Anime: Darker Than Black （黒の契約者）Episodes: 25 +a special on the DVD release
My rating: 3 out of 5
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The premise for this anime sounded really interesting at first, but it turned out not to deliver. Basically, it is about contractors who each have a special power. They must pay a price （対価）for using their powers like smoking cigarettes, eating dandelions, or sucking children's blood. Contractors are supposed to be very logical and cruel. The main character, codename BK201, is known as the Black Reaper (黒の死神), and he is supposed to be the cruelest of them all. However, the Contractors are not all that logical, and BK201 is hardly cruel. There is not very much direction to this anime because it is organized as two-parters. One time they'll be talking about BK201's sister and then completely forget it for the next few episodes. Some short plot lines are completely forgotten when the writers figure out that they only have the space of three episodes left.
I was hoping to see BK201 be really cruel and have a past that earned him the name of the Black Reaper. His power was not all that interesting, either.
The art is really nice though. It's the newer style with the clean lines and softer colors like in the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱). The most promising part was the intro song, "HOWLING" by abingdon boys school (eps 1-14), and the lines in the beginning of that song, "I know I've lost it. I know I can kill. The truth is just beyond the gates."
