Darker than BLACK / First Impressions

Summary:

Years ago, Kirsi’s mother had gotten a phone call in the middle of the night informing her that her husband had died in a plane crash. Now in the present, Kastinen questions why Yin refuses to return to her home country, but she tells him that she doesn’t know. He responds by noting that she’s different from how she used to be and suggests that her heart is sick. Since Yin continues to say that she won’t go back, Kastinen places his finger on her lips and tells her of how he’s been searching for her wherever his performances took him. She asks him why, and before he can answer, the two are interrupted by Gai and Kiko asking to borrow some money. Meanwhile, Berta and Itzhak are headed in the same direction by car when they come across a police checkpoint with a man specifically looking for Contractors. Earlier, Berta had explained to Itzhak that her power allows her to break objects through vibrations, and she now uses it to stop the inspector’s heartbeat. While the other policemen are occupied with their fallen comrade, the two Contractors slip past the checkpoint. Itzhak stops the car further up the road so that Berta can take care of her price, and she reveals that she has to put foreign substances into her mouth which she then spits out.

When the train Yin and Kastinen are on stops briefly in the middle of the mountains, Yin notices a blue surveillance spectre in a nearby puddle. She tells Kastinen that someone’s chasing after them, so the two get off the train and run into the nearby forest. Neither Gai nor Kiko saw the two leave since he had been in the bathroom and she had been sleeping, though Gai decides to get off at the next station. Kastinen and Yin trudge through the rain until they arrive at an abandoned school house where they take shelter. When they find a piano inside, Yin starts playing it at the urging of her former teacher. Around this time, Berta is explaining to Itzhak how she had a baby daughter and had been a heavy smoker as a singer. Though she had quit during the pregnancy, she didn’t stay that way, and one day she inadvertently put a cigarette in her baby’s mouth, which caused her daughter to choke. Berta recounts that she had many swollen-eyed nights from crying, and before she knew it, the night sky changed. Hei is meanwhile on a different train and thinking about how Yin helped him that time inside the Heaven’s Gate with the meteor fragment.

Still playing the piano, Yin remembers how her mother had fainted during her father’s funeral and how her mother had gotten close to Kastinen afterwards. She had caught them staring at each other under the moonlight and had dashed out of the house nearly in tears. Kirsi had run onto road and would have gotten hit by a truck if not for her mother pushing her out of the way to safety. The cost of this, however, was her mother’s own life. As she recalls crying in front of her mother’s covered body, Yin now suddenly stops playing the piano and utters “Mama.” Kastinen realizes that she remembers what happened on that night and thinks that she doesn’t want to return home because sad memories remain. Yin tells him that if she hadn’t run out at the time, then her mother wouldn’t have died, and she feels that the silver light disappeared ever since then. With Yin acting like she is, Kastinen tries to explain that there was nothing going on between himself and her mother. Still, he admits that at the time he had hidden feelings of wanting to take her mother from her. Kastinen has wanted to tell her that she needn’t feel guilty for what happened.

Back in the car, Berta recalls a verse from an aria where atonement is symbolized by the eclipse of the moon. Hearing this, Itzhak wonders if the way the moon has been lost now means that they’re in a period of eternal atonement. Also headed in Yin’s direction is Hei who runs into Gai on the mountain path. Gai recognizes Hei from the construction site incident earlier and questions if he is the stalker after Yin, but Hei simply tells Gai to disappear since this doesn’t involve him. This gets Gai angry and he questions what Hei has done to Yin to make her silent and expressionless – like a doll. Ignoring this, Hei starts to walk off, so Gai stops him again and tries to make him understand that Yin is crying on the inside. Hei responds by shocking Gai unconscious and proceeding along the path towards the school building. Yin eventually senses that Hei has come, so Kastinen heads into the hallway to confront him. When Hei asks why Kastinen took Yin, the girl in question comes out to refute that. This causes Hei to realize that Yin ran away on her own accord, and Yin claims that it was because she felt inclined to do so.

Kastinen then accuses Hei of being Yin’s companion in doing suspicious work, and Hei admits that he is. This causes Yin to turn her head towards him, but shortly after, an ear-splitting noise starts shaking the building. Outside, Berta and Itzhak have arrived, and she’s using her powers to bring the building down. As Yin and Kastinen escape, Hei jumps out a window and rushes towards the woman, but Berta succeeds in stopping his heart with her power. In pain, Hei quickly administers an electric jolt to himself to start his heart up again, and before Berta realizes that he’s still alive, he shoots his cable around her neck and electrocutes her. Itzhak tries to make a run for the car, but he gets shot in the back by Huang with a sniper rifle. Huang then aims for Yin, however he notices first that the dying Itzhak has started to glow. Itzhak begins emanating outward all the surveillance spectres that he took in, and they soon cover the sky in a beautiful swirl. In his final words, Itzhak tells Berta that this is the light of the moon, a moon filling in silvery white. Both Hei and Huang are shocked to see Yin crying, and although Huang still takes aim, he can’t pull the trigger.

