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{{work}}
Non-character trope listings '''A''' through '''M''' for the first season of ''[[Darker Than Black (Anime)|Darker Than Black]]''. Please ensure that new additions are added to the correct sub-page.
 
Tropes that are inherent spoilers should go in the [[Darker Than Black (Anime)/Season One Spoilers|Season One Spoilers]] article.
 
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* [[All Asians Know Martial Arts]]: Invoked -- according to Kenji witnessing Hei in action the first time, [[All Chinese Know Kung Fu|all Chinese are]].
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: At one point, April tells someone to call the organization she works for the "Secret Intelligence Service," not "[[MI 6]]." It sounds made-up, but ''that's the actual name of the organization''.
** Also, November 11's cigarettes. The brand he prefers comes in a black pack with a white skull and the word DEATH on the front. You might think the show's creators are trying to make an [[Anvilicious]] point about smoking<ref>Which, admittedly, they probably are; see [[Writer Onon Board]]</ref>, but that's an actual British brand of cigarettes.
* [[Amplifier Artifact]]: Several organizations [[MacGuffin|hunt for the damn thing]], and not just because it's [[Mineral MacGuffin|shiny]].
* [[Anime Chinese Girl]]: Alice, though she gives her qipao to a childhood friend instead of wearing it herself. {{spoiler|She's also completely psycho.}}
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* [[Badass Adorable]]: Amber, [[Deliberately Cute Child]] that she is.
* [[Badass Biker]]: Hitotsubashi apparently was one, Kenji tries to be.
* [[Badass in Aa Nice Suit]]: November 11 ([[Fan Service|almost]]) always wears a very stylish suit.
* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Hei's default mission garb consists of a long black coat that's only bullet proof when he wears it -- because no one else is badass enough, apparently.
** Thanks to the cold weather, practically everyone who lives in Russia.
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** Though implications at the end of the first season are that the Contractors as a group/race are growing out of their amorality.
* [[Batman Cold Open]]: The series begins with the police chasing a rogue Contractor and Hei showing up [[Stealth Hi Bye|out of nowhere]] to [[Curb Stomp Battle|kick his ass]]. However, unlike most openings like this, it was actually plot-relevant.
* [[Battle in Thethe Rain]]: Several times, usually justified by it being April's doing. Plus, of course, it's just [[Rule of Cool|cooler]] when Hei can electrocute someone or November can freeze someone because the ground's wet.
* [[Beat Still My Heart]]: A contractor with teleportation powers tended to do this.
* [[Beautiful Dreamer]]: Invoked, when Amber deemed the scene of Hei watching his sleeping sister romantic-looking. Then again, for Amber he looks as romantic as possible in any situation.
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* [[Blind Seer]]: Yin, sort of. She was blind as a normal human, but has no trouble seeing as a doll, whether as a result of her powers as a medium or something else.
* [[Blind Without'Em]]: Kirihara
* [[Blessed Withwith Suck]] / [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]]: The main curse of being a Contractor is losing one's emotions and moral constraints, but most of those encountered retain enough emotion to be fairly pleasant (if amoral), and have gained cool powers. Their obeisance is an important determinant of whether the Contractor has a [[Blessed Withwith Suck]] or [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]]. Some of the former include having to [[Fingore|break one's fingers]], needing to cut oneself, and drinking children's blood (although the Contractors with the last two were mass murderers). On the other hand, other obeisances include needing to drink beer or write poetry. Then again, the guy who merely had to arrange pebbles was annoyed by the fact it's apparently meaningless compulsion.
** It is the compulsory nature that can make ''any'' obeisance [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]], as Contractors are forced to do it when their contract compels it and effectively helpless and powerless until they've completed it -- As Hei proved when he interrupted said pebble guy in the middle of his relatively harmless obeisance and killed him easily.
** Wei may actually be [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]]. His power is exploding his blood, and his price is bleeding. Whereas most Contractors need to go out of their way to pay the price after using their power, Wei pays the price in the process of using his power. He might get light-headed if he overdoes it, but it's not like he'll need to run away in the middle of a violent altercation in order to find a safe place to arrange pebbles.
* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]: About half of the Contractors are blond.
* [[Bloody Murder]]: Wei's power.
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** Particularly hilarious is Huang's habit of getting pissed off at Hei and picking him up by his shirt. Hei [[The Stoic|never reacts]], but one has to wonder what would happen if someone pointed out to Huang that he's trying to intimidate someone who could kill him if he so much as touched him.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Maki looks like a [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|white haired]] version of Souseiseki from ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'', Amber looks identical to C.C. of ''[[Code Geass]]'', and the doll from episodes 17 and 18 strongly resembles fellow [[Emotionless Girl]] Eureka from ''[[Eureka Seven]]''. November 11 is very [[James Bond]]-ish, although that might be simply [[National Stereotypes]] of what a British spy is like.
** Also, kind of an odd one overlapping with [[Actor Allusion]]: April has a low level version of Storm's powers in ''[[X -Men]]'' and even looks slightly similar to her. The actress who voices her has also voiced many dubs of Halle Berry's movies, including her role as Storm in the ''[[X -Men]]'' films.
*** For that matter, November 11 is a blond ice-user, making him similar to another X-Men character.
*** Also possible as a white suit wearing cyropath with realistic limitations on his power November 11 might be based on [[Planetary|Elijah Snow]].
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* [[De-Power]]: Havoc somehow lost her power; it's unknown whether it was a side effect of Heaven Gate's accident, as a result of Gates' chaotic nature, from a strain or whatever. Because she also somehow [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|lost her memory]] in the process -- again, it's unknown whether it was for the same reason or she was mind-wiped.
* [[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 Withwith a Trope|Played with]] in the second episode.
** Also dramatically executed by {{spoiler|Yin's mother, in episode 14}}.
* [[Dramatic Chase Opening]]
* [[Driven Byby Envy]]: Maki ''hates'' the fact that Amber wants to recruit anyone who isn't him, and is even more incensed by the fact that she's in love with Hei. He responds by trying to kill his "rival," against direct orders and despite the fact that if he'd succeeded, Amber's plan would have been rendered impossible.
* [[Dude, She's Like, in Aa Coma]]: Weird variation: Amber takes advantage of [[Time Stands Still|stopped time]] to kiss Hei without him objecting.
* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]: Episodes 17/18 revolve partly around this.
* [[Dull Eyes of Unhappiness]]: Hei, perpetually. You can see the pupils of his eyes in maybe three shots in the entire series, one of which is due to weird lighting, and even then light never reflects off them.
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* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: Not really ''evil'' per se, but Hei's voice drops quite a bit when he switches out of his [[Obfuscating Stupidity|Li act]].
** In the [[Psycho for Hire|actually evil]] department, we have Wei's very deep voice in the dub.
* [[Explaining Your Power to Thethe Enemy]]: Wei uses his own blood as a medium to destroy his opponents. Despite him having every reason to suspect that Hei is also a very dangerous contractor, the contractor quickly explains how his powers work before getting into a fight.
** But then, he was a [[Blood Knight]] ([[Incredibly Lame Pun|sorry]]) [[Psycho for Hire]] who was absolutely convinced of his own invincibility and probably thought it wasn't any fun unless he could play with his opponent first. [[Underestimating Badassery|Which turned out to be a bad idea]].
* [[Expospeak]]: A good part of Episodes 1 and 2. [[Unreliable Expositor|Should be taken with a grain of salt, though.]]
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* [[Gilligan Cut]]: Variation: when Saito is telling Kirihara that they're keeping watch on the MI6 agents in a hotel, November 11 comes up and interrupts him. Then Kirihara gets a call from Kano informing her that they lost track of them. [[Captain Obvious|No kidding?]]
