"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!
