Kurozuka

In 12th-century Japan, swordsman Kurou escapes ghastly pursuers into a deep forest with his servant Benkei. Seeking shelter, the two find themselves within the secluded abode of the mysterious and beautiful Kuromitsu. While they are warmly accepted, the men are warned to never enter Kuromitsu's room.

However, driven by innate curiosity and perhaps a condemned love, Kurou peeks through the ajar door, only to find Kuromitsu feasting on the blood of fallen men. He soon learns Kuromitsu is an immortal vampire, and dedicates himself to her—even becoming a vampire himself in order to spend eternity with her. But the cryptic organization known as the Red Army has enlisted the help of Benkei, who betrays Kurou and severs his head.

Awaking centuries into the future in an apocalyptic modern-day Japan, Kurou sets off to reunite with his lover and exact revenge on the Red Army.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kuromitsu Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Kurou Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kuon ing

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Benkei ing

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Rai ing

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Yokoyama, Hiroaki ing

Saniwa ing

Fujita, Toshiko Japanese

Arashiyama ing

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Karuta ing

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Izana ing

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Hashimoto, Kentarou Producer

Araki, Tetsurou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Series Composition

Ishizuka, Atsuko Episode Director, Storyboard

Itou, Tomohiko Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jan 10, 2009

Archaeon

Recommended

It's often strange how some anime can divide opinions on how good it actually is, and the reasons for these divided opinions are often logical and plausible. In the case of Kurozuka however, there is a definite misinterpretation of the story as a whole.

Kurozuka began life as a novel written by Yumemakura Baku, which was later illustrated by Noguchi Takashi in manga form. The manga was serialized in Super Jump magazine from 2003 to 2006, before being turned into an anime by Madhouse in 2008.

The story in Kurozuka is where many of the divided opinions stem from. Many people consider the story to be confusing, ... especially at the very end, however this can confusion can somewhat berectified by watching the first five minutes of the first episode again.

At heart Kurozuka may seem to be a story about vampires, love, betrayal, and revenge, however I found it to be more than just the sum of it's parts. Kurozuka is very much a "what if" tale, and the ending is actually very appropriate when considered in this light. There is a lot of action in the story, and the viewer will sometimes wonder what the hell is going on (as I did), but if you stick with it then you may find the story strangely captivating.

The art and animation are top notch in this show. Madhouse pulled out a lot of the stops when deg the characters and animating the show, especially during the numerous action sequences. CG is incorporated very well overall, with only a few minor faults that are barely noticeable. The characters are designed very well on the whole, and I especially liked the incorporation of traditional Kabuki players into the series as it gives the show a far more surreal feel. Each episode begins with a small kabuki play which recounts the events of the previous episode, and I found that the designs, animation and sound for these scenes were excellent.

The sound is another excellent area, especially the music and sound effects. The BGMs never overpower the sound effects during the action sequences, and the use of non-traditional animation techniques for these sequences made them exceptional.

The VAs are, again, excellent. Paku Romi is excellent as Kuromitsu, whilst Miyano Mamoru's monotonous tones are strangely suitable for the amnesiac Kurou. The other VAs are just as good as the two leads. Fujiwara Keiji, who plays Karuta, manages to imbue his voice with a certain "roguish" quality that suitably matches Karuta's design and personality.

The characters are actually one of the bad things about this show, however I say this with a certain amount of trepidation. On the whole the characters are well done, however there is very little development given to them - they're just there for the most part. However, this would only really be a problem if you were watching this as a straightforward story rather than a "what if" tale. That said though, even a "what if" tale would need it's characters developed to a much greater degree than Kurozuka manages to do.

That doesn't mean I hate the characters though. I thought the characters were. on the whole, fairly decent. My problem is that I would have liked to have known more about them as characters - their motivations and such.

Kurozuka is a great action anime, however it can be very confusing at times. There is a definite story there, but many people will find it confusing for the most part, especially as the story doesn't really hint at what's really going on until the end (suffice to say I found it a very "Dallas" moment).

This is a good show to watch if you're after some good action and aren't overly concerned with the story. It may not be everyone's cup of tea though, especially with the scientific angle it takes on the vampirism issue. This is a story about love, loss, betrayal and revenge, and these aspects of the show are very much at the fore. However there are some elements of the show which can leave you wondering why a particular event happened in the first place, and this is only compounded by the continued lack of an explanation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Archaeon (211)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Mar 21, 2014

Purjoloek

Mixed Feelings

tl;dr - Kurozuka is a bad anime. I really and like some points made, but the show itself is of pretty poor quality at most times.

You don’t know what to expect when you dive into Kurozuka. While this is true for a lot of other anime as well, Kurozuka is a special enigma. Being about vampires (especially the main leads) can turn people off, seeing how vampires are often portrayed nowadays. Sadly, thoughts hop to Rob Pattinson as Edward in the cringe-inducing soft pornography for girls known as Twilight. Sure, Twilight isn’t the only sinner, but due to it’s popularity, it is the most ... stand-out. Onwards to Kurozuka, then.

