Yin Screenshots FTW (DTB Gaiden OVA 2 Review)
As much as I love Darker than Black the rate of OVA releases is sure disconcerting for a supposedly continuing story. I, however, will resist my normal complaining because it’s Yin!
Did I mention that I’ve been really digging the costume changes for her too? This episode she wears a modified Cheongsam and next episode jean shorts, cute knee socks, and a spaghetti strap shirt. I think I have entered screen cap heaven.
But I digress (actually considering I was never on topic I think it’s pretty impossible to digress). A few weeks later in DTB time finds Yin slowly slipping away and Hei being his normal self (Big promises; Small Delivery). At first I was pretty excited by the more aggressive changes in Yin, but then we got to the scene with Qin in the butcher shop and Hei’s line: “You don’t remember what you just said?” and Yin’s response “What did I say.
Hei: “Forget it.”
…
…
Hei: “Tell me if something is wrong next time.”
…
…
Yin: “I want to be with you forever, just like this.”
In these two OVAs they conveyed something about Yin’s character that they ineffectually did in Season 2. A big part of me wishes they had released these OVAs first as I think it would have made the overriding plot of Season 2 not only make more sense, but leave more of an emotional impact. Instead of all the jokes about Hei being a drunken pedophile (although that wouldn’t have stopped the most rancorous of bloggers) we would have more openly understood why he hates himself so much.
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Yin is losing buy online tabs it. Izanami (who will henceforth be known as a different character or her surveillance specter [whichever floats your boat]) has started to take control of Yin’s body effectively chipping away at any chance of happiness Yin and Hei might have had. In a lot of ways watching the DTB OVAs then becomes a lot like a Greek Tragedy. We know our tragic hero is going to lose it all and we can do nothing but sit painfully by and point out his tragic flaw with our rationalizing fingers. The ambiguity of the second season’s ending becomes more meaningful too. The more we know about Yin’s situation the more I question her living or dying at the end. These OVAs will not answer that particular question so one thing still hangs in the balance.
Rei Ayanami, Nagato Yuki, Yin: I’ve always liked that you never quite know what’s going on in their head (especially with the latter two). While Rei Ayanami eventually does spurt out words that hurt those around her we only have moments of clarity when Nagato and Kyon are alone (and almost never the feelings she has for Kyon). When you do see disappearance you’ll have a big moment of fist pumping when Kyon forces other world Yuki against the bookshelf and she blushes (I haven’t seen it yet either to my immense dissatisfaction). It’s one of those moments when you can very clearly see how she feels and those moments are so few. Most of the time we’re left guessing what’s going on in their head.
The straight faced character allows us to project. We see their situation, we might even know their feelings for a character, but unlike drama queens we’re left with a blank face that allows us to feel more pain and suffering then the teariest reunion. It hurts us because they can’t show it. My sister has always been a big speaker for the relief in crying. That somehow crying about a situation allows us to deal with the pain and move on. Watching Yin sitting silently beside Hei through all of this has been horribly painful. We see her straight mouth as she bears witness to the one she loves being hurt over, and over again. We see her straight face as she sees the one she loves slowly start to pull away from her in response to the fearful Izanami. This is only enhanced by the visual separation so often depicted in their scenes. As we get further and further from last episode their physical closeness is all but disappearing. In a way I almost believe Izanami is a frustrated part of Yin’s psyche trying desperately to bridge the gap between her and Hei (only it’s failing).
I’d like to say that Izanami having murder eyes was startling after all the dead pan of Yin’s character, but somehow it wasn’t. I think Bones has done a good job of differentiating the two characters by facial recognition alone; Misatao Fukuen as well has done a great job switching between voices. The last bit of difference comes about through the intention of the dialogue. Izanami is extremely to the point and is aware of her surroundings. Yin on the other hand seems to be very good at reading Hei, and Hei alone. In other words from the few lines the Yin/Izanami character has we can tell which one is which.
Yin: Words are always in Hei’s best interest; dead panned; has trouble expressing herself. In fact her saying she was scared was one of the very few times she has commented on her own emotions. It made me want to hug her too.
Izanami: Words are always in her self interest; murder eyes (occasionally); has no trouble expressing herself. (I’d like to point out in the picture above that this is one of two times that Yin looks directly at someone ever in the anime. Both times she was Izanami, but I found this to be the most disconcerting thing of all. The eye contact with the other characters is what changed the Yin appearance from letting things happen to asserting her authority over the situation and the relationship. Yin has never looked at Hei directly unless forced [by him]).
