High school student Ibuki Keita has been haunted by misfortune for as long as he can remember. For no apparent reason, everyone around him dies tragically. Ultimately, he refuses to become too close to anyone, even his childhood friend Akane. This leaves Keita alone in a life full of misery and disgrace.
While eating at his favorite ramen shop one evening, Keita meets a strange young girl named Kuro. Possessing abilities that surpass that of a normal human being, Kuro classifies herself as a Mototsumitama. She explains to Keita about "Terra," a life-energy force split between three identical looking people; a global phenomenon dubbed the "Doppeliner System." As a Mototsumitama, Kuro guards the "Coexistence Equilibrium," the beings that protect the flow of Terra around the world. Keita refuses to believe her story, until he is caught up in the crossfire of this hidden world. On the verge of death, he makes a contract with Kuro, unbeknownst to its true meaning. Now he is bound to Kuro, and must be with her at all times. Could Keita's misfortune possibly get any greater?
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Archaeon
I "love" it when an anime tries to ask deeply philosophical and ethical questions, only to answer them with fists, feet, and super powers. Personally I find it annoying when characters claim that they can overcome things like God, Fate, Destiny, Karma, etc, with nothing more than willpower and a kickass partner (since the main character so often is a complete novice in combat, or has no redeeming qualities whatsoever). Enter then Kurokami, as a shining example of these things at work. Now, when I started watching this I had no idea that Kurokami was originally a manga Sung-Woo Park (illustrator), and Dal-Young Im (story), and tosay that the anime and manga are like chalk and cheese would be an understatement.
The story in the anime version centres around Ibuki Keita, a highschool student with a very similar isolationist attitude to Ikari Shinji from NGE. The reason for this is that, for no apparent reason, everyone around him seems to die. One evening he meets a young girl named Kuro, and it is from her that he learns the true nature of the world.
I'll stop there as the story is quick to hit its stride, however I have some big issues with the plot on the whole, the first issue being why Keita, who in the manga is a 19 year old games programmer, is suddenly a high school student in the anime. Now, many of you may think this isn't a problem, but in actuality it causes a major incosistency in the flow of the story and the development of the characters.The plot for the manga has been written with Keita as a 19 year old who is working. This means that many of the thoughts, feelings and actions he takes in the story are based on the fact that he has already completed high school and is effectively an adult. The anime, on the other hand, portrays Keita as a teenager, a "child" so to speak. The reason for this change is purely a marketing issue. The producers wanted this series to appeal to a teenage fan base, in paritcular the fans of shows like Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Fate/Stay Night, etc.
Imagine for a second the difference in your own thought processes over over a two year period, in particular, the difference in how you perceived the world, and more importantly, how you reacted to it. Beginning to see what I mean? The plot for the anime stays true to the manga for the most part when, in truth, it should have been rewritten completely.
Another big change is the fact that the manga involves transplanting an arm. The whole idea of transplanting hearts was, again, purely a marketing strategy. That change was made so that it would appeal to a more "romantic" audience, something which the anime could have done without.
Both changes (and they're unfotunately not the only ones), have severely damaged the flow of the plot and the development of Keita and Kuro as characters. The original concept was very good, and if they'd stuck to it instead of pandering to the audience in an effort to cash in on the Shana/Louise/Sabre franchise, then it would have been a much better show.
Animation is another issue I have with this series. Overall its not too bad, but Sunrise and Bandai really didn't seem to put any effort into this show on the whole. The animation is often jerky and confusing, especially during the action sequences. The studio has tried to make the show look "cool", with the proviso that this be done at the lowest cost possible. There's naked character transformation scenes in the style of the mahou shoujo genre, overblown, overpowered special moves with silly names in the style of Bleach et al, strange character actions (like running, eating, etc), and an overall sense that the animators really couldn't be bothered to get their fingers out.
The art for the backdrops is actually pretty decent on the whole, and is the main reason why I scored the art as mediocre instead of bad. Unfortunately, these backgrounds don't have the same kind of vitality to them that can be found in other shows, and are often there so that one of the characters can be sent crashing through it with a punch.
The characters have been designed along the lines of the manga, so no real issues there. I just wish they'd put more effort into the overall work though.
As far as the sound goes, the only reason I didn't give this area a good rating is because of the cumulatively annoying OP and ED, and the change of OP midway through the series only compounded this.
The rest of the music throughout the series can is generally okay, however there are points where the music and mood don't match. The voice actors are on the capable side, but once again there doesn't seem to be any real effort involved in their portrayals as the acting is sometimes very wooden.
The characters are, again, pretty decent on the whole. There isn't any real development that goes on with any of them barring the two main characters, and any changes in the persona of the sub characters tends to happen off-screen. As for Keitaand Kuro, the fact that Sunrise and Bandai's marketing teams got involved with production means that there's some annoyingly inconsistent threads running through their development, Keita's relationship with Akane being an example of this.
This is an odd anime. It's clearly influenced by the likes of Fate/Stay Night and Shakugan no Shana, as well as Bleach and DBZ (surprisingly). The confusing plot and the inconsistencies stand out so it makes suspension of disbelief more difficult. It's enjoyable in it's own way, but is still one of those "watch once and forget" titles that seem to be cropping up more frequently.
On the whole, this is not a good series, but it isn't bad either. The fact that it tried to include a complex plot with some deep philophical and ethical issues is one of it's few saving graces.
