Darker Than Black Volume 4 Ten years ago, a new landscape descended on Tokyo, named "Hells Gate", the stars in the heavens changed and were replaced by stars that are connected to humans. These Humans are known as contractors, and have supernatural abilities, such as directing electricity, freezing water or stopping time altogether. They tend to use these new abilities in doing their job as an assassin. When they use these powers they are required to make penance or complete a remuneration. If they do not make this payment they will suffer greatly. Some must only do things like, smoke a cigarette (which he hates), others grow younger (she likes being older). It is different for each one.
The plot is based around one of these Contractors, Hei. He lives his normal life as a want to be college student, but in truth he works for an undercover group called the Syndicate. His real goal is to find his sister, Pai.
EPISODES
This volume covers episodes 15, 16,17, and 18. They are two stories that are told in two episodes each. Episode 15: "The Memory of Betrayal Is an Amber-Colored Smile… (Part 1)". April, an operative for MI6, spots two contractors, Amber & Maki. She attempts to follow but fails. After that, a series of bombings occur and are linked to the two contractors she spotted. They are part of a group called Evening Primrose, whose goal is to get the secret information about Contractors out to the general public and get human rights for them. (can you say X-Men Last Stand?). Episode 16 "The Memory of Betrayal Is an Amber-Colored Smile… (Part 2)" The search continues for the members of Evening Primrose and Hei gets involved because the leader of the group has a connection to his sister. On November 11th, a Contractor working for MI6 finds and kills the young Contractor, Maki, and Hei finds the Evening Primrose leader. She is in love with Hei and wants nothing more than for him to align with her group. He is about to attach and she is forced to stop time and get away.
The big issue for her is that when she uses her power, her payment is that she grows younger. She is now a 20 something in the body of a 10 year old. Episode 17 "I'll Sing a Love Song at the Garbage Dump… (Part 1)" Hei is posing as a waiter at a small restaurant owned by the Yakuza. He is watching for a delivery of a contractor called a Doll. In his roll he befriends a young man who is a minor member of the Family. Episode 18 "I'll Sing a Love Song at the Garbage Dump… (Part 2)". This young man, Kenji, is given the job of watching the Doll, but he decides to run off with the Doll and the only place he has to run is to Hei. He does not know anything about Hei except that he was a waiter. Hei ends up helping him get away and almost gives away his secret.
OVERALL
Darker Than Black's premise has great potential, with the unnatural abilities and requirements to maintain them as a backdrop. It does a fair job of developing these possibilities and I would guess that the series will explore more of these issues as it unfolds, but these 4 episodes left me a little disappointed with the story development. The animation was above average and the overall production and direction were strong enough to carry the show. I realize that often the episodes in the middle of the series tend to drag out a little, but, these episodes kept the action moving and providing enough depth to prod me to want more. Darker Than Black is a total of 25 episodes that were originally shown in Japan from April 2007 to September 2007. The Director and Writer/Creator is Tensai Okmura. The Production Studio was Bones. This Volume will be released to the American market on May, 5th 2009 by FUNimation. I did find Darker than Black entertaining and well produced. The overall look was slick and many of the scenes were well above the average grade. The story was strong enough to carry itself for these four episodes and did leave me with a interest to see more.
ComicsOnline gives Darker Than Black, Volume Four a 4 out of 5 exploding hand prints.
