Kurenai Initial Impressions

After the brain deadening slew of fan service and school-yard anime that have so far dominated this season, I was quite happy to stumble upon the excellent Kurenai. Initially, I became interested in the show after watching a clip from the psychedelic opening animation. Other people were saying good things about the first episode, so I gave it go myself and, I’m glad to say, was pleasantly surprised.

The story, which didn’t actually become very clear to me until the second episode, follows a high school student with a somewhat unusual part-time job. Shinkuro is a negotiations mediators, which, so far as I can make out, entails him doing the mostly violent dirty work of his mysterious and wealthy boss Benika. Whilst Benika’s exact role in the story remains unclear at this early stage in the show, we’ve already been shown the tragic deaths of Shinkuro’s mother and father through flashbacks to his early childhood. As his latest assignment, Shinkuro takes the responsibility of protecting, from what he doesn’t yet know, a young girl named Murosaki.

The sparse violence and constant reminders of corruption and death endow Kurenai with a certain dark personality which no other show this season (at least that I’ve watched) has. The animation itself sort of reminds me of Black Lagoon, although it’s not nearly quite so graphic. I like the set up between the troubled hitman-schoolboy and his new innocent companion. Sharing so many similarities yet having lived in such different worlds, it’ll be fascinating to follow how the relationship between Shinkuro and Murosaki develops as the show progresses.

I particularly noticed the background music of Kurenai. I think it’s entirely solo piano, which does suit the show well. So many anime these days try to pack as many sights and sounds into every frame as possible, which ultimately leads to shallow, forgettable presentation and a blaring headache. Kurenai, on the other hand, understates everything. From the sombre colours to the minimal music, the contrasting scenes of the first two episodes alone were a joy to watch. So long as Kurenai continues along this path, I reckon it could very well become one of this season’s sleeper hits.