Darker Than Black: Complete Season 2 Box Set (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Darker than black season 2
Watch the OVA before you watch this or you will be lost! This is a great addition to season 1.

Loved The First One, but...
this one didn't seem as good. It felt like there were fewer action scenes and more focus on character development. That may seem odd, because, who doesn't want character development? I sure like my characters fully rounded. What I mean by this is that the balance between action and character development that was present in the first series was off in this one.

It is also important to keep in mind that before you watch this second series, please note that this comes with the OVAs as well. These, in my opinion, must be watched first before the actual season is watched. They are kind of like a prequel that gives a frame of reference for the second season. Be warned, though, the OVAs are MUCH different from the first and even the second series as it is nearly all character development (with a love story..I think..maybe?).

Once I understood everything, this was a great second season. Again, much different from the first season, but not necessarily in a bad way. Just...

Darker than Darker than Black
The first season of Darker than Black (DTB) was a great noir, drama, comedy, super powered, sci-fi show. Can the second season top the first season? The first season's episodes were almost always two-parters, and then they would move on to another storyline. When you think that that episode didn't contribute to the overall plot, you would be proven wrong later on in the show. The second season is a story based series, rather than episodic. All the episodes are connected like most modern non-comedy anime.

This collection is distributed by Funimation, just like the first season, so all reoccurring characters have the same voices. Note that the 13 episodes are listed first on the DVDs, and then the 4 OVA episodes. I originally watched the set in that order, and was very confused because many plot points are explained in the OVAs. The OVA episodes take place before the second season episodes, so be sure to watch them first. The third DVD in the set has all the OVAs, then you...

Click to Editorial Reviews

My Bride is a Mermaid: Complete Box Set S.A.V.E.

Great Japanese Yakuza connections
This series was rich with Yakuza connections but this is a mob of seafolk. The story was easy to follow and very comical. The English voice cast was great, and the story was insaine. I love that kind of craziness. Of course it is the typical anime with the typical 24-26 episode arch, so if you have had your fill of that, you should stay away. The S.A. V. E. series is a gret deal of course so the price is a no brainer. I don't believe I have a tolorence limit to this stuff. Keep it coming Japan. Feed my need.

Hilarious!
"My Bride is a Mermaid" is an adaptation of a Manga series originally serialized in a Square-Enix magazine in Japan. How the plot goes is that a young 14-year-old boy by the name of Nagasumi is on vacation visiting his grandmother's at the Seto Inland Sea, and while he is swimming out in the sea, he starts to drown (for unknown reasons), and is later saved by a mermaid by the name of San Seto. Turns out that San Seto is not your "typical" mermaid as she is the daughter of the head boss of a Yakuhza crime family, and due to the Mermaid Code, since Nagasumi saw San in her mermaid form, one of them must be killed. Now there is a loophole to this by simply allowing Nagasumi to marry into the family, thus saving both their lives.

This is a "Harem Anime" genre where our main hero earns the affections of several young women, such as: Mawari, the Superintendent General's daughter and childhood friend of Nagasumi; Lunar, another fellow mermaid that happens to...

Great comedic anime
This is one of the first series I watched that wasn't called Naruto or Bleach. It has left me on the ground laughing numerous times. I've shown this to several of my friends and they have loved it as well.

My advice is to not judge it after the first episode. The first episode lays out the groundwork for the plot and takes you to the real adventure. It does not truly grab you until the second episode. From then on it is a crazy mix of traditional anime themes like harems and high school life. There is plenty of pop culture references throughout the season as well.

The Funimation version of this has the english dub as well as the japanese with english subtitles. I am tried the first few episodes in english dub but like most anime if you start off with japanese you can't really go away from it. I would recommend the Japanese voice acting with subtitles so you can fully understand how crazy some of these characters get. Whenever the characters illustration...

Click to Editorial Reviews