I’d read good things about KK #13. Read that it was the best episode since the first episode. Even read some comments that it felt like a whole new show. So I watched it, somewhat skeptical, but with a renewed hope in mind. Conclusion? No, it still sucks. Nothing’s changed. The show still looks cheaply animated, we didn’t lose the dumb synchro scenes, the Konbini-voyeur quickly went from ambiguously evil to clearly evil, and the story still sucks.

Things I liked:

• Kuro finally won some fights! Looks like her time off was well spent training.
• The Konbini-voyeur’s plan of using the doppeliner system to change the world, through luck and economics is interesting to me, because I think economics is pretty interesting, but probably pretty boring to everyone else.

Things I didn’t like:

• I was starting to like Konbini-voyeur, because it felt like he had some shades of gray. But this episode clearly showed his evil intentions. We just replaced Reishin with the Konbini-voyeur. They have the same goals and want to remake the world. One for mototsumitamas and one for humans. Big whoop.
• WTF is with this neverending Exceed? And the mass produced Thousands? It’s like trans-spam mode all over again.
• It still felt like the same show. Perhaps my expectations were too high. But it still had the same sloppy writing, the same one-dimensional characters, and the same cheap-looking animation.

Random other thoughts:

Anyway, I’m dropping this show. I’d only kept writing about it as long as I did, because I was hoping it would end after episode 12 or 13 (and because it allowed me to experiment with different post formats). Once it didn’t and it failed to wow me, the writing was on the wall. There’s an off chance I may still keep watching this since I’m already halfway through, but even that seems like a waste of time. Boo. Final grade: F.

Who needs real backgrounds when you get just throw a splotch of color onto the screen instead?

I always feel exasperated after watching an episode of Kurokami, because it always feels like they leave good opportunities on the table and instead proceed in the way of teh suck.

Things I liked:

• I had to think about this for a while. Umm, Raiga seems like a pretty cool anti-hero.
• Konbini-voyeur taking control at Kaionji?

Things I didn’t like:

• 2 more synchro transformation scenes.
• Kuro sucking at fighting. Again.
• Lame death sequence. Don’t send the freaking clone!
• Lots of action, but it all looked the same.

Random other thoughts:

I don’t know why Kuro fights. I don’t know why the writers keep making her fight fights where she has absolutely no chance of winning. It’s sad. It’s pathetic. I mean, yeah, you root for the underdog. But once the underdog reaches the Washington Generals level, you start rooting for the favorites. And next thing you know, they’re bouncing basketballs off the underdog’s heads, pantsing them, and doing blindfolded 360-alley-oops. C’mon writers, give us something to work with.

I was a little upset to see Excel look so busted up. Little kids shouldn’t get messed up like that. Steiner’s death scene was somewhat sad, but also sort of hilarious with Excel screaming at the mute clone.

Interesting turn of events to see Kakuma apparently accepting Raiga killing him to avenge their tribe. I’m also interested to see what new world the Konbini-voyeur plans to bring about. I’m glad him ratting out Akane in the last episode, didn’t lead to her getting kidnapped or anything like that. For now he seems like he’s on the up and up.

Unfortunately, this show does seem to be 24 episodes long. I’m on the precipice of dropping this, but I’ve heard some good things about the next episode, so we’ll see…  Why do I feel like I say this every week? It’s like I’m postponing the inevitable breakup.

This was the first solid episode of Kurokami in a very long time. Coincidentally, there was no action here, and the writers simply used the time to flesh out the relationship between Keita and the konbini voyeur. You’d think it’d be a recipe for boredom, but the story was surprisingly engaging, not overly outlandish, and we at least got an episode off from having to watch the stupid transformation sequences, and Kuro’s terrible fighting “skills.”

Keita and the Konbini voyeur used to be best friends back in the day. “Best” is a relative term, because I didn’t get the impression that they were that close. But Kobini voyeur was apparently a real misanthropic, arrogant jackass, the type you’d expect to go on a school shooting frenzy, and Keita was his only friend. So I guess by that definition, they were “best” friends.

