Ranked #1152

Kurokami

I "love" it when an anime tries to ask deeply philosophical and ethical questions, only to answer them with fists, feet, and super powers. Personally I find it annoying when characters claim that they can overcome things like God, Fate, Destiny, Karma, etc, with nothing more than willpower and a kickass partner (since the main character so often is a complete novice in combat, or has no redeeming qualities whatsoever).

Enter then Kurokami, as a shining example of these things at work.

Now, when I started watching this I had no idea that Kurokami was originally a manga Sung-Woo Park (illustrator), and Dal-Young Im (story), and to say that the anime and manga are like chalk and cheese would be an understatement.

The story in the anime version centres around Ibuki Keita, a highschool student with a very similar isolationist attitude to Ikari Shinji from NGE. The reason for this is that, for no apparent reason, everyone around him seems to die. One evening he meets a young girl named Kuro, and it is from her that he learns the true nature of the world.

I'll stop there as the story is quick to hit its stride, however I have some big issues with the plot on the whole, the first issue being why Keita, who in the manga is a 19 year old games programmer, is suddenly a high school student in the anime. Now, many of you may think this isn't a problem, but in actuality it causes a major incosistency in the flow of the story and the development of the characters.The plot for the manga has been written with Keita as a 19 year old who is working. This means that many of the thoughts, feelings and actions he takes in the story are based on the fact that he has already completed high school and is effectively an adult. The anime, on the other hand, portrays Keita as a teenager, a "child" so to speak. The reason for this change is purely a marketing issue. The producers wanted this series to appeal to a teenage fan base, in paritcular the fans of shows like Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Fate/Stay Night, etc.

Imagine for a second the difference in your own thought processes over over a two year period, in particular, the difference in how you perceived the world, and more importantly, how you reacted to it. Beginning to see what I mean? The plot for the anime stays true to the manga for the most part when, in truth, it should have been rewritten completely.

Another big change is the fact that the manga involves transplanting an arm. The whole idea of transplanting hearts was, again, purely a marketing strategy. That change was made so that it would appeal to a more "romantic" audience, something which the anime could have done without.

Both changes (and they're unfotunately not the only ones), have severely damaged the flow of the plot and the development of Keita and Kuro as characters. The original concept was very good, and if they'd stuck to it instead of pandering to the audience in an effort to cash in on the Shana/Louise/Sabre franchise, then it would have been a much better show.

Animation is another issue I have with this series. Overall its not too bad, but Sunrise and Bandai really didn't seem to put any effort into this show on the whole. The animation is often jerky and confusing, especially during the action sequences. The studio has tried to make the show look "cool", with the proviso that this be done at the lowest cost possible. There's naked character transformation scenes in the style of the mahou shoujo genre, overblown, overpowered special moves with silly names in the style of Bleach et al, strange character actions (like running, eating, etc), and an overall sense that the animators really couldn't be bothered to get their fingers out.

The art for the backdrops is actually pretty decent on the whole, and is the main reason why I scored the art as mediocre instead of bad. Unfortunately, these backgrounds don't have the same kind of vitality to them that can be found in other shows, and are often there so that one of the characters can be sent crashing through it with a punch.

The characters have been designed along the lines of the manga, so no real issues there. I just wish they'd put more effort into the overall work though.

As far as the sound goes, the only reason I didn't give this area a good rating is because of the cumulatively annoying OP and ED, and the change of OP midway through the series only compounded this.

The rest of the music throughout the series can is generally okay, however there are points where the music and mood don't match. The voice actors are on the capable side, but once again there doesn't seem to be any real effort involved in their portrayals as the acting is sometimes very wooden.

The characters are, again, pretty decent on the whole. There isn't any real development that goes on with any of them barring the two main characters, and any changes in the persona of the sub characters tends to happen off-screen. As for Keitaand Kuro, the fact that Sunrise and Bandai's marketing teams got involved with production means that there's some annoyingly inconsistent threads running through their development, Keita's relationship with Akane being an example of this.

This is an odd anime. It's clearly influenced by the likes of Fate/Stay Night and Shakugan no Shana, as well as Bleach and DBZ (surprisingly). The confusing plot and the inconsistencies stand out so it makes suspension of disbelief more difficult. It's enjoyable in it's own way, but is still one of those "watch once and forget" titles that seem to be cropping up more frequently.

