Darker than Black/Season One Tropes N-Z

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Non-character trope listings N through Z for the first season of Darker than Black. Please ensure that new additions are added to the correct sub-page.

Tropes that are inherent spoilers should go in the Season One Spoilers article.

Tropes used in Darker than Black/Season One Tropes N-Z include:


  • Naked First Impression: Played with, since the naked party is a man, and the other is a cat... yeah.
    • An absolutely mortified cat. Seriously, the look on Mao's face is priceless.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: PANDORA, which is a great example of ironic naming. Their stated goal is to study the Gate and its effects and protect the public. Of course, Pandora is known for releasing the Sealed Evil in a Can...
  • The Nasty Party: Thrown by Alice.
  • Nice Guy: Hei's cover. Also, Nick. Of course, he's also actually a Contractor.
  • Noble Demon: November will cheerfully announce his own immorality and sociopathy, but is usually polite and charming despite his highly questionable sense of humor, has several Pet the Dog moments, and eventually pulls a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Hei does this regularly anyway, but if he has any reason to connect someone to his sister they're in for a truly staggering amount of pain.
  • Noir Episode: Kurosawa's arc is a Private Detective parody.
  • No Name Given: The main Contractor/Doll characters are all known by code names. We do learn that Yin's name was Kirsi and November 11 introduces himself as Jack Simon (although this does sound suspiciously like a "John Smith" kind of alias). It's not clear if Hei is the real name of that character or not- it means "black" in Chinese which matches the pattern of code names used by the rest of his team.
    • Probably isn't since he gives his sister's real name in the last episode (it's Xing), which means his is also a code name more than likely.
    • At least once they explicitly refer to him as "codename Hei."
      • Hilariously enough, Word of God has stated that his real name is Li. Yeah. The cover ID name.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Gai and Kiko do not look like they belong in this show, and often use effects like Wingding Eyes, Blue with Shock, and Cross-Popping Veins that the rest of the show never uses. This is probably to mark them as the Plucky Comic Relief. Dr. Schroeder also looks totally different from every other character.
  • No-Tell Motel: November 11 and co. find Havoc living in one of these.
  • Not of This Earth: The setting has strong Roadside Picnic style setup, so it has lots of strange things ranging from small plants to Dolls' and Contractors' abilities to the Alien Sky. Some of weird stuff found Black Box applications.
  • Not So Different: There's a lot of moments that show the audience how the protagonists and some of their antagonists aren't really different. For instance, the episode explaining Bertha's past parallels it with flashbacks of Yin's past and shows a similarity between the two; November 11 is told by the Evening Primrose members that he should do what's logical and join them, and he recalls telling Hei the same thing- although, November 11 concludes they are very different, as Hei acts illogically, while November 11 thinks it's logical not to join Evening Primrose; Hei's advice to Kirihara in one of the last episodes to "trust no one and rely on her intuition" is pretty much word-for-word the same warning November 11 gave her, causing her to do a bit of a double-take.
  • Not So Stoic: Havock deliberately provokes Hei into this by badmouthing his sister. But any other time a Contractor or Doll shows emotion also counts, such as when Yin starts crying in Ep. 14 or when Maki goes full-on Yandere.
  • Not What It Looks Like: The time when Kirihara ran into Hei in a department store- buying a wig and a bra. They were to help disguise a doll, you pervs.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Hei in his "Li Shengshun" persona. Not stupid, just so naive, clumsy, and Adorkable that no one thinks to look for the Black Reaper behind that smile.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Syndicate seems to use these as an added safety net. Also, there's the morons at the American embassy.
  • Odd Couple: James Bond-ish November and Bottle Fairy April.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Hei's Stealth Hi Bye abilities often reach this level.
  • Primal Scene: Played seriously, with Yin when human, where she was blind and her music teacher was having an affair with her mother that they hid from her, but she discovered evidence of it anyway. Besides her connection to her Nakama, this may be one more reason why she doesn't go with the music teacher when he comes looking for her.
  • Omake: Two chapters' worth in the first manga, a Hot Springs Episode and a Cooking Duel in the Interquel manga, and basically the entire OVA.
  • One-Hit Kill: Shihoko's power basically dissolves the victim's internal organs. Anyone hit with it dies pretty much instantly.
  • One Person, One Power - each Contractor has one superpower only.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Hei manages to drag himself halfway across the city with a bullet through his leg. But then, Amber was involved, so it's not totally surprising he went Determinator.
  • Opaque Lenses: November 11 sometimes wears these and tends to act particularly insincere when doing so. Notably, there's a scene shortly before his Heroic Sacrifice, where November teases Kirihara while wearing the glasses, but then takes them off and acts in a more caring manner.
