Category: Kurozuka

Kurozuka – 03

by psgels, posted in Kurozuka



Short Synopsis: Kurou suddenly finds himself in a strange neon-lighted city.
Highlights: Talk about a change of setting…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10 (Interesting)
Well, so this series suddenly got a whole lot weirder with this episode. What started out as a rather extreme samurai-show suddenly turned into a post-apocalyptic amnesiac vampire action horror… thriller… something. Well, it’s definitely original. If I understood things correctly, then somehow Kurou has become an immortal being, and lived together with Kuromitsu for what seems like centuries, until the world got eventually nearly destroyed by a meteor and the nuclear(?) missiles that attempted to destroy these meteorites but failed. Then something happened that caused him to get separated from Kuromitsu and suffer from amnesia.

The bad guys haven’t changed, though, apart from the fact that they’ve become even more extreme than they already were, and have resorted to killing everything that’s in their path. I can understand that this is an action-series and all, but I do hope that the rest of the series will at least shed a bit more light into who the heck they are and what they’re after. I mean, it has to be pretty damn important if they’re still around, killing people.

I’m also wondering: what exactly do the Japanese find so fascinating about Vampires? It’s a bit of Western Folklore that seems to have caught on really well, with the result being tons of series that try to toss in some sort of vampire legend.

Kurozuka – 02

by psgels, posted in Kurozuka



Short Synopsis: A violent killer visits Kuromitsu.
Highlights: Production-values are less than in the first episode, but nonetheless gorgeous.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
As for One Outs, I’m very surprised at how underrated that series has become, considering how well-received Akagi and Kaiji were. Nevertheless, I still remember the pain it was to blog Kaiji, so I’m just going to sit back and watch it without blogging.

Anyway, I guess I’m going to be blogging lots of different horror-series this season. Kurozuka, Mouryou no Hako, Jigoku Shoujo, Casshern, Blade of the Immortal, Shikabane Hime. Heh, I originally didn’t intend to blog so many of them, but all of them have proved to be surprisingly good in their own way, and all of them explore different sides of the genre, from the flamboyant Jigoku Shoujo to the upbeat Blade of the Immortal, to the subtle Shikabane Hime, the charming Mouryou no Hako, and the depressing and thought-provoking Casshern.

Kurozuka promises to be explore the action and raw psychological side of horror. It definitely has the best action-scenes of the season, as well as the best OP. If the creators can get the characters right, then this series promises to be something very interesting, especially with the director of Death Note behind it. My big problem with Death Note is how it felt very unbalanced, and the creators never really seemed to exactly know what kind of direction they wanted. I’m really curious what his style can do to such a short, focused and series.

There’s also plenty of mystery in this series. Where does the cut-off head come into play? Why bother showing that killer in the first place? What was that strange room he ended up in? What happened to that main character’s best friend? Who were those monsters that were after Kuro anyway?

I think that this series needs to pay the most attention to giving the bad guys a bit more background and personality. Right now, they feel a bit too stereotypical. Kuro and Kuromitsu will probably be fine, and slowly grow throughout the series, but when it comes to bad guys that die within one episode, this series really needs to pay a bit more effort to make their deaths count.

Some quick first Impressions: Kurozuka, Bihada Ichizoku and Stitch!

by psgels, posted in Kurozuka, Some Quick First Impressions

Kurozuka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious woman who lives in the forest, while fleeing for people who are out to kill him.
Highlights: A LOT to like, a LOT to dislike
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I must say that I watched this right after being pumped up with adrenaline from Mouryou no Hako, so this series may have had a bit of an unfair advantage. Still, with that bit of adrenaline, I really loved this episode: the production-values are just awesome, the OP is the best of the season, the mysterious post-apocalyptic-samurai-setting sounded very interesting, and the horror-styled storytelling was excellent, and it keeps you on your toes. Still, there were a few things that might hurt this series in the future, so despite these excellent bits, I’m not going to label this series as among the best of the season yet. The thing that needed the most work was the cast of characters. They’re not fleshed out well enough, and the development was a bit too soon. The kiss came from nowhere, and especially the way that the lead character just “forgave” the woman that she brutally killed his partner. There’s also the superhuman powers that are a bit on the weak side, especially the way that the main character seemed to be virtually fine after being stabbed multiple times, among which in the stomach. What this series needs to do is the following: flesh out the characters; show different sides of them; show what they’re doing when they’re not on a mission. This premise is too good to be ruined by a faulty cast!

Bihada Ichizoku

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the prettiest girl in the world.
Highlights: Mary Sue! Mary Sue! Mary Sue!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 1,5/10
Ooh… the pain. The horrible, horrible pain! Who the hell writes this rubbish? I was pretty sure that Rosario to Vampire would take up the title of “worst first episode of the season”, and I’m so NOT pleased to see this series beat it. Really, it feels like this episode was directed by someone without any experience at all, someone who’d probably never even seen a proper anime or movie. That and a schedule that was way too tight are probably the only thing that could possibly explain the crap that’s supposed to be storytelling. Those glowy-eyes were probably the worst about this episode. For God’s sake, did nobody ever point out to the creators that that absolutely doesn’t work?

Stitch!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mischievous alien.
Highlights: Obviously aimed at children, but strangely charming.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Let me make use of this chance by saying that I absolutely HATE Disney’s western TV-series, based on their famous franchises. They’re nearly always just cheap rip-offs of their original franchises, that use just the names and characters to get people to watch them, they’ve got a mediocre and often stupid plot and there’s no room for character-development because then they’d fall out of the line with their original character. So no, I wasn’t looking forward to this one at all, especially after having seen its western counterpart. Though I have to admit: the set-up that the eastern creators chose for does allow for character-development. This episode very much established the bond between Yuuna (yes: Yuuna; not Lilo) and Stitch, and this bond between them has all the potential to grow. There’s an interesting sense of innocence between the two, and they feel like children. Unfortunately, this series downright sucks when it attempts action-scenes. They’re way too energetic and unrealistic to be taken seriously, and the bad guys are just way too stereotypical.