Nothing Matters, but Knowing Nothing Matters(DTB Season 2 Episodes 7 + 8)
I think I’ll understand a lot more when Season 2 has finished airing and I’m able to go back and marathon the whole thing. I feel like there’s a lot to say about these two episodes and the characters they introduced but Bones might have bitten off a little more than they can chew when they drafted the script. Both episodes felt rushed in terms of character development time and Tanya’s death kind of blindsided me.
Episode Seven is comparable to Yin’s arc in the first season only this time it’s about July. Unfortunately purchase cheap pills we didn’t have luxury of looking into his past while telling his story. We had to introduce the serial killer contractor while setting up things that will happen later in the series (Suou’s dad is still alive and such). All in all it was distracting from the characters we wanted to explore. Thus when we finally do get to talk to the serial killer he has to come right out and tell us exactly what he is instead of him being allowed to show us (which is what Darker order cheap tabs Than Black does more brilliantly than any other show). Is it any wonder that in the first season they never once say Yin is blind yet we still all know this to be the case?
Still what they did give us was an interesting dissection of their world to say the least. I’m beginning to form the opinion that forming the contract could be seen as a traumatic event or a strong personality taking hold of the contractor. As has been noted in other places typically when a strong personality meets a weak personality the strong personality tends to overcome the weaker one. This is similar to someone who’s lived a carefree life suddenly being faced with an incredible crisis. Someone who’s suffered for a long time will have more time to come to terms with the feeling and will have an easier time facing more of the same while someone with no experience can be changed fundamentally. Similarly with the contracts we have people with strong personalities and those with weak personalities. This is a fairly major character statement. Take Mao for example, though some of his wittiness holds on he prides himself on being an exceptional contractor and has come to accept his position. The best juxtaposition though is Tanya and Suou. Suou had suffered through her brother’s condition and the loss of her mother. Even in love she was inexperienced and alone while Tanya hails many of the characteristics of one raised in comfort. In episode 8 we see only a few small flashes of Tanya’s previous memories and they are jealousy and a small bit of love for the guy she roached only a few episodes ago. I think this also explains why kids are often more affected then adults since adults have a lot more time to form a personality.
The trait of innocence is an interesting one and the magical girl concept came up in a previous post. When looking at Suou’s transformation we’re privy to several images that passerby mentioned pertain to innocence. Even the way the gun materializes reminds the viewer of cherry blossoms which I normally associate with innocence. Then entering the contractor world denotes the loss of innocence. buy ampicilin Much like young boys entering a war the contractors enter the world of death. Then there are two kinds of contractors: The ones that keep their personality and the ones that don’t. I can only hypothesize that the contractors who manage to keep their personality were already capable of killing human beings before they made the contract and the ones that aren’t are faced with the contract that rids them of their previous selves.
All this is to say that since Suou is a contractor that has retained (or regained) her personality she must have been capable of killing before she made the contract. This is most clearly shown by her attacking the traitor over and over again. This to me means that she wasn’t innocent at all and the magical girl transformation image is rather disturbing. She is innocent when it comes to things like love, but when it comes to doxycycline price death she is rather calloused, which is why a gun pollutes an otherwise untainted scene.
Along the same lines as the innocence theme we also have the serial killer who asks Suou:
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I find this to be an interesting question when talking about the transition to contractor. Sure you could just take it to mean a literal dream, but really once a contractor becomes a contractor they no longer have any dreams. This to me is the biggest indication of the transformation of the young to adulthood. When you’re born your potential is limitless and slowly we all get locked into more and more of a set root. When we choose a road we can’t choose others, the curse of only having one life. Thus, when he asks her how long it’s been since she has stopped dreaming he’s really asking how long has it been since you’ve stopped striving for the future.
This was a theme in the first season too only in the opposite direction. When the evening primrose contractor’s “awakened” they were literally remembering that they had options and dreams they could pursue. They hadn’t become slaves to rationality they could still be irrational which is the best part of being human. If Darker than Black has taught us anything it’s that there is no hope for the completely rational. It’s those irrational hopes and desires that make life worth living.
Misaki’s developments have been teasers more than anything. I see the people at Bones have learned to use the cliff hanger effectively (over and over again). I liked the nice little sum ups at the end of the two episode arcs and I really liked that some of the enemies that we saw in several arcs (Evening Primrose) lived longer than a couple of episodes. I suppose someone might point out that Misaki’s new section has managed to stick around for awhile now, but they’re just the new public security so I don’t really count them.
Yin can kill contractors (and pretty easily at that). This development isn’t incredibly surprising, but it sounds like in order to complete the “kill all contractors” weapon the meteor fragment or at least the Pavlichenkos are needed. I’m not really sure why this is yet.
The snitch lady is still two dimensional as always and I’m out of things to say. I think I’m going to wrap up the post here, but if you have anything to say about these two episodes please comment. I’ll comment back :).
