Quick Final Thoughts - Darker Than Black and Moyashimon
I’m trying to get my affairs in order so I can crack on with the April season in earnest as it’s looking rather tasty from my corner of the world (more on that another time). So, having finally started to catch up properly on all the shows I started last year and never finished, here’s a couple of very short final thoughts on Darker Than Black and Moyashimon if anyone really cares aside from me.
Darker Than Black
Darker Than Black is a slightly messy series. Although the two-episode “cases” work very well in allowing for a slightly longer story to be told than wrapping everything up in one episode, the consistency of tone has a tendency to suffer on occasion, mostly because of the introduction of the useless detective and his assistant (neither of whose names I can remember, which gives a pretty good indication of what I thought of them). For a series as unreletingly dour as Darker Than Black I can see the need for some comic relief, but I don’t think they were the way to go about it - Mao’s slightly ludicrous reactions and Misaki’s more domestic moments were much more effective at adding a little bit of levity to the proceedings. There’s also the matter of the mildly unsatisfying ending which doesn’t reveal an awful lot about the world of the Contractors, which might leave a sour taste in the mouth for some viewers.
With that said, however, the show is surprisingly well written given that it’s about super-powered spies - the dialogue is well crafted and doesn’t tend to sink into the ridiculous melodrama that characterises a lot of anime shows (for which we love them dearly, of course). To some extent that makes the show come across as clinical, but it adds a bit of realism to such a fantastic premise. In English-language television, the key to making dialogue plausible in a ridiculous setting is “flatter and faster” (consider David Duchovny’s delivery in The X-Files, or everyone in Pushing Daisies, for examples), and I think the same thing is at work here with the tone and delivery of dialogue.
In my case, far from finding the characters clinical I think they were some of the most interesting of 2007. Tensai Okamura has a talent for creating intriguing ensemble casts, and aside from the aforementioned detective duo I don’t think he puts a foot wrong in DtB. Although I wish there’d been waaay more Misaki in the series (how awesome was she?) the Syndicate “quartet” of Hei, Mao, Huang and Yin were compelling central characters, although my second favourite character after Ms Kirihara would no doubt be November 11th.
As usual for Bones the animation is high quality throughout although never particularly astonishing, and although Yoko Kanno’s score is far from her most memorable work it fits the series very well indeed.
Despite a few niggles, then, I think Darker Than Black’s pretty damn good. It would be nice if the forthcoming DVD-only episode wasn’t focused on that bloody detective, though…
Moyashimon
Moyashimon couldn’t be more different from Darker Than Black, and I’m still not quite sure what to make of it. It’s pleasant, occasionally funny, surprisingly well-animated…and totally forgettable.
The anthropomorphic microbes are great, but they’re barely part of the series at all after about the midway point as the show turns into a college slice-of-slightly-bizarre-life comedy with robotic committee members and Kei finding himself dressing up as a gothic lolita. There aren’t really any particularly memorable characters, despite the lengths the show goes to try and make them wacky at times, and there’s nothing that really sticks in the mind other than the microbes themselves.
That’s not to say it’s a bad show by any means; I just don’t think it’s something I’ll ever return to, and I’ll probably forget in a couple of years or so that I ever watched any of it, let alone the complete series (something that happens to me rather more often than I might like!). Ah well, not every anime has to be a life-changing experience, and Moyashimon isn’t one of those.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:11 am
But they’re CUTE anthropomorphic microbes!! LOL but yes, the fact that they were given less importance towards the end was a slight bummer, but Moyashimon was an overall lovable series - memorable for the microbes if nothing else. Also DtB was pretty damned good as you said, though a lot of ppl tend to pass it off as a bundle of ‘wasted potential’. Though the lack of clear explanation for many aspects of the show left us rather lost sometimes, it was still great to revel in the characters and writing in the end.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:45 am
M M, DtB was a nice marathon for me, intriguing and yes, mixed up with some episodes that had weak relations. But like you say about having interesting characters, I think it was a good mix of character and plot drive; even the single focus characters had presence (like the lab doctor lady, Mina maybe).
I had a good feeling for Yin, especial with the development/relation between her and Hei, it had an honest feel to it, something like family. DtB probably could have been a little better, but still an awesome-enjoyable thing.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:45 am
I agree with you about Moyashimon. I loved the microbes but I found myself not caring about the rest of the series or the other characters (which is disappointing because I felt it had a good start). It wasn’t a bad series, but really nothing spectacular.
Of course I still need to watch the last 3 episodes but I doubt my opinion will change much.
I guess the best thing about Moyashimon was the microbe theater.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:55 am
I found DTB quite a bit better than many others as well. I see many calling it nothing but wasted potential, and I agree there is some definitely, but altogether it’s quite a good a series, even if the ending is a bit of a non ending (season 2 maybe? Please?).
The aspect of it that really made me like it was the progressing relationship and camaraderie of the main characters. How they made even a character like Huang who I found despicable at first, to be an indispensable and very likeable member of the cast (That scene with him and Yin in the car towards the end? so perfect). I also loved the supporting cast (the detective duo weren’t my favorites but they didn’t turn me off either).
Also, I thought Kanno’s music was terrifically suited for the series and helped cement many of the scenes from it in my mind. In particular in episode 24 where we see Hei and Yin walking accross the water, just beautiful.
Anyways, not the best series from BONES, but I certainly thought it was very accomplished nonetheless. I guess Okamura’s output at the studio isn’t to everyones taste (Wolf’s Rain isn’t exactly everyones cup of tea either, even if that was Okamura/Nobumoto)