Darker than Black ep.07

May 18, 2007 | 17 Comments

This episode is highly unusual but much to my surprise, I really enjoy it. To begin with, I like the pseudo noir style that the episode tries to adopt. What I meant by this is the use of typical noir elements such as the brooding detective, his cheerful secretary, the dangerous villain and most importantly, the seductive and mysterious femme fatale. The amusing thing about these elements is that the series doesn't hesitate to make fun of them. For example, it is a norm in a noir film for the detective to smoke cigarette and the poor secretary rarely have problem with this. In this episode, however, the secretary, Kiko, immediately coughing a furball and tries to open the window as soon as possible. I find it amusing because although a detecting standing in a dark smoky room is an important image of film noir, I'm sure that it's not a pleasant experience to stand inside such room.

A man is waiting on top of a building's rooftop in the middle of a rain. When another man comes closer, the guy complains about how the man is late. After a few seconds, however, the guy realises that the man is not someone that he knows. Instead of introducing himself, the man complains about how he dislikes this country because it's always raining. The first guy starts to become afraid and asks the man if he's the guy who called him. In response, the man runs towards the first guy, grabs the guy's collar and uses his Contractor's power on the first guy. Upon doing this, some kind of energy moves from the Contractor to the first guy. The Contractor's body then slumps down into the ground while the first guy pulls something out of his coat pocket. The thing turns out to be a vial containing purple liquid. The guy puts the vial into the Contractor's pocket. A few minutes later, the same guy can be seen standing on top of the railings.

After balancing himself on the railings, the guy unleashes something. All of a sudden, his consciousness is transferred back to the Contractor's body while the guy's real consciousness returns to his body. Unfortunately this causes the guy to lose his balance and his body immediately falls off the railings and into his death. Meanwhile, the Contractor regains his consciousness and pulls out a handkerchief and the vial that he just gained before sniffing said handkerchief. Fast forward the next day, a man is seen inside a smoky room, muttering about how he hates the rainy season because everything is wet and stagnate. The man introduces himself in a noir-style voiceover as Kurasawa Gai, a private detective. He doesn't believe in anyone and the only thing that he loves is his cigarrete. Gai's noir-ish monologue, however, got cut off when a pink-haired girl enters the room and tells him that the room is stinky.

The girl immediately pulls up the curtain and opens the window in the room before huffind and puffing her way, trying to inhale some fresh air. Gai is unhappy about this and decides to call the girl 'flat-chested'. The girl, Kiko, is equally unhappy to hear this and tells Gai that his comment is sexual harassment. She then continues to criticise the smell of cigarettes, comparing it to an athlete's foot. Gai, however, seems keen on grossing out Kiko and does so by sniffing his own armpit. In response Kiko asks Gai to stop being so carefree because there are bills to pay, such as TV bills. The reason for this is because Kiko wants to see an anime, one which looks a little bit like Ouran High School Host Club judging from the picture in the magazine. Their argument comes to a halt when the door bell rings. Gai immediately senses that the person who rings the bell is a beautiful woman. Kiko warns Gai not to be deceived by the woman.

Much to Gai's disappointment, however, the woman wants him to look for her cat. However, when she offers to pay 500,000 Yen, with half of it in advanced. Kiko's eyes is filled with greed upon hearing this and agrees to look for 'Mi-chan', the cat. Before Gai can protest, Kiko steps on the poor guy's feet. Later on inside a ramen restaurant, Gai is shocked when he sees Hei finishing off lots of ramen, causing him to wonder if Hei is in some kind of food eating contest. While conversing with her, Gai notices the newspaper reporting the death of the employee of a cosmetics company. He thinks it's strange that all of the deaths are related to one company, Fiore. Upon hearing this, Kiko remembers that she smelled Fiore perfume on their female client. Her concentration, however, goes out of the window when Hei pass by their table. While she drools over Hei and asks Gai if he saw the guy that just passed them, Gai reminds her that Hei will be fat when he's 30.

Meanwhile, Hei walks outside to find the daughter of the restaurant owner feeding Mao some cat food and calling him, Hernandez. After the daughter left, Hei asks 'Hernandez' what it is that the cat wants to talk about. At the same time, Kiko is busy looking for the missing cat and she is doing this by employing children to look for black cats around the neighbourhood. Kiko herself is dressing up in a cat costume while wearing a Neko Mimi (Cat Ears). In exchange for bringing the cats to her, she gives them a photograph of her cosplaying as a cat. Gai who comes over to check on her progress decides to mock her but he quickly runs away when Kiko reminds him of his fear of cats. Before he flees like a coward, however, he reveals his findings to Kiko, telling her that the widow's former dead husband was actually the executive of Fiore cosmetics. Upon seeing the connection with the recent 'suicide', Gai decides to talk to the widow.