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19 Comments
Food for thought as always Dustin, your posts always make me rewatch the episodes in question just to be sure I’m soaking it all up.
A little suprised you didn’t comment on the intriguing turn Misaki’s investiagation took at the end of episode 8, it had me teetering over the edge of my seat.
Hmm, now I have to go rewatch the episode for something I missed :x ! Ahh, I see now. Hmm, I wonder if she thinks she met Amber at that time and the hidden voice dub might have been a message from her. I’m not sure… My comment about Bones making good use of Cliff Hangers was actually directed at that line. They’re doing cliffhangers with regards to Misaki’s investigation a lot this time round. Hopefully we’ll get more soon.
Thanks for the comment :).
Of course the short blue haired crazy girl could also be talking about BK201 who possesses some knowledge that Amber left him. The blessed or cursed thing is referential to the cursed contractor (BK201). Still it’s probably Amber and I would really like to see her again.
It’s a pleasure as always.
You may be interested to know that some thoughtful soul with a little technical know-how recorded the ‘girl’s voice’ portion of the recording and slowed it down.
Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR_Is4jkTX4
It is indeed interesting, as if you check out the S1 finale, the ‘dictaphone’ that Misaki uses materialized in her pocket when Hei came back from dreamland. Presumably the implication is that Amber was the one who put it there during her final timestop and left a message whilst she was there.
Can’t wait to find out what’s on it.
Wow good memory. I remember staring quizzically in her pocket at the end of Season One as it was clearly Amber’s power that put it there (and of all things a voice recorder). The voice also sounds female from the voice recording (Thanks for sharing :) ). “Only you can go” is the rough translation that the youtube guy came up with while a commenter said it was “You who are listening” in reverse. Only you can go raises more questions than it answers but “You who are listening” indicates it’s going to be a long speech. Memory of the future that is changeable. I haven’t been this excited since Future Hiro said “Save the Cheerleader save the world”.
I can’t wait either! Dumb cliffhangers :evil:!
Heh, it’s not so much good memory as rewatching the relevant scene straight after I finished episode 8 ;-)
There seems to be some dispute in the comments as to wether the recording is in fastforward or rewind.
Alledgedly the reverse roughly translates as: “”You, who are listening to this”.
Hopefully a fluent Japanese speaker will see the video and comment, I think the guy who made it intends to post a ‘rewind’ version as well.
I hope so too, of course we probably could just wait a week, but apparently we’re all just too impatient. This is the problem with watching episodes as they come out (Of course the benefits are that I don’t lose entire days while marathoning old animes).
Well that’s assuming it will be revealed next week, knowing Bones they’ll probably draw it out for several episodes leaving us all gnashing our teeth.
But it’s fun to speculate!
Vaguely off-topic:
What happened to all the dtb bloggers? I remember during S1 there were several really insightful blogs running at once (Cruel Angel, Epic Win and Xerox where the ones I made a point of reading) but with S2 you seem to be the only one around who is invested in the ‘blood and guts’ of the show so to speak, it’s rather sad. :sad:
I’m disappointed too. Owen (the blogger at Cruel Angel Thesis) hasn’t been able to watch it since he doesn’t have his monitor yet. Epic Win has been really spotty in terms of posts for the last year and I didn’t read Xerox, though I might have to go check them out. Truthfully I’m probably blogging to fill the vast space they left in my heart :cry:! I hope we get something from them eventually because they always seemed to pick up on stuff that I missed and really help expand my own thoughts on DTB.
I can already imagine Bones only giving us one line of the message at a time. OR, they’ll make it so cryptic that we won’t know what she’s talking about until the season is over (if ever). Either way go watch Nyan Koi for your teeth’s sake. You’ll turn off your brain to the mindlessness within a few seconds.
I guess the DTB bloggers just got tired of blogging or couldn’t continue the commitment. It’s not really all that surprising, it’s pretty hard this season especially.
Hey Dustin! Nice work, man! I’ve been reading your post since the 2nd season begining. I’m really glad to be able to read your post every 2 episodes. Since the begining of DTB, I felt the need to discuss some points of this anime, then, happily, I found your blog. So, please, keep posting and sharing your thoughts!
Thank you very much! ^^V
Thanks for the comment Artur!
!!! These two episodes have left me with too many questions and not enough answers. The whole thing with Misaki has been doing that for awhile but this really just added some highly interesting new stuff and it has made me go back and look at the last few episodes again. On top of DtB I have a few other anime’s that I am also on the edge for so I’m a little hyped up and have a mind full of unanswerd questions. With DtB theres just so much and you have to really pay attention to whats going on because if you miss even one thing it could be something critical. I love it but at the same time I’m dreading the wait till the next episode because I know I’m going to think about it all week and even then when the episode comes out it will probably raise new questions and not answer the ones from this week. It’s so worth it though. Sorry, I know my posts aren’t very exciting but I really enjoy reading it all :grin: . I hope you keep posting!
