Anime: Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini

Critic's Log - Earthdate: June 20, 2012. Review #10: Darker Than Black: Gemini Of The Meteor.



When you head into a dark path, your journey may be stained with
blood, torment, and despair. It may be very difficult to see a light
through the darkness. Once that person finds this light he then will
have to decide whether to embrace it or cast it out and sacrifice it,
and then... The gate of the soul will open...



Okay, if that didn't make much sense... I did not intend it to... I
am making fun of the Next Episode Previews from the show if you haven't
noticed already, Here is Darker Than BLACK: Gemini of The Meteor.





I got to admit, I enjoyed the first season of this show and I sort of
had some expectations for its second season and I sure have something
to say about this season like every other anime, that's why I post
reviews here on the first place.



The story goes like this. Two years have passed since Hei and Yin
escaped The Syndicate. Making their way into Russia, Hei encounters a
young girl named Suo Pavlichenko, whose family has been gradually pulled
into the conflict between Contractors and various intelligence faction
groups. Meanwhile, Misaki Kirihara has quit her position in the Foreign
Affairs to begin her own investigation into Hei, the Contractors and The
Syndicate.



To be technical, this is obviously a sequel to Darker than BLACK.
Just like the first season, it is produced by Studio Bones. This is also
the first sequel that Studio Bones has made. The animation has improved
slightly and the thing that has gotten better is the action scenes. The
action scenes kick ass in this sequel and the animation makes these
scenes kick ass.





The humor sure has improved a bit. Some little moments got a chuckle out of me.



There is one major annoyance from the animation department with this
show. It's the repeated scene where Suo's gun appears from her pendant.
It worked the first time, but to use it again and again whenever she
needs the gun was quite lazy and it sort of annoyed me at times. I have a
lot to gripe about this show besides this...



First of all, if you liked any characters beside Kirihara from the
first season and haven't seen Gemini of The Meteor yet, you are going to
get bitchslapped. I just want to give a spoiler alert before you
continue on...You have been warned... how this show treated its
characters really pissed me off. If you liked Hei, say goodbye to his
Chinese electric Batman moments early on in Gemini of The Meteor. If you
liked Yin. She doesn't appear that much until the last two episodes...
If you liked Mao, Say goodbye to his cat appearance, the new character
Suo is treated as a main character in this season and the story is about
her and what she's going through. There are some minor characters that I
guess were interesting and some were pretty cool, especially Mina
Hazuki, she’s a katana wielding chick that kicks ass. Her katana looks
"Lightsaber"-ish, don't you think? If it is... The force is strong with
her indeed...





The soundtrack has a bit of a different tone than the first season,
the soundtrack isn't too bad but it can be a bit forgettable at times.
If you haven't noticed the credits in the opening or if you do not know
this at all. Yoko Kanno did not compose the music for Gemini of The
Meteor, the one taking her place is Yasushi Ishii... Don't know him; if
you are familiar with the TV show Hellsing, he composed the opening of
that show. According to some sources. This is his first composition for a
TV anime. The use of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was a nice touch and
of course with vocals as well in the song... But I don't have a lot to
say about the soundtrack; there were about 3 songs I thought were good.



The voice acting on both sides is good. The Subtitled Version and
Dubbed Version are just as good as the first season. You can't go wrong
on either version. Although to be fair, some cast choices in the dub
could have been slightly better but I didn't mind too much of the dub. I
thought Sonny Strait as Suo's Father sounded a bit under aged. Still
Zach Bolton's ADR directing does not disappoint greatly