After meeting a suspicious-looking maid, Gai is taken to a living room where he sees a photo of a man who's probably the widow's grandfather. Nearby, there are shelf containing various perfumes. The widow asks Gai if she likes the smell and reveals that collecting perfumes is the hobby of her husband, who just passed away. Gai immediately realises that the widow is talking about Yuzuki Sakutarou, the executive of Fiore cosmetics. The widow admits that her husband was sensitive to smell and praises Gai's ability for finding out every information like this one. Gai blushes and stammer his way but his happiness turns into horror when a cat called Chanel walks onto his lap. The widow is surprised to see Chanel sitting on the knee of someone it barely knows. Later on, after going to the restroom, Gai stumbles onto a room and finds Hei arranging books inside it. Later on he finds out from the widow that Hei is actually working part-time there.

According to the widow, Hei's job is to arrange the books in the library. The widow also wants to know how Gai is doing with the job of finding her cat but unfortunately for her, Gai still hasn't been able to find 'Mii-chan'. The conversation then changes because Gai wants to ask her about something but the widow for some reason thinks that Gai wants to ask her about Toshiko. For some reason she believes that Gai is aware that the widow is actually a second wife. She admits that she stole Toshiko's husband but she also feels that Toshiko was well compensated with money and mansion. Gai wonders if the wife accuses Toshiko of stealing 'Mii-chan'. The wife agrees with this and urges Gai to explore Toshiko's mansion. She tries to seduce him by getting closer but ends up noticing the earwax inside Gai's ear. XD Later on, Gai is seen smiling like an idiot while sniffing Gardenia. As it turns out, back then the wife offered to clean up his ear.

While Gai flailed around like a man in ecstacy, the wife explained that this is nothing big, just a hobby from ancient time. She mentioned about those with ear wax have strong body odour. She then pressed her bossoms onto Gai's face so he can smell her perfume. She tells him that the perfume is made out of Gardenia, which Yuzuki loves. Although she doesn't like wearing strong perfume, she can't help but being influenced by Yuzuki. Later on, Gai goes to the bus stop and ends up meeting Hei there, so he decides to introduce himself to Hei. While sitting next to Hei, Gai thinks that the combination of Hei working as a cleaner, the beautiful widow, and a suspicious maid makes it seems like there is something going on in that mansion. Later on, Kiko questions Gai's sudden interest in the case. When Gai tells her to focus on finding the cat, Kiko tells him that she'll be away on holiday from tomorrow because there's an (anime) event in Aoto.

Gai protest the idea of looking for the cat himself but Kiko mocks him, reminding the guy that it's his job. Later on that night, Hei and Mao are busy looking for the Contractor who's been murdering people from Fiore cosmetic company when they suddenly hear a loud noise coming nearby. At the scene of a crime, a man is seen laying in his own pool of blood while the Contractor picks up similar vial seen earlier. After walking for a while, the Contractor kneels down and takes a few deep breaths. His action is interrupted when Mao asks him if that's the price for his Contract. The guy tries to run away but Hei trips the guy off using his wire. He then grabs the Contractor using the guy's jacket but the Contractor tries to use his power on Hei. Before he manages to do this, Mao jumps in front of Hei's face, obscuring Hei's eyes from the Contractor's power. This, however, gives the Contractor the chance to run away from Hei and Mao.

When Hei asks Mao why he did that, the cat tells him that it's because the Contractor has the same power that he has: the power to control other creature's body. While Mao can only possess animals, that Contractor can control people. The next day, Gai goes to a cafe and tries to contact Toshiko. Unknown to him the Contractor that Hei is looking for sits behind him. When the waitress asks Gai about his order, Gai decides to run away. Because he doesn't pay attention as to which jacket he picks up, Gai ends up taking the jacket that the Contractor had. After he left the cafe, Gai sees Hei but loses sight of him later on. The Contractor himself realises that he's got the wrong jacket when he's about to pay for the bill. Meanwhile, Gai decides to enter Toshiko's house by climbing over the fence. He finds garbage bags littering the house and in one room, a cat. After catching the cat, however, Gai realises that there's a body of a woman in a room in front of him.

Impression:

I really like how this episode oozes all sorts of noir film elements from the jazz-inspired soundtrack (one of which has a Pink Panther feel to it) to the smoky atmosphere. The only thing that I'm not sure about is the comedy although I have to admit that it's amusing to watch. The most memorable moment is probably the one where Gai gets his earwax cleaned off by the widow. I think the scene was meant to be a spoof of various noir film where the detective gets seduced by the femme fatale. I just find it hilarious especially with all of the suggestive sound that they made before the scene reveals that nothing really exciting is going on. Story-wise, I think the ability to possess other people is probably the coolest of them all. However, I'm starting to question the dubious price that each contractor has to pay. How come some of them have to pay simple price for such cool power while others pay sever price for a power which is not even that great? On that note, it's awesome that Mao can do the same thing. Unfortunately his power is only limited to animals.

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