Kure-nai 01 and First Impressions ~ Animeshoon

Episode 01: Climactic Night
More Kure-nai 01 Screencaps

This is another new anime that I failed to consider when I made my LIST OF DOOM. I have to admit though that I did get interested in the promotional poster for this anime. However, when I read the plot synopsis, I got somewhat discouraged. I thought it was going to be another bubblegum, lolita complex anime so I trashed it.

Oh, but was I ever so wrong! There's more to this anime than meets the eye.

So what's it about? Kure-nai revolves around the life of Kurenai Shinkurou, a sixteen-year old who is a high school student by day and a dispute mediator by night. It's not clear exactly what he does but based on his job description (and some scenes showing him fighting with a couple of punks) one can only assume that Kurenai must be some kind of hired muscle man, just short of an assassin. His boss is a red-haired, smoker woman, Benika, who, as one might expect from someone who runs as tight ship a business as dispute mediation, is as tough as nails. She has recently decided to give Kurenai a new job -- that is, to protect the life of Kuhoin Murasaki, a seven-year-old girl who was "kidnapped" from her plutocratic family.

And so begins Kurenai's troubles and misadventures.

The opening theme song is called "Love Jump" by Kuribayashi Minami. It's a typical anime opener, fairly forgettable if not for the highly stylized and artistic rendering of the opening sequence, featuring SD-esque versions of the characters dancing. The ending theme, "Crossing Day" by Ryoko Shintani is virtually the same as the OP but the accompanying video sequence again makes up for the song's lack of personality. By contrast, the insert songs are great. The anime also utilizes a traditional shamisen track playing in the preview for the next episode and it by far is the best track I heard from this show.

If the video sequences for the OP and ED are any indication, Kure-nai looks to be one of those animes that make the most of a wide variety of color palettes. This is always a good thing for any anime, especially a comedy like Kure-nai, because this is a comedy, make no mistake about it. The humor is not slapstick, however. There are not any exaggerated showing of violent girls with volatile tempers or even extremely comedic expressions.

Instead, Kure-nai comes off as the normal kind of funny: the kind you might see everyday if you pay attention. Without deliberately putting characters in shameful situations just to get a laugh out of it, the story actually follows a logical plot grounded on realism. It's not funny because the characters do funny things. It's funny because the situation is funny even as the characters may not find it so. That's wit, right there. Kure-nai has that quality of humor that is subtle and sort of creeps on you without your being aware of it.

However, while superficially Kure-nai is a comedy, it is not all that. The anime actually has dark undertones, if the first few scenes of the pilot episode are any indication. The colors likewise hint at this as the colors change to minimal black whenever Kurenai does his job.

The art looks really great. The design of the characters are very contemporary. It reminds me a little of Witch Hunter Robin with the solid lines and use of colors to emphasize mood and the quality (at least, of the first episode) brings to mind the kind of top-notch quality as Paprika. Kure-nai, however, is animated by Brain's Base and not by Madhouse.

The animation likewise is crisp. There is little action sequence in the first episode but what little is shown is impressive. Moreover, with character designs as good as this one, you'll realize that it's not all bad watching stationary characters.

All in all, this looks like a good anime. Let's just hope that the production value does not downgrade too much like what happened to the middle episodes of Witch Hunter Robin.