[Review] Kuromukuro: A Samurai out of time
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Samurai have been part of various media for centuries, especially in their place of origin, Japan. From Seven Samurai to Samurai Champloo, these warriors have been well represented for generations. But what if you combine them with another staple of Japanese media, giant robots? You’ll get various answers, but one major stand out is Netflix’s 2016 anime, Kuromukuro.
I have quite some nostalgia for this show, as I remember watching this anime on summer break during High School with a PS4 my dad bought me in 2017. Whenever I watch a show from my past, it’s often a coin toss whether I can still enjoy it as an adult, or whether it’ll age like milk. I am happy to say that Kuromukuro is the former, but it does have some things that hold it back. That’s my obligatory TL;DR so people won’t complain about my long reviews, but let’s get into it.
**Story: **
Centuries after his final battle, a samurai by the name Kennosuke Tokisada Oma finds himself in modern Japan that’s nothing like the feudal Japan he grew up in to say the least. Right in time for unknown aliens known as “Efidorg” to invade Earth to capture an artifact called “the pivot stone”. Leading him to team up with other soldiers from Earth in this timeline, along with a highschooler named Yukina Shirahane who is forced into this by pure coincidence. Together they fight the unknown threat and learn about their true motives. It’s a pretty simple premise that is paced out really well. I like how we don’t know about the aliens in the beginning, as it makes them more of a threat. It also makes the fight scenes more intense, as we don’t know how our heroes will defeat them. I also like the down time the heroes have, as it not only allows for brevity with the tone of the show, but it also allows us to see Kennosuke interacting with modern day society.
The only thing that I didn’t enjoy was the high school stuff in the show. There are times when it is interesting, like when Yukina felt guilty for what happened to 2 of her classmates or the accident during the festival. Otherwise, the stuff that happens in their school pales in comparison to the alien fights. The worst part is this small “arc” where one of the students is moving away and doesn’t know how to tell any, and it gets dropped towards the end. I don’t know, I just found that really boring and meaningless.
On the whole, the storytelling is pretty decent. Nothing that’ll reinvent the wheel, but I thought it was pretty fun. I really like the fight against the aliens, and seeing our protagonist out of time interact with the modern world around us was neat. The highschool stuff may have drag it down it, but luckily not enough to make it intolerable. So overall, pretty decent story.
Characters:
But what’s a story without some characters? From both my watches, I often liked the 2 main leads and somewhat tolerated the side characters. This is a decent cast for 2 reasons. 1.) The interactions they have with one another is pretty charming and it adds a level of depth to these characters. And 2.) The english voice cast is really solid. Not only do we have the usual big names, but the voice direction was handled pretty well here.
Starting with the Samurai out of time, Kennosuke Tokisada Oma. He’s honestly the best character in the show, bar none. And it’s for 2 reasons (again). For 1.) He’s actually funny. I think the fish out of water angle was used at its best with Ken. A Samurai from Feudal Japan interacting with modern day technology is genuinely funny and a laugh out of me. 2.) He has the most depth to him, because he’s emotionally aimless after basically losing everything. He lost the castle he was loyal to, the princess he devoted his life to, and doesn’t really have a purpose anymore. This makes us sympathetic towards the guy, as we want him to find a new purpose in life and let go of his past grief (too bad the ending threw that away, but I’ll burn that bridge when I get there).
As for the deuteragonist, Yukina Shirahane was a pretty good foil towards Kennosuke. She’s also aimless in life, but she’s a little more timid and shy most of the time. However, unlike Kennosuke whose arc was a lot more clear, Yukina is a little all over the place. Mainly when she quit piloting the Kuromukuro. At 1st, she seems put off by the fact that one of the Efidorg pilots looked like a human before blowing himself up, but then she learned that her high school friends were MIA, so I thought that meant that she needed to learn that it’s important to let that grief go whenever she’s in combat (or something like). But when Kennosuke found her, she just “wants to be appreciated”? Like, where did that come from? Luckily there’s other aspects of her character that make her pretty likeable. Mainly, her empathy, as she connects to a lot of people. Even towards one of the Efidorg characters when they were turning a new leaf.
