Kurozuka

The animation seems to overpower an exaggerated plot. Viewers who crave cyberpunk animations consisting of time lapses and vicious fight scenes will have a pleasant taste out of this series. Yet there is much of the plot that may leave the audience hungry. Once you take a bite out of my review, you'll understand what I mean. ~[ S T O R Y ]~ [6] Kurozuka focuses on the concept of immortality along with the quest for the meaning of mortality. Initially, I had assumed a vampiric aspect came into play [Kuromitsu sucking blood for example]. As the series progressed, the aspect grew more scientific. Here wehave the main character, Kurou, wanting to spend all eternity with Kuromitsu. I once thought it was a romantic struggle between the two protagonists, yet the plot grew more confusing later on. What with the beheading of Kurou to Benkei's murderous motives [due to his desire of having Kuromitsu to himself] to the Resistance against the Red Emperor's Army, just so many subplots made Kurozuka more like a staccato piece than a horror orchestra viewers probably wanted to witness. Even the end itself leaves so much to the imagination that viewers like myself wonder whether the creator intentionally wanted to mess with our minds and trigger heated discussions, or something else we have failed to notice. Other than that, the story could've been portrayed better... ~[A R T]~ [10] Post-cyberpunk meets the essence of ancient 12th century art. The serenity of the 12th century atmosphere collaborating with the post-cyberpunk appeal of the anime was rewarded my thumbs up. It brought the animation out more, gluing me to my seat as I endured visual ecstasy. Even the swift fight scenes were brilliant, as expected from the gifted Kurou as well as those involved in battle alongside. Any fan of Death Note can understand that the art between the two animes are strikingly similar. Furthermore, the art was not overexaggerated at all. They were on the dot with their specific time periods, making the anime successfully attractive. ~[S O U N D]~ [9] From the miraculous terror of the opening song to the soft tranquility of the ending, Kurozuka had played its music well. The flute and drums matched the ancient liveliness of Japanese culture. The instrumentals had presented the mood well as well as portraying the feel of scenes such as romantic moments, battles, times of agony, despair, hatred, et cetera. I knew what kind of scenes I was expecting from the sound. Nicely done. ~[C H A R A C T E R]~ [7] I gave the development of characters a 7 due to the fact that I had expected more from their transformations. Moreover, I expecting a better explanation of the immortality concept. The manga explains more of it whilst the anime has left gaping holes for the viewers' minds to fill. Though Kurou was inconspicuous and monotonous in his expressions, we did have a sense of what he felt inside through his short monologues. I did hope to understand a little more of Kuromitsu, seeing as the series focused more on Kurou's thoughts than anyone else's. Romi Paku and Mamoru Miyano portrayed the voices of their characters well enough for me to give this category a high mark. The rest of the seiyuu's deserve credit. I suppose that the shortness of the series is to blame for cutting short every character's expected developments. ~[ E N J O Y M E N T & O V E R A L L]~ [7] Just to be fair, I'll award this anime a 7. Were it to improve in its character and plot development, it would've been awarded a higher grade. Though I do give immense praise to the development of the actual animation. It is different from any other post-cyberpunk anime to exist within the Japanimation realm. The rough grunge scenes, the splash of eccentric hues in the opening and battle scenes, the ancient softness of the 12th century lifestyle - it was all done quite well. Furthermore, the series will leave you thinking on what to value - life or time. Kurozuka is meant to represent the connection between time and life. The two walk hand-in-hand. Without life, there is no time. Without time, there is no life. One affects the other. They both need each other. What is more valuable? Immortality or living to the last minute? That is up to you to decide.

Kurozuka is a lot of things but for the most part it’s a Seinen, Historical, Sci-fi, Action anime jam packed full of high-octane Rated-18 action to please action lovers. However like most series, this one starts of grand but eventually wanes as it progresses. It begins with the main protagonist, Kurou being pursued for reasons not explained and one intense action sequence later, he and his companion seek shelter in some mysterious woman’s home. Kurou soon develops feelings for this woman named Kuromitsu but soon after he discovers her dirty little secret. Another insanely gruesome action sequence later and the real story begins, as Kurou embarkson an all new journey of immortality. All I can say is that the 1st episode was awesome but soon after that the biggest flaw in the story soon appears, as early as in the 2nd episode. It is the story’s timeline and when dealing with this concept of immortals living through the ages, it doesn’t help when things keep jumping from period to period, making it easy to lose track of what’s going on in the story (until the action sequences wake you up). Heck by episode four, I gave up on trying to figure out the chronological order of events and just followed Kurou on his unexplained journey to find Kuromitsu. The thing is that the story was actually decent but it was executed poorly, with chucks of major plot points left unexplained. Another thing wrong with this short series is its characters. Sure the main 2 were fairly interesting but Kuromitsu was as much of a mystery to Kurou as she was to those who watch this. As for Kurou, he would have been more interesting if he actually got some back-story and maybe showed some emotion, instead of those random outbursts. There are actually other characters to mention but they are so bland and uninteresting that I even struggle to remember their names 10mins after watching an episode. With all the bad stuff taken care of, discussing the animation is a nice change in direction, because it can be described simply as awesome. This anime seems to go for very aesthetically pleasing environments with a sort of grudge textured look and the heaps of CG that actually goes well with it. Not to forget the reason why I think of the animation as perfect, which are the action sequences that have obviously been influenced by a lot of things. As for the music the soundtrack is certainly fitting for the series; with a mixture of tranquil tunes and high-octane beats for any given situation. Overall Kurozuka proved to be an enjoyable hack ‘n’ slash fest but there are more than enough action sequences for even an action lover to be bored with and having a poorly executed storyline as an alternative isn’t good at all. Trying to make sense of the messy story is like trying to solve a sudoku puzzle; make one mistake and you’ll have to backtrack to where things make sense. Having a lacklustre ending doesn’t help either but those who are able to ignore these flaws would still enjoy Kurozuka for its awesome action and interesting concept.