Two very different people inhabiting the same body is not a new plot device but Damnet! Leave my Yin alone! She’s gone through enough hardships without you stealing her happily ever after ALL the time! Stupid Bones!
Yes, the last 1000 words have been about Yin alone… Are you all that surprised?
Speaking of Murder Eyes:
Hei can make some pretty darn good ones too.
Back on Topic!
In all honesty Yin’s really all there was too this episode in terms of deeper plot lines and character development. We meet some new throw away characters and have the obligatory contractor fight. The mysterious organization (shamelessly spoiled in the preview as the remnants of the Evening Primrose [Amber’s old organization]) working for Section {Some number I’ve forgotten} continues to do its thing. Namely, stalking Hei and Yin while having semi ambiguous conversations about how things are escalating and everything needs to be stopped before the end of the world (which has already happened in Season Two).
They also shout out to Madam Oreille to let us know that she is a big muckety muck who’s well connected: All this to say that Darker than Black has always been about its characters. If it weren’t for Amber, November 11, kind of Miskaki, Hei, Huang, Mao, and Yin the first season would have fallen flat on its face. I’m of the opinion that they failed to develop enough interesting characters in the second season to do the same. The plot and jargon are things I love for the characters that live in the world, if it weren’t for those characters I would have lost interest a long time ago.
Thus, these OVAs are really only interesting because they’re focusing on the fraying relationship of Hei and Yin. Try as Bones might I just don’t care about the contractor of the week anymore. The powers were kind of cool and I enjoyed some of the complexities of the fight, but really at the end of the episode the only thing I’ll remember is how Hei looked at Yin after Izanami crushed the order online pharm contractor of the week.
And what happened after that: Remember the importance of hands? What does this tell you?
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Followed by a true femme fatale, morbidly out of place seduction:
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Scratch me saying I’ll only remember that scene: I’ll somewhat remember this scene too:
Then Dues Ex Machina!
I’m not exactly sure what Bones intended here, but they ended up with something almost eerie. The silence and the slow pacing of the brother walking into the room felt so unnatural. Normally we would see: Brother walks in carrying his dead brother, sees dead sister, immediately flies into a rage and starts trying to rip apart everything that moves or otherwise. He made his irrational decision so slowly and moved to kill Yin only after reaching it. It wasn’t to enjoy the moment of revenge he had been waiting for (as there was no waiting), it was the full blown contractor angry rage. It was interesting so I’ll at least have to give Bones that one.
The Dues Ex Machina brought to you by:
The contractor in the middle is Amagiri. I’m pretty damn sure. If you don’t remember in the first season he ate eggs as his obeisance and was Amber’s right hand man who could shoot rocks. He always had his left eye closed and here he is wearing a left eye patch. Last piece of unneeded evidence: The (burn) scars on his face and lack of hair is consistent with the way he supposedly died i.e. he got hit by the flames of our favorite moratorium pretty hard. Thus the remnants of the EPR being involved has already been given away. Oh not to mention that’s the jacket he always wore: Thank god not everyone gets costume changes (Just the important character).
A girl with a stripping Obeisance….. Ok raise your hand if you didn’t see that one coming at some point. I’m not raising my hand and if you are you must either really think highly of this series (enough so to think that Bones would never pander) or be watching this series passed out from work (or school). There’s nothing to comment on, but I’m going to have us sit on this thought for a little longer. Hot girl stripping Obeisance; I really think the gate is a virgin Otaku. Think about it, the guys all have badass manly obeisances while the girls have to make out (with other girls sometimes), teleport nude into places and then kiss someone, and our newest stripping obeisance. You have to admit that the gate being a virgin Otaku makes a lot of sense. It even explains the ADD moments when random dead characters appear, worlds turn upside down, water walking is possible, and nothing makes a lick of sense. I just solved DTB, thank you very much. (I’m not going to even go into Dolls)
Why didn’t they show the OVAs first? I really didn’t care all that much about the new characters in Season 2, but this scene:
Really warmed me up to them. Sure pre-developed relationships are ok sometimes, but this was a pretty good scene for instant relationship developing gratification. Not the weird relationship you weren’t all that sure about until one of them is strapped to a dentist chair dead.
What’s coming next episode? Not much really, just more of the same with some melancholy shots that promise some good old fashioned philosophizing and tough decisions. Cast all of that aside though because the only thing I’m excited about is Yin in this outfit:
For a whole, freaking episode!
This Post Has now been brought full circle thanks to the seemingly one track mind of a Yin obsessed crazy person.
Thanks for reading!
