The good: Art is very nice throughout the manga, main cast characters are interesting and often touching. Character emotions are relayed very well to the reader most of the time. Brilliant end to the first arc. Action scenes tend to be just right in length and impressively well drawn.

The bad: Plot coherence collapses after the first arc, and manages to keep on worsening all the way to the end. Massive overuse of undead as antagonists. Much of the cast that shows up later in manga is utterly forgettable. Ending is cringeworthy at best.

The ugly: Time travel as a plot device with plot holes larger then universe itself detracts from enjoyment significantly. Suspension of disbelief suffers significantly from "deus ex machina" moments that become abundant towards the end of the manga in desperate attempts to patch aforementioned plot holes.

As others have stated, the story is a convoluted one, but when it comes down to it, Kurohime is a tragic tale of romance and fantasy that is definitely worth a read. The artwork does indeed improve over time, the bad guys are easy to hate, the story will keep you wanting more, and Kurohime is just gorgeous. There's a fair bit of nudity, this being an ecchi work, but in the case of some things, such as one of the 'gods' found in the more recent chapters, it can be grotesque.
It becomes a heart-wrenching romantic tale in which Kurohime encounters tragedy after tragedy, so its a difficult read for the weak of heart (such as myself), and is actually somewhat depressing.
I would definitely recommend this to any and all readers, males and females alike.

Upon finishing the series I realize that the plot was dragged on unnecessarily and the plot cluttered, as others have noted, and the ending was just terrible. Would def reread for the first arc, however.

... Last updated on April 11th, 2014, 11:36am

Have to agree with the several previous posts, I was having a good time reading this manga till the time travel part started, it went downhill from there and never managed to recover. We see it all too often in mangas, after a good start the mangaka does not know what to do with the story, tries to mesh all different kind of plot twists and popular elements only to find out he hadn't given enough thought to those elements.
Likewise we get an interesting duo in the first part, the annoying good guy and the selfish and disagreeable but cute Himeko it worked well and was even funny if annoying at times, unfortunately the combo is broken early on and Himeko/jou miraculously becomes Miss benevolence and there are no other interesting secondary chars (maybe Soudo later on).
All in all, readable, kind of a wasted opportunity and hard to recommend.

... Last updated on April 9th, 2017, 3:35pm

The best description to give to this is: it gets better, both the art and story.

Early on it gives off a vibe similar to a mindless, directionless mix of gag comedy and action, which would be enough for several people to drop this series after reading about 3-7 chapters, which is excusable since at this point, one may conclude that the succeeding chapters won't get any better (read:SUCK AS HELL).

But dang, everything in this thing gets better (except the gag comedy, which thankfully becomes nearly nonexistent) to the point where it redefines itself as an almost completely different manga. Its theme gets a lot darker, and the characters gain significant depth.

Believe me when I say it was rewarding to sit through the early chapters of Kurohime just to arrive at the better parts. I remember DL'ing the first 2 volumes of this piece nearly two years ago, dropped it since I thought of it as boring, and then had a nasty brick shitting when I picked it up again just recently.

This was one of my favorites until I hit the arc where time travel came into place.



The plot becomes increasingly hard to follow to the point where you have to wonder what the heck happened to the author. Its like he had a clear idea at the beginning then went through a lobotomy and picked it back up.

Overall a good read until the aforementioned arc.

Just like everybody else said, i thought the start was a bit shaky, but the first arc as a whole was amazing. But i thought that zero, as a character, becomes less and less likable after the first arc. The beginning of second arc was alright. Reading time travel arc, however, was very frustrating. And just as the manga start to move toward the end, it got a little more interesting, and i was prepared to give it something between 8.5 - 8.9. however, the last chapter, particularly the last few pages, made me feel betrayed. I was like, seriously? That's the ending? It was unexpected in a very bad way. It upsets me pretty bad.
The art was good, interesting how the heroine looks different all the time though. I don't really understand the point of that. It's like she's been drawn by different artist or something.
The plot up to the first arc was amazing, after that it wasn't that interesting.
The romance was alright. The action was great. And the ending was attrocious.
It was an okay read.

first arc was extremely boring and copying himself, but then story starts getting better and better
I liked flashback arc
but ending was bad thought

Although the first arc of the manga is fantastic, the plot afterwards slowly loses its positive qualities. Around chapter 40, reading the manga was difficult because it was boring and lacking progression of the main plot. The ending could have been better, but it's not.

... Last updated on March 13th, 2011, 9:11pm

Before i read this i was pretty turned off by the genre "ecchi", but i decided to read it anyway. It WAS GOOD. At first the story was pretty basic and funny. Kurohime was not the best character but it was funny to know what she is thinking.

Im not gonna lie, the art was NOT so good at first, but by chapter 20 and up the art GETS way better. (Zero gets hotter when something happens).

The story has gotten deep and thrilling. Totally worth to read. =]

This is one of the first mangas I ever read and one of the first ones I ever completed. The characters are touching and sympathetic. The story line is engaging. It really plays with your emotions.

I have not read it in a long, long time, so I am probably biased in leaving this review. I will admit, there were many problems that arose while the story progressed. I can't recall if the overwhelming sadness when finishing this stemmed from the series ending, how rushed the ending was, the flood of emotions of concluding such a momentus and long series, or the bittersweet and tragic but happy ending.

I agree wholeheartedly with the other average-low scores. From my memory of reading this as a young teenager, the time-travel section where they lose memories or something is very weird and can be confusing and off-putting. However despite the flaws, this really is a gem. The memory of reading this will probably stick with me for many years to come.