Darker than Black ep.01

April 5, 2007 | 36 Comments

OP Theme: 「HOWLING」 by Abingdon Boys School - AVI version (20MB) | PSP version (14.3MB)

So yeah, I realise that I haven't done any Spring series and that's because there is nothing that I really want to follow so far. One or two series are okay but they don't give me that "Must watch" feel like some series from the past few seasons. Well, at least this one has some potential from what I've seen of the first episode. If I have to describe the first episode, I'll have to say that it's an odd combination of NBC's Heroes and Jigoku Shoujo team. I think you'll understand it better once you see it but basically it's a series about a group of people with superpower but with little to no emotion called "Keiyakusha" (Contractors). The police are involved as well as this mysterious group of Keiyakusha which are composed of three people and one black cat.

The episode begins with a flashback showing a girl standing in a lake, starring at the falling stars above her. There is a telescope placed not far from her. Fast forward into the present time, a man is running away from the police and is shown jumping from a rooftop to another rooftop. Just when he thinks that he's safe, however, the emergency door is kicked open and a bunch of policemen point their gun at him, asking him to raise his hands and turn around. As he turns around, however, the man's eyes start to glow red and all of a sudden, one of the officer is levitated and is thrown away into the sky. While the main detective is shocked, the man uses the opportunity to run away by levitating himself off to another building. The detective finally realises that his opponent is a "Keiyakusha" (Contractor) and informs a woman who's sitting inside the car about this. Another female reports to the same woman that the target is a French agent known as "Louis".

As soon as she hears this, the woman orders the police to move to the east. She informs them that their target is a Keiyakusha called Louis and his ability is "Gravity cancellation". She also tells them that she allows the use of guns and for her subordinates to not hesitate to shoot the target. Meanwhile, Louis lands on top of another building and starts breaking off his own fingers. All of a sudden, a man's voice can be heard asking Louis if that's the cost/compensation for his 'Contract'. He thinks that it looks painful. D'oh! When Louis looks at the source of the voice, however, he only hears a cat purring. Louis immediately turn around again and wonders if the one who was talking to him was a "Doll". However, he ends up facing a man whose face is covered by a white mask and wears an all black outfit. Louis uses his power to throw the masked man into the air but the man uses cable with hooks to grab onto the railings and another one to capture Louis.

The cables quickly choke Louis, allowing the man to pin Louis down to the ground. The man then asks Louis about a stolen 'item' but Louis claims that he doesn't know anything. The man quickly produces a knife and stabs Louis' arm with it. Louis eventually admits that the 'item' is with a woman. He wants to know which organisation the man comes from becuase he'd give it to them. The man then contacts a girl called Yin how much more time he still has left before the police arrive. The girl informs him that he only has 3 minutes because the police has passed point A. Another voice tells the man that this is a good time to withdraw. The man, however, moves to Louis and tries to crush his skull. The other voice tells the man, whose name is Hei, not to kill Louis because they can still use him. Hei ignores the order and coldly tells Louis that just seeing the face of Louis' kind makes him want to vomit. Hei then proceeds to crush Louis' face, instantly killing him.

At the same time the female detective sees a falling star and tells herself how it's been 10 years since 'that' appeared in this city. She admits it's hard to imagine how it was before the wall existed in this city. No one understand what happened back then and what is contained within it. How mankind could create a tall wall which encloses what is now known as "Hell's Gate". The existence of exceptionally powerful people called "Contractors" and passive psychic mediums called "Dolls" were then identified one week after the Gate's appearance. The next day inside the police HQ, the detectives are in a meeting to discuss Louis' death. A female detective points out that during the investigation, they find another Contractor with a code name of BK-201. However, the number was unidentified and the investigation was marked as unsolved. Another detective wonders if the rumour about the curse of the Contractor was true.

As for the 'item', the team managed to get unauthorised access to highly classified information from the Pandora's Centre at the National Research Institute. The woman is identified as Shinoda Chiaki, a 26 years old who graduated with a Master degree and whose thesis was about the physical characteristic of the gate. She has been working at the National Research Institute until she went missing 2 weeks ago. The lead detective reminds the female detective, Kirihara Misaki, that it is important that their enemy does not obtain this information because it endangers the safety of the nation. Misaki then narrates about how a normal person who meets with a Contractor might have his memory wiped. Although informations about Contractors are of highly guarded, people are filled with fears and starts to associate Contractors as either ghost or killer robots. Unknown to Misaki she unknowingly drives by Hei, who is looking for a place to stay.

Hei arrives at a place which leases apartments but the landlady thinks that he's the electrician from the local electronic shop who's here to fix the TV. After tapping the TV a couple of times, some kind of static electricity suddenly comes out and the TV is okay again. Eventually Hei corrects the misunderstanding and he introduces himself as a Chinese student called Li Sheng Shun. Before they can enter his apartment, however, a woman comes out from the apartment next door. The landlady greets the woman by calling her "Haraguchi-san" and introduces her to Hei. After Haraguchi left the apartment complex, a man's voice can be heard informing another man inside a coffee shop that they got the right target. At the same time Li can be seen inspecting every areas in his apartment, likely for possible surveillance device as opposed to for damages. He then lets the water run and opens the window. Well, the apartment looks like it's smelly and mouldy.

