Darker Than Black Episodes 5 and 6: Red Giant Over Eastern Europe; Episodes 7 and 8: The Scent of Gardenias Lingers in the Summer Rain

I'm sorry that I've fallen a little behind with this. I've had a busy week and it was just hard to find the time to sit down and really pay attention to something. Since I had a bit more time today, I decided to go for break and knock out four episodes at once. So first off, episodes 5 and 6.

I really, really loved this story arc. I've been enjoying the series up until now, but this is when I feel like I was really sold on the series. These episodes manage to really move the story forward while introducing some intriguing new characters who I felt were really well written. It reminded me a bit of Cowboy Bebop around episode 6, where the story really starts to pick up.

Speaking of Cowboy Bebop, it's worth mentioning that the music in this series is terrific, and it's done by Yoko Kanno. I'm not particularly into anime music, so if I feel like it's comment worthy, tha'ts saying something. It's nice to know that the two series share something outside of pacing.

In case you couldn't tell, I was a tremendous fan of these two and I was sad to see them finished. I can't wait to see more like this, and more of some of these characters.

Rating: 95/100

Now, onto episodes 6 and 7!

As the above image might suggest, this was a pretty big departure from the series thus far.  I feel like I'm being harder than this story arc than I should due to the awesomeness of the last one. A good part of these episodes was genuinely hilarious, and I laughed a plenty, but it's just not what I felt like seeing after getting all caught up in the story.

These two episodes revolve almost entirely around characters we've never seen before and I imagine we'll never see again, although I could be wrong. It's definitely going for a humorous filler feel, and as I said before, there were a lot of great jokes. The first episode is a lot stronger than the second one, and it goes from silly to just plain weird.

In case you're thinking of skipping this one, I did want to say that there is a little backstory for Mao in this arc, so if you don't want to miss that, don't miss these. And hey, if you like fan service, it's got that too.

Rating: 82/100