Sekiei Ayakashi Mangatan

This is a bit of a strange OVA series. However, I like strangeness.

At only 5 minutes for each episode you know you're not going to get much but what you do get is good.

The story is about a reclusive artist who only paints demons he encounters and he encounters them by helping people with their demon problems. In this OVA series he helps a women who has bought secondhand clothes possessed by a demon which is a bit of a kleptomaniac and the women can't take off the clothes and gets blamed for the thefts.

The series can only be good without being brilliant. A ... good watch if you only a few minutes to spare.

Sekiei Ayakashi Mangatan is good for what it is, and that's all you can really ask from an anime like this one. Beginning with the story, the premise is classic, if a bit overdone, with its own flare thrown in. An eccentric demon hunter in the edo period, surrounded by women who sometimes lose their clothes, Sekiei Ayakashi Mangatan manages to have one of the most stereotypically 'anime' concepts I've seen. But, beyond that, the concept is executed in an interesting manner, with the concept of painting being a lynchpin of the story. It doesn't excel in any particular way, but it does manage to ... be consistently entertaining. The art is pretty subpar overall, which is to be expected from an anime of this brevity. While the art direction, like character design and demon design, is well-done and memorable, other aspects of the art suffer immensely, like a general lack of animation and strange, crowded shot composition. The sound is perfectly serviceable in all respects, meeting the basic standards of quality, while the voice acting is better than I was expecting, bringing a lot of life into this little show. The characters themselves are all kind of flat and predictable, but then again there wasn't really any time at all to develop those characters in the first place. Overall, this feels like someone's first anime, and a commendable effort thereof if that's the case. I was simply entertained, and if this anime was longer and had a little more money put into things like animation, I could easily see it higher up on my list at a 6 or 7. Indeed, I did enjoy these 3 episodes more than some other shows higher up on my list, but I do not rate based on enjoyment alone, but also on metrics of objective quality. Give it a watch, as it's more than worth the 15 minutes, and it actually makes me want to check out the manga, which is a feat in and of itself.

While the short 5 mins of airtime per episode is restrictive, this anime is a stereotypical yokai happening.

The premise of an artist who has his knowledge of demons in drawings was the hook which lead to an empty boot of resigned dissatisfaction. The monster of the tale was new and kinda interesting but honestly, I cannot bring myself to be invested in this.

The characters are flat and predictable. They have the potential to be so much more memorable (going by their colourful designs) but instead, their personalities are cardboard. Character development is non-existent.

Sekiei Ayakashi Mangatan is the anonymous face of run-of-the-mill animes. Watch ... this to kill time (since it's just 15 minutes of your life) in periods of waiting or while multi-tasking (since it's straightforward).