Say It Ain’t So! (DTB Season 2 Episode 10)
I don’t want Yin to be the final boss!! I don’t want it, I don’t want it, I don’t want it, I don’t want it!!!! You can’t kill her just because you haven’t developed her this season; that’s not fair.
So obviously I don’t know whether or not this will happen, but the little glimpses we’ve had are starting to make me awfully suspicious. I’m also starting to view the two stars falling at the end as Izanami and Izanagi. We already know who Izanami is and we have a fair guess at Izanagi. Yes, that’s right this week it was revealed that Suou is in fact the little red star according to Madam Oreille.
Let’s conjecture: The moon has reappeared which we can equate with Yin. Half the reason for her appearing after all the reactions to the moon was to show that she had something to do with it. Basically she is vastly powerful, which is often what is needed for a last boss: Especially a contractor killer and ESPECIALLY after these three particularly disastrous flashbacks.
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Plus that smile at the end wasn’t some heartwarming welcome home smile; that was straight up malevolence. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Sorry about that. I’ve moved away from the reaction portion of this blog post and have now moved on to the analysis section. First off the scenes with Youko were perhaps the scenes with the greatest room for confusion. Initially I thought Hei hadn’t done that to her obviously, but then I started thinking about her reactions on the chair and just how broken she looked. I think it would be pretty hard to get that reaction without doing something awful to her, but after going back and viewing it a couple more times I just don’t think Darker than Black would purposely mislead us like that. They’ve never been shy about showing gore so I don’t know why they wouldn’t show her with her fingers broken already. Plus the last little face caress and the promise that he would stop Izanami didn’t look like the prelude to a violent purchase phentermine cheap tabs death. Therefore I’ve pretty much ruled out that the violent torture was done by Hei. Whatever he did to break her mentality was probably much less horrifying.
Haha, fooled you. I’m going to go ahead and reverse that logic. If we took it that way why would there be a need to torture Youko after Hei left. Think about it, if they wanted information from her it looked like they wouldn’t have many problems. She was pretty much spouting anything that came to mind and when slapped answered direct questions. Plus this shot:
Really makes it look like she’s slipping away (towards death or sleep). Even if she was drugged I doubt Hei would shoot her up with sleeping pills. Whatever broke her brought her close to death in my mind. Not to mention the last caress by Hei was met by a look of release: Like she could finally die. The look of release somewhat matches her final facial features upon her discovery by section three.
I’ve cast a bit of doubt on these scenes because I think they represent two unique options. On one hand, if Madam Oreille killed her it’s unclear what her intentions are. If she was trying to get information as I said before there was probably little reason to leave her body in such a gruesome state. However, if she wanted to sick section three on Hei she did a particularly good job. This is probably the best and simplest answer. The other one is Hei actually did torture her to this point. We saw him interrogate Havoc and quite frankly I remember him breaking Havocs fingers with a vividness I wish I could forget. If this is the case then we are starting to develop an even colder image of Hei. Speaking of downright cold:
He really spared nothing when attacking Misaki. He would have killed her if Suou hadn’t stopped him. I find this… interesting. I guess as I look back this isn’t that surprising. When compared to the incredible rage he felt towards Amber for her seeming betrayal a small betrayal like Misaki’s (plus the gun pointed at him) might be more than enough to kill her for. I guess I just felt sorrier for Misaki then ever as I watched Hei walk away without a backwards glance. Amber at least had his entire attention and he hesitated twice when he had chances to kill her. Misaki barely takes up any of his attention. He treats her like an acquaintance on a rival sports team.
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I guess I also feel bad for her because she isn’t a bad person. She isn’t a tool of the organization like she was last season. Instead of immediately handing over Suou and July she helps Suou get to the bottom of her parental issues. She acts like the mother Suou’s own mother couldn’t be. I felt a little bit of the old storytelling vibe in this interaction alone. No one came out and explicitly said Misaki was a good person. Besides the “She gave me a Meat Bun” comment we’re just shown the interaction and support Misaki offers.
