Kurohime

When a young child known only as Zero is saved from certain death by a powerful, beautiful witch-gunslinger known as Kurohime, he dedicates himself to justice in her name, and begins training to become a gunman himself. Ten years later, still in search of a now-missing Kurohime, Zero stumbles across a young girl calling herself Himeko, running away from the nefarious bandit Onimaru. As it turns out, Himeko, despite appearances, is much more than she seems--as evidenced by the legendary gun in her possession, Senryuu (lit., Tornado Dragon), she is actually the legendary Kurohime, turned into a child by the gods after a failed attempt to defeat them ten years ago.

The only way to completely break the curse is for Himeko to experience true love; mild infatuation only weakens the restrictions temporarily. The only problem is that Himeko is not as nice as her cute face would lead one to believe. Subsequently, she and Zero embark on a long journey to break the curse, while uncovering the source of Kurohime's enmity with the gods.

Now with a character page. In terms of spoilers, if it's been published in the English manga already, it's probably not a spoiler anymore.

This series provides examples of:


 * Abnormal Ammo: Giant knives shaped like sharks is just the start of it.
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Kokushinbokuto, despite being made of wood (holy wood, true, but wood nevertheless), has been shown to cut through almost ANYTHING. The same goes for the blades Yamatohime fashions from the gods' White God Tree.
 * Always Chaotic Evil: The Great Gods are pretty much this.
 * Amazon Brigade: Who else, but the Death Angels?
 * Chapter 67. DAMN.
 * Chapter 80. WOW.
 * Art Evolution
 * Assimilation Plot: A god becomes a Great God
 * The Atoner: Himeko, sort of, in regards to Sword and Ouka.
 * The village elder
 * Attack of the Fifty Foot Whatever: A good number of the gods Kurohime runs into. Not that it stops her from cutting 'em down.
 * Ax Crazy: Yashahime. Good lord, what is WRONG with that woman?!?
 * Even worse since these days, she's not even bothering with the facade.
 * Badass Normal: Zero, who can fire four guns with Improbable Aiming Skills, Kazuma, who can cut pretty much anything with his katana, and Rider, who wields a gun-hammer and was the single most effective fighter in the Wolf Brigade.
 * In "Aohime," Dan, a member of the Bullet Blade Brigade turned father.
 * Barehanded Blade Block: The guardian of Princess Yamato's volcano has this as an move.
 * Beautiful All Along: Yeti isn't so bad-looking after a transformation haircut.
 * Because Destiny Says So:
 * Screw Destiny: In a way. While the past may be inevitable, you can make small changes about how or why it happens. Not to mention the future is a bit more open-ended.
 * BFG: Senryuu is much bigger than the average handgun, and can fire regular bullets with extreme force.
 * BFS: The Sword of Vengeance, the Kokushinbokuto, and the Yamato Senryuutou are the most prominent examples.
 * Big Bad: Yashahime.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Himeko is quite fond of these; amongst her many exploits are
 * at the end of Chapter 71.
 * in 80.
 * Big Good: Kazuma, who becomes the leader of Oedo after his father's death.
 * Bishounen: Future!Zero, Darkray, Saika, Dark Zero.
 * Broken Bird: Kurohime, Asura, Sword, Ouka and O-yuki. Yashahime seems to think she's this.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Cheerful Child: Sara.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Sword and Yashahime, to Darkray. Again, Yashahime stands out here; it was shown that she was extremely hateful of Sword and the rest of Darkray's Living Weapon Amazon Brigade. The only reason she never killed any of them is they never acted out in front of her. She feels the same hatred towards Himeko because Dark Zero, her current crush/obsession,
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: There's a few: the mountain god's death, Zero dissolving in a river of acid blood, Saiyuki's death via impalement, Dan who dies from a combination of dismemberment and Flechette Storm,
 * Cut Short: Viz Media's releases stop at volume 14, perhaps because of low sales or the license extended only up to the chapters published in the magazine and not the online ones.
 * Dark Is Not Evil:
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Asura fits into this. At first her only real goal is to free her master Yamatohime, and the other spirits, from the servitude of the gods. Over time she becomes much warmer towards people, starting with Zero, as opposed to her initial disregard of him and other humans. Yuki-onna is a more literal example.
 * Determinator: Zero, of course. In the past, Rei fulfills this role in a dark way.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Often. More or less the point of the series.
 * A Call Back to chapter 14 when
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Yashahime, Byakko, Spirit King of Earth.
 * The Dog Bites Back: Sword, to Darkray, though she hadn't meant to.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Kurohime is, doesn't that scene look a bit like a, well,
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: On more than one occasion, Saika looks like a very pretty girl, albeit a flat one.
