Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Dripfiq109
Firstly I would like to say that please watch the specials before starting s2 because that’s how u can basically enjoy the anime without too many wtf moments like why tf is this so different from s1.
Overall at the start of s2 I didn’t like it very much bcz of Hei being very different and the idea of a loli as the mc instead of hei but hei is still very much the protagonist trust me it gets better as u watch more.
There is some mad story pacing like perfect the more I watched the more sense it made and the better it got until the end
Just hope hei is happy finally after the end and well an s3 would be appreciated but what reason has hei left to fight now. Man should be happy but still an s3 is much appreciated and specially cause Theres a ton of stuff to cover and lots of mysteries to…
Read at the sourceslightexag
Review on rewatch. S02 of Darker than Black exists only to show us to be careful what we wish for when we ask for another season of something good. The world would be better off without this. It takes the most interesting and cool character of the first season (Hei), neuters him, gives him alcoholism as a cheap has-been trope, then focuses on a new character nobody cares about. Everything that was interesting about the first season, from the noir vibe, to scifi intrigue, to funny or gripping side characters -- all this goes out the window with terrible writing.
This stands right up there with Haruhi Suzumiya's Endless 8 as far as biggest middle finger to the fanbase goes. If you want more of what makes the first season interesting, I'd try Psycho Pass or something else. S01 would've been…
Read at the sourceHumbertoZero
Darker than Black Genesis of the Meteor
Well, where should I start? I honestly liked Darker than Black since the first episode, I got that vibe of “I'm going to like this” since the first episode and that’s is basically the same feeling I got with this second season.
[THIS WILL BE A SPOILERS FREE REVIEW - Only the names of the MC will be named]
I’ve seen many people commenting that they hate this season, that is bad, bla bla bla. I tell you what, this season is awesome. Don’t let other people tell you it’s bad because it is not.
Yes, this season is different from the original Darker than Black but it keeps the essence.
This season takes another aim to what the first Darker than Black was. It still has our beloved Hei, but it doesn’t take place immediately after the ending of the first…
Read at the sourcesantaisyummiest
This is a spoiler free broad strokes review. Other reviewers have hashed out just how terrible the plot is, this is here to tell you DTB season 2 might as well be called anther show.
Following Darker than Black season 1 my reaction to this show was "what the **** did I just walk into?" The first season of the show established a paranormal world with a gritty undercurrent of syndicates, corporations and political alliances. There were assassins and undercover operations and some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. Okay, that's cool. But primarily the first season of the show was SERIOUS.
DTB season 2 is NOT SERIOUS. There is a magical girl transformation scene that is in the first episode. The animation studio spent a budget on this and decided that hot damn they were going to make use of t…
Read at the sourceZephSilver
I had a rather a hard time wrapping my head around the thought process taken up by the scriptwriters of this show. They had an almost infinite pool of ideas to work with, from the origin story and reasoning behind the Hell's Gate manifestation to endless detours that could have been taken up using the Contractors and Dolls as parables for sociological issues plaguing current society; the possibilities were endless. It seemed that with all the mysterious themes being left in a shroud of ambiguity and the multifaceted approaches to tackling them just on the cusp of being explored, any route could have been taken that would have resulted in a decent sequel. Taking a shot in the dark with any one of these ideas should have yielded something worthwhile. But for reasons beyond comprehension, ins…
Read at the sourceArsene_Lucifer
If “Darker Than Black” was a band than their follow up album would be considered selling out. “Ryuusei no Gemini” is nothing like the first season coming across as an entirely different anime. It panders to the audience, the action is over the top, the soundtrack is less memorable, and the direction of the entire anime is different. Not all the pieces connect properly, but it is a decent follow up to the first season of “Darker Than Black”. It never reaches the same heights of season one, but it does have its own strength that makes it worth watching including an ending that is best described as unsatisfactory.
Oh, there will be minor spoilers. While not intentional and kept vague as possible, it takes place a whole year after the first season of Darker Than Black and Darker Than Black:…
Read at the sourcellama612
I really enjoyed the first I guess season of Darker than black. It was entertaining, had a good story and enjoyable characters.
Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini is enjoyable as well, but not as enjoyable as the first season. It feels like a completely different series. Like someone has taken the characters from Darker than Black and put them into a different Tv show. So I will list some pros and cons of this series.