Mao’s story this week was interesting, but for some reason I was a little sad that the story of him losing his body was just used as a device to advance the plot. In other words his story was just a way to advance Suou’s. I really didn’t want to have a main character be used like a foil this season. Let’s face it, we don’t get to really interact with Mao much at all this season and when we do it’s almost purely as comic relief or the go to guy for the sum up. He’s the other contractor Hei can talk to or the one who asks the stupid questions so the other characters can answer. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky but he was so much more in the first season: Then again maybe not.
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Mina Hazuki was particularly illogical this week as well. Although she pretends to be an emotionless contractor we see her this week so taken aback by the site of Youko’s body she actually drops her sword. If that wasn’t enough she passionately kisses the corpse and vows to kill BK-201. I don’t know about you, but revenge isn’t a particularly logical course of action. It is a response to some emotional wrong done to you. For that matter her attachment to Youko is also purely emotional. Even though Mina claims she feels nothing for others she clearly does. “How much do we really know about contractors”? :)
I bring this up for another person. Darker than Black rarely does individual plot points. The revenge line has already been brought up with the Russians and I somehow doubt Mina’s revenge will be the last. I’m interested to see where they are going to take a revenge motif.
Suou’s little break down at the end with Hei was kind of touching. I say kind of because I’ve seen characters like her do it a little too much, but then again I thought it was a good bit of growth for her character. As for the reasons she cried… So Shion’s powers are apparently to copy things but I’m going to throw this out there right now. How do we know that Suou’s mother grabbed the real Suou? It’s possible Shion used his power to make a copy of Suou and then sent the mom away with the copy leaving the real Suou as an experiment subject for the ME device. I’m really curious about his right eye. What happened there? I’m not sure if they explained it earlier, but it’s always possible that Suou is the current possesser of said eye and Shion can whip out mind control on her anytime. Ok now I’m into the realm of pure speculation so I better wrap this up.
I already used this, but I have to say: Best line ever!
I really can’t wait for next week. Although I’m intensely depressed by what I think might happen I really want the last episodes to come out and prove me wrong.
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I remember dreading watching the last few episodes of season 1, in fear of Hei’s life. Once again I find myself unsure whether I want to step into the finale, since all signs point to tragedy. Sure, Hei actually survived season 1, and it actually ended rather optimistically, all things considered, but all the good feelings from last season are pretty much dead. Hei has gotten colder, not less, Evil conspiracies are still evil. We’re counting down to doomsday again. Yin is…what’s with Yin? I have no idea. All in all, it’s now ++bleak. In season 1, I could at least root for a “good guys win, bad guys lose, Hei’s crew lives!” end, but this season I’ve got nothing. No one’s a good guy, everyone’s a bad guy, and someone please save Yin!
Aside: I know how you feel. If Yin dies it’ll positively break my heart.
As for the episode itself, once again it feels like Bones is rushing to the end. Lots of uncharacteristic heavy-handedness, basically a blitz through a slew of material. Let’s see what we got through this episode.
1) Suou’s mother
2) Suou’s past (fake or otherwise)
3) Suou has a teary moment. Aww.
4) A bit on Shion’s power
5) How Mao became Mao. And apparently contractors get all the ladies.
6) Youko is killed
7) Hazuki still needs development, triggers a death flag
8) Mysterious information seller keeps manhandling the plot.
9) Misaki finally finds Hei…and nothing happens!
10) The moon shows up again. That’s a doom omen if I ever saw one.
11) Yin looks rather evil now.
Oh, also the global doll conspiracy.
That’s a lot in one episode.
I also found Youko’s death intriguing in this episode. I agree with most of your analysis on that, and am also inclined to think that it wasn’t Hei who killed her (or at least left her in a bloody mess). We do know, however, that a) Hei is a very angry man b) he has no love for section 3 for whatever reason. I don’t expect Youko to come out well of their little session. At the same time, we are definitely lead to believe that Hei left her, er, un-mutilated, so I’m not sure what went on with that.
