(L) Kurokami

[JediNight]

TBH I thought that the exchanging arms thing was extremely corny in the manga, so the "exchanging life essence" or whatever is a good change. He may also have been changed to a HS student to appeal to a broader audience that might have been turned off with seeing it as an "otaku" show. Whats her name being a guardian for a HS student also seems more logical than her supporting a 20s something working on eroge.

The other changes can be explained away as storyboarding decisions in order to have it take place across 2 episodes rather than be rushed into 1.

Although I will admit the sudden "stock footage" powerup scene from Keita was WTF? as he just suddenly knows what to do...

I haven't read that far into the manga though, so I don't know how central the game development was supposed to be to the story.

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by JediNight

TBH I thought that the exchanging arms thing was extremely corny in the manga, so the "exchanging life essence" or whatever is a good change. He may also have been changed to a HS student to appeal to a broader audience that might have been turned off with seeing it as an "otaku" show. Whats her name being a guardian for a HS student also seems more logical than her supporting a 20s something working on eroge.

You must not have paid enough attention

Spoiler:

They exchanged hearts

In a very...relaxed sorta fashion for Kuro at least.

And I prefer the latter since it is less typical (plus being "just a guardian" took a bit of special something out of the story :/).

[Malkuth]

Finally, I watched ep.2. So what I got out of it:

part one: recap, mediocre OP, recap;
part two: Keita, in hardcore-emo mode, angsting and behaving like a jerk;
part three: semi-random fight scene and sunrise version of the contract.

The contract part seemed to me quite weak the way they presented it, though the original idea to switch the arm with a heart feats the emo-Keita better. Maybe now with Kuro's he might get over his decade long depression

By the way, I also watch the dub of episode one ... hilarious! Especially Akane's VA was totally out-of-place in her acting ... on par with Ouri from Shikabane The rest were just the usual deal, sounding bored, which by the way strangly fits the anime-Keita

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

By the way, I also watch the dub of episode one ... hilarious! Especially Akane's VA was totally out-of-place in her acting ... on par with Ouri from Shikabane The rest were just the usual deal, sounding bored, which by the way strangly fits the anime-Keita

I've watched both dub episodes. I'd say the dub is what I'd consider above average.

Fun fact, I'm fairly certain they chose Julie Ann Taylor to voice Akane because she also dubbed over Ohara Sayaka's role in Code Geass (Milly Ashford).

[Kaioshin Sama]

I'd definitely place the dub in the above average category and in some ways I actually prefer it to the Japanese version. I just feel the acting works a lot better in some cases. Then again I guess there's no pleasing some people when it comes to dubs no matter what the case is.

And since nobody seems to have even considered my advice when it comes to these all-important changes that seem to be all anybody wants to talk about period I figure I might as well weigh in. If I can't reason with them I might as well join them so to speak. Anyway, I prefer the exchange of hearts to the exchange of hands and here's why. When you share a hand it means you show compassion, but when you share a heart it's as if to say you are truly make a commitment. The hand thing just isn't as effective. Of course some people will never agree and are probably going to complain about the "OMG changes" all the way through the entire thing, but I still don't give a rat's ass about them. If it works then it works, and this works. It may not be more then a standard shonen series at this point, but it also should not be held hostage by the insignificant measure of being a verbatim adaptation of it's source.

At this rate though I'm tempted to start a petition to get this threads title changed to the Kurokami Anime/Manga comparison thread since that's all anybody talks about anymore it seems.

Originally Posted by Malkuth

Finally, I watched ep.2. So what I got out of it:

part one: recap, mediocre OP, recap;
part two: Keita, in hardcore-emo mode, angsting and behaving like a jerk;
part three: semi-random fight scene and sunrise version of the contract.

The contract part seemed to me quite weak the way they presented it, though the original idea to switch the arm with a heart feats the emo-Keita better. Maybe now with Kuro's he might get over his decade long depression

By the way, I also watch the dub of episode one ... hilarious! Especially Akane's VA was totally out-of-place in her acting ... on par with Ouri from Shikabane The rest were just the usual deal, sounding bored, which by the way strangly fits the anime-Keita

Buddy, seriously, if it's that big an issue with you then just stick to the manga.

[raidou]

Haven't watch ep2 yet.... bloody office connection blocking torrents but,

Exchange of heart eh~ does that increase the chance of them going lovey dovey

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by raidou

Haven't watch ep2 yet.... bloody office connection blocking torrents but,

Exchange of heart eh~ does that increase the chance of them going lovey dovey

I neglected to mention that it does leave room open for a bit more of a sappy story between the two. Hopefully it transcends that to some extent.

[orion]

Originally Posted by raidou

Haven't watch ep2 yet.... bloody office connection blocking torrents but,

Exchange of heart eh~ does that increase the chance of them going lovey dovey

Well appearance wise they are close to the same age. He is a heterosexual teen male. If they are living in the same apartment, the odds become 99.9999999999999999%.