Pros
1. The action is good and Hei still kicks ass.
2. The story is good and quite interesting. Quite different from Darker than Black but still enjoyable.
3. The characters are quite well done, the new ones and old ones.
4. I really liked the intro and outro music, this is just personal taste here but it is really good and fits nicely with this series.
Cons…
Read at the sourceLucentRivers
Darker than Black (the original season) is the best anime I have ever seen. It is very hard for me to choose a favorite, but if forced to pick just one, it would be Darker than Black. Every aspect of it is tightly woven to create this incredible tapestry of imaginative concepts, enjoyable characters, heady philosophies, mystery and suspense, beautiful art, emotional music, and most of all the story has a very deep, important and relevant message to deliver to viewers about society and the consequences of treating minority groups as subhuman and unequal. There is immense social value to the story outside of just entertainment and art.
Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor takes everything beautifully crafted by the first season and smashes it with a mallet. Unfortunately it does not find…
Read at the sourceAviJii
Before you read this one, I would let you know that I am just a newbie when it comes to anime and I am not totally good when it comes to anime terms and words. Also I am not a good reviewer like the others in here. But, still I like to write a review for this and I will deliver it in a simple way based on my own opinions.
Whats new in this series? A lot of changes. Yes a lot of changes, that would includes the characters, appearances, mood, settings and the story itself.
What word might really fit in this series is the word "Explore" yes, DTB-RNG really explored a lot in many aspects to make this series really great. Though it's just disappointing because it only has 12 episodes and there is no Season III for it unfortunately.
Okay, here's my score for this.
Story 8/10 : This is quite…
Read at the sourceHappycougar
I was actually pissed off from this sequel to darker than black, after watching the first season and the specials i had high hopes since other two were pretty damn good. The second season made Hei a drunk and a lot less of a badass in my opinion. The story was confusing and boring, it made Mao a freaking squirrel, and brought us Suou, a really annoying girl with a really dumb contractor ability. The only reason i probably finished this anime was b/c it was darker than black and i decided to keep going to see if got any better but it didnt, Would not reccomend to anyone even if you did enjoy the first season.
Read at the sourceSeriousRatings
Style - DTB2 has style, this cannot be denied. Even though it had its flaws, animation and art was not one of them. The style is on par with Season 1 and Gaiden. 3 out of 3.
Character - I am not exaggerating when I say that there are no likable characters in Season 2. Hobo Hei? Just a violent drunk child abusing hobo. Suou? A brat. Mao? An annoying squirrel; he barely even features in the story. How did he even survive anyway? He was supposed to have died in Season 1. Yin? Now a suicidal godlike being. I never liked Misaki anyway, she became obsessed with this one random guy for no apparent reason. It's like she has no life outside of chasing Hei. And then you add in the gender-benders, the lesbians and the pedophiles. I didn't feel anything when the characters died. 0 out of 4 for no lik…
Read at the sourcetrzr23
Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor
(JAP title: Ryuusei no Gemini)
The sequel to one of my all-time favorites… I went in with high expectations and I came out confused.
[ 1 MINUTE REVIEW ]
This is the highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed first season. It does not follow the usual two episode arc style, as in the first season. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it transforms into your more stereotypical shounen anime, which might appeal to many. Sadly, I am not one of them. Due to the complete shift in genre, Darker than Black, Gemini of the Meteor is no longer a slick Ocean’s 11 sort of anime, but rather a more brutal and Contractor version of Karate Kid, with a pro Contractor showing a young one the ropes. The music and animation are on the same plane as last…
Read at the sourceOiD
Compared to the first season this is pretty bad. Even though I watched episode after episode hoping for something to happen all I ended up with was frustration.
Kiko in the first season stuck out enough and now there is the cross-dressing father and his idiot son plus strange characters appearing without barely an explanation. Sure DTB is a series where you have to think about the hows and whys but we are still pretty much left without a hint about contractors and dolls.
There is a story to it but it feels lacking provably to the way it evolves. There definitely are good parts in it and plenty of them but there is also lots of stuff that could of had been done better. The "rifle materialization" scene with Suou is repetitive and feels like it's being used to waste time. Although Hei's abi…
Read at the sourceRampant
I am "a bit disappointed" in the rest of the reviews here, namely that so many of them reflect that this season was dreadful, yet hedge that to "being a bit disappointed" with it. This season was balls to the walls, shamelessly awful.
