FUNimation releases the fifth volume of Darker Than Black for America!
This series is an amazing science-fiction thriller in a modern, post-apocalyptic Japan. The moon and stars are suddenly gone, huge craters appear in South America and Asia, and a tiny fraction of the world's population has gained phenomenal powers — but at a terrible price. These individuals are known as Contractors. Each has a point of light in the sky — no mere stars but indicators of their power and purpose on Earth. When the Contractors fight and die, their stars fall. Emotionless, conscience-less, they all possess unique abilities ranging from gravity control and teleportation, to body-snatching; and have no compunction against using those powers on the powerless human population. But even the contractors fear one of their own — the masked killer BK201, Black Reaper, who hunts them all.
Darker than Black follows the Black Reaper's attempts to control the Contractors, under the guidance of the Syndicate — a shadow organization whose true purpose is still unclear. The Black Reaper, called Hei by his comrades, is reaching the breaking point. While fighting to protect the innocent and search for his long-lost sister, he and his coworkers have become ever more embroiled in a war between the Contractors, Syndicate and human law-enforcement. This volume finally takes the series out of single-episode crime-stopping, and into the beginning of the final arc. Questions are answered and the team's loyalties are tested, and the very definition of humanity in the eyes of the humans is rewritten. Can a Contractor regain his human soul? Wouldn't Hei like to know? And just how powerful is the Black Reaper, actually?
Series: Darker than Black
Episodes: 19-22
Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: Japanese and English
Number of discs in volume: 1
Studio: FUNimation
DVD Release Date: June 23, 2009
Running Time: 100 minutes
Features include both the original Japanese voice track with excellent subtitling, and the English version, which surprised me by being equally excellently done (lip movements matched nearly perfectly, good dialogue, great voice actors). The extras are decent and the setup of the discs seems smooth. The screencaps for the loading menus, for once, do not actually spoil any part of the episodes themselves (props to FUNimation for doing its homework). The final episode, 22, has commentary by the American director, the series script writer and episode script writer, who make for interesting listening. The production artwork is as cool as ever, textless songs are of top quality.
Personally, this series remains one of my top favorites ever. The English dubbing is one of the better ones in existence — my favorite being Cowboy Bebop, which remains the only anime I prefer in English, and Darker than Black remains my second favorite series translation. There are strange places where the English Dub does not in any way match the subtitles, but this is par for the course in the battle of the flaps. The acting is fantastic and the musical score remains one of the highpoints of the series, deceptively simple and extremely effective in evoking the emotions of the scenes. The plot is thick and utterly mesmerizing. The characters are deep, with even the villains fighting (and occasionally dying) well, wringing almost as many tears from my eyes as when the good guys go. The writing in this series is some of the best out there, and anyone who desires something more than violence and eye candy (the series sure has those, too) should pick this up. Now. NOW.
P.S. I agree with the director whole-heartedly: the cat rocks my socks in the last episode. My favorite character, hands down, is the cat.
ComicsOnline gives Darker than Black:Volume 5, 5 out of 5 scared kittens for the win.
