~ Sitting, waiting, wishing.

I just heard an anime news that affects me greatly... Darker than Black  has been licensed by FUNimation... after merely 12 eps, its now licensed! Aaaahhhhh! Do you know what that means?! No more subbed episodes for me... *sits in a sad corner, Tamaki-style* 

The fansub group that I'm familiar with who's working on DtB have announced that they'd now be dropping it from their projects as it's now licensed ... I'm not sure about the other groups, but they most likely will follow suit and drop it too (I'm still hoping one of them will keep subbing it  *sheepish grin*) Obviously, it'd be removed from crunchyroll too. :(

It's probably good news that it's been licensed, I guess... that means more DtB followers and possibly more episodes or something like that... but still, I'm sad that I won't be able to watch it  subbed anymore. I wish I can speak Japanese, then I'd have no problem seeing it raw... *sighs*  Anyway, I wish DtB all the best, in my opinion, it's a really good series so it's kind of not that surprising that it got licensed right away.... but still... *sighs, sighs* 

On a lighter note... HARRY POTTER!!! My brother and I already booked theater tickets for the 5th film on July 11th and as a bonus we'll watch it on IMAX!  It'd be my first time watching a film on IMAX format, so this should be interesting... I just hope the film is done well. ^_^

"Darker than Black"  is also known as "Kuro no Keiyakusha"

Synopsis:  An inscrutable and abnormal territory, known as Hell's Gate, appeared in Tokyo and altered the sky. At the same time, people who possess various special abilities emerged, and the night sky was altered. The stars disappeared, replaced by fake stars which correspond to those people with special powers. However, the cost of gaining those abilities is the loss of human emotion. Kept secret from the knowledge of the masses, these individuals able to murder in cold blood are known as Contractors. Various nations around the world use Contractors as spies and agents, often resulting in violent battles for information. Hei is sent to Tokyo under the guise of an ordinary Chinese student, Li Shun Sheng, but is really a Contractor working for an unnamed organization. His Messier code or star number is BK201. Hei fights against other Contractors with unpredictable abilities while carrying out missions and gathering information for his Agency.
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darker_than_Black)

Genre:  Drama, mystery, noir, sci-fi
Status:  Anime - Ongoing (10 episodes as of 06/14/2007)
Began airing: April 2007

Thoughts / Review:  The opening theme is "Howling" by abingdon boys school. I kinda like it. It's rock without too much screaming and yelling. I especially like the intro part when the title is shown. The ending theme is a ballad "Tsukiakari [Moonlight]" by Rie fu.

JUST A QUICK 411... There's a bit of vocabulary introduced in the series regarding the abilities and such. I'll try and give the gist of the major terminologies used.  HELL'S GATE - an off-limits area in Tokyo that appeared 10 years prior to the timeline of the beginning of series. Contractors and Dolls came to exist due to this. CONTRACTOR - individuals with superhuman abilities due to Hell's Gate. They are notrious for being ruthless and able to kill in cold-blood. They are capable of showing emotions but generally seems to lack conscience. DOLL - passive mediums in the form of a human; an observative spirit. Lacks emotion. Can be programmed with personalities and memories and mimic normal human behavior. REMUNERATION - when one becomes a Contractor, part of the contract is remuneration which is a sort of a "payment" in return for using their abilities. After they use their powers, they must perform this act each time (it can be varied from eating flowers to gross ones like breaking your own fingers). It is often done against one's will but there isn't a choice but to do it anyway.

There are a few more terms used, but these 4 are basically the main ones used  in the first 2 episodes. Let's have a look at the characters, shall we?

Have you seen it? What did you think of it? :)