Kurokami: The Animation - Episode 13

The half-way point of Kurokami left us in a pretty cruel condition, with a handful of high profile deaths or severe injuries, some decidedly crazy goings on that seemed to be opening up a door to an alternate dimension or something, and all round chaos as a result of the titanic battle between Reishin and... well, pretty much everybody else really.

After all of that, episode thirteen of the series fast forwards through six months and into a very changed world. For starters, the Kaionji Group appeared to have achieved most of their goals - Master Roots are now in place ruling the roost across Japan, causing its economy to thrive, and with those fortunate individuals giving preference in every way over the rank and file who can't claim to hold Root status. Of course, this enviable state of affairs has given the Kaionji Group plenty of clout and control worldwide, even as far as stopping any attempts from The Noble Ones to unseat or imbalance their power.

Meanwhile, Kuro appears to be trekking around alone with no sign of Keita, while Akane is held prisoner by Sawamura due to her own Root status. However, we do soon find out about Keita's fate, and find ourselves looking at a trusty band of fighters willing to battle it out against the Kaionji Group's plans no matter what.


Thus, episode thirteen of Kurokamiis broadly split down the middle - The first half fills us in on everything that's been going on during the six months that we missed (and pretty concisely too might I add), while the second half turns into a big, fat action fest as our remaining motley crew of heroes find themselves up against a bunch of power Mototsumitama in the employ of the Kaionji Group - A state of affairs which leads almost inevitably to Kuro "levelling up" (in terms of both costume and her powers incidientally), but more importantly giving us plenty of Kurokami action sequences at their best.

The shake-up to the story line afforded the second half of this series is, at this juncture, really very refreshing, allowing the show to break and do some far more interesting things to decent effect. The tone is a little darker, the action is more passionate, and the whole thing feels a little like it's had a shot in the arm over the already improving first half of the series. It remains quite typical fare within the confines of its own genre, but it's quite happy to exist within those parameters while still proving to be entertaining, and that works for me quite frankly.