Darker Than Black – Episode 13&14
10 July 2007
Alright, quite simply, I’m short on time and I don’t remember things too well. I saw Darker Than Black 13 and 14 last night, I’ve been too distracted by Death Note. I took some screens, made some mental notes and failed to get back to this, so now I remember, basically nothing. These two summaries are going to suck, you’ve been warned. I just needed to get this out there, so much random stuff to talk about regarding this arc.
To the episodes! The double feature, since I saw them together and not to mention they go together as in, Episode 13 and 14!
Episode 13!
The super short, fly by, summary: Yin’s a piano player, she’s quite good despite being blind. She has a teacher, and a mother. She likes the moon light. There’s been people trying to infiltrate the syndicate. Huang calls Yin useless because she couldn’t help them.
Enter Berta and Itzhak, the former’s contract being an ability to shatter things with her voice, the latter an ability to control ghosts. He temporarily short fuses Yin, she goes wandering around town. Meanwhile, Yin’s piano teacher, Kastinen, goes to Kurosawa Gai (the private eye from a couple episodes ago), hires him and Kiko to find Yin. They go out on a search. Yin’s attracted to a piano player rehearsing for an outdoor concert, anime obsessed Kiko finds her and takes her to lunch. Kiko pushes up the corners of Yin’s mouth into a smile and tells her she’d be cute if she smiles. While Kiko goes to get Gai, since she found Yin, Yin runs off , attracted to Itzhak’s contract powers. He almost captures her, enters Mao, who jumps on his head and temporarily disables him. Hei grabs Itzhak is a choke hold, Berta uses her contract, destroys a construction site. The whole thing comes crashing down, Yin’s about to get crushed. Hei jumps in and saves her. In a really cute moment, he’s on top of her and tells her to run away and then he, himself, runs away. Kastinen finds Yin, Kirchie.
Sometime later, Huang tells Hei that he has to kill Yin. Mao argues that it’d be bad to separate the group. Hei says he doesn’t really care, whatever happens, happens.
Kirchie, Kastinen, Gai and Kiko are on a train, heading for Onsen, escaping to a faraway place. Kastinen asks if Kirchie wants to go back with him, she refuses.
The Preview, no point really in the preview. The next episode is just down there!
Episode 14!
Starts with a fire on a mountain, site of a plane crash, a phone rings. Kirchie’s father died in a plane crash. Her mother’s devastated. Mao and Hei are still on the look out for Yin.
Kirchie and Kastinen leaves Gai and Kiko on the train, running through the rain they find an abandoned school house. There’s a furnace and a piano and Kirchie begins to play.
Flashback, Kastinen and Kirchie’s mother sitting on a couch, intimate moment. Kirchie, sensing this interaction between her teacher and her mothers, runs away. She dashes out onto a highway, her mother behind her, Kastinen as well. A truck, headlights blazing is headed straight for Kirchie, at the last moment, her mothers pushes away and jumps in front of the truck, saving her daughter by sacrificing herself. Back to the present, in the school house, Kirchie says that it’s her fault her mother died. Kastinen tells her not to feel guilty, that at the time there was nothing between her mother and him (liar) and that he understood why she doesn’t want to return to her country, all of those bad memories.
Side note regarding Berta and Itzhak (because my memory is so muddled): Berta, before being a contractor, was a heavy smoker and a bad opera singer. She had a baby, cutest thing in the world. Unfortunately, she shoved a cigarette down its throat and realized too late what she did. She connects the lines of an aria regarding moonlight and atonement to this, Itzhak follows up by saying that maybe the moon’s disappearance is a sign of eternal atonement.
Meanwhile, upon receiving his orders from the syndicate regarding the whereabouts of Yin, Hei sets out. He takes the train, heads for the school house, runs into Gai who’s following Kastinen and Yin. Gai recognizes him from the construction site, accuses Hei of being his stalker. Persistent in his accusations, Hei finds no other choice than to temporarily incapacitate him, leaving him on the side of the road. Yin and Kastinen hear Hei arrive in the school house. Kastinen, with a stick of wood, confronts Hei. Hei asks why he took Yin, Yin emerges from the room and says that she did it by herself. Kastinen asks if Hei is her comrade, and to Yin’s surprise, he replies yes.
