Pale Cocoon

Pale Cocoon tells the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth as observed by two humans, a man and a woman. They are involved in the extraction and cleaning of digital archives left by humans many years before. They include all types of media, pictures of Earth, newspaper clippings, video… the works. They are to a certain extent futuristic archaeologists. The story follows them as they hope to unravel Earth’s history. Although short, as one off OVA, it doesn’t feel like it is short. If that makes any sense. The plot is nicely developed and reaches an interesting conclusion.

The animation and direction for Pale Cocoon is absolutely amazing. I found myself getting lost in the amazing visuals and rewinding to where I was previously. It is meld between 3-D backdrops and traditional 2-D characters. This was pulled off spectacularly and as I said before, looks “absolutely amazing”. The “camera” is used in a very realistic manner and often pulls back to give a sense of grand scale and is some of the best cinematography I have seen in an anime.

The musical score is phenomenal. With piano piece accompanied with a limited orchestra, the music does an outstanding job of accurately conveying the mood. The insert song is fantastic and played at exactly the right time. Overall it is some of the best music I have heard in a short anime.

The characters, who I don’t think we ever learn the names of (I have a poor memory for names), are nicely fleshed out over this short story. The male lead is voiced very well and is very believable. He is very serious about his job and is eager to learn the truth about Earth. The female lead is always a little side-tracked and is beginning to lose interest in the project. She is very interested in a particular, for lack of a better word, shaft. This stairwell has a special place for her…

Overall I really enjoyed Pale Cocoon, and although it was short at just over twenty-two minutes it didn’t feel like anything was left out. It comes to a very satisfying conclusion and is a must watch for any anime fan.

Darker than Black Review

Darker than Black, what an adventure it has been. Darker than Black takes place in a near future world where two gates appeared, Heaven’s Gate and Hell’s Gate. The mysterious appearance of these gates brought with them the Contractors. Contractors are people who have entered into a contract with an unknown force and gained a unique power in return. The nature of the contract however requires them to give back each time they use their power. Payment is anything from smoking a cigarette to writing a poem. The main story is told through an omnipotent point of view with the “camera man” being at the scene and generally following a certain group of characters, but can focus on other characters as the protagonists for an entire arc. It is a very unique telling of the story and hard to put into words, but that isn’t a bad thing.

The animation and art style of Darker than Black are superb. Each character is completely unique and unlike some other shows with several similar looking characters, Darker than Black does an excellent job of giving each character an unique style and a winning personality. The fights of Darker than Black are done very well and are very fluid. Although short at times, it is after all not a shounen series, they are excellent none the less. Some fights are extended and are a real treat for the eyes. Bones, the producers, did an excellent job with the series and I am looking forward to seeing more of their work.

The soundtrack for Darker than Black is up there with my favourites of all time. An excellent mix of various genres of music. At one point it will be a jazz track, then later it will be an orchestra piece or a rock track. Overall the music is really well done and accurately depicts the scene. At some points I found myself with the hair on the back of my neck standing up as the music heated up in preparation of a coming battle. The voice acting is top notch. Hei has two distinct voices: one serious and the other calm or even clumsy sounding. The other main characters: Kirihara, Yin, Huang, and Mao also have top notch performances. Overall the casting and voice acting are very well done.

Each character has their own special traits and have very well written dialogue. Although it is for the most part an Action/Drama type of series, there are often Comedic undertones to help break up the suspense. When Hei is not masquerading as BK201, his codename, he is a very funny and sarcastic individual. Most every character has moments that make you want to laugh, especially Gai, the off the wall private eye, and his partner, the pink haired money hungry Kiko. All in all the characters have a very nice chemistry and it is interesting to see Hei’s interactions with the people who are pursuing him. The only thing that is holding back the characters is, with the exception of Hei and Yin, there is very little back story provided for many of the main characters. This is hard to do of course though with an episodic type series.

The series seems episodic as the story is generally told in two episode mini-arcs, with the final arc being three episodes, it never really feels very episodic. Especially toward the end where the main plot runs into each new arc. Although there is a sense of conclusion after each arc, it never really feels like it is in an episodic nature (if that makes any sense at all). I immensely enjoyed Darker than Black and with a very satisfying ending I can only dream of a sequel.