As for the connection between Kennosuke & Yukina, it’s one of my favorite parts of the anime. I just love seeing Yukina keeping Kennosuke out of trouble and Kennosuke getting Yukina out of her shell. It’s a cute dynamic elevated by some good chemistry and especially the voice cast. Kennosuke is voiced by Bryce Papenbrook and Yukina is voiced by Cherami Leigh. If you’re aware of voice acting roles as much as I am, you’ll know that both VAs also voice Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online. That fact actually makes their dynamic really more enjoyable, as it’s basically just Asuna keeping Kirito with a samurai mindset out of trouble. Those 2 are the best characters, which is a shame, since everyone else isn’t as good. Not bad, as there were some that kept me entertained as I was watching. But, they don’t have a lasting impression as much as the main 2.
Starting with Kurobe labs personnel, most of them were pretty entertaining, just not that deep as characters. Hiromi Shirahane is Yukina’s mom & the director of the Labs, and it’s pretty comedic how laidback she is with her duties as a director and as a mother. However, when push comes to shove, she’s willing to support her daughter and do whatever it takes to protect her. As for the person who’s really keeping Kurobe Labs in check, Arthur Graham was a pretty calm and collective commander who made sure everyone was kept in line without being overly strict about it. Beth and Rita were the stereotypical women in the chair, where they state the situation at hand. Every mecha series needs people like them, so there’s not a lot to comment on. Same thing with the mechanics, like Paula or Minoru. Dr. Hausen is a pretty interesting character for the Doctor archetype, as he’s pretty much a wild card. One minute, he’s a dedicated doctor who does everything to keep his patients healthy, and next thing you know, he wants to use people like Kennosuke or even Yukina as test subjects. I remember thinking that he was going to willing join Elfidorg, but luckily he doesn’t and remain loyal to the Labs for better & worse.
That’s all the personal, but about the GAUS pilots? They’re pretty entertaining too, at least most of them. Tom Borden was easily the funniest, as he’s pretty loud mouth & cocky. Basically embodying a lot of Americans, like most anime parodying us. I think most of the humor from this character definitely came from Todd Haberkorn’s performance. The man is always extra with his roles, what can I say. Sophie Noel started off as cold at first, which kinda gave me a bad impression at first. But over the series she started to warm up a little and began to be more supportive towards her teammates. Especially towards Kennosuke, since they had a small rivalry in the beginning. I also really liked her butler, Sebastian. Think Alfred Pennyworth, but also as a mecha pilot. The only GAUS pilot I didn’t really care for was Shenmei Liu, as she didn’t have much of a background. She does throw some witty snark sometimes, and is a decent counterbalance with Tom, but I wish she & him had more interactions to show their banterous relationship. The crew at Kurobe Labs were fun to watch, as their interactions with the Main characters were pretty cute.
I can’t say the same thing towards the Highschool kids. Not all of them were bad, but man were they a drag on the plot. Mika Ogino serves as the expressive highschool friend towards Yukina, which is fine. Though Christina Vee is giving a pretty good performance with this character. Jundai Kayahara had some funny moments here and there, with his desire to be a twitch streamer. Also the twist that he’s Dr. Hausen’s son was pretty funny. The only characters that got my nerves were Ryoto Akagi & Jose Carlos Takasuka. Ryoto was pretty obnoxious at times with his tough and impulsive personality, but his desire to be with Yukina kinda made things worse. Him wanting to be a GAUS pilot could’ve been interesting, and that training sequence was fun. But that went nowhere until the epilouge. And while Carlos wasn’t annoying in terms of personality, as he was pretty laid back & timid. But his arc of him needing to tell his friends that he’s moving was really annoying & pointless. Oh no, I’m moving away. How should I tell my friends/s. THERE"S FUCKING ALIENS ATTACKING EARTH, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU MOVING BACK TO HAWAII!!! The teachers were honestly the best characters in the high school cast. Naoki Takekuma was pretty interesting, as I thought that he was going to be a one note teacher character. But they actually made him pretty interesting, as he can do first aid out of the blue, he actually cares about the students’ future, and I like that little speech he gave to motivate them into becoming better. Plus, Kyle McCarley does a pretty good job at this role. And Marina Unami was pretty funny, with her desire to get Kennosuke & Yukina together.
