Anime: Kurozuka

Kurozuka is a title which proves that no matter how great a book looks, it still needs to have some sort of manageable writing in it to sell and be liked. This only meant to be a metaphor and not my opinion of the source material, which was a novel, turned manga, turned anime. I haven’t read those (which I hear are far more entertaining) and I am only going to talk about the anime version.

So basically, the problem with this show is that it lacks context. And by that, I do not mean action, cool looking warriors, explosions, and the like. It has lots of it and it is artistic up to a point to boot. The problem is that it lacks ANYTHING ELSE other than that. The characters never manage to become sympathetic to you, the story is simple and still manages to be confusing, and there are no oversexualized lolis and boobs all over the screen every five minutes to keep you interested into watching just for that. As cool as the action and the cinematics are, people would gladly choose something with no action and no art, as long as it has likable characters and erotic service.

The production values are downright amazing as long as superficial looks go. This is Madhouse we are talking about and it poured lots of cash to make everything look eye-catchy, dynamic, and cool, with lots of cinematics and artistic overtones, ranging from a traditional Japan to a futuristic steampunk dystopia. They even went as far as deliberately drawing characters in an almost grotesque way, with spider legs and bizarre faces as to further make it look special. The action scenes are also very good to stare since they are usually very brutal and gory, while the soundtrack and the voice acting fill in just fine.

Most who watched the first episode were simply amazed and impatiently waited to see what follows next. And then they watched the second episode… and then the third… and then most lost interest. Why? THERE IS NO CONTEXT! Why is everything happening, for which reason, why should we care, and how long can we just be content with fancy visuals and over the top action? Everything and everyone are downright basic.
- The setting switching from past to future has been done numerous times in the past, mostly in videogames, and the result is always the same: It looks good as a button-mashing action game but it sure as hell makes a boring story.
- The characters are distant from the viewer; they feel too unsympathetic, cold, stuck on a one-track mind. Most of them are nothing but mass produced freaks without personality, existing only to be killed by the hero who simply looks for someone major to kill. That is all.
- For most of the duration, all you see is the hero going around, butchering freaks, and gathering bits of confusing information that by the end of the series don’t even offer anything of importance. It’s just all about finding the Big Bad and to off him/her; all the rest of the plot is a completely uncaring-for-the-viewer witness of repetitive search and destroy missions. It gets boring really fast.
- The action, as cool as it may be, still is too unreal and over the top to tolerate for many episodes. Improbable motions, scene mistakes, injuries not being important, and characters doing some really basic mistakes for the sake of the script pile up so fast that you can’t ignore them after a few episodes. And since the action is about a distant super warrior and a bunch of faceless freaks, there is no emotional bond with all that happens and again you have no reason to keep watching.

There you have it, a show that tries to pass as cool without first winning your sympathy. This is why I always say the characters are the backbone of any series; if you don’t care about them, then you might as well be watching a WW2 documentary. A similar title which did the same mistake is the “Highlander: The Search for Vengeance” movie; equally flashy without any actual context (and duration) to back it up. A title which did it right though is Samurai Champloo; it has a simplistic plot but its characters are very likable early on and you watch for THEM and not the two-lines-long story.

I do not recommend this anime. It starts in an amazing way but loses steam faster than those steampunk monstrosities the hero slices to pieces.

Note: This review is based on Ureshii fansubs, which would be nearly flawless if not for the never disappearing sign of Animax in the corner of every encode. I found it really annoying as it detracted my attention from action on the screen.



Originally written as a series of light novels by Yumemakura Baku (The Lion that Ate the Crescent Moon) and directed by Araki Tetsuro (Death Note) Kurozuka is a unique experimental work, which tells a tale about the love story of two immortals, Kuromitsu and Kurou. Adapting visual storytelling Kurozuka visits both feudal Japan and post apocalyptic future, all the while following amnesiac Kurou, the main character, who is struggling in a never ending search of Kuromitsu, his lost lover. It doesn't sound confusing until you add the fact that Kurou never has any idea why or where is he and is constantly exposed to bizarre hallucinations and vague flashbacks. Though very rough around the edges Kurozuka is indeed a show worthy of seeing at least once, especially for those who are tired of all old formulas and want something new, even at the cost of substance.