On the whole, this is not a good series, but it isn't bad either. The fact that it tried to include a complex plot with some deep philophical and ethical issues is one of it's few saving graces. read more

"Can you change a destiny that has already been written for you?"

Enter "Kurokami", a series that shows the struggle of two individuals, as they attempt to change their own path that others say can not be changed.

Story: 7/10
The center of the plot revolves around "the Dopleliner System". What this means is there exists three versions of the same person (2 subs and 1 root). Should any one of these three come in plain sight of the other, they will perish, and only the root will live, and thus will consume the energy force of them known as tera. Our main heroes are Kuro (a Tera Guardian trying to stop the Doppleliner system and defeat her brother) and Keita (an ordinary boy who unwillingly ends up becoming her partner). What interested me the most about the anime, is the way that the actual battles take place. It almost feels like you are watching a more mature version of Pokemon at times. Each Tera Guardian can form a pack with a human, and thus use their power in conjunction with their own. So fights take place with the two helping each other--ie: the Tera Guardian fights, and the humans remain on the sidelines channeling their powers to their partner. The fighting scenes are also quite good, because despite the characters featuring "power/energy" moves, the fighting scenes themselves feel very street brawling oriented, and stylized. It overall does a good job of mixing the super powers with more authentic looking moves. Now regarding the way the actual storyline progresses, here is where I feel Kurokami tends to miss the mark. There are enough plot threads going on, and many of them do evolve throughout the series. However, they end up happening few and far between. A lot of episodes play the role of fillers, and some fight scenes that take place seem unnecessary. This can make the plot a bit tedious to follow, as it can sometimes take many episodes for something simple to be made clear. Still, making your way through the anime just to see the last few episodes really makes things worth while, as the final episodes are exciting and fast paced, though I did find it a bit odd that episode 23 ends up being a re-cap of all the others, but through a slightly different perspective. Where this anime really shines through is with its actual ending. Everything concludes nicely, and feels very satisfying at the end. And some events even end up being a bit unexpected. As a whole the story is good, there is plenty of action and plot twists to keep things exciting. But due to the storyline tending to drag on, does hinder it as a whole, but nothing too drastic.

As far as offensive material goes, Kurokami does have a few scenes which contain gory elements where blood spurts and/or is smeared on the ground. These scenes don't happen very frequently, in fact only the first few episodes really have them, with it only happening occasionally after that. Some battles even end with little to no blood spilled at all.

Art: 8/10
The arts style to this is dark and moody, but not really in a creepy kind of way. The backgrounds come off pretty well detailed, with nice looking city designs and foliage areas. Even so, the overall color schemes tend to make the series look a bit washed out. The character design is good, all of them are well proportioned and have a good sense of style to each one of the cast. The super moves (also known as "Exceeds") are flashy and colorful, with each character’s move set differing from one another. The fight scenes are by far the best part in the animation. Character moves are animated smoothly, with every punch and kick shown off with just the right amount of impact.

Sound: 6/10
For me this was the weakest point in the series. The voice acting in both the English and Japanese version is very well done, I still feel the Japanese audio is better by far in the long run. However, a majority of the soundtrack seems to favor one style of genre in music...rock! The opening and ending themes change twice through out the series. The opening animations both play rock style music tracks, while the ending theme (surprisingly) plays soft lite hearted melodies sung by Yousei Teikoku. The background music it plays also consists of rock music. I can see where they are going with this, and while I don’t care for heavy rock music, I can at least appreciate it for this anime. If you like this type of genre in music then you will love the soundtrack, but if you’re like me and don’t care for it, then you will most likely turn the volume down during some of the scenes.

Characters: 7/10
The characters are hit and miss. I will go on record of saying that Kuro is one of the coolest female heroines to come along in an anime as of late. She has a sweet and funny personality, yet holds back a lot of sorrow in here life--she is quite the layered individual. Of all the characters in the series, Keita is probably going to be the one that is hardest to tolerate...especially during the beginning. He tends to complain a lot, and is unwilling to help anyone towards the beginning, and will most likely annoy many viewers. To his credit though, he does end up changing as the story progresses, and at least becomes more tolerable in the end. The supporting cast is also the same, some characters such as Excel, Reishin and Daichi do a good job off adding to the storyline. However, there are a number of supporting characters that just don’t make the cut. Many of them don’t really seem to have much impact on what is going on, and thus make some feel unnecessary to the storyline. They’re not a bad cast by any means, some of them just don’t seem to have a staple purpose in the anime. As a whole though, the main characters themselves do end up doing their parts well for the stories’ purpose, and in that regards it is done right.

