Darker than Black, known in Japan as Darker than Black: The Black Contractor, is an anime
television series created, directed and written by Tensai Okamura and animated by Bones.
It premiered across Japan from April 5, 2007 on MBS, TBS, and its affiliated broadcast
stations, with its satellite television premiere in Japan on Animax in May 2007.
The music for the series is composed by Yoko Kanno.
The series has also been adapted into two manga series, which are serialized in Monthly
Asuka and in Young Gangan.
A sequel titled Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor-, Dākā Zan Burakku -Ryūsei
no Jemini-, Darker than Black: Ryūsei no Gemini) premiered in Japan on October 8, 2009.
Plot
Ten years ago, a mysterious spatial anomaly known as "Heaven's Gate" appeared in South
America, shortly followed by the opening of "Hell's Gate" in Tokyo altering the sky and
wreaking havoc on the landscape.
The real stars disappeared, replaced by false stars.
During this time, people possessing various special abilities emerged, each capable of
different supernatural feats - these are known as Contractors.
Each Contractor has a corresponding fake star, which reacts to their activities.
As such, Contractors are usually identified by their star's Messier catalogue number.
Kept secret from the masses, these individuals are known to murder in cold blood, smothering
unnecessary emotions with logic and rationality.
Their incredible abilities, however, are gained at the cost of their humanity - Contractors
are thus named because of an involuntary compulsion to "pay the price" each time their power is
used, which can range from eating particular foods and completing meaningless tasks, to
self-harm and changing their bodies in peculiar ways.
Various nations and organizations around the world train and utilize Contractors as spies
and assassins, resulting in violent battles for valuable objects and information.
Following the disastrous Heaven's War, the United States lost its dominant position as
a superpower to a mysterious organization named the Syndicate.
The story revolves around a Chinese contractor codenamed "Hei" as he undertakes various espionage
and assassination missions in Tokyo under the direction of the aforementioned Syndicate.
Media Anime
Season one
Darker than Black was conceptualized by Tensai Okamura and produced by Bones and Aniplex.
The series premiered on Tokyo Broadcasting System and Mainichi Broadcasting System's
Thursday late night anime broadcasting timeslot, replacing the Sunrise series Code Geass: Lelouch
of the Rebellion on April 5, 2007, and similar to Code Geass incorporated corporate sponsorship
of Japan News Network partners Pizza Hut and Nifty, where episodes of the series was streamed
every week during the series' broadcast run.
It completed its initial run on September 27, 2007, and received its broadcasting satellite
premiere on Animax from May 8, 2007 to October 23, 2007.
The series was also aired in English on Animax Asia, Animax's English language networks in
Southeast Asia and South Asia from December 2008 onwards.
The series made its North American television debut when it started airing on the Funimation
Channel September 6, 2010.
The series has been released in Japan by Aniplex across nine DVDs, each containing three episodes,
except for the first DVD, which had only two.
The ninth and final DVD included an original video animation, which expanded upon the romantic
relationships between characters.
The DVDs were released between July 25, 2007 and March 26, 2008 by Aniplex.
FUNimation received the license for the series in Region 1 and has released one DVD compilation
with two more coming in the future.
The first English DVD was released on November 25, 2008 and the second and third DVDs were
released on January 20, 2009 and March 10, 2009 respectively.
Volume 4 was released on May 5, 2009 with Volume 5 released on June 23, 2009.
Volume 6 was released on August 11, 2009 and is now available.
In May 2010, Funimation released the entire first season in a complete box set; it was
originally released in March, but was recalled due to a defective disk.
The Blu-ray Box was released in Japan on September 30, 2009 with a guidebook with several unreleased
music tracks not available in the OSTs.
Season two
A document containing information about Bones staff and production details, was leaked onto
the Japanese filesharing site uploader.jp, within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format,
on July 2008.
Among other details, including confidential contact information in regards to Bones staff
members, it revealed that a second Darker than Black and Fullmetal Alchemist series
was in production and were being directed by Tensai Okamura and Yasuhiro Irie respectively.
This information regarding Fullmetal Alchemist, which had never been previously released,
was later proven to be true on January 2009.
In an official statement posted on Bones' official website, co-founder and president
Masahiko Minami claimed that the document was not released by the studio themselves
but by an unnamed third-party.
In a later statement, Minami also stated in regards to the two new series, "It hasn't
been decided yet.
We are interested in doing them.
As original science-fiction works, they were extremely fascinating.
With these kinds of dramatic story lines, I feel that there's a lot we could do potentially."
Six months later, however, the second series for Fullmetal Alchemist was confirmed to be
in production with Yasuhiro Irie as director, thus confirming the document's validity.
The second Darker than Black series was confirmed in the 12th issue of Square Enix's Young Gangan
Magazine.
In the 14th issue of Young Gangan, the title was revealed as Darker than Black: Ryūsei
no Gemini.
The sequel began airing in October 2009 and ended in December 2009.
At Anime Expo 2010, Funimation Entertainment announced that they had licensed the second
season.
OVA These OVAs, also known as Darker than Black:
Gaiden, are set in the time between the two series.
Hei and Yin have left Tokyo and are on the run from the Syndicate.
In the first episode, conflict ensues in Okinawa, where the agents from the Syndicate attempt
to abduct Yin but are eventually unsuccessful.
Hei and Yin then leave for Hong Kong.
There are 4 OVAs in total, filling the gap with Hei and Yin left between season 1 and
2.
Manga A manga, illustrated by Nokiya, was serialized
in Monthly Asuka.
Kadokawa Shoten released the series to two tankōbon on August 8, 2007 and January 26,
2008 respectively.
The series has been licensed for a North American release by Yen Press.
A second manga, illustrated by Yuji Iwahara, the original character designer for the anime,
finished serializing in Square Enix's Young Gangan seinen magazine under the title Darker
than Black: Shikkoku no Hana in March 2011.
This is a separate one from the first and it is a new story taking place one year after
the events of the anime.
Music The original soundtrack was composed by Yoko
Kanno in 2007 and contains a total of 20 tracks including the first opening and ending themes
performed by Abingdon boys school and Rie fu.
Other non-instrumental songs were written by Tim Jensen and performed by Mai Yamane
and James Wendt.
It peaked at number 57 on the Oricon albums chart.
Reception The anime also was awarded Best Original Anime
of The Year by GoGoplex, a popular magazine for teens.
In the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival, it was one of the jury's recommendations from
the category "Animation Division/Long Animation."
References
External links
Official homepage Official homepage
Animax's official homepage Darker than Black at Anime News Network's
encyclopedia