Retro8bit
"Can you change a destiny that has already been written for you?" Enter "Kurokami", a series that shows the struggle of two individuals, as they attempt to change their own path that others say can not be changed. Story: 7/10 The center of the plot revolves around "the Dopleliner System". What this means is there exists three versions of the same person (2 subs and 1 root). Should any one of these three come in plain sight of the other, they will perish, and only the root will live, and thus will consume the energy force of them known as tera. Our main heroes are Kuro (a TeraGuardian trying to stop the Doppleliner system and defeat her brother) and Keita (an ordinary boy who unwillingly ends up becoming her partner). What interested me the most about the anime, is the way that the actual battles take place. It almost feels like you are watching a more mature version of Pokemon at times. Each Tera Guardian can form a pack with a human, and thus use their power in conjunction with their own. So fights take place with the two helping each other--ie: the Tera Guardian fights, and the humans remain on the sidelines channeling their powers to their partner. The fighting scenes are also quite good, because despite the characters featuring "power/energy" moves, the fighting scenes themselves feel very street brawling oriented, and stylized. It overall does a good job of mixing the super powers with more authentic looking moves. Now regarding the way the actual storyline progresses, here is where I feel Kurokami tends to miss the mark. There are enough plot threads going on, and many of them do evolve throughout the series. However, they end up happening few and far between. A lot of episodes play the role of fillers, and some fight scenes that take place seem unnecessary. This can make the plot a bit tedious to follow, as it can sometimes take many episodes for something simple to be made clear. Still, making your way through the anime just to see the last few episodes really makes things worth while, as the final episodes are exciting and fast paced, though I did find it a bit odd that episode 23 ends up being a re-cap of all the others, but through a slightly different perspective. Where this anime really shines through is with its actual ending. Everything concludes nicely, and feels very satisfying at the end. And some events even end up being a bit unexpected. As a whole the story is good, there is plenty of action and plot twists to keep things exciting. But due to the storyline tending to drag on, does hinder it as a whole, but nothing too drastic.
As far as offensive material goes, Kurokami does have a few scenes which contain gory elements where blood spurts and/or is smeared on the ground. These scenes don't happen very frequently, in fact only the first few episodes really have them, with it only happening occasionally after that. Some battles even end with little to no blood spilled at all.
Art: 8/10
The arts style to this is dark and moody, but not really in a creepy kind of way. The backgrounds come off pretty well detailed, with nice looking city designs and foliage areas. Even so, the overall color schemes tend to make the series look a bit washed out. The character design is good, all of them are well proportioned and have a good sense of style to each one of the cast. The super moves (also known as "Exceeds") are flashy and colorful, with each character’s move set differing from one another. The fight scenes are by far the best part in the animation. Character moves are animated smoothly, with every punch and kick shown off with just the right amount of impact.
Sound: 6/10
For me this was the weakest point in the series. The voice acting in both the English and Japanese version is very well done, I still feel the Japanese audio is better by far in the long run. However, a majority of the soundtrack seems to favor one style of genre in music...rock! The opening and ending themes change twice through out the series. The opening animations both play rock style music tracks, while the ending theme (surprisingly) plays soft lite hearted melodies sung by Yousei Teikoku. The background music it plays also consists of rock music. I can see where they are going with this, and while I don’t care for heavy rock music, I can at least appreciate it for this anime. If you like this type of genre in music then you will love the soundtrack, but if you’re like me and don’t care for it, then you will most likely turn the volume down during some of the scenes.
Characters: 7/10
The characters are hit and miss. I will go on record of saying that Kuro is one of the coolest female heroines to come along in an anime as of late. She has a sweet and funny personality, yet holds back a lot of sorrow in here life--she is quite the layered individual. Of all the characters in the series, Keita is probably going to be the one that is hardest to tolerate...especially during the beginning. He tends to complain a lot, and is unwilling to help anyone towards the beginning, and will most likely annoy many viewers. To his credit though, he does end up changing as the story progresses, and at least becomes more tolerable in the end. The supporting cast is also the same, some characters such as Excel, Reishin and Daichi do a good job off adding to the storyline. However, there are a number of supporting characters that just don’t make the cut. Many of them don’t really seem to have much impact on what is going on, and thus make some feel unnecessary to the storyline. They’re not a bad cast by any means, some of them just don’t seem to have a staple purpose in the anime. As a whole though, the main characters themselves do end up doing their parts well for the stories’ purpose, and in that regards it is done right.
Overall: 7/10
Despite some of its flaws, Kurokami is a good anime. If you can make it through some of the fillers, and don’t mind the story dragging on somewhat, then I think you will find this a deep enough series to check out. There is enough action and plot in this to keep both the Seinen fans and casual viewers satisfied. And as it stands, it’s a series I think anime fans should give a try.
Margixx
“Power to achieve something” The Story… It revolves on a system that we called “Doppeliner System”. The story tells about the involvement of the three main characters, which is Kuro, Keita, and Akane. They are somewhat confused on this system and willing to find out the real main reason why this system exists, making it as an obligation as they put their life in danger or helping others to find out the cure to its existence. The point of view here is not the twist of the story rather the main attraction here will be the action / super power scenes. It gives excitement and thrill but onthe other hand there are some minor / major problems that you may notice in it within the show. Though the twist of the story adds effects for the whole series, it’s quite ineffective in such a way that it consists of somewhat boring conversations, bad combination of action and romance, and bad flow of the events throughout the story.
This might be the uniqueness of it from the other anime. It comes up with a different representation of martial arts with super power. It is also the main reason why it’s been quite exciting to watch the series, nothing less and nothing more.
