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Darker than Black

type	tv series
director	Tensai Okamura
producer	Yoshihiro Ooyabu Ryou Ooyama Hiroo Maruyama Osamu Hosokawa
writer	Tensai Okamura Shōtarō Suga (13–25)
music	Yoko Kanno
studio	Bones
network	JNN (MBS, TBS)
first	April 6, 2007
last	September 29, 2007
episodes	25
episode list	Darker than Black season 1

Darker than Black (Darker Than Black ー黒の契約者ー) is a Japanese anime television series created and directed by Tensai Okamura and animated by studio Bones. Twenty-five episodes were broadcast on MBS, TBS and their affiliated stations from April to September 2007. The series is set in a world where a spatial anomaly identified as "Heaven's Gate" appeared in South America and was followed by "Hell's Gate" in Tokyo, altering the sky and wreaking havoc on the landscapes. People with special abilities labeled as Contractors emerged shortly afterwards. The series follows agent Hei and his comrades in the Syndicate organization, operating in a vastly altered version of contemporary Tokyo to uncover the mysteries of Hell's Gate.

The series was adapted into two manga series, which were serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka and Square Enix's Young Gangan, respectively. A sequel to the anime series, Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, was broadcast for twelve episodes from October to December 2009. In the sequel, Hei trains new Contractor Suo Pavlichenko and searches for his former ally Yin. DVDs of the series included original video animations titled Darker than Black: Gaiden exploring Hei and Yin's relationship between the first and second seasons. In North America, Darker than Black was licensed by

Plot

Ten years ago before the events of the series, a spatial anomaly which became known as "Heaven's Gate" appeared in South America. It was followed by the opening of "Hell's Gate" in Tokyo, altering the sky and wreaking havoc on the landscape. At that time, "Contractors", people with special abilities, capable of supernatural feats, emerged. Kept secret from the public, Contractors murder in cold blood and block their emotions with logic and reason. Their abilities are acquired at the cost of their humanity, and their name derives from the requirement to "pay the price" each time their powers are used. Nations and organizations around the world train and use Contractors as spies and assassins, resulting in violent battles for valuable objects and information.

After the 'Heaven's War', the United States loses its position as a superpower to a mysterious organization known as the Syndicate. Darker Than Black follows a Chinese Contractor code-named "Hei" as he undertakes espionage and assassination missions in Tokyo directed by the Syndicate. In his false civilian life, where he is known as shy a student under the alias Li Shenshun, Hei is assisted by Yin, an artificial human known as Doll and Mao, a Contractor trapped in a cat's body and overseen by former police officer Huang. The series has a villain-of-the-week format, with a variety of characters such as a Japanese Public Security Bureau who oversee the activities of dangerous people with supernatural powers.[3]

Early in the series Hei is revealed as a former fighter in the Heaven's War, searching for his missing sister Bai; he believes that a woman known as Amber is responsible for Bai's disappearance after escaping from the Syndicate. Amber leads Evening Primrose, a group of Contractors targeted by the Syndicate who claim they are terrorists. Pandora, another group, investigates Hell's Gate; the Syndicate is using Pandora and its Saturn Ring weapon to attack Hell's Gate and annihilate the Contractors. This creates mayhem as multiple Syndicate agents target Huang who ultimately commits suicide. Hei and Yin meet Amber while Mao escapes from them. Upon meeting Amber, Hei is revealed to be an ordinary human who became able to use Bai's power after his sister placed his body onto his flesh through her powers. When Saturn Ring is activated, all Contractors except Hei are killed. Hei has a vision where he meets Bai and decides to betray the Syndicate. Amber uses her Contract powers to revert time long enough to enable Hei to destroy Saturn Ring, and Hei and Yin escape from the Syndicate.