What is interesting is as they strike up a “friendship,” Konbini voyeur learns of Keita’s mother’s death. This sparks him to do some research whereupon he learns of the doppeliner system and crosses paths with Reishin. Meanwhile, Konbini voyeur is the one who tells Keita that fate is to be resisted, but ends up “dying,” which drives Keita to become the hapless fatalist that we met at the start of this show.

In reality, it was the Konbini voyeur’s sub who ended up dying – whether by choice or by force unknown – which gave KB the opportunity to “fake” his death and team up with Reishin to learn more about the doppeliner system. But he learns that Reishin has only his own goals in mind and plans to use humanity for his benefit. This leads KB to his now mutinous path.

Plenty of backstory, fast forward to present day, KB still sees Keita as a friend, and wants to team up with him to save him from his substitute fate. I couldn’t really get a good read on KB. Obviously he’s no good guy, but he doesn’t seem like a true bad guy either. A strange breed indeed, considering how black and white all of the other characters are. But he appears to be honest with Keita and Kuro, and Akane to some extent, and when he suggested a non-evil way to keep Keita alive (by monitoring where the other sub and root were vs. say killing them), it made me think that perhaps he’s closer to the light side. Later events then swing the needle the other way.

Kuro overhears Akane’s confession to Keita and takes off on her own to track down Reishin and the opening to the Holy Land when she runs into Makana, the little girl squirt, who enlists Kuro’s help to find and save her squirt brother, Kakuma. Unfortunately, Kakuma is soon sacrificed by Raiga in order to open the door to the Holy Land. I’m still not sure where Raiga fits into this, he’s also one of those rare gray-area characters, because it seems he disagrees with Reishin’s vision and is partnered with KB for the eventual double-cross, but killing a defenseless kid doesn’t exactly put him in the “good guy” camp.

Also, Kuro doesn’t exactly have a bright, strategic mind. I don’t know what sort of plan she has, but considering she’s been getting whomped across the floor by just about everyone she’s faced, I can’t imagine what she thinks she can do against her brother, who’s probably the toughest opponent she’ll face.

Luckily for the I-have-no-plan-Kuro, Keita tracks her down to go fight Reishin together. Not that Keita has a plan either, but at least he brings a little more firepower to the party. Plus, he’s glowing, having received a confession/goodbye kiss from Akane. The stage is set for the last battle in this hopefully 13-episode series.

I know Keita and KB used to be buddy, buddy, but if I were Keita I wouldn’t trust anybody at this point. Especially someone who’s deceptive enough to fake his own death. Leaving Akane behind was an incredibly stupid decision. I mean, Keita couldn’t have brought her to the ensuing knife fight, but I would’ve took her somewhere secret and kept her completely out of sight. While KB shows some concerns in warning Akane, he then turns around and narcs her out to the Kaionji CEO. Interesting turn of events however. Akane is not the sub, as we thought, and as KB tells her, but actually the root, while the Kaionji CEO is the real sub. This means someone’s going to have to get their hands dirty if they want to take out Akane and get the minus root benefits.

I’ve been admittedly lax in my posting about Kurokami. I figure there’s only so much interest in me writing about how crappy the show is week to week. Fortunately, episode 11 was actually a pretty good episode, so my post might be better than my recent Kurokami posts have been. Unfortunately, this post is about episode 10, which was not a good episode.

While the episode focused mostly on Kuro, Hiyou, Keita and his doppelganger mom, off in the distance, it seems Reishin’s got what he wants. Kokona or Makana or whatever the squirt’s name is the Holy Key, so there’ll be some hell to pay.

Meanwhile, I give the Kurokami writers for doing a good job in developing Hiyou into one of the more slimy, disgusting villains in recent memory (I mean this as a backhanded compliment though, as you’ll see). In between torturing Kuro, he seems to get off on licking and sniffing her as well. If he didn’t have superpowers, there’s a job as a creepy guy in a trenchcoat just begging for him.