Art & Animation…
Well it might be obvious what the series will give. It emphasizes fighting scenes, stunts, and signature blows and it also gives different camera angles to be shown on every move. The art is quite normal and they didn’t make it a grand, a simple and fitted for the series.
Sound…
The sound suited well to this action series. OP song that has fast beat music and gives a thrilling excitement. ED song that gives a soothing and melodic music that points a change of view to the series. BG music/sounds adds a great effect through the fighting, emotional and funny scenes.
Characters…
Irritating, balanced and appealing. This is what the characters do in the anime, they give such appealing formation or stance, but in the other part they also give an irritating and disappointing effects throughout the show. So in the end it gives just a balanced mood on the entire series that never changes up to the end. It’s quite disappointing in my part.
Enjoyment…
The enjoyment will define as “animation vs monologue”, “story vs characters”. In this cases you may find out in the series that either of the definition will have a contrast to each other, so when it happened it would turn out to be a problem as you continue on watching it. It has a high-low features that will sometimes give you annoyance or enjoyment.
Overall…
Even though it has an ups feature on the series, it also have a down feature that pulls the excitement out of it. A balanced mood will show up throughout the series that will sometimes put you on thinking to quit on watching.
Lina-chan87
EXCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!! Kurokami will be sure to knock your socks off! Kurokami is an action-packed, adventure-filled, life-changing anime. From awesome storyline to kick-ass characters ( Kuro ftw. xD ), you could never go wrong with watching Kurokami. The audio and art effects are PURE GENIUS. Voice acting was a complete WONDER (Japanese VA). The plot twists take your breath away as the characters go through every corner of the story. Is it just me or is the fact that how the main character always goes to eats noodles funny? Anyway, Kurokami was one of my favourites and I'm sure that you'll love it too. HAPPY WATCHING!
gravedigger
Kurokami is .... one of the most irritating and confusing animes I've seen so far . The reason why is that, I'll tell later. Before continuing with the story , a few things need to be explained (that'll be important for the story). People and Mototsumitama coexist together. Mototsumitama are people with super natural powers, and to gain even more power they need to form a contract with humans. Also, there are 3 identical copies of every human being (one root and two subs). That's the so called "Doppeliner System". If a subs meet his root, his live energy (aka Terra) will be sucked by theroot, causing his inevitable death and the only way for the sub to survive is to kill his root before he dies. When a both of the subs are dead, the root becomes Master Root(and has big luck) or if the sub kill the root the he becomes Minus Root(similar to Master Root).
And the story goes: A evil organization is trying to mass produce Master Roots (by killing their subs) in order to dominate Japan (and later, the world) by placing Master Roots in key positions in Japan. The mass production is causing unbalance in the world, which can lead to his destruction. And of course , our two main characters (Kuro and Ibuki) will be fighting against them. Just to show how evil the organization is, their youngest Master Root, a 6-7 year old girl, can say only one fraking word: "DELETE". Cmon, they could at least send her to a school to lean some new words :D.
Ibuki is a high school student, who's mother died in a car accident, after seen a person who looked just like her .After that he tried to avoid making new friends, scared that similar thing might also happen to them too.
Kuro is a Mototsumitama who came from the Holy Lands (where her Mototsumitama clan live) to get revenge against his brother for killing most of her clan and her mother.
By some circumstances , Kuro and Ibuki meet, make a contract and start fighting against the evil.
Most of the characters (especially the main one) are really annoying. Ibuki is the kind of person who can't stop talking nonsense, especially in the beginning, when he's always arguing and reconciling with Kuro. Also the enemies are pretty stupid. I mean, if you are fight against a stronger opponent, it's logical to attack the weaker one (the human) and not the stronger (mototsumitama), especially because if U defeat the human, the mototsumitama will lose most of his/her powers (since his/her contractee is beaten). But no, they always attack the mototsumitama, and usually lose.
The animation is solid, nothing to complain about. Since there are many, many fights, you will see many special effects, which is the best part of this anime. The sound is pretty good, especially during the fights, except for one song that really annoyed me . The OP and ED were good too.
So in the end.. the reason why this anime is confusing and annoying:
- Confusing , because you never know who the main enemy is. Every time, after they defeat the main enemy , a new, even "greater", appears. And after that, another one. So till the end you don't know who the main opponent is. And not to say, that one of their greatest enemy becomes their ally....
- Irritating, because of the main characters. I really hate when people talk too much during fights. Also, the battle system is weird. The Mototsumitama, is the only one fighting, while all the human can do is to support her. But the main thing that annoyed me, is that the "Doppeliner System" rules does not apply to the main characters. In one scene, Ibuki meets his root, so he had two options: To have his Terra sucked up by hist root and die, or to kill him and become Minus Root. But I guess I forgot the third option: The miracle. And of course, he didn't die (nor did the root), and everyone was saved by this "miracle".
I gave this anime 6/10, because of the many annoying things I explained before. But if you are only interested in fights (which this anime has plenty) and you don't mind the annoying talks of Ibuki, you might even like this anime. Unfortunately I'm not that kind of person.
