a_sad_cow Every time I watch this, I want to add another star. It's a shame it stops at 10. There's so many layers of genius on this, I don't know where to start. The characters are so varied, yet I can identify with each of them. As different from our world as this one is, it's crazily so similar, and the reasons why are so brilliant and logical. For instance, if we lost our ability to see the stars, how many normal people would actually care? It's cutting, how deep that simple point hits.The only bad part for this entire series is how quickly it ends. This needs 10 seasons, and it gets 2.5. I just keep rewatching instead of going to something of lesser quality. Help.

tracylitl This anime is amazing. Darker than black is a neo-noir esque, action-packed thriller about a world where super beings exist, known as "contractors," and the many organizations they belong too, some notably being the CIA, MI6 and Japanese government. The first few episodes don't immediately draw you in, however the tension and plot builds up slowly to introduce the setting. Sometimes it can get confusing, and I had to pause to google terminology due to the fact that not everything is explained fully. However, the animation is clean & simple and the soundtrack is jazzy. What I enjoyed the most about this series is how interesting the main character is. Hei is a powerful contractor working for a secret organization. His daytime identity is Li Shengshun, a Chinese exchange student. What's interesting about him is that although he is extremely bad-ass, he is also has an emotional side unlike most contractors and can make mistakes. He's not super-powered like some anime protagonists. This anime is not completely centered on Hei, but more on the different organizations and groups and how they interact. Which also gives him an air of mystery, as we do not know what he is doing. Overall, the anime is great, dark in tone and has a great plot. It's set of characters are very three dimensional (it's nice to have female characters that have actual personalities for once). The story doesn't focus on romance nor sexuality, but more on awesome fighting scenes and its mysterious plot. 10/10

Zubacz This anime series has a brilliant premise, interesting characters, great animation, music and sound effects, engaging action scenes and well written dialogue. It would seem that those would constitute a great anime show. Well, Darker than Black is good but it could have been a lot better, if one thing wasn't missing: Character development. With the exception of episode 13 and 14 (the best ones, in my opinion) where we see a subtle, yet clear enlightenment of the side character Yin, there is very little character development in this series. The great titles like Death Note, Elfen Lied, Time of Eve or even the lighthearted Black Lagoon, always feature an emotional arc of one or more characters. They learn, they react, they change their attitude or moral stance because of the circumstances. We root for the characters, we empathise with them and we get closure when their character arc completes. This is missing in Darker than Black. The main character is conflicted but his attitude and behaviour stays almost constant throughout.If not for the above, this would have been an outstanding series. As it is, it's still worth watching, but don't expect the thoughtful and emotional involvement that the best anime give.

Techno Sleuth I ran across this by chance and was immediately hooked. Its starts out slowly developing the characters, plot and slowly introducing backgroundThis is an adequate amount of action, humor and a bit of childishness, which may be possibly Japanese culture humor?In any case, the choreography of the fight scenes, the character development, the background, the pretense each characters flaws, etc are spot on in my opinion.I won't go into much detail in regards to the series, suffice to say there is a good deal of fighting, dying and blood letting. The premise is that some cataclysmic event caused the whole scenario to start....present day Japan is the timeline basically..Humans-Contractors-Dolls, those are the three classes of society, whilst the first class, humans, is not supposed to really know the contractors and dolls exist. I suggest buying all the series, getting a lot of popcorn..and watch them all back to back,then wonder why in the heck did they not make more episodes???