I bought volume 6 of both the manga and light novel at the same time, so I’ll just write about them together. The final volume of the manga covers volume 5-6 of the light novel (these content were not in the anime).
[This post contains full spoilers for both of these books.]
Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi (A Dark Rabbit has Seven Lives) is a manga by Asahina Shiori, adapted from the light novel of the same name by Kagami Takaya with original character design by Kamiya Yuu. It was published after volume 6 of the light novel and covers the content of volume 1-6.
Kurogane Taito got into a car accident which should have killed him, but found out the he revived thanks to the ‘poison’ given to him by a vampire girl he met as a kid. That vampire is Saitohimea, a being capable of destroying the entire world. And so a very complicated story begins.
Let’s start with the LN first because the manga cuts a lot of volume 5’s content out and I should talk about that. (*Note: I read everything in Thai, and I couldn’t find the English translation for some of the names, so correct me if I got the names wrong.)
Light Novel Volume 5
Volume 5 of the LN was basically the student council (Himea, Taito, Izumi, Gekkou, Mirai, Serge, Hasga) going on a summer camp to level up their fighting skills, and in Gekkou’s case, his teamwork skills. A bunch of character development happened, blablabla. Taito, however, was sent to the ‘Army’ base to be modified. I can’t remember this part too well because I read the volume years ago, but inside of him, he has the power of the ‘outer gods’ (gods from outside the orbit of the moon/gods living on the dark side of the moon, the translation used a mix of these names so I’m not sure what the Japanese name is). Himea is a fragment of these gods. They used Haruka to observe and brainwash Taito into loving Himea, so that Himea could return to them. (Don’t ask me about this part, I’m confused as hell.)
The Army tried to get rid of the outer gods’ influence by implanting the power of the ‘Tenma’ into Taito. However, they ended up awakening the ‘Dark Rabbit’ inside Taito. (The Dark Rabbit is a manifestation of Taito’s mind tainted by the outer gods and the Tenma, and appears as a black rabbit.) Taito went berserk and broke out of the Army’s lab, and ran away into another dimension. The Army ended up fulfilling the prophecy of the Dark Rabbit exactly by trying to avoid it.
This volume wasn’t very exciting, to be honest. There was a long-ass conversation with Hinata about the Tenma that he’s working for, which didn’t have much effect on the plot at the current. A chunk of the volume was the standard beach episode where the student council just enjoy the outing, and another chunk was about Gekkou fighting a bunch of bats. However, this volume ended on a massive cliffhanger, which means you’ll have to buy the next volume anyway.
Then we go into volume 6.
One of the outer gods visited Haruka (who was on the phone with Kurosu) and announced that everything happened according to the prophecy, including Kurosu resisting the prophecy and Haruka betraying the outer gods to save Taito. Haruka vowed to not bow to the prophecy ever again.
As the student council plan to go save Taito with Army’s founder Kurosu, Gekkou and Himea started colluding with each other to destroy the Army. Himea would analyze every spell used by Kurosu and the Army, then share them with Gekkou.
The student council was allowed into the Army’s underground basement, where Himea analyzed and stole the spells they were using there.
Himea then went to see Edelka alone and asked for her to bring Taito back. Edelka realized that Taito attained powers even superior to hers, and that Himea is Lamiel Lilith, a being who will destroy the world. Edelka returned everything she took from Himea and Taito, in exchange that Himea would never visit her again. One of the things she returned along with Himea’s power was Taito’s love for Haruka, which he exchanged for the power to protect Himea.
The student council used the Holy Grounds to connect to the demon world, where they found Taito and saved Mirai’s mom from being killed by him. Taito attacked Himea, and she used that chance to enter his mind. Taito remembered that when he was six, the outer god visited him and commanded him to love Himea. In order to return him to normal, Himea returned his love for Haruka. The Dark Rabbit was like ‘well shit I don’t wanna see any more crying I’m out bye’ and went into hibernation mode. Himea pulled her ‘poison’ (the immortality power) back from Taito, but the modified Tenma inside Taito made him go berserk. Gekkou clashed with him briefly.