If there is one big disappointment. It is the story itself. There
were some questions from Season one that sort of never gets answered.
Season One had a number of subplots going on and it seems that the story
is telling the viewer too many things put into 25 episodes, Gemini of
The Meteor is one continuing story about that girl Suo. I don't mind the
change of how the story is told. But the length of this show is a bit
too short and The Last episode was a disappointment. If there is one
thing that Bones should have did in the first place, it would be that
they should release the OVA's BEFORE GEMINI OF THE METEOR. I AM NOT
KIDDING, The OVA Prequel to Gemini of the Meteor explains on WHAT THE
HELL HAPPENED TO HEI AND YIN BEFORE THE SECOND SEASON! I was really
puzzled as to why it was released the way it was before. There are some
things I did not like about Gemini of The Meteor. When Hei loses his
powers, it was a bit early for that to happen, his hobo-drunk
personality was an interesting change, but it is somewhat forced to show
that he is depressed. Mao's sudden change to appear as a flying
squirrel since his cat form was killed, Seriously, WHY!? I liked him as a
cat. Yin being "Izanami" I guess fits but is explained in the OVA. If
you haven't seen Gemini of The Meteor yet, I absolutely recommend
watching the OVA first even though it was made after the Second Season
and thus making it a prequel to Gemini of The Meteor. It will make
watching Season Two less confusing and more easy to follow. The
character development still is shot to hell; the treatment of these
characters is depressing WAY TOO QUICKLY. Of all the characters, Suo is a
far more interesting Contractor than Hei, and Hei was the main
character. I really am disappointed on the presentation in the story and
this season could have been so much better too... It is such a shame
that Tensai Okamura who was known for directing Wolf's Rain to go this
low in changing a lot of things in Darker than BLACK. If I really have
to say which show is the weakest he's directed. It is Darker than BLACK:
Gemini of the Meteor.



Darker Than BLACK: Gemini of The Meteor is available by Funimation.



With That Said, Darker than BLACK has better action scenes than the
first season, but the character development and treatment is shot to
hell. The music is okay and the animation is still good. The Story for
Gemini of The Meteor does not meet expectations at all. This sequel will
most likely disappoint you. If you are willing to distance your
disbelief, you might enjoy this. This is a disappointing sequel to a
series that had some cool ideas.



I give Darker than BLACK: Gemini of the Meteor a 5.7 out of 10. It is SO and SO



Feel free to comment below and shoot for the stars

I usually avoid writing different reviews about different seasons of the same series but in this case it was necessary since the second season had some big differences in storytelling that brought out a lot of negative aspects of the first series. In any case, it would be better to be aware of the first season or even have read my review about it in order to fill in any blanks.

Let’s start by saying that sequels are most of the time worse than their first seasons. Either they reuse the same formula and become tiresome for being “one of the same” or make drastic changes that alienate the fans of the original. In this case Gemini of the Meteor (GOTM) went for the later and was received quite harshly by most. From my POV, I will say that I welcome experimentation in each addition to a franchise and I will judge it for what it is and not for what it should be in my imagination.

Art and Sound are of the same quality as before, only in this season there is less darkness going on (thus it is less Darker Than Black) and the characters seem more humane because they express more emotions than before. The main lead is now a drunkard, so he is more expressive by being more wasted; and the main girl is NOT a full Contractor, so she expresses a lot more feelings. The dialogues feel livelier as well for the same reason while the soundtrack is again nothing memorable in the longrun. I have no reason to give better or worse ratings here as the difference in details is not affecting the overall quality.

The Story is one step better and two steps worse than before but it’s not like you could expect something better from a SEQUEL made by we-have-no-storyboards Studio BONES. On the bright side, it now has more concrete plot and less stand alone episodes. On the less-dark-than-before side, this brings out the problem of the first season. THERE ISN’T MUCH GOING ON. While DTB was resetting the mission objective every two episodes, GOTM retains the same mission all the way, thus it is easier to get fed up with it. The series does not offer multi-layered elements inter-webbing into a complicating and thought-provoking setting. It’s quite simple actually; a rather linear adventure of a girl looking for another girl. So you can imagine how more boring it would be to stretch something that lasted two episodes before, to 5 times as much without being more complicating. I am in favor of an on-going plot but not when there is not much to be worthy of one.

