Darker Than Black (TV Series) The Star of a Contract Fell...: Part 1 (2007) User Reviews

Looked like a standard plot, then we were subverted

[peterfmodel · 6/10 · 24 July 2020]

I must admit having mixed feeling when I started watching this series, the premise seems silly, but as I was looking for anything which felt like Ghost in the Shell, I gave it a shot. I must admit I was not disappointed. The first episode is not great, but its just good enough to draw you into watching episode two. We start off with something that looks like a typical story arc, bad guy running away from the police and manages to use some special power to easily escape. Then our hero comes in and deals with the problem with a dash of skill and smarts. Then our expectations are subverted and we discover our hero may not be a hero and may instead be a ruthless anti-hero. Ok I can deal with than and that makes it a bit more interesting, let's move on. Wait, then we move to some dorky student moving into a cheap apartment, what is going on here? He meets a strange woman who does not look very happy, could there be a link to the earlier action here. You bet there is. They meet again in the park, as she is running from the police, and our dorky student saves her. We meet more characters, she is caught, and then escapes, what is up here? Not wishing to spoil the story this sage continues for the whole episode, at some point during the last 5 minutes something critical occurs here which explains what occurs in the next episode. This is part one of a two part series, and while my investment level was enough to move to episode two, it was not that high. This episode introduces us to many of the key characters, Hei is our hero or anti-hero and Chiaki Shinoda is our damsel in distress. Chiaki's art work is very good and is clearly designed to support what occurs in episode two. There is a serious plot hole in the story, but I found the story so good it did not bother me at all and most people would never notice it. I think a bit of plot twisting has occurred to support what occurred in episode two. This is a watchable episode, not great but not bad. I would advise you to make sure you watch episode two before making a final comment on this series.