Kuro no Su - Chronus

Title:Kuro no Su - Chronus
Chronus
黒の栖-クロノス-
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Studio 4°C
Makoto Nakazono is a high school student with a small dark secret. Since he was little, he has had the mysterious power to see black entities that steal souls. One day, he is suddenly interrogated by one of the black entities. Akira and Makoto are having a strange conversation. At that moment, Makoto didn't notice the threatening shadow approaching his childhood friend Hazuki.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


25-minute film released on March 1, 2014.
Animated by Studio 4C.
One of four shorts animated for the Anime Mirai 2014 festival, a short film festival held every year where Japanese anime studios are given money by the government for training young animators and developing these films.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 8 8 6 7 Ggultra2764 [series:2948#1552]
This short film focuses on a high school boy named Makoto who is able to see shinigami and feels helpless at stopping them take lives until they decide that his close friend Hazuki will be next to depart to the afterlife following an accident. Elements to its storyline have been done before such as a young man's ability to interact with shinigami and its overall moral being that it is possible to defy destiny. However, it is still a solid story as Makoto develops the will to defy the shinigami when they start targeting someone close to him and the series believably depicts this pathos when Makoto chooses to defy the shinigami to save his friend's soul and one of the shinigami finds developments of Makoto's issue hitting close to home from his own experiences while still alive as such where he is forced to decide whether or not to aid the boy.

Visually, the animation to Chronus isn't on the level of Harmonie as details are a bit more simple and there are instances of character design details degrading. However, the subdued color tones and use of some cinematic effects to enhance the suspense of key scenes as Makoto interacts with the shinigami are a nice fit in accompanying the title's dark and often somber mood. Animated highlights of the movie occur later in the film when Makoto races into the afterlife to rescue Hazuki's soul and we see some use of the powers of the shinigami as they try halting Makoto's efforts and sending off Hazuki's soul.

Overall, Chronus offers up a decent story and moral focus for a 25-minute short with Makoto coming to grips with defying the shinigami to save a human life he holds dear to him. If you're a fan of Studio 4C's shorts, then this will be a decent time killer worth checking out.

Last updated Saturday, September 13 2014. Created Saturday, September 13 2014.

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