Kuro, who’s completely ineffectual as a fighter, but continues to fight anyway, is saved temporarily when she sneaks a punch in on Hiyou and Keita sneaks up to blast his super ring ray gun at Hiyou. Unfortunately, Hiyou’s partner in crime and contractee, arrives just in time to warn him of the incoming ray blast. I have to say, getting punched out by someone that looks like your mom, and then have her sitting on top of you, sucking out your manly spirit, can’t feel very good. This woman’s been spending too much time with that perv, Hiyou.

As Keita gets his ass kicked, Hiyou goes into mega exe mode. Apparently, everyone’s mega exe mode is cooler and more powerful than Kuro’s lame super punch out. Hiyou can manipulate any liquid, and fires a barrage of ice shards at Kuro. Amazingly – and this always seems to happen – the ice shards fail to hit any part of Kuro’s torso (i.e., the largest, easiest to hit target possible), but conveniently catch enough of her clothing covering her limbs to pin her up against the rocks. You either have to be a master marksman or an epically horrendous one to accomplish this.

As Hiyou takes care of Kuro, Keita’s fake mom goes into her whole wah-wah backstory about how she had a terrible life and terrible luck as a sub, until she met and started shagging Hiyou. She explains why she killed Keita’s mom and revels in the act, and her fortune since. This incenses Keita, who uses it to motivate one last synchro push. This allows Kuro to mega exe Hiyou and knock him silly flying through the cave. I guess this also overloads Keita’s tera, because his doppelganger mom’s soul suck goes terribly awry and she knocked out – permanently. This was probably meant to be a dramatic scene, but I cracked up when Hiyou was sent flying and doppelganger mom freaked out.

I credited the KK writers earlier in developing Hiyou as a completely dislikeable character, but the next scene in which doppelganger mom is repenting is a perfect example of how the KK writers have no clue how to create a likeable or redeemable character. So because doppelganger mom had a bad childhood, shows some remorse as she’s dying, drops a couple hallmark phrases, and sheds a few tears, we’re supposed to sympathize with her? Um… no. It was only two minutes ago she was cackling about how she loved all the evil things she did. Now just because she’s on her deathbed and Kuro and Keita are making puppy dog faces doesn’t mean we’re going to forget all her despicable qualities. Good riddance doppelganger mom. You got what you deserved. And bad job KK writers. You can’t force random character development. The audience is not stupid.

Ooh, a twist towards the end of the episode! Looks like the konbini voyeur used to be Keita’s best friend. Oh and he’s going to put Hiyou out of his perverted misery by putting him through the same torture machine that he put others through. Oh, the irony. Hiyou, I won’t miss you either.

Because they’re either tipping off the “final battle” way too early, or this show isn’t really 24 episodes (hooray!). If that were really the case, it would be the best thing to happen to the show since the promising first episode.

So let’s see, what happened this episode… Akane’s root wants to become a Master Root, so daddy will love her, and so she can shack up with Kuro’s bro, Reishin. Mass murderers are in at Kaioshin Co.

Meanwhile, Steiner, Excel, Yakumo and Kogure storm the Kaioshin headquarters to face off against Reishin. Reishin turns out to be tougher than they thought and nearly blows them away and escapes easily. Luckily for the crew, Excel had her “Hexa Wall” up to protect them (lol @ the name). We got not only one lame synchro sequence, but two. Argh, my head.

Meanwhile, the Konbini voyeur has some tricks up his sleeve and strikes up a deal with another potential bad guy, named Raiga, who’s not happy that Reishin’s trying to play God. Turns out the Kobini voyeur may not be a Root, but it doesn’t mean he can’t join in the killing fun. Kaioshin Co. – worst company ever. Even worse than AIG.

Over in Okinawa, Keita’s fake mom appears out of nowhere to engage in a heart-to-heart. Could she be a multi-dimensional character? I mean, in the flashback, she seemed to be pretty horrified when she crossed paths with Keita’s mom. Guilt, perhaps? No, actually, it turns out she’s a prick too, as she unleashes a tera soul suck on Keita.

Out in some forest somewhere, the two little runty kids apparently were on good terms with this Raiga guy. Keyword were. He knocks both of them out and apparently kidnaps only one of them for some reason.