As for the other Shirahanes, Yakushi Osho seemed like a good uncle, and I liked that he was the 1st person who communicated with Kennosuke, outside of Yukina, give the fact that he is a monk. Koharu was cute too, as Yukina’s little sister. It’s also kinda ironic that Cassandra Lee Morris voices her, if you know what I mean. So that’s the important characters from Earth.
But what about the Efidorgs? They really don’t really have much personality, outside of wanting world domination & viewing themselves as superior. This would usually be a negative, but personality, I think it’s appropriate. Not only knowing less of them makes them more of a threat, it also makes learning about their goals more interesting. The only character with any kind of characterization is Muetta. It turns out that she’s a clone of princess Yukki, but she had her mind altered to serve the Efidorgs. While she was hell bent on killing Kennosuke, once she learned about how she was nothing more than a clone with fake memories, you can’t help but feel bad about her. Her life was a lie and was created for nothing more to fulfill the Efidorgs goals, so she didn’t have much of a choice. I liked that after getting a pep talk from Yukina, she joins the team to fight back. And finally we have a twist-hero, Zelleager Myundef Vishrai (or just Zell for short). Throughout the story, you expected him to be part of the Efidorgs, as Kennosuke keeped calling them “Orges” and this looks like said Orgers from Japanese folklore. But it turns out that he is actually a pretty chill guy who wants to support our heroes. Especially since he knew Yukina’s father and unfortunately witnessed his death. I like how he’s built up throughout the show; he starts off from watching within the shadows, but eventually supports Ken and the gang.
Overall I think this is a really strong cast of characters. From their banter to the voice acting, I just like seeing these characters on screen. And while the antagonists didn’t have much personality, they did their jobs really well.
World Building (or just the antagonist and mecha lingo):
In terms of world building, there’s honestly not a ton to discuss. So I’ll just use this time to discuss the antagonists and the technical aspects of the mecha used in this show. The villains of the show are called Efidorgs, and they basically serve as the main cause of a lot of the conflicts of the show. They may be the stereotypical world conquering aliens, but the more we learn about them, the more sinister they become. For starters, they steal DNA from the inhabitants of the planet they’re invading, so they can clone them for their ranks. They also mind control said inhabitants, as we see towards the end, to do grueling labor. So the amount of heinous actions they commit already makes them pretty evil, but it doesn’t stop there. They’re after an artifact called the "Pivot Stone”, which will allow them to teleport their forces to invade any planet they choose. Think the Tesseract from Avengers, with a glowing light in the sky. All of these make them pretty effective villains.
As for the mecha in this show, I like how they have different terms depending on who is using them. On Earth, they would call them a Geoframe, Kennosuke calls them a Mukuro, and Efidorg calls them Grongels. It’s a minor detail that I appreciate, as it differentiates them from one another. When it comes to explaining why a world has mecha, I don’t think it should be something like “how are they able to stand up without falling down” or “why don’t they just use jets, tanks, or nukes”. Realistic questions like that just makes discussing mecha pretty boring. For me, I think a good question to ask is, “what led to the creation of these mecha” or “why do certain attacks work and others don’t”. In this show, the reason why the Geoframes were created was because they were based on the Kuromukuro, a machine that lay dormant until Kennousuke awakened it. And the reason why only melee attacks work, is because the Grongels have a Gravitational Field that blocks all ranged attacks. Whether it’s believable or not, I’ll leave up to you. But for me personally, it made the units they pilot more interesting and made the fights more engaging. So overall, I like how they handled it.