Akane is the surrogate sister here.

[raidou]

Oh god!! Between the synchro animation and imagining Kuro Keita going ….. The “Sekiha love love Tenkyoken” image suddenly pop out

“Shudder”

Well..I still can’t imagine kuro’s expression if she is in love. She blush way too often in the manga, kinda get used to it.

Originally Posted by orion

Akane is the surrogate sister here.

What is the chance of her being a shota-con here any sign yet from ep2?

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Eej

If you haven't realized that this show is only loosely following the manga after watching ep 1, you probably shouldn't bother watching it. No one's supposed to do anything because they've changed almost everything and if you're hung up on that, you're only going to bring misery to yourself.

Uh.. most people do realize it's loosely based and is an alternate world version.. we're bitching because it's much lower quality thus far, for examples sake instead of getting the Tenchi Muyo OVAs (Black God Manga) we're getting Tenchi in Tokyo (Black God Alternate World Anime).

It's not like people are just bitching because it's not a 1:1 copy of the manga, Kannagi added a few things as well as having a filler episode and is considered one of the better manga adaptions around. Rideback's first episode compressed a lot of early manga chapters and has achieved nearly universal praise (but hey maybe no one read the manga lol?). Asu no Yoichi! changed around the first chapter completely but unlike KuroKami it kept the spirit of the manga and didn't butcher any characters and once again no complaints there. Kurozuka changed things but it was done well and I guess that it helped that the manga had a terrible non ending...

Unless Sunrise get their ass into gear and up the quality of this series it's going to be another Rosario + Vampire in that we say "Nice manga... shame about the anime". And really if they were going to alternate world it they should've taken a page out of the book of AIC's Ga-Rei Zero (than again the anime was more edgier, than the manga...) and gone all the way instead of half assing it or dumbing it down.

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Buddy, seriously, if it's that big an issue with you then just stick to the manga.

I stick to the manga (actually, waiting V.09) ... but seriously, you completely missed the fact that I praised several of the choices the studio made for the 2nd episode, like body part exchange (nice idea, weak execution).

In any case, it was rather obvious even before the pre-airing that most of the things that made the manga unique would be removed in order to appeal to the masses, which for some people is a good thing. It never hurts though to hear the counter-argument.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Well I've read the manga up to where we are as of episode 02 and now I really don't think either are all that much to write home about. Neither really goes beyond the shonen genre so far and the only major difference I found other then the events that were shifted around is that Keita is older and more of the typical loudmouth often found in shonen manga (Yuusuke, Naruto, Luffy, Taiga Kuzumi etc). They just changed him from one stereotype to another, unfortunately it had to be one that was unpopular with the shonen crowd. Oh well....

As for the example of Rideback that Westlo brought up, I don't think it's a valid comparison since there other factors at work in why it has achieved universally praise, most seemingly having to do with the fact that it's Madhouse and somehow that makes it automatically perfect. The fact that few even stopped to consider that there might have been flaws, however minor, should clue anyone in on how that one was fast tracked on the road to greatness. Gotta love it when that happens. Don't get me wrong, I like Rideback and think it's a much fresher series then Kurokami, but I wouldn't exactly say it was vetted to the same degree Kurokami has been, if at all.

Anyway, anyone ever see City Hunter? For some reason the opening reminds me a bit of the type you might see in that classic franchise.

[Eej]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Uh.. most people do realize it's loosely based and is an alternate world version.. we're bitching because it's much lower quality thus far, for examples sake instead of getting the Tenchi Muyo OVAs (Black God Manga) we're getting Tenchi in Tokyo (Black God Alternate World Anime).

Okay, so you realize that it's only loosely based on the manga but at the same time you are holding the anime up to the standards set by the manga. So really, you haven't accepted my point that this is completely different from the manga.

I see.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Well I've read the manga up to where we are as of episode 02 and now I really don't think either are all that much to write home about. Neither really goes beyond the shonen genre so far and the only major difference I found other then the events that were shifted around is that Keita is older and more of the typical loudmouth often found in shonen manga (Yuusuke, Naruto, Luffy, Taiga Kuzumi etc). They just changed him from one stereotype to another, unfortunately it had to be one that was unpopular with the shonen crowd. Oh well....

Black God is a seinen series.

In any case, episode 2 consists of boring but necessary exposition. Nothing to see here. The synchro scene was particularly awful and out of place.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Eej

Black God is a seinen series.

In any case, episode 2 consists of boring but necessary exposition. Nothing to see here. The synchro scene was particularly awful and out of place.

That very might be, but it still comes across like a shonen series with both the manga and the anime. Care to share what specifically was awful about the synchro scene? Not that I have any specific reason to agree or disagree, I'm just curious since you seem to feel so strongly about it.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Eej

Okay, so you realize that it's only loosely based on the manga but at the same time you are holding the anime up to the standards set by the manga. So really, you haven't accepted my point that this is completely different from the manga.

