Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 25: Are dreams of the Shinigami a darkness darker than black? ]

It took me quite a while to watch this episode but I finally did. At the very end of it though despite feeling satisfied in some way I had a hard time trying to think of what I want to say about this final episode and the series as a whole. So this will probably be a short review compared to others.

For some reason a part of this episode didn’t feel “final” for me. Though, I loved the scenes where Hei saw his sister, Xing/Pai, Amber and the rest of the dearly departed and the following scenes of Yin reaching out to save Hei (I really felt her sincerity in her voice asking him not to leave her behind) and him saving Misaki. I smiled at how Misaki knew that he was Li, though I wonder for how long she knew. In the end though, the finale was quite open-ended. There wasn’t enough closure for things such as the status of both Hei and Yin, the identity of the Syndicate, who the Stargazer is, and why the Gates came to be in the first place, among other things. No matter though, since I do feel that the end of the episode conveyed the final message pretty clearly and that is that Contractors and Humans will have to learn to coexist with each other as time progresses and I think that was put across quite while with Hei being both a human and a Contractor and the relationship/interactions he shared with Misaki as Li.

[ Final Thoughts ]

In a way I’m really sad to see this series end. I felt the same way when Reideen ended because I felt so attached to the characters and seeing them each week. Darker than BLACK started off with a lot of potential in the beginning and ended using up most of that potential but I still feel that a bit more could have been done. There were lots of interesting characters, plenty of exciting moments and more than enough thought-provoking plot points involving the Contractors and Dolls. I feel that this series can go on even if just for a short while in some format whether it be a second season or OVA. Speaking of which, an OVA is scheduled for release with the final DVD release some time next year. It’s going to be quite a wait but I don’t mind, it’ll be interesting to see what it contains and whether it wraps up some of the loose-ends and shows us how Hei and Yin are doing.

[Overall series review: 89/100]