Cruel Angel Theses

Everybody loves Misaki in a Qipao.

C’mon, everybody! Say it with me one more time.

Everybody loves Misaki in a Qipao!

“Her Dreams and Blood Dye the Snow-White Dress”

This is important:

Shocked Alice is shocked.

I mean, d’awww. Misaki is established as someone who cares for more than just herself, a very stark contrast to Ms. I Get High On Bees, who stings herself so that things won’t hurt anymore–irony is a strong point in this scene, but I’m not sure it was intentional. This innate difference shows us how the differences that separate them aren’t so much circumstantial as they are hard-wired.

In other words, Misaki wants to change the world for the better, while Alice could care less. She’s going to watch it burn, and try and distract herself as much as she can while it does so.

But already here we see the principles that grounded Misaki and shaped her into the amazing woman she is today; how many teenagers have that sort of conviction. Oh, maybe it’s a nature v.s. nuture thing I’m about to step into here, but I swear that both Misaki and Alice behave the way they do as a result of their upbringing–a policeman’s daughter could very well have that bit more of conscientous upbringing implanted in her, as opposed to a triad boss’, you know?

Speaking of stings, It must have stung to have someone whom you’ve held in special regard not know about your birthday. Granted, I wouldn’t be going out of my way to remember a friend’s birthday if they were scheduled to take over the local triad, but…

This could very well be one of the many straws that broke Alice’s back, even if it seems later on like she’s resolved to take Misaki down ever since she hatched a plan of taking over the Qinglongtang with Wei. It’s established that Alice’s been alone, for the most part, intimidating her classmates with the use of her father’s name. Then Misaki comes along and throws a wrench into all that.

What’s worse, though, is that this act of forgetting, while not meaning much to Misaki, means all the more to Alice due to her being the only friend that she ever had, as far as dodgy friendships involving tsundere acts of cigarette pack-grabbing go.

It’s a very stark contrast to Kanami’s attitude, that’s for sure.

This part about different worlds reminds me of how Misaki’s on the brink of getting involved in Hei’s world–while she’s no stranger to BK201, she’s now privy to what constitutes the more private (public?!) side of Hei, as Hige notes below.

Backhanded rejection of the world she grew up in (Western v.s. Chinese dress) and her presenting of Misaki to her father as the model daughter he never had, perhaps?

I’d like to draw your attention to this exchange between Misaki and Hei:

Hei’s tone of voice: This is very, very, very important in establishing what seems like inexplicable anger and rage at a certain character from his past who makes an appearance in a later arc. I thought it was done extremely well, for the time it took to convey such emotions; Hei expresses empathy and bitterness in that single line, yet Misaki has all the right to snap at him because, like the first-time viewer, has absolutely no clue as to what transpired in Heaven’s Gate all those years ago.

For us second-time viewers, though, the misunderstanding here is bittersweet.

There’s some discreet humour to be derived, surely, from Alice’s faith in a guy who can snap his fingers and make all her problems disappear.

In tandem with the theme of the episode, there’s some poetic irony that strikes once again when you realise that this guy will appear again and again throughout the series like a bad horror movie, simply because Hei kicked his ass, delivering a sound beatdown to his ego in the process. Kinda like his former mistress in that respect.

This line in particular didn’t escape my notice. Live and die by blood, eh?

I wonder what she’s going to think of the other death that she’s got coming to her. Looking forward to it, actually, since I wasn’t paying much attention the first time it happened.

And as I can’t decide which is more moe, I am going to leave you with an unfair comparison of both Misakis, one being from the episode and a particularly striking portrait of how she can look so bold and yet so beautiful at the same time.

You can almost hear Kanami telling Misaki at both points in their lives that it’ll stick that way if she keeps that expression for too long.

~

Hige says:

First off, I want to give BONES a firm nod of approval for their eye for grim detail. When Zhijun assassinates Richard Lau not only do we get a rather charming view of Misaki through his hallowed out chest cavity, but his hands (which were previously covered in blood) were also missing. Macabre and horrifying, but a nice bit of continuity nonetheless. Good work, you sick wonderful bastards.

What caught my eye thematically this arc was the focus on father-daughter relationships. It enhanced the strained conflict between Alice and Misaki and fleshed it out beyond petulant vendetta. Alice liked Misaki because she was the first person to challenge her father’s authority, even though, at its heart, it embodied the massive ideological split between the two. Like Zhijun explains, Alice took Misaki as a confidante because she did what Alice wished she could do – reject her father. And yet, even though Misaki’s life followed its logical path to virtue and justice, she felt betrayed that Misaki became a cop and divided them irreparably. Alice’s wish to ‘free’ herself from Misaki was spoilt and selfish, but it was also human and complicated. Misaki stated her terms, her life view, from the moment she snatched the cigarette packet away, and yet Alice felt betrayed when Misaki decided to follow in her father’s footsteps to protect life rather than trampling it for selfish gain. Alice was a mess of a human being, but a spectacularly rendered one.

But this isn’t to suggest Misaki was a mere contrast to Alice – the obedient daddy’s girl to her suffocated rebel. Misaki’s rejection of the promotion offered to her by her father demonstrated the distinct sense of identity she held, that she had full control over her future rather than being a victim of her father’s desires. Alice attempted to do the same only in a violent nihilistic way that was an extreme form of rebellion rather than a considered, rational form of self-assertion. It was an interesting undertone that wasn’t necessarily the main focus of the arc but proved to be one of its most fascinating elements. Darker than Black really knows how to deliver in this respect and it makes for very satisfying viewing. If it wasn’t so late in the evening and I had all my faculties I’d be inclined to try and relate it to the other father-daughter relationship we’ve encountered with Mai and Tahara . . . but no. My brain hurts (as does yours at this point, I’ll wager).

Another aspect of this arc that I really liked was Misaki and Hei’s introduction to one another. As dramatic foreshadowing it’s a piece of brilliance: Misaki meets Hei at his most compassionate, charming and docile, thus making the shock of her witnessing his ‘true’ self in coming episodes perfectly pitched. It also goes a long way in challenging just what Hei’s true identity is. Is he capable of this compassion that he so convincingly portrays, or is he the skilled killing machine with no conscience? Misaki sees the former in Hei and it forces her to question the narrow-minded labelling of the latter. And as the moral compass of the show she inspires us as an audience to do the same.