This was a horrible follow up to the astute Darker Than Black season one, but it doesn't mean it's bad right? Okay, put your pitchforks down and have a listen to what I have to say. I don't outright hate the second season, I even bought the special boxset because I was really excited to watch the show, regardless of what I thought beforehand. Honestly from the looks of the opening, I didn't know what kind of direction it was going to go for. But it's more Darker Than Black so it can only mean good things from here on in.

This time rather than focusing on Hei, the story revolves around a young Russian girl named Suou Pavlichenko. Suou somehow gets wrapped up in the contractor stuff and eventually runs into Hei who is now a fugitive. It's an interesting mix because Hei is put in a very different situation than the first season. Instead of being blanketed by the safety of Hei's fellow comrades and The Syndicate, he is left isolated with only a few tools to use at his disposal. Hei is struggling to collaborate with others for fear of losing everything he knows and loves once again. Now mind you Mao is still present, only this time in the form of a flying squirrel, but as far as his story goes there really isn't much progress done to the original cast. Suou, on the other hand, is someone new, through her eyes, the life of a young contractor is much different from that of Hei's. Rather than going all out to finish the mission, she actually has a conscience and acts very unreasonable, struggling to fully understand her power. While this may be thematic to her character, it comes across as annoying when she just doesn't take the same initiative of more experienced contractors.

Season one had at least twenty five plus episodes, including Gaiden, to flesh out all of its stories, but there were still some questions that needed to be answered. If you thought they we're going to be concluded here then you're wrong cause they're not going to be answered at all. The focus is mainly on this new protagonist and her development in being a contractor and while it may only be twelve episodes, it is enough Darker Than Black to serve its purpose in this case. The story takes it even further in including some of the characters of season one in season two, which is where I found my main issue. I kept getting this nagging feeling that "Hey wouldn't it be nice if we got a season 2 featuring those characters again? Like in the first season". I felt like Misaki's inclusion in season two was just a way to have some continuity tying it to the first season. While yes the story may be slightly more coherent, there is still the feeling that maybe this would've been one of the few cases where it could have been served as a "spin-off" rather than a full-on follow-up where I was expecting the same characters take on a new setting. There is a lot of Season two that have me slightly happy for more of Hei considering he begins to show signs of slight emotion in his overall state. Hei becomes a regressive house-hobo that barely even looks like the Hei we're familiar with from the first season, and I don't think many would find the treatment of his character particularly great. Gemini of the Meteor isn't really all that bad as I made it out to be rather it is a shell of its former self that is learning to move on much like the characters in the story. The main thing about the characters in the Darker Than Black universe is that many of them require more than one episode to get some extended backstories. Some get more development than others and that is great, but in this case, Hei gets little progression at all. As mentioned above, if this had have been labeled as a spin-off I might've forgiven the fact they left Hei out of the spotlight, but instead this is the follow up to the first season. Suou has all the time she needs to really grow as a character, and although she may not be interesting at times, it is forgiven considering that this is a coming-of-age story that develops her personality quite a bit.

Given that this season gets such a bad rep, I can't help but remembering that I was, in fact, enjoying season two as it's own separate entity. It certainly doesn't live up to the first season and Gaiden, but it's something to distract you from all the generic stuff that keeps appearing nowadays. I sometimes like to jump back and forth on the hate bandwagon for disliking this season so much, and with somewhat good reason as a fan of season one. This was a disappointing follow up to the first, however, it was a solid spin-off at the most. If you want to see what this season all about, go right into it, there are lots of entertaining moments to keep you invested. Keep in mind that all of you're questions carried over from the first season may not be answered and that the characters you grew to love may not get the screen time you might think they deserve. While it might take some time to adjust, Gemini of the Meteor is a decent series that shouldn't be missed. It might've let me down, but I appreciate it fully knowing this might be the last effort to make a Darker than Black relevant again.