The defining feature of the entire series: how they manage to draw every character with dead eyes throughout the series, yet expect us to enjoy ourselves. The defining scene: horrible side character creation 1, dreadlock kids, sobbing and venting to horrible side character creation 2, his crossdressing dad, culminating in being more likely to make you laugh than cry as he sobs and whines into his cake. The defining question: how they expect us to believe Hei can still kick everyone in the world's ass with no powers and reduced to "living the good life" (that…
Read at the sourceabhishek14
Somehow the high expectations I had awaiting the sequel to a fantastic series were not fulfilled. Ryuusei No Gemini isn’t exactly a sequel to Kuro no Keiyakusha, but more like a separate arc in itself. It would be unfair to compare both of them as they vary in their style and storyline. For starters, the series are not bi-episodic; instead revolve around a single storyline involving a Eurasian female protagonist. Hei’s involvement through the series although significant, has not really been up to what it ought to be.
Storyline: 7/10
Suou Pavlichenko is a 13 year Eurasian girl whose life suddenly changes on a fateful day when she meets up with Hei. Involved in the mess of politics and war between the contractors, she seeks out on her own quest to find her missing twin, Shion. Alongside he…
Read at the sourcelosman
I don't know how anyone could give this season a score of 10. If you saw the first season then I don't know how anyone can say this season was just as good or better than the first one. In my opinion the first one was much better.
The story was decent and even though I do have a few complaints about the story it did keep me mostly interested in what was going to happen next. I wished more things were explained in the story. I mean yeah I did kind of expect some mystery like in the first season but come on in this one barely anything was explained. The only thing that was explained in full was how Mao lost his body. I just finished watching it and I'm not sure what exactly the ending was all about. I kind of understand but in the same time I'm still trying to get it all. When I saw the end…
Read at the sourceChameleon_Dude
I'm not really one for writing long reviews of anime I've watched, but I felt that I had to say something about this one.
Darker than BLACK - Kuro no Keiyakusha had a dark storyline and characters with very distinct traits, especially Hei. Darker than BLACK - Ryuusei no Gemini, the sequel seemed to forget these.
*Mild Spoilers Ahead*
This anime would have been great if it was a stand-alone, but it was unlucky enough to have expectations to live up to its predecessor. The main character, Hei - once a calm, collected, cold-blooded killer now stars as an umkempt drunk who abducts small children and beats them. Mao, the cat who had previously died, is now a flying squirrel and stays as one even though he had many oppertunities to possess a cat. Yin has turned from a near-silent doll into a.…
Read at the sourceItadakiimasu
This is by far one of the best anime i have ever seen. The twists in the story is enjoyable while still maintaining the viewer's hunger to watch for more. One thing about the Anime is that you can never cease to be amazed how superb the animation was done.
The story takes place after the first season which is more like a continuation of the original series. If you haven't seen season one yet - i strongly suggest you first watch the first season before continuing to read this review.
The opening and ending tracks of the anime were also a notable feature in the series itself wherein other anime don't really give much concern about how the intro and ending soundtracks will affect the anime throughout.
The new characters to the season has a major role in the series, more like a big plot twi…
Read at the sourceMorage1
Well, if I had to explain my take on Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini, I would have to be this:... watching the series felt weird...
The story, was interesting... different and new... But its got its holes...
Art, sound and animations were amazing. Definitely one of the best I've ever seen in any anime ever made... Truly astounding. Oh and I loved the opening, just so you know...
Characters were pretty good, but they don't explain themselves well... Why was Hei a drunkard? Does it fit his character? What was Suou's drive to do the actions he did?
Really... Everything was perfect... But not refined... and everything had major holes including the story... which hurt my enjoyment...
WEAKNESS
Here, I'll tell you guys what this story is missing. This sequel lacks what Deathnote and…
Read at the sourceRhedak
Please note that I just finished watching the last episode minutes ago and I'm kinda trying to sort my thoughts out writing this.
Darker than Black was never known to be the type of anime that explains everything, many things were and are left in the dark adding a whole layer of mystery to this fantastic world. Darker than Black 2 continues in this fashion but with quite a different approach. While the first season was mostly episodic, consisting of various story arcs with two episodes each, the second season is follows a continues storyline that is however developed quite well in my opinion.
It might seem a little bit cheese and typical in the beginning, but the story soon begins to ravel up and develop a bit of a darker feeling and the missing elements tying up to season 1 are also imp…
Read at the source