A Certain Dark Item ‒ Episodes 1-2
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A Certain Dark Item ?
Community score: 3.9
The plot is simple enough. Academy City is, for all intents and purposes, an independent city-state where scientific advancement is the sole goal. Superpowered teens have nearly free rein, and torturous human experimentation is commonplace. Simply put, anything goes, ethics be damned—unless, of course, you get caught. The city has its independence because of its glittering reputation and the new technologies that come from it. It's basically more valuable for the rest of the world to turn a blind eye to what's really going on. But show the public the truth—force the international community to confront what's happening—and the good times could end abruptly.
This is where our heroes come in. ITEM is a group of (mostly) superpowered teenage girl mercenaries who are hired to make sure that word of what's really going on in the shadows of the city doesn't get out. These first two episodes deliver an interesting little one-two punch of what this really means through the two missions we witness.
In the first, ITEM is very much portrayed as the heroes. They go in to take out a mad scientist who's not only experimenting on children but is also using those children as hostages to keep everyone in line. Along the way, they work to minimize civilian casualties and even use non-lethal force when able as they take the bad guy down and rescue the children.
In the second episode, the girls of ITEM reveal their true nature as antivillains—i.e., bad guys doing evil things who just happen to be doing net-positive good in the process. This time, rather than rescuing the helpless or punishing the evil, they are charged with destroying evidence before the actual heroes arrive. This basically means killing anyone who could spill the beans and even using one of the mad scientist's victims as a scapegoat to hide their own involvement. Oh, and they also kidnap another of the victims to join them because they need someone with an unstoppable barrier to round out their team composition.
Simply put, ITEM will do any job for the money. They may not kill for fun (well, not all of them, at least), but they're more than willing to rack up a body count for the right price.
All in all, these first two episodes make for a good introduction to the world. We are introduced to the characters—their powers and personalities—and the work they do. We also get a ton of action, all of which is shown through animation that is well above standard these days. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it makes for a solid base to build an anime on.
Episode 1 Rating:
Episode 2 Rating:
A Certain Dark Item is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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