It has more or less been decreed that individual volumes of anime are a thing of the past. Just about every publisher out there that's releasing new material has been doing so in "parts" or "collections". You generally get a full or half of a season at a time and in all honesty this is a great thing. It gives people more to chew on at a time and generally decreases the size of a collection. With that in mind FUNimation's most recent roundup of titles that have been given the individual treatment is slowly winding down. Darker than Black stands as one such title and today we're looking at the final, sixth installment.

Over the course of the series Darker than Black has had many ups and downs. The show definitely got a slow start and in all honesty the two-part episode set up probably would have benefited from one of the aforementioned "part" releases with half of the season, instead of four episodes. Alas that wasn't the case and in each installment we've only received a very small glimpse at what the anime had to offer. It has certainly developed into something special over time, but the road to this point was a decidedly long one.

What's it all about? Well, if your new to the series I'll try to keep it brief since this is the review for the final volume after all. Basically Darker than Black takes place in the not-too distant future where something known as Hell's Gate appeared and created a false sky. With the arrival of this event people started showing up with special powers and became known as Contractors. These mysterious beings have become a powerful force in the world and have been utilized by secret groups and governments to conduct all kinds of acts in the world, be they espionage or assasinations. Generally speaking these Contractors are assigned to a star in the sky and various policing agencies use this to follow their actions. When they are active their stars appear even more so. One star in particular, Messier Code BK-201, follows the show's protagonist, Hei, as he works with a group of others known as the Syndicate. For much of the series the Syndicate is something of a mystery, but slowly and surely over the past few volumes some glimmers of their intentions have started coming through.

With the events of the fifth installment behind him, Hei's adventures begin to really heat up in this sixth volume. Rather than offer a two-part story as it has always done, Darker than Black revs things up to a point where the show feels like it's on a mad dash to the finale. I do not want to give many of the details away, but let's just say that Hei is forced to make a dramatic decision, there's an outright war, and everything revolves around the Gate as you'd expect. There's also some last minute character development for Hei, and if you ask me it came too late in the game. He was always an interesting character, but the fact that the producers of the show waited until the end to give him some added development kind of felt like wasted potential.

Still, there are plenty of exciting bits here. A huge conflict is in store for you, there's some betrayal in the wind, and love as well. It's exciting right up to the final moments, even though the final episode doesn't quite many to send the series off on an awesome note as the three episodes before it left you to expect. It's entertaining and it's appropriate, but I just feel like they could have ended things a little differently. Maybe that was to keep things interesting for a second season of the show? We'll see!

Darker than Black was a very entertaining and unique show that had a lot to offer. It was full of intrigue and mystery, the characters were quite interesting, and the show was all about atmosphere and a powerful premise. You can't really go wrong with this how, but experiencing it through the individual volumes as they were released definitely left something to be desired. Perhaps a complete boxed set will smoothen the ride? Either way it's still definitely worth checking out and comes strongly recommended.

Presented with an anamorphic widescreen transfer Darker than Black is a sharp looking slice of anime. The animation is fantastic, the colors are bold and utilized well, and all around the video quality of the production is quite sharp. Some blocking and grain crop up ever-so slightly now and again, but all around this is a solid looking picture with some fine details that will please the eyes. Overall this is a good looking show with many moments that pop from the screen.

As you'd expect the included audio here comes in the form of Japanese 2.0 and English 5.1 selections. As far as dubbing quality is concerned I felt that both tracks performed reasonably well, with the original Japanese taking a slight nod in terms of superiority. On the technical side of things, the 5.1 English mix is much more robust and the action gets some nice display as the show promotes a better than average sense of immersion. Otherwise you can expect dialogue and such to come through the front channels with decent quality.

Some production artwork, clean animations, and trailers are available on this installment. There's also an English audio commentary track for an episode as I'm sure you'd expect if you've seen the other volumes. It's an interesting watch/listen as the cast wraps things up, but ultimately it's not entirely informative.

Darker than Black has a unique, dark premise that has finally received some fleshing out. From the past few installments to the dramatic final volume there has definitely been a lot of growth for the characters and plot. I really enjoyed the first three episodes of this volume, and the fourth was good too, I just felt it could have been a little better. Still, this is a very entertaining series that I plan to revisit and it's something I strongly recommended. You'd still be better off waiting for a complete series, but don't let this one slip past you.

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