** And towards the end of the first season, when {{spoiler|Mao, narrating, says that anyone could see it's much smarter to abandon him in Amber's headquarters than to try to rescue him.}} Cut to Hei {{spoiler|breaking in to rescue him.}} Though it wasn't quite as dumb as it seemed; {{spoiler|he knew Amber had given orders that no one was allowed to kill him.}}
* [[Girl in Aa Box]]: {{spoiler|Poor, poor Havoc.}} Also, the smuggled Doll in {{spoiler|ep. 17}} - being a Doll, she was [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|treated more like a packed thing]] than a concealed girl.
* [[Glamour Failure]]: Namely, [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]].
* [[The Glasses Gotta Go]]: In more [[Fan Service|fanservicey]] scenes with Kirihara. She looks good in any suit, but let's face it -- in uniform and glasses she resembles a hungry female mantis a bit too much. Subverted in that she spends most of her glasses-free time squinting like crazy because, like most glasses-wearers outside of fiction, she actually ''[[Blind Without'Em|needs]]'' them.
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** One particular user has the ability to envelop a [[Sphere of Destruction|spherical area]] and condense everything inside it into a softball sized ball of dense matter.
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: From the first episode to the last, thanks to [[Punch Clock Villain|punchclock villainy]].
* [[Grievous Bottley Harm]]: November 11 does a variation on this. When cornered {{spoiler|by Syndicate agents employed by his boss}}, he picks up a bottle of an alcoholic beverage and freezes it. When the aftermath of the fight is shown, there is a room full of corpses [[Impaled Withwith Extreme Prejudice|pierced by these spikes]].
** Someone also tried it on Hei (as Li) when he was infiltrating a [[Yakuza]]-owned restaurant. It... [[Cover-Blowing Superpower|didn't really work]]. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Like, at all]].
* [[Guns Are Worthless]]: Played straight for most of the season, and even gets directly invoked, then gets brutally subverted during last few episodes, starting with {{spoiler|November 11's death}}.
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** Unless freezing their shoes to the ground counts. Maki established that this did not directly damage them.
* [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]]: The smarter Contractors tend to figure this out. For instance, November manages to use "[[An Ice Person|freeze stuff]]" to immobilize people, make ranged weapons, shield himself, kill from a distance, or for a [[Touch of Death]] over the course of the series, with no [[Elemental Baggage]] involved, and the second season showed that April's fairly lame "make it rain" power [[Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress|can be plenty dangerous all by itself]].
* [[Hero Withwith Bad Publicity]]: Hei is wanted by the police, and one episode has Kurosawa looking for Yin (in her human identity), and getting the impression that Hei is involved in child-trafficking.
** In the police's defense, Hei isn't exactly the most upstanding citizen. At his most heroic he's committing murder, breaking into maximum-security areas, and blowing up the American embassy.
* [[Ho Yay]]: Episodes 11 and 12. Hei and Nick became close ''very'' quickly, spent a whole night watching the stars together (and made plans to go watch them again afterward), and Hei {{spoiler|looked really sad and heartbroken after Nick "betrayed" him.}}
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* [[Iconic Item]]: Hei's mask, coat, and knives.
* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Explained in the 2nd episode, Hei's [[Badass Longcoat]] is quite handy.
* [[Impaled Withwith Extreme Prejudice]]: A [[Tear Jerker|tear shed]] for {{spoiler|Havok}}. Also {{spoiler|Maki}}, except offscreen and without the tear shedding.
* [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]]: ''Lots''. Mostly of a [[Black Box]] nature.
** Luke managed to shatter an incoming knife-and-cable, but at least he swept it with a [[Razor Floss|force whip]].
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* [[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.}}
** Also common with [[Bond One-Liner|Bond One Liners]]. For instance, November 11's "I knew we'd work well together" echoes what his victim said to him at the beginning of their meeting and was immediately followed by him freezing the guy to death. And when Hei fought Wei, Wei's response to the [[Single-Stroke Battle]] was, "Looks like I'm faster than you." Guess what Hei said after proving him wrong? <ref>There is one important difference there; Wei used ''[[Japanese Pronouns|watashi]]'' while Hei used ''[[Japanese Pronouns|ore]]''.</ref>
** November 11 has an EPR agent telling him what he told to Hei before. He laughed and reminisced Hei's [[Talk to Thethe 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]].