  • Our Souls Are Different: The subtitles of one episode indicate Hei describing Contractors as being soulless, which is intended to characterize the fact that they are in some sense shells of humanity.
  • Overdrawn At the Blood Bank: Seriously, the amount of his own blood Wei spills would have made him faint at least. Once, he waves his hand at Hei and it makes a stain bigger than him.
  • The Paralyzer: Probably one reason Hei can get away with being less rampantly violent than most Contractor special agents is because he has pretty good control of his power, and can choose between killing, rendering unconscious, or stunning, depending on the circumstances.
  • Parrot Exposition: Parodied in "dumb-wrestling" between Kurosawa and Norio. One can almost see the shower of sparks from their mental brakes. - Case? - Contract? - Former wife?
  • The Penance: Bertha's remuneration doesn't actually have to be the Nausea Fuel it is; she just chooses to do so to punish herself for something she did in the past.
  • Percussive Maintenance: Hei in the first episode with the landlady's TV (although he probably just used his electricity powers to fix it).
  • Personality Powers: A couple of examples- Mai is a schoolgirl at the "going through a phase" stage of life, and suffers from Power Incontinence causing her to horribly burn people to death when she becomes emotional; Wei's murderousness is symbolized by his blood-fueled powers; Brita is a Sexy Secretary and has the power of teleporting out of her clothing and the remuneration of kissing (this one might overlap with Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance).
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Havok before she was depowered. And, for that matter, Hei's Dead Little Sister during Heaven's War.
  • Pettanko: Kurosawa frequently makes jibes about Kiko's lack of cleavage. Furthering the parody of private detective tropes, she threatens to sue him for sexual harassment, something which never happened to Sam Spade.
  • Phenotype Stereotype: MI6 agents November 11 and July, who are blond-haired and blue-eyed, but then averted with their partner April, a black British woman.
    • All the Americans seen are blond as well.
  • Phlebotinum War: "Third South American War, also known as Heaven's War".
  • Pillar of Light: Side effect of CY-463's power is "pretty". And then even "prettier" when he turns out to be a greater bastard than one would expect. By orders of magnitude greater.
  • Pink Haired Girl: Other characters lampshade Kiko's hair color at various points in the series.
  • Playing Possum: In ep. 2 Hei puts on a pretty convincing "shot and not getting up" act until everyone is looking the other way. He was also "killed" by Wei, via blasting him off a building, who Never Found the Body and got kicked in the head a few minutes later for his trouble.
  • Playing with Fire: Mai and Maki, in different ways.
  • Please Put Some Clothes On: Amigiri to Brita. She's fine with Godiva Hair. He isn't.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Kurosawa, Kiko, and Saito all of whom survive the series
  • Pointy Ears: Wei, a Contractor with the ability to use his blood as a weapon has pointed, elf-like ears for no apparent reason.
  • Portal Cut: This is technically what Wei's powers do: he teleports whatever's covered in his blood, leaving the rest intact.
  • Power At a Price: Arguably, the premise of the whole show. Superpower Lottery gives you a superpower but you must pay the price for using it. When it's something that you can do yourself, like breaking your fingers or smoking, it's compulsive. When it's aging forward or backward, it triggers after each use. Also, the show strongly implies that the main price which all Contractors must pay is losing your humanity and becoming an absolutely rational... being. There are at least two ways of using the power and not paying the price, though both aren't cheap either. Losing your body is really a price to pay. Or gradually turning into walking plant. Hei subverts this because he inherited his abilities from his sister, who effectively paid the price for him (and depending on how her merger with him works, she may still be paying the price for every time he uses the power as her sleeping probably wouldn't impact Hei all that much).
  • Power Glows: Contractors using their powers are surrounded by a cool-looking blue aura, and their eyes glow red. This is taken Up to Eleven when Hei gets a little... upset... near the Meteor Shard, which makes the entire neighborhood and everyone in it glow.
  • Power Incontinence: Contractors who enter "Moratorium" aren't forced to undergo Remuneration, but lose control and begin unconsciously using their powers while slipping into trances. If the power involved is setting stuff on fire, this can be very bad. The odds of regaining control are slim.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: Effectively, cyborg ghosts. Though it seems that comatose Dolls weren't put into this state on purpose, as not everyone is lucky enough to end up as just an Extreme Doormat.
  • Power Perversion Potential: The power to teleport someone out of their clothes? Seriously?
    • This series plays up on the theory that only the mass that is part of the object being teleported would be. Anything else would stay behind. Clothes are not part of a person's body mass, thus cannot be teleported.