PoutyWeeb
“I want my 8 hours back” was the first thing I thought to myself when I finished the final episode. I’ll be completely honest, this anime is one of the most appalling animes I’ve ever watched to date. Despite the somewhat interesting story concept presented here, the execution for this anime was simply atrocious in almost every single aspect. In this anime, we have our protagonist, Ibuki Keita, who meets this girl, Kuro, and makes a contract with her due to sudden unforeseen circumstances. And throughout the anime, the ideas of “fate” is presented as a common motif as Keita and Kuro tries to find away to stop all the sudden deaths that’s happening around them. Although this isn’t the most original plot idea, it could’ve been at least an entertaining show but I believe this is the worst aspect of the entire anime. From the beginning to the end, the entire concept of “fate” and how it connects to all the random deaths that’s been happening in this world is just thrown out the window for some mediocre martial arts styled fight sequences with the concept of “fate” just lazily shoved in the fights in order to present some sort of “meaning” in said fights (they don’t). The story structure is not only just repetitively boring, it’s also just pretentious, shoving in “meaningful” conversations that your characters are having while fighting isn’t how you present your motif effectively, and the scenes where the characters aren’t fighting each other are just as stale as the fighting scenes since the conversations the characters have never adds any sort of real progression to the story and is instead just used to show their defining “characteristics” if the dialogues isn’t forced in to talk about the plot itself. Also, when you’re attempting to present some sort of theme in the story, just stick to the one theme and try not to present more than you actually can do as this anime also attempts to bring in the concept of doppelgängers in this story, which was ultimately just used as a mere plot device that somehow connects to the ideas of fate without properly expanding on it.
Another dreadful aspect of this anime are the characters themselves. None of the characters are remotely interesting at all as all of them feels like cookie cutter characters you see in most animes, you have the action girl who loves to eat, the tough buff guy, the one minor antagonist character that has a very inconsistent goal, you get the idea. Now I do understand that creating interesting and meaningful characters that’s relevant to the story is a difficult task to do, but when all of the characters behave like ripoffs from other popular anime series, it’s just very hard for me to feel any sort of connection at all to any of the characters even if they have some sort of sob story that’s going to be revealed at some point. I understand that sometimes there are characters that aren’t meant to be likable but at least make them tolerable, and for this anime’s case, they aren’t. They’re either unlikable pieces of shit or just side character A.
The art is probably the only redeeming aspect of this anime as there are some designs that I found appealing but it’s not enough to redeem all the other shitty aspects that’s presented in this anime. It’s your standard late 2000s anime art style, nothing more, nothing less.
Although there isn’t much to say about the sound effects, I will admit that the music is very dull due to the lack of variety. Throughout this show, it seems like rock music is just everywhere in this show, and not in a creative way either, it’s just the most dull stock type rock tracks with almost no variety in the songs itself. I felt no sort of emotions at all whenever watching scenes with music, the music didn’t add anything to enhance the experience at all, it was just there to serve as background noise.
Overall, I highly recommend you to not waste your time with this anime at all. Trust me there are so many other animes that are worth your time instead of this. This anime is so dull and I don’t want any anime watchers to make the same mistake as I did by watching this anime in hopes of “maybe it’s gonna get good at this point” which spoilers, it doesn’t. The ending of this series will definitely make you go “so what the hell was all of that for?”
ichirako
this is my first time to write a review of an anime and i didn't know why i picked kuro kami. so where should i start? hmm.. basically, kuro kami is about someone who was brave enough to change their fate. this was the story of ibuki keita who tried to be indifferent to the people around him because he thinks that he could affect their fates which lead them to death. until he met kuro.. a mototsumitama. he then became aware of 'doppeliners' (doppelgangers) and 'terra' (could be explained as energy or ki in simple terms). at the verge of his death, kuro madea 'contract' with him. and that's where the story begins. he became known to certain things that he couldn't believe exists. of the doppleliners' main roots and substitutes. of the mototsumitama and their 'contractees'. and the probable reason why his mother was accidentally killed on his childhood.
story: 8/10
i will not say that this is not a typical anime because there are some which had the same/similar plotting (but of course with different story lines and characters). but the story is quite good and enjoyable. there were some mysteries and revelations that you have to discover though if you are a hardcore anime fan, you could probably predict some.
characters: 7/10
characters are average. even though i could say that kuro is one of the coolest heroines out there. though she could be compared and/or similar to some characters i've watched so far, still, she still had this uniqueness in her character. keita was a bit dragging in the beginning but nevertheless, you'll like his determination. there are other characters who made impact such as reishin (brother of kuro) with which you would totally give him a second thought as the story progresses.
overall: 7/10
the series is action-packed, has humor, drama, and unexpected revelations in the end. i don't want to say anything that could probably give someone a second thought about picking this anime, it's just that the ending actually 'broke' my heart. i just didn't expect to end it that way. the 2nd to the last episode could have been a much nicer ending even though one could say that it would be just as similar to most animes out there that ended with a cliffhanger. but at least you could just use your imagination and picked a nicer ending. that aside, kuro kami is a good pick anime fans should try watching :)
NoblesseOblige3
The story of Kurokami revolves around our two central protagonists on a journey to exact revenge on the antagonist, so basically at the start Kuro creates a pact with Keita and they search out Kuro's brother who committed a crime in 'there world.' The show introduces the Doppeliner System, the basis behind it is that there are three of 'you' out there in the world and if you happen to have eye contact with one of them you will die (unless your the root.) Its a different take on a Doppelgänger which has been popular in fiction. I found with this show there was barelyany breather episodes or fillers as you were in the last half of the show, it's very action packed including a lot of battles where we get to see a wide variety of super powers being used, i really liked how each person had there own ability.
The art for this show is decent, the backgrounds were all well drawn and a lot of detail was put into them, the character designs were cool, and the lighting effects on Kuro's head was neat. As i said previously the different abilities were all great to see, they were well drawn and animated, the fight scenes were what stood out for me, they were highly detailed and extremly fun to watch.
