thing is, it's not like we went out of our way to annoy the local resident. It just happens that we came from different countries and met some interesting people from all around the world. It's inevitable that we wanted to spend as much time together since some of us were only there for a few weeks. Oh well, it was an interesting experience and I hope the Japanese residents didn't think that we did that just to annoy them.

As for the other part of the stories, I am amused at how Hei's appetite seems insatiable. I'd like to say that eating like a pig is his payment but that doesn't seem to be the case. Eating like a pig seems to just be an after effect of using his power. He doesn't have to eat that much but he gets hungry due to using that power. Kenji is an interesting side-character although I wonder how and why he decided to join a Yakuza gang when he's clearly unsuited to become one. On that note, I was a bit confused when I saw the manager of the bar getting knocked out after the doll was already in Hitotsubashi's possession. That is until I realize that the bar is also Hitotsubashi's HQ and the guy who hits the manager with the bottle is actually Kenji. It'll be interesting how Hei handles Kenji here. I don't think he'll hand Kenji and the doll over to Huang but sometimes it's hard to see if Hei really likes a person and want to help he/she or if they're just a target that he must get to know well.

© memento 2003