  • Power Trio: The MI6 agents.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Not a prominent feature, as the style is more realistic than "Calling Your Attacks", but Hei once said something like "Wipe that smile off your face" to a Contractor just before zapping him to death.
    • Although he doesn't succeed in killing him at that point, when he first confronts the body-stealing Contractor, Hei says something like, "So you kill people and make it look like suicide; how about I try the same thing with you?"
    • In his first appearance, November 11 has one. A gangster tried to double cross him, and ends up frozen in the middle of a street. After begging November 11 not to kill him, the gangster reveals the location of the package November had intended to pay for. November 11 pats him on the shoulder and says something like "I knew we'd work well together". As November walks away, the guy freezes into a Human Popsicle and smashes on the street.
      • This was also an Ironic Echo, since the guy had said the same thing to him at the beginning of their meeting.
  • Private Defective: Let's face it, in the setting where ready answers just don't exist and nothing should be taken for granted, any Wrong Genre Savvy guy without a helping hand of narrative causality is doomed to become a pawn at worst and clown at best anyway. Attempts to find normal answers for abnormal questions and ignore the weirdness only makes Kurosawa's shots fall so wide of the mark that he's almost safe.
  • Private Eye Monologue: One of many tropes parodied by Kurosawa. He starts in on one when he's first introduced... only for Kiko to march in, open the blinds, empty his ashtray out the window, and yell at him for his poor hygiene and the fact that he's just sitting around when he should be working.
  • Product Placement: A billboard featuring the name @Nifty (the company sponsoring the webcasts of the show) is prominently seen in the city. Also, Pizza Hut and Coca-Cola logos can be seen at various times. See also "The Keiyakusha Conspiracy: Nifty and Pizza Hut are sighted together."
    • Pizza Hut supports the Rebellion Syndicate!
    • For some reason or another, the vast majority of the Pizza Hut logos were cut from the dub and awkwardly replaced with "Pizza Slice".
  • Psychic-Assisted Suicide: A possessor-type Contractor early in the series had been killing people by taking control of their bodies, positioning them on the edge of a building, then snapping back to his own body, leaving them to fall to their deaths, which would appear to be suicides.
  • Psycho Electro: Averted, as Hei is one of the more mentally stable and humane Contractors as is Nick who has the same power. At least, when his urge to find his sister does not turn him into violent Jerkass.
  • Punch Clock Villain: Hei, Mao, and Yin, since pretty much every episode consists of them receiving (sometimes morally dubious) assignments from The Syndicate via their handler, Huang... who might also be counted as he doesn't like it much either and joined The Syndicate not of his own volition. Given the whole The Man Behind the Man thing going on, even Kirihara and her colleagues are involuntary punch clock villains. November 11, April, and July also have this dynamic, being a rather friendly group protective of each other. Then there's Bertha and Itzhak...heck, this seems to be the default state for Contractors.
  • Punny Name: While it may or may not be accidental, this is a series that has a cat who is very nearly named "Meow." Of course, it might just be because it's Chinese for "cat."
    • Which is in itself punny.
  • Ransacked Room: Happened to Chiaki.
  • Razor Floss: Luke's telekinetic whip.
  • Real Place Background: The show's Tokyo is picture-perfect.
  • Reality Is Out to Lunch: Let's just say this place was named "Hell's Gate" for a reason...
  • Redemption Equals Death: Several characters, most heartbreakingly Havoc.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Contractors' eyes glow red when they use their powers.
  • Red Right Hand: Arguably Wei's pointed ears and Maki's Mismatched Eyes. Although they aren't acknowledged as odd in-series, they are certainly a sign that the characters are up-to-no-good.
    • Kirihara's boss, who turns out to be part of The Syndicate, wears black gloves to cover up his prosthetic hands.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Your Mileage May Vary, but one cannot help but notice the physical similarities between Yin and Bai, Hei's Dead Little Sister. Given that Hei is a bit of a loner and seems generally uninterested in making friends with people, this trope may explain his exceptional protectiveness towards Yin.
  • Required Secondary Powers: At least, Contractors are mostly immune to the effects of their powers. Mai walks Out of the Inferno intact (and her clothes too), and when Hei and Nick electrocute each other they aren't even knocked out. Lampshaded in the second example when Nick wonders why the hell that didn't work.
    • Actually, the second example was due to the two characters unknowingly making an electrical circuit by touching each other.
  • Revealing Hug: The second episode; the cut between "Li's" blatant flirting and his ice-cold expression a few seconds later is probably about where someone who didn't watch the Spoiler Opening would start to wonder about him.
  • The Rival: Wei to Hei.
  • Roof Hopping: Along with other acrobatics; see Book Ends.