And once again: damn! I never thought I wouldn’t want to see Yin smiling.
This has got to be a first. A super long comment that I completely agree with.
Bones is really making me nervous this time around. I’m not sure what the deal is, but they seem to be treating death pretty lightly this season. They knocked off April in the first episode. It just kind of makes you feel like none of the characters are safe. Then they build up this huge conflict between Hei and Yin where it seems like Hei is being forced to kill her. How can that end well?
They definitely needed less to be going on this season. They should have cut out half the cast so they could have time to do a few plot points well (and when I say a few plot points we would still be dealing with a lot).
10) Not only does the moon show up, it’s not even a silvery moon it’s a freaking Orange sign of death.
7) What I really hate about Madam Oreille is her two dimensionality. Bones hasn’t even tried to develop her though they seem to have no problem setting her up as the overreaching bad guy. I think I would hate Bones even more if they did some terrible job at the end by giving her one flashback. I would have liked a more complete picture of Madam Oreille before the finale, because right now there seems little reason for what she’s doing.
I don’t think Hei mutilated Youko either. I just thought it was an interesting portrayal. It also makes you wonder what Hei did to her before she even sat down in the chair. It surprises me that we don’t know. Normally Bones has no problem showing Hei’s dark side. If he didn’t actually do anything to her, then I find it hard to believe she would spill her guts.
I think that form we saw is Yin’s surveillance specter. It has gone through another metamorphosis to take on an even more human like appearance. We’ve always kind of known that the specter was a little like a wandering soul and it taking her form at the end of last season was the biggest indication that she had grown more complete. It transforming into malevolent Yin though is another matter entirely. It signifies her becoming more complete once again, but this time she is being completed in the same way a ticking bomb is more complete the closer it gets to the time of its destruction.
I don’t think they’ll kill Hei. It really would blow all chances for any other Darker than Blacks. The first season I could definitely see it seeing as we didn’t think there would be another. Bones is a successful anime company though and they’ll want to see how the wind is blowing before killing off their biggest character. I don’t think any of the other characters are that safe though. Frankly I think they could kill off just about anyone (Actually I just can’t see Misaki dying either).
Thanks for the comment, it made my morning! :)
what if yin killed her?
i mean didnt you see the look on youko’s eyes? it was the same as the chick in the first episode of s1 remember ad yin kills contractors right? what i she kills um dolls?
idk and yin well shes a gruesome murdererso what if she did?
Hmm, that’s a path I certainly protected myself from considering.
Let me try my best to rule it out though.
The faces the victims made were the same, but quite frankly Youko was much more brutally handled then Yin’s victims. Also Youko was not a contractor. She never used powers (which I believe she would have when Hei captured her) and seemed to be human and quite emotional. On that grounds Yin seems to cause Contractor’s powers to go crazy which results in their death. I would also point out that Youko’s death with the broken fingers and ripped off clothing points towards torture, and say what we will about Yin being evil I haven’t yet seen her torture anyone. Norio’s mother’s death was quick and it seems like the other ones have been too.
If this isn’t enough, take a good look at Youko’s pictures vs. the pictures of the dead surrounding Yin in the flashbacks. There is a clear difference. Yin’s victims are inflicted with only the fatal wound whereas Youko had so much more than that.
If Yin did kill her I’ll be majorly sad.
It’s true Youko could be a contractor or a doll. The eyes certainly didn’t have pupils half the time, but the girl from the first episode of Season One was a doll and Mai who also went in and out of those eyes was a moratorium. Whether she’s a contractor or not Yin hasn’t just been on a contractor hunt and for the most part it looks like she’s trying to protect Hei and Suou. She protected Suou from Norio’s mother who was going to take her away from Hei. She showed up near Hei trying to embrace him with her surveillance specter. Yin still has feelings for Hei, so making a bloody mess of someone he captured wouldn’t be in her best interests. I don’t think it was her. I’m much more prone to point a finger at Madam Oreille who was there and watched Hei leave. She’s also an intelligence gatherer + her and Hei had a falling out. He’s not doing what she wants him to do which is she wants him to kill Yin.