The girl runt chases down Kuro looking for help. As they go out to look for the runt’s brother, Hiyou just happens to drop by to pay them a visit. Oh, he’s a mass murderer too, as he wiped out the runt kids’ tribe. Everyone’s a mass murderer these days. He easily dispatches with Kuro, who can’t seem to land a hit to save her life anymore.

Just when you think all hope was lost, Keita rises from the dead. Somehow, his mother’s tera soul suck was not a knockout blow. How does he do this? Perhaps he has the Reiji Maigo within him. Anyway, the tables have turned, because it’s his turn to play the hero. He completely blows away his fake mother with the power of his ring, and races against time to save Kuro from a bizarre raep scene. Cut to ED and the scenes for next week, which hinted the magical words “final battle!”

There are a bunch of shows that I can’t wait to end, Gundam 00, Tales of the Abyss, To Aru no Majutsu no Index, Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san. But most of all, I want Kurokami to come to an end. Because the story is becoming increasingly nonsensical. Random people seem to dropping in at the most random of times. There’s no progressive plot development. Kuro went from being a tough, spunky kid to a complete failure as a fighter. And the rest of the characters are for the large part, predictable and one-dimensional: the bad guys are very bad, and the good guys are very weak.

The one saving grace, ironically, is that thankfully, Keita has improved. I’ll give the writers credit for that. He’s no longer a loathsome, idiotic spineless jellyfish. He’s graduated up to solid harem leader: mostly harmless, generally clueless, but with some fighting spirit. And with that superpowered ring, I don’t even know why he needs Kuro anymore. He could just go around blasting everyone with that little bazooka.

I’m crossing my fingers that this show will end at 13 episodes. It seems like they’re rushing towards the ending. But I don’t get the impression that an additional 11 episodes would’ve done them any good anyway.

After a handful of episodes, a show has pretty much established what it is. If you jump to watch it the moment it’s released, it’s probably a 9-10. If you don’t mind waiting a day or two, it’s probably an 8. If you don’t mind waiting a few days to a week, it’s probably a 7. If you don’t mind waiting for more than a week (or two or three), it’s a 6. And if it’s 5 or below, you’re pretty much ambivalent about when you watch it (if ever).

Also, shows typically don’t tend to get better as the season progresses (although it may get much worse). So it’s unlikely that a show starting out at 5-6 level is going to jump to a 8-10 level at any point. Although I’ve seen plenty of shows that I thought had 8-9 potential end up with lower scores.

What does all this have to do with Kurokami? Well, after a solid first couple eps, then a sharp decline, I think it’s turned itself around in these couple episodes and is settling comfortably into a 6 level: somewhat entertaining, but wholly forgettable. Having recently started on Macross Frontier, the difference between an 8-10 and a 6 is painfully apparent. Macross Frontier is so good so far. But I digress. I only mention all this to serve as a precursor for my (probable) eventual post on why I’m not going to write about Kurokami anymore, but let’s not worry about the future for now and enjoy the fact that Keita is redeeming himself.

Episode 7 – Excel’s kiss

Keita, Akane and Kuro set off to head to Okinawa and along the way run into a Mototsumitama named Yakumo. He’s contracted to a Master Root named Riona, who used to work at the Konbini company (Kaionji), but is now pissed and wants revenge because they tried to do some experiments on her. Turns out Yakumo is an old friend of Kuro’s, and served her when she was the princess of her tribe.

After some Keita pouting, Kuro explains that she’s out to kill her brother, because he killed everyone in their tribe, including their mother, and is set to wreak havoc on the world. Meanwhile, as she tells Keita the story, Hiyou tracks them down at the airport, cops a feel and then proceeds to whomp on Kuro and Keita. Luckily for them, Yakumo senses a disturbance in the force and saves Kuro for a day.

After the fight, Keita tries to convert Kuro into becoming an emo like himself and Kuro bursts out in tears at the thought of it. This gives Keita an epiphany and he renounces his emo ways and vows to fight with Kuro until the end. Later, Excel arrives to give Keita a battle accessory and steals a loli kiss to Akane’s dismay and Kuro’s visual virginity.