  • Running Gag: November 11 is just joking and Hei will get fat when he hits thirty.
  • Salt and Pepper: November 11 and April.
  • Sarcasm Failure: If November stops cracking jokes, it's time to run.
  • Sassy Secretary: The comical detective has one in a young girl who is both a Cosplay Otaku Girl and a Yaoi Fangirl. Basically, Kiko is kind-hearted, but a little too crazy to be good companion or reliable partner.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: In one of the last episodes, a leader of The Syndicate and one of Kirihara's superiors gets these when plotting to wipe out all Contractors.
    • Similarly, Nishijima's glasses flash all menacing-like when he's discussing his orders for the Syndicate to assassinate Hei's unit.
  • Secret Identity Identity: Hei is arguably three people- the "Black Reaper", a mass-murdering unstoppable contractor; "Li Sheng Shun", a kind-hearted but naive dork; and the real "Hei", a gentle, friendly guy who hardened his heart and Took a Level in Badass so he could stay with his beloved sister after she turned into a cold-blooded killing machine.
  • Self-Parody: The first season OVA episode (involving a Crack Fic-writing Loony Fan Stalker with a Crush), the vast majority of which is absolutely hilarious.
  • Sexy Secretary: One contractor, whose power is to teleport people out of their clothing and whose Remuneration is kissing people.
  • Shell Shocked Senior: Havoc, and to a lesser degree Hei.
    • One scene in the Interquel has Hei freezing up in an absolutely textbook PTSD way.
  • Ship Tease: Most of episode 23 consists of Hei and Kirihara on what is, essentially, a date. Kiko certainly thought so.
  • Ship Sinking: Out of Hei's potential love interests, Kirihara is the only one who survives for more than two episodes.Oh, and Yin if you count her.
  • Shirtless Scene: The manga shows that November 11 isn't the only one who can provide fanservice. Of course, Hei being... well, himself, he doesn't even notice the attention he's attracting.
    • Not to mention the shot where he's dressed only in shorts while he's going through the screening process to enter the Gate. Not played for fanservice, though.
  • Shock and Awe: Hei. Or rather, Bai. Also Nick.
  • Shoot Your Mate: At one point the Syndicate leaders ordered Huang to kill Shihoko to test his loyalty, with secret instructions to the rest of the team to kill him if he didn't comply. None of them were willing to, and she killed herself rather than let them be put in danger on her behalf.
  • Shout-Out: Several, including references to Death Note and Code Geass; additionally, the anime that Kiko is said to watch in episode 7 bears a considerable likeness to Ouran High School Host Club, another BONES series.
  • Show, Don't Tell: Relied on to the point of Viewers Are Geniuses and Mind Screw.
  • Shown Their Work: The series is painstakingly researched in most imaginable aspects, down to copying a foreign language graffiti in distant locations and accurately representing various obscure guns.
    • Then again, they couldn't even translate the title properly.
    • And there's a reason we always refer to PANDORA by the acronym; their English needs some work.
  • Single-Stroke Battle: This aesthetic was subverted/mocked when Hei fought Wei in episode 10. It had most of the usual traits: the two characters charge at each other, it goes to Bullet Time as they pass each other, and they both stop in one place and look dramatic before the results become clear. However, those results were actually faked; neither of them managed to hit the other one, and the blood on Hei's mask was actually his own, put there to fool Wei into writing him off as dead. As a result, the supposed loser crashed in through a window a few minutes later and beat the crap out of the supposed winner.
  • Slow-Motion Pass-By: Always done in real time, but the same idea. Usually, it's someone chasing Hei who goes straight past "Li" without noticing him, but at least once someone misses Amber instead.
  • Smoke Out: A couple of times when Hei is in an otherwise inescapable position (November 11 gluing his feet to the floor, Kirihara and a squad of her heavily-armed subordinates aiming machine guns at him from ten feet away), Huang drops a bomb that gives him a chance to disappear. In the first example, it also melted the ice holding him in place.
    • Actually if I rembember correctly, he melted the Ice with his electricity in the first example.
  • Smoking Is Cool: Although he hates having to do it, November 11 has smoking as his Remuneration and is shown doing so in a cool-looking way following the times when he uses his powers (generally to kill people).
    • Subverted in his introductory episode of the anime, when he first makes his "smoking kills" speech. He takes a huge drag on his cigarette and then hacks the smoke out.
  • Smug Snake: Eric Nishijima
  • Social Darwinist: Amber's philosophy has a lot in common with Magneto's.
    • Your Mileage May Vary: Maki states this philosophy and specifically states that it isn't something Amber taught him. Amber's plan was to give Hei the chance to choose the path that He'd be happiest with, very little opinion on the superiority or inferiority of either race.
