The samurai setting caught my attention…
Quick Summary (edited from Anime News Network):
Kuro, a 12th-century Japanese man, flees into the mountains after losing to his brother, where he meets a strange, beautiful woman named Kuromitsu. Kuro falls in love with Kuromitsu but realizes she conceals a dark secret. She is unable to die and continues to live for thousands of years as Japan evolves into a future society.
Rating: Recommended
Comments:
Kurozuka (黒塚) is based on manga by Yumemakura Baku and Noguchi Takashi. I’m rather impressed by the first episode… blood-thirsty samurai (zombies?), swords, supernatural and a rather dark atmosphere. Action and animation quality is high with non-intrusive CG. Lovely character design. Although the story and themes are completely different (and I probably shouldn’t compare them), it reminds me of the quality of Shigurui (シグルイ), a pure samurai anime based on a manga/novel by Yamaguchi Takayuki which I enjoyed a lot. We’ll see if the story will turn out to be just as dark, gory and edgy.
Main character, Kuro is voiced by Miyano Mamoru, an absolute favourite of mine. I didn’t know he was involved before watching and was pleasantly surprised when I heard his voice. Paku Romi is great as usual. Only thing I found rather amusing was Mamo-chan’s voice acting in a kissing scene. A quick search on the net seemed to suggest that it was supposed to be an all-out SEX scene in the manga. Anyway, he sounded like he was gulping food down his throat. I mean yeah, his character was excited and all but he took one really big breath… HAHAHAHA… sorry =_+ Think I got too carried away… but still… HAHAHAHAAH xD I was quite distracted by it… I’m too used to listening to better love scene voice-acting in the BLCD department lol~ Mamo-chan Gambatte! Otherwise, it was a really good episode.
Hopefully they don’t branch into the “future” era too soon (not immediately in the next episode please… although I have a strong feeling it would lol~) cos I rather prefer to see more of the drama unfold in period setting. We’ll see if this series brings freshness to the theme of immortality.
Vintage: 2008-10-07
Director: Araki Tetsuro
Cast:
Miyano Mamoru as Kuro
Paku Romi as Kuromitsu
Kuwashima Houko as Rai
Fujiwara Keiji as Karuta
Uo Ken as Tonba
Irino Miyu as Kuon
Miki Shinichiro as Arashiyama
Ookawa Tohru as Hasegawa
Interesting. i’ll wait for more review from you before ‘indulge’ on it.
Lots of animes are quite promising at first but turns out to be nothing special or even annoying, i hope this one doesn’t turn out to be like tht.
Mmm episode 2 was not bad but I was hoping for more. A little confused but still ok. I think the 3rd episode is set in the future already =_= darn. I’ll give it a couple more episodes before deciding if I should continue with it.
I found another intriguing anime to follow: Mouryou no Hako (Character design by CLAMP) It seems to be a series of short mystery/horror stories set during the Showa period. It was quite beautiful. I’ll write a summary when I feel up to it. Need inspiration ^^
hi, i am a great fan of miyano mamoru but i have to agree with your comments about the kiss scene. i must say mamoru can’t do such scenes very well (another example is the so-called mind-fxxk scene in El Cazador de la Bruja, ep 2 or 3) because he has no experience in recording BL dramas. despite that, i was throughly distracted by him in this episode XPXPXP. nevertheless, yeah it is an effort worth-mentioning.
XD hehehe he is too cute… go go mamo-chan! I’m still following this anime… so far so good! ^^
I’ve not watched El Cazador de la Bruja… hmm~ but I’m curious now lol~
*update* erm… mamo-chan sounded like he had an asthma attack in that mind-fxxk scene *sweatdrop* o_O
Lovely cast. I know at least 4 of them on the list. Hehe…definite watch.
Yea, the story and mystery is becoming rather intriguing. I’m glad I stuck with it.
I watched epi one again the other day and yes when i watched that part he did sound like he was gulping something down!! But he did it in a cute way~! XD
I think he wanted to show kuros desperate side with the gasping and stuff maybe? I don’t know i just know that now when ever i think of kurozuka i’ll think of apple chopping. XD
Im glad i rewatched the first episode because it kinda explains things better for me with the last epi. Very neat. I miss this anime, they should make movie of it.;;
Kekeke I thought it was really amusing XD but yep! Cute! kekeke… I believe he wants to convey his desperation but… “Kuromitsu…. ah~ GULPS” XD LOL XD Hontoni Gomen! mamo-chan! (^///^)
Ei~ Why apple chopping? XD Hmm.. makes me wanna go rewatch again too… see what I missed out ^^
Oh yeah, there’s also a must-watch with miyano mamoru as one of the (in my opinion, really) sub characters… “Sword of the Stranger” AWESOME fight scenes and art. I thought he was a main but I guess his name was highlighted in the trailer mainly cos he is famous. Worth a watch ^^
ep! i meant “apple chomping” because when i saw the scene first thing came to mind was eating a apple…yea XD;;
looks interesting thank you for link~! ^o^
HAHAAH XD *glomps* crunch crunch~