[/edited, after properly watching everything in chronological order and watching S2 for real]Another anime to notch in my belt: Darker Than Black Seasons 1 and 2, and the accompanying 4-episode OAV, Darker Than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha: Gaiden.
Although I did not initially watch them in this order, chronologically, DtB progresses with S1, the OAVs, and then S2.
DARKER THAN BLACK: S1 REVIEW
DtB is something of a cross between Cowboy Bebop and X-Men. Seriously, there's even a contractor whose powers are pretty much just like Storm's. It's cool, mysterious, stylish (I love the noir nods), fun, and there are people with ridiculously awesome superpowers running amok. Some fans call Hei "Chinese Electric Batman," which may be the most hilarious and spot-on fan-name ever.
Plot
S1 of the series largely unfolds in 2-episode arcs, which really gives it narrative drive. How can you NOT click "Play Next Episode" on Netflix at the end of one episode of a mini-arc? As with any arc-based series, though some of the arcs are stronger than the others. Anything involving Mi-6 agents or the Blood Spatter Guy was usually awesome. Episodes featuring Detective Guy Kurosawa were less interesting.
The main plot unfolds pretty slowly, with little pieces dangled for you along the way. The plot is nothing to write home about, and not particularly original. Basically, there are some Syndicate bad boys (apparently a conglomerate of national intelligence organizations or something) playing puppeteer behind the scenes and trying to annihilate all the contractors, and the contractors organize and strike back. And our hero, Hei, chooses a middle path and kills the fewest people by neutralizing the Syndicate's plan. Your classic good guy underdog beats bad guy story, I guess. Oh, and to tap another overdone trope, the bad guy is a large nameless organization with an intimidating name!
I'm making it sound worse than it was. I actually found the plot quite engaging. But for me, this wasn't really a series about plot, although I found the revelations about Hei's past and Amber's plan very interesting. There were no gripping twists and turns; the story was gently and skillfully unfolded before us, but the series was more about the characters. And the action sequences!!!
Characters
Well, specifically, one character: Hei/Li.
For the most part, the other characters in the series were not particularly interesting--as characters. But that doesn't mean they weren't entertaining! In fact, one of the things that kept me hooked on the show was waiting to find out what powers other contractors had, and what prices they had to pay for those powers. I loved everyone in the Mi-6 British intelligence group, for instance. And Amber's time-bending power (and becoming-young remuneration) was awesome. Call it the X-Men effect, but hell, I just wanna see what these motherf*ckers can DO!
The side characters were kind of blah. We had Misaki, the straight-laced strong female cop. While I appreciated that she wasn't a Simpering Anime Woman, she was really kind of a dull character. As was her bevy of police buddies. And the random detective and assistant that were brought in for comic relief were just annoying.
There was some potential for interesting mini-arc characters: I would have liked to know more about Havoc the red-haired crazy mass killer contractor and Nick, Hei's astronomy buddy (I did NOT understand what ended up happening to him). But the mini-arc side characters inevitably died by the end of the arc, with few exceptions.
The other members of Hei's team, though, were for the most part. . . just okay. I appreciated that the show tried to develop each team member's back story, but none of the characters--Mao the cat, Yin the doll, and Kuno the ex-cop--really resonated with me. Their character development was subtle, and also not particularly effective. How do you care about a doll, even one that cries and shows a tiny bit of emotion? Sure, she can cry and grab Hei's hand, but that doesn't mean the audience connects with her on any level.
Which brings me back to Hei. I might be a sucker for split personality characters: Hei/Li is sort of reminiscent of Battousai vs. Kenshin in Rurouni Kenshin, although Hei doesn't have Kenshin's moral qualms and is all the more fascinating for it. I found Hei and his growth over the course of the series really interesting. Human or contractor? Hei or Li? Good or evil? Identity crisis! I would have loved to have seen more development of the 'Black Reaper' persona. I guess I like my characters nice and dark.
The ending of the series--and quasi-resolution of the Hei vs. Li bit--seemed too convenient somehow: it gave a relatively simple answer to a murky question--i.e., that Nice Guy Li is the real Hei, and he only started killing to be with his sister, but it's okay because he can be both nice AND badass! Kind of a copout, but still fun to watch unfold.
Also, can I just say that from an action standpoint, Hei is just incredibly badass? Hei has one of the most kickass powers and awesome character designs in the show, with his stylish-yet-practical bulletproof jacket ("doesn't wear it as a fashion statement") and his dark dull unhappy eyes, which reminded me a bit of L from Death Note. Action sequences featuring Hei were always a highlight. Though Hei did suffer from a little bit of Steven Seagal syndrome (i.e., you know he could never lose--he's just that badass), I found that it didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the action scenes. His fighting style is just really, really fun to watch.
