Darker Than Black

Darker Than Black is the story of those with supernatural abilities called contractors. An event happens that creates two spot on Earth that are called Heave's Gate(South America) and Hell's Gate(Tokyo), where strange occurrences happen. Anybody that trespasses into the area is never heard from again. At that same time the sky was replaced by a sky full of false stars, which represent the life of a contractor. Contractors are those who have abilities develop which range from controlling gravity to materializing items and even controlling weather. Contractors can use their abilities but must pay a remuneration (a payment of sorts) that is usually strange. Some have to break their own fingers, drink beer, eat cigarettes, etc. They have also lost all emotional reasoning which is replaced by pure logical reasoning. As a result, many contractors work as assassins and the like. This story revolves around a chinese contracor named Hei. Hei is slightly different since he does not have a remuneration for his abilities. Hei works with a girl named Yin that is a "Doll." Dolls have zero personality and act as support for contractors. Each doll has an affinity for an element or substance, that when they are in contact can project themselves to any other place that substance might be. Hei also works with another contractor named Mao that had the ability to  transfer his consciousness into animals. But at a period in the past an incident occurred and he lost his real body. He now prefers the body of a black cat. Their team also has a human contact who was once a police officer by the name of Huang.  Huang is the contact for the organization they work for and hands down missions for Hei to complete. Over the coares of the series it becomes obvious that Hei is not a normal contractor, most obviously because he has no remuneration. But also because he does not always follow logic and at times he is very driven by emotion. I would recommend this to those who prefer supernatural abilities. This series gives a different kind of feel and variety to the genre. It does its best to show as much character development as possible while still leaving a sense of mystery. Making you want more and more. There is also a second season to this along with some OAV's to fill in between the first and second season.

YuYu Hakusho

Yusuke Yurameshi is a delinquent punk who nobody believes to be worth anything until he sacrifices his life to save a little boy from being hit by a speeding car. As a ghost he begins to see that his life had more importance than he first thought. He is given the opportunity to come back to life since his death was completely unexpected by the spirit world. Needless to say that he is once again alive, but is then told that heis the spirit detective of the living world. He has abilities above the normal person and is given cases to solve involving demons and other strange phenomenon.  He starts learning from a renowned psychic named Gen Kai, who instructs him on the ways of controlling his immense amount of spirit energy. His primary weapon using his spirit energy is his spirit gun. Basically he concentrates his energy nto his finger and releases it like a bullet. He also learns a similar method of releasing his energy called the shotgun, it’s the same idea only it is a more spread focus shot.  Eventually Gen Kai endows Yusuke with her spirit orb, a massive amount of spirit energy that he takes within himself that has the risk of tearing his body to shreds. He uses this power to fight against some very powerful demons, and in the process of the thought of the loss of his friends discovers his inner strength. Later he meets the spirit detective that came before him who has the goal of destroying the barrier between the living world and demon world. Yusuke once again finds himself dead and discovers that he is the descendant of a very powerful demon.  Several generations prior to Yusuke, a muzaku demon fell in love with a human and shared a night with her. The trait allows a muzaku to pass on his dna to a descendant powerful enough to control their power, is known as the atavism of the muzaku. At this point Yusuke has become the most wanted person in the living world with a warrant for his death from the spirit world. He travels to demon world to see his so called demon father and while there learns to harness his demon powers. There are three  rulers of the demon world and one just happens to be his demon father.  The three rulers are at war and when Yusukes father dies, he makes a trip to see of the other rulers and proposes a tournament to decide the ruler of the demon world. By doing so he gives the opportunity to all demons to be the ruler. As a result of the tournament, none of the rulers end up being in charge, because they all faced each other prior to the finals and as a result the ruler became somebody that never could have taken power by force. He declared that demons were not to kill humans and in the end there was an understanding between the three worlds(spirit, living, demon) that there would be peace. Okay, so a lot of people don’t like this anime. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe it got a bad rep or something because it looked a little childish, but I love it. For it time the animation is awesome, character development is outstanding, and the storyline kicked ass. I’m just going to recommend this to everybody! Enjoy!!

Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Sawada Tsunayoshi  is a lazy, clutz of a 10th grader with the nickname ‘no good Tsuna’  until one day he finds out he was getting a home tutor. When the home tutor shows up Tsuna is shocked to find out that it is a baby by the name of Reborn.  Reborn explains that he was sent by 9th head of the Vongola mafia family, to train Tsuna to become the 10th boss. Tsuna absolutely refuses to have anything to do with the mafia however one instance after another causes him to be drawn deeper and deeper into it. He begins to develop trusted friendships and underlings that he can trust with his life.  His right hand man is Gokudera Hayato, and along with the rest of his subordinates, they show that they are the true owners of the power of the sky rings and heirs to the original Vongola.  Tsuna gradually learns of his internal abilities the reason why he was chosen to become the 10th. Through his adamant refusal to follow the ways of the mafia he shows that he is the only one who truly has the original intent of the 1st. Who’s intent was to protect the ones that could not protect themselves. There are many adventures and side stories throughout this anime that make it one of my favorites and this time I am going to avoid any spoilers and just suggest that you watch this anime. It took me a while to get into this one because it starts slowly and seems kinda ridiculous and childish at first but slowly starts to pull you in. Any Naruto fans know what this is like. Having to put up with the stupid fillers and storyline in order to get to the good main plot. But it is worth it. Watch it and don’t judge it to early on. I would also recommend reading the manga as a follow up where the anime ends. Enjoy!

Last Exile

Claus Valca and Lavie Head are vanship pilots who work as sky couriers delivering messages and packages. This story takes place on a planet with technology that is both advanced and outdated. A vanship is a flying vehicle that flys with the aid of a specific and expensive mineral, an advanced flying vehicle by our standards yet the means of communication are that of couriers and signal lights. Claus and Lavie are children whos parents were vanship couriers that lost their lives during a 10 star mission. Sky courier missions are given a star count based on their difficulty level. One day Claus and Lavie are in the middle of a vanship race when they notice a fellow sky courier who is in need of help. They promise the pilot that they will complete his mission just before he dies, only to realize that they took on a 7 star mission. They complete their mission, which is to transport a young girl to a certain destination. As they are handing the girl over to the recipients, they notice that the people they are handing her over to are the crew of an unregistered battleship feared by the military of both major nations on the planet. Claus and Lavie decide to follow them and inadvertently get involved in what will become a greater adventure than either of them ever expected. I was a good fan of this series and think it is a good one for anybody to watch. They did just recently come out with a sort of sequel to this with different characters, however I could not get into it. It showed more of a cartoonistic style if animation and just seemed ridiculous to me. Whether or not those that might have seen the recent release of Last Exile or not liked it, I still believe many would prefer the original. Check it out, and if you don’t like it at most you might have wasted a few hours. Enjoy!

D.Grayman

D.Grayman is the story of Allen Walker, an exorcist who was born with a parasitic type anti-akuma(anti-demon) weapon as his left arm. The exorcists are a group of people fighting with their anti-akuma weapons which are really what is called innocence. Innocence resonates and synchronizes with certain people(exorcists) and gives them abilities out of the ordinary. They use these abilities to fight the Millennium Earl, a man who turns people into akuma. He preys on the suffering of loved ones to manipulate them into bringing their lost loved ones back to life as demons, who in turn follows the Earl's orders to kill the one that brought them back and take over their body. As a young boy Allen did this to his father figure, Mana. As punishment, Mana cursed Allen's left eye, the result of which was being able to see the tortured human souls of akuma. After Allen's are instinctively killed Mana, because he had become an akuma, Allen was taken in by General Marian Cross. Cross then trained Allen to become an exorcist. From there the story follows Allen and a few other exorcists along their journey to defeat the Millennium Earl. I would recommend this to those interested in anime based on fantasy, action and the acult(kinda.) I didn't really like the entire religious aspect of it, but it is none the less one of my favorites.