For what a premise is given to us, Kuromukuro at a glance is essentially Neon Genesis Evangelion with it's "invading aliens", a main female protagonist named Yukina Shirahane voiced by Mao Ichimichi who is reluctant to pilot the "Black Relic" as "support" and a boisterous amnesiac mysterious Kennosuke "Ken" Ouma voiced by Youhei Azakami who's the main pilot for the "Black Relic" and having to fight alien robots trying to invade for unknown reasons, Kennosuke also goes through knowing how the modern age works due to his samurai-era like ways getting him A LOT of attention as well as troubles that goes along with it......yeah feels like Neon Genesis Evangelion just in a slightly lighter tone doesn't it?. Well for that LA can say that the notion of this being an Neon Genesis Evangelion clone is a farce as it has it's own identity and own plot that strays away from being a clone of NGE quite quickly.
In terms of mystery, there are several, like who Kennosuke really is, who are the invading alien robots and what does it have to do with the United Nations Kurobe Research Institute, what link does Yukina have with the Black Relic?. These questions for the majority are ALL answered thankfully the the end of the anime. This intrigue really was what kept LA from watching it to the end. These mysteries more or less justifiable as the plot progresses and it makes the world building of what the Black Relic and the invading aliens "Efidolg" motivations *cough* world domination *cough* typical *cough* and the plot twists do get explained MOST of the time.
In terms of characters, we do have our stereotypical mecha pilots from again the "kill all demons" Kennosuke to the reluctant "don't wanna kill" Yukina, to the deadpanned "do your job" Sophie Noelle voiced by Reina Ueda and her butler Toshiyuki "Sebastian" Mozumi voiced by Taiten Kusunoki and finally the foul-mouthed "RECKT YOUR SHIT" Tom Borden voiced by Ryouhei Kimura as well as all the bridge bunnies and commanders of the mech fleet of Kurobe Dam. On the school side of things is where things get rather tame, from the love interest of Yukina, Ryouto Akagi voiced by Kaito Ishikawa to Yukina's best friend cosplayer Mika Ogino voiced by Asami Seto, the butt monkey José Carlos Takasuka voiced by Shuusuke Takeuchi and of course the weirdest character Jundai Kayahara voiced by Yuusuke Kobayashi who always have a camera with him and records EVERYTHING, just LA or is Jundai the manifestation of the modern age considering his "record all AND NOTHING BUT THAT" mentality. Really due to this wide and expansive cast, you'll think the development is slim, well actually it's not, for the majority of the character development, it's really touches upon most of the character motivations for the future and how something like the alien invasion can put a stop to all that, really be it Ryouto wanting to tell his feelings to Yukina, to Kennosuke's fate and then after to what Yukina wants to do (before or after she was linked with the Black Relic), Kuromukuro's characters really develops this huge cast quite nicely. LA's favourite character?...Sophie Noelle, why?...she's one of the more intellectual characters in the anime as well as one of the professional mecha pilots and her moment in the spotlight arrives MANY times outside or in battle. She really is the ACE IN THE HOLE of the anime. LA also had the soft spot for the shy ditzy teacher Marina Unami voiced by Manami Sugihira during the early episodes when Kennosuke and Yukina were a bit more grating together than usual.
Yes on speaking of which, Kuromukuro does go into a rather vague romantic subplot, with a sorta love triangle formed with Kennosuke, Ryouta and Yukina and if you want to know LA's opinion of the romance, LA was pretty much sticking to Kennosuke x Yukina it was kinda obvious where this was gonna lead to. As for how LA actually thought about the romance, well that love triangle was predictable to say the least, but LA was more or less worried about Muetta voiced by Aki Toyosaki (Spoilers on this character so won't say much), Kennosuke and Yukina due to the complicated circumstance of this "romance" it was hard to pinpoint as well as erratic considering the situation this love triangle was in at the time. The romance is a more of an after thought as there are more pressing issues such as the invading mech army and their motivations, but LA can see why the romance element was there.
There are a few pacing issues here and there, but considering the various of genres it's under of sci-fi, action, mecha and later on mystery and romance, it's pacing is rather inconsistent, it's not until the halfway point, it really changes focus on it's main storyline and that's where it really starts getting into the nitty gritty, however because of this, the pacing is STILL inconsistent but in a good way (as in it finally gets into the details and focuses on the main storyline and it takes it's time with it with it's add slice of life "character developments" but yeah that goes around being "inconsistent" most of the time)
In terms of animation, expected of PA. Works to have the great detail in backgrounding once again, the character designs can get janky at times but that was really rare most of the times. Yes, LA needs to point out that the CGI on the robots are blatant most of the time, but NOT all the mech's are like this and more or less integrated them quite well on occasion. Really due to the varying and unique mech designs it also constituted the mech battles to be even more action-packed and fluid battles due to how PA Works integrated the CGI and traditional animation together and add in Yukina's tactical strategies and you have some very nice mech battles. CGI was used modestly to say the best and they just didn't put CGI whenever they could. Overall PA Works did great on the animation...which was expected.
In terms of voice acting, it was decent for the most part, keeping most of the characters personalities in check. Youhei Azakami was great as the boisterous Kennosuke as well as Ryohei Kimura as the foul-mouthed Tom Borden. LA's favourite voice actor?...Mao Ichimichi, yes Mao certainly got grating in the early episodes (what with her whining and her butting heads with Kennosuke), but further down the plot, her focus and development both as a character and relationship-wise really gave Mao A LOT more material. Second would go to Reina Ueda for Sophie, because Sophie was a badass through and through.
The plot twists given to Kuromukuro were rather unexpected to say the least and Kuromukuro really didn't give much hints to most of the mysteries LA said and the plot really likes to keep tightlipped about it. The plot twists does make Kuromukuro really ramp it up the tension especially during the latter half however one plot twist does feel like it went rather into an anti-climax which led it down the finale with some of the cliches to go with went to. Now for LA, LA kinda got the reasoning why, but LA still kinda saw the cliches bumping into LA distracting LA at the same time. On speaking of the ending...
The ending was left rather open ended with no definitive ending and LA was expecting this as considering the circumstances, LA can see why it was left open ended. The ending did have a rather good "final battle" in a ways and once again really holds onto the "future" themes that was lingering around through the meat and buildup to the finale of this ending. The "epilogue" with it's timeskip was also a great addition to it and seeing these characters somewhat grownup and seeing what happened to them was pretty good. Whatever reasoning as to this open ended ending...LA was still satisfied, not only because LA saw that this ending couldn't push all these loose plot threads all into the finale, but the ambiguity really hones in the "look to the future" theme and it was still a good ending nonetheless.
So, Kuromukuro...was it a bad or good anime?, well with what LA talked about with it's technicals, LA thinks the devil is in the details as just talking about technicals isn't enough to see how good Kuromukuro turned out to be, sure it had problems in it's early episodes but by the end of this anime as well as it's inconsistent pacing and for an original anime done by PA.Works and this anime being it's 15th Anniversary production, Kuromukuro did itself justice from it's intriguing mysteries, unique wacky characters and PA Works typically beautiful animation. LA really couldn't pin down if Kuromukuro was good or bad not until Episode TWENTY, there is a reason LA said it was LA's most indecisive anime of Spring & Summer 2016 but overall on LA's verdict, Kuromukuro did good, not great but still you did good nonetheless.
