Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

Series Information

ANN Encyclopedia | AniDB | AnimeNfo
Genres: Action, Fantasy
Production: Sunrise
OP: 「sympathizer」 by 栗林みな実 (Kuribayashi Minami)
ED: 「彩の無い世界」 (Iro no Nai Sekai) by 妖精帝國 (Yousei Teikoku)
『KUROKAMI 黒神 The Animation』 オフィシャルサイト

[ Episode 1: Doppeliner ]

The OP is just great stuff. Kuribayashi Minami is always good to have for a theme song, but this was rather different from her previous works. Not that that’s bad because I love this direction too; I usually don’t hear Minami sing these kind of songs. It’s fast-paced and edgy so you can tell that there will be a lot of action fighting. Though I don’t think it’s as awesome as Shining Days or Crystal Energy, but that’s probably my My-HiME/Otome fanboyism talking. All the main characters are introduced here along with the antagonists, plus a few mysterious ones that we’ll be seeing later, and of course, Excel and Steiner!!

In short, high school student Ibuki Keita has a constant run with bad luck, as people around him are getting killed in accidents one by one. It all started with his mother’s death. As a child, Keita was walking with his mother when they meet eyes with a woman, a look-alike of Keita’s mother. In other words, a doppelganger. The next day, Keita’s mother was hit by a car. Sometime during his young childhood, his friend also passed away.

While having a bowl of ramen, a young girl called Kuro and her pup Punipuni walk over to the cart starved. Keita offers his bowl to her. He talks to the cart owner about doppelgangers and how seeing your own doppelganger means death will come your way. Kuro joins in the conversation and corrects him by saying those aren’t doppelgangers, but doppeliners, which exist to keep the balance of Tera. She goes on to mention terminology unfamiliar with Keita, but her explanation runs short as a cloaked man strikes Kuro with a baseball bat. All seems hopeless as Kuro gets beaten to a pulp until she gets up and pulls a flurry of punches. Kuro suddenly takes leave “to kill her brother.” The police arrive at the scene but the defeated cloaked man is nowhere in sight. At home finds out his best friend Risa is killed after meeting her doppelganger at a concert. Right in front of his eyes, Keita’s next-door neightbor’s kid is hit by a truck at high speed. A man who looks like Keita’s childhood friend is seen gathering people who are doppeliners of people such as Keita’s neighbor Mayu and his friend Risa. He declares they are now “Master Roots.”

Okay, that wasn’t short at all.

By now, most of you should know that there are considerable differences between the anime and the manga, so I won’t delve deep into that, as there are already enough nitpicking to go around. Because this is “The Animation,” it’s safe to conclude that this was intentionally conceptualized as an alternate telling of the original story, set in its own universe. Eej of One Man Army, an Army of One sums it up for what you want to banter about. Personally, I don’t mind some of the changes made, but it gets me wondering why bother changing characters and other things at all because there was nothing wrong with making an adaptation that was strongly following the original work. I’ve yet to check out the dub since I don’t actually have iaTV (not a lot of people would have this channel, let alone know of it), but if I manage to find it online, I’m definitely taking a look.

Kurokami’s ED theme is called… well I think its name is “Sai no Nai Sekai,” but I can’t really tell yet. Everywhere else, I see its “Irodori no Nai Sekai” but that’s clearly wrong, looking at the kanji and all. I even saw just the “Iro” part, but I still say that’s wrong. Anyway, the song is performed by Yousei Teikoku, one of my personal favorites for having a distinct gothic sound to their music. The song starts off a bit calmly and at a steady pace but gradually the atmosphere adjusts itself to a more gloomy mood, so to speak. The ED sequence mainly depicts the city being torn and destructed from god knows what, with Kuro watching and walking, day changing to night, at the buildings that look like they’ve been bombed. Unfortunately, the outro lasts for only a minute, but the full version sounds great.

The premiere itself wasn’t bad. A lot of things happened (involving Keita) and Kuro’s fight scene was animated amazingly. I especially enjoyed when she was owning the guy while the awesome fight music was playing in the background. Seiyuu talent is decent. I’ve heard Noriko before but not a lot. Her role as Kuro is pretty fun to say the least. It’s a good choice as you can hear the difference from her cute voice when she’s all over her ramen to her intimidating and deep voice when she’s in the fray.

Well, the anime is set for 12 episodes so this would definitely end sooner than expected. Perhaps Sunrise can remake it again after the manga ends. Regardless, the anime itself is still quite enjoyable and with a shift from the original work, I’m eager to see just how this will turn out.