Sadly, mecha animes are noticeably covered by other more famous genres such as action, adventure and fantasy and thus, gets buried deep into an endless pile of good stories from the said genres. I know that this genre sprouted some pretty epic stories such as Code Geass, Evangelion, Gurren Lagann and a few shows from the hugely popular Gundam franchise but seasonal mecha animes nowadays, frankly, seem to not always match up to the level of the good ones.

Kuromukuro, a mecha anime that started airing at spring 2016, is one of those mecha shows that I find to be really underappreciated.

Background:

Kuromukuro marks as it's animation studio's, P.A Works, fifteenth anniversary production and thus high expectations are set since it is a pretty special anime for the animation studio and at the same time, because of the studio's big name in the animation industry. P.A Works are known for their famous productions such as Angel Beats, Charlotte and Another.

Kuromukuro is a show that I found when I was scrolling for other stuff to watch back then when it was spring. I already had a few shows on my watchlist from spring 2016 back then so it was really hard to add another few more shows in my bag. When I saw Kuromukuro, I read it's synopsis and it was so short that I didn't have an idea on what it's going to be about. From what I can remember, the initial "synopsis" (technically it isn't a synopsis though) was this one-liner: "A 15th anniversary production of P.A Works". So of course, I didn't know what it was about therefore I lost track of that anime for a few months until summer 2016 started.

When summer 2016 rolled in, I scanned MyAnimeList for some summer shows to watch and after I scrolled down a bit deeper, I saw Kuromukuro again. And so I was like "Wow this show is actually continuing 'till summer for 20+ episodes." And that's when I decided to start adding that show to my watchlist.

A few months prior to me getting started on the show, I once saw a comment from a random dude which said that 'Kuromukuro is a pretty underrated show!' so I guess that's also one of the factors to why I felt like giving this show a shot.

Back then, Kuromukuro is pretty low in MyAnimeList's charts. I think it had a score of 7.00 something so it's ranking as a whole was pretty much on the 3000+ mark, and that is SUPER low.

Another short note. When I started this show, it already had 20+ episodes released so that means I was able to binge-watch a few episodes here and there.


Thoughts/Opinions:

Let's get started with the discussion shall we! Kuromukuro episode one was actually just fine! Frankly, it wasn't that mind blowing as a first episode. One good thing about it though was that it was still able to keep things interesting - mostly through it's fight scenes. The fight scene in the start gave me a feeling that this show is going to be abit deep in terms of it's storyline. Then we were greeted by the characters - the main heroine who gave us a really bad impression of her as a pretty dumb character who wrote "Mars" on her future career plans form. Though that last statement I said can be quite a nostalgic moment to remember as you go on through the series.


Then we were greeted by another character who actually is a bit more interesting than the main character.

Sophie Noelle

The art style was pretty beautiful by the way. All of the characters looks so beautiful and well designed as well as the background sceneries.

This is some beautiful scenery bruh. Oh I can see 4 shooting stars...

We were then added a bit more of what the story is going to be about afterwards. Then a bit of a trouble starts and that's when the first episode started to shine. The fight scenes were all eye catchy. Take note, I really don't watch that much mecha anime so the fight scenes really kept me on my toes.


Then there is this really funny character who enters the scene. I remembered how much I smiled and giggled  on how his lines were mostly too, I don't know what that term is... blunt? I don't know but one things for sure is that he really added up to the interesting aspect of this show.

Then of course, who would knew that a naked man will appear amidst of all the chaos. And then this guy finally adds a bit more spice to this first episode with his words the moment he saw the... well, you probably guessed it, the main heroine!


And that wraps up the first impression review! (HAHAs).

But anyways, after I watched this first episode, the 2nd one was already available so it was easy to just continue on watching.

If you have watched tons of mecha anime shows prior to viewing this show AND if you have watched the first episode on the date of it's actual airing, chances are, sadly, you probably would have had a higher chance of dropping this show at that point. It was an interesting impression to me but the main heroine would probably put you off in a bad taste thinking: "Man, this is going to be another one of those shows with a useless heroine".

The thing is, I still continued on with the show and boy it was so worth it! All of the episodes were keeping me on my toes the whole time. This show was a good mixture of both dark and mysterious (as so that the plot would progress) together with some elements of lightheartedness (to help you get a chance to take in a big plot revelation or something).

And yes, another one thing I REALLY loved from this show is... the main heroine!

The main heroine proved itself to actually be not "useless" as the show went on and that is such a sight to see.


Don't forget the side characters as well! Though some of them can be quite a pain in the butt, all of them was able to contribute to how the story went on and about. I was actually surprised at one of those side characters because there is one whom I hated so much! He wasn't at all, by any means, useful to the show and all he did was wazz me off.

Some side characters!

But that opinion changed when he said one of his lines which you can hear in the last few episodes of the show (of course I won't be telling which episode it is). Though the change wasn't that much, it still was able to make me look at him more differently and thought of how much of what he said was a bit inspiring.

The OST of this show was able to help keep things not boring. The 2 openings and 2 ending themes this show had was so beautiful as well. My favorites being the first opening and the 2nd ending theme.

One of my highlights from Kuromukuro is how some of the scenes were directed in the 2nd half of this show, especially on the last few episodes. When some of them properly applied the theme songs in some scenes, they maximized the amount of hype and feels this show had.


The ending was also quite satisfying, I felt so proud of everyone and I couldn't resist tearing up at the sight of this show ending.

A.K.A I NEED A SECOND SEASON NOW.

Overall, I do RECOMMEND this show to you my dear readers. Don't let that first episode put you off because it didn't fail me when I continued it. It was a solid series indeed. My suggestion? Binge-watch this show to keep things interesting.

The cast

 That's all for now! Thank you for reading this and I'll see you again on my next post!

Now here are my favorite opening and ending theme songs from this show!


Authors Note:

1. This is considered BOTH a summer 2016 highlights post and an anime recommendation post. I couldn't really write a few more since I'm so behind fall 2016 anime.

2. This show is TECHNICALLY a spring 2016 show since this first aired on spring but it went on throughout summer as well so I do, somehow, also consider this a summer show.

3. Most pictures were grabbed from Kuromukuro's official website, that's why a lot of them looks so HD.