  • Soul Fragment: It Was with You All Along. And mediums, as proven by CY-463.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The especially peaceful Ending Theme.
  • Spiritual Successor: It has the same premise as Roadside Picnic: "exclusion zone just dropped on us - weird artifacts - contraband"—and is close in spirit. Show "Hell's Gate First Reconnaissance" or other scenes inside the Gate without main characters to someone knowing Picnic but not DtB and ask where they came from. That's not counting an alleged wish power of the Golden Ball and the Gate. Though the circumstances, scale and focus are different.
    • Within the anime genre, there are some similarities to Ergo Proxy (Re-l and Kirihara and Vincent and Hei), Witch Hunter Robin (Gray and Gray Morality involving Differently Powered Individuals), and Elfen Lied (living security systems, although much much less squicky in this show)
      • If you want more squicky, there's "I-Weapon", sorry, "D-Weapon" project in manga. Based on the Dolls' ability to cope with the degree of cyborgization normal people couldn't take (easy brainwashing is a bonus, of course). And yes, when that guy was plugged into his wall socket, his legs clearly weren't there.
    • And of course X-Men
    • Don't forget S-Cry-ed (supernatural disaster splits part of Japan off from the rest and grants a percentage of the population special abilities).
    • There's also quite a few similarities to Code Geass; both feature morally ambiguous protagonists with special powers and issues regarding their little sisters who are on the wrong side of the law and have girls throwing themselves at them, and said protagonists are both up against a Hero Antagonist who wants to catch them for crimes they definitely committed, but who is being used by a corrupt government for their own ends. Not to mention the Pizza Hut Product Placement and the well-established fact that Amber is pretty much a clone of C.C.
  • The Spock: Another aspect of the Contractor mindset.
  • Spoiler Opening: If you don't pay attention to the OP the first two times around, it can come as quite a surprise that innocent, bumbling Li is a contractor.
  • Spy From Weights and Measures: November 11 fits the "cultural attache" version and even counts as an Overt Operative.
  • Spy-Versus-Spy: A serious version with numerous intelligence agencies battling one another for control. However, they were all being manipulated by The Man Behind the Man in order to keep the contractors distracted fighting each other.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Maki has an obsessive affection for Amber and tries to kill Hei because of this and likely would have tried the same against Amber's other followers.
  • The Stars Are Going Out: Or rather falling, or appearing, or disappearing, or getting brighter, or getting dimmer, or any of a number of other things, depending on what Contractors are doing. The normal stars have been out (or at least hidden) since the Gates appeared.
  • Start My Own: The motivation behind Evening Primrose.
  • Static Stun Gun: Hei uses this all the time, once even pretending he had a taser.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: One reason Hei is known as Chinese Electric Batman. He has a distinct tendency to vanish if he's out of someone's sight for even a second. Arguably the most impressive was when he disappeared from right in front of Kirihara during the time it took her to put on her glasses, while sporting a bullet wound that had him limping so badly he was having trouble walking.
  • Stereotypes of Chinese People: Kind of a mix of examples. Alice and Wei are rather negative examples, being a psychopathic Mafia Princess and her equally psycho Contractor Battle Butler. Hei is Chinese and a Badass martial artist, but in his Li persona presents himself as a friendly, unassuming Chinese immigrant. Kenji, seeing how Hei wins the fight with a troublesome client while feigning weakness, notices the skill and makes a comment to the effect that "it's true that all Chinese people are martial arts masters". Li's landlady jokingly mentioned attitude toward the Chinese idea of food, but other than that she cares not who came from where.
  • Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Hei pretends to be an exchange student while working at various menial minimum-wage jobs.
  • The Stoic: Since Contractors are stoics by nature, damn near half the cast. Hei in particular.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Of particular note is Maki, whose power is blowing up anything he's left handprints on. But plenty of stuff goes boom even without his help.
  • Super Human Trafficking: All over the place.
  • Super Weight: Ranging from -1 to 0 for normals and dolls all the way up through 4 for Amber, Hei/Bai in the Gate, and possibly Izanami. Most Contractors are about a 2, with some (Havoc, Gravity Masters, and Hei by virtue of being absurdly badass anyway) coming in at 3.
  • Superpower Lottery: Some Contractors have rather useless powers with a high price to pay, while others are very powerful with a small Remuneration (like drinking beer) apparently as a result of the unpredictability of the Gate and possibly twisted Personality Powers. The cake taker though is Hei himself, who has the ability of manipulating matter on a quantum level (though he's only aware of the electrical attack his sister used it as) and a remuneration of sleeping, which he doesn't even have to fulfill due to the unusual means by which he acquired his powers.
