Kyuuki-chan
But if moe is a turnoff for you, try to look past it. What you've got in Darker Than BLACK, as established in the first season, is a setting that sets it's characters in a world not too unlike our own, not too far into the future, and with it's own set of secrets and shows us that world from the perspective of the characters. The characters range from mundane normals to super-powered, coldly inhuman Contractors, and emotionless, mediumistic Dolls. It's a series with plenty of action that explores the preconceptions established in the series. It's a series with some depth to it that can make you think, but that you don't have to think about too much to enjoy.
In the beginning we see Suou, who is half Japanese and half Russian, living in an out of the way area of Russia as a normal schoolgirl. Her brother is locked away because he became a Contractor and her father wants to limit her contact with him because Contractors don't necessarily care about family bonds and the like. Shion appears to care at least somewhat about his sister, but he has absolutely no care for their absentee mother. Despite the little issue with her twin brother becoming a heartless super-powered (potential) killer and the absentee mother her life still seems pretty idyllic. At least until her friend who, just the day before being a girl in love who just had a guy ask her to be his girlfriend and getting all blushy and gushy over him, started wanting nothing to do with her friends and the guy in question, herself having become a Contractor. Add in the fact her house is getting raided because her father has been researching things related to Contractors and the Gates and she's forced to flee for her life and it's pretty clear her life is getting pretty damn tough now. Getting suddenly stuck in a fight between Contractors just makes things even worse for her.
The biggest question so far is just how much of a focus will be on the new characters. Darker Than BLACK's established two-episode arcs mean this could be just a minor plot, but then as a new season this could be something more than just that. Something that gets more significant elements added to it as it culminates into something even bigger. Also, there's questions to how much of the new season will feature old characters. If the ending of this first episode and the preview for the next are to be believed they've already got one killed off, so there's no saying how many reintroduced characters will stay in the picture. Of course, that begs the question how will the reintroduced characters that AREN'T killed off react.
As a Hei fan I was blinking a bit at what was shown of Hei. Apparently hes let himself go a little bit and needs to get some sleep, visine, eye cream, and reacquaint himself with a razor. While stubble can look interesting when done well (or gotten use to when added to a previously clean shaven character) that's still not a way this fangirl wanted to imagine seeing one of her favorite bishonen. Also, as a Yoko Kanno fan I was saddened to hear she wouldn‘t be composing for this season, but I can find no flaw with the music so far, they chose a replacement that‘s handling things competently. They even have Abingdon Boys School doing one of the themes again, this time with the ending instead of the opening. While the first episode is slow to start there's some good action later on, there's even one chuckle-inducing moment where a Contractor whose ability is super speed gets forced into a stop by running into a tree.
In short, if you liked the first season you'll probably like this new one. If you haven't seen the first season and start off with this you'll have some questions, but the important facts will get touched upon by the new characters as they establish how much they know, but it's important to remember even the ending of the first season left existing fans with questions left unanswered. Perhaps the questions are one of the biggest draws of the series.
