It’s going to be hard trying to do weekly updates of a currently releasing anime, considering how I did with Toradora (which I will finish eventually, but as of now its on hold due to hard drive restraints and various other reasons). Well let’s get started. Starting off the Winter season, Black God (Kurokami) The Animation is quite different from the manga (which I will post about below and compare the first volume and the first episode).

The Animation
Ibuki Keita, the male protagonist, is a student (about age 18 or so) secluded himself from many after the incident of his mom seeing a doppelganger and dying the day after from a hit-and-run. He’s cared for by Akane , his childhood friend. On his way to school, he meets up with one of his classmates Risa, who apparently won two tickets to a concert. At the concert Risa sees someone who looks exactly like her and we also get a cut of someone else who looks exactly like her. The next day, Risa tells her story to Keita and Keita warns her due to his past experience. He is see doing his usual, which is wandering around town, and he makes a stop at the usual ramen shop, where he is then met with Kuro and her dog Punipuni. She’s treated to ramen and explains the misconception of doppelgangers and the real things are doppeliners. The thing goes that in the world there are three of the same person and that the “root” would absorb the luck of the others if they were to die. Kuro also explains that she is a “Motosumitama” (which is to the extent of only mentioning it.) She’s quickly interrupted by a metal baseball bat. [insert fight scene]. After that she goes off to kill her brother. Keita gets home and finds out Risa was killed and the next day on his way from school he meets up with his neighbor’s daughter who also explains that she saw someone who looked like her. She was then ran over by a truck. After that, the episode ends.

Volume 1
Ibuki Keita, an otaku and game developer (possible in his 20s), lives alone and gets his money from two places. His father and his childhood friend Akane. Akane was given responsibility to care for Keita, but Keita is arrogant and usually just disregards it. Keita was called out by Akane for awhile, but he was only using this to get money from her. He leaves her after being called by his two friends who are working on the game with him. Getting the approval of their game from a company, they decide to go out drinking. After a night of drinking, Keita decides to get some ramen where he meets up with Kuro and her dog punipuni. Keita explains his death of his mother to the ramen shop owner and Kuro explains that its a misconception and that it was actually doppeliner, 3 people who share the same face and all. [insert fight scene here]. After Kuro defeats the guy, she despairs over her ramen and apologies for involving Keita in her matters. The guy apparently was not down and does some move and takes out Keita’s left arm. Kuro finishes off the guy. [Chapter Ends].

Noticeable Differences
-Keita’s character is very different. In the manga he’s somewhat of a douche, but does have friends. In the anime, he completely shuts himself off from everyone.

-First fight. Keita was suppose to lose his left arm after being caught in the crossfire, but in the anime he was merely hit and
brushed off. Also the first enemy was taken out easily in the anime.

-Overall beginning. We start off the anime with what seems to be Keita lying on the ground talking about the difference of luck and then we see a pool of blood which seems to be coming from him. In the manga, we start with the explanation of humans not realizing the doppeliners and the Motosumitama are their enemies.

Initial Thoughts on Anime
It’s actually not bad if you watch it for the sake of watching it and not comparing it to the manga. It’s animated quite nicely and overall it’s just a nice series from what I can tell. Hopefully, they keep this up and don’t completely drop by episode 3. The only thing I’m sad about is it’s already licensed and I think its being released 6 hours after Japanese releases, which doesn’t matter to me, but it really makes quality fansub groups drop out due to the licensing. Oh well. Overall I recommend this series.

Screenshots

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Trailer