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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor + OVAs (Limited Edition) Blu-Ray + DVD
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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Small typo, Alison Viktorin would have been 30 when she did Sou, not 20 since she was born in 1981 not 1991.
I remember being really torn on the second series if I liked it more or less, there were certainly parts I liked more but didn't really like the ending. And I really need to see the OVAs again, the fansubs I found for them were atrocious and barely got the point across. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18497 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Ugh. I really know better than that. Corrected. (It does make her performance all the more amazing, though.) |
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kamanashi
 Posts: 65 |
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I enjoyed the second season more. Just felt like it had more direction and Suou was such an interesting character to me. But, I will say that the first season had better action, but that's just me. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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It's releases like this which helps cause confusion in the Anime fandom about how good something is. Basically, the second season is utterly incomprehensible and stupid without knowing what happened in the OVAs, and yet the OVAs were made after the second season. So it is likely that those who watched the second season's broadcast is going to be more confused and annoyed than those buy this release that actually has the OVAs on it.
Although, I do think it was vital that FUNimation include the OVAs, as not including them would have been far, far worse. |
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CG-LOVER
 Posts: 355 Location: East Lansing, MI |
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I'm watching this series right now, but honestly I was much more impressed with the first season that this. But it isn't because I dislike Suou or anything, because I do agree with the reviewer in that she was one of the highlights for the series. But then again, I feel she is kind of the only character who shines here. Mao is just a joke now, and Hei seems to have lost all of the elements which allowed me to sympathize with him in the first season, and I think he's just a drunken bastard now (plus it doesn't help that he's lost his powers too, as it provides fewer opportunities for him to show off his skills). The new characters (besides Suou) don't seem worth remembering their names either, especially those contractors from section 3. Most of them just seem to have a specific trait shoved on them so we can see how "unique" they are. But the show goes too far with it in my opinion, as if it's screaming at us "Hey look at how different and interesting these characters are!! Look, this one's a lesbian ninja contractor and this one's a cross-dressing dad! IT'S UNIQUE DAMN IT!!!". Personally, I just get bored by the characters' gimmicks within minutes and am thoroughly bored by them from then on. I certainly didn't get that feeling from the characters in the first season.
I also agree with the review about the production values, in that I can see a noticeable drop in quality overall as far as the animation goes. Close-up shots are still good, but there are consistently shots of characters in the background or multiple characters in one shot...and in those cases the animation seem a tad unpolished, which is especially disappointing considering how the animation was one of the high points for season one as well. As far as the plot goes, I am generally interested in finding out what happens to Suou, however at the same time the show is trying to balance another plot line involving Hei and Yin and whatever the hell is going on between them (bear in mind I haven't finished watching this yet). But with the bulk of the screen time going to Suou, and with only twelve episodes in the second season, I feel that there just may not be enough time to effectively develop this other plot point. Additionally, I am not the biggest fan of the show throwing all of these separate government agencies into the mix. I mean sure there were several of these groups in the first season...but again, there were far more episodes available to develop them. Now, we've got a butt-load of different groups getting involved in what eventually becomes a convoluted mess that seems unnecessarily complex. All that being said though, the elements that make Darker than Black well....Darker than Black are still mostly intact. And I can still at least enjoy most of the cool contractor battles. And again, I am quite enjoying Suou's journey to find her brother, and the story has included a few nice suprises I didn't expect so far (for instance spoiler[I just found out that Suou's dad is still alive somehow, really curious to find out how he pulled that off]), so there's that. All in all it isn't a bad show, but it certainly isn't the best. While I would give the first season of Darker than Black a 9 out of 10, I'd give this one a 7 out of 10 so far. |
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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There's pretty much no way that the show is hard-subbed, because then you'd always see the subtitles regardless of which language you were watching. However, it's entirely possible for a Blu-ray to be set up so that subtitles can or cannot be turned off depending on what audio tracks you're using, and I'm pretty sure that that's what they did here (my copy hasn't arrived yet, so I can't check yet). Right Stuf has this notice on its page for this release:
So basically, the Japanese put extra restrictions on what Funimation could do when releasing the Blu-ray, which sucks, but at least Funimation was able to release the Blu-ray. And if you rip the Blu-ray (which is what I always do, since I use Linux primarily), it's should be trivial to get around the subtitle restrictions, which isn't as nice as if there weren't any, but it's better than nothing. Now if only Funimation could get the rights to release the first season on Blu-ray... |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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Actually I think Funimation does have the BD rights for it. I think some from Aniplex said that not too long ago. |
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drdr48
Posts: 360 |
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Although I did liked the new heroine, I must admit that... all in all, DTB: GotM felt kind of pointless by the end of it.