Mecha:
Since I got the mecha jargon out of the way, I can talk about the designs themselves. These are some pretty good designs, with some pretty good weapons to boot. It’s just a shame that the Kuromukuro wiki is lacking in details, but that ain’t going to stop me. Starting with the titular Mukuro, the Kuromukuro. Out of every samurai based mecha, this one’s probably the best one. I like the black & red color scheme, broken up with golden bolts. It also has a cube that is essentially a core fighter, that Kennosuke called horse. It only has 2 katanas, but in this case it is appropriate. For starters, the enemy Grongels have a barrier that blocks all ranged attacks, so even if it has some range armaments, it wouldn’t do much anyways. Another reason is because Kennosuke is a trained samurai who only really knew how to use swords. It’s better than the Sengoku Astray, I’ll say that much. Also, I like how it gets a flight pack in the form of the Crow, giving it atmospheric abilities & a Yari spear.
The other Geoframes are pretty cool, namely the GAUS units. Both GAUS 1 & 2 are pretty well designed and I like the blocky look of them. I also like how differently they fight, with GAUS 1 being more mobile and aggressive & mobile, while GAUS 2 is more reserved & durable. They all have about the same loadout; a gatling gun that’s basically useless in this situation, a shield, and some knives. Later on, it gets an explosive spear that becomes more effective against the Grongels. Another thing I like about this show, the mecha grow as they face new challenges. They eventually get a 3rd unit that’s basically the same, but with a broad sword from an enemy unit I’ll talk about later. The Dwarf looks fine with their machine guns & missiles, but they are unfortunately cannon fodder towards the Grongels.
Which leads to the Efidorg’s Grongels themselves. Each of them have a gimmick that makes them a unique challenge for the Geoframes. The Cactus are the basic footsoldiers units with knife hands, but in swarms they’re pretty deadly. The Headless are grunts with the same 2x katanas the Kuromukuro wields, and are also a threat in numbers. As for the general units;
- there’s Yellowcrab with those 2x katanas & extendable arms.
- Long Arm, as the name implies, have 2x long arms, 6x katanas, and a broad sword that the Labs eventually used.
- Spider is a nimble machine with 4 legs & a naginata.
- Medusa has a total of 8x blades. Blue bird is a flight type with pile bunker at the nose & can shoot spikes.
- Rockhead has tonfas and can dash long distances.
- And finally, we have the final boss, Orge with both 4x flexible blades & the ability to fly.
All of the Grongels from Efidorg gives the Geoframes a really good challenge and pushes them to think outside the box. This does everything Aldnoah.Zero failed to do.
Overall, I just really like these designs. They look good, are well equipped, and were framed pretty well in the fight scenes with some good CGI animation. What more can you want? Well……
Ending:
I really like this anime, I really do. But MAAANNN the ending sucked so much. It’s basically the opposite of Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer, where the ending was so good, it gaslighted everyone into thinking the rest of the movie was good. In Kuromukuro’s case, for the longest time, I thought the ending ruined the anime for me. “How bad was the ending” you may ask? To explain, I have to talk about how the show ends.
It starts with Kuromukuro and the gang finally taking Kurobe Labs back after Efidorg took it over in one of the episodes. It was a really good fight with our heroes using everything they had at their disposal and finally defeating the Efidorgs. However, they learn that the group they were fighting was just a scouting party, and they were using the Pivot Stone to bring in the real army. Since they stopped said army, they won’t be coming for god knows how long. After that, Zell, Muretta, & Kennosuke decided to join the fight. And then after saying their goodbyes to Yukina and their friends, we jump to years later where Yukina and Sophie go into space to join the battle. A battle, WE NEVER FUCKING SEE.
That last part got me genuinely mad. Because they never intended to follow this up beyond a light novel. If you intend to make no more than 26 episodes and have no intention in making a spinoff, then why the fuck would in a goddamn cliffhanger. I haven’t been this mad at an ending since “Things Changed” from Teen Titans. At least that episode had a message for the audience, even though it was a poorly made episode. I know, no one will give a shit about my bitching, but endings stick with you man, there’s no denying that.
Verdict:
In spite of me complaining about the ending, I genuinely think this is a really good show. From the loveable main cast to the really good mecha action, this is one of the highlights of the late 2010’s. I think what I like about this show the most is how it balances some fun mecha action with Slice of Life moments. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get another show like this, but I’m glad we got a gem like this during the “Dark Age of Mecha”.
