Black God (manga) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a Japanese-Korean manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

series written by Dall-Young Lim

Dall-Young Lim

Lim Dall-Young is a South Korean author known for scripting the manhwa Unbalance Unbalance and the Japanese manga Black God and Freezing. He is the founder of Artlim Media, which was established in 1999...

and illustrated by Sung-Woo Park. Square Enix

Square Enix

is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...

publishes the manga in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's bi-monthly seinen magazine Young Gangan. The story is initially set in modern day Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, then changes to the island of Okinawa in the middle of the story. The word "Black" in the title refers to the character , as it means black in Japanese. "God" in the title refers to the fact that Kuro is a superhuman, or "Tera Guardian". In France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and other French-speaking countries and territories, the manga goes under the name Kurokami: Black God.

The manga is created entirely by a Korean manhwa

Manhwa

Manhwa is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons . Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics. The term, along with manga, is a cognate of the Chinese manhua...

team led by both Lim and Park. They would occasionally make fun of the fact that none of them were fluent in Japanese in omake

Omake

means extra in Japanese. Its primary meaning is general and widespread. It is used as an anime and manga fandom term to mean "extra or bonus". In USA, the term is most often used in a narrow sense by anime fans to describe special features on DVD releases: deleted scenes, interviews with the...

segments drawn at the end of each manga volume.

Black God was among four manga titles licensed by Yen Press

Yen Press

Yen Press is the manga and graphic novel imprint of Hachette Book Group. In addition to their regular book releases, Yen Press produces a monthly anthology called Yen Plus. The company's varied list demonstrates an interest in publishing a wide variety of Japanese manga, Korean manhwa, and other...

along with Zombie-Loan
Zombie-Loan
is a Japanese manga series created by Peach-Pit: Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara. It is published by Square Enix and is serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine GFantasy. The series is licensed in the United States by Yen Press....

, Alice on Deadlines
Alice on Deadlines
is a manga series by Shiro Ihara. The manga was serialized in Square Enix's shōnen magazine, Gangan Wing. Square Enix released the manga's four tankōbon volumes between March 26, 2005 and May 27, 2006...

and Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning when it was announced by their panel at the 2007 New York Comic Convention. 14 volumes are already released with a 15th volume scheduled for a January 2012 release.

It has been adapted into an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

animated by Sunrise

Sunrise (company)

is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...

, and first aired in Japan and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

on January 8, 2009, while South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

aired it on January 9, 2009.

Development

When Black God was being created, written and illustrated by Lim, Park and their manhwa team, it was done entirely in Korean

Korean language

Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

first before it would then be translated from Korean to Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

, as it was meant to be published and serialized for the Japanese manga market and not for South Korea. The other works of Lim and Park had been done for the manhwa

Manhwa

market in South Korea.

Synopsis

Keita Ibuki is a 19-year-old independent and struggling freelance

Freelancer

A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...

computer programmer. The two biggest things on his mind are the death years ago of his mother, a few days after she and he had seen her doppelganger; and his project, with two of his friends, to develop and sell a video game program to a big-time video game company in Tokyo

Tokyo

. He tries to stay afloat, survive financially and finance his video game project with money given to him by his 21-year old childhood friend Akane Sano (In the anime, he is an ordinary high school student).

One night, he has a chance meeting with a high Tera Guardian named Kuro while eating alone at a ramen stand. He gives her his dinner, a bowl of ramen, and tries to protect her when she is attacked in an ambush by an unknown Tera Guardian. Keita loses an arm during the second round of that fight but Kuro is able to save his life by exchanging his arm for hers since she has enhanced healing abilities like all Tera Guardians (In the anime, his heart is injured and their hearts are exchanged instead). This creates a contract between them, which can make her more powerful than before. In the manga, Keita and Akane strongly disbelieve what Kuro is telling them until Akane grabs Keita's left arm and yanks it around to show that it belongs to Keita, and it comes off. Kuro tells them that during this process he must stay close to her as the host body until the arm is completely fused, or it will rot and fall off; and that because of the swap her power is temporarily diminished by 50%. Once they are synchronized, she will have 200% as much power (In the anime, Kuro warns Keita that they need to be together at all times because her heart will become necrotic if it is away from the main body).