Too short. Not a very satisfying ending. But my biggest problem was Suo... spoiler[They introduced this new heroine, built everything around her and in the end... just got rid of her, like she didn't even matter that much to the over-all story (especially if a 3d season will ever be produce)] I was very let down by it... |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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This is where I can sometimes get bugged by reviews, not because I so much disagree with them but when a reviewer states an opinion as though it were a fact. You found Suou a "far more interesting character than Hei ever was." I did not, particularly with the way her character arc, such as it was, terminated. I can't go through all the things that irritated me about her, but the biggest one was that she hogged the entire show with her story, when I would rather have learned more about Hei and Yin. Hence why I enjoyed the OVAs more than the second season. You acknowledge this isn't "fact" later on, but the way you put it so bluntly -- "she's better"!! -- irritated me. And they spoiler[depowered] Hei! What the heck!? My favorite new characters were actually Misaki's new co-workers. Her storyline probably saved the series for me. That and the awesome new soundtrack (I never liked Yoko Kanno's work on this specific series; nice music, but it didn't seem to fit). I liked it... it was just so disappointing. I know that you liked that this was a single, "tighter" story (never mind the countless loose threads it leaves untightened at the end), but part of what made Dark than Black appealing to me was the episodic quality of it. Each new story introduced a new focus of heroes and villains, with the continuing players of Hei, Misaki, November 11, and their respective teams, varying from a central focus to background characters. It let them do some world-building, which this series lacks. We don't really learn anything new about the Gates, Contractors, or anything... and I think I can speak for a lot of fans in that's part of what we wanted in a second season. I'm still up in the air about buying this. |
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Botan24
 Posts: 684 Location: Northern Michigan |
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^This. So glad someone else said it, because my dislike of Suou spans two or three paragraphs. Let's see if I can sum up: what bothered me the most is that Suou's character is entirely disposable! We see just how "important" she is at the end of the show when spoiler[they send her to another "earth".] I was already unhappy with Suou's introduction to begin with, but, by the end, she was meaningless, so much so, that she could have been written out entirely. And as far as her not being moe, that's complete nonsense. Maybe its because I'm a woman, but I felt that Suou was added to the mix to appeal to the demagraphic that enjoys young teenage girls. One example is how Suou has numerous costume changes throughout the show to display her varying stages of cuteness. We see her dressed 1) in her "everyday" clothes, 2) as a schoolgirl, 3) in her swimsuit, and 4) in cosplay. Not too mention the whole "magical girl" elements of her summing her huge ass gun. Oh, and we see her naked more than once (with Hei there in one scene! *cringe*) I'll just reiterate what vashfanatic said: the OVA's were much more enjoyable for me because they lacked Suou. Okay, enough about a character I didn't even like 
Truthfully, I was really thinking of quitting this after the halfway mark (six episodes in). However, if I'd watched the OVA's first, that would have shed some light on things to come. Which would have giving me a better understanding of the changes in season two. Then, I wouldn't have felt like I was missing something(which I was). Maybe that's not the right course for everyone, but I would still recommend that people view the OVA's first, then the second season. |
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kpk
 Posts: 484 |
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Yup, Suou's character was meaningless. Why was she even there? Her character had no real purpose...
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Thirded. I appreciated the second season much more after the OVAs, which were, again, really good. Heck, spoiler[Yin's transformation into... whatever she becomes] is downright terrifying stuff.
She was there for people to chase her, when in reality spoiler[they really wanted her brother and his power... for some reason. The ending was unclear.] But yeah, she's literally spoiler[a spare.] Now, don't get me wrong, I don't totally hate Suou, but I didn't like her anywhere near enough to feel she merited a 12-episode story arc. Had she been in one of the 2-3 episode arcs in the first series, I might have liked her more. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18497 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Admittedly, I probably should have said it more like, "Whether or not one likes Gemini of the Meteor largely depends. . ." Comments in this thread so far seem to be largely supporting my claim, however. While I thought the original series was a bit better, I did ultimately enjoy this series more, and it was entirely because of the focus on Suou. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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The second part was what I considered good -- the qualification. That is at least partially factual for many people. What I considered the incorrect opinion-as-fact was:
That's an opinion. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18497 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I thought understanding that was a given. |
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