[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Darker than Black 8: that’s all from this for now
Thanks to my unintended hiatus, this was the last episode I could download before Funi staked their claim on it so this will be all until next year. Fortunately it was an even-numbered episode so I saw the arc through to the end, which was a pretty decent one if not outstanding. Now that we’re learning a bit about Hai, his companions and the DtB universe in general, I was a little impatient to get past the humourous stuff and get into the meat of the story. Oh well.
The more obvious aspect, that of Gai still looking for a missing cat (Scrumptious noticed a Wind-up Bird Chronicle vibe to this as I did) and so on, is wrapped up well enough although I was expecting something a little more surprising. As Gai points out, the whole setup looked a little too cliche and convenient, which led me to believe that the widow really wasn’t a widow, etc, etc. As it was, the conclusion was somewhat ‘ordinary’ (although in keeping with the Raymond Chandler-esque feel, which I liked) it led to some quite funny scenes in which Mao gets caged as a regular stray cat would.
This brings me onto what I viewed as the more interesting aspect of this episode: we learn a little about Mao and how this episode’s Contractor of the Week ties in with his own situation. Since we’re only a third of the way through the series at this point these revelations are far from being explained fully so it was nice to see a little more info about the regulars dropped in and of course there are the ongoing run-ins with other Contractors for Hai to contend with.
This all gives me the impression that there’s the ‘obvious’ side in a new story every two episodes that introduces a new character and situation to show the nature of the story’s setting, but also within these episodes there’s also an ongoing story arc featuring the regulars (namely Hai, Mao, the bloke in the cloth cap and the Doll who seems to hang around near water a lot). I think that once I get the DVD and watch it all a second time around I’ll be able to catch onto and follow this other central thread to the series and appreciate its complexities more. As it has been so far, I’ve followed it one episode at a time so didn’t stand back to look at the bigger picture, as it were.
So, congrats on Funimation picking up the licence and with a reluctant temporary farewell I look forward to seeing this show on DVD. Thanks to Shinsen Subs for their hard work too. I’ll leave the show for now on another cool pic of a Darker than Black cat; subtitles quoted for truth.
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