Darker than Black ep.03

April 20, 2007 | 32 Comments

The first 2 minutes of this episode gave me the chill. I really thought I was watching a sneak preview of Heroes' last episode How to stop an exploding man. I wish I remember the sequence better but unfortunately the only thing I can remember was seeing a pile of bodies stacked on top of one another. In other note, I think the animators should stop giving this series green tint. I am not sure if they intended doing this or not (just like The Matrix producers did) but I find it rather unpleasant effect. Other than that, the colour pallette is actually better-looking this time. And I think this episode confirms that the price that Hei must pay for using his power is to eat a lot of foods.

Inside a foggy city, a Biohazard agent called Tahara is being asked by his supervisor about the condition of the city but the man himself doesn't know. Not far from him, there is a large pool of blood while on top of a light pole, the tattered body of a man can be seen. On a nearby street, stacks of charred dead bodies pile one on top of another. After some more distance, Tahara steps on a leg of a dead man. This seems to be the final straw for Tahara so he opens his quarantine helmet and vomits on the street. After feeling relieved, the man realises that he's kneeling in front of blue flowers and watches in horror as said flowers unleashed the pollen into the air. Fast forward to the present day, mysterious blue lights can be seen racing through telephone cables and moving all over the city. One of the lights stop in front of Li's apartment but after a few seconds it runs away again. Li himself is in the middle of hanging his clothes.

After greeting his next door neighbour with an awkward "Good morning", Li goes on to cook and have breakfast. This routine get interrupted when he hears a cat purring nearby. The cat turns out to be Mao so Li has a brief but unheard conversation with it. Later on on his way out, Li realises that the old landlady has captured Mao because she has seen him hanging around in the area lately. She's convinced that Mao has been going through the kitchen garbage in the middle of the night. She also reminds Li that having a pet is prohibited in the apartment. The conversation then takes a strange turn when the landlady tells Li that she remembers his fellow countrymen (Chinese) eat anything with four legs except table. What kind of a racist crap is that? Anyway, knowing that the landlady is talking about the cat, Li tells her that although he's never had one, cat meat is probably delicious. This ticks Mao off so the cat hiss and claws the landlady.

On his way to work, Li passes a small stall selling cigarettes. As it turns out, however, the shopkeeper is Yin. She gives Li a box of cigarrettes as well as a watch. Li throws the cigarrettes away and continue to walk with the watch. Meanwhile, a girl is in the middle of waiting for a train when her eyes suddenly blank out. Her hand makes a movement, as if trying to reach the sky. When she regains her consciousness, however, the train has left the station. Back to Li, he's just clocked in at the factory when his supervisor asks him to deliver a package to a man called Tahara whose office is nearby. When Li tells the guy that he's heard Tahara was famous, the supervisor explains that Tahara always stays overnight in the office and never goes home but no one knows about the guy's job. Having said that, Tahara used to be a well-known scholar and was also the only survivor out of the first investigation party into the Hell's Gate.

When he arrives in Tahara's office, Li purposely knocks off a few books from the table and notices that they are all flora-related. Tahara's package also turns out to be a magazine about gardening. When Li hangs around doing nothing, Tahara reminds the guy that he gets paid by hour. Li realises this as well and returns to work. He, however, manages to notice a peculiar blue flowers which is situated near the window. Meanwhile, Huang is in the middle observing two men who have checked in to a local hotel. Once they're inside the room, one of the man reminds the other that they need Tahara's power. The other man makes an insulting remark to the other, saying that he abhors working with contractor. When the man gets a bottle of drink from the fridge and can't find the bottle opener, the contractor cuts the top part of the bottle using his power. In order to pay for the use of this power, the contractor fold the edge of a book page by page.

Meanwhile, the same high school girl who missed the train is blanking out again and when she comes to her senses, she finds herself burning garbage in an alley. She immediately panics and tries to put down the fire by stomping it with her bag but she gets caught by someone. A few minutes later, Tahara is informed by a teacher about the girl so when he sees Li, he asks the guy if he has Japanese driving license. While waiting inside the car while Tahara attends to the issue on hand, Li meets Mao again who informs him that Myer and Hilton men entered a Shinjuku hotel 30 minutes ago. Mao also wants to know how Li is going with his investigation. Li reveals that he's been listening to the conversation between Tahara and the girl whose name turns out to be Mai. The teacher tries to remind Mai that now her mother has passed away, she has to keep her father a company. Mai retorts that her father never comes home so he's not much of a company anyway.

The teacher accuses Mai of burning garbage in the alley but Mai claims that she didn't do it. When she regains her consciousness, the garbage is already burning. Upon hearing this, Tahara demands to speak to his daughter alone and harshly takes his daughter out of the office. Inside the car, Tahara wants to know if this is the first time Mai finds things burning in front of her or if it's been going on for a while. Instead of answering the question, Mai curtly tells her father that the surprising thing here is Tahara actually talking to her. Tahara is angry upon hearing this and wants to see Mai's bandaged hand but Mai yells at him, ordering his father not to touch her. Because the car is stucked in traffic, Mai sees her friends walking on the pathway. She decides to follow them despite Li's warning. When Li asks Tahara if this is okay, Tahara tells him that this is none of his business and orderes him to go back to the factory.