Though at first I was pretty certain the plot of this show didn't lead anywhere, I found it has quite a few neat ideas in the end. Firstly it has a really peculiar approach to immortality. Not labeling it either good or bad, it at least tells us that it's certainly not a condition for human mind to cope with. Then we have all those post apocalyptic and humans are foolish things, but thankfully they take a backseat here. Finally it offers that "world is relative, just as our perception" idea, I think, but never really wanders far into it. Either way, though it has an interesting story to tell and peculiar ideas to share Kurozuka is a show so full of ups and downs that it's hard to declare it good... or bad for that matter.

Animation: 9/10

The one and only section where Kurozuka certainly shines in is its drawings. Produced by Madhouse (Death Note, Trinity Blood) animation adapts a similar style to its closest predecessor. Backgrounds are not only detailed, but also have that "artsy" aura around them. Surreal and vivid color palette makes everything blend very well in the overall bizarre atmosphere of the show. Lighting effects are used professionally and make many scenes even more beautiful, especially when 3D graphics are used, they blend with their 2D counterparts extremely well. There are some seriously beautiful sights here, I've particularly noticed one I call bloody palace, that structure is one cool work of art. There also are many camera shots at the moon and unlike many other shows, it successfully conveys that feeling of mysteriousness.

Character designs are also very good. Two main characters both have style and a considerable amount of details in their apparel. I certainly can't imagine a better design for Kuromitsu's character. That long straight black hair, blood red kimono and extremely sharp eyes told me about her more than her dialogue did, which she seriously lacks. Kuro is no jackstraw either, he has cool yet feminine looks and his puzzled face always successfully conveys his obliviousness of the world around him. Then we have minor characters and generic guys who have, though not as highly detailed and artsy, but pretty good designs as well. That crazy villain with policemen's uniform looks real wicked. Anyway, my only gripe with character designs would be that in some particular scenes, usually when camera shows people from afar, their legs get distorted and appear as thin as sticks, very thin sticks. It is indeed quite awkward.

The movement animation itself is usually pretty fluid, though to tell the truth I've also seen better. I could still notice one or two frame shortages in the few action scenes. But well, I doubt it can get much better in TV series anyway. Battle choreography is neat, though it never reaches the level seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, it does pack quite a punch. Madhouse didn't forget inbetweens either as the movement of hair and spatter of drops of blood in the air look really good. Even the high tech animation would mean nothing in the hands of amateurish director, thankfully, Masanori Shino (Seikai no Monshou) does wonders in here. I didn't know he was the one behind animation prior to finishing watching Kurozuka, but now I see why, just like Seikai no Monshou, it simply radiates distinctive style. I've fallen in love with his direction from the very first time he masterfully transited camera on moving clouds in episode one. Full points for direction here.

Sound: 6/10

I really liked the heavy rock OP Systematic People by Wagdug Futuristic Unity. Incomprehensible lyrics and chaotic music is simply a perfect introduction to the warped world presented in Kurozuka. ED Hanarebanare by Shigi is also pretty good. It's title (separation) suits the plot of this show very well and its lyrical relaxing mood is pretty good to relax after an artsy and confusing plot.

I didn't find background music by Yoshida Kyoshi (Kaiba, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo) to be as good though. Sound direction seriously paled in comparison to animation. Though it's all great in sound effect department, music lacks. It's good for atmosphere as most of the pieces are either mysterious techno tunes or very bleak, low volume traditional Japanese music themes I couldn't hear very well. Anyway, the problem in music lies in the fact that there is very little variation in pieces played and lots of great moments are wasted on silence. Show of this kind should have background music playing non stop, I mean it's created to aesthetically please you, not to excite you with plot lines.

Finally I have mixed feelings with voice-acting. Despite possessing a real all-star cast, Kurozuka manages to make most of the voices in the show indistinct thanks to the lack of good dialogue. Mamoru Miyano (Death Note as Light Yagami) voices Kurou in this show and simply can't demonstrate his wonderful talents because he has very few lines to say. Even a seiyuu of his level can't make himself distinctive with repeating "what?" all the time. Other seiyuu include an all-rounder Paku Romi (Fullmetal Alchemist as Edward Elric), Nakata Jouji (Hellsing as Alucard), Miki Shinichiro (Bleach as Urahara Kisuke) and Houko Kuwashima (Inuyasha as Sango). However, with an exception of Paku Romi, who got the role of Kuromitsu, seiyuu had very few opportunities to shine. Seriously, a seiyuu team of this caliber was simply wasted on the lame script this show presents. They still sound great when they speak, but for the most part they don't.