    • Amber may have done even better. She can manipulate time, stopping or rewinding it as suits her wishes. Her remuneration is getting younger- she could have theoretically used this to make herself immortal.
  • Superpower Russian Roulette: Contractors can have powers all over the place on the Super Weight scale, but it's also possible to get turned into a Doll or Moratorium or have a remuneration that can kill you.
  • Supreme Chef: Hei, according to Havoc and the manga Omake. He certainly has a good reason to be.
  • Sword Limbo: Done with blood rather than a sword, but the same idea.
  • The Syndicate: Even called that.
  • Taking the Bullet: Subverted in the second episode, but played straight when Saitou gets in the way of a blood splatter from Wei to protect Kirihara. Or maybe not so straight, since Hei shows up and zaps the hell out of Wei before he can actually detonate it.
  • Taking You with Me: Huang. Well, pulling one's foes into a street race with an opportunity to be caught in one big fireball as a main prize is truly Badass way to die.
    • November 11 gets an impressive one as well, killing several of his treacherous superiors, all members of The Syndicate, but dying in the process. Extra points for killing of his boss with his own glass of bourbon.
  • Talking Animal: Mao.
  • Team Chef: Most of the time when we see Hei in his apartment, he's cooking something. Being a Big Eater is apparently a full-time job.
  • The Team Normal: Huang.
  • Team Pet: Mao for Hei-tachi, and July for the MI6 Power Trio.
  • Tears From a Stone: Tears from someone who's supposed to be an Empty Shell.
  • Techno Babble: Everything involving the Gate.
  • Tele Frag: A Contractor with swap-teleport powers kills by replacing victims' vital organs with inanimate objects.
  • Tempting Fate: "Don't test my patience, KABOOM!". He should have seen it coming, though.
  • Theme Naming: Most of the Syndicate agents are codenamed based on colors, such as Hei (black), Bai (white), Yin (silver), Huang (yellow), and Amber. MI6 agents are named after months and days, such as November 11, April, July, and February.
  • They Would Cut You Up: There are references to PANDORA practicing human experimentation on Contractors. In fact, it's mentioned that initially, various countries did this, until a U.N. treaty intervened. You might think that the U.N. would stop this, but instead, all they did was demand that countries would share their research. The sociopaths aren't the only bastards in this setting...
  • Those Two Bad Guys: The third episode has a Caucasian assassin paired with a black Contractor and the two are a good fit for the trope and definitely call to mind Pulp Fiction. More sympathetically, Bertha and her partner have philosophical discussions establishing them as Punch Clock Villains, in between trying to kill Hei.
  • Those Two Guys: Kirihara's subordinates, Saito and Kano. Also Plucky Comic Relief Kurosawa and Kiko.
  • Throwaway Country: More like throw away Continent, being most of South America after the "Heaven's Gate" incident.
  • Tin Man: Nearly every Contractor or Doll encountered. Others, such as Amber, seem to have realized that this idea is really stupid.
  • Title Drop: Within a title. Episode 25 is called Is the Somber Dream of the Grim Reaper a Shade Darker than Black?
  • Token Non-Human: Mao, a Talking Animal in a team otherwise comprised of (mostly) humans.
  • The Tokyo Fireball: They even call it the "Tokyo Explosion."
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: A poster child for the trope.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: The incompetent detective notices how Hei (in his Li identity) is always there when something odd is going on, and is suspicious of him. Notably, Kirihara, who is much smarter and more competent doesn't pick up on this. Well, not until the last episode, at least.
  • Torture Always Works: On Contractors, it does. Since they place their own interests first, they have no reason not to spill their guts at the first opportunity if the alternative is pain.
  • Touch of Death: Several Contractors have abilities that do this. Hei has a habit of leaving behind corpses for the police with no visible cause of death, November can freeze someone solid, and the main villain of the Interquel manga, Harvest... well, his ability dissolves matter. The results aren't pretty.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Most of the time Hei is shown eating, he favors bowls of noodles; also, April generally drinks Guinness.
  • Trenchcoat Switcheroo: Kurosawa accidentally takes the identical trenchcoat of a Contractor involved in industrial theft and murder. The Contractor discovers the switch when he goes to pay for a meal and discovers nothing but a phone sex advertisement in the pocket.
  • Tranquil Fury: Being The Stoic, when Hei is angry, he gets furious in a very cold and brutal way. On the other hand, the norm for Contractors is more like Dissonant Serenity, killing in horrible ways with an attitude of boredom and/or amusement.
  • The Triads and the Tongs: Chen Long Tang.
