Movies: Darker Than Black Vol. 4

Consider the two arcs that span disc 4. The first, “Memories of Betrayal in an Amber Smile”, involves a rash of bombings across Tokyo that may well be pinned on Contractor BK201 — our old friend Li. The destruction’s the work of someone who has access to material from within the Forbidden Zone, possibly a British MI6 agent. Li’s underground skulking-about is contrasted with his “above-ground” relationship, sort of, with another Contractor, Maki. The latter is a boy with discolored eyes and a touching need to be something other than a creature in thrall to his own powers and past. The sad truth, as we learn by degrees, is that the only person who might be able to lead him out of that labyrinth is one of his own enemies. In lieu of that, unfortunately, he develops the kind of ambitions that you’d expect from an emotionally-stunted youngster: bad ones. The only other emotional connection he has had is to someone who sort of no longer exists … and more than that would be giving away the game.

© BONES, Tensai Okamura / DTB Committee, MBS
Maki is torn between becoming either a spectacular Contractor or a decent human being.

The second pair of episodes shows off something else I admire about the show: its breadth of influences and ideas. “A Love Song Sung From A Trash Heap” plays almost like a science-fiction retake of material from one of Takashi Miike’s yakuza movies. There, Li crosses paths with a hapless yakuza underling — Kinji Sakurai, all muscle and no real ideas in his head except for ambitions. Kinji “saves” Li from a beating in a nightclub (it’s more like the other way around, really), and the two wind up bonding unexpectedly. Kinji’s going to need all the friends he can get, because not long after that he’s entrusted with a “package”. It’s not drugs or guns — it’s a girl, a “Doll” (see the previous disc for a parallel story about the Doll we’ve seen already, Yin, who also figures into this arc). Li correctly deduces that this is going to be a lot more than Kinji can handle on his own, and is compelled to stick his neck out for the other guy. All of this is pretty prosaic from the outside, but it’s the little touches and human quirks that make it hang together far more effectively — as when we learn Kinji’s boss has a good deal more importance in Kinji’s life than we’ve been led to believe.

Black has so many good things going for it I keep forgetting to enumerate them. It’s complex without being complicated — in the best manner of conventional TV shows like Lost, where things that seemed of minor importance before are resurrected later on and become major turning points. I hoped it would develop like this, even back when it fairly seized me by the throat back in 2007, when it was only available as a fansub. You could have probably heard me screaming from the other side of the continent when the original U.S. licensor, Geneon, had its plug so unceremoniously pulled. Then FUNimation came to the rescue, and now here we are into the second half of the show’s six-disc run.

© BONES, Tensai Okamura / DTB Committee, MBS
Gangster Kinji is entrusted with a package that is far more valuable
than anything his meager experience can prepare him for.

The Bottom Line: All the things that made this show special before are here once again. It has wit and humor and brains, and more than anything else, it’s that rarest of beasts: a genuinely original piece of work from inside out.