Overall: 7/10
Despite some of its flaws, Kurokami is a good anime. If you can make it through some of the fillers, and don’t mind the story dragging on somewhat, then I think you will find this a deep enough series to check out. There is enough action and plot in this to keep both the Seinen fans and casual viewers satisfied. And as it stands, it’s a series I think anime fans should give a try. read more

“Power to achieve something”

The Story…

It revolves on a system that we called “Doppeliner System”. The story tells about the involvement of the three main characters, which is Kuro, Keita, and Akane. They are somewhat confused on this system and willing to find out the real main reason why this system exists, making it as an obligation as they put their life in danger or helping others to find out the cure to its existence.

The point of view here is not the twist of the story rather the main attraction here will be the action / super power scenes. It gives excitement and thrill but on the other hand there are some minor / major problems that you may notice in it within the show. Though the twist of the story adds effects for the whole series, it’s quite ineffective in such a way that it consists of somewhat boring conversations, bad combination of action and romance, and bad flow of the events throughout the story.

This might be the uniqueness of it from the other anime. It comes up with a different representation of martial arts with super power. It is also the main reason why it’s been quite exciting to watch the series, nothing less and nothing more.

Art & Animation…

Well it might be obvious what the series will give. It emphasizes fighting scenes, stunts, and signature blows and it also gives different camera angles to be shown on every move. The art is quite normal and they didn’t make it a grand, a simple and fitted for the series.

Sound…

The sound suited well to this action series. OP song that has fast beat music and gives a thrilling excitement. ED song that gives a soothing and melodic music that points a change of view to the series. BG music/sounds adds a great effect through the fighting, emotional and funny scenes.

Characters…

Irritating, balanced and appealing. This is what the characters do in the anime, they give such appealing formation or stance, but in the other part they also give an irritating and disappointing effects throughout the show. So in the end it gives just a balanced mood on the entire series that never changes up to the end. It’s quite disappointing in my part.

Enjoyment…

The enjoyment will define as “animation vs monologue”, “story vs characters”. In this cases you may find out in the series that either of the definition will have a contrast to each other, so when it happened it would turn out to be a problem as you continue on watching it. It has a high-low features that will sometimes give you annoyance or enjoyment.

Overall…

Even though it has an ups feature on the series, it also have a down feature that pulls the excitement out of it. A balanced mood will show up throughout the series that will sometimes put you on thinking to quit on watching. read more

Kurokami is .... one of the most irritating and confusing animes I've seen so far . The reason why is that, I'll tell later.


Before continuing with the story , a few things need to be explained (that'll be important for the story). People and Mototsumitama coexist together. Mototsumitama are people with super natural powers, and to gain even more power they need to form a contract with humans. Also, there are 3 identical copies of every human being (one root and two subs). That's the so called "Doppeliner System". If a subs meet his root, his live energy (aka Terra) will be sucked by the root, causing his inevitable death and the only way for the sub to survive is to kill his root before he dies. When a both of the subs are dead, the root becomes Master Root(and has big luck) or if the sub kill the root the he becomes Minus Root(similar to Master Root).


And the story goes: A evil organization is trying to mass produce Master Roots (by killing their subs) in order to dominate Japan (and later, the world) by placing Master Roots in key positions in Japan. The mass production is causing unbalance in the world, which can lead to his destruction. And of course , our two main characters (Kuro and Ibuki) will be fighting against them. Just to show how evil the organization is, their youngest Master Root, a 6-7 year old girl, can say only one fraking word: "DELETE". Cmon, they could at least send her to a school to lean some new words :D.


Ibuki is a high school student, who's mother died in a car accident, after seen a person who looked just like her .After that he tried to avoid making new friends, scared that similar thing might also happen to them too.
Kuro is a Mototsumitama who came from the Holy Lands (where her Mototsumitama clan live) to get revenge against his brother for killing most of her clan and her mother.
By some circumstances , Kuro and Ibuki meet, make a contract and start fighting against the evil.