Voice acting was up to a decent standard, i watched the dub and only a few of the original Japanese, all the voices fit there respected characters and we got a few unknown or actors some or most may not of heard of, Wil Wheaton even has a semi big role. The openings were fun and were pretty good rock songs to kick off the show.
Overall if you enjoy martial art based super power Anime then this is definitely worth checking out, fast pace to keep you wanting more, dark atmosphere to add to the grittyness of each battle and the struggles, characters that are cute and lovable to characters to want to see get there ass kicked. This show does have it's flaws, i haven't ripped about them here because i find it hard to talk about them, i know there there it just hard to put into words, i do say the good points do out way the bad points though.
Diazt3r
What can i say the doppeliner system was the first thing that kept me interested. The art style was superb. It reminded me of Dark than Black and Shakugan no Shana, which were excellent animes fyi :). The opening sympathizer also became one of my favorites. There were some twists that I couldn't predict, but it was effective when it occurred. These twists really rekindled my interest (when i was starting to lose interest in the middle >_>) in the anime in a big way. The only beef i had with this anime was the repetitive battles and transformations. (i am basingmy review purely on the anime)
I have read the manga and although it is entirely different you should not shy away from this series.
damagegirl
Kurokami is one of those many animes that would have done a lot better had it been given more episodes. For the depth of the story that is told, I would say about 75 episodes are needed. As it is, the series stands very well by itself. The show takes place in a world in which there are three of every person- a Root and two Subs. The Doppeliner System favors the Roots, in that they have the majority of the luck in life. If a Sub were ever to meet their corresponding Sub or Root, that person would die. People called Mototsumita are charged withmaintaining the balance of the system in the world and as the show begins, the system is being subverted by a famous corporation for its own ends.
There are two protagonists- Keita (male) and Kuro (female). Kuro was born to be a princess of her land, but she begins the story by wandering the streets of Tokyo. The reasons for this are explained later in the story.
The show mainly revolves around the two heroes' relationship together and their deepening connection through a series of conflicts. There are support characters in the story, but these aren't given enough time to realize their full potential. Because of this, the other Mototsumita showing up to support Kuro often seem like random people. This is literally a series that could have become a popular shounen work with 400+ episodes to its credit had the creators expanded on what was already there. 23 episodes isn't that bad, but the story's advancements often seem to come out of left field and the plot twists lose their meaning because enough time wasn't given to establish the meaning of the development to all the characters involved.
Nevertheless, Kurokami remains a good show. It's a show about two people doing their best to fight against the destiny they were given and the ways in which they overcome the rules society put in place to restrict their lives. In many ways, it's a philosophical progression of Japanese morals which began by saying that people had to work inside the system they were given to now determining the ways in which they want to the system to affect them. If anything, Kurokami is a sure indication that Japanese thought is becoming steadily more individualistic.
sashimee-kenna
the story line of kurokami for me is simply beautifully written and animated. it epic and those who liked fate stay night might enjoy watching kurokami as they show some similarities about the character protagonist. also a contract is form between human and super being but in kurokami not with a Ancient Champion but a super Race. at first the story may seems slow but its worth the wait. As to me the sequence of the story being told was simply heighten my curiosity in proceeding to the next episodes.
hexashadow13
tl;dr: An anime that starts out trying and failing to have depth, but becomes quite solid in terms of action and characters when it embraces just being a good battle anime. I should firstly note that I haven’t read the manga. There are apparently major differences between the two which fans of the manga have disliked, but I’m judging the anime solely on it’s own merits independent of how well it adapts the manga. Kurokami is a battle anime centered around the Doppeliner System and Mototsumitama. The Doppeliner system is essentially this anime’s version of the urban legends surrounding doppelgangers, wherein if one see another then onewill die in the near future. This anime explains this phenomenon as one of the people being a Root with high Tera, which is essentially luck, and the other a Sub with low Tera, and upon meeting the Root absorbs the little Tera the sub has, thereby becoming even luckier while the Sub becomes so unlucky they die not long after. This system is watched over by Mototsumitama, who are essentially super strong human like beings that can form contracts with humans to become even stronger.
The plot of the first arc, which spans the first half or so of the anime, mostly just sets the foundation for the latter two arcs. It introduces almost all of the important characters and provides some background on them while also fleshing out the various systems and such and how they tie into character’s motivations. The main characters are the Mototsumitama Kuro and her human partner Keita. Kuro was a girl who was seeking her brother, Reishin, who had strayed from the path that most Mototsumitama followed but was instead seemingly just trying to cause chaos. Keita inadvertently got involved in her fight when Reishin’s underlings came after Kuro while he was with her and in order to save him, she had to form a contract with him, and thus the two of them were connected.
The majority of the first arc is pretty weak for a number of reasons. The first would be that like a lot of battle anime/manga, it doesn’t actually start out as being a proper battle anime, but rather tries to be something more complicated, focusing on the complexities surrounding the Doppeliner system and such. There’s still action, but it actually seems to spend a good amount of time trying to flesh things out in regards to ethics and such, but most all of it isn’t very good. Mototsumitama are meant to maintain the Doppeliner System to maintain balance or some other nebulous concept like that. However, it’s very clear that this system is god awful so it isn’t really clear why the viewer should be invested in that.
Furthermore, while the villain of this arc’s motivations aren’t properly explained at this point, his goal seems to be to essentially mess with the system, which doesn’t seem like a bad motivation to have. That could have been the basis for some actually decent ethical issues, but as mentioned this is largely left completely unexplained, and the anime instead just explores small things surrounding that while kind of trying to portray maintaining the system as a good thing. This largely doesn’t make sense, and thus everything just feels kind of contradictory.
