Kurokami: The Animation - Episode 2

First his own mum, then his friend Yamada, closely followed by Mayu, the little girl who lived next door to Keita - Three deaths, all related to people seeing somebody else who looked identical to them shortly before they died. Something strange is going on, and only the odd, bare-footed girl Kuro seems to have the answers.


If answers are what Keita is looking for, it doesn't take long for him to find them... Or rather, for them to find him, and before he knows it Kuro has turned up at his apartment on the look-out for food. After initially turning her away he changes his mind and goes after her, at which point she regales him as to the full story of doppeliners, the system where there are three "copies" (or "Roots") of every individual's soul, all with differing amounts of "Tera" - When two of these identical individuals meet, the weakest one dies, with that individual's Tera 'soaked up' by the other, until one ends up with all 100% and becomes a "Super Root".

No sooner is this explanation finished, then Kuro comes under attack once again by fellow members of the group she dealt with an individual from in the opening episode. This time Keita gets caught up in the cross-fire, leaving Kuro no choice but to take drastic measures to save Keita's life... Beyond all that, is someone controlling the doppeliner system, and to what ends?

Following on from that first episode, Kurokami continues to look like a very polished series visually. As far as the actual storyline goes, it still feels far too early to say, and to be honest so much jargon gets bandied about in this second instalment that it actually becomes a bit off-putting in the end - I don't want everything spoon-fed to me by any means, but at least give me a few more clues as to what everyone is banging on about! Anyway, putting that to one side the action sequences are incredibly slick once again, both Kuro and Keita have the potential to be interesting characters, and the whole doppeliner system holds some obvious potential to build a fascinating story, so I'm willing to let the jargon float over my head for now to see where this show takes us as it progresses.