Story: 6/10

The setting of Kurozuka is pretty interesting. You get to see the feudal Japan at first, but the plot suddenly runs off to post apocalyptic Japan in a few episodes. Though the transition between two settings is not given any light and you pretty much unexpectedly find yourself wandering in post apocalyptic world soon after a vague fight in feudal Japan, the world itself is still quite interesting. It's pretty much the same world we find in Fallout games, people are deranged and live like savages in wastelands of rubble, prostitution runs high and there are those mutants who kill humans around. The only questionable addition to the setting is the "Red Army" which takes the role of an evil organization, basically bad guys in need to be killed. To my knowledge it is never explained how did it form nor what the hell is it really supposed to be doing. Viewers do get some vague hints of what their purpose is though, hints at best.

The plot itself is very surreal and hard to follow. I usually like surreal plots which make your head spin, but here in Kurozuka the whole surreality stuff feels superficial, because, unlike let's say Boogiepop Phantom, the creators simply didn't have any intelligent stuff to hide beneath it. Everything basically revolves about Kurou who is going all around the world in search of Kuromitsu, all the while being tormented by the memories he doesn't understand, nor you do. There are some cool action scenes during the trip, but it gets annoying when you notice that show wastes time on letting the main character die over and over. He resurrects later anyway... usually in some other place at a different time. There was this instant in one episode where some slapstick humor concerning food flew in action from nowhere, it was way too awkward to be funny, thank god that was the only time they used it.

Anyway, the story seems not to make sense up until the very end as nor you nor the main character get what's going on, but it's all connected very well in the ending. I was seriously disappointed with the plot up until episode twelfth and then I went wowing around in disbelief that it actually managed to make sense in the end. Though originally a one man versus army show, it feels awkward all the time because death is not really treated as a significant thing, people die left and right, main character dies left and right. It kind of kills the suspense, but makes it compelling to watch and see where the hell is it going. And I must say, it did go where I liked. The last five minutes of the last episode pack more substance and depth than all other eleven episodes combined. This show kind of struck me as a visual poem like media: awesome animation, surreal plot and insignificant goal were all just there to create the mood and aesthetically entertain, until finally revealing the real plot in the last five minutes.

Characters: 2/10

It's not as much a problem of being good or bad, it's more like not being there at all is what plagues the character department of this show. You basically learn that Kuromitsu is mysterious and Kurou is indecisive in the first episode. Later you learn that Kurou wants to find Kuromitsu in post apocalyptic world. That's it. Seriously, that's it. You don't learn anything else, you just observe Kurou kill things, die, or walk around, but you don't get a single trait of his personality to the very end. Kuromitsu is not even in the action until much later and even then, all you learn is that she is weird. I hope you don't expect me to talk about development as obviously there is none, I mean, characters don't even possess traits to develop from.

And I might have given the show a slightly higher value if it only had Kuromitsu and Kurou, who though bleak and below one dimensional at least have presence. Unfortunately we have some side characters who are just way too awkward to put up with. I mean, there were times when I thought this show deliberately makes its characters look emptier than the void. Be it villains or guys who accompany Kurou, none of them possess a single characteristic and not even the most basic of backgrounds. They just pop out of nowhere say a word, do something and disappear. Heck, I couldn't even define their personalities, I could only guess around since some of them appear to try to mirror some known stereotypes, for example the mad scientist. But even then, they don't have much dialogue and even if they do, it doesn't mirror their feelings, you barely even see them do something coherent. They advance the plot, so whatever, let them advance it, but if they were replaced with walking fresh formatted cyborgs nobody would even notice... Wait... Could it be?!

Myers-Brigss personality type indicator:



Value: 6/10

If not for the ending I might have deleted this show as soon as I finished watching it. But now I kind of feel compelled to watch it sometime again with a whole new understanding of where the plot is actually going, or rather, just knowing what to pay attention to, evading to sink in all the insignificant things. Like death, world domination, human experiments, war, starvation and other trivial stuff.

It has a damn great animation and direction though, I might use it as an example of how to animate great TV series with loads of budget. It's also possible this show might become a cornerstone for the new "Visual Poem" genre if such ever appears, so I guess it might possess historical value, but only time will dictate.