Most of the characters (especially the main one) are really annoying. Ibuki is the kind of person who can't stop talking nonsense, especially in the beginning, when he's always arguing and reconciling with Kuro. Also the enemies are pretty stupid. I mean, if you are fight against a stronger opponent, it's logical to attack the weaker one (the human) and not the stronger (mototsumitama), especially because if U defeat the human, the mototsumitama will lose most of his/her powers (since his/her contractee is beaten). But no, they always attack the mototsumitama, and usually lose.


The animation is solid, nothing to complain about. Since there are many, many fights, you will see many special effects, which is the best part of this anime. The sound is pretty good, especially during the fights, except for one song that really annoyed me . The OP and ED were good too.


So in the end.. the reason why this anime is confusing and annoying:
- Confusing , because you never know who the main enemy is. Every time, after they defeat the main enemy , a new, even "greater", appears. And after that, another one. So till the end you don't know who the main opponent is. And not to say, that one of their greatest enemy becomes their ally....
- Irritating, because of the main characters. I really hate when people talk too much during fights. Also, the battle system is weird. The Mototsumitama, is the only one fighting, while all the human can do is to support her. But the main thing that annoyed me, is that the "Doppeliner System" rules does not apply to the main characters. In one scene, Ibuki meets his root, so he had two options: To have his Terra sucked up by hist root and die, or to kill him and become Minus Root. But I guess I forgot the third option: The miracle. And of course, he didn't die (nor did the root), and everyone was saved by this "miracle".


I gave this anime 6/10, because of the many annoying things I explained before. But if you are only interested in fights (which this anime has plenty) and you don't mind the annoying talks of Ibuki, you might even like this anime. Unfortunately I'm not that kind of person.
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**Episode 22/23** --Sorry about the lack-of updating this.

PLEASE NOTE: I have not (nor plan on) read the manga. This is from a non-manga perspective. Any at all criticism is directly involving the anime, not the manga.

Story - 9.2/10 (A)
The story is about the life of Ibuki Keita, a seemingly normal high school kid. Until suddenly, mysterious occurences plague his love ones called "Doppeliners". He meets a young, strange girl named Kuro who explains to him that there are 3 of everyone in the world, and if two were to meet each other the one with the stronger soul percentage would live, while the weaker one would be killed. It seems to explain how Keita's mother was killed when she saw a splitting image of herself, the very next day she dies. She is a Mototsumitama, someone that keeps the balance of the world at rest. When Keita is struck with a fatal blow by a member of the Shishigami Clan, Kuro enacts a special contract with him, allowing him to live, but at a price..
________________________
From the first 2 episodes, Kurokami has it all: beautiful animation, lovable characters, an excellent background music track but suffered from a confusing and hard-to-understand plot. Then things went from awesome to annoying with the fillers and Keita's lack of maturity during the tough fights. However, once season 2 (episode 13-onwards) started, things started to add up. The plot went on, and many things felt rushed but more in-depth. The ending was tear-jerking, and felt complete.


Animation - 9.7/10 (A)
There's probably a good reason why they titled the show, "Kurokami: The Animation". Just look at how well it's done, another step up from other Sunrise shows. Even during the bad "filler" times, the animation never seemed to be a negative, infact it was a reason why i kept watching this show.

Sound - 10/10 (A+)
I haven't heard a great soundtrack like this since Code Geass, and i always thought that nothing could surpass it, but Kurokami proves to have everything cut out for it.

Characters -8/10 (C+)
When the show starts, we only get a glimpse of the whole cast: Kuro, Keita, Akane, Punipuni. At first this small cast was lovable in the sense that it didn't suffer from what i call "Shonen Character Megaoverload" (Ex. Bleach, Naruto), but when the show started to progress, Kurokami really needed more characters. Then we get Aiona, Yakumo, Mikami, Steiner and Excel, which really helped the show out in the long-run.

Enjoyment - 8.8/10 (B+)
From the first 2 episodes, i was ready to proclaim Kurokami as the best show of 2009, but just a few episodes later, i felt the need to drop this show because of it's stalled plot and Keita's obvious wimpishness. For about 3 months i had dropped it, until i heard that Bandai was uploading the series, and was already used to the english dub. Things picked up during the second half of the show, with major deaths, major action and MAJOR plot twists. I'm glad i finished (well waiting for 23) Kurokami all the way through, cause now i don't regret it.

