DARKER THAN BLACK - New Yok...

I really should have mentioned this earlier, too, but one of the series that's ongoing this season in Japan is "DARKER THAN BLACK", with animation by BONES. In the warped future city where it takes place, there's a huge wall that separates the city from a land that humans dare not enter. Ever since it appeared, the night sky has been replaced by an imitation, whose stars represent various people with special powers. There are Dolls, soulless bodies that follow others' orders; and Contractors, who gain supernatural abilities but have to perform a certain remuneration (such as aligning stones in a grid or cracking one's finger bones) every time they use their powers. Li Shengshun (or alternate spellings, depending on how you like to write your Chinese in English) is one such person performing certain tasks for his boss. The show is slowly developing its plot through a series of episodes focused on individual characters Li meets, so it's kind of similar to Cowboy Bebop in that regard, though the content of the plot (and the animation style) makes it feel a little closer to Witch Hunter Robin. The animation is pretty dynamic and smooth, plus it's in gorgeous 720p, like many of the shows this season, too.

Of course, the reason I'm writing about this show is not for the plot (interesting as it may be) but rather because of the music. The soundtrack is by the incredibly professional Yoko Kanno, the brilliant composeress behind both Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex soundtracks and many, many other famous works. Her work on this series so far is pretty muted by comparison: there are some mysterious string melodies and bell-synth stuff, maybe one or two instrumental rock tracks as background, and nothing that stands out particularly as of yet. It's still pretty decent music, though, and I expect that as the plot picks up pace, so will the quality of the music.

As for opening and ending themes, the opening is a pretty cool, if generic, rock track by up-and-coming band "abingdon boys school", whose only other credit on AnimeNewsNetwork just yet is for the opening to last season's (and continuing) Shounen Jump series D.Gray Man. The ending is sung by Rie fu, who's probably most recognizable from Bleach's first ending theme (the one that starts, "Nobody knows who I really am") though this time she's singing in Japanese, so it sounds a little better, though very much in the same vein.

In any case, this is another show this season that looks pretty solid, so go ahead and check it out. This, Hayate, and El Cazador are definitely much farther up on my list than some of the other things I've started watching this season, including Gigantic Formula (the character designs are fugly), Idolm@ster Xenoglossia (just... weird), and Shining Tears x Wind (it's based on a bad SEGA RPG, and it shows so much that it's unintentionally hilarious). I'll post an update if/when I hear anything about the OST for Darker Than Black coming out.