And at times, the storyline felt disjointed. And like Lupus Inu said, it pissed me also off when the blond woman died. The way it was done, was more to create another plot changeover / give a reason to fight his former alley then anything else.

To many elements ( especially the second halve ) felt forced.

Best character off the serie: The poet / turtle For some reason he was captivating.

(sorry for such a conflicted response to such a straight forward question!)

@neobanzia: I’m definitely in your camp, but I can see why people were ultimately disappointed too. The show starts off as this very serious, romantic period drama, but gradually becomes much more action-themed and over-the-top. I suppose if you bought into the story based on those first few episodes, the rest will be a bit of a let-down.

The Turtle-guy chase scene has been brought up and by that point, I thought it was pretty obvious the series doesn’t take itself too seriously as far as the plot goes.

I mean the motor-bike powerslide in a painfully obvious nod to Akira?

Very entertaining, but not unexpected.

I enjoy each and every beautifully created action scene so much I find myself not being bothered by the plot.

@Martin: The thing is, I think that whole ‘mobility scooter’ scene was actually intended to be funny, but that and a few other random comedy scenes plagued the second half of the series, and can probably be chalked up to weird writing/directorial decisions. The Kurozuka anime was a loose adaptation at the best of times, but those particular scenes are downright bad, especially considering the manga has jet-powered swords!

@wildcard: I do agree with the general vibe of your comment, it’s just that I still managed to thoroughly enjoy Kurozuka through to its end, despite its clear deficiences. But then again, I also adore my Jean-Claude Van Damme flicks, like Blood Sport and Cyborg, so take from that what you will! Sometimes a good amount of ass-kickin’ is all I need. Superficial, I know.

@Lupus Inu: I think I prefer the manga too. It’s just ten times more extreme, even if it suffers with the same issues of empathy; a classic example of style over substance, really.

@Johny: My opinion matches yours perfectly. Nothing else I can add, really. I wish it was a better series. Still, I get the feeling it’s more of a guilty pleasure for me than you!

@Hige: So, you thought Kuromitsu was on Kuro’s side, then? I’m not so sure myself. It’s just the way that the epilogue seemed to suggest that Kuro was tortured by eternal life and wanted to die, but Kuromitsu refused to accept his wish, as if his feelings were never important. She just doesn’t want to be alone, which seems a bit selfish to be me, but then again, one can’t be blamed for feeling lonely. She is a fascinating character. An enigma, even.

As for XamD: I’m waiting for the final episode to be released, at which point, I’ll start again from episode one and completely devote my attention to its story and characters. It’s so beautifully animated, well told and utterly spell-binding that I want to dive as deeply as possible into its world and politics!

@Marmoset: You just can’t beat a good chase scene! I love it when action anime reaches such a level of absurdity that it surpasses all tenants of casual logic. Not quite up there with FLCL-esque absurdity, but it was a fun scene!

Anyhow, two notable things about Kurozuka:

Kuromitsu’s role and its ambiguity. The series never let on whether she was really on Kuro’s side until the end and it fascinated me. A little transparent (we obviously knew she was) but it accentuated the mystique Madhouse were aiming for with her nicely. I did get aggravated every time she and Kuro were in a fight and she seemingly lacked any supernatural fighting skills – Madhouse were very precious about her maintaining that feminine allure. I guess her being a Beatrice-like figure was more important than her slicing off the tops of soldiers’ heads.

A loose, loose plot, but who cares? Like Martin says, the show just didn’t have an awful lot of plot to it. Its pacing was relentless, refreshingly so for a medium notoriously decompressed as anime, but the rationale behind it was wafer thin. I didn’t care, though, because like you I was absorbed by the aesthetics and their delivery. It was also notably very creative with its storytelling; particularly the non-linearity, which suited the theme of eternity really well.

And it just looked fantastic.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTRXDj7zXU

This. I was sort of pissed that the blonde female died though, I mean, it was a change but in the manga she like… lives. It was a decent watch all around though, but I think I like the manga better, and I felt really cheated with the lack of DBZ sword battles with the clone kids like in the manga.