A few years down the line Kurenai won't be remembered as a classic, hell I doubt many people will remember it now; it deserves more attention. But maybe it should be remembered as a classic. I believe kurenai has the biggest advancement in quality in production of anime ever.
Going in I didn't know what to expect, when I loaded up the first episode I was a little taken aback by the OP and my expectations were lowered a little, it seemed kurenai wasn't the type of show I might have been looking for at the time. But the OP is deceiving, catchy but deceiving. The
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second blow to my expectations came in the first few minutes with an apparantly supernatural element. "another crappy super power anime" I thought. But I soldiered on and by the end of episode 2 I was hooked. Kurenai is a breath of fresh air.
At first I wasn't sure what it was I liked so much about it but eventually it dawns on you. The characters, are having conversations. In every anime up till now, everything I've watched has had statements with arkward pauses inbetween, you might not have noticed it but after watching kurenai you might. The secret is, and to my knowledge kurenai is the first to do this, the show is animated based on the voice actor's recording. Finally the actors are released from the shackles of arkward animation timing, and the result shines. Kurenai is wonderful to listen to, you can hear more emotion in the voices than ever, lines are said at the right pace and I felt like the actors had even been allowed some improvision in the script to fit their characters. The advantages don't stop there, so far kurenai has the best lip syncing of any show i've seen (not so say it's perfect, far from it) but the dialogue flows wonderfully and there are conversations with 3 people at a time (to fansubbers regret) which help give the show so much character.
Kurenai isn't a one trick wonder.
The art is above average, with some varied enviroments beautifully drawn (especially towards the end), although a good amount of the show is set in one or two locations. The animation however, is not amazing. Although usually the characters move quite fluidly in some high movement episodes you can see they were stretching the budget and some of the animation becomes a little arkward. Some of the fight scenes look a little silly as well but in general the show has good art direction. The characters are all very uniquely drawn and you can see some of their personality in how they move, more subtely than other shows.
Before I talk about the characters, I should explain what type of show kurenai actually is. kurenai is not harem, despite being surrounded by woman. Kurenai is not a super power show, despite Shinkurou arguably having one. Kurenai, to me, is primarily a coming of age story for Murasaki and Shinkurou. It unravels the show using a mixture of comedy, drama and action (to a lesser extent).
The story is good. It uses the past of some characters to explain their motivations while others are revealed as the story progresses. Although the story is initially quite sinister, it lightens up to the Shinkurou - Murasaki relationship for the bulk of the series, before taking a darker dive than I was expecting for the climax. The story is paced well and serves its job well enough, the really great thing about kurenai is the characters. it's a little bit of a shame this show wasn't given a longer run. I know theres more manga material out there (which it follows, except for the ending which they had to improvise). On that subject, the ending wasn't the best ever, without giving too much away it seemed like a compromise was made which didn't really fit with the circumstances and the attiturdes of some of the characters but it does tie up the show and leave some space for a sequel (please?).
During the "slice-of-life" part of the show you learn about Murasaki, Shinkurou and his neighbours, friends and "employer". The character's all have a fun, strong personality without exaggerating to the point of Naruto or something. Infact subtelty is one of my favourite part of the show. It doesn't shout everything at you, rather it treats you like an intelligent viewer more than most and lets you make your own conclusions. The character history is incomplete, and a lot is implied, much of it through dialogue.
The humour in the series is great, amazing. Cross gender jokes without "haha she fell and you saw her panties" and the most mature humour i've ever seen in an anime. Episode 6 put me to tears actually and the show is littered with funny dialogue.
So I better end this ridiculous wall of text here. Kurenai is one of the best shows I've ever watched and if other shows took a page out of its book the quality of animes would increase greatly. Huge kudos to brain base, the creators. I refrained from giving it a 10 for its flaws but its definitely close. So in conclusion watch this because it might be the best under appreciated show ever and then get everyone else to watch it so it gets the attention it deserves.
Aug 4, 2008
A few years down the line Kurenai won't be remembered as a classic, hell I doubt many people will remember it now; it deserves more attention. But maybe it should be remembered as a classic. I believe kurenai has the biggest advancement in quality in production of anime ever.
Going in I didn't know what to expect, when I loaded up the first episode I was a little taken aback by the OP and my expectations were lowered a little, it seemed kurenai wasn't the type of show I might have been looking for at the time. But the OP is deceiving, catchy but deceiving. The ... |