As Kuro stays with Keita and gets acquainted with him while meeting with other Tera Guardians and their human masters, they are targeted by the strongest Tera Guardian clan of the East, the Shishigam Clan in an attempt to kidnap Akane and bring about the destruction of the coexistence balance, which Tera Guardians are supposed to protect. Meanwhile, Keita is determined to find out why his mother died after seeing her double as a young boy and to find out who is responsible for trying to destroy the coexistence balance on Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

Characters

Main characters

The main character. As a child, he and his mother met a person who looked exactly like her. The next day, she died. Years later, he is a struggling video game programmer. One day, at a ramen house, he met Kuro, offered her food and their story began there. He does not appear to be aware of Akane's feelings for him.

In the anime, Keita is portrayed as an ordinary high school student. Unlike his manga counterpart, he is neither extremely arrogant nor openly antagonistic of Kuro. He does not physically assault her either to express his displeasure and finally, unlike his manga counterpart, Kuro trades their hearts, not their arms, when forming a contract. He is a Sub (substitute) in the anime, while in the manga he is initially a typical human with two doppelgangers out there, none of whom have met. It is to be determined later whether he is a Sub or a Root.

Keita's partner. As a child, she was princess of the Tera Guardians. However, tragedy met up with her when her most cherished brother slaughtered her whole tribe. She came to the human world to stop him. Her manga version fights using boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

, having learned it from a former professional boxer, while her anime version does not have any particular style. Both, however, use an Exceed which massively increases her offensive power. In the anime, her exceed is the Mega-exe, though in episode 16 it changes to Giga-exe when Keita and Kuro connect their Tera to become one.

Keita's childhood friend who has romantic feelings toward him. Her Doppeliner is Reishin's partner, Yuki Kaionji. In the anime, she is later to be revealed to be Reishin's contractee after the Holy Land appeared, and also known to be the ultimate Master Root.

Kuro's pet dachshund

Dachshund

The dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed belonging to the hound family. The standard size dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the miniature dachshund was developed to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits...

pup. He is often shown stealing food from Kuro's plate, causing the master and pet to launch into one of their fights, he can be found most of the time hiding in Kuro's shirt.

Supporting characters

Her real name is Maria. After she is rescued by Steiner from "Alter Egos", who killed her younger brother, she asks Steiner to make a contract with her to make Steiner stronger. Her childlike appearance is the result of a mutation caused by her contract with Steiner; it severely slows down her physical growth and aging process. As a veteran contractee, she has gained considerable experience and a keen insight. She possesses several combat accessories called "thousands", but only two are shown in the manga. One is the Hexa Rings she wears creates the Hexa Shield which blocks attacks, while the other one is the ring she gave to Keita. In an omake, it is revealed that the contract between them has lasted for a century. In the anime, she was rescued by one of Steiner's split images during the climax of Steiner and Reishin's showdown. She later forms a contract with Mikami Houjou to avenge the death of Steiner and Bernhard. In the manga, she and Steiner are missing after their infiltration mission to the Kaionji base of operations. She survives the mission though she loses her left leg. She is shown living with Mikami.

A high Tera Guardian of the German High-Council. He prides himself on his unparalleled combat skills that single him out from the many high Tera Guardians employed at "The Noble One." He also possesses nerves of steel, those don't prevent him from getting his personal feelings mixed up in his duties. His "Exceed: Stampede" splits his body into four clones with equal mass and power to attack the enemy. Though the clones follow the command of the original body, they can also judge the situation of the fight autonomously. In the anime, he dies during the fight at Pure Island. In the manga, he sacrifices himself to ensure Excel's escape during their infiltration mission.

A Tera Guardian belonging to Kuro's clan. He is quite strong but tries to avoid getting into fights as much as possible.

