television series created, directed and written by Tensai Okamura and animated by Bones. It

premiered across Japan from April 5, 2007 on MBS, TBS, and its affiliated broadcast

stations, with its satellite television premiere in Japan on Animax in May 2007. The music

for the series is composed by Yoko Kanno. The series has also been adapted into two

manga series, which are serialized in Monthly Asuka and in Young Gangan.

A sequel titled Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor-, Dākā Zan Burakku -Ryūsei

no Jemini-, Darker than Black: Ryūsei no Gemini) premiered in Japan on October 8, 2009.

Plot

Ten years ago, a mysterious spatial anomaly known as "Heaven's Gate" appeared in South

America, shortly followed by the opening of "Hell's Gate" in Tokyo altering the sky and

wreaking havoc on the landscape. The real stars disappeared, replaced by false stars.

During this time, people possessing various special abilities emerged, each capable of

different supernatural feats - these are known as Contractors. Each Contractor has a corresponding

fake star, which reacts to their activities. As such, Contractors are usually identified

by their star's Messier catalogue number. Kept secret from the masses, these individuals

are known to murder in cold blood, smothering unnecessary emotions with logic and rationality.

Their incredible abilities, however, are gained at the cost of their humanity - Contractors

are thus named because of an involuntary compulsion to "pay the price" each time their power is

used, which can range from eating particular foods and completing meaningless tasks, to

self-harm and changing their bodies in peculiar ways. Various nations and organizations around

the world train and utilize Contractors as spies and assassins, resulting in violent

battles for valuable objects and information. Following the disastrous Heaven's War, the

United States lost its dominant position as a superpower to a mysterious organization

named the Syndicate. The story revolves around a Chinese contractor codenamed "Hei" as he

undertakes various espionage and assassination missions in Tokyo under the direction of the

aforementioned Syndicate. Media

Anime Season one

Darker than Black was conceptualized by Tensai Okamura and produced by Bones and Aniplex.

The series premiered on Tokyo Broadcasting System and Mainichi Broadcasting System's

Thursday late night anime broadcasting timeslot, replacing the Sunrise series Code Geass: Lelouch

of the Rebellion on April 5, 2007, and similar to Code Geass incorporated corporate sponsorship

of Japan News Network partners Pizza Hut and Nifty, where episodes of the series was streamed

every week during the series' broadcast run. It completed its initial run on September

27, 2007, and received its broadcasting satellite premiere on Animax from May 8, 2007 to October

23, 2007. The series was also aired in English on Animax Asia, Animax's English language

networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia from December 2008 onwards. The series made

its North American television debut when it started airing on the Funimation Channel September

6, 2010. The series has been released in Japan by Aniplex

across nine DVDs, each containing three episodes, except for the first DVD, which had only two.

The ninth and final DVD included an original video animation, which expanded upon the romantic

relationships between characters. The DVDs were released between July 25, 2007 and March

26, 2008 by Aniplex. FUNimation received the license for the series in Region 1 and has

released one DVD compilation with two more coming in the future. The first English DVD

was released on November 25, 2008 and the second and third DVDs were released on January

20, 2009 and March 10, 2009 respectively. Volume 4 was released on May 5, 2009 with

Volume 5 released on June 23, 2009. Volume 6 was released on August 11, 2009 and is now

available. In May 2010, Funimation released the entire first season in a complete box

set; it was originally released in March, but was recalled due to a defective disk.

The Blu-ray Box was released in Japan on September 30, 2009 with a guidebook with several unreleased

music tracks not available in the OSTs. Season two

A document containing information about Bones staff and production details, was leaked onto

the Japanese filesharing site uploader.jp, within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format,

on July 2008. Among other details, including confidential contact information in regards

to Bones staff members, it revealed that a second Darker than Black and Fullmetal Alchemist

series was in production and were being directed by Tensai Okamura and Yasuhiro Irie respectively.

This information regarding Fullmetal Alchemist, which had never been previously released,

was later proven to be true on January 2009. In an official statement posted on Bones'

official website, co-founder and president Masahiko Minami claimed that the document

was not released by the studio themselves but by an unnamed third-party. In a later

statement, Minami also stated in regards to the two new series, "It hasn't been decided

yet. We are interested in doing them. As original science-fiction works, they were extremely

fascinating. With these kinds of dramatic story lines, I feel that there's a lot we

could do potentially." Six months later, however, the second series for Fullmetal Alchemist

was confirmed to be in production with Yasuhiro Irie as director, thus confirming the document's

validity. The second Darker than Black series was confirmed in the 12th issue of Square

Enix's Young Gangan Magazine. In the 14th issue of Young Gangan, the title was revealed

as Darker than Black: Ryūsei no Gemini. The sequel began airing in October 2009 and ended

in December 2009. At Anime Expo 2010, Funimation Entertainment announced that they had licensed

the second season. OVA

These OVAs, also known as Darker than Black: Gaiden, are set in the time between the two

series. Hei and Yin have left Tokyo and are on the run from the Syndicate. In the first

episode, conflict ensues in Okinawa, where the agents from the Syndicate attempt to abduct

Yin but are eventually unsuccessful. Hei and Yin then leave for Hong Kong. There are 4

OVAs in total, filling the gap with Hei and Yin left between season 1 and 2.

Manga A manga, illustrated by Nokiya, was serialized

in Monthly Asuka. Kadokawa Shoten released the series to two tankōbon on August 8, 2007

and January 26, 2008 respectively. The series has been licensed for a North American release

by Yen Press. A second manga, illustrated by Yuji Iwahara, the original character designer

for the anime, finished serializing in Square Enix's Young Gangan seinen magazine under

the title Darker than Black: Shikkoku no Hana in March 2011. This is a separate one from

the first and it is a new story taking place one year after the events of the anime.

Music The original soundtrack was composed by Yoko

Kanno in 2007 and contains a total of 20 tracks including the first opening and ending themes

performed by Abingdon boys school and Rie fu. Other non-instrumental songs were written

by Tim Jensen and performed by Mai Yamane and James Wendt. It peaked at number 57 on

the Oricon albums chart. Reception

The anime also was awarded Best Original Anime of The Year by GoGoplex, a popular magazine

for teens. In the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival, it was one of the jury's recommendations from

the category "Animation Division/Long Animation." References

External links

Official homepage Official homepage

Animax's official homepage Darker than Black at Anime News Network's

encyclopedia