Synopsis: Along with the appearance of the so-called Hell’s Gate in Tokyo, people with superpowers also appeared, the Contractors and the emotionless Dolls. Two groups of Contractors are in a race to retrieve a stolen item and the police are hot on their trails as well.

I think there’s so much hype about Darker Than Black. After all, it’s produced by the same team that brought us Wolf’s Rain and the music is composed by Yoko Kanno. Most even say that it’s like NBC’s Heroes. I think, however, that Darker Than Black fails to live up to its hype and its similarity with Heroes is only a superficial one. The animation isn’t anything exceptional and the music, at least in the first episode, doesn’t stand out well compared to other anime with Yoko Kanno composed soundtracks. The plot, even, isn’t anything new. People with powers figure a lot in anime, don’t they?

As for the characters, I don’t find Hei impressive. His mask looks funny even. He poses as timid exchange student Li Shengshun and he looks suspicious, especially when his expression changed after Chiaki left him at the park.

The only characters I find interesting were Yin and the policewoman Misaki Kirihara. For some reasons, there are a lot of French men in this episode, Louis and then later Jean. They probably have other contacts who will be shown later.

I guess one noteworthy aspect of Darker Than Black is how the Contractors have to do certain actions as a form of payment for using their powers. Louis for instance has to break his finger, which is rather painful. Jean only has to line up stones.

Anyway, after watching the first episode, I didn’t get the excitement to watch the next. I’m more excited to see what happens next to Lovely Complex compared to this one. But who knows, the series might get better later. We’ll see.

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