Yakumo's contractee. She is a Main Root who escaped from the Kaioinji Group when she learned they were planning on conducting experiments on humans like her.

One of the two survivors of the Hima clan. He is one of the twins of the former leader whose entire clan was killed by Reishin and Hiyou in their attempt to destroy the Tera Stone. In the manga, Kakuma's contractee is Keita's grandfather Nagamine Ryujin. Kakuma sacrifices his life and turns into the Tera Stone after the original Tera Stone was destroyed by Hiyou. Kakuma's Exceed is Shining Gallop which takes the form of a white galloping horse. In the anime however, he was sacrificed in order to annihilate the barrier and open the path to the Pure Land, the island holding the Terra Stone.

Kakuma's sister. She shares a very strong connection to her brother, realizing at once when Kakuma was killed. In the manga, she was left in the protection of The Noble Ones under Bernhard.

A Sanshinryon, the rough Korean equivalent of a Tera Guardian, she came to Japan to star in a TV show, but due to her naivety got conned out of most of her money and had her luggage stolen, which also included her recommendation letter and directions to the TV studio. She eventually ended up freeloading at Keita's house after trying to cook PuniPuni for a meal. She is highly skilled and owns an artifact "Thousand" sword capable of banishing spirits.

Kaionji Group

Kuro's Brother. He is the central antagonist for most of the series. He is the creator of the Doppeliner system. His mother, the priestess of his Shishigami (Lion God) clan told him of her prophecy that either he would lead the tribe into prosperity and everlasting order under his rule as "a bringer of peace" or would be "a bringer of destruction" destroying all in his path. During the fight at Pure Island, he is betrayed by Kuraki in episode 12 of the anime and he returns after his betrayal from Kuraki. His contractee is Akane, which they formed the contract when the holy land appeared.

He was Keita's best friend named Sawamura during his junior high school years. While investigating the death of Keita's mother, he discovered the Doppeliner rule and approached Reishin to offer his services. In the anime, he no longer shares Reishin's perspective on the new world and consequently betrays him. His contract is with Raiga. With Reishin's demise, he has been promoted by the Chairperson.

She is the daughter of the chairperson of the Kaionji Group. She desires to become a Master root in order to surpass her brothers and to form a contract with Reishin. However, she is only a sub of Akane Sano. She died in a helicopter crash when she and Akane escaped in the hotel.

The Terra guardian with whom Daichi has a contract with. As a surviving member of the Hima clan, he seeks revenge against Reishin. His Exceed is the Shiddin sword.

Tera Guardian who has a contract with Shinobu. His Exceed acts on liquids, allowing him to either form bullets or stakes or to make his enemy's body explode using the blood. In the manga, he died after Kuro performed an exceed on him. However, in the anime, his body is recovered by Kuraki who drains his terra afterwards.

The sub of Keita's mother. She is a Minus/Negative Root capable of absorbing other humans' terra and luck. She made a contract to escape from death under the Doppeliner rule.

A Tera Guardian of the Ginko clan. Her Exceed fortifies her physical attributes increasing both offensive and defensive abilities. She works for the Kaionji Group in exchange for the medicine her sub-type contractee requires to survive. After the death of her contractee, she forms a pact with Excel.

Terminology

God-like beings charged with maintaining the balance of existence. However, they can become corrupt which result in conflicts between them.

One of three people with identical bodies and minds who share the same fate. In the manga Kuro explains that every normal human being begins as a doppeliner. If two of them meet, they die. The luck and fate of the two go to the remaining person, who is then called the root, giving them unimaginable good luck. In the anime, this system was revealed to be a curse placed on humans by the Masagami.

When an Alter Ego kills the Doppeliner that should have become the Root, all the remaining luck flows into the Alter Ego, but it is negative luck, and a Minus Root has to constantly suck out Tera from others in order to survive, as his Tera will continue to diminish.