Episode 8 – The beach episode

Akane, Kuro and Keita arrive at Okinawa for some fun in the sun and to find more information on the photo with Keita’s mother. They visit Keita’s grandfather’s place, who’s fine with all of them staying at his house for as long as they need.

As they head back home after some fanservice and beach play, two raggedy Mototsumitamas make a surprise attack on Kuro and Keita. As has been recently the case, Kuro gets her ass kicked by the two little kids, and they hang Keita so they can’t synchro. However, Excel’s battle accessory comes in most handy, as it frees Keita from a lynching, allowing them to synchro and quickly pound the kids into submission.

Turns out the overeager kids are the only remaining members of their Mototsumitama tribe and have vowed to protect the Holy Stone. However, while they don’t have to worry about Kuro and Keita, they can’t do anything about Kaionji flying in a bunch of Master Roots into Okinawa, in order to draw out the power of the Holy Stone.

Thoughts:

Episode 7

• All this time I thought Hiyou was Kuro’s brother. I’m glad he’s not, because I’ve been thinking he’d be a pretty lame final villain
• Reishin (Kuro’s real brother’s name) seems a bit more interesting, although I’m disappointed that he’s just another villain who wants to destroy the world and build it anew. These damn generic villains and their generic messiah complexes
• The massacre scene was pretty outrageous
• I like Yakumo and Riona, she’s got some spunk
• Although, will Mototsumitamas just “contract” with anyone? Revenge doesn’t seem like a very good reason for contracting
• Kuro needs to level up or get some battle accessories like Keita, because she’s getting her ass handed to her every episode. Even when she synchros. Remember when she used to win fights on her own?
• There was a hint of redemption in Keita towards the end as he shed his sulking ways. Perhaps he’s a salvageable main character yet
• Everyone’s reaction to Excel’s kiss was pretty hilarious

Episode 8

• lol @ Akane’s Excel jealousy. She looks like a 10 year old, I’m sure Akane doesn’t have to worry about the competition
• Everyone loves the beach episode. They even managed to move the story along
• More smiles from Keita in this episode than all the other episodes combined. Was it because of Akane in a bikini and Kuro in a bathing suit? Who cares. If anything is going to bring this show up from the mire, it’s Keita graduating from suck to awesome. That’s what I’m pinning my hopes on
• lol @ Kuro’s dog collar bathing suit
• Akane should’ve been making the moves on Keita when she was drunk
• Why do all the Master Roots appear to be evil?
• Keita’s grandfather is instantly likeable – tough looking, martial arts expert, likes to drink, is easygoing… I hope this doesn’t mean he’s going to die

Kurokami is schizophrenic. It’s all over the place. feel like the writers are trying very hard, but failing miserably at keeping the story cohesive and sensible.

So what did we learn in this episode? One thing we didn’t learn is that Keita is stupid. Two examples:

• Keita tells Kuro not to mention the Okinawa trip to Akane, because she’d get worried. Well shit. If I had a friend – who just survived a near-death battle, and an attack from a biker gang – suddenly mysteriously disappear, I think I’d be a lot more worried about what happened, than if he’d just have told me that he was skipping out of town to lay low. Not to mention I’d be worried about myself, seeing as how my face had been revealed.
• Keita needs Shingo to help him realize that Kuro could die while fighting. *facepalm* Where has this guy been for the last few episodes?

We did learn that Mikami, the mercenary that Hijou hired to capture Kuro (before he wanted to kill her, now he just wants to capture her?) is somewhat of a sympathetic character, as she’s doing what she’s doing to help keep Shingo, her contractee (and love of her life) alive. Which leads us to the big reveal…

Keita turns out to be a sub. (It’s not much of a reveal.) Subs don’t have enough tera to support the contract with Mototsumitamas, and end up growing old and dieing very quickly. Like Shingo, a sub who’s 30 going on 90. However, because Keita’s an idiot, the first thing he does when he sees Kuro is blame her. Conveniently forgetting the fact that he’d be a dead, bloodied stump if Kuro hadn’t contracted with him in the first place. He might’ve been able to avert the fight between Kuro and Mikami, if he had told her why Kuro contracted with him, but whatever. He’s stupid, we’ve already established that.

