Kurokami The Animation

Title:Kurokami The Animation
Black God
Heuk Shin
Kurogami
黒神
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - SUNRISE
NAMIKAWA Daisuke
R1 License - Bandai (Defunct)
SHITAYA Noriko
While wandering after a day of high school and kicking about, Keita Ibuki decides to satisfy a craving for ramen at a noodle stand. Instead of slurping soup, though, he surrenders his meal to a manic girl who, unbeknownst to Keita, is a Mototsumitama, a guardian of the coexistence equilibrium. When his new acquaintance is attacked, Keita gets caught in the crossfire and loses an arm. Awakening from the shock of his injury, Keita finds himself back in his apartment... arm intact! But just whose arm is it?! Asking the strange girl raiding his refrigerator reveals only that Keita's life has become a great deal more complicated.

Based on the same-name (Korean) manga series, authored by Dall-Young Li and illustrated by PARK Sung Woo.

R1 manga has been licensed by Yen Press - Amazon Advert Listing

More information at ↗Wikipedia.

Animation by Bandai.
Series aired Jan thru June '09.
23 TV Episodes (~24min).
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 8 9 8 9 8 Dreamer [series:1962#2279]
This one didn't get favorable reviews however, after reading the synopsis, I was curious to see how this one was. Wow! It turned out far better than expected.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork and animation was about on par with many other anime. At times however, it seemed pretty good. Then, after watching it more, I realized that it was slightly better than the norm and at times, really good. Character designs were far better than average. Plenty of unique characters, personalities and abilities.

Music
The OP was mostly an ok rock piece. Not too bad. The ED was about the same. As for the rest of the soundtrack, it was mostly some nice rock pieces or metal during some battle scenes.

Series and Episode Story
First off, I had a very hard time believing the fight scenes. Someone is being beat to a pulp, and all that appears on the victim is a few facial scratches.... especially in reference to Kuro. Second, there was just some unnecessary fight scenes that would just pop out of nowhere. I mean, more times than not, people would be beating the crap out of each for no reasons at all. However, after watching it through a few episodes, I got use to it and focused on the plot more.... which turned out better than I expected.

The plot was interesting and had plenty of twists and side stories. Then as it's coming to a close, things start getting revealed that sorta surprises you (at least it did me). I found it much more interesting about 3/4 the way through the series. Then the revelation at the 2nd to last episode.... sorta through me off for a loop and initially got me really disappointed however, the ensuing battle there after made it a bit more acceptable. The last episode was more a recap of the events of the whole series with a few nice explanations of certain events through the plot, which made it interesting.

Overall, this turned out far better than I imagined. The final episode was a nice touch and I absolutely loved the last few minutes of the final episode.... a near perfect way to end it. Excellent!

Last updated Saturday, December 26 2009. Created Saturday, December 26 2009.
Rent 7 8 8 0 8 0 KBanger1 [series:1962#1694]
Kurokami is a great action series. The plot is already been shown in the synopsis so let me get into the breakdown. You have Keita as your typical high schooler except the fact that his mom was killed in a car accident and lives on his own. He has a childhood friend in Akane who is a few years older than him and also is in love with him. Now, enter Kuro. Apparently she's a princess from a different world where she is known as a Mototsumitama or a guardian of some sort. Now, the way she can tap into her own inner power is by having a contractee. Basically, she has to share her heart with another person. This is where Keita comes in. Now, the rest of the series is quite easy to understand but too long to explain so you will have to watch it.

Now, what I liked about this series was the plot. Even though it felt quite slow, it was quite interesting. Everything in the series fell into place like clockwork. It almost felt predictable, but it wasn't to my surprise. Most action anime (especially ones that involve hand-to-hand combat) really have their work cut out for themselves. Kurokami is a bit different when it starts to introduce the Mototsumitama/contractee style. How that works is that the contractee loans it power (called Tera in Kurokami) to its guardian. The guardian fights with all that power and even has special moves that seem to love to repeat itself. It gets quite tedious, but it's still an interesting way to fight. Almost like Pokemon where your pokemon fights for it's trainer but instead of being encased inside a ball, you have another human fighting for you and gains power through their contractee.

As far as art and animation, there's very little deformity if any comedy was present it's almost a straightforward clean animation. No major quirks as I like to call it. It was serious so I can say it wasn't farcical. The time in the series was based after a post war Japan. Almost apocalyptic-like but no major destruction except for their highways which were just flooded. It certainly looked the part.

IMO, Kurokami is certainly something to watch from start to finish. It's a good thing the license has been picked up because now I'll see if the engdub is gonna wreck the series. Even so, it still a good series to rent. A decent alternative to any of the mecha based anime currently.

Last updated Sunday, June 28 2009. Created Sunday, June 28 2009.
Watch Jan-Chan [series:1962#967]
17 episodes watched … so far …..

Hummm… what to share?

There is a type of shounen fighting story in which the contestants ‘beat each other down’ to win the battle. And the next opponent that comes along is certain to be bigger, meaner and stronger, which will result in a bigger beat-down battle. No real strategy or fancy tactics – just use your fists, any nearby poolcue or chair, telephone pole or perhaps a tree – just beat the crapola out of the opponent!!! The problem is that by episode 50 (or so), everyone is floating around, with freakish yellow hair and glowing battle auras, while screaming strange words and tossing flaming fireballs at each other while ripping up the local real estate….. I was actually referring to the Dragon Ball series. By episode 15 in Kurosama, while they don’t have glowing yellow hair, they do have the battle aura and they scream ‘Exceed!! Mega Exe!!’ or ‘Exceed!! Smash!!’, before punching their opponents through a few walls. Well, there are a few more episodes to go...

Otherwise Kurogami does weird little spin on the Urban legend about doppelgangers – which sez that seeing your doppleganger is an omen of impending death!! In this story, everyone has two doppelgangers, (triplegangers?), in a system called ‘doppleliners’. Everyone’s fate is split between these three incarnations and eliminating your others allows you become a ‘root’, inheriting all of their luck and good fortune.

Managing the balance of the world are a group of super people called Mototsumitamas, who come from a different dimension and have a special ability of pairing (or contracting) with ordinary people which allows them to power up by accessing their partner’s magic (or terra).

OK!! How much of this sounds vaguely familiar?

This fun shounen fighting story has got my attention for the moment, but I fear that I might never have a desire to see it again … so, let’s just give a WATCH rating and leave it at that.

Last updated Saturday, May 09 2009. Created Thursday, May 07 2009.

Other Sites
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『KUROKAMI 黒神 The Animation』 オフィシャルサイト http://www.kurokami-anime.net/
Japanese Series Web Site

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