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13 Comments
Where did you watch this episode? I still can’t find any of the DTB 2 OVA’s. :?:
I downloaded the torrents from BSS subs.
http://bssubs.net/
To download them though you need a torrent client. I personally use BitTyrant since it was developed in my current city of residence and hasn’t implemented the ad software of some other popular torrent clients.
You can download the client software here
http://bittyrant.cs.washington.edu/#downloads
Good Luck (I haven’t seen it up on the usual sites either… I wonder what’s up)
@Cece
I picked up my copy from TokoyoTosho.info, which is also just a great torrent site in general.
@Dustin
And wow, talk about a DTB fix, just watched both of them, and I agree with what your saying, they should have released these first, it would have made the second season that much better.
Still, while there was a lot that could have been done better with season 2, I think it still managed to stand up on its own somewhat, despite the lack of tie-in.
Izanagi seems to be an interesting character as well. Originally she just seemed like a kick-ass (though quite brutal) entity. Now however, I’m getting the vibe that she is very much a living, breathing being. Not emotionless like a true doll, not unwaveringly logical like a contractor, she seems to be more human than anything else, what you could definitely call the evolution of dolls.
Soul! That’s what I’m floundering around for! Would I be incorrect in saying that Yin – through Izanagi and her time with Hei – is developing a soul? After all, isn’t that what humans are? Dolls with a soul?
Okay, I’m finished my rant and speculation, wow it builds up :smile:
Any thoughts?
“The mysterious organization (shamelessly spoiled in the preview as the remnants of the Evening Primrose [Amber’s old organization]) working for Section {Some number I’ve forgotten} continues to do its thing.”
If I get it right, you’re saying that the EPR is working for the Section 3?
If you’re talking about that chinese group I know that they’re not with the EPR. If they were, Amagiri wouldn’t kill him.
Who do you think Clodia (that blond man) and that dog are working for? They’re not with the Syndicate or the Section 3 it seems.
Yin was talking about a doll watching her. What group do you think that doll belongs to? The Syndicate?
@Dustin so no streaming sites? I hate downloading because I don’t have the neccesary programs on my computer to play downloaded clips.
@Cece
Hmm, that’s no good. I think there is some free stuff available though that’s capable though. For instance google Zoom player. It works pretty darn well. There is also divx, but I have synch problems sometimes using that.
@zakoom
Ahh no, that’s not quite what I was trying to say. The Chinese group definitely wasn’t connected to the EPR, but I guess I was kind of thinking Codia and the dog were. I might have been wrong in that assumption though, but that’s where that sentence came from. Codia and the dog appeared to be kind of working for Madam Orielle, but that broke off after this episode.
As for the doll watching Yin, that’s kind of a mystery. The yellow glowing light was extremely reminiscent of the meteor fragment and Amber’s power which points to a number of things. I guess July might be a viable option seeing as they seemed to share some kind of weird connection in Season 2 and Yin seemed to direct July towards Suo and Hei. Who knows though.
@Dabookman
Sorry, I missed responding to your comment earlier.
Ahh the old doll develops a soul argument. Of course at this point we should probably go into what a soul actually is without pointing at Yin and saying she has one. Unlike you though I think Yin’s development has little to do with a soul. Quite frankly I feel like she’s had one all along that has been slowly pressing to the surface as she remembered her previous life as Kirsi. Regardless I don’t think Izanagi is helping in the slightest the reason being we saw Yin take those big steps on her own (especially her line at the end of the first season “Don’t leave me here alone” where she finally broke the monotone line delivery). Hei definitely had something to do with it and that was kind of the first seasons point with Amber, Bai, and Havoc breaking their contractor mold while being near him. He has that effect on them as they can’t help but feel for him as he lives a crazy double life that he clearly hates. Thus his angst is contagious and is passed to the other girls in the DTBverse.
Izanagi on the other hand is just causing Yin worry and poisoning the relationships she has. I would almost compare it to a dormant virus just waiting for Yin’s soul to grow large enough to support her cancerous self. That’s probably part of the reason why Izanagi hasn’t wiped out Hei. She sees him as a catalyst for Yin becoming more of a healthy organism thus increasing Izanagi’s capacity for damage to the rest of the world through her host Yin. Sadly this leaves Yin as the victim.
However, if we do look at it that way I would say the end of season 2 propels in the last shot two distinct entities. The Black Izanagi and the White soul of Yin. Basically I think Hei seperated Izanagi from Yin creating the new child while preserving Yin’s soul inside her original vessel. At least that’s what I’ve concocted after these OVAs. I also think there might be a really big hint towards the end of the other two OVAs where Yin will say something like “It’s not too late, you can still kill me,” prompting Hei to deliver a line about how he’ll save her and thus bringing up that memory again when Yin says the same in the last episode. Otherwise the smile is kind of out of place. I’m still on board the Yin’s alive boat as you can see.