1. Conclusion:[/b] Suited for anyone over 17 years old due to violence and profanity Kurozuka has its ups and downs, but is an entertaining show nonetheless. If you are looking for an action show, check Hellsing, if you want a good mind boggling show go for Serial Experiments Lain. However, if you want to enjoy a surreal visual poem exclusively as a form of art and not a form of storytelling, then, yeah, go for Kurozuka. Recommended for hardcore watchers who are tired from the generic shows, it's so far from what you usually see in anime it might as well start a new genre. I wouldn't be a huge fan, but I'd find it peculiar.[/i]

The animation in Kurozuka is amazing, that much is granted. Most of the focus of the graphics is on the many action sequences, which vary a lot in their setting, from swordfights to firearms. The foes are equally varied, randing from japanese samurai and kabuki actors to zombies and cybernetically enhanced brutes. The choreography is great, and I especially like the colour palette when Kuro slips into some sort of trance; I wish it could have been fitted more often into the series. Naturally, the protagonist being an adept sword user translates into lots of blood and dismemberment being shown on screen, and I suppose that that is part of the allure of the series. The backdrops are also very nicely drawn. The artists were called to shift rapidly from medieval japan to a blasted post-apocalyptic future, but they manage to depict every front beautifully. The atmosphere remains dark and gritty throughout, but each era has its own colours and design details. Which is just as well, because the alternations from one era to the other were confusing enough as it is.

Sadly, all those beautiful scenes aren’t used for anything other than stages for Kuro’s fights to the death. Indeed, Kuro’s path is basically a beeline from one battle challenge to the next. As mentioned above, the action sequences do not disappoint, but the plot to tie them together is mostly absent. The intial episodes showed great promise, hinting at a tale of love which transcends the barriers of time. Instead, we are mostly treated with the protagonists acting in two specific eras: Japan during the 12th century, where Kuro’s plight begins, and a post-apocalyptic city a thousand years into the future. The latter is where the plot, if any, is carried forward, and it has less to do with Kuro’s development and thoughts of his status, and more with evil scientists trying to discover and exploit the secret behind his undying state. Personally I feel that displaying the characters, for the most part, only in the extreme past and extreme future misses some wonderful opportunities for their development. I think that having Kuro and Kuromitsu meet several times throughout history would make both characters much more interesting, and it would be a wonderful opportunity to introduce some all-encompassing direction. As they stand, the two worlds feel disjoined. The post-apocalyptic world, especially, needs much more than visuals in order to become believable. It is drawn as well as it should be, but in order for it to pass as an everyday living environment it would require a backdrop of characters being shown to adapt to such alien circumstances.

And the characters are not actually interesting. The series is so thick with battles that there are only two kinds of supporting characters, the protagonists’ lackeys and their enemies, and most of them have really short lifespans. Other than a handful of adversaries for which we allowed to peek into their history and motivations, all of them are completely one-dimensional. The two protagonists don’t fare much better. Kuromitsu is a woman veiled in mystery, so there no effort is made to explore her thoughts. And Kuro is a stoic amnesiac who likes to yell warcries rather than parley. Trapped by their own nature, both characters are doomed to be nothing more than stereotypes of their kind.

The same could be said for their voices. Kuro and Kuromitsu say little and are required to show little to no emotion for plot and characterization reasons, so there is not much from which to judge the quality of the voice acting. The rest of the characters’ voices are similarly forgettable. As far as the rest of the sound production is concerned, what stood out most for me was the OP, which I hated. A hard rock tune with incomprehensible lyrics has no appeal for me, and it sounds particularly ill-fitting in the beginning of the series, where the action takes place in medieval Japan. The rest of the music score is more capable, and usually mirrors nicely the dark atmosphere of the series.

The very beginning and very end of the series reveal what it could have been: a marvelous story of immortal and unchanging love through the ages. Sandwiched between that is a nearly unceasing string of bloody fights with little heed to a greater picture. In the end, Kurozuka proved to be, at least for me, a gory swordfight anime with only some crumbs of story to fill in the edges.

This is going to be a very divisive show; perhaps the most useful content of this review will be the information that the series starts as it means to go on. There is no reveal, no point of weaving together of plot threads; rather, the plot throughout is something only vaguely hinted at, and the viewer left to draw their own conclusions about what is going on. Either that, or the exposition is monumentally incompetent.