This anime pissed me off enough that I wanted to review it. The story opened with great visuals and fantastic animation. I loved the kabuki openings which summarized previous events. In short, Kurozuka started with great promise. *If you're worried about spoilers, you should probably stop reading here.* Alas, that promise was quickly broken. I don't mind a bit of confusion when it serves the purpose of the story, especially when it originates authentically from the character's perspective. There's a limit, however, and Kurozuka drives past it, swerves off the road, careens down a mountainside, and explodes in a fantastically animated and entirely gratuitous fireball.I watched to the end, and as Kuro promised, all was revealed. Unfortunately, the ending leaves us with a plot hole so large, Karuta could drive his magic bus through it. (Apologies for packing my driving metaphors so closely together.) So are the two main characters immortals or are they immortals and time travelers? Clearly, there's a time "reset" that happens in the last episode. This reset seems to fall into the category of "wouldn't it be cool...". In answer, "No, it wouldn't." Absolutely nothing in the previous episodes suggests a time spiral or Ouroboros or that little infinite loop of paper whose name escapes me at the moment. This is laziness or stupidity on the part of the writers. The show should be praised for it's interesting take on vampire folklore. And also for bringing a genuine touch of horror to the fate of the main character at the end. In spite of these good things, where's a barge of cliches loaded in this anime. Here's one I'm f-n sick of: generic demonic bad-guy shoots tentacles or spikes from his/her body. This anime does this not once, but three frickin' times with different characters. That's when the show became risible to me (or was it when Karuta turned his bus into a rocket and blasted up a nearly vertical drawbridge...). Speaking of characters... What characters? Another barge of cliches: The femme fatale. The dashing rogue. The hooker with a heart of gold. The amnesiac hero. Shall I go on? The "best friend" betrayer. The nature-magic wise-woman. The gun-wielding bad guy acting as foil to the katana-wielding good guy. The two main characters never really say much of anything. Why should I give one damn about anyone? When a certain chick gets bulls-eyed near the end, you know what I felt? Nothing. Not a thing FOR HER. I felt massive annoyance at the writers for f-n with me, but that's it. This is bad storytelling, simple. I don't have to like or love the characters, but I do have to be interested in them. Did not happen. Without a compelling story and characters whose fates we're interested in, excellent art and animation is purely gratuitous. I'm sorry this anime sucked; I wanted to like it. Your mileage may vary.

“Majestic, bizarre, violent and dark. A surreal and poetic journey that turns into something more profound than what it looks like” REVIEW FREE OF SPOILERS! -STORY: 8- "KUROZUKA" it’s a well-founded and rich story. Its narrative could divide people, some by saying it’s boring and unadorned –or complicated- and by others –like me- saying that is meaningful, metaphorical and gorgeous. The story of this show could be like a stream, whether it calls you, takes you and embraces you leading you swiftly –although, trough some “what the hell is happening here?” moments- across the tale or it rejects you for it isn’t a plain and simple story of vampiresand war, it is complex. -ART: 8- The art depicted in this show is marvelous. The designing of the characters is believable and the action scenes are appealing and not exaggerated like most of the vampire/action shows out there. -SOUND: 10- The voice acting is a jewel. It is passionate, it is deep. It’s calculated for the type of show that “KUROZUKA” is. The voice actors are believable since they’re transferring the feeling of solitude shown in the show through their voices. Meanwhile, the soundtrack has a dream-like ring to it. It’s a delicate mixture of instruments. It is cold, sad and dark, like a mirror of the situation the surrounds the characters and their own feelings. -CHARACTER: 7- The deepness carried through most of the show –superbly if I may add- in most of its features: Script, voice acting, art and soundtrack is something amazing, yet lacking within the character department. Don’t misunderstand me, the characters are well-defined, distinct and incredibly well depicted –and I liked them, to be honest- but there’s an important aspect that the show didn’t display, the “backbone” of the characters –or in other words, their backstory and development-. To put it bluntly the characters look like they’re just there, like a superfluous, convenient and momentary entertainment without a direction or reason, just a cause. But let us remember that this “cause” this “reason” IS the backbone and the main focus of the story, making the character development/background faintly unnecessary. After all, we as viewers we want to know about the characters we are watching, we want to get “closer” to them, we want to understand the: “why’s, the where’s and the when’s” of each characters, even if the story doesn’t really depend on such things, which is clearly the case of this show. -ENJOYMENT: 7 & OVERALL: 8- “KUROZUKA” is a difficult show to watch. As I said before is complex, and for moments it looks like the show doesn’t know where its leading, but the end it’s what makes it a whole. Is it enjoyble? Yes, a lot. But you need an open mind and most importantly understand that this show is meaningful and not just action after action scene. A really amazing show. Thanks for reading!