Hei being so brutal to Misaki bothered me alot. She’s a really good person and I hate the fact that they didn’t emphasize that. Suou should have mentioned something like “She helped me find my mom and gave me a safe place to sleep and food” Thos are the things to say when pleading for someone’s life not “She gave me meat buns” VERY bad storytelling.
I’m very unhappy with the Yin development we got which was none. the didn’t even accurately describe what exactly her power was.
I really don’t think Hei’s the type to make people suffer so I don’t think he mutilated her either. He’s not that psychotic. So DTB wins when it comes to confusing the audience.
I think that this episode was just plain..bad and confusing.
I’m very worried for Yin,her dying or even being injured will make be forced to assasinate the producers and writers of DTB 2.
Of course neither me or this blog condone violence, but let’s just say neither of us would stand in the way of violent action against those who would do injury to our favorite fictional character!
Joking aside I think Passerby put it best when he listed out how many plot points DTB tried to cover this episode. If you want to be unconfused take a look at his list. I probably would be lost if I didn’t watch the episodes twice (the second time for screenshots) and blog about them.
I think we’ll find out more in the upcoming weeks. We’re supposed to sympathize with Hei I think since Mina is now out to kill him thanks to the misunderstanding. All in all everyone is supposed to hate Hei leading into the finale. I think they want to isolate him, but I can hardly see why they would go the extra distance, he’s already almost completely isolated. Unless news of Youko gets to Suou I doubt they can isolate him further.
The people at Wikipedia described Yin’s power as being able to cause contractor powers go out of control. I bet they’ll explain it really soon :).
Hei beating up Misaki so bad was disturbing to me. When he hit Suou it was really disturbing but Misaki’s disturbed me even more. Probably becuase she’s so in love with him. That’s gotta hurt emotionally. I would just cry if I was her.
In all fairness he did think she was kidnapping Suou and then she held a gun on him. She also semi betrayed him by joining section 3 and offered nothing when he asked her about it. Instead she asked about another member of section 3 implying her loyalties belonged to section 3 over him. She doesn’t have the strongest case.
On the other hand being flat out beaten by him really hurts. He never did that before he would always just disappear. It had more to do with protecting Suou, but hopefully this will help her get over him (fat chance right).
Right.
Remember how Hei really didn’t like contractors in season 1? Liars and traitors, the lot of them? This season he really doesn’t like section 3. If Hei had any regard for Misaki at all before, then her joining section 3 would feel a lot like a betrayal. And we know that Hei has a special place for betrayal.
As for “she gave me meat buns”, Cece, there’s a very strong food motif this season. If you’ve missed it I do urge you go back and rewatch…heck, rewatch it all. The line will become much more poignant.
Also, on further inspection it seems that Suou apparently ‘died’ before Shion became a contractor. I’m assuming, though, that Shion became a contractor after the accident with the meteorite, where he lost his eye. Since this is all relying on Suou’s memories, none of it is trustworthy. Suou’s mother knows Shion is a contractor, after all. I hope they address this soon.
Speaking of memories, what about the shooting the dear scene. If that can’t be trusted where does Suou’s reluctance to kill come from… I think our Suou is the real Suou who’s had memories added by the ME device. She probably also had her memories of the day her mother disappeared removed.
Oh my, as noted this was a packed episode to begin with, and after reading your post and all the discussions up there I’m not sure I’m even going to be able to sound coherent anymore. Here goes nothing…
Yin! Maybe it’s the diet of Yin pictures your blog has been feeding me, but I’m actually pretty miffed that they’ve made a practically Yin-less season, just as I’m miffed that Yin still hasn’t caught up to Hei in your poll (damn, the gap widened again). I actually think Yin final-boss might be interesting though. But if I know DtB, if they make things lean in one way now, there’s a good likelihood that the truth will end up entirely somewhere else.
