Kurozuka

I read this after being starved for some ultra violence after reading gants while the violence is there. And I really enjoyed the first volume the tartintino style story telling can be a bit jarring and some of the charcters i found to become less likeable as the story went on. And I love tarintino but it got confusing trying to figure out what era I was reading. By the second volume the time jumps got too much for me ill return to it eventally just not just yet. I found the art beautiful and but the story was a little to out there forme at the time.

I watched the anime adaptation of this manga, and got somewhat confused about the ending and other elements of the plot. So I decided to read this to try to sort things out, only to end up even more confused than I already was. I won't go too deep on this since I'm keeping this spoiler free. -Story- The plot isn't told in a chronological way. Nothing wrong with that, but in this case the time jumps and flashbacks just confuse the readers. Eventually it focuses on one period and sticks to it, but it doesn't help much. It tries too hard to be something different andunpredictable, but it's nothing more than an infinite search by an immortal man for an immortal woman who doesn't seem to want to be found but in reality does want to. You following me? Oh, but it gets more confusing the deeper you go... It does excel at delivering violence and nudity, but besides that there isn't much. In my opinion, the ending was worse and even more confusing than the anime's. Unfortunately I can't elaborate on it without spoiling. -Art- The art style is realistic and quite detailed. The scenarios are great, the gore and nudity well done. But, there's a major downside for me, which is the characters faces. The females seem to be the ones that fall under this problem more often, since they all have the same facial features: huge eyes and thick lips. But besides Kuromitsu, none of them are relevant characters so that must be why. The males get a little more variation, but Kurou and some other young males seem to somehow have the exact same face (there's a plot excuse for that, but still). Also, there's the problem with the realistic body style contrasting with the somewhat childish face style. Kudos for the anime for solving that problem. -Characters- Other than Kurou and Kuromitsu, any other character is usually not important and might be killed off a few pages later, if not on the same page it appears. Kurou is immortal and insanely strong and seems to be the only guy that all the females in the manga want to have sex with. He seems to also go through an extreme personality change that makes him go from a modest young man into a douche, which has an excuse in the plot, but it's just poor. Now, Kuromitsu is a mysterious immortal woman who suddenly disappears for most of the story and has the effect to make most of the males she meets lust for her. Then, there's another female that's pretty much just fanservice and an array of villains/allies that don't serve much purpose than to just exist. Basically, the characters are flat and somewhat unlikable. -Enjoyment- Despite it's flaws, there's still some enjoyment to take from this. It's an unusual story and putting the pieces of that story together might be attractive to some people. The fights, gore, nudity and sex are good enough to distract you from the fact that the plot doesn't make much sense. I wouldn't re-read it, but I encourage those interested in putting the pieces together to do so. But it sure is memorable, I don't remember being this confused in a long time. -Overall- If you want a good plot with interesting characters, then don't even bother with this manga. If you just want to look at blood, violence, weirdness, some naked chicks and think the plot's not that important, then by all means go for it.