The ending of GOTM hasn’t satisfied a single person I know of. Instead of delving deeper into what was left unlooked in DTB, it threw another mystery on top of the existing one before ending weirdly and without answering anything major once again. Not only that, but the hints of what is actually going on feel out-of-place, making you think it has nothing to do with the rest of the setting. Some compared it with what in going on in the finales of Neon Genesis or Clannad AS, if you remove all the foreshadowing. There is a set of OVAs which explain the backdrop story better but since they are extras, for all we know they were just ass-pulled in the storyline AFTER it was all over. They should have been part of the series and not a band aid.

The Characters improved a bit in emotions but gotten far worse in feeling. First of all, a single yet longer mission instead of short numerous ones means more screen-time for the characters and thus more time invested in immersion. And at first glance you would think they need it as Suou and Hei are showing a lot more emotions and angst than before, while each one of them has something going on in their lives that needs more exploration. At the same time, they don’t have much to make you be invested in them and most of the exposition is kept for the finale, which as I said it is bad on its own. So what is the point of giving more screen-time for characters who have nothing much to show in the first place? Didn’t DTB do that too in a slower pace because the individual secondary characters of each arc goggled up most of the time? It felt so much better there; they lost their charm here.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the storywriters removed Yin for most of the series. She was an established character with her own fanbase of sorts and for no reason they decide to keep her out of the way. Then they did NOT EXPLAIN WHY SHE IS NOW A RIVAL. The OVAs are again supposed to explain that but who cares if it’s shown after the party is over?

On top of that, this season focused a lot more on shy girls and less on macho killers. DTB was about cynical assassins, ruthlessly killing people all the time without showing any care about it. On GOTH we have a coming-of-age of sorts regarding shy Suou while everyone was going rabid about the absence of cooldere Yin. Poor Hei was left in the background and his drunkard issue went almost unnoticed because of the loli foreground. Distant as the cynical bastards of DTB were, they were still more uncommon than the over-abundant loli archetype that Suou is part of. What a bad turnaround for most to have this ecchi/moe element in a show that many liked for NOT being like most others. Some consider it a show about how an innocent girl is forced to slowly turn into a ruthless assassin in order to survive and go ahead in life; but come on, the bait of DTB were cynical bastards from the get-go and not the gradual becoming of one. And as far as sniper killer lolis goes, I found Gunslinger Girl far more interesting, for being a lot closer to the formula of DTB and not of GOTH.

Value and Enjoyment are lower for the reasons stated above. And it’s not as if it’s the change in the formula that is at fault here. It’s more about the refusal to change ALL the elements in the formula. Instead of offering story exposition that was so overlooked in DTB, they threw in more unanswered mysteries, gave the lead even less things to do, in a story that lasts longer without necessarily showing more to back it up, before ending it in a WTF way that feels out-of-place, and then attempting to explain it outside of the story with OVAs. No wonder it was a dud.

As always, be advised that this is no in-depth review of DtB:RnG. If you want to read one of those, check out grudgeal's, it's freakin' awesome. I just want to give you a short impression on the show, so you can decide whether you'll give it a shot or not.

Might contain minor spoilers.

Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini is, in short, another BONES show. Meaning the biggest problem I and most of the people have is the way the story ends. So, if you have just watched DtB1 and are going to watch this show, don't expect anything to be explained, in the end you'll just have more questions. But still, looking at the show outside of the regular storyline and accepting it as a show for itself, it is quite ok.
As already shown in DtB1, animation quality and sound are both on a very high level, although I wished the soundtrack was a bit more ear-catching (check out ep11, around 12:45 and you will hear what I mean). As for the story and the characters, that's quite a different thing. The main problem I see here is that Ryuusei no Gemini claims to be a sequel to DtB1, but rather than that it is more a show of it's own, loosely fitting around some of the characters of the first 24 episodes. Aside that, I think the plot around Suou is ok and both character and story offer some depth, especially her questions about her own existence and her family. You'll also notice that the tone of the show has changed due to that. DtB1 was way more adult and intriguing. In contrast to Suou' story, I found Hei's rather shallow, more like a simple excuse to fit the storyline around (this takes Kirihara into consideration as well). This contrast will climax when the show ends, you may be sitting there thinking "Wooah... and now?"
Giving the storyline a bit more thought and creating a satisfying ending would be the right things to do to turn this show into something good in my opinion.

