Maybe it’s just because today was a pretty shitty day, but I couldn’t sit through all of episode 5 of Kurokami, so I’m dropping it. I suppose it was only a matter of time. I hated the first episode. It was boring and predictable; all I really wanted to do was punch the protagonist in the face, and I get the feeling I shouldn’t have been laughing my head off when that little girl got flattened by a bus. I considered dropping it then, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least watch a few more. The second episode was markedly better, but the third episode tanked again. By the fourth episode, I was quite ready to drop it again, and the beginning of the fifth episode sealed the deal.
It’s a shame, I guess, because the animation is pretty damn slick and the music is interesting. The fight scenes are pretty from a distance, but they’re painfully boring to me. It’s because I feel utterly detatched from all of the characters involved so I don’t care about the outcomes. I don’t care about Keita because he’s whiny and generic and I just couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for his sobstory. It’s just too convenient. I don’t care about Kuro because she tries too hard to be cute and there’s nothing about her personality that’s interesting at all. I don’t care about her desire to kill her brother, and I don’t even care enough to want to find out more about whatever the hell she is.
The premise was all right enough. The idea of dopplegangers sounded neat enough, but the series has been moving too slow on that front for me to care. The cleverly disguised (or not) antagonists are sneaking around in the background with those snatches of plot, but it isn’t prominent enough to be meaningful. It’s a damn shame. I might continue with the manga since it’s so vastly different from the anime — I don’t doubt that I would have had an easier time sympathizing with Keita if he had been a good-natured computer programmer instead of an emo high school student, and being able to sympathize with the protagonist is pretty key for me. Unfortunately, it’s harder for me to sit down and read manga than it is for me to pop in an episode of an anime.
It’s further disappointing because Kurokami was the only new series I picked up this season. Now that I’m dropping it, the only current series I’m following are Soul Eater and Gundam 00 S2, both of which will be ending soon (well, for the latter, I guess it’s kind of a relief). I have no idea how well the Kurokami dub’s been doing on IATV, but it seems to me that they could have picked a much better series to be groundbreaking with. Then again, they never did announce any kind of official online stream, so maybe it was all irrelevant after all. Not enough people get IATV for it to matter.
Man, today’s been quite the lame day. :\
Ha, at least you manage to last that long, I can only handle one episode.
Lets just make one thing clear: the anime adaption is godawful, not the manwha. The manwha is like on a whole different universe.
Well, in case your wondering,the main reasons are the major plot changes. They basically took everything involving the characters, their individual situations, and their relationships with each other, threw them out the window Olbermann style, and replaced it with basic, cookie cutter shounen anime stuffs. And from the looks of the preview, there will be more of that in the next episode too.
Not to say everything was bad about it. The only saving grace, like you said is, the music and art were on par to Sunrise’s usual playing field.
Anyway, if you ever pull yourself together, I suggest you fall back to the manwha instead of dropping the whole package.
Yeah, another blogger I read mentioned many of the changes made between the manwha and the anime to bring it down to a “mainstream” kind of level. It’s disappointing because I do think the core plot has potential to be interesting, especially if the protagonist isn’t a whiny high school kid.
For now, the manwha is still sitting on my reading list. I might drop it if I don’t wander back to reading within a few months, but who knows. Some days, I feel like reading.
Ah, I could only handle two or three. I didn’t laugh when the girl died, but I was kinda disturbed because…she WAS annoying.
I wonder how US generally took the anime, though? Wasn’t it being simulcast (or well, close-to-simulcast) with an Eng dub?
Unfortunately, I doubt that the US broadcast made a big deal out of the fact that Kurokami was being nearly simulcasted (dubbed!), which means that casual US viewers would probably just see it as a mediocre anime series. I’m really kind of upset that this shoddiness of this series will probably turn companies from putting forth the effort for future simulcasted series.
i think the main problem is the dub the english version horible honestly i started to watch it from episod 17th and i’m SHOCced what an awfull work and Almost noting come thro from that nice athmosphera what i’w got from the subbed wersions where the voices briliant and i watched raffly 6 times after the dubbed wersion i almost droped it the worsest job what i ever seen from the voices try the subbed version whit original languag it’s two diferent Manga
I was watching the sub. I have no idea what the dub sounds like because I don’t get the channel. The language has nothing to do with a shitty cast of characters and a flimsy story.
You know i just whis the manga going on in the way how the first 2episod went it was briliant mayby bichause i didnt seen this tipe of manga before and i always had a curiosity for the diferent philosopy abouth life and death and why 1’s alive others die so yong faling down from the stairs one of my firend for instans XD
now i hve to go to work sorry
ohh could u write me what sould i read for instead this if its realy as bad and where can i fond them
thx
General recommendations for other series? It depends on what kind of stuff you’re into, but for starters, FUNimation’s video site has a ton of series streaming both subbed and dubbed, including Mushishi and Ouran Host Club, both of which I love. But if you’re more interested in Kurokami-style action, you could also check out the new Fullmetal Alchemist there and various other titles I haven’t checked out myself yet.