It's a brave and interesting style, but one that sadly fails to make a good show. Kurozuka is not a series that can be watched for its plot, nor the characters, who are given very little development; the nominal leads' personalities seem to be defined solely by their love for each other, and the supporting cast is little better. Large portions of episodes are effectively silent, and action sequences fill much of the remainder; the dialogue is occasionally brilliant (such as the conversation between our lead and an incidental man built into his wheelchair, which manages to brilliantly paint a decaying future society in a few short natural-sounding sentences), but more often perfunctory, and while this helps focus attention on the animation and enhances the artistic mood of the piece, one can't help wondering whether it was also an effort to save on the voice acting costs.

What voice acting there is is good, though it's easier to avoid the pitfalls when there are so few characters and fewer lines. The music is well chosen, helping to make Kurozuka the superbly evocative work it is; the opening theme in particular is initially offputting in its brazenness, but after a few repetitions the viewer begins to appreciate the undertones and subtle melodies. This is all secondary, however, to the animation, which that opening sequence in particular exemplifies.

This is, quite simply, the best animation I have ever seen, bar none. Fundamentally the style is borrowing from that of Gankutsuou, with characters moving against fixed backgrounds and some leeching of colours between the two, but where that series overused its signature effect to the point of nausea-induction in some viewers, Kurozuka is admirably restrained, using each of its stylistic touches only occasionally, where it is needed most. Almost as obvious as this moving/static technique is the use of dramatically altered colours in key scenes, often showing them in highly (but not completely) saturated contrasting pairs; red/green, or red/blue. It's an effect that makes full use of the animation medium, and one I hope to see used again in future series. But as I said, Kurozuka is restrained in all of this, and the beauty of its animation comes not through mere gimmickry, but also a solid underlying style; noirish, but well adapted to the futuristic setting, evoking memories of Blade Runner and its ilk. Character designs are exaggerated and the thin limbs have drawn some criticism, but they fit beautifully into the stylistic whole; the fights have been split down into too many short scenes where a few long ones with established antagonists would be preferable, but what there is is well choreographed; the dreamlike physics have again attracted some harsh words but are perfectly matched to the rest of the piece.

Kurozuka is almost a visual poem rather than a series as such, and seems conscious of this, most obviously in the theatrical pre-opening introductions and next episode previews. It is a thing of beauty, and its making was a brave decision that I hope will inspire future efforts of the same sort. But approached as an anime series it falls down; the shortage of plot and complete absence of characters is too great a load to bear. Watching it feels like a worthy experience, but too often not an enjoyable one; it belongs in a gallery, not a living room. This is most likely a series you will love or hate, depending on how much emphasis you place on plot versus presentation; but even its greatest fan must admit it is deeply flawed, and even its worst critic cannot deny its beauty. Kurozuka may well be remembered - but if so, it will be as an influential series, rather than an enjoyable one. One final note: while I don't like to make specific fansub recommendations in my reviews, by its nature this is emphatically a series that should be watched in HD or not at all.

I never have reviewed an anime before, but after seeing the atrocious reviews of this series I was compelled to write one of my own. And so I did.

Animation: 10
For a TV series, Kurozuka is by far one of the most artistic and brilliantly animated shows I have ever seen. In the 37th and final episode of the series Death Note, MADHOUSE first used the what I refer to as "the rainbow discoloration effect", and in Kurozuka's case they decided to try using it extensively. Does this add to the series? Definitely. Used in fight scenes when Kuro's 'ability' activates and in one case when Kuro is high on a hallucinogenic drug, this rainbow discoloration effect gives a very surreal feel to the whole series, perhaps to help convey the dream-like feeling of Kuro's constantly recurring amnesia and flashbacks. The fight scenes themselves are executed flawlessly, don't really have much else to say about them. What else can I say about the animation? It's trippy, surreal, and in the end it's beautiful.

Sound: 8
Fitting for a series that goes from feudal Japan to a dystopian and post-apocalyptic city. Average BGM and decent OP, but the ED is where the music of the series really shines, it was probably the only ED I felt was good enough to download from this season. As for the seiyuu, I'm not too familiar with them except for the talented Mamoru Miyano who also voiced Yagami Light in Death Note. While Kuro is a man of few words, the few words that do leave his mouth are uttered with emotion and excellence.

