The stars fell on Vladivostok

[starlady]

Darker Than BLACK - Ryuusei no Gemini 02
Flying squirrel to the face FTW! And, omg, I love Hei so much. I love Suou, too, though in a completely different and slightly less admiring way. For that matter, I love Misaki too (and I want her mountain bike). The Magician and the other contractors are pretty kick-ass, I must say--I can't decide which of them is the most badass, though it might be the golemist.

I find the use of language in this show pretty interesting, actually. When the golemist contractor (can't be arsed to look up his name) runs into Suou, he runs through Mandarin and then German before she starts talking in Japanese, and he explicitly says, "Oh, you speak Japanese!" Now, this is interesting because it's Vladivostok and all the signs are in Russian...but even the Russians speak Japanese. So it's kind of schizoid on the show's part, but it also shows a not-inconsequential gesturing towards some kind of authenticity.


So, it seems pretty clear that Yin is dead. Can't say I'm surprised, though I am sad, for her sake and for Hei's--I mean, what hasn't he lost? And now he's in hock to the CIA to boot? When they ran after the Tokyo Explosion, he had to have feared it would end up like this, but even the most pragmatic of people--even a half-contractor like Hei--have a hard time extinguishing hope.

I also wonder whether that field-thing has robbed him of his contractor powers: certainly the fact that his star, as observed by Misaki, vanished would seem to indicate that. Though when contractors actually die, their stars fall rather than just disappearing, so it seems like, once again, Hei is unique. (But if the field took Hei's powers, wouldn't it have taken the Magician's too? Or is he dead? I can't quite believe it will be that easy. Or is the field keyed to the Magician, to leave him unaffected?)

Comments

[kaigou]

I don't think the contractor (who fired up the field) even knew of the Magician prior to that moment -- since she remarks on how his ability works, in a tone like she's surprised and/or figuring him out. But if the Magician is/was with April and July 5th, that means he's Brit, right, and with MI5...whatever it is. A little strange to see a storyline where CIA and MI5 are at cross-purposes. So used to seeing them as allies. But anyway.

I'm not sure Yin is dead, or if she simply returned to the syndicate for some reason. That's my theory for now, since every now and then I get this crazy feeling like I wouldn't mind a happy ending. Once or twice. (And oi, how long are we gonna have to go before Hei shaves?)

[starlady]

That's my theory for now, since every now and then I get this crazy feeling like I wouldn't mind a happy ending. Once or twice.

Gee, aren't you asking for a lot. ^_^

Hmm, I think you're right about Ms. Ninja and the golemist probably not knowing the Magician--but he's definitely MI6, like April and July. And it is weird that the CIA and MI6 aren't working together, but James Bond could vouch that they don't always.

I keep hoping that Yin isn't dead, but she said 'farewell' in a context that seems questionable, and 'farewell' is such a loaded word--and is the syndicate a place, or an organization that's just made of people? And I wouldn't put it past the syndicate to be playing all the parties in Vladivostok against the middle.

[kaigou]

On second thought, Yin being out of the picture (by whatever means) does:

1. Give our hero legitimate reasons to angst. (He really wasn't angsty at all, comparatively, in the first season.)

2. Effectively isolates our hero completely. No helper, no ghost, and thanks to the last minutes of the first episode, not even the cat. Sheesh!

3. Opens the door to the chemistry between himself and Misaki.

But those three do mean, I think, that the story's going to be pretty bleak for him for awhile, I'd bet. Which is okay, really, if he'd just shave. *eyeroll*

[starlady]

The weight of his angst is such that he cannot lift a razor!

Yeah, I've always been a not-so-secret Hei/Misaki shipper, so I don't mind that possibility being (re?)opened, particularly since the loss of his contractor powers (which I'm assuming) humanizes him even more.

I think that Hei and Suou are going to be thrown together for the rest of the series--talk about odd couples--and it's interesting that, except for Mao, Hei is always surrounded by women. The show certainly has had a lot of womens in all sorts of roles.

I need a new icon.

[starlady]

You know, I was thinking about it some more yesterday, and it occurred to me that maybe we're supposed to read Hei as "old(er)" because of the facial hair? Since he's presumably of some Asian ethnicity, of which men don't usually grow facial hair until their 30s, and his life as one of/among contractors has gone on for something like 12 or 15 years afaik, maybe we're supposed to see that and think that he's old? (In which case it might be a possible sign that he's going to die at the end of the series?)

I think the primary signifier is still scruffiness/doesn't care about life (see especially his reply to Mao's comment about his drinking), but especially compared with the first series, when he masqueraded as a college student and everyone called his doppelganger "-kun," it does seem to be quite a contrast.

[spacevlad.livejournal.com]

I think it's impressive and surprising that an anime is addressing the fact that other people speak different languages AT ALL. 99% of shows, it's like they go somewhere totally different (Italy, USA, Brazil, whatever), and hey!, everybody knows Japanese without a word of explanation. I know it's simply a matter of utility and convenience, like how everybody speaks English (British English, usually) on Doctor Who (but, but the TARDIS is translating through a telepathic mind-link with The Doctor!), but it's still always a little detail that gets overlooked.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I think it was in my mind since I was just reading the Wikipedia entry on Stargate: Atlantis (or one of them) and it explicitly brought up the fact that everything was in English.

The awareness of language seems to be becoming (very slowly) more common in anime, though--or at least, in Eden of the East the first episode takes place in Washington, D.C. and the Japanese characters intermittently address the Americans in Engrish--though the Americans then mostly reply in Japanese. Schizoid, but interesting.

ETA: Or how everyone speaks English in Star Trek. Later shows are better on that front, but they don't mention the Universal Translator often enough, to my mind.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I think it was in my mind since I was just reading the Wikipedia entry on Stargate: Atlantis (or one of them) and it explicitly brought up the fact that everything was in English.

The awareness of language seems to be becoming (very slowly) more common in anime, though--or at least, in Eden of the East the first episode takes place in Washington, D.C. and the Japanese characters intermittently address the Americans in Engrish--though the Americans then mostly reply in Japanese. Schizoid, but interesting.

ETA: Or how everyone speaks English in Star Trek. Later shows are better on that front, but they don't mention the Universal Translator often enough, to my mind.

[ariadnechan.livejournal.com]

yay for universal translator is a really good save ass in the language department!!


I love Star trek!!!

[ariadnechan.livejournal.com]

i love darker than black!!!
i watch only episode 1 but i like it

Suo is a good character and she speak japanese because her mother was japanese about the others i don't know i will see the chapter 2 and i will comeback commenting...!!

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

It's such a good anime.