The DTB OVA Preview (Is Crazy)
The Darker than Black OVA three minute preview is crazy.
Although it doesn’t give everything away I’m pretty sure it’s going to start answering the questions I actually want to ask. What happened to Hei and Yin after the gate incident? Why did the syndicate fall in power?
How can Hei use his powers to win awesome looking contractor fights?
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Did Yin ever develop a personality?
Does that girl look an awful lot like Amber to you (and is she holding/eating a primrose?)?
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Is Hei a liar (Is this Higurashi)?
What’s up with their somewhat awkward relationship?
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Is Bones going to take a page out of Lucky Star and have a bug crawl out of that shell?
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Is Hei a pretty lucky guy?
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As you can see the questions are abundant. I’m actually just covering it because Yin got more screen time and more lines in this preview than she has so far had in the entire second season (discounting the incredibly ambiguous previews for the next episode). Plus there were a lot of good screen shots.
At least it looks like we’ll finally get to see Hei and Yin’s relationship… To me it always looked like Hei treated Yin like a little sister, but I’m sure you will disagree with me and feel free too. I’m excited for December.
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Awww… that’s sad you’re not a YinXHei shipper? I love them. It’s weird I was just about to send you the link for this on youtube and I click on your website and I see that you already made a post. Shoot!
It’s not necessarily that I’m not on the HeiXYin boat, I just think Hei and Yin need each other for entirely different reasons. Boyfriends and Girlfriends are great, but I think Yin and Hei both need a good friend more than anything else. Someone who is there for them unconditionally. They both obviously have incredibly tough lives, I think turning it into more than that would just complicate both their situations and turn into, well turn into what we’re seeing in Season 2 ;-).
I know Yin loves Hei, but I don’t really think it’s romantic love. I don’t think Hei feels that way either. I actually just see a lot more chemistry between him and Amber or even Misaki before Yin. Will Misaki ever be as close to Hei as Yin is, probably not, but who can say.
Thanks for keeping me updated though, I would hate to miss new things from Darker Than Black.
Also I think their relationship was hinted at being romantic because of Amber’s word’s and because of the official pictures for the DTB 2nd season which screams HeixYin to me. Also episodes 17 and 18 that starred yakuza guy and the doll he was in love with. I think that was meant to prove doll’s do have feelings and that you can be in relationship with one of them. I thought you shipped them because I read in one of your posts “I guess I would be happy with 24 episodes of Hei and Yin getting married” Oh well you like what you like. C YA!
Please disregard that post! You replied before I could finish. Grr…You type too fast. :lol:
You caught me, I did write that. I think that comment was more aimed at I would just like more episodes with Hei and Yin in them :x . Plus I wanted both of them to experience some happiness (as in the syndicate isn’t chasing them down). The way they took the series, however, prompts me to hope for other scenarios. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing if their relationship was romantic, I’m just not sure if I believe Hei thinks of her in that way… You point at good evidence too though. I guess we’ll see.
yeah. Hei looked so peaeful in the OVA when they were on the beach. Hei deserves a break and some peace. They both do. I hope they have at least a semi-happy ending. I would cry if either of them died.
Agreed on them dieing. That’s why season 2 makes me so nervous, it sure looks like we’re heading down a bad path for her…
yeah. I’m kinda nervous too. I’d hate to see her gone. :cry: She’s really pretty too. I didn’t just notice that but after re-watching the OVA I really noticed how pretty she is. Do dolls ever mature physically I mean? Yin looks the same before so I’m wondering how old she is and will she ever age? My friend likes YinxHei but doesn’t like the way Yin looks because Yin looks really young and skinny so my friend kinnda thinks Hei is a pedophile. Don’t worry ;-) I hit him for insulting Yin and Hei.
Lol. I actually read that in the first season Yin was 17 and Hei was 22. Your friend is pretty close to being right :). I’m pretty sure Doll’s do develop physically, they just lose their personality. Truthfully, in this she looked a lot more mature to me. Maybe it’s the hat, it’s the kind of thing you see house wives in anime wear.