As for thoughts: My entire blog post is full of thoughts :). That’s what blog posts are, but you might have just been asking for more specific stuff about this topic of interest.
@ Dustin
Yay! I was feeling a little left out when you missed my post, but just a little. :smile:
You make some very good points; I suppose Yin did, have a soul before hand but it was merely suppressed. But that then makes me wonder if all dolls could effectively return to being human should they encounter the right catalyst, e.g. Hei. Actually, on that thought, didn’t July seem to become more human as the series progressed? OH! and that doll with the mafia episode, the one who went with that incompetent mafia dude and smiled at the end… man, what is it with Hei? Seems like everyone (contractor or doll, heck even human) he comes into contact with becomes more human than they were before. Must have something to do with being a human with contractor powers.
As you may have noticed, I’m playing the human card a lot. I can’t help but feel that through all the craziness caused by the gates, the underlying humanity of the characters continues to show itself again and again. There may be the super-powered contractors and the passive dolls, but they are still human; they can make mistakes, they can feel emotion to some degree. I forget what the point of this paragraph was but I guess what I was trying to say is that yes I agree, Hei’s situation seems to affect those around him to some ridiculous degree, particularly Yin.
I’ve just had another thought. You said that Izanagi could be compared to a virus waiting for Yin’s soul to become strong. Yin’s growth seems to be refereed to as evolution quite a lot in both the OVA’s and season 2, and as I’ve said she seems to be regaining her humanity. Could it be said then that the evolution of a doll is to regain ones humanity? And if so, could Izanagi simply be a resulting side-effect of said evolution? e.g. a doll is a doll because one of the key aspects is their specter yes? Yet humans don’t have that specter, and Izanagi seems to be using, if not actually Yin’s specter!
Therefore, if we assume that the soul is different to a doll’s specter, then through Yin’s evolution, her specter has become a separate entity/being to Yin altogether, aka Izanagi. Also, because Hei is probably the only human in existence with contractor abilities, he is the only possible catalyst for said evolution, hence why Yin is the only doll undergoing the change!
So, in effect, Izanagi is not really a virus, but more like a part of Yin that is slowly gaining self-image and awareness, and just happens to be really bad-ass. :smile: Also, this could explain why there is the black Izanagi and the white Yin, one is a result of evolution – an unneeded element – while the other is the soul of a human…
I could be reading to much into it, and really I just wrote what came to mind, but it could be something.
Another thought, Hei’s ability is not necessarily one designed only for death, so it is highly possible that he could have the ability to manipulate a soul… after all, he did modify those gate particles on the molecular level… Yeah, I’ll have to say Yin is so still alive.
Man I love DTB, and this site…
*edit*
Season 2 final episode: If we take the idea that it was Yin’s soul Hei was talking to before her *apparent* final moments, then truly, how could Hei possibly destroy her? I did say he could have the ability to manipulate a soul, not necessarily destroy, so in that last shot of him walking away from the camera with Yin in his arms, what’s to say that he is not merely holding her body, but her soul? After all, wasn’t her body meant to be an empty shell?
As for my thoughts for the season 2′s final episode, I think that boy who looked like Yin was Izanami. Like Dustin I also think that Hei used his ability to force Izanami out of Yin somehow and separated them. I don’t know how but after that Izanami got itself a body and when Smith and his men came Izanami sucked their souls. That is to show that that boy is Izanami.
When Yin’s soul released, it has probably gone back to the body. Then Hei ran away while carrying her body.
Hei smiled when Yin said it’s not too late to kill her. He wasn’t thinking of killing her but driving Izanami away and taking Yin back. Hei’s not the type to smile upon remembering a memory but Dustin might be right about Yin saying something like “kill me” in the last two ovas.
I think the evolution of Yin is caused by her feelings for Hei. Hei is special but the reason why people interested in him is because he doesn’t think or act like a contractor. Mao, Havoc, November 11 and Wei thought about him like that. Amber liked him even before she became a contractor. (I don’t remember it well but I think Amber became a contractor after the disappearing of the Heaven’s Gate. If I’m wrong please forgive me) In the last episode of the season 1 Huang said he was pissed because Hei was being indecisive and told him to become both a human and a contractor if he can’t choose between them. That’s what makes Hei special. So I think the reason for her evolving is her feelings.