I see.

It's utterly unrealistic to expect people to not compare the two, you really expect for example people to not compare the alternate world Macross Frontier movie to the tv series? Manga to anime and light novel to anime always gets compared even if they are alternate works. Alternate world Tenchi In Tokyo got compared to it's previous versions, same with El Hazard.

Black God is a seinen series.

I wouldn't call the anime seinen, it's made it clear they are after a younger audience which would make it shonen.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin

most seemingly having to do with the fact that it's Madhouse and somehow that makes it automatically perfect

Madhouse had a reputation for churning out crap not to long ago (probably peaked around the release of TenTen from what I saw), releasing good series after good series tends to fix that problem Kaioshin... I thought you were ignoring me btw

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Westy

It's utterly unrealistic to expect people to not compare the two, you really expect for example people to not compare the alternate world Macross Frontier movie to the tv series? Manga to anime and light novel to anime always gets compared even if they are alternate works. Alternate world Tenchi In Tokyo got compared to it's previous versions, same with El Hazard.



I wouldn't call the anime seinen, it's made it clear they are after a younger audience which would make it shonen.



Madhouse had a reputation for churning out crap not to long ago (probably peaked around the release of TenTen from what I saw), releasing good series after good series tends to fix that problem Kaioshin... I thought you were ignoring me btw

Yeah, I decided to give you a chance because I was operating under the misplaced faith that you would stop missing the point and letting personal biases and petty vendettas cloud the issues at hand.

The idea that it comes down to fixing a problem rings hollow to me, especially since it implies that I felt that the issue was that there was some sort of problem that needed fixing, which isn't even close to being the case. Actually it comes down to little more then a matter of perspective. Madhouse could have released all of the good series in the world in Monster and Claymore (even though I think the latter is utterly medicore, people still use it as an example of something good so I'm throwing it in) and I still wouldn't give a damn when it comes to their latest show.

Every series deserves the same vetting process and to have both it's merits and flaws recognized regardless of any reputation a studios preceding series may have carried. Case in point the very studio that brought us this adaptation. In the past couple of years they've released some of what I think are the most influential and enjoyable series out there, but no matter how you turn it, I can't help but find along with others that Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujo is mediocore at best, a cheap cash-in pander at worst. For all that clout Sunrise earned with me it doesn't matter, they got the same vetting process with Sora Kake that I give to everything and they failed to make the cut with it. As too will Kurokami have the same level of scrutiny I give to everything as time goes on. I've already said that I find it generic shonenish with what might at least be a certain degree of charm hiding beneath it's premise, so we'll have to see where that takes us.

This is getting a little complex, so to summarize, we have one person who thinks that anime comes off as shonen and the manga as seinen, we have one person who thinks that both are seinen, and one person who thinks that both come across as shonen.

My reason for feeling that both come across as shonen is that both contain the whole fighting, powering up and awkward (unnecessary even) terminology that is common to the shonen style of storytelling. So far both have also had the trait common to shonen series of matching up unusual fighting styles, having characters comment on them and analyzing the possibilities of the outcome, and resolving it all through a complex series of explanations delivered by the combatants about why power x is going to win them the fight. Also neither seems to be aiming towards stimulating the brain with any truly complex themes, which is something I would expect of a series labelled as seinen. So at the end of the day it might be labelled seinen, but I tend to view it as shonen.

[Haruyasha]

Originally Posted by JediNight

TBH I thought that the exchanging arms thing was extremely corny in the manga, so the "exchanging life essence" or whatever is a good change.

I wish they stuck with the original. What is with this sudden change?

That whole scene is just lame.. he falls over like a sack of potatoes.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Haruyasha

I wish they stuck with the original. What is with this sudden change?

Changes are not bad things by default.

Originally Posted by Haruyasha

That whole scene is just lame.. he falls over like a sack of potatoes.

Are you suggesting that is not a normal reaction from a human being when sustaining such an injury as he did ?

[Eej]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

That very might be, but it still comes across like a shonen series with both the manga and the anime. Care to share what specifically was awful about the synchro scene? Not that I have any specific reason to agree or disagree, I'm just curious since you seem to feel so strongly about it.

Hand glows, Keita does a Lelouch-esque hand gesture to a moving POWA UP background and then yells at Kuro to beat the guy up. The whole thing is just awful and reeked of generic shounen attack sequence. I mean, you don't even know why he's angry.

[jennkei]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

part one: recap, mediocre OP, recap;
part two: Keita, in hardcore-emo mode, angsting and behaving like a jerk;
part three: semi-random fight scene and sunrise version of the contract.

Haha, I arrived at much the same conclusion on my blog post of the ep. Now I'm wondering if I should read the manga...but it seems there're differences. ._.