Animation
Well done, fluid animation. Nice, dark color palette. Awesome fight sequences. In particular, I enjoyed the fights between Hei and the blood-spatter guy. And November 11's fights. I went back and rewatched fight sequences in a lot of the episodes just 'cos they were that awesome.
Music
Just wanted to comment that the show's opening theme song ("Howling," by Abingdon Boys Schools) is pretty damn badass. It changed in the second half of the season, unfortunately, to something inferior. I also enjoyed the action sequence music. Appropriately heart-pumping. When that electric guitar came on, you knew someone was gonna get fried. This is a soundtrack I plan to download for my iPod shuffle.
Overall
On the whole, I quite enjoyed Darker Than Black S1. Strong forward-moving narrative. Great action scenes with a lot of re-watch value. Creative. Mysterious--the series left open a huge number of questions (such as what the Gates themselves are, what happened to the stars, and how contractors and dolls came into being). It even had the good sense to make fun of itself (and anime, and anime fangirls... like me, haha) in its post-season finale "epilogue" episode (ep. 26).
It's not in the same league as Death Note or Avatar: the Last Airbender in terms of story and character-building. But it was tremendously entertaining. (It even derailed me from going through Cowboy Bebop!) And for sheer entertainment value, I'd say it ranks in the top of the anime I have watched.
DARKER THAN BLACK OAV REVIEW
Although it aired after S2, the OAV actually takes place chronologically between the seasons.
Here's my bottom line on the OAV: it had some kickassingly awesome action sequences, but little of the compelling character work of S1. The opening battle sequence was absolutely breathtaking, and there are many such awesome sequences throughout the 4 OAV episodes.
The problem was that the character work wasn't quite there. The show tried to develop the Hei/Yin relationship, but for me it felt extremely forced--as if they were trying to please shipping fangirls. I was annoyed. It really just didn't make any sense to me, except as a device to suck in a susceptible female audience.
Well, I couldn't stand most of the lovey dovey Hei/Yin handholding scenes. I wanted to see Hei become a leader, develop a plan, set goals and execute them--maybe even take down the entire damn Syndicate. I did NOT want to see him run around aimlessly trying to protect some personality-less doll. Without a narrative to propel the story, I was left clamoring for more Hei-electro-fries-everybody-else action scenes.
I appreciated that the OAV made S2 more comprehensible, but the increasing weirdness of the supernatural plot from the OAVs into S2 just made me go "WTF." Yin turns into some crazy Izanami thing that kills contractors because she evolved too fast out of love for Hei?! And she's destined to join with Izanagi and bring forth devastating change to the world? WTF. Again, my reaction reminded me of my reaction to the end of Evangelion. I guess my appreciation for the supernatural only goes so far.
Oh wells. Anyway, I enjoyed the OAV because of aforementioned kickass action sequences. Black Reaper, so badass. But . . . nothing really lives up to Season 1 . . .
DARKER THAN BLACK: S2 REVIEW
I watched S2 the first time around sort of on fast forward and without having had the benefit of watching the OAVs, which explained a lot of what had happened. I couldn't stand the new protagonist, Suo, or "Hobo" Hei's drastic change of character, or the crazy supernatural plot. I hated it.
But I think I didn't give it a fair chance that first time around. I have now properly watched S2 from beginning to end, and thought it was considerably inferior to S1, but still . . . pretty decent.
Much of my previous critique remains, of course. I still hate that "Hobo" Hei is a scraggly, child-abusing drunkard with doesn't eat anymore. I still hate that he loses his electro-power after episode 2, which sucks the fun out of the action sequences; 10 of 12 episodes without the show's iconic electro-power is just disappointing.
As for the new main character, Suo, I still thought her kind of annoying, although I appreciated her feisty-ness much more during the second viewing. Still, I will not retract my statement about her contractor ability being literally the dumbest thing I have ever seen: she can spawn . . . get ready for it . . . an anti-tank gun with 6 rounds of ammo. Yup, limited ammo. Oh, and the gun needs to be summoned every once in a while for maintenance and repairs. WTF!?!?! It's so stupid.
I did love 2 of the characters introduced/developed in this season, though: (1) Mina Hazuki, aka "Lightsaber Lesbian," who is a kickass wielder of energy weapons whose remuneration is to kiss men, although she prefers women; (2) July, the Mi-6 doll, who joined up with Hei and Suo and is just plain adorable.
Even on the second viewing, and with the benefit of having watched the OAVs, S2's plot was still incomprehensible. There were a million different factions, and syndicate groups, and intelligence agencies, and I still have no idea who Madam Oreille was. There was no rhyme or reason to any of it, and mostly the plot just went off into cuckoo land--kind of like the end of Evangelion.
That said, it was still a decent season of anime. Good action sequences, well-animated. It just fell far short of both the OAV and, especially, S1.