In the first season she does look young but I think it was the way they dressed her up. They wanted to make her look particularly childish to drive home the fact that she was a doll which we normally associate with those kind of outfits. In other words it’s what other people chose for her to wear instead of her taking chances like most girls do with different clothing. It’s the same way you would treat a young daughter, hence childishness. Along those same lines she wore a lot more clothing I would like to point out that she covered the shoulders which is something they make you do in my old highschool. The lack of skin makes her look more innocent.
In this OVA we see her wearing clothing that a normal girl would pick for herself. It makes her into an independent being, hence maturity.
She is really pretty :).
You responses are amazing as always :grin: I didn’t know Yin was that old but now that I use my common sense it makes more sense that she’s close to being an adult. I can’t believe she’s my age! Out of curiosity Dustin how old are you?
20, close to 21 and in college.
Excellent analysis,
Although I’d say that Bones is fairly infamous for creating misleading promotional material about upcoming shows, so things probably are not as they seem.
I’d agree with you about Yin and Hei’s relationship, she always struck me as something of a ‘surrogate Pai’ so to speak.
As someone who has been a little disappointed with season 2 so far I’m really looking forward to this, would it be bad of me to say that(judging from this short preview at least)this is looking like what season 2 should have been?
Haha, well said. Yeah I was hoping we would get something like this for season 2. I don’t think it’s bad of you to say that at all. I think just about everyone watching Season 2 has been a bit underwhelmed. Bones tried something different and it didn’t exactly work out for them. Oh well, hopefully the OVA will be good and hopefully season 2 will start picking up some real momentum.
We live in hope as you say, I’ll certainly see the season through to the end regardless.
I forgot to mention that I really hope that it is Amber in the preview, she was one of my favorite characters.
One possible explanation is that it’s a ‘younger’ Amber, she did say in the first season that she’d traveled throughout time. Perhaps this is her first meeting with Hei.
Absolutely, I definitely take that possibility into consideration. Who knows how she spent her life since we don’t know how old she was before she started forcibly causing herself to get younger. She looked like she was in her thirties when she was in South America and this is after her powers had already been manifest for awhile.
Amber was absolutely one of my favorite characters from the first season. She was so tragic. She loved Hei and he hated her right up until the end. She gave up everything for him. The preview made it look like the contractor he was facing was using some kind of body manipulation control to force Hei to stab himself which isn’t Amber’s power. I hope however that this is just a misleading preview like you said Bones is known for.
It seems we are of one mind on this.
I found the mysterious history between Hei and Amber very compelling, I really love all the subtle hints of a once intimate yet now ruined relationship that are creeping around throughout the series. It’s a good representation of the series as a whole I feel. Broken people coming to terms with themselves and their broken world.
Though its probably pretty unlikely, I hope the OVA explores what happened between Hei and Amber a little.
From the first season I gathered that Amber really liked Hei although nothing actually happened besides her falling head over heals for him. Then Amber and Pai found out about the syndicate’s plan to destroy all contractors and put the South American plan in motion before it was too late. Pai disappeared along with the gate and Amber disappeared as well. Having lost his sister and suddenly manifesting contractor powers Hei didn’t know what to do so he continued working for the syndicate. He finds out Amber is still alive and the syndicate (knowing that Amber was the cause of the South American gate incident) told Hei that she was a traitor and other not so flattering things. Hei feels betrayed thus when Amber’s name is mentioned again he rushes off after her in a fit of rage.
From the flashbacks you definitely get they had a sort of partnership and he probably thought of her like he would think of Huang or Mao later in the series. Thus the betrayal was all the worse. Amber however, having left the syndicate couldn’t be entirely sure how Hei felt about her hence her dark look right after he slaps her at their reunion. I’d get a little angry myself.
We also know that she never told him anything because she didn’t want him on her side yet (they syndicate trying to kill him off).