Thanks for reading. I’m glad to talk with people who likes DTB as much as me. :smile:
@Dabookman
I wouldn’t give the writers at Bones too much credit if I were you. Part of what makes a story bearable is the mysteries surrounding it. If they told us everything there would be no action.
On Dolls Reclaiming Souls and Becoming human:
Dolls and contractors never really stop being human. If you go back and read some of Passerby (and my) conversations for the second season and most particularly on the DTB OVA preview you’ll notice how often contractors with emotions and unlogical actions all the time. The difference between Dolls and Humans can thus be summarized by two things: Surveillance specters and Contractor Powers. In other words Dolls will never really be human again as long as they have their surveillance specter and in some ways this makes them super human. As for reclaiming their “soul” I am of the opinion that they never really lose it. It’s more like a really hardcore brainwashing that doesn’t let you access your memories. You lose who you are, but who you are never really loses you.
Izanagi is probably best thought of as simply a plot device for the viewer to sympathize with Yin. What really pisses me off is it’s working because it’s Yin. They wanted doomsday and prophecy so they created a damsel in distress. The evolution of Izanagi is probably just an entity born from the gate within Yin. Yin consciously stops it for a time, but it could have been her close interaction with the gate itself that implanted Izanagi within Yin. We shouldn’t go jumping to conclusions about soul evolution where Izanagi could simply be a heinous mold that will continue to grow whether Yin was rediscovering herself or not.
Hei carrying white Yin is a no in my book. My best proof is the hair. If you’ll notice in the final carrying away picture that is clearly Yin’s regular blue hair, not the glowey stuff going on with the Izanagi surveillance specter stuff. Not to mention the nakedness factor which relates to the body inside the tube more than the white Yin soul.
Fun theories, but they might be straying a little to far towards plain subjectivity when the original assumption wasn’t grounded in enough fact (Not to mention Bones didn’t give us much to work with! They want to tease us by not working out the physics of their own universe.)
:)!
@kawasu
If you’ll recall July left a young boys body laying about. Izanami only stole his soul for the new copied world. Perhaps Izanami just rewrote a bit of DNA to suit her tastes :). Or she could have had Shion make a male copy of Yin for her to take. The non perfect copies and all.
Two things bother me about the final scenes in season 2. For one we suddenly see a naked Yin that doesn’t look anything like white and black Izanami/whatever. Secondly I don’t believe Hei would have just left Yin’s body after spending so long finding it. WHAT IF what we saw was him placing white Yin back inside of her original body while Izanami took said clone (as hypothesized in my comment to Dabookman). It would make a little bit of sense. We don’t know how long it took Misaki to get there and the time between Hei’s smile and Misaki’s aerial view could have been enough to retrieve the body from wherever he gently laid it and combine said soul back into its container.
You and I are thinking the same thing. Smiling does not equal killing. There’s a reason why Hei was drunk, depressed, and angry for most of the series (He though he had to kill Yin). A smile is a sign of relief (He doesn’t have to kill Yin; or Yin isn’t dead).
I’m pretty sure Amber was a contractor for the entire war in South America. She was supposedly considerably older when she acquired her power and some even believe she is the star gazer. Case and point same colored eyes and the star gazer wasn’t frozen when Amber used her powers. It’s true Hei is special, but the people who develop the feelings are also partially to blame for their own evolution. Contractors making irrational feelings has been shown outside of just people who interact with Hei. The difference is that Hei is a model to them of the fact that they can in fact be irrational. After they discovered that (even if they didn’t know he was actually human) they couldn’t help but let those other parts of themselves come to the surface.
As for Yin, I think she was just dealing with some tough stuff and needed companions more than anything. When she lost her mother she effectively lost all that was left of her family. Thus when Huang, Mao, and Hei adopted her (kind of) they became her surogate family and allowed her to deal with the problems she had been burying since her mother died. “I thought I felt my heart move.” to me was when she allowed herself to reopen the floodgates. Hei just provides support to all of the characters in his life. His unwavering love for Bai allowed her the wiggle room to discover she didn’t like what she was doing. It’s like waking up after sleep killing for all those years, because someone is embracing you.
Well you’re in good company here than. If Passerby happens by I’m sure he’ll have a lot of good things to say… Haven’t seen him around in awhile though.
am i not looking in the right place for your review of OVA 3 and 4? would LOVE to read your thoughts on it as it has answered many questions and yet posed so many more!
Unfortunately, as you might have guessed, you can’t find them because I haven’t written them :P. Hmm, I’m not sure when I’ll have a chance to write them either. Maybe this weekend I could write up OVA 3…
OVA 3 and 4 thoughts posted as of in half an hour (written but getting pics).