Darker than Black Season 2 (Confirmed, Composer Not Kanno)
UPDATE: Yasushi Ishii is confirmed for the composer. I couldn’t see much about him except that he worked for Hellsing.
Animage’s August 2009 issue says that Darker Than Black Ryuusei no Gemini (Meteor’s Gemini) will air on October 2009.

On the lower right of the image is the staff list:
Original Work: BONES/Tensai Okamura
Supervisor: Tensai Okamura
Original Character Design: Yuji Iwahara
Character Design/General Drawing Supervisor: Takahiro Komori
Arts Design: Takashi Aoi, Yuushou Okada
Prop Design: Takahiro Yamada
Color Design: Nobuko Mizuta
Arts Director: Takashi Aoi
Director of Photography: Gou Kanbayashi
Sound Director: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi
Animation Studio: BONES
I may have stubbed some of the name translations, so here’s the original for reference:
原作 BONES・岡村天斎
監督 岡村天斎
キャラクター原案 岩原裕二
キャラクターデザイン・総作画監督 小森高博
美術デザイン 青井孝・岡田有章
プロップデザイン やまだたかひろ
色彩設計 水田信子
美術監督 青井孝
撮影監督 神林剛
音響監督 若林和弘
アニメーション制作 ボンズ
Related Articles:
- Space Bio Charge Track Lengths, Review
- Yoko Kanno + Seatbelts Compilation CD
- Nifty Darker than Black Interview Translation
- Darker Than Black Staireo Self-Covers Review and Others
- Staireo Japan Release:
Darker than Black Songs Included! - Darker than Black OST 1 - Review
- Darker than Black Yoko Kanno Interview
- Darker Than Black OST 1 Tracklisting
- Darker Than Black OST 1 CD Design
- Darker Than Black OST 1 Release Date











June 4th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Well Kanno is nowhere in sight as of now, and that lends to some doubt about her participation, doesn’t it? She’s usually listed in the initial roster all the time because her music is usually drafted/recorded before the animation. I see a couple of things:
1. She’s not the composer, or
2. They’re just going to reuse her previous work, most of which are unreleased, and for some reason didn’t feel the need to add her in the staff list, or
3. They forgot to put her and her name will just turn up suddenly someday, or
4. Something else altogether.
June 5th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Yeah I was wondering why Kanno wasn’t listed, either. I guess she’s busy with preparations of other stuffs, and can’t confirm her participation? I don’t know.
To be honest I didn’t even finish watching the first season, it was painfully boring for me. Different strokes for different people and all that. I thought the OST was pretty weak too, except for some standout tracks…
June 5th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Well, it’s also true that they’re not listing any other composer either… anyway, weird.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:05 am
@Naddie: Well, the track selection for the OST was very weird, I saw the entire season, and there are quite a good number of masterpieces. (I will, someday, rip the unreleased musics).
June 5th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Great news! Darker than Black may not have been mind-blowing, but it was still a great series, better than 80% of what is released every year on the industry. I’m looking forward to see some of the gaps in the plot finally being adressed.
My guess is that they’re still not 100% through the talks to get Kanno for the new season, as she’s busy with the concert and all. ^^
June 5th, 2009 at 10:15 am
@Yyrkoon: Some of the music were really good, but yeah the OST wasn’t very balanced. I’ll look forward to the unreleased music xD
June 5th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I liked High Heel Runaway from the OST 1, but I couldn’t get over the fact that the mixing/mastering of the songs sounded murky… dirty… unpolished. I think it was the kind of “sound” they wanted to go for, but, having listened to many clean recordings of Kanno, this grated on my ears!!!
