MovieChat Forums > Darker Than Black: Kuro no keiyakusha (2007) Discussion > Neither dark nor black... Yawn.

Neither dark nor black... Yawn.

posted 14 years ago by Unicorn_Blade
4 replies | jump to latest

Spoilers ahead.

I actually expected something good of it. I like dark animes, I like good storylines, I like interesting characters. And none of them made any appereance in this show.

I mean, the original idea was OK. But then the plot looked more like: a baddie comes, we have to kill him, another baddie comes, we have to kill him... And that goes on and on and on.

And all the characters are so empty and I really couldnt like anyone at all here, maybe except for the cat (surprisingly, the only one without his past life being displayed, maybe that saved him from being so cliche! All the other characters and their horribly-stereotypically-cheesy pasts were not more interesting, but plainly boring).

I know the creators tried hard to make the characters cool and intriguing, but to be fair I was just laughing at the pompuous dialogue they delivered most of the time (specially the kid in love with Amber, PLEASE, so much cheese stuffed in so few lines!)

[–] ephemereality 13 years ago

I really think the title is more a reference to the genre than any attempts to tell a dark story.

[–] cheidiotou 12 years ago

(teensy, tiny possibility of a spoiler about a small detail--marked below)

Nope, that's not what the title is in reference to (and, on that note, I'm surprised there's any question about this). The title is in reference to the contractors. The story is about the contractors, so that makes sense. Just remember the line "dream of a dream darker than black" or "dream darker than black" or whatever it is and
*SPOILER?*
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then remember the fact that the contractors don't dream (probably not a spoiler but better safe than sorry).
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*END POSSIBLE SPOILER*

It's not a new, particularly dark, or something amazing because of originality (see Baccano! or Eden of the East), but when you realize that all of it's meant to be a story about the contractors and what it means to be human, this is just so well done that I consider this probably my favorites series to date (now the sequel... meh).

[–] ephemereality 11 years ago

Eh, that's probably you pulling some weird mental jumps there. I don't even remember such a line anywhere and while it could definitely be a reference to the contractors I don't see why it'd be. If anything, I feel the title is more akin to the title of Bleach whose meaning is so obscure we will probably never truly know more than coming up with educated guesses as to the true intended meaning.

Also, it depends on what you think dark is in the end. It's not Berserk dark no, but in a way I think DTB is actually more able to deal with human shortcomings than Berserk does since Berserk tries so hard to be well... dark, it often misses the mark entirely in my opinion.

[–] ianmitchell-45214 8 years ago

Yes! Agreed!

Seeing your thread made me think you were going to receive a barrage of insults but nevertheless I wanted to say it was my thoughts exactly regarding the series.

I best explain myself so I also don't look like a hater:

When I was a boy, anime films like Wings like Honnaemaise, Golgo 13, Akira, Ninja Scroll and all the other really great ones blew my mind away.

I have since then been trying to recapture that feeling of excitement by checking out all the more mature themed and darker anime films/ series of now.

Although I have come across a few series I really enjoyed such as Parasyte Maxim; Avatar and Psycho Pass or series I thought were okay such as Death Note; Fullmetal Alchemist; Gungrave and Btooom, I have found some anime series (which are meant to be good) impossible to continue watching and painful to listen to the voice acting.

My problem with DtB is the same as you, the OP. Brilliant animation and drawing. Seriously, the drawing quality is insanely good. Some of the powers are awesome to watch and I like the obesiance/remuneration as a way of keeping them from being too overpowered.

However, my biggest bugbear with anything in terms of storytelling is predictability. I can start watching an episode and it can become VERY obvious who will live, who Hei will kill and like you put, the backstories are so bloody cliche.

I've reached episode 19 but found the two-parter involving the Yakuza guys buying some doll to be really crap to watch. I knew the older brother was going to be killed near the end. It was too obvious.

The anime world is frustrating now. Animated shows have the potential to explore more angles than live action TV because with drawing a scene, potential is limitless. Yet, Japanese anime have seen began catering to the western audience and meanwhile have begun limiting themselves to all the cliche tropes of the anime world.

Careful what you say to me. I will argue with you forever. I enjoy trying to prolong arguments :D