Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor ep.02-03

Why do character designers think -_- is a good facial expression to represent evil and/ or insanity?

Darker then Black: Gemini of the Meteor (originally sub-titled "Sagitarius of the Quasar" and then "Capricorn of the Cepheid Variable") continues to intrigue with these two episodes.





In a way, I can't really pin down what I find so appealing about this series. It's committing all the textbook anime cliches that usually drive me up the wall, but there's something about the core story that seems to stand out from the pack. I said before that Suou didn't feel like your usual anime heroine, and that thankfully continues to hold true. Her evolving relationship with Hei has taken on a Leon-and-Matilda-esque quality that you don't often see coming out of Japan (the obvious exception notwithstanding). Suou going out of her gourd from witnessing the violence of the contractor battles isn't annoying even though it follows the usually hackneyd Shinji Ikari formula, ie "stare in horror at scene of carnage and then scream loudly". Hell, even the scene where Suou becomes a contractor didn't feel cliched (I think this is the first series I've ever seen where I didn't guess the main character was going to gain access to supernatural abilities in the first five minutes).

I like this guy.

Unfortunately any time the series stops focusing on the core cast in Russia the writing skips merrily off to cliche-land, including the use of the phrase "awakening" by observers to describe a character gaining superpowers, which in my opinion is the only crime that should warrant the death penalty. Throughout all three episodes I've watched so far we get frequent cut-aways to seemingly random characters awkwardly spouting expository dialogue. I have no idea who any of these people are or what purpose they have in the plot. All of these exchanges except one are completely superfluous and add nothing to the story, so why not just save them until the characters are actually ready to do something interesting?

Who are you and why should I care?

The business model of the Seamstress's Guild in one sentence

Also, to comment again on Suou becoming a contractor- producing guns from thin air is a cool ability, but the whole sequence was way too similar to a magical girl transformation. Did we really need the sparkly pendant and pink glowing flower petals?

 Not pictured: unnessecary nudity

A related issue is Suou's character design. Maybe this is just because I left a gap between the first episode and these, but in the last two episodes she looks like a ten year old instead of the teenager she's obviously supposed to be, which is jarring when you compare her to Tanya and that guy who gets eaten by bugs at the end of the third episode.

I was trying to come up with a "In Soviet Russia [noun] [verb]s you!" joke, I couldn't think of

anything so I'll just comment on the stupidity of Tanya wearing a Davy Crockett hat into battle