Science-fiction connections

While watching this anime, I noticed some similarities (allusions, homages, accidental ones) to three works of science fiction.

The most immediate similarity is to a 1972 novel by the Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky entitled "Roadside Picnic." You can read ABOUT it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic - and read the whole thing online using the links provided in the Wikipedia entry (the one linking to a pdf file still works). The FPP game "Stalker" is loosely based on the setting of the novel. The Earth in "Roadside Picnic" is marked by several areas referred to as "the Zones" where due to an event of extraterrestial origin (a meteor shower, an alien spacecraft crashing, etc.) the laws of physics do not operate as they normally do, strange events occur, and - most importantly to the plot - strange artifacts with powerful unexpected properties can be found. People hunt for these artifacts and trade them on the black market.

I also found the contractual obeisance system very similar to a plot device used in Orson Scott Card's novel "Xenocide" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenocide. Part of the book (third volume in a series) is about the planet Path, where certain members of the population ("the godspoken") are born with incredible intelligence, but pay a harsh price for their abilities, suffering from "psychotic compulsions," in a manner practically identical to the Contractors' obeisances in "Darker than Black" (well they don't seem to have homicidal obeisances like drinking other people's blood, but apart from that, the system is virtually identical).

The last work of science fiction containing a similar theme that I thought of is the story "As Simple As That" by Zenna Henderson. It's a very short story constructed as an elementary school lesson beginning with the kids refusing to read their first-grade book because it's "not true." They live in a world where - again - zones impenetrable by physical means appear here and there all over the world, slowly destroying human civilization, and the story is about how people learn to live in such a world. The story reminds me of the way people talk about the South American event in the anime and maybe of the way everybody lives right next to the Wall in Tokyo and rigt under a fake sky with fake stars.