The second issue is Keita’s personality during this arc. He behaves in a perfectly believable manner for someone that was dragged without a choice into an incredibly dangerous situation, and probably handles it better than I would have. That doesn’t change the fact that he still seems lame as hell. Him lashing out at Kuro and essentially trying to run away from having to be involved with any of this just felt kind of pathetic. This may well be because essentially all other similar stories seem to just have the protagonist roll with things like this and thus I’m conditioned to expect that, but it doesn’t change the fact that the protagonist was immensely unlikable.
There are a few other minor issues as well, such as how there are some ridiculously forced moments for the sake of plot advancement, such as characters just randomly running into other important characters somehow and just going with the flow in a way that feels really unnatural. As a result of those issues, the pacing for the anime overall felt pretty slow and like it was really dragging on as a lot of the content simply wasn’t that good.
Thankfully, all of that turns around near the end of the first arc, at which point Keita goes through major character growth, there’s solid growth in the relationship between him and Kuro, and the anime seems to drop it’s pretense about being deep and goes full battle anime. This leads to a pretty exciting climax to the arc, that doesn’t really resolve anything, but is a solid transition into the second arc, which spans the next quarter or so.
The villain in the second arc seems to have somewhat complex motivations at first in that he tries to explain them as such, but it’s pretty clear that he’s just sacrificing others using the Doppeliner System for the sake of gaining power. Thankfully, the anime doesn’t really try to flesh things out as complex as it did during the first arc, and thus plays to it’s strengths by basically just being a battle anime with clear good guys and bad guys. There’s no exploration of complex themes, but there’s still solid character and relationship development in Keita and Kuro as well as solid character development in the side characters Akane and Yuki as well. Other side character’s don’t really get much in terms of development, but it builds well off the cast introduced in the first arc and a few still manage to seem pretty cool and add some variety to things. The anime felt well paced throughout with key moments built up to well and twists that properly felt exciting, and thus overall this part of the anime overall felt well written. This arc also ends in what feels like a proper conclusion.
However, this conclusion immediately transitions into the final arc. The beginning of this arc was somewhat of a mess. It introduces a bunch of new characters, many of whom basically only matter once. It also provides a lot of explanation for things previously not explained properly, such as where the Doppeliner System came from or why the Mototsumitama were protecting it. It ultimately is somewhat complex from an ethical point of view, though for reasons completely unrelated to those that were explored in the first arc, rather the reasons here are much simpler and make a lot more sense. Though it doesn’t dwell much on that either, still primarily being a battle anime with the complexity mainly coming from who’s fighting who and why. The mess arises from the fact that a lot of this isn’t explained very well, either not really properly being explained at all, being explained in a weird order where characters, mainly Akane, feel really inconsistent, or being explained through straight up infodumps and infodump flashbacks which kind of kill the pacing.
Still, ultimately everything is adequately explained, the mechanics of the world are clear and all the character’s involved have motivations that make sense, leading to a climax that’s intense, exciting, and easy to get invested in. This is paced reasonably well and ultimately ends in a pretty satisfying manner that showcases the major characters and the growth they had gone through quite well. After that, episode 22 essentially serves as an epilogue that isn’t action focused but rather focuses solely on how the characters will live their lives after everything had settled down. It builds heavily on the relationship between Keita and Kuro as well as other relationships built up to a lesser extent over the course of the anime for an immensely impactful ending. It wasn’t the type of ending I generally like, but I still found it pretty satisfying and a good end point for the series.
The problem is that episode 22 isn’t the last episode. The actual final episode, episode 23, is essentially just a footage from throughout the series that adds some context to earlier scenes in the anime. The vast majority of this context is unnecessary and doesn’t feel like it adds anything at all, and the scenes that do add something would have been better if they were properly integrated into earlier episodes. It’s somewhat a recap of the series, but it didn’t feel like all that great of one, in that it’s written weirdly in how it uses flashbacks. This episode also has an extra epilogue that goes beyond the ending of episode 22, but it doesn’t actually change anything or add anything the ending of episode 22 didn’t already suggest would happen, so I feel it would have been better to just have left it out as the ending of episode 22 was a really strong emotional beat to end on and this epilogue kind of dilutes it.
As for more general notes, the Doppeliner System is really interesting, even if the anime didn’t use it’s complexities all that well. I also wonder why the system was explained as involving three people instead of just two as the third never had plot significance with anyone and as far as I know the doppelganger urban legends only involve two. And if it wasn’t clear, I also really liked the action in this show. It’s mostly just fast and powerful martial arts, but with a single special move per character that was of the more supernatural variety to add some spice to things. It was really simple but also really effective and awesome to watch. The battles flowed incredibly well and were just in general really hype, in no small part to how the soundtrack and animation fit really well and greatly enhanced the experience.
Speaking of the art and animation, overall it was really good. The art style fit quite well. The character designs started out kind of weak at first, but improved tremendously and overall were pretty much all nice, and I especially liked the clothing designs. The sequences used for special moves and power ups were also really cool, with the Synchro sequence never getting old. And as mentioned, the animation for action in general was great, feeling quite fluid and dynamic. The soundtrack had a number of memorable tracks that worked really well, the majority of these being vocal tracks for battle scenes. The OPs were both really solid and good at getting the viewer excited for the episode, though to be honest that didn’t really fit all that well for the first third of the anime when it was still slow. The EDs are much softer with simpler visuals but were decent enough.
