Kurokami

Other works written by Dal-Young Im:

Other works drawn by Sung-Woo Park

Zero: The Beginning of the Coffin

Kurokami is a manga created entirely by the Manhwa team led by both Dalyoung Lim (story) and Sung-Woo Park (art).

Have you ever seen someone who looked a lot like you and determined "Hey! That's my doppelganger!"? Well, imagine if that person was a part of you. And imagine if, after making contact with that person, you'd die the next day. Oh, and also, it's called a "doppeliner".

Keita Ibuki is either a struggling computer programmer or an Ordinary High School Student, depending on whether you're reading the manga or watching the anime. Anyway, he takes pity on a hungry girl named Kuro and gives her some free ramen, earning her gratitude. It turns out that Kuro is a Tera Guardian, a being meant to protect the balance of existence. After Keita is injured by a Tribal End (an evil human), Kuro switches hearts with him, linking them forever...

The manga is available in English under the title Black God.

Tropes used in Kurokami include:

Action Girl: Kuro, Mikami, Makana, Nam, oh, who am I kidding? Every Female Tera Guardian is this.
Aloof Big Brother: Reishin. In fact, Crispin Freeman also voices Itachi Uchiha, who also killed his entire clan in order to protect his younger sibling.
Apocalypse Maiden: Kuro, although she's technically just a third of an Apocalypse Maiden.
Badass: All of the characters with fighting capablility, both heroes & villains.
- Badass Adorable: Kuro, definitely.
- Badass Grandpa: Keita's grandfather is a martial arts master who took down a Tera Guardian by himself.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: In the power-up sequence
Bittersweet Ending: The anime. Kuro is forced to be separated from Keita for the rest of his life in order for the Doppleliner system to stop working. Decades pass with Kuro in the Pure Place and Keita living on Earth. When Keita dies as an old man, he takes the system with him, allowing Kuro to visit Earth without the Doppleliner system reactivating.
Calling Your Attacks: "EXCEED . . . MEGA-EXE!" It is mildly subverted in the anime as well when Keita activates his Thousand, he just yells "GO!"
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In a side story, a Korean shamaness attempts to call the gods to help her with an exorcism, wondering why she's not getting an answer. She doesn't realize that there already is a god right there, Nam.
Cliche Storm: As if trying to deny that it's an adaptation of a non-Japanese property, the anime strips absolutely everything even slightly original or different out of the manhwa and replaces it with every tired anime trope in the book.
Curb Stomp Battle: Nam took out 32 Tribal Ends without even bothering to stop eating. This was shortly after she completely pwned Kuro with about the same amount of effort. The lady is Badass.
Cute Bruiser: Kuro.
Dark Is Not Evil: Steiner, Bernhard, and the rest of the German High Council wear these ominous black coats. They're some of the protagonists' strongest allies.
The Dragon: Hiyou, at least in the manga
Emotionless Girl: Excel. This is subverted in the later on: 1. She's actually an adult who is growing incredibly slowly, and 2. She becomes extremely emotional in the 2nd half of the anime series.
Eyes Always Shut: Toshiro
Family-Unfriendly Death: Poor, poor Mayu.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Masagami are fire and ice, along with Kuro, who gets a lightning effect to all her punches upon learning who she is.
Genki Girl: Kuro, so very much
Gory Discretion Shot: Subverted everywhere. None of the beatdowns Kuro takes are censored. Surprising, given that most are given by larger, male opponents.
- The first Tribal End introduced, upon returning to his master empty-handed, gets sliced up by invisible whip-like blades. Also not censored.
- Also, Mayu gets hit by a TRUCK. Complete with splatter.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the manga, Kakuma used all of her Tera to rebuild the spirit stone that was all that was stopping Okinawa from being annihilated.
Heterosexual Life Partners: Daichi and Raiga.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Gee, where have I heard Steve Blum, Crispin Freeman or Mary Elizabeth McGlynn before?
- And Jason Griffith as Keita.
- And Laura Bailey as Kuro.
- And Stephanie Sheh as Excel
Hot Amazon: Mikami. Her Exceed when activated makes her even faster and stronger than she already was.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Steiner and Excel