June 7th, 2009 at 4:17 am
By the way, everyone should keep an eye on the official website http://www.d-black.net/ and also on the bones one: http://www.d-black.net/
I think those are the first places on the Internet where there will be news.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Bones website: http://www.bones.co.jp
Sorry for the double post…
July 9th, 2009 at 3:07 am
This is the image with the name of the new series:
http://i546.photobucket.com/albums/hh419/dtshyk/up9367.jpg
July 16th, 2009 at 5:29 am
i heard from: http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/07/08/shana-ova-3rd-tv-and-dtb2-new-main-char/ :that the main character is some random 13 year old girl and all the cast of the show is changed. no more Hei or Yin or anyone else from the 1st season and is being released on October 23 2009!!!=[ i really was looking forward to it but i guess not anymore=6 And Hei was my fav character too
August 6th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Aww this means no more Kanno works for this season/upcoming season of the anime as of yet, huh… It’s alright, lemme just go back to relistening to the concert xD
August 6th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
So, on what is working Kanno then?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:02 am
… I’m a bit sad…
(oops, sorry lol)
@mai : yeah, on what is she working? New anime? Movie?… an overseas concert?
Well, DTB soundtrack wasn’t a big success so maybe they wanted to try another composer (a cheaper one, maybe lol).
But Yasushi Ishii’s style may fits DTB : Jazz Rock ^^
August 7th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Aw, a real shame on the lack of Yoko Kanno this series
Although her music didn’t stand out that much in the first series. Yasushi Ishii’s music would fit though, I would say it’s “grittier” than Kanno’s.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:45 am
From what I recall, Ishii & Kanno worked on Crystal Kay’s debut album together. Ishii wrote most of the songs, while Kanno wrote one and a b-side (but both were really just CM jingles), and did a strings arrangement. Shanti Snyder was also involved on the album as a lyricist.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:20 am
@all - well, everyone is wondering what Kanno is working on everywhere, and no one knows the exact answer. First we have news that she probably won’t be with the Crossover concert because she’s busy with the Macross F movie. If the movie is the one keeping her busy for these past days, then it better be worth it.
Regarding the DTB2 announcement, I’m not too sad about it because I wasn’t too fond of the OST, and the animation either.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Well, I’m very happy that the unreleased musics will be available in a few months, and I don’t regret the fact she won’t compose the music of the sequel of DTB because I didn’t like the show, but I just hope Kanno will soon work on something great!
August 8th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Maybe she’s working on a new song for Maaya Sakamoto for the Kobato. opening theme *crosses fingers* (or Megumi Nakajima for the ending theme)
August 8th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Ew
August 9th, 2009 at 7:29 am
I’ve found a bit more information about the second season, but it isn’t much. Not much about the plot either. Hei and Yin will be in the second season, and I heard something about Mao? (how is that possible of Mao coming back? Reconnected, maybe?) But anyways. Director Okamoto has said “Some of unfinished odds and ends remain on the first season. I think I will pick up them.” Again, not much, but this is what I’ve found so far.
I hope they don’t throw away such amazing characters and replace them with some pre-teens running around with powers…that sounds scary. e_e
October 7th, 2009 at 11:58 am
OMG! ARE YOU SERIOUS???? NO MORE HEI OR YIN????? I was SO looking forward to seeing the two of them again!!!!! UGH. This is SO terrible! I LOVE Hei! What’s the point of Darker Than Black season 2 when the plot isn’t about the original characters anymore???? I can’t believe this. They should just get a new name for it!
October 8th, 2009 at 12:15 am
One source I read said that Hei and Yin are in the second series, they will be on the run in Russia or something. Meanwhile Misaki is still dealing with contractors in Japan so the action is split. The teenage girl is, I think, the main character of the manga.
October 10th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Well with so many people being dead by the end of the first season, some new characters were required to make it any good
October 26th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
im sure that there will be a good reason why they did not focus it on hei.
So it will be mysterious and unidentified the true self of the main character hei or bk-201……
please trust the author of this anime because it seems he has a good idea why…………he choose suou as the first character to appear first in the episodes…but sooner or later hei will be focus on this season…
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:06 am
Commenting commonly isn’t my thing, but i have spent an hour on the website, so thanks for the great info Greetings.