I must admit, I also feel that things are definitely a bit rushed. Bones is trying to do far too much in their 12 episodes worth of time. I wasn’t actually expecting Repnin to amount to anything other than generic villain commander (like Decade from season 1) but they still try to squeeze in a connection with Illya and some development, albeit only with dialogue (disappointing, I know).
Illya and Repnin, although ultimately disposable (and indeed, quite quickly disposed of) offered a lot of interesting insights in their little screentime (again, shame that Bones had to literally toss it into the dialogue in episode 8). Their little relationship was essentially a ‘who is the monster?’ discussion; Illya, ironically (I too am dismayed he actually had to say this out loud) was much more of a monster when he was human. It is as a contractor that he is restrained from his psychopathic serial killings. On the other hand, Repnin feel intense hatred for Illya, but because he needs to preserve his position (i.e. utilitarianism) he cannot go out of his way to avenge his niece. Hei is our summary guy this season: he tells Repnin that it is not contractors that are monsters. Monsters are monsters. Humans are just as capable of acting instrumentally, picking up a gun, and shooting people. Perhaps the difference with contractors is that they are consistent (and Suou’s lack of consistency as a contractor annoyed Hei greatly).
Illya, curiously enough, states outright that contractors are strictly rational. I am reminded of what Mao said in season 1. It is not that contractors are emotionless, but rather that they are bound by a purely rational mindset. Illya still appreciates murder, but no longer kills just for the sake of it because he is a contractor. Tanya understands that she, Suou and Nikka were friends, but she killed Nikka anyway. Hei does not want Suou to shoot anymore, but does not blame Suou for (apparently) shooting Tanya; self-defence is as rational as it gets. Tanya is a funny case, actually; compare her to Shihoko (Huang’s tragic love). Tanya understands that she used to like Nikka, but as a contractor, that is only a cold memory without any motivating quality. Shihoko showed us that contractors do not have an awareness of sin and feel no guilt. So Tanya understands what she did, but cannot repent for it (the moon is hidden!). This is kind of tragic in its own way, and indeed Suou hugs her friend out of sympathy.
Speaking of Suou, she continues being the worst contractor ever. In these two episodes she demonstrates unseemly qualities like compassion, gets carried away easily, hesitates to kill in self defence, gets mad and annoyed at every turn, and breaks out her phobia of bugs again. Come on, it’s a phobia, strictly defined as an irrational fear. I’m pretty convinced that Suou is definitely a fake at this point, more an animal akin to Hei.
Extremely interesting. I guess what you’re basically proposing is “All contractors still act rationally except for Hei and Suou”. I guess that brings up a few interesting metaphysical questions on the basis of rationality. Some consider the act of living irrational and would thus conclude that completely rationale beens would all go jump off a cliff. I, however, am not in this camp. Still you have to ask the question is the slaughter of thousands of people rationale. For instance Havoc in season one had to bathe in the blood of children in order to pay her obeisance. How can we rationalize her life compared to the survival of the species. If we stray from that line of reasoning and put forth the idea that our own individual survival is the most rationale choice then you turn rationality into something more base and animalistic then I normally assign it.
However, giving contractors the benefit of the doubt your breakdown is very good and convincing. I for one didn’t have it boiled down to this form and had missed some of the things you mentioned. Hei’s summary is good, but as we both seem to agree, it’s a bummer he had to say it out loud and we weren’t aloud to judge for ourselves which is more monstrous. I kind of feel like I just watched Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame where they slam you with the message at the end.
The bit about Tanya was especially cool. I think motivation plays a key part in the rationality discussion and without motivation why do contractors do anything. If every thing is a cold memory why do contractors move at all. Do they like killing? Do they just do what is commanded of them? No, as we see from Wei’s case and even Huang’s love this isn’t the case. They are motivated by their personality which isn’t really rationale at all. In terms of November 11 who ends up defying the syndicate we see a somewhat irrational being for ending his life at that time. I think if we learned anything from Yin’s arc (considering Isaac and Bertha [the contractors out to kill Yin]) it would be that contractors move outside of this rational framework they set for themselves. Maybe not though, it’s a tough question.
Maybe instead of rational contractors should just be labeled with a disregard for the sanctity of human life. Some would say our current sanctity for life is irrational, but others would argue that it’s hardwired into any living species. With regards to the contractors own life though sanctity wins out. Thus contractors become the weapons that humans hold and fire. Commanding a contractor to kill is no different than a human pulling the trigger himself. The contractors then become less than human and humans continue to be humans.
Suou still holds a great sanctity for life. She’s trying to “rationalize” away her fears but we all know that it’s quite impossible. Just like Hei couldn’t stop being human she’s been imbued with the same qualities.
