In the first season of Darker Then Black there were a ton of questions that slowly but surely were answered about the Black Reaper, the gates, the plethora of agencies all working with and against one another. There was never a point in that season that I even granted myself the smallest inkling that I had somehow figured out who was working for who and why. Season one just kept you guessing and gave you a barrage of characters that felt fleshed out and whose own stories mattered in the whole scheme of the major story arc.

Season Two of the series unfortunately is not as well put together as the first season. We find Black Reaper kind of slumming around working for a new agency but the bulk of the story belongs to a young girl named Suo. Suo was living a somewhat normal life with her father and crippled older brother; her brother had become a contractor during a camping trip when the three of them were hit by a falling meteor. We see a few familiar faces and then everything becomes chaos. Suo finds herself being pursued by a group of unknowns (for the time being), as well as Black Reaper, who eventually ends up saving her and quickly becoming her mentor. It all seemed very familiar to me (see Requiem For The Phantom and or Leon The Professional). In any case as I watched I felt like the season was going somewhere but that it was getting there painfully slow. To tie things off the set not only comes with the 12 original episodes but 4 OVA’s that you shoudl watch before starting the second season.

My copy of Darker Then Black Season 2 is the limited edition version. I was a bit disappointed by the handling of this set design for a couple of reasons. Reason one is that the BD/DVD combo pack comes in a DVD case. Funimation did this with their Escape From Vampire Island release. I preferred when Funimation released their BD/DVD combo’s in a BD case because they fit in well with my other BD’s and the cases are small and more compact. Secondly the limited edition set comes in a box that holds the second season and a cardboard box which your supposed to either discard or display somewhere in exchange for having a spot where you can slot Darker Then Black Season One. This leads me to believe that season one will either never see a BD release, or when it does it will again come in a DVD case. Bulky. Meh! Other then that I have no complaints about the releases look.

QUALITY:
I’m at odds with how the series looks on Blu-Ray. On one hand line definition is incredibly sharp, but color and clarity often times look powdered over. Its not soft but its not like it should be. I guess this all comes down to the animation style, which at times reminded me of Studio Ghibli, but it never really popped to me as much as other anime BD’s that I own. There is no grain or other issues other then that and even that is a matter of opinion. You might find that it looks fantastic. I just can’t see passed the fact that the series isn’t as perfect as I suspect it could be. Audio is fantastic. Explosions are booming, immersion is pretty good (there were a few times when I thought someone was walking around in my house or a phone was ringing somewhere down the hall). Funimation gives the release a very good mix for audio that gives the somewhat draggy season some  liveliness.

BONUS FEATURES:
~DVD Version
~Episode 4 Commentary
~Ova Part One Commentary
~Textless Songs
~Trailers