Story: 8
The story starts off leaving the watcher a bit in the dark, but after the first few episodes more and more is revealed. Much of it is accompanied by abstract and surreal visuals that may distract and confuse watchers, leading to people giving the show low ratings because the story "sucked' or "confused" them. Just because you have ADD and cannot attend to a plot as simple as this does not mean it deserves a low rating. While I'll admit, there is nothing too original about the plot, there are quite a few suspenseful moments and twists about Kuro's gaps in memory that will keep watchers thoroughly satisfied. If you somehow think that this plot is too shallow because you don't 'get' it or because the visuals are too strange, maybe you should try reading Twilight or Harry Potter instead.

As for the actual ending, I don't want to spoil too much, but you would be able to appreciate it much more if you were knowledgeable in archetypes, particularly Jungian archetypes (look them up here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archtypes). For those that did finish the series, in the scene near the end where Kuro walks through the very familiar city and encounters the same very familiar characters, you must remember that Kuro is immortal and that those characters could not possibly be the same people. By having the same characters appear in this different time period, it seems that the writers are trying to make a statement about the Jungian archetypes and how they will always exist. The trickster, the old man (or old woman in Kurozuka's case), the lover, the traitor, etc, are archetypes that will always be there in times of great need, just as in Greek mythology which Jung derived most of his archetypes. There is probably so much more in the ending that I myself didn't even get, and for this thought-provoking ending I give the series an 8 for story instead of 5 like I originally planned.

Character: 6
Out of every area of the show, Kurozuka definitely lacks in character devolopment. Besides the burning passion between the silent Kuro and lovely Kuromitsu, the rest of the cast basically consists of cold, lifeless characters who fall into either "GROUP OF PEOPLE ENTHUSIASTICALLY SUPPORTING KURO" and "GROUP OF PEOPLE ENTHUSIASTICALLY TRYING TO KILL KURO". There's the typical gang of good assorted rebels and informants fighting the evil organization, and there's the typical evil scientist making the typical evil half-human creations. Even so, some of the characters were very memorable, like the ecstatic, riddle-spouting old man with a steel turtle shell, so I think it deserves at least a 6.

Value: 9
Amongst the piles of cookie cutter high school and shounen anime, Kurozuka is one of the few post-apocalyptic animes in existence, and for this reason anyone seeking something with an original setting should pick this up. The surreal style as I mentioned multiple times earlier is another reason to pick up this series, although to some its strangeness may be overwhelming and too odd, so if you don't like it when you see a horse statue fall apart and spew out its entrails, only to find out 5 minutes later that the main character was actually high on a hallucinogen, go watch some high school anime and burst into laughter at the clumsy girl who dropped and broke something just like in the episode before.

Enjoyment: 10
You decide on this one, I respect you enough to make a logical judgment on whether I enjoyed this series or not based on the rest of this review. Or you can just look at the number.

Kurozuka: An utter mess in a pretty package.

Kurozuka seemed so promising. At the surface, it promised to be an anime about vampires with swords in a japanese setting; an alternate history involving a historical japanese hero becoming immortal and the tale of an ancient conspiracy seeking the secrets behind it. And indeed, the first episode seemed like it might deliver just that, giving us some nice exposition and a few-well animated fights, with a lot of confusing elements that would presumably be explained later.

Problem is, it didn't. In the end, Kurozuka devolves into a confusing and pointless story dominated by contrivances, cookie-cutter characters and villains so flat they make me feel that the show is insulting my intelligence, dominated by lots of pomp and flash and bloodshed -- basically, GONZO's Hellsing without the redeeming features of the amusing characters and the cool jazz soundtrack. Eh, enough ranting. Let's deconstruct this train wreck and critique the remnants, shall we?

Animation and Visuals: 8/10 -- Ooooh, shiny.

Ok, I'll admit this much: Kurozuka looks lovely. Done by studio Madhouse, the animators of shows like Death Note and Black Lagoon (who I thus expect to know their stuff), the animation flows excellently, the characters remain consistently on-model and both the characters and the backgrounds have fine detail throughout, looking distinct enough. The lighting also deserves praise, being very well put, and the OP is very pretty. What I must say pulls the grade down a bit is that the fight scenes tend to contain a bit too many cuts, making them a bit confusing at times, and the blood tends to flow a bit too freely and at high pressure, disturbing my suspension of disbelief somewhat too much.