As a last little plug at rationality I would argue that compassion could be seen as rational or even necessary for a rational individual. We need compassion to relate to others so we don’t all end up killing each other. This isn’t to say that killing itself is irrational, just that self destruction (from a species point of view) isn’t extremely rational either. If we see the contractors as their own sub species then them killing themselves off isn’t exactly rational either (Hence the Evening Primrose). Yet, not all contractors were involved with the Evening Primrose.
Wow, really interesting stuff. Thanks for the post it cleared up quite a bit and hopefully I wrote some things worth reading as well. Glad you came back :)! This comment is almost a post :!: If you end up responding I might just turn these comments into one :x …
But who gets to decide what’s rational and what’s not? I would say each individual ultimately decides. I decide what I think is best for me even if I’m not always right; I’m the one who decides. But I say that as a human. If contractors are the same way then what makes them contractors? Obvious is their powers and their price but then why does rationality come up when talking about a contractor? If they are rational and it’s an individual thing then I don’t see where the need to bring it up would come from. I can see where consistency would come up but what I see out of that is just that over all contractors aren’t just really rational, they are good at it. Maybe that’s the difference? I don’t know. Just some thoughts.
I’d have to disagree that rationality would be an individual definition in this context since they use it as a way to describe all contractors. In reality that might be the case but lot’s of people within the world feel like they can guess a contractors actions based on rationality (which is why they are always surprised by Hei’s responses.
That isn’t to say that using the word rational is correct, merely that normally contractors will produce a specific output given certain inputs regardless of the individuals state. I think this actually confuses people within the world too because they act based on the word rational without actually knowing the contractors set output. Still Suou has got to be the worst contractor of all time.
Hmm yes I thought about it that way too and it makes sense, either way though it still leaves me with questions. I do wonder about Suou. Do you you really think she is just a bad contractor?
DtB never really offers a hard definition of what they consider rationality to be. When characters talk of the rationality of contractors they usually refer to 1) their profit motive 2) their amorality and lack of inhibitions or 3) their apparent lack of emotions. Introduced this season is the emphasis that contractors are consistent; if they are bound by a ‘logic’ then, indeed, all contractors should act the same way in the same situation. So Repnin fundamentally ‘trusts’ contractors, while Hei is frustrated with Suou’s unpredictable behaviour. Perhaps we can say that contractors are ‘efficient’; they can accomplish whatever task without any ‘baggage’. When April complimented November 11 posthumously for being rational, she was referring to his choice of the most efficient path to get his mission done.
Aside: from the way contractors are willing to take up the most dangerous tasks and get killed en masse over whatever, survival does not seem to be necessarily priority #1 (though apparently still a big one).
Once again, I think it’s easier to just assume that Suou is not a real contractor in the same way as Hei. We’re never shown how people actually become contractors, but it can be assumed that Suou’s circumstances were rather unique. Just as Hei is just a human with his sister’s power, can we say that Suou has Hei’s power (albeit with funny stuff involving the meteor core)? We’re getting close to Shion, so maybe it’s about time for a big reveal.
Yes it does seem easier to assume that she is not a real contractor. I’m taking a stab in the dark by saying that I think it is because of the meteor core. Although maybe that’s just because I don’t want to really believe that Hei has lost his power or that Suou has any of it. At this point Hei’s powers being gone have not actually been confirmed. It seems likely but there could also be other things.
With regards to Suou’s powers I’m going to have to error on the side of meteor fragment and Hei’s powers. It’s mainly suspect because of the crazy Einstein hair professor’s remarks at the end of Season One about his ability to turn normal humans into contractors. BUT he didn’t do it willingly. The key scene is when Hei lost his powers in that anti contractor weapon. Suou was drawn into something when the fragment lit up and shortly after she produced contractor-like powers. What I find suspicious is Suou and Shion having the same weapon (Or they look to similar for comfort). Honestly I’m leaning towards Shion and Suou being the red and green stars (meaning they’ll both be dead by the end of the anime).
We’ll probably get several big reveals soon. Especially leading up to the climax.
Now that I can type on a keyboard instead of a phone:
Passerby, interesting list of common occurrences in contractors. In some aspects that does match certain philosophical stances on rationality (not letting yourself be swayed by emotion when making decisions), but I think number one is a little funny. I’m not saying this as a reproof (because indeed the profit motive has been mentioned several times), but have we ever met a rich contractor? I mean surely if contractors are trying to amass wealth they should have money, yet they don’t exist. November 11 dresses well and drives a nice car, but I wouldn’t consider him wealthy. The British contractors are just kind of comfortable. It makes me wonder about these rationale contractors. Clearly the profits aren’t that great for the risks they take. I guess being rationale doesn’t necessarily make you smart :).