 * Early Bird Cameo: Remember that kid who tried to stab Kurohime with a dagger? Yeah, that was
 * Eldritch Abomination: Plenty.
 * Elephant in The Living Room:
 * Enemy Mine: After being depowered, past!Kurohime, now in the form of a child, recieves assistance from Sword and Ouka, who were formerly cursed into the forms of a wolf and past!Kurohime's clothing respectively. It takes a good hard fight in order to take the enemy down.
 * Sword and Ouka are adhering to this in the current situation against
 * Evil Gods
 * Eyepatch of Power: Sword starts wearing one of these when she loses a good foot or two of height in the aftermath of the battle at the River Styx. It is also the only thing keeping her vampiric werewolf powers under control.
 * Fan Service: And HOW. Special mention goes goes to the Shinigami Angel Brigade.
 * Femme Fatalons: Kurohime has these in a nice black color.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * Post Zero's Death:
 * The Heroine: Hime.
 * The Lancer: Asura.
 * The Smart Guy: Tsucchi.
 * The Big Guy(s):Yukio and O-yuki.
 * The Chick: Kazuma.
 * During the end of the world:
 * The Heroine: Hime.
 * The Lancer: Sword.
 * The Smart Guy: Onimaru.
 * The Big Guy(s):Asura, Kazuma and Ouka.
 * The Chick: Yuka.
 * Sixth Ranger:
 * The Four Gods: Yamatohime, Genbu, Byakko and Seiryuu, the Spirit Kings.
 * Gag Boobs: Given to a pub-full of self-proclaimed badasses thanks to a Gender Bender spell, which gave everyone else a hankering for Brain Bleach.
 * Gainax Ending:
 * Grand Theft Me: Happens to an innocent girl known as Yuka not once, but twice, thanks in no small part to Kurohime's Unknown Rival Barahime. As a result of both possessions, Yuka gains the power to make magical bullets.
 * Grim Reaper: During the Time Travel arc, Zero's brother Rei
 * The Gunslinger: Excluding the obvious, Zero and Rider.
 * Half-Identical Twins: Rei and Zero. Rei is older, but his sad lifestyle stunted his growth.
 * Harmful to Minors: Zero did NOT have a pleasant childhood. Neither did Ouka or Kurohime.
 * Heroic BSOD: Hime And again, when
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Zero puts an injured Kurohime onto Kandata's boat and pushes towards safe land, being dissolved alive by the waters of Hell. A villainous example would be the Death Angels giving their life-force to ensure Sword's survival.
 * Hime Cut: Ponytail aside, Yashahime seems to have one. Asura as well.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard: Darkray might have survived if he hadn't been so quick to berate his angels after impaling them.
 * Humanoid Abomination: Yashahime, in her true form.
 * Hypocrite: Yashahime. Her exploits include:
 * Killing Darkray (whom she claims to be madly in love with) while holding the MacGuffin that would save his life, for no reason other than seeing his begging soul breaks her cool perception of him.
 * Stabbing herself to keep her from killing Kurohime, and then claiming the resulting scar is Kurohime's fault.
 * Claiming that the God of Death isn't supposed to be concerned about anything or anyone, and then blushing because he asked if her wounds had healed.
 * I Hate You, Vampire Dad:
 * Implacable Woman: Goodness, past!Kurohime.
 * Yashahime.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Onimaru. He and his gang helped Kurohime ten years ago by building the tower that would allow a human to become a god, only to be betrayed by her at the last moment (and branded with the kanji for 'dog', no less). As a result, he carries a large grudge against Kurohime for most of the manga. After his gang's encounter with the Death Angels (which leaves him as a...miniature snake-man thing) Kurohime's real motives are explained to him by the goddess Shirohime, and he gradually regains the respect he had for Kurohime as she undergoes her own emotional development.
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons: Kurohime is legendary because she can make witch-bullets that can summon dragon-golems at will. She once turned an ENTIRE castle into one such dragon.
 * It Got Worse: Starting from Chapter 67.
 * Jerkass: Himeko/Kurohime, as noted at the top of the page. This isn't entirely her fault, though, as the gods removed her ability to love when they first imprisoned her, by turning her compassion and love into a god that looks exactly like her, Shirohime. And thanks to Character Development, she gradually grows out of this, becoming a Jerk With a Heart of Gold.
 * Rei's not much of a charmer either, having been treated as punching-bag his whole life and now  isn't helping. Still, despite kicking her in the shins, calling her a hag and almost shooting her in the face, he grew on Kuro Himeko.
 * Jerkass Facade: Kurohime is well known for her cruelty and arrogance...
 * The village elder is a somewhat crotchety old woman with a stiff upper lip.
 * Jerkass Gods: Pretty much the main reason the series events are happening in the first place. Not all of them are so unfeeling, but a majority of them pretty much have no regard for human life. Kurohime will have NONE of this.
