Darker than Black/Season One Tropes A-M: Difference between revisions

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: The episodes with the [[Clueless Detective]] are an amusing parody of your usual private eye plot, including the idea (particularly associated with [[Raymond Chandler]]) of the detective essentially stumbling into solving the crime after being hired for a completely different reason.

* [[Alien Sky]]: On Earth, no less. The moon is gone, the night sky is purple when clear and green when overcast. The daytime sky is seen less often, but the sun behaves strangely.

** This comes up regularly because every star in the sky corresponds to a contractor. If a contractor uses his powers, his star shines brightly. When a contractor dies, his star falls from the sky. Government intelligence agencies have entire branches devoted to analysis of the [[Alien Sky]].

* [[All Asians Know Martial Arts]]: Invoked -- according to Kenji witnessing Hei in action the first time, [[All Chinese Know Kung Fu|all Chinese are]].

* [[Bodyguard Betrayal]]: Wei

* [[Bodyguard Crush]]: Saito, to Kirihara.

* [[Book Ends]]: The first episode begins with the police trying and failing to catch Louis, who has "gravity cancellation" powers. The epilogue of the last episode shows a very similar chase, but when the Contractor uses the same gravity-based powers to fly, the police easily catch him with some sort of [[Grappling Hook Pistol]], suggesting that the rest of the world is getting used to the supernatural.

* [[Bottle Fairy]]: British agent April has a Remuneration of drinking beer, and has apparently decided she might as well enjoy it.

* [[Death Equals Redemption]]: Some of the acts that some of the contractors have done weighs heavily upon them. They may not be a [[Death Seeker]], but some of them take solace during their dying moments because they can finally forgive themselves for what they've done. {{spoiler|Bertha in particular, seems happy to die, because she can finally redeem herself for the death of her child, who choked to death when she carelessly left her cigarettes on a table.}}

* [[Deconstructor Fleet]]: This series loves playing with tropes (usually for extra realism), especially those related to superpowers, and ''especially'' [[Lethal Harmless Powers|how dangerous they would actually be]].

* [[Disability Superpower]]: Yin was blind when human but her abilities as a Doll basically allow her to walk around without any problem.

* [[Diving Save]]: <s>Subverted</s> <s>Double-subverted</s> [[Playing With a Trope|Played with]] in the second episode.

* [[Fair Cop]]: Kirihara.

* [[Fake Memories]]: Not completely fake, but "[[Laser-Guided Amnesia|M.E.]]" works [[Neuro Vault|both ways]]. At least with Dolls.

* [[Fan Disservice]]: The show has a very unsettling use of the [[Sex Bot]] idea in showing a Doll purchased by Yakuza to be used as a sex slave. There is nothing erotic at all about the way the boss examines her naked, treating her more like a piece of furniture than anything.

* [[Fan Girl]]: Kiko and Mayu, both of whom are anime fangirls, [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi Fangirls]], and [[Chick Magnet|Hei fangirls]].

** [[The Smart Guy]]: Yin.

** [[The Chick]]: Mao. Yin sometimes.

* [[Fridge Logic]]: Wei's power has some incredibly confusing implications/logical fallacies (all of which should be ignored for the sake of his story, fight scenes, and other important moments to the show, but they'll be mentioned all the same for the sake of the trope). For starters... If he can disintegrate things that his blood is touching/detonate his blood, why doesn't he just explode whenever he uses his power because of the blood in his body? Of course, there is a lot of [[Fridge Brilliance]] (which has counter-Fridge Logic) to go along with this...

** First off, he doesn't seem to have any control over what he detonates. Every time he snaps his fingers, everything his blood is on gets destroyed (often demolishing entire rooms during a few of his... messier fights).

* [[Hot Springs Episode]]: Invoked by Kiko (she's a [[Cosplay Otaku Girl]], after all). {{spoiler|And promptly averted by her own indulgence.}}

** The interquel manga contains an omake chapter set during the events of the first season. A hot spring has a rock supposedly from the Gate, so most of the cast goes to investigate. Thus, you have male-geared fanservice from the female cast as well as female-geared fanservice as a naked November 11 [[Foe Yay|flirts with Hei]].

* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Amber and her [[The Dragon|minion]], Amagiri.

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: Where does Hei keep all those knives, anyway? He also somehow fits his [[Badass Longcoat]] into his pocket.

** This once blew a contractor's cover, when {{spoiler|Alma}} noticed her staring at what to her should have been empty space.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: November 11 seems to be on the receiving end of this a lot. For instance, his "Smoking kills" speech gets parroted back at him {{spoiler|when he's tied up and needs a cigarette for his remuneration}}, his "[[I Was Just Joking]]" non-jokes are made right back at him, and {{spoiler|Hei, completely on accident, repeated his last advice to Kirihara to her almost word-for-word.}}

** November 11 has an EPR agent telling him what he told to Hei before. He laughed and reminisced Hei's [[Talk to The Fist|answer]].

* [[It's Personal]]: Wei bears a grudge against Hei for defeating him in a fight; on the more heroic side, November 11 and July act contrary to their supposedly emotionless personalities and seek revenge on Maki for [[Nakama|injuring April]].

* [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]]: Huang

* [[Knife Nut]]: Hei

* [[Kuudere]]: Hei may be a [[Stoic]] [[Badass Longcoat]] who acts like a [[Jerkass]] sometimes, but he's actually [[Not So Stoic|a lot more fragile]] than he lets on, and if you mess with his [[Nakama]], you're ''dead''. Misaki Kirihara generally prefers to act distant and professional, but she's cheerful and even makes jokes when she relaxes a bit. Yin might qualify as well, as the resident not-so-emotionless [[Emotionless Girl]].

* [[Lack of Empathy]]: Combined with [[Tin Man]], this pretty much sums up the contractor mindset.

{{quote| '''Kiko''': Li-kun! I never would have guessed you liked middle-aged women!<br />

'''Kirihara''': ''Middle-aged?'' }}

* [[Loony Fan]]: Also a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]. If you want to know [[Brain Bleach|how it feels when yer brain implodes]], imagine the "[[Crack Pairing|pairing]]" of the all-stealthy ''Black [[Shinigami|Angel of Death]]'' and loudmouthed ''Kiko''. And she ''tried''. [[Stalker With a Crush|Enthusiastically]].

* [[Loose Canon]]: The OVA happens somewhere in the middle of the first season, but thanks to the [[Reset Button]], could fit in just about anywhere and doesn't really affect the plot.

* [[Mineral MacGuffin]]: The Meteor Fragment.

* [[Miniature Senior Citizens]]: Hei's landlady and the [[Mad Scientist]] from the later episodes.

* [[Mission Control]]: Huang and Yin

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Often present, as an arc will start off with some humor, but become grim by the end.