Volume 1 of 6 (contains 5 episodes)

Release Date: 15/04/2009
Languages: ENGLISH, JAPANESE
Genre: Action/Adventure, Anime, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction
Subtitles: English subtitles
Runtime: 125.0 mins

“Darker Than Black” introduces us to a different version of Tokyo than we know – this Tokyo has a Hell’s Gate. I’m not exactly sure which place in time this story takes place, but it looks a little futuristic anyway.

The authorities of Tokyo are on the lookout for any person who is a Contractor – a being able to murder without empathy or a conscience. At the same time they are keeping the presence of Contractors a secret from the public (in order to avoid widespread panic I would imagine).

Contractors are as I mentioned – murderers. They are hired by people from all corners of the globe, some as spies but most are hired to kill someone for one reason or another. Contractors are also tied to a star in the sky. These particular stars appeared about the same time as the Hell’s Gate, and whenever a Contractor dies their star falls from the sky.

When they fulfil their contract, they need to make a payment of sorts. The main character, Hei, is a Contractor and when he finishes a contract his payment is to eat large amounts of food. Another has to count out rocks into a particular pattern, while others have to smoke or drink alcohol. So as you can see there are a number of ways in which they could suffer for what they’d just done.

Hei (pictured, bottom) is a Contractor, and has come to Tokyo under the guise of a Chinese exchange student. While he has essentially just been described as a murderer, it seems to me that he actually does have a conscience. Even if he does kill people, it seems to be other Contractors at this stage. He also has a few friends to back him up if need be.

Meanwhile, there is a group of police specifically monitoring the activities and incidents involving Contractors. They are aiming to apprehend an Contractors if they can. They are also keeping an eye on the Contractor/star coded BK-201.

The group is led by a woman known as Kirihara, who is also a top detective. She always manages to miss catching BK-201 (which we learn is Hei). It’s not that she’s not smart enough though, he’s just too quick.

As usual, we have some interesting special features to entertain us:

• Episode 2 Voice Commentary with Colleen Clinkenbeard (Chiaki) and Jason Liebrecht (Hei)
• Casting Auditions for Colleen Clinkenbeard (Chiaki), Luci Christian (Havoc), Jason Liebrecht (Hei), John Swasey (Huang), Kate Oxley (Kirihara), Cherami Leigh (Mai), Kent Williams (Mao), Julie Mayfield (Misuzu), Troy Baker (November 11), Mark Stoddard (Tahara) and Brina Palencia (Yin).
• Character Bios – brief summaries of Hei, Yin, Mao, Huang, Misaki Kirihara, Yusuke Saito & Yutaka Kono, Misuzu Oyama, Louis, Paul & Jean & Alain, and Chiaki Shinoda.
• Settings Gallery – Pictures and descriptions of settings where certain scenes take place, as well as descriptions on some of the creatures and equipment seen in the show.
• Textless versions for “Howling” (Opening) and “Tsukiakari” (Closing)
• Trailers for other Madman series.

I wouldn’t normally pick this up, but it isn’t as bad as what I had thought. When I say bad, I mean I don’t like violent anything but this show wasn’t terribly graphic. However, I don’t think this is suitable for anyone under 17 or 18 because there are a few drug and alcohol references – as well as the violence aspect. Then again maybe I’m a bit of a prude, but if you think you (or your teen) can handle that then I definitely think you should watch it.