Kurozuka:
The Complete Series
(2008/Mad House/Sony DVD Set)
Picture:
B Sound: C Extras: D English-Language Episodes: C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
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In
the 12th Century, Kuro was a wandering swordsman, until he met and
fell in love with the beautiful immortal vampire Kuromitsu. But
before he could become completely immortal he was betrayed and
separated from Kuromistu by his best friend/servant, Benkei. Kuro
wakes up and finds himself in the future in a post apocalyptic Japan
and discovers the organization that once hunted her and the ones
responsible for taking Kuromitsu still exist, the Red Army. Now,
Kuro searches and fights monsters, mutants and the Red Army to be
reunited with his beloved Kuromitsu in Kurozuka:
The Complete Series
(2008).
Kuro
was a samurai who fell in love with a beautiful immortal vampire,
Kuromitsu, but he learns she is being hunted by the Red Army, who
wants Kuromitsu in order to discover to find the secret of eternal
life. Kuro was betrayed and beheaded by his best friend Benkei, but
he did not die. Instead, he wakes up in the future without any
memories but only the desire to find Kuromitsu. As Kuro search for
Kuromitsu, he has flashbacks to lives and memories of being with
Kuromitsu through the ages, but he does not remember living them.
The dark truth is, only Kuro's head is immortal... because he was
beheaded too early, every 20 years, he has to cut off his head and
find a new body, but when he does he loses all the memories that he
experienced with each body.
Kuro
believes he is fighting to free Kuromitsu from the Red Army, but the
real truth there too is far darker and more dangerous, Kuromitsu
secretly has taken over and now leads the Red Army. And through the
Red Army (and her blood) they have created countless monsters and
mutants to find the secret to immortality, yet the real tragedy (and
her secret) is that she has been trying to create an immortal body
for Kuro.
This
was an interesting action packed anime with vampires and sword
fighting in a post apocalyptic future. In a lot of ways, the art
style reminded me of Ninja Scroll and had an interesting dark
story with tragic characters. My biggest complaint however, is that
the publishing company released only a dub version of this series, I
would have given it a higher rating if they had the original voice
tracks on it. It's watchable, but I would of enjoyed it more with
the original language, versus the lossy English dub Dolby Digital 5.1
tracks provided.
At
least the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is as good as it can
get in the format, but there are sadly no extras.
-
Ricky Chiang
