Darker Than Black Episode 23: God is in His Heaven

Darker Than Black's first single parter episode is one part sweet and wistful, and one part action packed. The pacing on this episode overall was really wonderful, and it made me wonder how some of the weaker past episodes might have benefited if they hadn't had to stretch their story across two episodes. The writers of this show can clearly fit plenty of events and character development into 22 minutes or so.

Things in the Darker Than Black world seem to be headed pretty quickly towards a climax, and it certainly seems like the next few episodes will be pretty interesting. I am worried that a few things aren't going to get addressed before the season's end, but that's when I have to remind myself that there'll be plenty of time for wrapping up loose ends in season two.

I particularly liked the moments between Li and Misaki in this episode. One of the things I enjoy most about Li as a character is that I'm never sure how much of what he says is an act and how much is really him, and their time together kept me guessing. You really get the sense of what the world must have been like before the Hell's Gates events in this one, and I imagine that'll add quite a bit of emotional weight to the stories yet to come.

Rating: 94/100

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Kämpfer Episode One

Kämpfer tells the tale of a 17 year old boy, Senou Natsuru, who is chosen to be a "Kämpfer", a sort of magical girl who apparently fights other magical girls. Apparently, menfolk can't be magical girls, and so he has to sprout a pair of breasts every time he transforms. If it sounds like nothing but fanservice, that's because it is. There's not really much of a reason to watch this show apart from that.


Kämpfer is adapted from a manga, and it feels like it- the plot simultaneously felt both rushed and sluggish. There's an exposition dump early on that's delivered by a disemboweled stuff tiger. As I type that sentence, it sounds like it should be a lot of fun- the whole series does- but Kämpfer just felt dull to me.

There's not to say there's not an audience for this. I enjoy guilty pleasure shows from time to time, and Kämpfer actually reminds me a bit of Shuffle!, one such show that I had a lot of fun with. But there isn't anything like the antics of God-chan and Satan to keep me entertained like I was with Shuffle!, and since I'm not particularly into Shuffle!, I'm going to go ahead and drop this series right from the get go. It's clearly not for me.

Rating: 68/100

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Darker Than Black Episodes 21 and 22: City Under Crankdown, Moist With Tears

It looks like my worries about the show taking another dip in quality as it ended are unjustified so far. This was without a doubt one of the best story arcs yet. We were hit with an explosion of stuff happening, and I'm very anxious to see how each piece of it will wrap up. The episode was full of new characters and old familiar faces, and it was wonderful to see.

There's no way I can talk about this episode without mentioning a certain spoiler-tastic scene.

» Major Spoilers Under Here «

November 11 is such an awesome character, and it was awful to see him die. I never felt like we got enough of him, and there's so much I'd love to learn about him. But man, what a death scene. It's the best one I've seen in an anime since the end of Cowboy Bebop. I was fighting back the urge to salute my computer screen.

This is the last of Darker Than Black's two episode story arcs, and I'm excited to see what they do with single episode pacing. Because of the massive events of this episode, I'm hoping things will all be pretty continuous from here on out with no filler. I'm glad that season two is not far away, because it's going to be really hard to see this series end.

Rating: 96/100

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The Sacred Blacksmith Episode 1: Knight

The Fall 2009 anime season is finally upon us, and with that comes new show recaps! The first show I've checked out so far is The Sacred Blacksmith, and while it was not great, I think it was worth giving at least another episode to.

The Sacred Blacksmith takes place in a medieval fantasy world full of knights, one of whom is Cecily Campbell. We see early on that she is not a particularly good knight- the show opens on her having her life saved for a third time by another character- but she's a cute one, at least. Based on the opening and ending theme, the show looks to be full of cute anime girls, so it may be worth checking out for that factor alone.

While watching this episode I often felt like I was watching cutscenes from an RPG instead of watching an anime, and that playing The Sacred Blacksmith as a game would be more fun than watching it. They're not breaking the mold here. The Sacred Blacksmith is fairly bland, typical RPG fare, and when there's not gameplay to break that sort of thing up, it can get dull pretty quickly. However, The Sacred Blacksmith picks up near the very end of this episode and turns into something a little more interesting. If the show focuses more on that sort of thing than standard RPG adventures, I think I'll be able to keep watching The Sacred Blacksmith. For now, it's only a few episodes away from being dropped.

Rating: 75/100

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Darker Than Black Episodes 19 and 20: Dreaming Swallow, Uninebriated

And with this episode, Darker Than Black is right back where it needs to be. There aren't many story arcs left, and although this episode was terrific, I'm still feeling a little nervous for the future of the show. It's been back and forth in quality for so long, and there's not really enough time for the series to do any more stories that don't move the main plot forward at all. I suppose no matter what happens, there's still the second season to look forward to.

This episode finally let us see a little bit of Huang's backstory, and his character makes a lot more sense now. I think I'll have a new appreciation for a lot of scenes when I go back and re-watch them. During the first episode, I enjoyed the flashbacks a lot more than the main story, but the second episode of this arc was much stronger, and the story was at its best when the past and the present were running into each other.

In spite of my misgivings about the future of the show, there was some interesting set up that I hope they follow through on, and the episode itself had some beautiful scenes, especially near the end. If the series continues on an upwards path from here, I'm sure this season will go out with a bang.

Rating: 93/100

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Watch Darker than Black Online

If you've been following my Darker than Black recaps and are curious about checking the show out for yourself, you're in luck! Funimation has free episodes of Darker than Black available to watch on their site. You're able to choose from dubbed or subbed, and quite a few episodes are available. If you're already watching Darker than Black, fear not! There's lots more free anime on their website. Just go to the video section of Funimation.com. Have fun watching!

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Darker Than Black Episodes 17 and 18: A Love Song Sung with a Trash Heap

Darker Than Black has fallen into a weird little pattern, and it's starting to bother me. The show will start getting better and better, until I'm totally psyched up for whatever's coming next, and then the show drops in quality a bit and doesn't do much with the awesome storylines they have set up. Even the animation in this arc wasn't anywhere near as good as the last few episodes.

I enjoyed these episodes in spite of that, but it's really frustrating to keep going from amazing episode to stuff like this. I wish the show had had more of a slow build to awesome instead of this constant back and forth. If this episode had taken place earlier in the series, I think I would've enjoyed in quite a bit more.

That said, there were still some wonderful scenes. Mao didn't play a huge role in this episode, but he absolutely shone in his limited time on screen. I liked the continued development of Yui's relationship with Li as well as her interactions with one of this arc's new characters. I hope that we'll learn more about dolls in an episode soon, but I suppose there's always manga and the next season for that.

Rating: 89/100

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