Kurokami The Animation

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.

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.

I was really disappointed with Kurokami. The first 12 episodes were pretty decent, but as the anime dragged on it became harder and harder to watch.

A lot of the fights don't make any real sense. The contractees are acting as a battery to the Mototsumitamas, but they are hardly ever attacked.

The characters are probably what killed it the most for me. Kuro was awesome, and by far my favorite character of the show. Keita was a lot more interesting at the beginning, but somewhere along the line he becomes so bland that I wanted to shoot him. I think that a main character death, ... namely Akane, would've made the show a lot more interesting.

The last two episodes are what really made dislike the show. For all its faults, I enjoyed the show up until that point. Maybe its because I was waiting for a death that never came, but I hated the ending.

This review contain minor spoilers.

Story 8/10
I'm not going to write much about story, because it's synopsis is easy to find. Story revolves around Ibuki Keita, school boy, who lost his mother when he was very young.Then he decided to alienate himself from the people. Of course after a certain point in the story he is going to change, but nevermind that.
Overall story is enjoyable, but much worse than in it's manga counterpart.And it's biggest flaw is ending,but i'm going to return to this topic later.
Art 10/10
Kurokami biggest advantage is surely art style.
Background is detailed, characters are well designed. Fight scenes are mind blowing - ... it's short anime, but battle scenes can be compared to long running and well recieved series, like DB,Bleach or Naruto. Choreography is simply amazing.
Sound 8/10
Voice acting was done well, with some small exceptions (I'm talking about you Keita). Music is great, rock fits well to this battle shounen and reminds me a little of Persona series.
Characters 8/10
Keita character was changed heavily in comparission to hes manga counterpart and it made him unlikable. Akane was reminding me of Orihime from Bleach series and almost made me to throw up and drop whole series. On the other hand Kuro is one of the coolest heroines in the manga/anime industry ever.
Overall 5/10
Why score is so low? Because of ENDING which left me feeling empty and depressed.*SPOILER* Keita turned out to be a big jerk, Orihime ver.0.9 was alive and happy,Kuro got screwed and whole effort to save her was in vain(in my opinion of course)*/SPOILER*
I'm hoping for reebot of the series, maybe Kurokami Brotherhood ;).
But for now i'm not goind to reccomend this anime - it's whole potential was wasted by last 3 episodes.

I've seen 9 episodes so far, but that should be enough to point out major problems with this anime. You really need to turn your brain off before watching this. The main character is unbearable since he is not acting like a normal human. As far as i can tell, the anime will continue like this: they meet the enemies->enemies kick their asses-> they power up and kick the enemies' asses->they meet stronger enemies. Major flaws: during battle why would you target a much stronger opponent when her partner is right their asking for it? Why would you fight the enemies of your enemies, ... your saviors? What is the point of meeting people then talk trash rather than giving important information? (I know... to keep the audience confuse even though the plot is so simple). The sound, esp. during fight scenes, is just bad. The art is ok, but the fight scenes don't look cool/epic at all.

THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS!!!!!!


"Can I change fate?"
That is the question asked by Kurokami: The Animation. The anime is set in a world ruled by the Doppelinner system. The system governs that when a person is born his Tera (magic energy/life I suppose?) will be split into three unequal parts, among two subs and one root. When a root meets the sub, the subs will inevitably die and the root will absorb their Tera becoming what is known as the Master Root.

Disclaimer: I have not read the manga

Story: The first four to five episodes really hooked me to this show. The gruesome faith of the ... little girl who was ran over by a truck, the hard reality that no matter what they do they can't escape faith and the fact that it is a vicious cycle all sold it for me. Unfortunately Kurokami quickly loses track after that. The dialogue is very poor at times (episode five for example), lots of things end up unexplained (how does Tera work exactly, how come Keita and Kuro can use exceed seven times once and before that only up to three times when Keita never got more tera, how does Kuro's cycling tera make Kuro and Keita stronger), there are many repetitive scenes (synchro ones) and lots of unnecessary fights. The fights themselves get old after a while and extremely boring in some cases. Exceeds are largely bland and uninteresting, most of them being physical in nature. The only one I really liked was Steiner's, which really stood out the most. After episode twelve the anime seems to pick up, but it quickly dips down and retains that cycle of never truly shining. The last episode was largely unnecessary. Its one saving grace was the bittersweet ending (still depressed over that).