Meanwhile, Mikami is incensed at Kuro, and accuses her of seeing people only as tools for fighting (without explaining why she contracted Shingo the sub, herself). I think she forgot all about the job Hiyou gave her, because she seemed pretty hell-bent at killing Kuro to break her contract with Keita. Keita seeing Kuro get beat down, and having newly realized that Kuro could die, vows that he doesn’t want to see anyone die again and basically orders Kuro to basically kill Mikami… Umm, yeah… So the two synchro, which leads to Shingo and Mikami synchronizing, which leads to both Kuro and Mikami trying for the one-shot kill so they don’t drain their sub’s tera too much, which leads to a Mikami pounding Kuro with a 15-punch combo… So much for that one-shot kill. Kuro, to her credit, does get in her one shot, but fails on the kill part. Luckily for her, Mikami cuts the fight short when Shingo collapses from the tera-drain and dies unheroically.

I don’t know what Mikami is planning to do in that picture above. Throw Shingo out to sea maybe? Anyway, it looks like Kuro and Keita are safe, since Mikami’s reason for fighting is gone. Maybe she’ll come to join them later in the season, as she wasn’t really a bad guy. She leaves the two with the some advice: get close and form a strong bond. Why? I don’t know. It didn’t seem to help Mikami and Shingo that well. Maybe she just wanted to sound wise.

Some thoughts:

• I know Mototsumitamas are tough, but the fights lose their impact when brutal punches end up not leaving a scratch. I feel like the animators are getting in their masochistic kicks animating Kuro getting beat the crap out of every week, only to have her look perfectly fine in the next scene.
• No screenshots, but I was more intrigued at Excel and Steiner’s investigation of the Mototsumitama massacre at Hiyou’s place. Shame they skipped all the fighting there.
• The story has gone sideways for a few episodes now. I completely forget what the point of this show is.
• I dislike how they’re animating Akane’s facial expressions. She always looks completely sleepy and apathetic. Also, was she just waiting out in the van while all the fighting was going on in the backyard?
• Why is Kuro so clueless about all of these aspects of Mototsumitama life? She should’ve known that subs could die if contracted with.
• The whole show would be more entertaining if Kuro wore the gothic lolita outfit she had on a few episodes ago than those rags she’s wearing now

A ten minute fight scene means there’s not much plot progression. So I figured I’d try something different and follow along in more of a diary style. Hopefully the one column format doesn’t look like crap on widescreen monitors…

So this is what contractees do. Seems like the easy life.

Akane and Keita look sleepy. Or bored. Maybe both. Watching Kuro get beat up apparently has a tranquilizing effect.

What? Why? Shouldn’t Mototsumitamas get along? Is this why they’re going extinct?

Coach Keita brings the motivation.

Battle scenes were sharper compared to the previous couple episodes.

Wait for it…

BAM! No one ever accused Keita of being quick on the draw.

Oh, this better not lead to what I think it’s gonna lead to.

%#$&! Transformation scene! Lame!

Akane still seems sleepy.

Solid effects.

Loli shield. Keita will never have.

#$%&! Now everyone’s @#$%ing transforming.

This is an Exceed I’d rather have.

Wait for it…

BAM!

Oh, I see what you’re doing Sunrise. Sneaking in a little moe there. Clever you are.

Seriously Akane. You can let go of the dog now.

Turns out they’re not really bad guys. Nor is Excel a kid.

What else did we learn? Akane’s brother, Hiyou, has disposed of his subordinates and hired a professional killer. Wack things started happening in Japan 7 years ago. And based on a picture, it looks like Keita’s mother, or perhaps her root was involved in some shady dealings with Hiyou at Okinawa. Next stop? Okinawa!

We are now getting to To Aru Majutsu no Index territory (although I don’t think Kurokami is nearly as bad as Index). While I have no intention to stop watching the show, the quality has gone downhill to the point where I’m getting somewhat reluctant to keep writing about it. I hope it improves over the next couple episodes, as I hate “dropping” things. But I also don’t intend to hang onto a “chore.” I guess we’ll see.

