This was a horrible follow up to the astute Darker Than Black season one but it doesnt mean its bad right? Okay put your pitchforks down and have a listen to what I have to say. I dont outright hate the second season I even bought the special boxset because I was really excited to watch the show regardless of what I thought beforehand. Honestly from the looks of the opening I didnt know what kind of direction it was going to go for. But its more Darker Than Black so it can only mean good things from here on in. This time rather than focusing on Hei the story revolves around a young Russian girl named Suou Pavlichenko. Suou somehow gets wrapped up in the contractor stuff and eventually runs into Hei who is now a fugitive. Its an interesting mix because Hei is put in a very different situation than the first season. Instead of being blanketed by the safety of Heis fellow comrades and The Syndicate he is left isolated with only a few tools to use at his disposal. Hei is struggling to collaborate with others for fear of losing everything he knows and loves once again. Now mind you Mao is still present only this time in the form of a flying squirrel but as far as his story goes there really isnt much progress done to the original cast. Suou on the other hand is someone new through her eyes the life of a young contractor is much different from that of Heis. Rather than going all out to finish the mission she actually has a conscience and acts very unreasonable struggling to fully understand her power. While this may be thematic to her character it comes across as annoying when she just doesnt take the same initiative of more experienced contractors. Season one had at least twenty five plus episodes including Gaiden to flesh out all of its stories but there were still some questions that needed to be answered. If you thought they were going to be concluded here then youre wrong cause theyre not going to be answered at all. The focus is mainly on this new protagonist and her development in being a contractor and while it may only be twelve episodes it is enough Darker Than Black to serve its purpose in this case. The story takes it even further in including some of the characters of season one in season two which is where I found my main issue. I kept getting this nagging feeling that Hey wouldnt it be nice if we got a season 2 featuring those characters again? Like in the first season. I felt like Misakis inclusion in season two was just a way to have some continuity tying it to the first season. While yes the story may be slightly more coherent there is still the feeling that maybe this wouldve been one of the few cases where it could have been served as a spinoff rather than a fullon followup where I was expecting the same characters take on a new setting. There is a lot of Season two that have me slightly happy for more of Hei considering he begins to show signs of slight emotion in his overall state. Hei becomes a regressive househobo that barely even looks like the Hei were familiar with from the first season and I dont think many would find the treatment of his character particularly great. Gemini of the Meteor isnt really all that bad as I made it out to be rather it is a shell of its former self that is learning to move on much like the characters in the story. The main thing about the characters in the Darker Than Black universe is that many of them require more than one episode to get some extended backstories. Some get more development than others and that is great but in this case Hei gets little progression at all. As mentioned above if this had have been labeled as a spinoff I mightve forgiven the fact they left Hei out of the spotlight but instead this is the follow up to the first season. Suou has all the time she needs to really grow as a character and although she may not be interesting at times it is forgiven considering that this is a comingofage story that develops her personality quite a bit. Given that this season gets such a bad rep I cant help but remembering that I was in fact enjoying season two as its own separate entity. It certainly doesnt live up to the first season and Gaiden but its something to distract you from all the generic stuff that keeps appearing nowadays. I sometimes like to jump back and forth on the hate bandwagon for disliking this season so much and with somewhat good reason as a fan of season one. This was a disappointing follow up to the first however it was a solid spinoff at the most. If you want to see what this season all about go right into it there are lots of entertaining moments to keep you invested. Keep in mind that all of youre questions carried over from the first season may not be answered and that the characters you grew to love may not get the screen time you might think they deserve. While it might take some time to adjust Gemini of the Meteor is a decent series that shouldnt be missed. It mightve let me down but I appreciate it fully knowing this might be the last effort to make a Darker than Black relevant again.