On first on-look, Kurozuka seems to be a love story about vampires, set in Feudal Japan. That preconception is quickly smashed to bits after the first episodes as we skip to a bleak future version of Japan that has been a-bombed. Back in the past, our hero Kuro (known as “Minamoto no Yoshizune”, a very famous and popular Japanese literature hero) was fleeing into the mountains, and came upon the lodging of Lady Kuromitsu. He and his close ally Benkei were allowed to stay under the condition that they do not approach nor enter Kuromitsu’s room. Of course, that promise doesn’t mean all too much and Kuro finds himself outside the mysterious woman’s room, where he sees her biting and drinking the blood of a man. The place is attacked, and Kuro is badly hurt helping his hostess. The two had quickly became attracted to one another, and Kuromitsu offers Kuro eternal life with her. Kuro accepts. Then the focus shifts to the future where Kuro has become separated from Kuromitsu and ventures to find her. He instead meets Karuta and Rai and becomes embroiled in what is basically a civil war between the Red Army and the rebels, both fighting for the very prize Kuro seeks: Kuromitsu.

I was pretty excited to watch this, as it felt like vampires were treated as a big deal and it also seemed like a cool set-up for a powerful romantic saga, but alas, all the potential amounted to jack shit in this absolute train-wreck of a series.

The series jumps from different time periods, usually at the start of episodes, without giving the viewer much warning or explanation, which is the major flaw of the series in my opinion. It’s very hard to get a grip on the characters as is, so there’s really no need to confuse viewers additionally.

It’s hard to gauge what exact powers are afforded to the vampires of the series, as Kuro just seems to go all Goku on people at times when he needs to put another gear in. Besides obviously being more powerful than normal humans, there doesn’t seem to be much to vampires, other than whatever odd time dilution Kuro can cause when convenient. It’s never really explained what they can do. The reveal of how they work is also incredibly slow-played, so there’s not much in the way of flavour being given to us, except for some bursts of information at times.

As is the case with the vampirism angle, characters in the series don’t really develop. They’re very static in personalities and in what they do. Not even the main character ever develops, he just learns more about who he was. Frankly it’s very disappointing, because when things happen to our tragic heroes, it’s hard to care about them as they’ve just been one-dimensional plot-points. That can work if you have strong characters to begin with, but as noted, these characters are dull as hell. You also get some unintentional comedy in the absolutely bonkers scientist with a penchant for torture, who starts quoting Stoker (because you have to fucking shoehorn that into a vampire show like your life depended on it) and Tolstoy, and is generally weird as hell.

The story is equally odd. Parts of it just comes and goes as it pleases, like there’s a revolving door of relevance. It really is hard to care about what is happening when you don’t grasp the relevance of events to one-another. Characters just do complete one-eighties in order to provide more filler before the end finally arrives. It really is a shame, because it felt like it was to be a show that made vampires rather cool again, but the amount of plot-holes and contrivances really do get in the way of enjoying it. All of the reveals towards the end just made me laugh out loud with their increasing craziness, until we arrive in bizarro-world come the ending.

Visually, it’s very pleasing for most of the time and there is a lot of incredible imagery, but then you get some absolutely retarded character designs that feel like they invaded from another series.

The sound design is pretty decent, but many characters in the series are woefully miscast and a lot of the performances are really bad. The soundtrack, however, is pretty damn awesome. Both the OP and ED are great.

Now, I’ve been shitting on Kurozuka a lot, but the final episode shows up and delivers the best possible ending the series could have had and I really freaking loved it, so I'm ultimately torn on where to go with the series; good or bad? Ultimately, with all the tomfoolery, I’ll go with bad, but there’s certainly enough good in here that a person that disagrees with what I found negative would find this to be a damn good show. It also increases my frustration with the series’ unfulfilled potential. The run-time of the entire thing is way too long relative to what it’s trying to convey. Honestly, remake this in film-length and condense the story a bit, and I’ll watch the hell out of it. I’m totally behind the point it makes about love and selfishness and I actually came away from it rather liking the vampire concept, but the length and general poor quality makes most of the series unbearable to watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Purjoloek (18)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 5, 2011

ravenlok

Not Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ravenlok (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Samurai anime as realistic as possible (for anime stanards)

by Walter_White18

14 Entries · 15 Restacks

Non-linear Storytelling in Anime

by tingy

12 Entries · 124 Restacks

Mind f*ck / Cryptic

by Spenter

13 Entries · 7 Restacks

	Poll: tradedaemon - Dec 24, 2008	153 replies	by »» Aug 30, 2024 8:28 PM
	removed- - Mar 2, 2024	4 replies	by »» Mar 5, 2024 11:51 AM
	Poll: kie_ - Nov 20, 2008	41 replies	by »» Sep 1, 2022 2:14 PM
	Poll: angel999 - Oct 7, 2008	96 replies	by »» Jan 25, 2021 9:03 PM
	Poll: slayer545-sama - Nov 28, 2008	37 replies	by »» Jul 25, 2020 7:13 AM

Top 15 Best Underrated Anime: Writer's Corner

Sifting through the dark, forgotten recesses of My Anime List like some sort of anime hipster, our writers have brought you 15 of what they consider to be the most underrated anime out there. Under appreciated masterpiece or stinker that got the reception it deserved; you decide.

by MAL_editing_team

319,198 views

Spoiler

Collection