 * Kick Them While They Are Down: Darkray was fond of doing this, insulting Hime and Zero for their love and later impaling and killing most of his loyal weapons. His reasoning is that as humans and angels respectively, they are simply not as awesome as he is, so why should he care what happens to them?
 * Yashahime tries this and fails, not taking into account that Hime may be less emotionally fragile than she thought.
 * Killed Off for Real: Maya and her friends, Darkray,
 * Laser Blade:
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Himeko begins suffering from this during the Yamato arc. As a side effect of Zero's death, Himeko's been re-cursed. By giving up a memory of Zero, she clears part of the mental block that's keeping her from her powers; if she wants to get back into top form, she has to give up every single memory she has of him. At present, she has almost no memories of anything that has occurred since the start of her journey with Zero.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: All of the gods do something that COMPLETELY justifies Kurohime killing them.
 * With Chapter 74 out, it turns out, yes, most of them HAVE done something to justify Kurohime killing them.
 * Also seen in Kurohime/Himeko. All of the things she's done for either peace or Zero are quickly catching up with her.
 * Light Is Not Good: The goddess of nature, Yashahime, has white (or at least light-colored) clothes, beautiful hair ornaments, and white Holy Wood. She is also deeply infatuated with the Grim Reaper (in both incarnations), and is completely fucking NUTS. The all-white ensemble underscores just how very deadly she is, since white means death in Japan.
 * Literal Split Personality: This is what happens to Kurohime when she challenges the gods ten years before the start of the series; her compassion and love is incarnated as the goddess Shirohime, while her rage and hatred are sent to a prison-dimension as Himeko/Kurohime.
 * Love Redeems: Yuki-onna and Yuki-otoko, and Himeko herself.
 * Love Hurts: Zero. Oh, Zero.
 * Making a Splash: Genbu, Spirit King of Water.
 * Mama Bear: There are very few things Himeko won't do for Zero and Rei.
 * Meaningful Name: The Death Angels' names match the weapon that they can transform themselves into, and many of the witch-gunslingers or other important characters often have -hime (princess) as part of their name.
 * Zero and Rei have names that pun off of each other, as "Rei" can also mean zero.
 * Mind Screw: Most of chapter 67.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Most of the women in this setting, especially Kurohime.
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Darkray, Dark Zero and Yashahime.
 * My Hero Zero and Rei
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: Dark Zero.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: After Sword meets up with the rest of the Kurohime Punishment Squad, she makes herself into one of these on purpose, getting bitten by a vampire and a werewolf. The results are NOT pretty.
 * No Holds Barred Beatdown: The first time that Himeko faced Yashahime.
 * Oh Crap:
 * One-Winged Angel: Yashahime, surprisingly.
 * when he finally awakens the
 * as  and her own resentment begin to grow.
 * Papa Wolf: In the sidestory "Aohime," Dan. Takes Badass and Determinator to new levels. Sniffle.
 * Playing With Fire: Asura, and Yamatohime, Spirit Queen of Fire.
 * Please Don't Leave Me: to, coupled with the fact that both know they can't stop it from happening. Naturally,  calls  on this when  has a chance. Violently.
 * Plot Relevant Age Up: Occurs twice for Himeko--the first after her battle with the death god Dark Ray and the second following her encounter with Zero once he is reborn as the death god. Each one further boosts her ability, though neither one brings her close to her full power as Kurohime. As of the end of the Past Arc, it happened again, and she displayed the ability
 * Plot Tumor: The "Journey To The Past" arc, which initially appeared to be a pointless segue; it actually revealed a large amount of backstory, some bits of which were quite shocking.
 * Plucky Girl: Kurohime for the good side. Sword and Kurohime again, for the bad side.
 * Powered By a Forsaken Child: The Yamato Senryuutou is also this, but tends to be forgotten since  those who power it are more bothered by for whom the sword would be used by, and for, rather than what powers it up.
 * The High Gods. All of them.
 * Psychotic Smirk: Early on, Himeko will frequently take this expression on whenever she transforms into Kurohime, but the instant she starts Evil Gloating, the transformation wears off.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: Ten years before the series starts, Kurohime becomes involved with the battle to become a god to get revenge on the gods for even creating the contest; not only did it send the world into a mass war, but it's implied that she grew up seeing the carnage that it wrought first-hand.
 * Red String of Fate: Once she is able to acknowledge it, Himeko truly believes that she and Zero are made for each other.
 * Secret Test of Character: All of the Spirit Kings put Himeko through this.  even lampshades it; they all agree, himself included, that she's a bit of a bitch but generally worth putting up with. (Of course, you'd want the person wielding your soul like a sword to NOT be a psychotic maniac. Or Yashahime.)