And regarding doomsday hurtling and bleakness++, I LOVE IT. Maybe I’m a masochist, but I love how so much is on the line, how so many things could happen – and how DtB WILL screw you and make whatever the hell it wants to happen, happen. I think DtB2 has done a pretty good job making me care for some of their characters, not the least Suou, and the emotions it arouses in me from knowing that things would probably not end well for some of those characters really makes this show stand out for me. I really (almost desperately) hope they spare Suou a shatteringly brutal end, but the thought that that brutal end could actually happen is really, albeit morbidly, exciting.
In fact I’m extremely sorry Youko went the way she did (case-in-point for emotions – I felt myself clench when they first revealed her bloody body) – and your Hei-did-it conspiracy theory just made it worse :P I really don’t agree though. Hei has spent his life struggling between cold reason and feelings. Here, he is desparate and fearful, but, beating the dead horse, that final line really felt like genuine compassion to me. Like cold logic had prompted him to force Youko up to that point, whereupon, having already taken what information he could, it relaxed and his humanity washed over.
I think there is further evidence of this in Hei’s determination to protect Suou. He sees a part of himself in Suou – his humanity. Suou is the Hei who never became the Black Reaper. And Hei is the Suou that, a long time ago, pulled the trigger. His insistent efforts to protect Suou even amidst his efforts to find Yin, coupled with what he said at the end of the ep – that he didn’t know about all the rest of the web, Suou was Suou to him, alludes I think to his desire to protect his own humanity at all costs. Ironically, he was going to kill Misaki for it.
Speaking of Misaki, I’m impressed she held her cool through all that abuse. I kind of wish we had 14 more eps instead of 2.
Okay, think I’ll stop here. Overall I really like where all this is leading even as I simultaneously dread it. I think I’m definitely gonna marathon the last two eps back-to-back.
Well said!
Sorry about brainwashing you with all the Yin pictures. If you want the honest truth Yin was always a favorite character of mine, but using her as a theme kind of pushed it over the top. I guess typing “Yin is awesome” all the time really does make one believe it :). I’m a bit miffed she isn’t ahead of Hei too. What’s the deal. I know I get more searches for Yin then I do for Hei (though not many more).
I do like the suspense. It isn’t often you’re surprised by the death of main characters in a series. Like a good D & D game you have to know there’s a possibility of death for the game to be exciting. (Oh he didn’t just use D & D did he!? Yes I did, but I’ve actually never played…)
I think I said somewhere in one of these discussions that I really doubt Hei did it too. Madam Oreille is the most likely canidate. She has the most motive and the opportunity. Not to mention she’s the crazy bad lady who seems to know everything.
I want 14 more episodes too. I probably won’t marathon the episodes, but we’ll see next week whether I’m going to blog next weeks episode.
To sum up your words for my own amusement. We can’t be sure of where DTB is going. Even if it looks like it’s about to jump off a cliff, it might really just be taking a detour to the convenience store.
yin is still yin!! she became evil because she’s been used by some darn good-for-nothing peoples!! she’s been captured, isn’t it?! hei is on his way to save her… and yin will be saved!! the OVA will answers all of the confusing matter!.. she will not die!!! i’m definitely not gonna accept if she die or did not reunite back with hei!!!
BONES should know that none would accept that either!!..
Basically when it comes to Yin I think they’re treating her a lot like Amber in the first season. Amber really felt she had to hide the gate to protect the contractors at any price. Hei couldn’t stomach that. This season we see Yin disappear with a “Goodbye Hei” not to mention she’s crying. That to me is indicative of a tough decision that she feels she must carry out. In this case it might be killing all contractors. Either way Hei is going to stop her from doing what she’s planning. What does that mean?
It means that there are two ways for this to be resolved. Either Hei talks her out of it or he kills her. Seeing as they already talked and seem to have come to a decision I’m not looking on the bright side. I hope Bones pulls a rabbit out of the hat… but who knows.