Inside a famous burger chain called McDoness, Mai's friends comment about how their friend has been spacing out lately. Her friends, however, can't help but feeling sorry for their friend when Mai reveals that she always cooks and eats by herself since her father never comes home. Her friends decide to invite her to dinner but Mai refuses, telling them that maybe her father will come home today. When she goes home, however, she finds the place dark and empty so she slams the door in anger and runs back to city. Tahara himself is still at his office, fielding phone calls from Myer and Hilton, telling them that he will never return to their place. After hanging the phone up, Tahara panics when he notices that the blue flower withers. He quickly gives water to the plant which causes it to glow back again. Meanwhile, Mai is at a CD shop in the city, she tries to shoplift a CD but is noticed by the sales clerk, who is Li's next door's neighbour.

Li, however, causes her to drop the CD and then tells the clerk that he'd like to buy the CD. An unhappy Mai goes out and is confronted by two police who want to know what a girl like her is doing in a place like this. Li comes in time to pretend that he's her brother. He then takes her away but halfway through the journey, Mai orders him not to follow her around. She wonders if Li has been ordered by her father to watch over her. After yelling at Li, telling him that she doesn't want to see his face and she hates him. After Mai quiets down, Li asks her if she is relieved now and asks her to come home. When the girl refuses, Li suggests that they play until morning and takes her to an amusement park. Beware lolis, when an unknown man wants to take you to an amusement park. Run as fast as possible! Anyway, since everything is off, Mai is not happy about it. Li, however, asks her to close her eyes and when she opens it, the place is fully functional.

A security guard then appear and chase the two away. Because of this Li decides to take Mai to a ramen stall where he devours no less than 12 bowls of ramen. Mai herself is treated to a large cup of ice cream sundae. By morning, Mai finds out that Li is from China but she praises his good Japanese. Mai also reveals the secret behind her bandaged hand: a small blue light. She tells him that the light used to be brighter but lately it's been growing dimmer and has even disappeared as of late. When she was small, her father told her that the charm which protects her is contained within. Li decides to ask Mai about her father's job and Mai tells him that he's a researcher. However she has no idea what he actually research. She then changes the conversation by asking Li why he's in Japan. Li claims that he's studying abroad. As for family, Li claims to have none so Mai feels they are the same. Meanwhile Yin senses that someone is on the move.

As Li and Mai walk together, Mai tells him that he's like a brother to her. Li, however, notices that two men come towards their way so he asks Mai to run to the next alley. Unfortunately as they run into another alley, another set of thugs already wait them there. Li quickly attacks them so Mai can run away. Mai manages to run to a construction site but the men then pull out their gun and shoot near her feet. Because she feels trapped, the light in Mai's hand starts to glow brightly before disappearing completely. Mai's eyes then go blank and fire is reflected within it. All of a sudden, there are fire all around her. Inside his office, Tahara is horrified when he sees the flower wilts and falls off its stem. At the same time, a bright star now appears in the sky. Meanwhile, Misaki is in the middle of swimming in an indoor pool when he gets a phone call informing her that a new star has been spotted. Somewhere else, a huge mushroom cloud can be seen in the middle of the city.

Impression:

First thing first, did anyone else notice the Oobukuro CD that Mai tried to steal? I laughed right away because it's a take on Kobukuro, which is one of my favourite Japanese bands. Their song usually tends to be one the emo side just like Mai in this episode. If you want to get a taste of their music, I'd recommend their latest single, Tsubomi. Anyway, in general I'm quite happy with this episode although it's a bit on the slow side. The opening scene was very disturbing and powerful, much to my surprise. I guess we know a little bit about Hell's Gate now. It seems many people died inside and most of them were either torned to bits or burned to death. As I said before, I thought I saw an early sneak preview of what would happen if a character in Heroes explode. After seeing the opening, I thought that the flowers were the ones which caused the death but when Tahara was shown alive later on, I'm not sure what to think anymore.

Preview

Later on, however, we learned that after Mai's eyes went blank, the blue flower inside Tahara's room wilted. I assume this is why he's been staying in the office all the time. He needs to water the plant and keep a good care of it. The question is, why does he have to do it in the office? Is it to ensure that Mai has no idea about it? In addition to this, what are the correlation between the two? Does watering the plant keeps Mai safe and in control of her power? On that note, there was a new star on the sky after Mai unleashed her power. Does this mean she is now a contractor or a doll? Because I remember that the star in the sky represents the arrival of a new contractor. I am not too sure about doll but since Mai's blank eyes look like Chiaki doll, I think it's okay to assume that she could be one. This, however, wasn't the first time Mai unconsciously used her power though although this time around it's activated by fear instead of boredom.

Another point of interest in this series seems to be the theme of racism. When I made a note of it back in episode 2, I thought I was just being over-analytical. However, now that they have touched a rather similar issue, I have to wonder if the writers want to make a point about it. Okay, maybe what the landlady said was more of her being insensitive rather than her being racist but it's still kind of crude to say that someone else's countrymen tend to eat anything with four legs except table. The thing is I'm not sure if the writers want to show how Japanese people can be unconsciously...xenophobic or if they think the xenophobic nature that the characters show are normal. It's kind of interesting that the Japanese people in this series are facing a new kind of 'Aliens' in the form of people with powers. One has to wonder if this will cause them to suspect other 'Aliens' even more or if they'll start to accept them since there is something else to fear.

© memento 2003