Kurokami: The Animation is an anime adaptation of the "Black God" Japanese manga series published by Square Enix. Interestingly enough, the series was written and illustrated by an all-Korean team, reflecting a growing trend in Japanese manga production. The resulting 23-episode anime series was licensed and produced by Sunrise animation studio, and directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi (The Twelve Kingdoms). Initially released throughout Japan and North American during the first half of 2009, the series has been chosen by Bandai as their first anime television production to be released on the Blu-ray format within North America. This initial volume contains the first four episodes of the self-contained series, with further volumes expected every other month (in theory, we could witness the conclusion of the series by the end of 2010).
It's go time!
Keita Ibuki is a troubled high school boy who can't shake intense memories of his mother's untimely death. Night after night, he recollects the image of her body making contact with a truck, while he helplessly witnessed from the adjacent sidewalk. Now that he's grown older, he shares an apartment with his childhood friend Akane, who assists him in looking beyond the circumstances surrounding his mother's death. This becomes increasingly difficult when two additional girls in Keita's life fall prey to "accidental" deaths immediately following an interaction with a carbon copy of themselves. What's most troubling in all of this is Keita's belief that his mother's death had something to do with a similar interaction the day before her death, as if she'd been marked by the glimpse of her unknown twin. Everything becomes clearer when Keita happens upon a mysterious young girl at a restaurant one night, claiming to be a Tera Guardian. According to this girl, each human is born with two Doppeliners that share the same fate and split varying levels of luck between them. There's always a root and two subs within the relationship, so the death of a sub equates to an increase in luck bestowed on the root. Tera is a spiritual life force that each human possesses in varying amounts, creating a need for Tera Guardians (or beings from someplace beyond Earth), who maintain the delicate balance between Doppeliners and the Tera they possess. Keita soon plays an important role in this balancing act, since he discovers there's someone within the city who's manipulating the existence of subs for personal gain, and creating a rift in the equilibrium the Tera Guardians swore to protect.
Evaluating the first four episodes of a 23-episode series is no easy task. It often takes at least three episodes to figure out whether I'm going to stick with a series, and ten episodes to fully appreciate the direction the journey is headed. As such, this review will strictly focus on the positives and negatives of the series thus far, with a disclaimer that my opinion could change drastically as the series progresses.
As with any full-length season, the initial four episodes are designed primarily as an introduction, offering an extensive analysis of the back story behind Tera Guardians and Doppeliners. Given the depth of the mythology that surrounds these behind-the-scenes puppet masters, the creators have done an excellent job laying the groundwork in a cohesive fashion, so we can move beyond the more routine elements of the overall story arch. That's not to say everything's divulged in the first volume of the series, but at least we aren't left scratching our heads in a bewildered daze as we wait for volume two.
If there's one primary weakness in the series thus far, it's the lack of a motivating explanation behind the villains at work in the series. There seems to be a powerful businessman with a special interest in creating an army of roots for a specific purpose, and he's employed a tech-savvy root to seek out certain subs for execution. Meanwhile, we have Kuro's brother Reishin, who commands a group of evil Tribal Ends (humans who have been given the powers of Tera Guardians) on a mission to capture Kuro. Since we know little about Kuro's background or the reasoning behind her desire to kill her brother (or his goal of kidnapping her), we're not given much to go on from a motivational standpoint. I'd suspect these questions will be answered later in the series, but showing patience has never been my strong suit.
In closing, those looking for a healthy dose of action anime should find an adequate supply in Kurokami. Each episode contains at least one extended fight sequence, which often involves a battle between Tera Guardians and Tribal Ends. Kuro stands in as the dominant fighter for the good guys, though she often spends a good deal of time on the receiving end of a beating. The series doesn't list a specific rating advisory, but my conservative side would not recommend this to younger viewers who are easily disturbed by violence perpetrated toward a young girl. Given she's a central character in the series, I never worried about the actual element of danger, but it still became a bit cringe-worthy at times.
Presented in 1080p utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 15Mbps), Kurokami: The Animation looks impressive on Blu-ray despite the inherent budgetary limitations of the production. I suppose I've been spoiled by the number of higher-end anime productions lately (Eureka Seven and Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn), so going back to the animation restrictions of a television series became quite noticeable. When you remove the aspects attributable to the source material, this is a fine transfer with little room for complaints. Hand-drawn lines remain crisp, avoiding any stair-stepping, aliasing, or blurring, and background art reveals adequate texture and shading, bringing a nice sense of balance to the environmental designs of the artists. Regarding the color palette of the series, this is fairly standard material, with naturalistic tones emerging from the real-world setting, and hues which never strive for an overly saturated spectrum. Black levels avoid ascensions into dark-gray territory (certainly a good thing), and contrast provides a nice balance between the lighter and darker elements within the image. All in all, this is a strong visual presentation for the opening chapter of the series, which I hope is maintained through future volumes.
This is the one area that might be a deal breaker to some anime fans. If your taste is similar to mine, you prefer the native language track on most anime series. As such, I was notably disappointed to learn Bandai would be releasing this volume with only a dubbed English version available. Given the nature of licensing rights in various international territories and varying pricing structures within "Region 1" countries, I'm left to assume this is one of those situations where Bandai had little choice. However, I still recognize the potential disappointment that will undoubtedly arise in some of the more hardcore anime fans. For those of you who are still with me at this point, I'll assume you're at least willing to hear an assessment of the English dub, and give it the benefit of the doubt.
First and foremost, Bandai assembled a talented pool of English voice actors to play the various roles in Kurokami, and the result is quite remarkable. Despite preferring the native language, I've listened to plenty of dubs over the years, and Kurokami definitely ranks within the top 10%. Each actor easily nails the tone of the character they portray, and the timing of the vocal delivery matches up nicely with the facial movements within the animation. Stepping away from the dialogue delivery within the show and moving toward an assessment of the actual audio presentation, I can't say I'm nearly as delighted. As commendable as it is to receive a lossless audio presentation, the fact that the show only encompasses a 2-channel track is somewhat of a let-down. Not all television series are produced with a surround sound focus, but considering Kurokami was released in 2009, I would have expected more than simply a stereo mix. As such, we end up with an audio experience that's well-balanced and crisp, with solid fundamental framework, but merely adequate in comparison with other productions currently on the market.
The only extras included on the disc are a title-free opening song, a "clean" ending, and a collection of trailers for other Bandai releases (Freedom, Gurren Lagann, and Sword of the Stranger).
Although my exposure to Kurokami is limited, I'd be willing to offer a casual recommendation of the first volume in the series to most anime fans. There seems to be a complex story in the making, and the show incorporates a nice blend of several genres over the course of the first four episodes (action, fantasy, romance, and comedy). Time will tell if my opinion changes when future volumes are released, but at least the show is off to a worthwhile start.
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