Darker than Black ep.26

March 20, 2008 | 6 Comments

As I thought, the extra episode is just some kind of filler that happened between episode 14 and episode 15. It's like a flashback to the time when everyone was still together, similar to Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, I guess. This means that if you're looking for an answer to the questions that episode 25 left behind, you wouldn't find it here. Anyway, while this is not exactly a fantastic episode, it's quite funny and worth a watch if you're not busy. After seeing this, however, I get the feeling that we'll probably never see second season. After all, out of the 4 main characters, only 2 are still alive at the moment. I don't think I'd like to watch the show without Mao. And I don't even know what direction could a second season take after the ending? Humans vs. Contractors war could be an option but that kind of story doesn't lend itself to a one-off episodic plots that this series thrives on. Having said that, if there is a second season, I hope the writers will deal with some of the plot holes that the first season finale left.

The episode begins with a girl telling a story about a masked man who's talking to a cat who seems able to talk like a normal human. The girl in question turns out to be Kiko, who's in the middle of reading some kind of fanfic. Her creativity, however, is interrupted when she hears a bunch of cats making noises outside. The cats are actually Mao and some kind of a female cat in heat. Mao manages to avoid getting humped by the female cat by climbing up a tree. While he's bitching about how everyone is breeding in spring, the female cat in heat ambushed him by jumping from on top of him. Poor Mao. And wait, that was female cat, right? Meanwhile, Ootsuka Mayu, who's works with Misaki and the others at the Police HQ, is in the middle of writing diary. She admits that she's also an otaku and her current favorite anime is The Rose of Maurice. She has also written her own doujin and actually has some fans. She's also in heat and is now writing about the masked man that she saw in her 'dream'. Although on a second thought, she's not sure if the whole thing was really a dream.

She later recalls how at that time, the entire 4th division was planning to have a Hanami (flower viewing) party. Back then, Misaki has just received a piece of information that a dead contractor was holding. Saitou thinks it's probably a safe deposit number but it's incomplete. Misaki believes it's got something to do with the stolen goods from the gate. At the same time, Hei is instructed by Huang to dig up something from under the cherry tree since the dead contractor was buried there. Huang is also suffering from allergy thanks to the pollen but Hei is not concerned since he thinks a Contractor can't get affected by pollen. Yin, on the other hand, is not at the meeting because apparently she's been visited by Kiko. Apparently after the two met in episode 13/14, Kiko has been visiting Yin to bring her some yaoi anime/doujinshi. Meanwhile, the police are having their hanami but Saitou is depressed because Misaki is not there. Mayu, on the other hand, is busy flirting with her older boss, saying that she likes older man although a few second later she claims that she was joking.

A few hours later, Mayu is drunk and already giving love advice to Saitou. She even tells her boss, Matsumoto, that if he looks up "Mayu-mayu" on the net, he can read her fanfics. Kids, don't do this in real life. Your boss do not need to read your fanfics. Meanwhile, Hei has found the item he's looking for under the sakura tree. It turns out to be a vial with 4697635 written on it. Before he can take the vial, however, another contractor appears and snatches it. When Hei tries to strangle the guy, the guy throws away the vial and teleport his body out of Hei's cable. He then runs naked chasing the vial, which has now hit Mayu, who's walking alone. Mayu immediately freaks out upon seeing a fat naked guy walking towards her. He also becomes menacing after he realized that he just spelled out the number on the vial to her. Before he can strangle Mayu, however, Hei already appears and kills the guy. Mayu becomes fixated on Hei's....collarbone. Hei then jumps behind her and makes her fall unconscious. He suggests to Mao that they get someone to erase her memory.

After seeing her uniform, however, the two realize that she's from the 4th unit so even if her memory gets erased, they wouldn't be able to clear every trace. True enough, when Mayu regains her consciousness, she still remembers the incident and the number that was spelled out to her. The next day, Huang is livid because Mao lost the vial. It turns out, he got jumped again by the horny cat and dropped the vial. Huang also warns Yin not to get too close to Kiko despite Mao's attempt to defend Yin. Meanwhile, Mayu and Kiko are inside a manga shop when both of them spot the first edition of Rose of Maurice. The two immediately fight over it until they rip the book apart. Later on, however, Kiko is apologizing to Mayu after she finds out that Mayu is the famous "Mayu-Mayu", doujinshi writer of Maurice's Night. Kiko is especially excited about Mayu's new fanfic, the one with the mysterious masked man. Their conversation, however, come to a halt when they notice Hei, who's in the middle of stuffing his mouth with noodles as usual.

When Hei is about to leave the place, Mayu realizes that his collarbone is similar to the collarbone of the guy who saved her. He immediately begs Kiko to tell her where Hei lives. At first Kiko refuses because she wants to be the only girl who stalks Hei. However, after Mayu tells her that she hasn't had any inspiration lately, Kiko decides to tell Mayu where Hei actually lives. Because she's been standing in front of the apartment until late, Mayu ends up feeling sleepy the next day. At the same time, Huang is pissed off that Mao still hasn't found the vial and can't remember the password. Yin, however, knows the password because she has read it from the Maurice fanfic. At the same time, Misaki, Matsumoto, and Saitou also realize that the number in the fanfic is the same number that they're looking for. Misaki thinks that Mayu could be in danger if she makes a bad move. True enough, Hei is ordered by Huang to get his hand on Mayu because their information has been compromised. Before he can get to her, however, Misaki arrives with Saitou and tell Mayu to get away since the guy is BK-201.

Misaki ends up in a confrontation with Hei and manages to shoot his mask, revealing Li's face. Before anything else can happen, however, Mao comes with the vial but accidentally drops it when he gets jumped by the fat cat. As a result, the content of the vial is unleashed, causing everyone but the contractor to pass out. In the aftermath, none of the humans remember what happened that night. Mayu, however, is sure that her allergy has suddenly disappear. As it turns out, the vial actually contains a medicine for allergy. However, the side effect is that, those who smell it will lose some of their memories. The contractors, however, still regain their memories, causing them to think that the gas has no effect on them. When they spot Kiko heading towards Yin, Mao reminds Huang that they can retrieve the package thanks to Yin so he should let Yin be friends with Kiko. Huang eventually relents and leaves the place. The episode ends with Hei sneezing. It seems the medicine has reverse effect on contractor.

Impression:

That was kind of fun but it's much ado about nothing. Huang acted like something got lodge up his behind and asked Hei to 'do something' to Mayu because of a flu medicine? Oh well, it was kind of amusing to see Mayu the doujin/fanfic queen. Ditto with Kiko and her attempt to turn Yin into a Yaoi fan. I also love the constant attack that Mao received from that horny cat. I really feel sorry for him and for any animal during spring. I remember how dogs tend to get horny during Spring time and humps anything they can get their paws on. Sometimes they even hump human's leg. o_0; It's also kind of nice to see Yin making a friend although it's also weird that we never see more of it during the actual series. At the end of the day, however, the series doesn't answer some of the unresolved issues episode 25 left behind. I don't think second season is a likelihood considering how the team is no longer exists. It's kind of sad to think that only Hei and Yin are still alive. I do hope that Mao somehow makes it alive as well because a 2nd season wouldn't be fun without him.

© memento 2003