Yo, Gyt here again. It’s been a while now since it finished it’s Sci-Fi run, but I finally got around to digging around in my DVR, and finished watching Descendents of Darkness.
Now when I first started DVRing this, I had no expectations. I’d never even heard of the show before. But when an anime comes on that I’ve not heard of before, I tend to DVR it. It’s free, so why not, I might just find a gem hidden in the coals so to speak. Sadly, that’s not what I found here.
Let me start out by warning everyone – this show has yaoi hinting. Ok…more than hinting, it all but shoves it down your throat. It never actually shows anything (unless the Sci-Fi version was edited), but there’s a lot of near miss kisses, male-on-male hugging (although that in-of itself isn’t yaoi, but the way it’s done in this show is), and awkward situations and conversations. Throw that in with one bloody restraint scene that reeks of bondage, and this show isn’t for those who can’t deal with this kind of stuff. I myself found it unnerving at times, but managed to stick through it until the end, but I was prepared to drop it if it got too weird. I have nothing against homosexuality, yaoi, or yuri; if that’s what works for you, then it’s fine – but had the show gotten any odder, it wouldn’t have been for me.
Beyond the yaoi-ness, this show is another of those that’s hard to get into. It offers a basic description of what’s going on, but never delves deep enough into how things work or why things are the way they are for you to truly understand what’s going on. Thus, it’s really hard to get to care about the character’s and their trials.
The back-story, what basics we’re given, is this. There exists an Agency of Death, and the people who work there are known as Agents of Death. They are sent out to deal with the occult and protect the lives of normal humans while doing so. The only Agents that we really get to see are Kasumi and Yuoh, The main story revolves around their conflict with Doctor, who not only killed Yuoh once before, but wants Kasumi for his own purposes – as well as in his bed…so they like to imply every time the two meet at least.
That’s basically it, other than the little mini story arcs that compose this thirteen episode series. There are four stories shown here – the first three all last for three episodes each, and the last is four episodes. The first and last arc directly connect to each-other, I guess in an attempt to “wrap up” all the loose ends. The problem with this idea is that the story itself has been a loose end ever since the beginning. It almost feels like the show was made simply to satisfy the needs of new yaoi fangirls – the ones who are into it, but not quite ready for the harder stuff. Even the interaction between Kasumi and Doctor supports this, since it seems like Rule #1 of Yaoi is ‘If they want to kill each other, than what they really want to do is BLEEP each other.’ That certainly explains the number of Naruto x Sasuke fans out there.
In the end, I can’t really say I’m glad I watched this, even if it was free. It wasn’t a profound waste of my time, and I really can’t bring myself to hate it. I can’t be bothered to work up the energy to hate it, it’s not even good enough to get me worked up for that. If yaoi is your thing, then maybe you’ll enjoy it for it’s moments. If you’re the kind of person who loves those stories that just drops you in without much explanation at all, then maybe you’ll get more out of this than me. Either way, I just don’t care for this one at all. If it sounds good to you, go for it, but it won’t change my mind.
I give Descendents of Darkness a 2 out of 10. I’m never going to watch this one again, it just didn’t suit me. But if it’s one of your favorites, more power to you.