So, in conclusion, I'd suggest you'd better not set your expectations too high for DtB2. It's an ok-show, but it can not keep up to DtB1 in any way. Well, maybe in the ending though, haha. If you give it a shot, keep in mind it could be more a story of its own rather than a sequel.

Whether this review was helpful to you or not, some comments and rating would be nice. Thanks

Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor -- Everything old isn't reused again.

**Warning: This review may contain mild spoilers and was slightly adjusted by a half-grade four hours post-publishing due to some first-draft edits. Yes, I'm a freaking sellout, now keep reading.**

So, after two years of waiting in silence and then half a year following the announcement, fans of the somewhat sleeper hit sci-fi/action series Darker Than Black (known from hereon in as DtB), made in 2007 by studio BONES, were finally vindicated. Me being one of those fans, I was expecting much the same from this season as the latter: More action goodness from Hei in a world following the (slightly confusing) ending of the original DtB, in which superpowered humans called 'contractors' share the world with regular humans that are now beginning to realize their existence.

Instead, the second season chose somewhat to take a departure from the setting of the original, forsaking the former protagonist, the former setting (Tokyo) and the former story structure of two-episode arcs for the benefit of a whole-season storyline focused on new character Suou Pavlichenko, the daughter of a Russian scientist, who somehow finds herself mixed into a contractor-based conspiracy focused on her brother Shion.

In abandoning the confines of episodic arcs, Gemini of the Meteor is both allowed to expand into a much greater and continious story... But it also runs into a snag: Namely that studio BONES still has some real problems in developing and especially in wrapping up epic stories, usually through cramming more story elements into the story than it has room for.

Animation and Visuals: 7/10 -- High-level visuals, as expected of the series.

DtB was always a good-goer in the graphics department, and the second season fills in just fine: It's basically identical to the first season for good or ill. While the detail work on backgrounds and showcasing of background animation doesn't quite match up to BONES' other graphics feast of 2009, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, it's well-competent enough, and the character models are workable, though many of the characters again resemble each other a bit too much at times. The fights are decently animated and the occasional shiny special effect doesn't hurt. For its genre, Gemini of the Meteor does just fine, even though in my opinion I've seen better this year from production I.G.'s Sengoku Basara and from BONES themselves last year with Soul Eater.

Sound: 7/10 -- Seems to be doing fine even without Yoko Kanno.

Gemini of the Meteor's sound, unlike with its animation, does actually carry a departure from the first season, in that the composer has been changed from the well-known Yoko Kanno to Yasushi Ishii, who has chosen to take the music in a bit of a new direction. The end result is something I'd refer to as 'distinctive' in many ways -- the music is noticeably different from the first season's, and also more noticeable period, sticking out more during scenes in comparison to Kanno's more subtle jazz soundtrack. While this also helps underline the change in direction and the music isn't half bad at all -- rather the opposite -- I do occasionally wonder if subtlety is, perhaps, better called for. Either way, DtB was never one of Kanno's best and Ishii certainly doesn't feel like a grave disappointment in comparison. The OP is entirely decent as well, though in tune with its new principal cast it's certainly different from the first season's and not really competitive with first season's "Howling".

As for the voice actors, half the cast consists of old-timers from the first series, who seems to be doing fine (although it seems to me like half of the words coming out of Kirihara's mouth is 'BK201', which rankles a bit...) and the new additions do ok as well, although many of them get criminally few lines.

Story: 4/10 -- So much confusion for so little gain.

The story of Gemini of the Meteor takes place in a world two years after the events of DtB's season finale, following Suou through her trials and tribulations in dealing with a brand new and mostly unrelated storyline to any of the events from the first season. The events of Gemini of the Meteor are, in all honesty, more like a story put in the same universe as the one containing the events of the first season, only with some characters and random elements from the first one thrown in to placate the fans of the first season.

