Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha Gaiden

There are really only a few useful pieces of information that can be said about KKG. 1) This is a bridge between S1 and S2 of Darker than Black. 2) Even though it came out AFTER S2 you NEED to watch this before you watch S2 or else S2 will make no sense. 3) KKG is good but it sets the stage for all the weird shit that happens in S2. Many people (myself included) were disappointed with S2. Looking back, I may have been happier with the series overall if I just stopped after S1. Most people will find it hard to stop after S1 but stoppingafter KKG is impossible. 4) Don't expect S2 to answer any of the questions you may have at the end of KKG. 5) The action is pretty good and the chemistry between Hei and Yin was done well.

It took me quite a while to get through the first two seasons of this series (especially the first one), but I enjoyed the vast majority of it; while neither were what I would consider truly great (I thought the second was definitely better than the first, which disappointed me upon revisiting), they each had unique ideas and structures to allow for varied experience rather than just the same repeated style. I wound up giving season 1 a modest 6 and season 2 a solid 8 out of 10. So why the lower rating for this particular entry? First up, I absolutely adore Rurouni Kenshin: Trustand Betrayal, and I think my having seen it before DTBG was a massive problem and easily the greatest contributing factor to my too-high expectations. To put it bluntly, I was let down by this show in the enjoyment department; let's move on to why this OVA is objectively worse than its predecessors. I have seen some reviewers dissatisfied with season 2's infrequent fight scenes compared to season 1, but since those few fights tended to look really, REALLY good for the most part, I am inclined to disagree with that sentiment. I am more about quality rather than quantity. That's not to decry the value of season 1's action scenes; some (or rather, most) of them just didn't have the level of flair that some of season 2's did. Considering that Gaiden is a four-episode OVA, which is basically just a two-hour movie, I expected high quality action throughout. Remember, this came out the same year that Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn started airing, so studio Bones had no excuse about OVA animation quality. At least the fight choreography was decent throughout. Ultimately, though, the action didn't look nearly as polished as most of season 2; we had one action scene in the final episode animated by Yutaka Nakamura that lasted all of 15 seconds. Yaaaaaaaay. The art also took a slight dive in comparison to previous seasons. Sometimes Hei's eyes would be too high on his head or something weird like that. It was consistent for the most part, but, again, with my expectations being too high and all, given that this is studio Bones and that this is an OVA, not a full-on series, I found myself disappointed. Music by Yasushi Ishii is basically always awesome, and there were a few great tracks featured here. It just sucks that most of it is reused from the season 2 OST, and that very little of what is actually USED IN THE SHOW is new. At least the whole "Extra Soundtrack" is on YouTube. It also sucks that there's no opening, even in the first episode. Whatever, the ending theme's awesome. I dig it. Story is kinda forgettable. Some d-bag voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch is basically a Nazi and gets the idea of contractors deserving to be atop everyone else and you already got bored because we've seen this a bunch of times before. The plot's stakes are totally nonexistent, which is kinda difficult to work around with a pre-sequel like this, so I can forgive it if it delivers on entertainment, but it didn't really scratch that itch. At least the series is short. In the end, this was disappointing. I wanted to end this franchise with a balls-to-the-wall OVA rife with awesome action and super-badassery but it just wasn't there. Stick with season 1. Or go watch Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. If you want to see a four-part OVA story done right, with ACTUAL hyper-violence and incredible art and animation, as well as a magnificent soundtrack, watch Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal. Happy watching! - LC

*Minor spoilers, mostly discussion about breaks in continuity from season 1* I am honestly conflicted. I first watched this in 2012 and thoroughly enjoyed it, but watching it again now, after having just finished rewatching season 1 has put me in kind of a bad mood. Now, the first time I watched Darker than Black, I couldn't find the dub for season 2 back in 2012, and so I've never watched it. But I have seen season 1 and Gaiden two times each at this point. And while I loved rewatching season 1, I feel like the story here falls short by a large margin. Thereare just too many breaks in continuity in the overarching story. In season 1, the premise is that the gates, the dolls, the contractors... everything appeared 10 years before the story started. By the end of it, we learn that the syndicate was created with the sole purpose of destroying all contractors and dolls. However, in this OVA, that is directly contradicted. Instead, we are told that the Syndicate was created fifty years before (so roughly 38? years before this OVA takes place). FIFTY YEARS! I mean come on. Somehow, someone made a prophecy that a doll (and it's not like anyone even knew what that was at that point) would "awaken" and become a reincarnation of one of the Japanese Shinto gods. And instead of tossing said prophesy in the trash, they created a multinational, multi-BILLION dollar organization with the sole purpose of stopping that from happening. Someone literally went, "oh boy, the local fortune teller said that Izanami is going to be resurrected. Guess I better spend the next 50 years infiltrating every single world power in order to stop that. Yep, that's the plan!" Oh, and those special particles that the syndicate was going to use to destroy all the contractors in the world? The ones that Hei erased from existence in order to choose the third option at the end of season 1, using his sister's power to change matter? And the fact that these particles were erased from existence being the ENTIRE REASON the syndicate fell apart (due to them no longer being able to erase all the contractors)? Yea, apparently they're back for some reason, and the doctor involved in the Saturn Gates is making devices that still use those particles. Like... what? Don't get me wrong, I love the parts of this that involve Hei and Yin. Think it's well done, and I definitely enjoyed it. Worth watching for that alone. But my experience was definitely soured by the complete and utter dismissal of the facts we learned about in season 1. I know this was made after season 2 and it's story is going to be constricted because of that. But maybe there shouldn't have *been* a season 2 if this was the direction they were going to take it. The parts between Yin evolving as a doll, and Hei and Yin's relationship progressing gets a solid 9/10 in enjoyment from me. The parts involving Yin turning into some out of control god, the syndicate apparently forming 40 years before the events of season 1, and every single organization in the world knowing that this was going to happen get a solid 2/10. So going to give this an overall 7, even though it objectively should get like a 4/10.

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