Meanwhile, the two detectives are now seen inside a nightclub trying to find more information about Shinoda Chiaki. One of the girls who accompany them happens to be Haraguchi. When the girls change their shift, Haraguchi informs the pimp about something. One of the detectives think that Haraguchi looks similar to their target but the other is not sure. When she comes out from the club wearing her jacket, however, she casts a glance towards the detective, raising their suspicions. Before they can give a chase, however, they've been surrounded by the pimp's henchmen. As a result, they have no choice but to reveal that they're policemen working undercover. Meanwhile, Haraguchi is running to a park and ends up meeting Li, who's in the middle of observing the stars with a telescope. Upon seeing Haraguchi looking scared and the detectives not far from them, Li takes her behind a tree and kiss her, causing the detectives to think that they're just a couple.

After the detective left, Li reverts back to his shy student personality. Haraguchi notices Li's telescope and asks him if he was observing the night stars with it and wonders why he looks at the fake stars above. Haraguchi then realises that she's seen Li before so Li tells her that he's her next door neighbour. Haraguchi, however, tells him that she must leave now and proceeds to leave Li alone. While running on the street, Haraguchi feels as if she's being followed by someone so in the end she decides to hide herself in an alley. After she saw two men passing by the alley, she looks relieved only becomes horrified again when another man covers her mouth. The man turns out to be her acquintance, someone called Jean. Haraguchi immediately asks Jean what happened to Louis but Jean claims that Louis has other things to attend to. Jean then changes the conversation and asks Haraguchi if she still has 'it' and asks her of its whereabouts.

Haraguchi suddenly becomes suspicious of this and tells Jean that Louis asked her not to tell anyone of its whereabouts other than himself. In response, Jean tries to subdue Haraguchi using a handkerchief. Just as Haraguchi about to pass out, however, Li knocks out Jean using his telescope. Li tries to take Haraguchi to safety but when they get into a stone bridge, Haraguchi tells her to run away. As soon as she said this, Jean materialises out of a structure nearby and knocks Li over the railings, sending him over down to a railway track just as a train pass by it. Upon seeing this, Haraguchi realises that Jean is a Contractor but before she can run away, Jean already captures her. When Haraguchi regains her consciousness, she finds herself inside a warehouse with two other men. Haraguchi notices that Jean is in the middle of lining up stones in perfect order. Jean tells her that this is the cost for his contract. Uh, lining up stones?

Jean then informs Haraguchi that Louis has died and asks Haraguchi if she's aware that Louis is a Contractor as well. He also wants to know about the man that he just met but Haraguchi claims that she just met the guy. Haraguchi tries to run away but the door is unfortunately, locked. At the same time, Yin can be seen submerging her legs in the water, allowing her to track the whereabouts of Haraguchi by using networks of water around her. This includes the tap water inside the building where Haraguchi is being detained. All of a sudden the light goes off and a static electricity cuts the circuit to the electronic door, allowing Haraguchi to open it. Haraguchi immediately flees the area but is being followed immediately by Louis and his henchmen. Before they can get to her, however, a black cat jumps on them. Haraguchi herself manages to run into the street and eventually meets with Li again. Li ends up embracing her as she cries on his shoulder.

Impression:

I think this series has potential but it's hard to tell at this point in time. From what I've seen so far, I like the character design for the main characters which includes Hei, Yin, and the Black Cat. They just ooze cool, something which I've been looking for in this season's offering. Upon looking at the screenshots, I realise that the series doesn't look as impressive as when I was watching it. I really believe that this is one of those series that looks better while it's animated. I know I keep saying it but the series really reminds me of Heroes mostly because the characters possess superhuman abilities. The big difference here is that the Contractors' power comes at a price. It seems after they use their power, they need to pay for the price. In Louis' case, he needs to break off his fingers, which seems like an extremely painful payment for being able to fly. Strangely, Jean only has to line up stone and I'd laugh if Hei's price is fixing electronics.

ED Theme: 「月明かり」- Tsukiakari by Rie Fu - AVI version (26MB) | PSP version (15.7MB)

I really hope that we'll learn more about this contract as well as the main characters' powers. From what I've seen so far, however, it seems Hei/Li's power is related to electricity while Yin has to do with using water to figure out the proximity and location of her target. What I do want to know is the difference between 'Contractors' and 'Dolls'. I guess Contractors still has some kind of emotion in their face while Dolls look like well, dolls. In fact, Yin reminds me a bit of C.C from Code Geass although the one who looks a lot more like C.C will be a green-haired character called Amber (seen in the opening). From what I've seen so far, there are 2-3 factions fighting for 'it'. These are the main heroes, the police, and the bad guys. Overall, I was quite happy with the series. It's not exactly perfect but I enjoyed the mysteries and the characters. The music by Yoko Kanno was not that impressive, however. It just doesn't stand out enough.

Preview

On next week's episode: Is Haraguchi/Chiaki turning into Contractor?

© memento 2003