When the Army personnel, including Kurosu, came to the Holy Grounds, Gekkou pulled Himea into a portal leading to Army’s underground base, and lured Taito there as well. Taito saw the scientists who modified him and killed them with a huge explosion, destroying the entire Army. Himea chased after the runaway Taito.
Taito, controlled by the Tenma, told Himea that she’s a hypocrite and should just kill herself. Himea was devastated and was about to do so, but then Taito regained his senses and stopped her, saying that even though he got his feelings for Haruka back and knew that he was manipulated into loving Himea, he still loves her.
Himea used her poison to destroy most of the Tenma and the outer gods’ power, but Taito told her to leave some so that he could use their powers to protect her. They made a contract again and professed their love for each other.
After all is solved, Taito and Himea went back to clear things with Haruka. Meanwhile, Reel, the guardian witch of the Holy Grounds, informed Gekkou that there was a fork in the road. Kurosu clarified that the prophecy has changed, so the world would be destroyed in 28 days instead of 6 years.
Kurosu begged Gekkou to reestablish the Army in order to destroy the prophecy, and Gekkou agreed.
This volume spent almost 50 pages talking about Izumi and the other people in the student council (except Gekkou and Himea) eating a bag of potato chips. With Taito gone, Izumi is the reader’s stand-in. She barely has a role in the plot, but she’s pretty interesting. She puts herself into dangerous situations because they make her feel that she’s living life to the fullest. I think she’ll have a role later on in the series, but the Thai publisher of Kuro Usagi is pretty slow on the novel release, so I doubt I’ll get to see volume 7 any time soon. They did give me this collectible card, though:
Manga Volume 6
The manga is a condensed version of the events in volumes 5-6. The ending was modified slightly, where the manga had everybody heading off to stop the prophecy and save the world instead of having Gekkou be the only one to agree.
What I like about the story is not the Himea/Taito part, but Himea’s conversations with Gekkou. They were constantly bickering and insulting each other, but deep down, they also respect each other’s skills and goals. For a moment, I thought ‘wait is this gonna go Gekkou x Himea now?’ because there was a part where Himea said ‘I like you’ to Gekkou, but she meant it as a friend.
BTW if you’re looking for Gekkou x Mirai stuff, this volume barely has any of that. Not enough pages, said the author. Mirai felt more like a sister to Gekkou, though. I know that this ship is cannon but I’m not that into it lol.
I like Edelka’s manga design more than the anime. It’s more faithful to the LN’s description and looks a hell lot creepier. The novel never shows the outer god’s design, but you could see them in the manga. Their design is pretty much the adult male version of Saitohimea.
Overall, the manga did a really good job adapting the core moments of the story while leaving out the boring bits. I didn’t like how the novel constantly goes ‘ah, youth, ah, wonderful high school life’, so it saved me from that. The plot of Kuro Usagi is really complicated and all over the place, but at least 6 volumes in, it’s starting to make more sense.
I used to really like Himea when I saw the anime back in 2014. Now, I’m just kinda meh. She’s really badass, but she becomes a standard cute girl when she’s with Taito (which is why the scenes where she interacted with Gekkou were so interesting). Both Taito and Himea were manipulated into loving each other, but at least they were really supportive of each other, which is a plus.
I’m not sure if I still want to buy the next LN volumes when they’re out. There are 13 volumes, which means I still have 7 volumes of this convoluted plot to go. TBH I’m not really interested in finding out whether they could save the world within 28 days or what the Tenma even is. If I have to read another 50 pages of Izumi eating potato chips while Mirai yells about buying soda, I think I might skip a few volumes lol.
That was all my thoughts on Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi. Thanks for reading.
bonutzuu 
Gracias por la redacción no encontré nada solo esto
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