** Hei's grudge against Amber is also personal, {{spoiler|if rather misplaced.}}
* [[It Was Withwith You All Along]]: A [[Soul Fragment]], sort of.
* [[I Was Just Joking]]: [[Running Gag|November 11, worst comedian ever.]]
* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: One of the first scenes. Also, when Hei encounters Havoc (and assumes her to be just as monstrous as she was previously), he slaps her and then [[Fingore|breaks her fingers]] to elicit information on his sister. He does feel remorseful when he realizes that she is no longer a monster, but it's still pretty disturbing behavior on his part.
* [[Janitor Impersonation Infiltration]]: The reason for some of Hei's jobs.
* [[Jerk Justifications]]: Usually along the lines of: "How could you murder in cold blood, [[You Monster!|you monster]]?!" "I'm a contractor."
* [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]]: Huang
* [[Knife Nut]]: Hei
* [[Knocking Onon Heathens' Door]]: The Friends of the Gate.
* [[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.
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'''Kirihara''': ''Middle-aged?'' }}
* [[Look Behind You!]]: "The stars are pretty." "What? It's overcast." * [[Stealth Hi Bye|has vanished]]*
* [[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 Withwith 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.
* [[Lovable Traitor]]: Technically, in his infiltrations Hei worked against Yakuza, PANDORA and (secondary to the target, but still) police. Now look at his interaction with Kenji, Nick and Kirihara in his undercover identity. He didn't even play with them, he's really like that. Much the same for Chiaki{{spoiler|'s doll replacement}}.
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* [[MacGuffin]]: A number of Hei's missions involve him stealing crystals or other things which came from the gate and not only is that goal not revealed until he completes it, the significance of the products isn't either.
* [[Mafia Princess]]: A psychotic one who was the childhood friend of Kirihara and tries to kill her with the help of Wei, her [[The Kid With the Leash|"pet Contractor"]].
* [[Magic Byby Any Other Name]]
* [[Magic Prerequisite]]: The basis of a Contractor's powers.
* [[Major Injury Underreaction]]: It's never directly stated, but there is arguably an implication that Contractors are fairly resistant to injury. Wei is always cutting himself and is never weakened by blood loss; November 11 pulls Hei's dagger out of his arm, and despite needing a bandage, doesn't have any permanent damage; April is caught in an explosion, and while covered in bandages afterward has no injuries or scars in her next appearance; Hei suffers some pretty serious damage in the course of the series, even having his heart stopped at least once, but is able to shrug it off and keep fighting.
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* [[Merlin Sickness]]: {{spoiler|Amber}}'s remuneration is growing younger.
* [[Mind Control Eyes]]: Dolls have these.
* [[The Mind Is a Plaything of Thethe Body]]: Mao needs [[Applied Phlebotinum]] to compensate for a cat brain. {{spoiler|When his link to PANDORA's database is cut, he rapidly reverts to acting like a cat.}}
* [[Mind Rape]]: Hell's Gate can cause hallucinations, and it seems to go out of its way to dredge up Hei's [[Dead Little Sister|lingering]] [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|insecurities]]. This leaves our [[Stoic]] [[Badass]] staring off into space with a tortured and/or ''terrified'' expression on his face three or four times in the two episodes he spends in a research facility there.
** Dolls have basically been [[Mind Rape|mind raped]] into nearly [[Empty Shell|Empty Shells]] by the Gate.
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* [[Mineral MacGuffin]]: The Meteor Fragment.
* [[Miniature Senior Citizens]]: Hei's landlady and the [[Mad Scientist]] from the later episodes.
* [[Mismatched Eyes]]: Maki, in a [[Shout-Out]] to Souseiseki of ''[[Rozen Maiden (Manga)|Rozen Maiden]]''.
* [[Mission Control]]: Huang and Yin
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Often present, as an arc will start off with some humor, but become grim by the end.
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