Ranked #749

Kurohime (Manga)

When i started to read Kurohime I thought it would be a common action-adventure story but i got inmersed in the story in less time than in the common, i just got in love whit the characters, excluidings some minor flaws, the art its great I can easily understand whats happening in the story, I greatly recommend this manga and wait for a posible anime.

Kurohime (also known as Mahou Tsukai Kurohime) is a fantasy comedic-adventure manga. It begins as sort of cowboys and American Wild West meets traditional fantasy, but later turns into a more conventional hero on a quest manga. I did enjoy reading the first arc of the manga, which covers chapters 1-15. I'd label it the KurohimexZero Arc. This primarily focuses upon their meeting, and beginning their travels together. The second arc, from chapter 15 onward is considerably less enjoyable for numerous reasons.

The art is decent for the most part. Kurohime's facial expressions, and the magical gunslinging she does are drawn quite well. Her magical spells, particularly, are illustrated nicely. It's a little disappointing that Kurohime only uses a small number of spells thus far through the manga, because the effects look superb. The magical combat scenes seem to have received the most artistic attention. The character designs are fair, but don't show anything particularly noteworthy. Only Zero's scarf stands out much, and Kurohime's outfit mostly consists of a skin-tight bodysuit. The shift in Kurohime's designs due to the curse really showcase how different Kurohime can be. Cursed form and the released curse form, for lack of better description, are very well drawn. Her released form conveys equal parts flirtatiousness and serious femme fatale. Her cursed form is appropriately immature and bratty. The backgrounds are a little plain, but serviceable.

The characters are where I would begin to rate the two arcs differently. Kurohime and Zero, and their interactions in the first fifteen chapters are great. It's light and enjoyable as they learn how to travel with each other. Towards the end of the arc, you really see Kurohime mature as she comes to understand the curse that's been placed upon her. She receives the funnier lines, while Zero plays more of the straight man in the duo. He sets a good example for Kurohime on living, and how to treat other people. It's when the second arc of the story begins that it seems the characters begin to suffer. The dialogue between them isn't nearly as funny or as well-written. The side characters begin to appear more in the second arc. None of them have received much in the way of backstory thus far, compared to Kurohime and Zero. They seem to be somewhat expendable, as well.

I enjoyed Kurohime's first 15 chapters immensely. Particularly the last few pages of 15, I find that I like to read them over again just to see how that arc ends. It's the chapters following 15 that I have such a problem with. It's really a disappointment to me that there's such a sharp difference. It's as though the mangaka had a very set plan in place for the first arc, and now is just making things up as they go along. The second arc seemed to be leaning more towards a quest-type storyline at first, but lately has veered into magical babysitting. And not in a good or funny way. My advice to you is to read the first fifteen, and consider that a separate story, because the manga changes so drastically after that. The second arc really loses what I see as the strength of this manga, and that's the interaction between Kurohime and Zero adventuring together. The mangaka seems to expand and make the story much too complicated, inserting at least four storylines at the same time. Consequently, not enough attention is paid to any of them, and manga seems to jump from one to the other without resolving any of them. The first few chapters are somewhat episodic, but you see Kurohime gradually mature and become less childish in how she interacts with other people.

Overall, I'd rate the first arc an 8. The second arc, which is still ongoing, I would give a 5, simply for the poor planning of the story compared to the first. It's difficult to explain why the second arc is so unenjoyable without giving spoilers, but expect to see a major change in the tone of the manga. It's unfortunate, because I had enjoyed the manga up to that point. I would definitely recommend reading the first fifteen chapters if you enjoy light-hearted adventure manga.

I'll revise this review once more chapters have been released. read more