Kurokami: The Animation - Episode 16

Isn't it always the way - Just when you think you've got the upper hand over your enemy, he goes and pulls your Root out of the closet to confound your expectations of victory. At least, that's what happens if you're Keita Ibuki.

So, with Keita coming face to face with his root, what does he do - Bow down to Sawamura, have his Root killed and become a Minus Root? Of course not, instead he tells Sawamura where to stick it and carries on fighting, resulting in a "deep" syncronisation (and putting to bed her troubles last episode) that allows Kuro to defeat Shinra soundly, and even sees her going toe to toe with Raiga.


Of course, this is all good and well, but Keita's meeting with his Root sees his Tera drained by the minute, until our poor protagonist has been milked dry. It's at this point that our good friend deus ex machina steps in to save the day, resurrecting Keita while basically giving him an infinite amouont of Tera, meaning that both himself and Kuro "level up" to a ridiculous extent, giving Raiga a good pummeling and leaving Sawamura deliriously anguished as Keita swears his intentions to smash the Doppeliner system. That probably isn't going to be the number one priority straight away however, as come the end of the episode the entire planet is thrown into chaos...

Okay, so that aforementioned deus ex machina to revive Keita was both nonsensical and stupid, but that aside this was a real rip-roaring episode, packing in the action from start to finish with the kind of style and panache that Kurokami has rediscovered in recent episodes. It may well be your typical anime action stuff, with crazy power ups and moves that the characters use over and over again while shouting out their daft names, but then again if you loathe that kind of thing you will have stopped watching this series long before now. As for me, I rather like it when it's done well, and now that Kurokami is back on track I'm finding myself seriously thrilled by each new episode that comes along and the dose of action that it dishes up. Again, I find myself hoping it can keep it up as we enter what appears likely to be the next major story arc of the show.