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Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions:

I really like this episode, and I’m not even sure I can justify my reasons to myself. An episode like this—something that is in the midst of tying everything together, just has to be better than the subplots that have been the main plot fodder of the last 20 episodes. And hopefully, the next episode—the finale—will be just as good, if not better. Quality, as always, is excellent. But it’s the sense of finality and closure that makes this episode wonderful—not to mention the various scenes that just make you feel good (the most prominent one being Huang’s parting with Hei and Yin).

The constant switching of viewpoints from Evening Primrose to the Syndicate, showing their respective battle tactics and manoeuvres, make for some excellent action sequences. Hei gets a momentary spotlight as well, with his spar with Wei, though in the end, he still doesn’t impress me with his abilities. But I guess that’s not the important part. Anyway, when all the action dies down (or rather, continues only in the background), we get a nice and surreal atmosphere generated by Hei and Yin going into the gate. The explosiveness of the first half is heavily contrasted with the tranquillity of the second, and is topped off with the appearance of a very young Amber…nice!

We learn that the Syndicate is bigger than expected, right? Apparently, PANDORA and the many other governmental organizations out there are all part of the Syndicate, and are all attempting to get rid of the contractors. While I doubt Evening Primrose will win in preserving the lives of the thousands (or millions?) of contractors out there, I still believe that Hei will survive. Well, I’m hoping at least. I’m betting that Yin survives as well. But, however the animators have chosen to end Darker than BLACK, I’m confident that I will enjoy it. It’s a shame to see another excellent series come to a close, though very exciting as well.

Popularity: 14% [?]