Hmm…bossy lolis to protect? Where do I sign?!

Kure-nai is something really weird in the anime scene; It has several plots, it has different elements to get several niches’ attention, but it lacks that something that makes a good series from top to bottom. It’s like Kannazuki no Miko…without lesbians.

This anime was created in April 2008 by Studio Brain Base (supposedly also responsible for the upcoming sequel to Spice and Wolf) and consists of 12 episodes. Genres would be Drama, Slice of Life, and Comedy (but just a little).

STORY

The main story has Kurenai Shinkurou (the boy) and Kuhoin Murasaki (the little girl). Shinkurou has a lot of personal and economical issues, leading him to work as a mediator between varied disputes around town, from drunken people to shady stuff like, mobs, or being a bodguard. The last mentioned job was assigned to Shinkurou and his target of protection would be the little girl. Why? Well, that would be the plot inside the plot that gets unfolded as the episodes go by, but one thing I can tell you is that she’s filthy rich.

GRAPHICS

A fascinating animation style. Character designs are beautiful. Hair detail, flow, and cuts are more real than most, giving you on of the best visual experiences in anime without this being a movie or an OVA (the last two mentioned normally tend to have more budget and quality).

SOUND & MUSIC

The OP song, “Love Jump” by Minami Kuribayashi is your run-of-the-mill anime song with some not-so-common chords here and there but sadly it uses…or rather abuses some cliched chord progressions. Really, anime composers should look up to Jean Jacques Brunel or any other good (anime) composer.

Now, the ED has another kind of style; more into the electronic genre and with that lyric style so popular right now, as seen in Lucky Star, and ToraDora, where the words are fastly said to fit the sentence. Here, you can check it at about 00:48:

You should also watch episode 6 where they rehearse some kind of opera, although I think it would resemble more to Kabuki theatre. A really interesting filler, in my opinion.

OVERALL

Kurenai is one of those shows where there is some kind of main story with a somewhat deep message that only works for stalling until they complete the episode run. Now, I’m not saying that the show is bad, I just think (as many others of you who might have already watched Kurenai) that the series had so much potential and the studio / creator didn’t know how to give it a proper conclusion. Still, if you like some good animation, somewhat varied character designs and lolis, you should watch it. Just beware, Episodes 1 and 2 have a few seconds of NSFW material.

STORY

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GRAPHICS

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SOUND & MUSIC

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OVERALL

[][   ]    7.5/10 Diamonds

I’m sorry but studios need to thoroughly revise their story-telling and how to make the flow of the show congruent and satisfactory. Everything else is awesome, though.