For someone like me who likes complicating storylines and on-going plots, I was instantly turned off by Darker than Black (DTB). For many others who only want to see action scenes and badasses, it became one of their favorites. I mean, why wouldn’t it? Said badasses also happen to be amoral killers with tragic backdrops, who wear hoods, masks, and have superpowers. It’s the ideal escapism fantasy for angsty teenagers.
It has a false sense of maturity and it’s easy to trick the casuals into considering it serious and deep. The characters are not teenage hyperactive idealists, dressed in bright colored clothes, fighting an evil government. They are adult amoral mercenaries, dressed in dark colored clothes, working for a cynical government. There are no clearly obvious good guys or bad guys, you can’t defeat the conflict by beating the crap out of the big boss and nobody is afraid to kill his enemies or spares their lives in order to give them a second chance. That’s way closer to what happens in real life and why many who were fed up with too-goody protagonists consider this anime to be mature.
Despite the short stand-alone stories, there was also a mystery regarding Hell’s Gate and the origin of the powers, which was giving you the impression it will eventually bring everything together. There was something to remain engaged, and many love this approach since they can theorycraft all they want about it, even if it didn’t lead up to something satisfying. There was no solid ending in the first season, and the sequel which attempted to offer an explanation, did it in a very confusing manner and expected you to read a wiki in order to make sense of what they were unable to explain in-series.
Which was to be expected, just like with most of what was animated by studio Bones. It’s always about amazing production values, good atmosphere, a catchy premise, and no decent storyboard or proper plot. Beyond that, there are issues with having short stand-alone arcs, such as knowing none of the main characters is ever going to die or be crippled, because they all need to be present in all the stories. Thus whatever variety there can be comes in the form of the side characters of each arc, and the weird powers the enemy assassins will be using. Even then, you know you will never see them again after the arc is over, so you don’t really care if a two episode character lives or dies.
As for the main characters, they don’t have emotions, and despite the theme of racism you don’t feel any sympathy towards them, since they are uncaring assassins who don’t give a damn about the treatment they receive from the normies. This ain’t X-Men where they have emotions and fight for coexistence. They are just being paid to do their job, which is irrelevant from the theme of racism. At least it’s not Elfen Lied where they try to make you feel sorry for a bunch of psychotic lolis who were genetically programmed to kill humanity regardless of how you treat them.
Although the second half tries to have a more dense plot, and the sequel attempts to give emotions to the assassins, as well as explaining what the hell is going on, down to it, it’s good only superficially. The characters are distant, the themes are not explored much, and there are always the X-Men as a much, much, much better alternative.