The new story elements tend to be rather confusing as well, running through a gamut of bi-plots like Kirihara's reassignment to a mysterious section of japanese security, CIA involvement and some strange prophecy about the end of the world (which I partly keep obscured here in the interest of spoilers and partly due to the fact that I think I must have missed a plot point or eight about it all since none of it made any damn sense whatsoever), which combine into a strange mishmash of story elements that manage to form the bare-bones of a functional story that basically only serves to further obfuscate and confuse the leftover story threads from season 1 (like what the frak the Syndicate is) while adding further confusion from its own plot.

The original DtB's dependence on story arcs also had elements of this, but it usually managed by through a combination of solving plot threads by the arc, saving them for the overhanging plot about Evening Primrose and the nature of Hell's Gate and just plain playing to a sense of mystery: Gemini of the Meteor by contrast crosses the line into straight-up confusion, just throwing plot thread and plot twist in after each other and doing far too little to tangle them up. Adding to this is the fact that the middle episodes seem to be mostly a big diversion from the main story without pretty much any relevance whatsoever, and the quite frankly horrible ending that neither solved nor explained anything apart from dusting a lot of story elements under the carpet, as it were. It all brings up the thought that this thing was basically a big waste of time seemingly existing only to tease the audience for further sequels.

Ok, the show isn't *completely* hopeless: There are some elements in it that still work from time to time and the pacing in the middle is somewhat decent -- pointless, but decent. Overall, though, the whole thing kind of reminds me of BONES' earlier RahXephon (and Xamd: Lost Memories. Or just BONES, period), although less well-done since the point of RahXephon, unlike Gemini of the Meteor, was in many ways to highlight the psychology of the story's protagonists. I've seen worse but this is a far cry from being actually 'good' in overall shape or form, despite its occasionally well-made single elements that could probably have done better in an arc-based show like the prequel.

Character: 5/10 -- Ok... So who are all these new people again, and why should we care about them? Come to think of it, why should I care about the old people since they're basically just here to highlight the new people?

In making its new story, Gemini of the Meteor made a score of new characters to fill its new plot while sticking a few of the oldtimers into sidekick roles in order to underline that it's still DtB we're watching here. As the plot churns and drives its various confused story elements together, you cannot help but feel that the characters are simply dragged along for the ride, like astronauts caught in the gravity well of a black hole and about to be stretched like taffy as they plummet towards the Event Horizon (what an odd metaphor...), merely filling roles in the play without getting any time to be developed as characters. The notable exception to this is, of course, Suou, who is the main character and does in fact get something akin to character development and sufficient time to showcase her as a character. Ok, she's not terribly interesting as a main character and seems more like she belongs in a magical girl series than DtB (which does make it a bit entertaining in a sadistic way when the 'dark' bent of the DtB universe ends up killing her friends and family and erasing her existence from the survivors' memory), but at least she works.

Most of the rest of the new cast don't work as well, though; most of them seem to be ultimately about as important and well-characterized as the 'contractors of the week' from last season, only with a bit more screentime before they're killed off or rendered unimportant. To be honest, quite a lot of the time I ended up wondering just why the heck this character was added at all: I realize that giving everyone in the story a backstory or a fully written character is a waste, but in many ways the scope of the character's influence in the story should be somewhat tied to the amount of characterization: Gemini of the Meteor gives way too much story importance and linchpin-ness to characters who are severely lacking in this regard, which is not a Good Thing.

To add to this are some of the principle characters from season one, most notably Hei and Kirihara, who both play somewhat prominent though ultimately supporting roles in two of the storylines, and a third character who has essentially become a MacGuffin for this season. For the most part, what has happened to the characters between the two seasons is mostly unrevealed and any explanation behind said MacGuffin sure as heck wasn't forthcoming, which annoyed me. The old characters still work, but there's very little left to reveal or develop where they are concerned, and as I said their role appears to be mostly supporting anyhow. It kind of reminds me of how main characters in japanese RPGs get treated when the games get sequels with all-new main characters: Supporting cast that are never entirely allowed to live up to what they did in the last game since they're no longer main characters, however more powerful they may be. Some of the cooler characters like season 1, like Huang and November, obviously don't return, and we don't get good enough replacements for them either.

