[*Whatever By The Books*]

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My first impression was that the art isn’t zomg amazing. The loli who appears is plain and has a rather annoying voice. -_- She does go out to buy groceries, though! Maybe because I was watching it late, the animation for the fight scene perplexed me more than amazed me (like it did some other bloggers) — sure, it was smooth, but it was more…fight-like rather than elegant. Also nigh impossible to screenshot, but maybe that’s cos I’m not used to how MPC does stuff. :S

Watching the preview of the next ep, I realise Kuro reminds me of Index, somewhat. And their situations are even similar — neither are human — both appear to a boy who’s rather normal but is important in the scheme of things. (Maybe.) Come to think of it, Ah! My Goddess might be categorised under that too, lol. XD (Except Belldandy isn’t loli-ish like Kuro or Index are.)

Read on for the screenshot slideshow, and an overly-long episode summary (by my standards). XD Or just visit the gallery.

Kurokami begins with some philosophical musing about fate that I didn’t quite get because of dodgy Chinese subs. (Still don’t really get it after seeing English, lol. Fate vs free will?)  Amid some teaser scenes of a Mysterious Conspiracy definitely involving our main character, Keita, his friend Risa runs into someone who looks a lot like her. She jokingly laughs about doppelgaenger, but we’re introduced to another person who looks the same. Hmmm. Three’s the magic number, it seems!

Meanwhile, Keita rides a bicycle to chase a train in pursuit of a lady he saw board it, who bears a striking resemblance to his deceased mother — who died a day after she met her doppelgaenger. Later, (while having delicious ramen) he runs into a girl walking around with…a dachshund in her coat (peeking out the middle of her chest, no less >.>) and bandaged bare feet. Predictably, she doesn’t have much money, so Keita is badgered (naruto in her eyes!) into buying her a bowl. Over dinner, he converses with the ramen shop uncle about the Doppelgaenger Theory — even though it’s really a Trio Theory — about how there are two others who look exactly like you in the world, and that you die after seeing your doppelgaenger. (One of them, both of them, what?)

The wiki article for Doppelgaenger is actually pretty interesting reading; they -are- said to be ominous portents, but what I found chilling was how the brain can be made to interpret different presences. Somewhat chilling since I’m alone in the house at night. -shakes feeling off-

Ahem, in any case. The mysterious dachshund ramen naruto girl corrects him, telling him it’s actually doppelliner, a system to maintain balance in the world — by having three people share a destiny. I was really confused by this word…I was expecting it to be doppelreiner based on how it’s pronounced. -_- Pah. Not sure how the system maintains balance, either, but well. :P She tells him that if two of the doppelliner meet, both of them will die, it will cause a PARADOX IN ZA WARUDO, and their fates will be absorbed by the third one.

Just when she says this, the gets backwhacked by some big guy in green! Cue fight scene. Subsequently, she introduces herself as Kuro, a motosumitama, and the dog as Puni Puni once the bad guy (only a measly lvl 3 grunt) is down, then leaves, supposedly to kill her ‘ani’. Back at home, Keita sees on news that Risa died in a construction freak accident. :S Next up…loli sees her doppelgaenger! And dies…that was fast.Two disposable named characters. At least it ain’t Ga Rei Zero, eh?

I don’t get the doppelliner thing. It just seems like such a waste of resources — and it almost seems like the creepy megane-kun might be giving that system a push along. I’ll probably keep on watching it just to see if it gets better…but at the moment there’s nothing really special about the characters, and I don’t really know where the story is going either. However, the music is pretty interesting, I must say.

I’ve heard that Keita isn’t a student in the manga…so I wonder why they decided to make it otherwise in the anime.

How did you like this first ep? Were you one of those ‘lucky’ enough to have seen the fast dubs? XD

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