A pact or a bond made between a human and a Mototsumitama through sharing limbs. In the manga, Kuro exchanges left arms with Keita to save his life and unwillingly formed a contract, while in the anime Kuro exchanges her heart after Keita was hit.

Synchro

The greatest initiation of a contract, usually when both partners have a shared will. When Synchro is reached, a Tera Guardian's power multiplies. However, Synchro is really strenuous on the human partner because the human shares all injuries the Tera Guardian receives.

Abilities used in fighting by the Tera Guardian once Synchro has been initiated. Each Tera Guardian has a unique Exceed, and some may be dangerous to the human partner due to the high use of Tera.

Humans who have been given Tera Guardian powers by Tera Guardians.

Spiritual life force that inhabits all life-forms. Tera Guardians usually form contracts with humans with high amounts of Tera because it enables them to use Exceed more often.

A human who has met his Doppeliner, yet has not died. Alter Egos disrupt the coexistence balance. Tera Guardians, who are in charge of keeping the balance, carry out the deaths of Alter Egos to protect the coexistence balance.

Relics made by the Tera Guardians of old that are given to humans as a means of self defense. By channeling their Tera, these relics release specific effects (i.e. Excel's Hexa Ring creates the Hexa Shield which blocks attacks or heavy gravitational pull). It also has the ability to transfer Tera from one contractee to another.

A desolate area which few humans visit, surrounded by a barrier made by the Tera Guardians to keep away humans and preserve the Tera flow, keeping it pure.

An alliance of four Tera Guardian groups in Europe, which was established with the goal of supporting fellow Tera Guardians, extinguishing Alter Egos and preserving the coexistence equilibrium. At present, they manage all of Europe, Central Asia, and part of Africa. At first the Tera Guardian's stance was not to interfere in human society at all, so they differ from the Tera Guardians of Japan and Asian countries who keep to that doctrine faithfully as they secretly have relations with major power structures of human society (like royalty, dynasties, religion, etc.)

The names of the four Tera Guardian groups in The Noble One are the Norman Majestic Council, the Celt Alliance, Roman Cognate and the German High-Council.

Manga

So far, the manga adaptation of Black God has been serialized with 11 bound volumes already released (as of 2008) to the public by Square Enix

Square Enix

in Japan and in magazine form by Young Gangan. In North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

and in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Yen Press

Yen Press

has already released Black God in English with 14 volumes translated and released with the upcoming 15th volume scheduled for a January 2012 release. Its first volume was released on October 17, 2007.

Black God has also been released in France

France

and also distributed in French-speaking countries and territories by Editions Ki-oon, but it was marketed under the title Kurokami: Black God from its original name. It was also released in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

and distributed in Chinese-speaking countries and territories by Ching Win Publishing Co., Ltd., translated in the Traditional Chinese language.

Anime

The anime adaptation of Black God was produced by Sunrise

Sunrise (company)

is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...

, directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi

Tsuneo Kobayashi

is a Japanese anime director affiliated with Studio Pierrot. He has directed the critically acclaimed anime series The Twelve Kingdoms.- Filmography :As film director :*Glass Mask *Midori Days*Super GALS...

with Reiko Yoshida

Reiko Yoshida

is a Japanese screenwriter and manga author.-TV anime:*Angelic Layer - Script *ARIA The ANIMATION- Script*ARIA The NATURAL - Script*Ballad of a Shinigami - Series Composition, Script...

as the series' supervisor and Hiroyuki Nishimura as the series' animation director and chief character designer.

Among the Japanese voice actor

Seiyu

Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or , are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.Besides acting as narrators and...

s involved in the Sunrise

Sunrise (company)

is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...

production include Noriko Shitaya

Noriko Shitaya

is a Japanese voice actress who works for 81 Produce.-Anime television:2000* Hamtaro, Sumire-chan, Tsutomu-kun2001* Parappa the Rapper Gallery * Alien Nine , Kasumi Tōmine2002* Mirage of Blaze...