In the aftermath, another man approaches Huang in a bar concerning Yin and tells him not to worry because no real harm was done. He reveals that the defeated Contractors were connected to the FSB, and if information had been leaked, then Huang’s neck would be on the line. The man then tells Huang to hand over Yin for a reset, but Huang refuses because they’ve finally become familiar with how to use her. As Huang gets up to leave, the man warns him not to get lost in emotion. Yin has meanwhile returned to her normal tobacco shop spot, and as she sits there, she remembers what happened immediately after Itzhak and Berta died. Kastinen had tried to get her to come home again, but she had turned to Hei to ask him about being his comrade and companion. Hei had told her that she had to decide if she wanted to remain as Yin or what. Kastinen then made his plea once more to Kirsi, but she placed her finger on his lips and corrected him because her name is now Yin. With Yin having made her decision, Hei knocked out Kastinen with an electrical shock, and Yin had used her finger to push up the corner of her mouth to form a half-smile.

Preview

Although good deal of Yin’s past is revealed here, including what happened to both her mother and father, interestingly enough, nothing was said about how Yin actually became a Doll and joined the Organization. Instead, this episode has Yin redeveloping some of her emotions and getting close to Hei (though you could argue that she was already doing that with how she saved him and how she had held his hand back in episode six). Perhaps there will be a future arc that covers how Hei, Mao, Yin, and Huang came together as a group. I also wonder how big a role Yin will ultimately play in the storyline, since it seems the Organization cares about what happens to her (at least in terms of potentially leaking information) and the entire ED sequence is devoted to her.
Overall, I think Darker than BLACK is once again getting better and better every arc. This was the case early on, but the first Kurasawa Gai arc and Misaki’s arc weren’t quite as good. These past two arcs have once again engaged me into the story, and I really can’t wait to see next week, which will feature both Amber and November 11’s group.

51 Comments

  6. I’m so happy to see finally a blogger writing something good about this series, everywhere I went they said only negative things about this fantastic anime Y______Y

    Inana
    Reply

  12. Ahem…

    Dear Intentionally Unnamed Anime Licensor,

    Thank you for licensing Darker than Black. I am happy every time I see a licensor pick up such a great show, as I feel that buying DVDs of good series will cultivate the good taste of those licensors and get better anime licensed in the future. I fully intend to buy all of the DVDs of this incredible series, as long as you promise that only Mike McFarland is allowed to direct it, like he did with FMA, and as long as you treat it with as much care as you did that series.

    That said, please eat a fat d**k on behalf of the anime-loving populace for licensing this before it was complete, and just as it was really starting to get good, and for scaring off the fansubbers with your historically totalitarian legal actions.

    quigonkenny
    Reply

  14. @quigonKenny= TRUE DAT!!!!!!!!! dat goes double sausage fest from me to you too YOU FAT CAT C@$ksuker MOTHERFU$%ERS!!!!!! AND GIVE ME BACK MY GURREN LAGAN!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!! I”M GONNA STEAL ALL THAT SH^t!!!! THIS AIN”T EVEN MY EMAIL ADRESS!!! THIS AINT EVEN MY COMPUTER YOU GREEDY BASTARDS!!!!!……good day

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  16. jajajaja.. I love the end of your post Brooklin.. good day…
    Hey, anyone notice that Hei prevent his own hearth to stop giving electroshock himself? how cool is that!!!! ( I dont know if i explain myself o.k…. im not english speaker… upss)

    Vane
    Reply

  18. “Seems that some animes have been having characters with heterochromia, First Devil May Cry and now this”

    I don’t remember a ton about the games, but if I remember right that chick was in one of them actually. :X

    kiryuu
    Reply

  19. so they licenced the anime, does this mean that Shinsen (or any other anime fansub group that is subbing DTB) has to drop this series? does anybody know about this?

    Inana
    Reply

  21. Shinsen posted a little “it’s dropped notice” so that’s it for them. There is another group Sudo who is fansubing too, but I don’t know where they post info about their projects so we’ll have to wait and see if it shows up on BitTorrent.

    Was it Funimation that got DTB? That makes me sad I don’t think I’ve ever seen them do a good job on any Anime.

    Hei defibrillated himself, and yes that is bad ass!

    W.Wolf
    Reply

  23. BROTHERS IN ARMS!! i feel a fu#ked up wind coming.. real soon too.. they are gonna strip us of the medium we LOVE..”i mean i get a salary like the next dude” but i cant be buying new anime just to see if its good or not.. fan subbers!! please don’t give up the good fight! i love yall

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  24. Sudo doesn’t have a website or anything, they’re supposed to be from various other groups working under pseudonyms (hence the name). That being the case I would expect them to continue, because they don’t have anything to target. *crosses fingers* A-Keep also dropped, if you didn’t know.

    On the episode, this was a really good one. Just waiting for a write-up to fill in the gaps my rusty trans skillz left. And it looks like next week will start hitting the main story more.

