Dec 03 2008
Funimation DVD Review: Darker Than Black Vol. 1
Stepping into a new series today, I’ve posted my thoughts on the dark psychic paranormal thriller Darker Than Black Vol. 1 released last week from Funimation.
In this sci-fi reality, a mysterious field appeared on the Japanese horizon ten years prior called ‘Hell’s Gate’. No one has any real idea on what it is, what it is for or why it appeared making information about it a hot commodity. All the Japanese could do was build a giant wall to shield the populace from looking at it. Also around this time new forms of psychics began to appear called Contractors along with passive mediums called Dolls. These psychics have special powers that can range from gravity manipulation to solid matter teleportation and beyond but in order to use these powers they must each individually pay a price that includes the loss of their conscience. This makes them into complete killers who are not afraid to kill anyone for any reason or no reason at all.
The story of Darker Than Black follows a number of different teams that all want to get more information about ‘Hell’s Gate’ for their own various reasons. The first group that the audience meets is the public safety division of the Japanese police force which handles matters concerning contractors and ‘Hell’s Gate’ led by a woman named Chief Kirihara. Next up is a mysterious group of contractors led by a man named Hei who lives undercover as Lei, a student from China.
Telling the story in short story arcs, the first volume of this series completes the first two arcs before closing out to the beginning of the third. In the first story arc, all of the characters are introduced as Hei moves into his new apartment under the guise of Lei the student. While there he meets his neighbor who works as a hostess and helps her get away from attackers one night. That night Hei starts to learn the story of her past and why people are now after her. Continuing his quest for answers, the second story arc focuses on Hei getting close to the daughter of a researcher. The researcher was the sole survivor from the initial team that was sent into ‘Hell’s Gate’ and now his daughter is showing signs of being a contractor herself but her powers are much worse.
In the start of the third story, MI6 agents capture a contractor named Havoc who has killed hundreds if not thousands. The intention is to study her along with the Japanese in order to use her to get more ‘Hell’s Gate’ data. Before this can even happen though leaks in the system allow her to be kidnapped once again.