I'm Taking Her Home With Me!: Kuro. Seriously, she's adorable, innocent, kind-hearted & a REALLY handy partner when in a fight.
Instant Expert: Nam achieves a surprising amount of fluency in Japanese just by finding a phrasebook.
Jerkass: Keita, especially in the manga given how he treats Kuro & most people at first.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Keita somewhat. Akane pretty much describes him exactly this way when Kuro asks for the first time. He matures into his role as Kuro's partner, genuinely caring for her but still frequently abuses her for no reason.
- Subverted in the anime since in that version Keita is a more openly likable and emotional guy, though.
Lightning Bruiser: Steiner, especially when his Exceed activates.
Love Triangle: Manga shows this between Kuro, Keita, and Akane. In chapter 85, Akane come home from reunion meeting with her friend, drunk. Motivated by his friends' words, she make a move on Keita. Keita... doesn't take it well. After this, he brashly going out, asking Kuro with her. In jealousy and with lower self-control, Akane starts to torment Kuro mentally.... Then Nam slapped her, sending her crying. Later, Kuro confront Keima about this, while stating out her feelings.... DAMN IT, BE A MAN, DUDE!!
- Then Kuro said that she just kidding, and ask Keita to apologize to Akane. But even after Keita apologize, it's clear that this affecting all parties involved.
Megaton Punch: Kuro's Mega-Exe, Giga-Exe after episode 16, and last but definitely not least Tera-Exe.
Never the Selves Shall Meet: A central theme of the story in either incarnation.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: in anime Keita meets his Root, which spells unavoidable doom for him, only to be rescued by never mentioned before ability to "cycle" Tera with Kuro. It powers up their battle prowess too.
Non-Action Guy: Keita is this until he gets his Thousand, and even then he generally hangs in the back and lets Kuro do the physical fighting.
No Social Skills: Kuro
Overtook the Manga: The anime loosely followed the manga's storyline at first but the 2nd half in particular has nothing to do with the source material.
- The doppeliner system is different. In the manga, the two dies if they see each other, the remaining one becomes a root. In the anime, the root who has more luck then any other survives by default. This major difference actually caused incompatibility of the entire plots of both versions.
Pretty Freeloader: Nam and Kuro
Rocks Fall Everybody Dies: Subverted/averted in the anime. Every human without a Tera Guardian falls to the ground seemingly lifeless at the end of episode 16, but they technically still live.
Scenery Porn: Okinawa and The Pure Place are depicted as unusually gorgeous.
Screw Destiny: Deconstructed in the manga. Yeah, your life sucks if you are a Sub, but trying to avert your fate by killing your Root will result in even greater mess; You become Minus Root, which had bad luck so terrible that you can induce earthquakes by your presence alone. And so far, attempt in turning Sub into true Root also resulted in many deaths.
Shown Their Work: You'd never guess from reading the manga that nobody on the team ever actually set foot in Japan or can speak Japanese. The original script is written in Korean then translated in Japanese.
Sink or Swim Mentor/ Training from Hell: In the manga, to help Kuro and Keita achieve more power, first Nam sealed most of Kuro's power, then makes them face their worst nightmare, Motsumitama that have curbstomp Kuro. Granted, it was just illusion, but Kuro almost cut her own tongue to save Keita....
Smug Snake: Hiyou
Squishy Wizard: Keita, when he's not being a Non-Action Guy. Well, squishy compared to Kuro, anyway.
Standard Female Grab Area: Subverted. Kuro breaks out of various Mooks' hammerlocks with laughable frequency.
Team Pet: Punipuni, Kuro's puppy
Theme Music Power-Up: About a third into episode 22, the first intro theme plays in the background. Ass kicking ensues.
Third Person Person: Kuro
Time Skip: The anime at episode 13 jumps the story six months.
Trademark Favorite Food: Kuro loves her ramen noodles.
Tyop on the Cover: "DESTORY DESTINY!"
Victorious Childhood Friend: Akane (anime version only).
Would Hit a Girl: Kuro gets punched, kicked, choked, and slammed face-first into and through tables. Often by Keita.
- Also what is done to Makana.
You Can't Fight Fate: Subverted: Reishin spends the whole anime trying to avert Kuro's fate, which is her possession and/or death because she's the reincarnation of the evil "gods", the Masagami.