    Yggdrasil
    Reply

  25. Ah well. Doesn’t affect me much. The raws are good enough as they are. ^_^ Haha. Since we have anime bloggers to thank them for blogging everything. The one series I really don’t want to see licensed yet would be Dennou Coil. Everything in the subs explained so much more than actions. *sighs*

    tg
    Reply

  26. Oh well…thanks to Omni for blogging this because anyone waiting for subs is stuck at Episode 12. As for who picked it up, I think it was Funimation or ADV. I can’t really blame the fansubbers for dropping the series. Receiving a C&D is never any fun, and those two companies have always been way too happy to get their in house counsel to draft threatening letters. If fansubbers were rich, they could afford to fight this. On the other hand, they at least didn’t do what Viz did. Viz waited until right before the last two episodes of Death Note to send the C&D.

    Yuri Rocks
    Reply

  30. @ W. Wolf

    He’s a walking defibrillator! :O I thought that was that was the coolest scene in the series, Hei jumpstarts his heart with his own Contractor powers…Funny and awesome at the same time.

    Suz
    Reply

  31. “He’s a walking defibrillator! :O I thought that was that was the coolest scene in the series, Hei jumpstarts his heart with his own Contractor powers…Funny and awesome at the same time.”

    Yes!! that was the coolest scene ever!!! Every chapter Hei makes me more and more a fan girl!!!

    Vane
    Reply

  32. Yea, I have to agree too that that was the coolest scene. We’ve known Hei’s powers for a while now, but the way he puts it to use and reacts instantly to situations (like what happened back in episode 10 with Wei) is quite impressive.

    Omni
    Reply

  33. I think the Funimation stand-ins in the series are the cops who don’t even know what the case about was even after they find the dead bodies.
    It’s kind of sad that English is now the official world language of litigation.
    I like the fansubs & buy the series from like CD JAPAN, amazon.jp at least I get the best video quality that way, for all the money they charge. Or wait for the “thin-packs” to come out.

    Bones/Tensai Okamura barely pulled off that Sopranos fade-out with Huang’s trigger on Yin (and nothing happening) with a very realistic (creepy) scene with Huang manning up to his superior at the bar and basically casting his fate with Hei & the gang. Huang showed some stones by mouthing-off to his presumed fate who cut past him in the alley after he left “boss” at the bar.

    “Hooray for Yin!!”
    I agree, I am glad she figured-out/dumped the teacher and the way she did it was perfect.

    reservbed
    Reply

  34. quigonkenny: love your post…funimation better get some good, sincere and not overly dramatic voice actors…or holy crap they will face a riot of anime fans at their doorstep.
    so…does anyone have any suggestions for the english voice actors for dbt?
    i think hei should be voice by the guy that does togusa from ghost in the shell: stand alone complex and yin by the person who did cheza from wolf’s rain

    islandloner
    Reply

  36. I dunno…the voice actors FUNi has are actually really good, no more overdramatic than Japanese voices have traditionally been. (Especially since Japanese media companies has only just recently started using REAL actors rather than glorified DJs without a lick of formal theatre training, whereas most English VAs have always been real actors) If English language companies followed the example of the Japanese ones, we’d be hearing Hei voiced by Justin Timberlake. (Someone who can sing but can’t necessarily act…the ones who can do both generally act in doramas instead of anime)

    Besides which, DVDs are usually bilingual, so I don’t see why anyone whines about English voices when they’re not going to watch a series in English anyway. (And since Adult Swim seems to be gravitating away from anime, you probably won’t be seeing it broadcast, either) You have to watch raws in order to get 1337 points these days.

    Basilisk
    Reply

  37. Yin may be the only gorl character that is close to Hei that won’t die… at least not for a while 🙂
    Hei does have the annoying habbit of killing off possible relationships!

    Lost Seeker
    Reply

  40. What was the piano piece that lead in (teaser) episode 13 and middle of (insert) episode 14?

    I think Funimation was picking for Adult Swim here. Adult Swim seems to like this move, pick the critically acclaimed series (especially Bones and/or former Cowboy Bebop writer), change and or dumb down the story line in the English translation and then complain they had to change and or dumb down the story line in the English translation due to censorship and or lack of ratings. I thought Funimation FMA english DUB was great (I liked the Japanese Winry better), until the wheels came off the cart in the episodes 39-end.

    reservbed
    Reply

  41. In the grand scheme of things, we don’t know jack about Yin – except that her real name is Kirsi. To be honest, nobody’s going to care about her piano teacher, and losing parents is nothing new in animé. I don’t see what’s so awesome about this “arc”.

    Bio
    Reply

  47. Btw, did any of you noticed that Gai just finished some pizza from pizza hut at the end of the eps? Hehe, after all those adverts in the previous eps, Gai is finally brainwashed into eating pizza!

    @Bio: Character development . you finally get to see Yin smile =)Abet a half-smile.

    Loba
    Reply

  49. i thought it was obvious how yin became a doll. remember when those two contractors(opera lady and other guy) where riding in the car and the poem/song they quoted?? it means any child harboring a heavy sin in their heart becomes a doll.

    hillary
    Reply

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