Young Underpaid Professionals

POSTED by Rica

The anime Kure-nai, written and directed by Kou Matsuo (and based on the light novels by Katayama Kentarou) starts off with an interesting incident: a “dispute mediator” named Kurenai Shinkurou is taking care of a guy who turns out to be a client’s stalker. During the confrontation, something pops out of Shinkurou’s right elbow which obviously pains him and distracts him from finishing his job.

Sixteen-year old Kurenai Shinkurou seems like a normal high school student at first, but as mentioned, he’s hired to settle disputes or squabbles. Only two people from his school – Murakami Ginko and Houzuki Yuuno – know that he’s a dispute mediator hired by Juuzawa Benika to take care of trivial job requests from clients.

The real story of the anime starts when Benika drops by Shinkurou’s apartment to offer him his next job. He’s being asked to protect a seven-year old girl named Kuhouin Murasaki, the girl that Benika and her subordinate Inuzuka Yayoi snatched from the Kuhouin compound early in the first episode. Shinkurou accepts the job, and during the short conversation between him and Benika, we see snatches of the boy’s past as well as his possible reason/s for accepting the job of protecting Murasaki from the Kuhouins and from the Inner Sanctuary.

The anime could boast of some interesting characters and story elements with the exception of the main character, Kurenai Shinkurou. For me, his character falls flat. There’s not much development in his personality. Thank god there were other characters in the show.

As one who settles disputes, Kurenai Shinkurou has to train to fight in order to carry out his jobs. He trains at Yuuno’s and acquires the Houzuki style in fighting. Of course there’s something more to the Houzuki style than just plain martial arts – Shinkurou also had to modify his body to be able to use the techniques, and also to become “stronger”.

There are the two female residents in the apartment – Yamie from room 4 and Mutou Tamaki from room 6 – who are both equally interesting characters. Yamie wears dark clothes, is a chain-smoker, and has a black cat named Davide. She describes herself as a sinful woman to Murasaki when they first meet, although later on we find out the reason why she’s dressed in black all the time. Tamaki on the other hand seems to be the more normal of the two, as she wears normal clothes and talks about finding a good man. We find out in the later episodes that she’s a university student, and has her own issues when it comes to men. Kuhouin Murasaki spends her time with these two women when Shinkurou is attending school during the day.

Unfortunately, I find the characterization of these two females incomplete. Yamie’s reason for wearing black isn’t enough justification for how she behaves, and Tamaki’s relationships don’t really explain her views on men and on relationships in general.

Another major character in this anime is Juuzawa Benika who is a dispute mediator and is Shinkurou’s employer. She assigns odd jobs to him to carry out her clients’ requests. Benika used to be employed by the Kuhouin family as a bodyguard, but after Kuhouin Souju’s death, she decided to take Murasaki away from the Inner Sanctuary in order to grant Souju’s last wish. Shinkurou looks up to her and considers her his savior because of what happened when he was still a child.

Inuzuka Yayoi is Benika’s subordinate. Initially, she was against the idea of having Shinkurou protect Murasaki. She stands guard outside of the boy’s apartment partly to make sure Murasaki is safe and partly to see that Shinkurou does his job of protecting the child.

Other minor characters include Murasaki’s father and current leader of the family, Kuhouin Renjou, Murasaki’s brother, and her legal mother. There’s not much point in discussing these characters because we can just place them under “the Kuhouins” cluster, and that pretty much says it all.

The most interesting of all the characters would be Kuhouin Murasaki. Considering she’s supposed to be just seven years old, her character’s already well-formed compared to Shinkurou’s. She’s a member of the powerful family, the Kuhouins. We later find out that the women of the Kuhouin have quite a different fate from the men of the family – they’re destined to remain in the Inner Sanctuary where they are forbidden to set foot in the outside world. Maybe this tragedy’s what made Murasaki a really great character in the anime. Aside from that, Murasaki’s rich little lady character is pretty solid.

The anime runs for only 12 episodes – long enough to show the progress of Shinkurou’s bodyguard duty and show the different characters in the show, but too short for other elements in the anime to have real development.

Whatever it was that popped out of Shinkurou’s elbow in the first episode that piqued my interest in the anime Kure-nai was only picked up a few episodes later. It’s also connected to the Houzuki family and its fighting techniques, but its importance was never really explained. The slow follow up to that incident totally disappointed me.

There’s also the Kuhouin family tradition – or, more appropriately, the Kuhouin family secret. The women born into the Kuhouin clan is destined to live a life of seclusion. Women in the Inner Sanctuary are forbidden to step out and live freely; it is their fate to bear the child of another Kuhouin. In this case, Murasaki is bound by her family’s tradition to bear the child of her own brother when the time comes.

It’s sick, I know, but you have to understand that not all societies and families have the same standards. I get the whole Kuhouin tradition and I must admit that it’s mighty interesting, but then the anime doesn’t really explore much into the topic. They delve more on imprisonment and freedom, which really disappointed me. This tradition, how women are viewed, family hierarchy, and other promising topics were never really explored. And that was just disappointing. But I guess that was not the point of the Kure-nai anime.

The opening sequence was also misleading. It must have been the animation – it actually made me think that the anime was something quirky and fun, like Kyo Kara Maoh.

It was Nico (same friend who suggested the Toradora anime to Rio) who recommended Kurenai a few months back, and I guess it had some sort of promise, but I should say that it’s not something I’d finish watching if I had other anime DVDs (thanks, Nancy!) and dls around. It’s not my cup of tea, although I still enjoyed it because it was different. But it’s not something I’d watch again.

This is just the anime; I haven’t read the manga nor the light novel. I don’t intend to. But for those who want to, go right ahead, and tell me if either is more enjoyable than this short anime series.

*Group pic taken from Broken Anime.