But the main problem is simply: I've seen better. Don't misunderstand me: It's good, it's well done, it's pretty, but it's not extraordinary or unique in any way. Both the above mentioned Death Note and Black Lagoon looked better than this in my honest opinion, and had a more distinct 'style', if you will, than this. Nothing really incredible comes back to me in recalling the graphical impressions of this anime (though that may be general repression of the memories of having gone through the drivel), meaning I will have to limit the upper score of the animation. I'd probably up this if it successfully diverted my attention to the general contents of the anime, something it didn't.

Sound: 5/10 -- Unmemorable, if not actually bad.

The voices and music... works. Yeah, that's about it. The voice acting is mostly uninspired, and while I can identify a few prominent jobs, like George Nakata (the seiyuu of Alucard from the above-mentioned Hellsing) giving a rather subdued Benkei (the sidekick of the main character, who is obviously evil because he's voiced by George Nakata), the cast mostly seem to be 'going through the motions' as it were, no-one truly seeming to bother with giving any memorable performances (and given the people they play, I don't blame them).

The soundtrack is instantly forgettable, with only the intro song ("Systematic People" by Wagdug) sticking out by having a mild ear-worm and rock-out factor despite its vocals being utterly incomprehensible on all levels. In other words, I'd call this an 'average' audio impression at a whole.

'Story': 1/10 -- Swordfights! Bloodshed! Vampires!... Plot? Whazzat?

Kurozuka's 'story', and employ the apostrophes with relish here, concerns the story of Kuro, a historical japanese figure living after the Sengoku period who, being pursued by political foes, rests with his servant Benkei in a small mountain hut owned by a strange lady called Kuromitsu. Kuro and Kuromitsu pretty much fall for each other instantly in one of the more sudden courtships I've ever seen, and it turns out she's a vampire and is chased by a conspiracy that wants to know her secret. This is the story you get in the first episode, more or less. Decent, if a little incomprehensible.

It is therefore immediately abandoned and you're placed in a post-apocalyptic Japan ruled by an evil red army, which rules the ruined cities with an army of masked mooks and spends its time eating puppies, kicking small cute kittens and randomly shooting women and children and other stereotypical 'I am a goddamn flat villain' activities with gusto (and naturally, for no discernible reason whatsoever), against which a noble but utterly weak 'resist our evil overlords' underground moment has formed. Kuro inexplicably wakes up in the middle of all this, and has apparently gotten amnesia (although the anime kind of doesn't tell you that flat-out as far as I remember, because I didn't realize that until someone outside the show stated it flat-out. Could be I was just inattentive, though). Anyway, Kuro goes out immediately to find his noble lady love, which naturally gets him into contact with the various factions, from which he gets the ire of the evil overlord army and has freaks of nature sent after him to kill in very impressive-looking one on one matches, and membership offers from the noble resistance. The only thing you need to know is basically that it's Fist of the North Star all over again, except not nearly as fun because there's no gay clowns with mohawks anywhere, and Kuro's stoicism makes Kenshiro seem like William Shatner by comparison.

This storyline is interrupted by the occasional flashback of Kuro's past, which usually involve him and Kuromitsu standing around some place, enjoying their usually stilted relationship, and then Kuro getting killed, after which we cut back to the dark future. These flashbacks don't generally help the atmosphere much except to ruin what little coherency was left in the story, which mostly consists of Kuro going to point A, finding out plot point B before rapidly encountering and fighting empowered-mutant-of-the-episode C, against which helper D will tragically die in an unheroic manner, rinse, repeat. Anyway, I'll spare you the details (mostly because I can't remember them) other than the fact that it's full of what I felt were glaring plot holes and lack of background material on both the characters and the world they inhabit. The 'plot twists' (note apostrophes again) are either a) utterly predictable or b) utterly contrived, Evangelion-esque mind messes show up and are utterly incomprehensible and unimportant, and the general goings-on didn't so much break my suspension of disbelief as run it over with a bulldozer and riddling its flattened corpse with anti-tank shells (thus making sure I was able to get no sense of interaction with it whatsoever), and... I think you get the point. Kurozuka tries to cover over this with cool eye-candy and fights (who mostly end up making me more annoyed rather than less), and fails. Also, the ending was utterly horrible, atrocious, and explained nothing. I think I must go back to Bleach: Memories of Nobody, Code Geass R2 or Narutaru to find things I can even compare to this on the sheer level of badness, and about the only good thing I can think of was the moments that were merely 'mediocre'. And that I get the feeling it occasionally tried to explain some of it... But I couldn't pick up on it because it was so badly done.