In case you’re wondering, not much happened this episode, so there’s not much summary I have to write. Lucky me. Not so lucky for plot development. Essentially, it picks off where the last episode left off with Kuro and Keita on the run.

They end up in a diner, where Kuro goes gaga over the delicious food options. Somehow Kuro ends up eating more than $200 worth of food at this diner, which probably isn’t going to be confused with a Four Seasons anytime. If you do the math, if a regular entree costs $15 and a desert costs $5, it’s safe to say that she had 10 servings of dinner and dessert. Mototsumitamas apparently eat like elephants. I do find the random faces that Kuro makes to be pretty funny and cute though. It’s in stark contrast with the show’s generally darker and grittier designs. To be honest, it doesn’t really fit, but I like it anyway. It’s hard for me to say no to kawaii things.

But anyway, Excel, the video game-playing, Akiba-name-dropping loli, and her contractee, Steiner, are tailing Akane, because she has an unusually high tera reading.

Keita calls Akane and tells her what happened at school, and she comes to meet them at the diner. Keita bitches like a baby about being contracted for a while, but eventually calms down. They talk about calling the police, but Keita and Kuro decide they can’t for two very different reasons. Keita, because he doesn’t know how to explain the situation and because he thinks they wouldn’t believe him (fair point). And Kuro, because… well… she’s apparently on the lam, having broken out of jail after being arrested for stealing bananas. Don’t know how she got caught in the first place – maybe she was going the nonviolent resistant route – but I won’t bother to harp on it. Keita’s concern is fairly realistic though. I’m merely glad they had the discussion about reporting it to the police in the first place. Perhaps my expectations are too low, but all too often shows skip the most obvious course of action.

We learn why the konbini voyeur seems to have an eye for Akane, it’s because her root is one of the villains and is looking to complete her master rootedness. Akane’s cute despite her constant dopey look (or maybe because of it). But evil Akane’s downright spicy due to her bad girl edge… That had nothing to do with the story, but I figured I’d point it out.

Meanwhile, the beatdown schoolteacher is dragged back to Kuro’s brother and ends up one ear short of a full set. I’m not sure if Kuro’s brother was serious about “testing” out whether he could do contracts with body parts other than the heart, but he’s a pretty sick guy. At the very least, he finds out that the Mototsumitama on the loose is indeed his sister.

Later, Keita realizes they’re being followed and splits with Kuro and Akane, only to get hunted down by the Tribal Ends, which I can only assume is the name of Kuro’s brother’s gang at this point. Kuro, still not at full strength due to the contracting, gets her ass handed to her by the bike gang. Lucky for them, Steiner steps in at the last moment to save them, dusting the Tribal Ends without breaking a sweat. For some reason, Keita is more pissed off that Steiner and Excel were tailing Akane, than he was pleased at having his life saved by Steiner, and proceeds to sock Steiner right in the face.

Clearly that was a stupid idea. Not only in the traditional sense, but also in the cultural sense. Because now he’s effectively challenged them to a duel. Not quite as eloquent as the deep south-style white glove, face slap duel challenge, but I guess it gets the point across.

Although it was a stupid move for Keita to punch Steiner, I was a little excited by it. Could it be that Keita has grown a pair? Is this a step in the right direction in Keita’s quest to not be a whiny, little bitch? Does Yukari Tamura get any more awesome than when she switches between her cute Rika voice and sage Rika voice in the same breath? Stay tuned, we’ll see next week in Kurokami.

The latest episode of Kurokami gets off to a pretty amusing start, with Kuro munching on uncooked ramen and giving Keita a peep show, as Akane walks in. Kuro realizing what’s up, gives Akane a little something something to stoke her flame with a peep show of her own.