 * Shotacon: We already know Hime loves Zero whether she's in the past or not  but this is just weird.
 * Shout Out:
 * Rei's outfit is similar to Bruce Lee's in Enter the Dragon (or The Bride's).
 * A mysterious shinigami looks a lot like, well, a mysterious Shinigami.
 * Slasher Smile: Several villains-of-the-week wear these, but Kurohime herself sports one when we see her pulverising the Mountain God.
 * Small Girl, Big Gun: Himeko, especially during the first arc.
 * Stable Time Loop/You Can't Fight Fate: Ouka triggers one of these when she Surprisingly,
 * Stepford Smiler:
 * Stripperiffic: The "outfits" of the Shinigami Tenshi-dan (the Death Angels). Kurohime even points it out when she confronts Sword, their leader.
 * Team Pet: Tsucchi aka Onimaru.
 * The Power of Love: Due to the initial curse laid on Kurohime,love is quite literally central to the plot, as it is the only way Kurohime can temporarily/permanently break the curse. It reaches new heights when the River Styx makes its first appearance, though, as Kurohime declares her love for Zero and unleashes a can of whoop-ass onto Dark Ray to protect him and continue her fight against the gods. Additionally, Himeko only agrees to assist Asura's cause on the condition that Yamatohime resurrects Zero.
 * Theme Twin Naming: Zero and Rei.
 * This Is a Drill: When Kurohime manifests Byakko's power in Senryu, she shoots metal drill bullets. Nice.
 * Time Stands Still: Kairyu.
 * Time Travel: The focus of the Past arc.
 * Better yet, the cloaked man (Kandata) that saved "Zero" and Kurohime from the River Styx and followed them back to the past?
 * And to up the ante:
 * Trauma Conga Line: The more we learn about Zero's childhood, the less surprising it is about the way he turned out.
 * Troubled but Cute: Zero, Rei, Rider and Kazuma.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: Kurohime will do anything to achieve peace. A NY TH ING.
 * We Can Rule Together: Yashahime wants to rule the universe with Dark Zero at her side.
 * Wham Episode: Shit gets real after Zero dies.
 * Chapter 59 seems to serve as such for the Past arc.
 * Chapter 71 more or less begins with
 * Chapter 73: HOLY HELL,
 * Chapter 74:
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: 
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: After the Past Arc Rider and Tsucchi disappear from the story
 * And the merfolk that kidnapped Kazuma?
 * Has anyone seen Yukio and O-yuki?
 * What the Hell, Hero?: In chapter 77, Zero calls Himeko on her various attempts to save his life.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Kurohime/Shirohime, Yashahime.
 * Why Won't You Die?: Yashahime. Better explained in Chapter 74:
 * Wishful Projection: Zero's image of Kurohime isn't a particularly good match for reality.
 * Yandere / Cute and Psycho: Lord love a duck, Yashahime.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Yashahime and Sword are huge believers in this.
 * Zero Approval Gambit: See Jerkass Facade.
 * This Is a Drill: When Kurohime manifests Byakko's power in Senryu, she shoots metal drill bullets. Nice.
 * Time Stands Still: Kairyu.
 * Time Travel: The focus of the Past arc.
 * Better yet, the cloaked man (Kandata) that saved "Zero" and Kurohime from the River Styx and followed them back to the past?
 * And to up the ante:
 * Trauma Conga Line: The more we learn about Zero's childhood, the less surprising it is about the way he turned out.
 * Troubled but Cute: Zero, Rei, Rider and Kazuma.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: Kurohime will do anything to achieve peace. A NY TH ING.
 * We Can Rule Together: Yashahime wants to rule the universe with Dark Zero at her side.
 * Wham Episode: Shit gets real after Zero dies.
 * Chapter 59 seems to serve as such for the Past arc.
 * Chapter 71 more or less begins with
 * Chapter 73: HOLY HELL,
 * Chapter 74:
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: 
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: After the Past Arc Rider and Tsucchi disappear from the story
 * And the merfolk that kidnapped Kazuma?
 * Has anyone seen Yukio and O-yuki?
 * What the Hell, Hero?: In chapter 77, Zero calls Himeko on her various attempts to save his life.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Kurohime/Shirohime, Yashahime.
 * Why Won't You Die?: Yashahime. Better explained in Chapter 74:
 * Wishful Projection: Zero's image of Kurohime isn't a particularly good match for reality.
 * Yandere / Cute and Psycho: Lord love a duck, Yashahime.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Yashahime and Sword are huge believers in this.
 * Zero Approval Gambit: See Jerkass Facade.
 * Yandere / Cute and Psycho: Lord love a duck, Yashahime.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Yashahime and Sword are huge believers in this.
 * Zero Approval Gambit: See Jerkass Facade.