'Characters': 1.5/10 -- Could easily be improved by replacing the cast with sock puppets.

Kurozuka isn't like other animes. It doesn't have 'characters' so much as it has 'flat stereotypes' all over the place. Their motivations, thoughts and actions are mostly incomprehensible to me as a viewer, and makes it impossible to care about them or anything they do: Kuro is so stoic he looks barely sentient (as I said, it took me a while to find out he was actually amnesiac) and acts in ways that only helps to reinforce that impression, the villains are so flat that they are more painful to watch than interesting (I won't even dignify them by calling them 'laughable'; they're beyond even that), and the resistance members are either painfully unhelpful or get too little screen time (incidentally, that .5 is for the driver guy and the blonde girl; the only partially human main characters). Kuromitsu only appears as some manner of living MacGuffin for most of the story (that is to say, she's important to the story, but the story seems to take offense as to telling you why), more incomprehensible than the rest combined, and the revelations about her in the ending... Err, let me just avoid any potty words and say that I was 'disappointed' at the reveals of her inner character.

Honourable mention goes to the 'mad scientist' villain: I have never, and probably never will, see a dumber example of a flat villain; he made me long back to the days of watching Bleach filler villains with his shenanigans. I won't even spend any more words, save that he is probably the single worst character I have beheld in any anime, ever... And I never thought I'd say that about any show other than School Days. So congratulations to Kurozuka for that -- the cast isn't just the bottom of the barrel; they take out the barrel and drill a forty feet well underneath it with a pneumatic drill before stopping, and then stay down there for forty days without showering before finally dying of dysentery and leaving the hapless watcher to look down and discover their partially decayed corpses.

Value: 1/10 -- Not so much 'instantly forgettable' as 'repressable'

Kurozuka sets no records worth recording, threads no ground that hasn't already been trampled flat and sets no records; a bad mixture of the original Hellsing and Fist of the North Star, it will hopefully be forgotten within the week and buried somewhere quiet: It doesn't even have the unintentional comedy of badness, of the kind you could rent for a weekend and then laugh at with your friends. Watch Fist of the North Star for that, instead.

I advise anyone reading this review (as I will anyone else who asks) to shun this anime like the bubonic plague; even the not-quite-as-bad first episode, for it is false advertising and instills hope that this can have promise, which could not be further from the truth. If given the choice between rewatching Kurozuka and getting a sharp blow to the head with a stick, I'd go with the stick.

Although I'd possibly check the weight first on the off chance it would cause my brain to hemorrhage more than Kurozuka already did.

Enjoyment: 2/10 -- It gets a point for the first episode.

As you may have divined from my above comments, I, personally, didn't enjoy Kurozuka very much. At all. The first episode had some promise as a premise, but this is rapidly sent downhill to a degree unprecedented by anything I've ever seen by abandoning it instead of picking up the pieces not understood and explaining them properly. I couldn't even summon up the energy to care about the badness anymore; I just suffered on in silence, with more interesting things in the background, like, oh, particularly interesting dust motes, causing me to pause the thing for minutes at a time.

Total: 3/10 -- Bad. Bad, bad, bad, YE GODS it's bad.

In the end, the only thing that saves Kurozuka from hitting the absolute rock bottom is the nice visuals and the average sound. Otherwise, it's utterly horrible and almost making me want to watch Blue Dragon or Yu-Gi-Oh! just to get some new standards that may improve this thing's standing... Almost. Because somehow, I doubt it. I wanted to like it after the first episode, but this cannot be done. Kurozuka is generally little but downright bad, dreadfully dull and mostly horrible, all at the same time. I can't even say I found anything to like about it, which I usually find even in the most formulaic shonen or dating sim anime (not that I watch a lot of those, truth be told).

So, after hearing all this bile, some of you may be wondering: "If you hate it so much, why did you watch it all the way through?" (because I did). And you know what? I can't really give you a good answer. I really can't. Looking back at it now, Kurozuka was nothing but a colossal waste of my time. Possibly I did it all so I'd be able to (justifiably) complain about it afterward, like I'm doing now. Also, if this review can save one of you readers from having to watch this garbage, it may also make me sleep easier at night. In conclusion:

I watched this anime, so you won't have to. So please, please, please don't. I wouldn't want people encouraged to make more of it.