  • Trippy Finale Syndrome: The last episodes mostly happen in and around Hell's Gate. This would have been enough to qualify them for this trope by itself (travelling in there involves, among other things, stepping into a rift in empty air that can leave you standing sideways on a skyscraper with gravity at a 90 degree angle to the ground), but then Amber went and triggered the Tokyo Explosion and things got really weird.
  • Trojan Prisoner: Accidental one. Yakuza guys thought a Doll was just one more sort of illegal goods and didn't even blindfold her. Hei, Mao, and viewers learned something new about Dolls, and Yakuza were surprised by a superpowered ninja "somehow" homing right in on their hideaway.
  • Trope Overdosed
  • True Companions: Both Hei and co. and the British agents despite both being entirely composed of card carrying villains.
    • The term is actually used in the episodes with Maki, as when November 11 is kidnapped, July goes to Kirihara for help and refers to November and April as his Nakama (translated in the subtitles as "friends"). When Kirihara tells November 11 about this, he is at first surprised, but then shows caring towards July, demonstrating complexity beyond what is expected of a Contractor.
    • The Public Security Bureau's Foreign Affairs Division, 4th Section, dedicated to arresting/hunting down Contractors also counts as a Nakama, as they are quite close and affectionate with one another, and Kirihara refuses a promotion at least partially because she doesn't want to leave her team.
  • Tuck and Cover: At one point November tackles Kirihara to get her out of the way of Maki's explosions.
  • Two-Faced: Wei after Hei fries him.
  • Understatement: In the second episode (though exactly how ridiculous an understatement it is is only clear later): "I'm a complicated guy." Yes. Yes, you are.
  • Unreliable Expositor: We get a healthy dose of Expospeak early on, from a scientist who studies things that are under The Masquerade, no less. The next thing we see? Our expo-speaker does not even know who she herself is. Given her purpose, she presumably got no really sensitive information at all. So, have a happy dish of common oversimplifications and tampered memories. You're on your own.
    • In general, 90% of what is said in the first couple of episodes is either misleading or an outright lie.
  • Unreliable Voiceover: Mao, at the beginning of Episode 22, gives a dramatic speech about keeping his cool and doing the rational thing while the actual video shows him acting both terrified and mortified. It's funny as hell.
  • The Un-Smile: Yin had to use her fingers to smile. Unlike most instances of this trope, however, it was cute rather than freaky.
  • UST: Huge amounts between Hei and Kirihara; episode 23 brings it close to Dating Catwoman levels.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: You were expecting an explanation? We gave you a perfectly good set of Cryptic Conversations, confusing flashbacks, Unreliable Expositors, and even a Mind Screwy Journey to the Center of the Mind. You figure it out. We'll wait.
  • Villainous BSOD: Shihoko's remuneration requires her to suffer these, every time.
    • Havoc could also be said to be going through an incredibly severe one.
  • Villainous Rescue: Sort of; Hei ends up saving Kirihara almost incidentally a couple of times.
  • Villainy Discretion Shot: In the time prior to the series, Hei killed tons of people, probably mostly rogue Contractors, and this is very much downplayed. Also, it's clear that Havoc was a horrific mass murderer prior to losing her powers and regaining her morality and personality, but because she is presented sympathetically, it makes sense the audience isn't shown her "in action".
  • Warrior Poet: Literal. Itzhak's remuneraton is writing poetry.
  • We Have Been Researching Phlebotinum for Years: In the first two episodes of Darker than Black The Hero accidentally saves a scientist working under the Masquerade and on the run receives a hasty explanation of what's going on.
  • Weapon of Choice: Hei fights with throwing knives and a choke wire. Handy since they conduct electricity.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: In episode 11, the head janitor addresses his employees like they're in a military line-up.
  • What Is This Feeling?: Dolls and Contractors both tend to act like this, since so many of them buy into the obviously incorrect Tin Man idea.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Some powers are nearly universal, but many are too weird or noticeable to use freely. That's not counting their random price.
    • Itzhak probably bears special mention, though, since he's about the only Contractor we see who can't do much of anything in a fight.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Both Contractors and Dolls are considered no-longer human and may actually think of themselves this way but frequently show hidden depths. Dolls are quite passive at best and catatonic at worst, and Contractors' typical self-centered attitude and "When All You Have Is a Hammer" style don't show that people who treat them as a sort of killing robots are too wrong either.
  • What Measure Is a Non Super: Evening Primrose takes this view, as do some of the crazier Contractors unaffiliated with them.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: Played with: many Contractors act like walking guns with a single type of ammo, up to using Hollywood Tactics. Others are more flexible. Still others are quite capable even without using their powers at all.
  • When She Smiles: What first made Amber fall in love with Hei. We can totally see why.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Yin.
