Darker than Black

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Darker than Black
Original title Darker than Black - 黒 の 契約 者 -
transcription Darker than Black - Kuro no Keiyakusha
Darker than Black logo.png
genre Action , mystery
Anime television series
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 2007
Studio Bones
length 23 minutes
Episodes 26th
Director Tensai Okamura
music Yōko Kanno
First broadcast April 5 - September 28, 2007 on MBS , TBS
German-language
first broadcast		 April 13 - July 6, 2011 on Animax
synchronization
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Tensai Okamura
Illustrator Noki Ya
publishing company Kadokawa Shoten
magazine Asuka
expenditure 2
Anime television series
► Darker than Black: Ryūsei no Gemini (2009)

Darker than Black ( Japanese: Darker than Black - 黒 の 契約 者 , Darker than Black - Kuro no Keiyakusha ) is an anime series from 2007, which was directed by the director Tensai Okamura . Various adaptations as manga were based on the anime , various music publications, which resulted in a franchise from the series . With Darker than Black: Ryusei no Gemini in 2009 as a continuation of anime television series that followed a few years after the events of the first anime implementation plays.

Scenario and terminology

In the world of Darker than Black , which is modeled after the real world, two major incidents of unknown cause occurred. As a result the Heaven's Gate in South America and the Hell's Gate in Japan were created. Despite the different names, the two “gates” are the same and cause numerous inexplicable effects. The real starry sky and the moon can no longer be seen from earth and have been replaced by a kind of illusion that prevents the real stars from being seen. Instead, each star in this artificial sky symbolizes a contractor , it is created when it is “born” and falls when it dies.

Due to the influence of the gates, a certain proportion of the world population turned into the contractors, which completely changed the balance of the world. So are z. B. the USA is not the most powerful nation because it suffered heavy losses in the battle for Heaven's Gate. But the rest of the world is only just starting to build up again, after numerous armed conflicts. Overall, this results in a situation similar to the Cold War , in which the secret services of the nations compete with one another. These include the MI6 , the CIA as well as various other groups. B. belongs to the Syndicate for which the protagonist of the series works.

Contractors

The contractors are normal people, but due to the side effects of the gates they are endowed with an additional supernatural ability. Different skills come to light depending on the contractor. For example, Mao can transfer his spirit to another body, summon storms in April or freeze any liquid on November 11. At the same time, however, they lose the ability to feel feelings such as love, which is expressed in purely logical action and makes them the ideal means for commissioned work. Another disadvantage of this "contract" is that they have a way to use their skills penance must make (Contract Payment). April has to drink alcohol or Mina Hazuki has to kiss a man. It is believed that if a contractor fails to honor his penance, he will die in agony.

A special form of the contractors are Dolls . They have not only lost the ability to feel emotions, but they have also lost their own will and usually only obey the commands that are given to them in silence. In addition, they do not have any offensive abilities and are mainly used for enlightenment purposes, as they use observation spirits through a medium they control, such as B. power lines or water.

Another form of a contractor is that Moratorium . This is understood to be a contractor whose skills awaken under certain circumstances. As a result, the person is unaware of this and involuntarily can cause great damage with their abilities. Since most of the moratoriums are not up to this emotional pressure, they usually turn into a kind of doll .

action

→ Main article : List of Darker-than-Black characters

In the series, the contractor Hei is initially accompanied, who is doing various missions within Japan on behalf of the Syndicate. He disguises himself as a Chinese student and lives alone in an apartment. In addition to Hei, the viewer also gets to know his supporting companions Mao, Huang and Yin. Huang is his contact to the Syndicate, and Hei usually gets his assignments from him. Little by little, Hei and his accomplices get further and more entangled in a large plot, in which their past overtakes them. Hei is confronted with his former partner Amber, whom he suspects of provoking an incident analogous to the one at Heaven's Gate, at the end of which his sister disappeared and the gate destroyed everything within a radius of 1500 kilometers. The plot is told in several sections, each of which focuses on one of the assignments. However, these pursue an overall progressive action that increasingly focuses on the individual parties and their interaction. The past of the main characters is also discussed in flashbacks.