Theory_master
THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS!!!!!! "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 thelittle 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!
pursoul
Kinda ironic, i had lots of chances in the past to watch kurokami. But i was skeptical about it and mostly said "Meh dont think its worth my time" and maan i was so stupid saying it. When i finally decided to watch it,i was simply amazed the anime was fantastic and the character development is truly amazing. and throughout the anime it left me with so many questions and no answers(dont worry all your questions will be answered as you watch the anime). If some of you watched shakugan no shana before kurokami or the opposite,You will find lots of similiarites between both of these animes,examples: -A girl with superpowers who makes some sort of a contract with a guy which bonds them together
-The main protagonist ends up getting dragged into something he never wanted to
Personally,i watched shakugan no shana and i liked it very very much. but kurokami was simply amazing,i gave it a 10/10 and i rarely give my 10s,well unless i find an anime with something truly amazing.
One thing i truly learned about animes before watching it is:Dont judge a book by its cover,or more like dont judge an anime by its cover art.
Oh btw this is my first review i ever made about a complete anime so yeah im not very experienced in this yet and pardon my english if i made any typos
chronodekar
I just finished watching this yesterday and I think I'm feeling better now. The show is good. It really is. What I'm having a problem with is the ending. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, and it's not a typical ending, but I'm unsatisfied with it. If they would just change the last 2 episodes, it would really make me feel a LOT better about the show. Until Ep 21, I was ready to give this series a 9 for story and character, but the ending just ruined it for me. Now, don't get me wrong, it's a great story and the pacing is VERY good.I haven't seen something like this in a LONG time. It's the kind of story that keeps you engrossed and wanting to just see it to the end.
The ending itself, they tie up all the ends, so there really isn't much left asking ... but. ... well,, it's probably just me.
The show itself is really good and I enjoyed it. I really did.
sr467
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS: First and foremost, for the action scenes. The fights consist primarily of well-choreographed hand-to-hand, with the flashy special attacks mixed in rather than dominant. Coupled with the two-on-two setup, this makes for plenty of exciting battles. Clearly this is Kurokami's strong point, enhanced by strong animation and the rock-style soundtrack. Also, though none of the characters could claim to be deep or complex, the main pair is a refreshing change from the contract mold. Kuro is not a seasoned vet, but rather wet-behind-the-ears with only her training to go on. And though Keita does threaten to be a typical whinymale lead at first, before long he comes to fully embrace his role, including (gasp) actually being useful in battle.
CONCERNS: The plot, while not bad per se, is fairly unspectacular. The "doppeliner system" turns out to be little more than a gimmick, and most of the developments can be seen a mile away. It does do its job in allowing for plenty of fights though, and unlike many manga-based series Kurokami comes to a full conclusion. Besides that, I'd be remiss not to warn that battles usually start out with unbelievably cheesy "synchro" sequences, straight out of a mahou shoujo or super sentai show. Not really a big deal, but it will irk some people.
PSA: There is often relevant content after the end credits of each episode, so be sure to watch for it. I found myself feeling a bit lost at the start of each ep until I figured that out.
SUMMARY: I like to say that all an action series needs to be good entertainment is strong animation, music, and fight scenes. Kurokami is certainly a success on that front, and the plot and characters are just decent enough to keep from dragging down... And lastly, ending is FAIR...
Sidholun
This review contain minor spoilers. Story 8/10 I'm not going to write much about story, because it's synopsis is easy to find. Story revolves around Ibuki Keita, school boy, who lost his mother when he was very young.Then he decided to alienate himself from the people. Of course after a certain point in the story he is going to change, but nevermind that. Overall story is enjoyable, but much worse than in it's manga counterpart.And it's biggest flaw is ending,but i'm going to return to this topic later. Art 10/10 Kurokami biggest advantage is surely art style. Background is detailed, characters are well designed. Fight scenes are mind blowing -it's short anime, but battle scenes can be compared to long running and well recieved series, like DB,Bleach or Naruto. Choreography is simply amazing.
Sound 8/10
Voice acting was done well, with some small exceptions (I'm talking about you Keita). Music is great, rock fits well to this battle shounen and reminds me a little of Persona series.
Characters 8/10
Keita character was changed heavily in comparission to hes manga counterpart and it made him unlikable. Akane was reminding me of Orihime from Bleach series and almost made me to throw up and drop whole series. On the other hand Kuro is one of the coolest heroines in the manga/anime industry ever.
Overall 5/10
Why score is so low? Because of ENDING which left me feeling empty and depressed.*SPOILER* Keita turned out to be a big jerk, Orihime ver.0.9 was alive and happy,Kuro got screwed and whole effort to save her was in vain(in my opinion of course)*/SPOILER*
I'm hoping for reebot of the series, maybe Kurokami Brotherhood ;).
But for now i'm not goind to reccomend this anime - it's whole potential was wasted by last 3 episodes.
TauntingBeat
I was really disappointed with Kurokami. The first 12 episodes were pretty decent, but as the anime dragged on it became harder and harder to watch. A lot of the fights don't make any real sense. The contractees are acting as a battery to the Mototsumitamas, but they are hardly ever attacked. The characters are probably what killed it the most for me. Kuro was awesome, and by far my favorite character of the show. Keita was a lot more interesting at the beginning, but somewhere along the line he becomes so bland that I wanted to shoot him. I think that a main character death,namely Akane, would've made the show a lot more interesting.