That’s my take on their relationship. It would be fun to see them interacting more, but wouldn’t it be like watching the Evangelion movies and seeing Asuka and Shinji getting along. You really hope that they can be happy this time around, but you know it just won’t be.
Who knows though, it’s mostly speculation at this point. Thanks for the comments I really enjoy discussing this stuff.
No thanks necessary, I enjoy it myself :smile:
I’ll explain my position a bit just for fun.
(Unfortunately I can’t take credit for these observations, I convinced a friend of mine who happens to study film to watch the series through and he picked up loads of little details and ‘Mise-en-scène’ on his first viewing that I’d hadn’t noticed even on my third.)
I’ll try to avoid a wall of text here.
- The whole “Lets run away together” line Amber says in the first flashback isn’t really something you’d just up and say to an unrequited crush.
-Hei kept the charm Amber gave him in the flashback for all those years, despite his anger towards her.
-Whenever they meet in the present, Hei is either not wearing his mask or its damaged so that his eyes are visible.(Implication being that Hei is hiding his real self behind the ‘black reaper’ persona – his mask. However he can’t hide from Amber, who knows him too well.
-Hei’s line to Amber in episode 22: “Do I have anything left for you to steal!?” implies a deeply personal sort of betrayal.
-The way Hei talks about betrayal and how contractors are ‘liars and traitors’ throughout the series all seem to suggest that he has experienced such a betrayal and its wounded him deeply.(The best one is when he’s talking to Misaki in the toilet, watch how he drops the Li act for a moment “You were betrayed, poor thing.”)
-In the finale the nature of Hei’s ‘dreamscape’ is telling. It’s established in an earlier episode that Heis power combined with the meteor shard inside the gate is effectively able to make the users dreams into a reality (Nick is able to take his disabled sister into space). In Hei’s dream made real he is reunited with his sister, is able to see the real stars, all the people he’s killed/manipulated/lost throughout the series are back and Amber is there as an adult again, just as she was when they knew each other in South America (ie she is there because he wants her there deep down).
All this being said, the show intentionally left things fairly ambiguous and one can interpret many of these things in a number of ways, which I consider one of the shows strengths.
Enjoyable to discuss though as you say.
Wow! Just wow!
I’m blown away.
First off noticing the absence and destruction of the mask is just top stuff. I think the second time I watched the series I did assume the line to Misaki in the bathroom was definitely about Amber and of course the betrayal was deeply personal. I, as stated before, had assumed that they had a bond of incredible friendship, but maybe it was something more.
I’d like to point out that in the “Let’s Run away together line” Amber specifically also includes Pai. Although this could still be romantic normally you wouldn’t include the person’s sister. This instead implies to me that their relationship was deep as mentioned but not necessarily romantic. In the monologue with little kid Amber and later when Pai speaks (in the weird scene changing monologue) section it’s mentioned how much Hei hated killing. In fact they probably all hated South America. It just seemed like a brutal place a place they all wanted to escape from. Thus when the line is spoken it’s not as you said just in passing it was said to people who have literally experienced hell together. There are many examples of such stories, but ultimately it’s a plea for a different life, an escape from the terrible life their living. When Amber says it to Hei both her and Pai know he’s been suffering by protecting his sister. She nonchalantly offers to save him. Which I must say is something very Amber like. Thus I still hold that it’s possible Hei thinks of her as simply a comrade if not an incredibly close comrade that he would have trusted with his life. In other words Amber his best friend betrayed him and told him nothing. I think I would feel just as much hate to my best friend, yet I wouldn’t get rid of something that friend gave me.
Do I have anything left for you to steal!? is perhaps the greatest proof for a romantic relationship while also the best proof against it. On the romantic side we’re given to thinking that she stole his heart, but from everything else I don’t think this is the case. I think he is clearly talking about his sister and his trust: Especially considering that Amber is the one person he trusted his sister with.