Keita and Kuro now need to be physically near each other, because of the heart transplant surgery Kuro performed last week to save Keita’s life. This is particularly important in the first few days, otherwise both of them will die. Fortunately for us, it leads to a lot of funny scenes between Kuro and Akane. Kuro talks about staying close to Keita, not being able to do without him and wanting to sleep with him so they can “synchro.” All these to a.) not die and b.) not lose her abilities. Of course, Akane interprets those words with a totally different intent in mind. It’s your standard misunderstanding joke. But it never seems to grow old.

Akane and Keita go clothes shopping with Kuro, which leads to the single best image of the series so far: gothic lolita Kuro. *drool* I don’t know why that style is so enticing. Maybe because it’s a deliciously sweet & sour mix of cuteness and mystique. As with most of these weird styles, it typically looks much better in 2D than 3D. But in the rare cases that it looks good in 3D, it’s completely mesmerizing. But anyway, I digress. I think this whole scene only existed to show off Kuro’s cuteness, because in the end, even though she buys clothes, she doesn’t end up wearing them, choosing to go with her standard mountain rags and dog collar.

Unfortunately, the episode starts to go rapidly downhill from here. We get a glimpse of Kuro’s evil brother, who seems to be busy killing some people called “Tribal Ends,” sending his minions to find Kuro, and intimidating the konbini voyeur. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem like they see eye-to-eye completely. I’m guessing the konbini voyeur has bigger plans than what Kuro’s brother has in mind. We’re also introduced to Excel, the resident loli, and Steiner, her partner in crime. She’s noticed the unusually high amounts of tera in the area and has come to investigate. It seems like they have a good idea of what’s going on and who’s behind it.

Meanwhile, Keita heads to school while Kuro stays at home. Predictably, the bad guys track down Kuro and beat her soundly, as her abilities have been drastically diminished in lieu of the heart transplant. However, she manages to escape and tracks down Keita at school, who’s in the middle of a talk with his teacher about doppeliners. I’d thought it was suspicious how he’d been showing a little too much concern for Keita. But I was still a little surprised when he revealed himself to be one of the bad guys. Apparently he’s a villain too and proceeds to beat down on Kuro.

After a terrible beatdown, Keita stops acting like an idiot and decides it’s time for Kuro to kick some ass. This leads to a laughable power-up sequence in which Keita and Kuro “synchro.” This gives Kuro a super power boost, and she easily destroys Keita’s overmatched teacher.

So, let’s jump back to the beginning of the episode. I’m not sure if Akane was taking Kuro’s heart transplant talk seriously. Judging by her reaction, I don’t think she did. But then it doesn’t really make sense for her to tell Keita to get checked out at the hospital. Little inconsistencies like that bother me considerably. On another note, I can see why Keita doesn’t really give Akane a second glance. She just comes off as being a little too… motherly. I like Akane, but she’s surely no Tsugumi as far as childhood friends go.

The animation seemed to drop in quality this episode. Some of the fight scenes seemed a bit jerky, and there were a handful of other scenes where it looked like they skimped on some of the foreground details. Sort of disappointing considering it’s Sunrise. One of the things I’ve liked about them is their animation quality. Hopefully it’ll improve in future episodes.

What else needs to improve? The storytelling and the characterization. The premise, I think, is still really interesting. The whole thing with doppeliners and whatnot. But I’m disappointed that the konbini voyeur seems to be nothing more than your “I want to remake the world better” villain. And after some solid explanations last week about the doppeliner system, I was really disappointed that the whole synchro thing seems to be just dependent on Keita getting the fighting spirit. That whole power-up scene was terrible. It was like something out of Power Rangers or something. I’d be embarrassed to watch that in public.

But the biggest problem is with Keita. He hasn’t yet been likeable, but he hadn’t been totally unlikeable. And then the school scene happened. I was pretty disgusted by him as he stood idly by while his teacher sat on top of Kuro pounding on her. I realize Keita could feel some of the pain, but it doesn’t excuse him for not trying to pull his teacher off Kuro. He finally does something after his teacher lands like 20 punches, but even that (spraying the fire extinguisher) was pretty pathetic. He needs to a.) stop whining b.) stop being a pansy. Because right now he’s completely worthless as the main lead, and is dragging the show down.