Kurokami The Animation

High school student Ibuki Keita has been haunted by misfortune for as long as he can . 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 sur 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]

Kuro Main

Shitaya, Noriko Japanese

Ibuki, Keita Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Sano, Akane Main

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Steiner ing

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Reishin ing

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Excel ing

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Mayu ing

Sasaki, Nozomi Japanese

Yakumo ing

Nojima, Hirofumi Japanese

Punipuni ing

Touma, Yumi Japanese

Kakuma ing

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Yukawa, Jun Producer

Satou, Hiroyuki Producer

Sugiyama, Noboru Producer

Kobayashi, Tsuneo Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 30, 2021

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: An anime that starts out trying and failing to have depth, but becomes quite solid in 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 one ... will 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 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 27, 2019

Theory_master

Mixed Feelings

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 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 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!

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 29, 2023

PoutyWeeb

Not Recommended

“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 a ... way 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 it 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?”

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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