  • White Mask of Doom: Worn by Hei, who provides the page picture at the time of this writing.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Played for laughs. Kurasawa is terrified of cats.
  • Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: A rare main character example in Hei's undercover missions, all of which involve him taking some kind of menial job. Lampshaded when the Private Defective wonders why he keeps showing up.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Contractors appear to be utterly lacking in conscience (as poor Mai put it -- "Why?"). And/or have some quirk wired to the Berserk Button (Hei:sister, Wei:victory, Nick:sky Maki:crush, November 11:smoking). The few "how I became Contractor" stories we've seen suggest that it could be the other way around and people who are already about to go crazy may contract some unusual power.
    • A further aspect of the "great insanity" involves the reaction of several people once they become Contractors. They seem to have a great desire to erase ties to their human past, which they will sometimes try to achieve by killing their closest friends. This is fairly explicit in the interquel and sequel, but can also be seen with Wei in the first season as an explanation for why he decided to kill pretty much everyone in the Tong he belonged to.
  • A World Half Full: For all the dark tone and Bittersweet Ending, it's still generally more idealistic than not.
  • World of Badass: This setting is full of Persons of Mass Destruction, with a healthy sprinkling of Badass Normal and a Reality Warper or two. The few non-badasses are generally either some form of Mission Control or Plucky Comic Relief.
  • Worthy Opponent: Wei. Almost as good martial artist as Hei. Sheds blood easily, but after all starts with his own and is not masochistic. He wants a "return match" with Hei knowing that Hei will survive out of pride, but otherwise is polite and helpful to the end, even though he does not fall into Defeat Means Friendship or Friendly Enemy.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Notably averted. Nobody has any problem fighting Maki.
  • Writer on Board: Someone on the writing staff clearly doesn't like smoking.
    • November 11 delivers a Character Filibuster against second-hand smoke.
    • Kirihara considers smoking a disgusting habit.
    • Kurosawa is a chain smoker as part of his attempt to ape private eye tropes, but Kiko breaks his Private Eye Monologue by complaining about the smell, and it's clear that it doesn't improve his already poor hygiene and body odor.
    • Before going off to perform his Heroic Sacrifice, Huang asks Hei to light his cigarette with his powers. Hei blows it up instead, and tells Huang he should stop smoking.
    • Bertha's baby choked to death on her cigarette butts, and to punish herself she chews them whole as her price.
    • And, of course, November 11's cigarette packs are all black with "DEATH" written on them in big letters.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: As noted above, Kurosawa; also, the female protagonist of the OVA is a Cosplay Otaku Girl who thinks she's in a Shoujo story and that Hei is a romantic hero.
  • X Meets Y: This show is essentially what you would get if X-Men was written after watching the entire run of Neon Genesis Evangelion and a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series back-to-back.
  • Yakuza
  • Yandere: Maki would be good friends with Rollo of Code Geass—he is similarly a Cute Shotaro Boy whose affection for another character makes him act in a violently sociopathic way towards potential "rivals".
    • Before that we have Mafia Princess Alice, a childhood friend of Misaki's that became a wee bit too dependent on her. She did not like the idea of Misaki becoming a cop (and therefore leaving her), so she decided that she needed to die.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Kiko only tolerates her work environment because she gets to watch Boys Love series on the job. Mayu is just as obsessive, if not worse.
  • You Are Number Six: Messier codes: Hei is BK-201, Itzhak is CY-463, Wei is VI-952, and so on.
  • You Bastard: Kurasawa's comments about anime in the dub of Episode 7.
  • You Cannot Please Everyone: Kirihara likes and even has a crush on Hei's Li persona and is dedicated to hunting his BK-201 identity.
  • You Can See Me?: There's no way to tell a Contractor or Doll from normal human without their help, and two ways with it. First is a telltale sight of eyes glowing red and a cool aura of blue light. Second (also applied to Dolls) is a suspect ogling an observer apparition, that is, obviously empty place. Granted, only other Contractors, Dolls and people controlling this specific Doll can know it's there, but one Contractor's cover was blown by this mistake on-screen.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: A number of characters, usually Contractors and Dolls, have impossible hair colors like green, pink and white.
  • You Have Failed Me...: The Syndicate, transmitted through Hei's handler Huang, often threatens to kill its members should they fail to complete a mission. Not surprisingly, since their ultimate goal is to kill all Contractors.
  • You Watch Too Much X: When his assistant mentions in episode 14 that their latest client was acting like parts of his memory had been erased, Kurasawa responds appropriately by claiming she's been watching too much anime.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: By Kiko and her friend. Possibly Yin too if she uses a lower skirt.
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