All in all, Kurokami's storyline was great at the start, but it failed to deliver, getting atrocious at some parts. The beginning and the last two minutes of the story are its saving grace and thus it gets a rating of 6/10

Art: The art is nothing to write home about, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. It is one of those animes that you won't remember visually, but if you see it you'll still say that its art was good. The palette gets dark and moody at times, but otherwise maintains a decent look. The one thing that stands out are the very shiny and flashy exceeds and it does seem to work.
Thus Kurokami's art gets a rating of 7/10

Sound: Rock is my favourite genre of music so in this regard I am very biased, however I do think that they could have included more music along the way. The first opening is ok and the second one is decent, but what I really liked was the first ending. The singer is amazing, her voice is beautiful and I watched it every single time. All in all the sound is good too, same as the art. Thus it gets a rating of 7/10

Characters: Oh boy. The weakest part of Kurokami is its characters, which at most are forgettable and at their worst downright horrendously made.

Main characters: Keita - At the start I liked him. I think he had a fairly realistic approach to the issue and a believable negative outlook on the world and people around him, seeing as his mother was killed in front of his eyes, and later on his friend and the girl next door were killed the same way (a motif perhaps, heh?)
However, Keita takes too long to develop afterwards, becoming a whining emo with contradicting actions and beliefs and he is quickly knocked down. He suddenly gets A LOT of character development in the span of a few episodes, spiraling down into the blandness and ending up as a battery for Kuro and repeating "We will defeat destiny!"
Keita's rating is 5/10

Kuro - Kuro is by far, the best character of the series. Naive, happy-go-lucky Kuro hides a lot of trauma and sadness that is eventually shown in a realistic way. She has strong motives, a strong desire and a genuine wish to help all those around her. The thing with the Massamu (I already forgot their name tbh) was weird to me, but what really sold her as a great character was the ending. The sheer willpower to forever seal herself and never see her beloved contractor just so the world could be freed of its curse was bittersweet and her crying scene made me tear up.
P.S. Why she and Keita are not shipped at all is beyond me.
Kuro's rating is 8/10!

Akane - The most worthless mc I've seen in a while. She only serves to be a housewife and to be a plot device later down the line. First to an unbelievably (and unrealistically for such a short timeframe!) contract with Reishin, and then to have this huge amount of Tera so that Kuro can win against the main villains. She ends up marrying Keita which was beyond ridiculous to me, as I never saw a reason to ship them. Their romance was beyond weird to me.
Akane's rating is 2/10

Overall rating for the main characters is 5/10

Villains: Reinshin - This one is really weird to me. Until the very end Reishin felt as a punching rag for the producers. He seemed tasteless and bland with shallow motivations ("I want to destroy the world") and shallow past, and only in the end he ended up as a more rounded-up villain. Still I feel as though he ended up as butchered potential so I am giving him a rating of 5/10

Kuraki - I liked him better. Kuraki was a cunning strategist, with a good, albeit idealistic idea. He outsmarted Reishin, Yuki and other characters, but ultimately ended up defeated by the power of "cycling synchro", which I still don't understand. In the end I think Kuraki was better suited to be the antagonist compared to the final boss.
Kuraki's rating is 6/10

Massamu/Massami/Massaki? - Whatever these beasts are called, they couldn't have been blander. They're so called gods, who want to destroy the world and... there's that. Their design is bland, their motifs are bland, their past is bland. Essentially, they're bland.
Their rating is 1/10

Overall rating for the villains is 4/10

Side characters - Extremely shallow. They're uninteresting fodder, used for plot purposes and quickly discarded afterwards. We're given the idea that we should care about them, but we can't be bothered to. The only good side characters are Excel, Steiner and Yuki.

Yuki is a good example of what happens when one average person attempts to go against fate and fails, and as someone who has been oppressed by her surroundings for being different. In this regard Yuki is relatable.

Steiner and Excel are an interesting duo, with good design, an amazing voice (Steiner) and with interesting powers. You actually do get invested in them and for that reason we can't help but not like them.

Despite these three amazing characters the rest is so bland that I couldn't help but give the side characters a 4/10

Overall rating for the characters is 4/10

Enjoyment: I found myself enjoying this show greatly at the start, but as it dragged on I was begging it to end. They really screwed it up, and I am sad that it ended up being extremely crappy at certain parts. I am hoping manga is a lot better. Even with all this, there are certain times when I was really happy to be watching Kurokami and for that reason alone I am giving it a very wobbly 6/10

Overall: The show is a hit and miss. It has an excellent premise, a great main character (Kuro) and decent animation and sound. It tries to tackle deeply philosophical and ethical questions. However, it lacks in good characters and storyline and this messes it up completely. Regardless, Kurokami had its ups and downs and even with some extremely bad moments I did end up getting some enjoyment out of it. In the end Kurokami gets an overall rating of 6/10!