Before anything else happens, Berta knocks down the entire school house. Hei charges at Berta, before he reaches her, using her contract she stops his heart. However, Hei being able to manipulate electricity at will, gives his heart a jolt and is able to strangle Berta with his signature knife and wire and electrocutes her. Itzhak is about to make a move, but then Huang, with a sniper shoots him. The ghosts that Itzhak has been collecting are set free. The silvery light they give off reminds Yin of moonlight and she cries. This visibly shocks Hei and Huang, who, after seeing this, changes his mind about shooting her.
Later, Huang is eating somewhere, he’s joined by a member of the syndicate who offers to reset Yin. However, Huang, contrary to his attitude earlier, differs and says that he’s gotten use to working with her. The member reminds Huang not to let his emotions get the better of him. Huang pays and leaves, scoffing at the idea of him even having emotions. Amber, in her cap and hoodie, brushes by.
Yin’s returned to her position in the tobacco store. She remembers what happened with Kastinen and Hei. Kastinen wants her to go back with him, Hei’s also there. Yin’s unsure of what she wants to do, she asks. Hei tells her to decide. For the first she’s given the ability to choose. Kastinen persists, calling her Kirchie. This time, she puts a finger to his lips, shakes her head and tell him it’s Yin. And no, she’s not going back. Somewhat stunned, Kastinen does not give up. Hei walks over, shocks him and asks Yin if this is really what she wants. Yin, remembering lunch with Kiko and her friend, tries to smile but only manages odd twitches. In the end, she resorts to pushing up a corner of her lips with her finger.
Preview! Amber! November 11! More secrets revealed! I’ve never, for the past 14 episodes, been able to make sense of their previews. I just don’t get them! In any case, the title is a big giveaway. Amber, betrayal? What did she do?
Impressions All I can really say is that I liked this arc. The animation, the music, the story, a total knockout. It was gorgeous. Everything…worked!
When I saw the preview from episode 12, I wasn’t too sure how I’d feel about this. The fact that Darker Than Black plays itself out in arcs makes the it feel somewhat disconnected. There are some arcs that I really enjoyed (this one for example, the one with Havoc, the first one), some that were alright (the first Gai Kurosawa, the Misaki arc, the wall arc), and some were just completely forgettable until you look them up on Wiki (the Tahara arc.)
What I found so attractive about Darker Than Black (besides Hei) was the quality of the animation and story. Ever since the first arc, I’ve been hooked. It’s borderline addiction, because it was good. It was good. It was damn captivating. The story was interesting, it was original (to a degree) and all the loose plot points and the mysterious quality it had to it. Anyways, I digress, this arc was good.
Yin, who I thought was left out too much these past few arcs, pops up momentarily at the end of episode 12. After helping out Hei at the end of 12, their relationship developed and evolved, was elevated to a higher level? Remember, way back in the beginning, where Yin grabbed Hei’s hand and he jerked away? That always struck me as a strange moment. Strange because I couldn’t quite place the reason she reached out and was pretty certain of the reason why he jerked away. At the end of 12, where sitting in the center of crater, with the meteor fragment, seeing Yin’s ghost, seeing Yin be there for him, changed Hei’s perception of his ‘comrade’. Another interesting note, he called her his ‘comrade’ despite openly saying he didn’t care to Huang and Mao.
Anyways, the point being, there’s something nice going on between the two and I’d like to see it continue. It gives me a nice, happy, gleeful almost, feeling watching this episode. Even Berta and Itzhak gave me a nice feeling. At the beginning of 13, when Berta enters, that reminded me so much of the Triplets of Bellville, it was so nostalgic. Berta and Itzhak hit a nice spot as ‘enemy’ contractors. The fact that Itzhak wrote poetry as his renumeration was also a bit strange. There was a different air surrounding the two that I found rather pleasant. A feeling of remorse, regret, a melancholy that set in and that I felt very sympathetic towards.
I can keep blabbing forever and it’d go back to the same point, this arc was so damn nice! If you refer to my “Death Note” post before, it fits perfectly the bittersweet, sentimental, “happily ever after” with enough room for future musings criteria.
As for the next arc, I’m a bit shaky. I mean, I’m not really looking forward to Amber. Main reason? Honestly? I don’t want to see her with Hei! Blah! She’s the girl in the opening that, evidently, bends down and kisses him. I don’t like her…I haven’t even see her speak and I just have the feeling that I’m going to hate her. Alright, generally dislike her. I have the odd feeling that she betrayed Hei in the past, some connection with his sister. Her smile bothers me, it just does. It’s almost, going on the betrayal thing, “I betrayed you! Ha! I smile about it!”
I hope to dear God I’m wrong about this.