Release

First season

Darker than Black was conceived by Tensai Okamura and produced by Bones and Aniplex. The series was broadcast on MBS and TBS from April 6 to September 28, 2007.[18][19] The series was also streamed on Nifty during its broadcast run.[20] Aniplex collected the episodes on nine DVD sets which were released from July 25, 2007, to March 26, 2008. The ninth and final set included an additional episode, "Beneath Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom" (黒の契約者- 桜の花の満開の下), which explored the characters' romantic relationships. A Blu-ray box set, which included a guidebook and several unreleased musical tracks not available on the original soundtrack, was released in Japan on September 30, 2009.[21]

On July 1, 2007, Funimation announced at Anime Expo that they had licensed the series.[22] Funimation began streaming the series, with an English dub, in September 2008.[23] They collected the series on six DVD sets, which were released from November 25, 2008, to August 11, 2009.[2][24] Darker Than Black began airing on the Funimation Channel in September 2010.[25] Funimation released the season on Blu-ray on May 12, 2015.[26][27] In January 2016, the company said that their rights to the series had expired.[28]

Second season

A second season, Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor (Darker Than Black ー流星の双子ー), was broadcast on MBS and TBS from October 9 to December 25, 2009.[31][32] Aniplex collected the episodes in nine DVD/Blu-ray sets, which were released from December 23, 2009, to July 21, 2010.[33]

On July 2, 2010, Funimation announced at Anime Expo that they had licensed the second season.[34] Funimation released the series on DVD and Blu-ray on November 8, 2011.[35] Their rights to the second season expired in 2018.[36] Manga Entertainment released the series in the United Kingdom as a compilation,[37]

Original video animation

A four-episode original video animation (OVA), Darker than Black: Gaiden (Darker Than Black 外伝), was included on the second, fourth, sixth and eighth collected Blu-ray and DVD sets of Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor released from January 27 to July 21, 2010.[39][40][41][42] The OVAs are set in the time between the two seasons. Hei and Yin have left Tokyo and are on the run from the Syndicate. They are attacked by Contractors, and Hei notices Yin's alter ego Izanami (who would bring about the end of the world). Yin asks Hei to kill her; the Contractor cannot, and they are caught up in an explosion. Hei becomes depressed after Yin's apparent death; a CIA agent tells him that Yin is still alive, setting up the events of Gemini of Meteor. The closing theme is "Darker Than Black" by Yasushi Ishii. For the English-language release, the OVAs were included in the Gemini of the Meteor compilation.[43][44]

Animation

Character designer Yūji Iwahara inspired Okamura to work on Darker than Black, based on his work on the video game Koudelka and its manga version. The narrative was inspired by Japanese dramas which divide stories into two consecutive episodes. As a result, every story of Darker than Black takes two episodes to finish. Okamura wanted to give his audience comic and dark stories for variety. Actual locations, including Shinjuku and a police station, were photographed to make the series more realistic.[10] According to Iwahara, Hei was the most difficult character to draw; he struggled for a subtle balance when designing the character. Hei's black eyes were smaller, creating a cold impression, later becoming more expressive. Li, his civilian persona, was originally gentle-looking. Iwahara accepted the offer because he was interested in the project, and wanted to do something different after his previous serialized manga. Although he found the character sheets easy to do, he was daunted by the number of characters he had to create.

The team was tasked with depicting super-powered individuals fighting against a Tokyo backdrop, which was complicated. Okamura found early designs unacceptable; until his image of the characters matched Iwahara's, the pictures were redrawn many times. Iwahara found his work on the anime more challenging than his manga, since he had to keep up with staff requests and had little artistic freedom.[11] Takahiro Komori adapted Iwahara's work for animation, retaining the essence of the original designs and making the animators' work easier; Huang's hat and Yutaka Kouno's and Mayu Ootsuka's clothing were changed. Colour designer Nobuko Mizuta was disappointed because much of the series is set at night and the main characters' clothing is generally dark-coloured, but she gave the guest characters brightly-coloured clothes. Komori said that when he draws female characters, he pays special attention to the line connecting her buttocks and legs. The series' first opening scene has a silhouetted nude woman following Hei, which had to be corrected in subsequent episodes. The artist had mixed emotions about sexualizing female characters but in the end decided to sexualize them to appeal to the audience.[12]