During his missions, Misaki Kirihara is assigned to track down Hei and keep him away from Hell's Gate. In doing so, however, she falls in love with Li Sheng Shun, which is Hei's alias in real life. She is also drawn more and more into the events and unconsciously supports Hei and his friends, who are more and more breaking away from the Syndicate and ultimately becoming the target of all those involved for various reasons. Towards the end of the plot there is a confusing clash of the factions in Hell's Gate, in which most of the contractors are killed by a weapon with which they were supposed to be destroyed, as was the case with Heaven's Gate. However, Hei succeeds with his ability to cancel the effect of the weapon, which protects both him and the contractors outside the gate from death.

Emergence

The first season Darker than Black consists of 26 episodes and was animated by Studio Bones under the direction of Tensai Okamura in 2007.

The background music used in the anime comes from the pen of the award-winning composer Yōko Kanno . For the opening credits of episodes 1-14 Howling was used by Hiroshi Shibasaki , which was sung by the Abingdon Boys School . From the 15th episode, Kakusei Heroism ~ The Hero Without A Name ~ by An Cafe replaced the previous title music. The credits have been changed from Tsukiakari ( ツ キ ア カ リ ), interpreted by Rie fu , to Dreams , sung by High and Mighty Color .

Voice actor

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) German speaker
Hey Hidenobu Kiuchi Sven Hasper
Mao Ikuya Sawaki Thomas Friebe
Huang Masaru Ikeda Rolf Berg
Yin Misato Fukuen Rieke Werner
Misaki Kirihara Nana Mizuki Silke Linderhaus
November 11 Kazuhiko Inoue Stefan Schleberger
Amber Tomoko Kawakami Demet Fey

Publications

Within Japan, the first season was broadcast from April 5, 2007 by the stations MBS and TBS as well as the affiliated stations. The last episode was first shown on September 28, 2007.

On March 26, 2008, an additional OVA was released in Japan , which also comes from the same producers and tells a side story of the previous plot.

Outside of Japan, the series was licensed by Funimation in July 2007 and released in the United States and Canada . Madman Entertainment also licensed the production and released it in Australia and New Zealand . Panini Video licensed the series in March 2008 for publication in Germany. From October 24, 2008 to April 24, 2009, all episodes of the series were released in German synchronization on six DVDs. In addition, since March 2011 the episodes have been published in German synchronization on the video platform MyVideo . In Germany, the first season of the FSK was released from the age of 12, the second season from 16 years.

Adaptations

Manga

A manga adaptation, with the same title Darker than Black - Kuro no Keiyakusha (Darker than Black - 黒 の 契約 者 - ), was published in the manga magazine Gekkan Asuka based on the anime . Tensai Okamura , the series director, wrote the plot. The drawings were made by Noki Ya . The completed manga comprised 9 chapters that appeared towards the end of 2007 and was combined into two Tankōbon editions.

In Germany, the manga was published by Planet Manga in a German translation in two volumes since October 2008 .

Since May 2009 another manga adaptation by Yuji Iwahara has been published in Young Gangan magazine in Japan .

Music publications

Parallel to the broadcast of the anime, an album ( soundtrack ) and several singles (a total of four pieces for the corresponding opening and closing credits) with the music from the anime were released.

On July 25, 2007 the album DARKER THAN BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha- Gekiban (DARKER THAN BLACK - 黒 の 契約 者 - 劇 伴 ) by Yōko Kanno , which together with the songs from the opening and closing credits, comprised 20 pieces. The non-instrumental tracks No One's Home and ScatCat were written by Tim Jensen and sung by Mai Yamane . James Wendt sang the tracks Deadly Work and Blend in .

continuation

Building on the events of the first season, Studio Bones again produced a second anime television series, directed by Tensai Okamura . It takes place a few years after the events of the first implementation and focuses on the thirteen-year-old girl Suō Pavlichenko. Hei, the protagonist of the first season, takes on the role of Suō's instructor. The series was first broadcast on Japanese television beginning October 8, 2009.

The sequel for the second season and the OVA series with Hei and Yin was again produced by Bones.

reception

The series caused a sensation during production. So, without further ado, the production manager ran away with the manuscript in the middle of the ongoing broadcast and led to very different opinions about the end of the story, which seemed too choppy.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New series at Panini Video. In: Panini Video Blog. Panini Verlags GmbH, March 10, 2008, accessed on May 24, 2008 .
  2. ↑ Darker than Black Tv Anime Sequel Green-Lit. In: Anime News Network . June 3, 2009, accessed July 30, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Shingo: Anime News: This year in anime abortions . September 21, 2007, accessed May 24, 2008 .

Web links