The last two episodes are what really made dislike the show. For all its faults, I enjoyed the show up until that point. Maybe its because I was waiting for a death that never came, but I hated the ending.
mouthpiece
Let me give you a description of a show and tell me which one it reminds you of. It is about your average teenage boy making a life pact with a supernatural fighting girl, which is responsible to maintain order in the world, and where there are copies of yourself as replacements in case something goes wrong, and everything is explained with a very weirdly named terminology… BZZZ, and no, it isn’t Shakugan no Shana but its lesser cousin, Kurokami. Sorry dear Kurokami, you do not have a loli tsundere voiced by Rie Kugimiya so you never stood a chance in succeeding from the verysecond you got green light for adaptation. Further more, you do not have 4 goddamn seasons of endless softporn and millions of otakus who are watching you for the sake of wasting their brain cells. And above all, you are based on a mahwa, and there is no such thing as a good mahwa. Sure, there are very good in terms of fighting but their storylines plain suck. So there you go, I just explained to you why Kurokami never had a chance of being a good anime.
Reader: That is the worst negative bias I have seen in my life. Won’t this guy talk about facts instead of straw men, or just say something about the damn show?
Sure, I was about to do that. The above was just an introduction to what you are getting yourselves into. Something NOT good. So basically we get this story where your typical/boring/overused stereotype Keita meets this naive/kind hearted/dumb chick/super fighter Kuro and learns that the world is not what it seems to be. Every person has two others like him as safeguards and in case one dies, the other gets his luck and whatever superpowers that comes with. It is a weird concept but does have its captivating charm; imagine one day that you learn you are nothing but a replacement and that when someone dies is not tragic because his copy will inherit his luck/powers. Scary indeed.
Otaku: WOOO! A show about a fighting chick and an intriguing premise. I am scoring it with a 10 right now and head to buy her figurine!
Sit down no-lifer and let me finish! The premise and the fighting are the only good things in it because everything else is pretty much a mess. And sure, if all you care about is brainless action and shallow philosophy, I am sure you are going to like it a lot. Yet the moment you try to reason the whole thing, it won’t take more than 5 seconds to realize it is all nothing but gibberish. Fighting your fate with punches and kicks? Since when can raw power and violence solve such existentialism issues? And why is Kuro so willingly explaining all these top secret stuff to a random guy she just met? And why is such a dumb naive girl in charge of such an important mission to begin with? It all happens in the most silly way possible and makes everything feel shallow and passable.
Action fanboy: Who cares about realism? Anime don’t need to be realistic, they only need to be entertaining. If it has good action and nude chicks, I have no problem with it.
Good for you my superficial no-brainer; but I am not you. I like when things are excused to be as such and to pass as probable based on their importance. If a bimbo appears out of nowhere and starts mumbling about invisible pink unicorns, I will not take her seriously, nor will I care to participate in whatever she plans to do.
Reader: Will this guy ever tell us anything about the ACTUAL show?
I thought I was already doing that. Hm, anyways, I guess I will talk about technicalities like the production values. Animation and artwork are ok for this sort of anime but they are not amazing. They have a fair amount of details and colouring but they otherwise lack the finer touches that would make it look special or awesome. For example, all the backgrounds feel generic, it is just schools and buildings and streets I have seen a billion times already and no amount of details can save them from feeling generic. Every time I look at such sceneries I always end up comparing them to the “5cm per second” movie, and Kurozuka’s level is plain ok. I could say something similar about the character figures, who also feel generic in appearance and are occasionally drawn with inconsistent facial structure. As for the sound part, it is very passable in overall as the characters usually don’t have much passion in their voices and the soundtrack is average songs you will forget very fast.
Action fanboy: Who cares about all that? Is the action good?
Yes it is my fellow no-brainer. There is a lot of choreography in it to make it look like a good martial arts series, plus it has several superpowers to offer variety in tactics and counters. And yes, it also has some basic fan service too, as Kuro is always fighting without pants and her clothes keep ripping. And there are other nude scenes thrown here and there.
Otaku: WOOO! Masterpiece! I will go look for her beaten up and in agony version.
Whatever no-lifer; I was more interested in if any of that make sense as a whole. And guess what, they don’t. It is just the usual shounen stuff we see all the time, where injuries mean absolutely nothing if the hero has enough resolve or if the script said so. It’s the same thing all the time, they just storm in and punch rapidly at the baddies until they are beaten. The premise of the story ends up being nothing but a poor excuse after awhile since all it matters is punching your way through any obstacle. It gets too fake to like it after awhile and the directing is not helping much because most of the action has unfit BGM or the duration of the attacks is usually too short or too long to like them properly. As for the rest of the story, most of the plot is either fillers or boring events. It does have a solid conclusion but by then I didn’t care in the least about the basic idea. It was barely looked into.
Reader: Just tell us a few things about the characters and be over with it; I am about to stop reading here.
Ok impatient reader, I will. The characters are standard stuff you can find in many shounen. As usual, only the main ones end up being interesting and developed, with everybody else being nothing but ephemeral opponents and cannon fodder. The thing is, their chemistry is nothing we haven’t seen before and it sure feels less captivating if you compare it with other famous boy-girl pacts in anime. The ones I can think of right now are Fate/Stay Night, Shakugan no Shana, and Birdy the Mighty. Heck, even lesser works like Zero no Tsukaima and 3X3 Eyes feel more enriched than this one.
Action fanboy: I don’t care if it looks like other shows, or if the story makes no sense. I am watching this for the same reason I am watching Bleach.
Otaku: And I just want to increase my waifus and this is a perfect opportunity.
Whatever you idiots; I told you it is not a good show and you are free to go waste your money/brain cells/time on it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you afterwards.
Reader: What an asshole… *downvotes*