Last in the flashback scene where she asks to run away she also asks for his knife to cut bread. The way Hei reacts to her in that scene does not indicate that of a lover. He’s clearly keeping some distance and handing her the knife is more of a scene I would associate with a band of brothers type scenario. We know Amber loved Hei, but once again I’m not sure if it was the other way around. My last peace of evidence for this is the kisses. Both were initiated by Amber and the first one we can clearly see the look of longing in her eyes. This wasn’t the look of someone who had gotten what she wanted.
The last kiss was also initiated by her and Hei looks genuinely surprised. She was taking the kiss as her one solace knowing that she would send him back and they would never be together. Her one selfish act in the entire series.
Along the same lines I also think it’s important to note that though Amber always harbored romantic feelings for him, Hei even after discovering Amber hadn’t betrayed him still put the concerns of the city before her. I think the only time I saw Amber frustrated was at this moment. She finally can tell him she loves him and that she’s done so much for him and she’s not the one he’s thinking about. Also in the end he doesn’t choose her, he chooses everyone else. Hei wasn’t in love with Amber.
I loved what you said about Nick’s dream sequence and later Hei’s. There is only one thing that bothers me. When Hei first arrives and looks at the stars he says something along the lines of “This isn’t what I wanted” while for Nick it clearly was what he wanted. I think instead of saying that it’s necessarily Hei’s dream it is literally “What he lost” and he’s finding it behind the gate. The people there as you mentioned were all the people he lost, including Amber and the real stars. By seeing them again he is able to reclaim a part of himself. The part of himself that lives in both worlds.
Just wow again! Your friend is pretty awesome too, but I think I have a much less ambiguous take of the ending.
Good stuff.
I should have just written a post as a response XP.
Heh, I’m glad you enjoyed reading it, although as I mentioned I can’t take credit as most of it as it was pointed out to me.
You make some convincing points yourself though, which brings me to the ambiguity as I don’t think I explained very well.
What I mean by ambiguous is that one does not need to prescribe to a particular view of exactly what happened between Hei and Amber in South America to ‘get’ the show as it were. The precise nature of the ‘history’ between them is never explicitly revealed. But from a narrative standpoint it doesn’t need to be, the important themes of trust, betrayal and reconciliation with a bittersweet twist are established regardless and in keeping with the ‘show don’t tell’ style of exposition used throughout the show.
I enjoy that sort of writing because it adds a layer of mystique and credibility to the characters and the setting that wouldn’t otherwise be there (although unfortunately it often doesn’t garner commercial success as many prefer a clean cut resolution with clear explanations).
I’m gonna shut up now, as I’m so damn sleepy that my comments are starting to become incoherent. :|
Actually I’ll say one more thing:
What we need is a prequel OVA that shows the appearance of the gates, the emergence of contractors and dolls and the war in South America up to the destruction of Heaven’s Gate.
That would be awesome.
What are you talking about. Incoherence? That was pretty darn coherent and well put.
You’re right of course, you can infer a lot from what they give us, but ultimately you can’t know for certain because they’re trying to give a story where everything doesn’t need to be made explicit. You’re right the relationship between Amber and Hei was deep regardless and the themes came through. I just thought it added a layer of tragedy to Amber’s character having her love never realized with the one she loved.
Notice how we’re not talking about anything in the second season (and that’s just sad). Have a good night!
and yes it would be!
Hell yeah. I was rather amazed at this PV, and can’t wait for what turns up next. Either way, epic discussion in the comments here–I can’t really look through it further for fear of DtB2 spoilers (yet to get my monitor back, ugh, and I’m sure as hell not watching the new season on this crappy monitor), but it’s heartening to see that there’s many other fans out there who still remember how awesome the first season was.
Oh Wow!! It’s Owen!! You’re like a personal hero man. Your posts on the first season of Darker than Black awed and inspired me.
Regardless (clears his throat to throw off the awkwardness) I think these comments are pretty safe. This discussion was pretty much reserved to the first season and somewhat to the PV. I’ve actually been waiting for you to post something about this season but I guess a lack of monitor would do it.
Thanks for reading and I hope I get to hear your take on the second season (and PV) really soon.