Overall - 9.1/10 (A)

The Good: Animation, background music, characters

The Bad: Confusing plot at show's beginning, feeling the show is rushed when the plot becomes clear
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This anime sure have a great impact on how the world have three same face but share different fate. It have an original way on how to use this doppeliner system to create the story. The revenge on the person they love is typical in many anime so this a bit suspense type anime.

The story line is normal where the hero die at first and then revive back by the heroin and help her in the quest. The best part of this anime is they use a syncro and contract to increase the power.

About the character, there is nothing special. it just the same as many recent action anime.

The sountrack of this anime is good especially the ending by Yousei Teikoku. read more

this is my first time to write a review of an anime and i didn't know why i picked kuro kami. so where should i start? hmm.. basically, kuro kami is about someone who was brave enough to change their fate. this was the story of ibuki keita who tried to be indifferent to the people around him because he thinks that he could affect their fates which lead them to death. until he met kuro.. a mototsumitama. he then became aware of 'doppeliners' (doppelgangers) and 'terra' (could be explained as energy or ki in simple terms). at the verge of his death, kuro made a 'contract' with him. and that's where the story begins. he became known to certain things that he couldn't believe exists. of the doppleliners' main roots and substitutes. of the mototsumitama and their 'contractees'. and the probable reason why his mother was accidentally killed on his childhood.

story: 8/10
i will not say that this is not a typical anime because there are some which had the same/similar plotting (but of course with different story lines and characters). but the story is quite good and enjoyable. there were some mysteries and revelations that you have to discover though if you are a hardcore anime fan, you could probably predict some.

characters: 7/10
characters are average. even though i could say that kuro is one of the coolest heroines out there. though she could be compared and/or similar to some characters i've watched so far, still, she still had this uniqueness in her character. keita was a bit dragging in the beginning but nevertheless, you'll like his determination. there are other characters who made impact such as reishin (brother of kuro) with which you would totally give him a second thought as the story progresses.

overall: 7/10
the series is action-packed, has humor, drama, and unexpected revelations in the end. i don't want to say anything that could probably give someone a second thought about picking this anime, it's just that the ending actually 'broke' my heart. i just didn't expect to end it that way. the 2nd to the last episode could have been a much nicer ending even though one could say that it would be just as similar to most animes out there that ended with a cliffhanger. but at least you could just use your imagination and picked a nicer ending. that aside, kuro kami is a good pick anime fans should try watching :) read more

What can i say the doppeliner system was the first thing that kept me interested. The art style was superb. It reminded me of Dark than Black and Shakugan no Shana, which were excellent animes fyi :). The opening sympathizer also became one of my favorites. There were some twists that I couldn't predict, but it was effective when it occurred. These twists really rekindled my interest (when i was starting to lose interest in the middle >_>) in the anime in a big way. The only beef i had with this anime was the repetitive battles and transformations.

(i am basing my review purely on the anime)
I have read the manga and although it is entirely different you should not shy away from this series. read more

I thought in the beginning this anime would be pretty good but the further I progressed into this storyline i realized that this was just another cookie-cutter program. He dies then miraculously comes back to life multiple times. the bad guy dies without a doube then somehow comes back to life. this is stupid after a while. this isn't even creative at this point. It's a paycheck. I'm only watching this one now because I've come so far in the story I want to see what the stupid ending is. I've seen a lost of anime at this point in my life, more than what I've posted here. I can say that this is one of the biggest disappointments that I've come across. It's too overwhelmingily cliche. The back and forth is so predictable. I could support the claim that many storylines in anime have been done therefore new ideas are few but this is so cookie-cuter that I can't seem to muster the energy to support it. Hopefully true anime fans will feel the same way about this. I can't believe that I'm all alone here. read more

I just finished watching this yesterday and I think I'm feeling better now. The show is good. It really is. What I'm having a problem with is the ending. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, and it's not a typical ending, but I'm unsatisfied with it. If they would just change the last 2 episodes, it would really make me feel a LOT better about the show.

Until Ep 21, I was ready to give this series a 9 for story and character, but the ending just ruined it for me.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's a great story and the pacing is VERY good. I haven't seen something like this in a LONG time. It's the kind of story that keeps you engrossed and wanting to just see it to the end.

The ending itself, they tie up all the ends, so there really isn't much left asking ... but. ... well,, it's probably just me.

The show itself is really good and I enjoyed it. I really did. read more