, who played Kuro, and Daisuke Namikawa

Daisuke Namikawa

is a Japanese voice actor who is affiliated with Across Entertainment.He started acting in 1984. He is sometimes mistaken for fellow voice actor Daisuke Hirakawa, as their names only differ by one character when written in kanji. Despite his wide range of voice casting, he is usually cast as young,...

as Keita. Other voice actors for the production include Sayaka Ohara

Sayaka Ohara

is a Japanese voice actress. She is currently affiliated with Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society. She is a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University's Department of Literature. Her nickname is...

as Akane Sano, Yukari Tamura

Yukari Tamura

, is a popular Japanese singer-songwriter and voice actress, affiliated with the talent agency I'm Enterprise. Affectionately called Yukarin by her fans, she is also known for her high-pitched voice and interest in Lolita fashion...

as Excel and George Nakata as Steiner. Its title is called Kurokami: The Animation or Black God: The Animation. The anime aired on Japanese TV is on January 2009. Kurokami: The Animation aired first on January 8, 2009 simultaneously in Japan on TV Asahi

TV Asahi

, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....

and in the United States on ImaginAsian

ImaginAsian

ImaginAsian Entertainment is a multi-media company based in New York City. Its main feature is a television network, iaTV, which premiered in 2004 and which focuses on entertainment featuring people of East Asian and South East Asian descent. There is also some South Asian content...

, followed by South Korea on January 9, 2009 in AniBOX.

The voice actors, hired by Bandai Entertainment for its US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

broadcast include Jason Anthony Griffith

Jason Anthony Griffith

Jason Anthony Griffith is an American actor and voice actor who has worked on several animated TV series, and was the voice of SEGA mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as Shadow the Hedgehog and Jet the Hawk, in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, where he is credited as Jason Griffith and...

, who played Keita, Laura Bailey

Laura Bailey (voice actress)

Laura Dawn Bailey is an American actress, voice actress, Singer, Line Producer and ADR Director. She has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films, television series, as well as video games...

as Kuro with Julie Ann Taylor

Julie Ann Taylor

Julie Ann Taylor is an American voice actress who is best known for her role of Ai Tanabe in Planetes, Mutsumi Otohime in Love Hina, Yukari Hayasaka in Paradise Kiss and Taiga Fujimura in Fate/Stay Night among others...

playing Akane and Stephanie Sheh

Stephanie Sheh

Stephanie Ru-Phan Sheh is a Chinese-American voice actress, a writer, and a story editor who has worked for Geneon Entertainment, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, Bandai Entertainment, Media Blasters, NYAV Post, FUNimation Entertainment, and Viz Media...

as Excel.

Bandai

Bandai

is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...

released the Blu-ray

Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

sets of the anime in March 2010.

Reception

Eye on Anime's review praised the manga due to its storyline, but has criticized Keita for having most of the reader's initial attention due to his arrogant and disrespectful attitude and character. Mania noted Black God for having good character development and creative fight scenes, not to mention that it has an excellent and thrilling storyline for readers to follow into without any trouble.

About.com

About.com

About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....

's review said that Black God was good for the combination of various genres including action, drama, suspense, humor combined with the theme of the supernatural in its story and at the same time, questions the need of having fanservice in the manga as the review insists that it is not necessarily needed in the first place. UK Anime Net's Review said that the art is "solid, imaginative layout. It never looks rushed and the paneling flows smoothly." Comic Book Resources

Comic Book Resources

Comic Book Resources, also known as CBR is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book-related news and discussion.-History:Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1996 as a development of the Kingdom Come Message Board, a message forum that Weiland had created to discuss DC...

pointed out that the fanservice being portrayed in the manga was rather amusing and not offensive as it was the main source of Black God's humor.

So far, Comics Village has been the only one to criticize Black God heavily for having questionable aspects of the storyline being left out initially without being given the chance to have them fully explained to its readers, which can make them a bit confused. On the other hand, it singles out the art and character details at its strong side, with the latter being greatly detailed without being overdone with the "use of speed lines for action scenes and moments of emotion."

External links

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