Value: 6/10 -- Fanservice for people who liked the first season, only without so much 'service' and more 'metaphorical punch to the face'.

Gemini of the Meteor, despite its new storyline and characters, is still very much a continuation of DtB's first season: Seeing it without having seen the first season will probably end up making the show feel even stranger and hackneyed than it did for someone who has seen the first season. It seems to be on this odd balance point between depending on the old show for its mythos and background, and at the same time partially trying to break free from its story, characters and progression. While DtBs 'mature' tone is somewhat carried over to this season, I'd still say that this season is less mature than the last one, mainly due to the kid hero main character; another departure that I don't like much -- although it was no Stand Alone Complex, the first season was a lot closer. Then again, even aspiring to maturity in the anime world nowadays is rare enough; I suppose some kudos are due for that. I certainly can't say it was all archetypes or cliches, so it's possibly still a bit above average.

In the end, was the show worth it? Well, I don't really feel like recommending it, and unlike the first season I neither really want to buy nor re-watch it. In the grand scheme of animes it is just another second season that bit over more than it could chew and fell flat. A curio for people who enjoyed the first season, but not much more.

Enjoyment: 7/10 -- Can still be appreciated for its mature tone and occasional cool content... At least somewhat.

Ok, so the story is hackneyed, the ending atrocious, the characters get criminally too little characterization and the recommendation level and historical value of this show are considerably lower than the first season, even with its now-continual storyline. But it is still fun?

Well, in a word, yes. Kind of. The 'Darker Than Black' feeling is still there, the fight-scenes are still well-animated and cool, and Hei is still around to live up to his memetic nickname of 'Chinese Electric Batman' even if his storyline role feels a bit hollow. There are still moments that feel at least somewhat emotionally engaging amidst much of the confusion, and the fact that it still doesn't have to take to grips with panty shots, moe characters, emotional overreactions and talks about power levels to offer a decent action show with public appeal makes me somewhat hopeful for the continued presence of maturity and capability of original material in anime (though perhaps not to the level that, say Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 or Eden of the East did). So, yeah, it's still kind of fun, though it pays heavily on the enjoyment front for the rather telling character and story flaws.

Total: 6/10 -- Another BONES story, for good or ill. Feels a bit too much like a waste of time for comfort.

So, how to summarize this? Gemini of the Meteor is tolerable. It can stand on its merits as a show, even though it's a bit of a wobbling standing of the kind induced by having one too many heavy objects dropped on one's head and the standee is now more shambing through life babbling about its brain-damage-induced hallucinations while occasionally striking a cool kung-fu pose (another odd metaphor... They must be on sale today).

Gemini of the Meteor does, in some ways, remind me sort of my 2009 favourite, Eden of the East, in that it feels kind of like an incomplete anime with a mystery-based story. Thinking about it, though, Eden of the East built its story entirely from scratch and whole cloth and has, in my eyes, the advantage that the mysteries behind the story are more intriguing, added to a much greater deal of charm. By comparison, Gemini of the Meteor has built its convoluted story on top of an already fairly convoluted setting carried over from DtB's first season, and its mysteries feels not so much a as puzzle to be solved by a later installment as someone who's tried to stack too tall a tower, with the bricks made out of variously and vaguely interlocking parts that don't pile directly on top of each other and instead intertwine all over the place, resulting in the whole thing partially collapsing without the developers noticing. Ultimately, Gemini of the Meteor is far more Code Geass R2 than Eden of the East -- taking elements from the first season and tossing them into a brand-new storyline before turning several of them up to eleven, in the process overcomplicating and partially strangling the appeal of the first season under the sheer weight of the new confusion.

...But I'll still be (grudgingly) watching for whatever third season or continuation will inevitably be made from this though. Darn you and your odd appeal BONES, darn you all to heck.