Honoo no Mirage

Takaya Ougi is just a typical high school guy who wants nothing more than to protect his best friend and live a normal life. Enter Nobutsuna Naoe, an older man who informs Takaya that he is in fact the reincarnation of Lord Kagetora. Naoe, himself a possessor, awakens Takaya's abilities to exorcise evil spirits and fight the Fuedal Underworld. While most possessors remember their former lives before being reincarnated, Takaya does not. Naoe is thankful for this, considering his passionate and abusive past with his Lord Kagetora. As Takaya improves his abilities, he also begins to remember what Naoe did because of his love for him. Meanwhile the dark forces of the Hojo and Fuma clans begin their attack as the Fuedal Underworld descends upon the living world.

(Source: ANN)

Naoe, Nobutsuna Main

Hayami, Show Japanese

Ougi, Takaya Main

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Narita, Yuzuru Main

Matsuno, Taiki Japanese

Kakizaki, Haruie Main

Tamagawa, Sakiko Japanese

Chiaki, Shuuhei Main

Matsumoto, Yasunori Japanese

Kousaka, Danjo Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Mori, Ranmaru Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Katakura, Kojuurou Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Date, Kojirou Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Ougi, Miya Supporting

Miura, Tomoko Japanese

Kudou, Susumu Director

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Kimura, Hiroshi Episode Director

Okumura, Yoshiaki Episode Director, Animation Director

Reviews

Feb 21, 2007

Rie

Recommended

Want to watch some cool bishounen? Check out this story about Takaya Oogi, a regular high school student trying to lead a normal life. I looked at this series with curiosity of how shounen-ai would be used. But, I found the story more interesting beyond what I imagined.

Although everything, in the story, at first seemed peaceful, a major turn in events surprised me. But, once the story unveiled itself after time, the fear of freaky spirits disappeared from my system. I grew interested in finding out what happened with Takaya.

First of all, I want to say that I found the artwork incredibly impressive. I think ... the animation could have been just slightly better in certain scenes, but the art style was well-designed. Itsuko Takeda's character design has always made, especially in Mirage of Blaze, anime, as a whole, much more interesting to watch. From such amazing art, I immediately grew to love each character. Not only was the art style very appealing but also the character development. I found that each protagonist had complex and almost "realistic" personalities. Sometimes, there were a few forced and cheesy moments that made the main character act somewhat unnormally. But, for the most part, each character had several intriguing characteristics.

Second, the sound added to the effects in a helpful and colorful way. "Suspense" and "horror" were mostly detectable by the sounds used in the anime. Each background music section blended well with each scene and circumstance. As for the opening theme song, I would say it could have been better in ways, but I found that the shot sequence followed reasonably well with the music. The song itself was quite nice. I thought that the lack of an Ending theme song did not take away from the show.

Third, the graphics were not entirely adequate to my tastes, but they were effective and appropriate. The special effects during certain scenes lacked well-timed and flawless animation. But, altogether I found all of the effects unique and useful.

Fourth and finally, the story definitely had a rather wacky concept behind it. But, I found the absurdity of the plot quite entertaining to watch for development. This anime ended up being more than a rather "twisted" love story. There were many moments of drama and action mixed in with some adventure. Really, I found it hard to stop watching because it was so thrilling and interesting to continue watching till the end. The storyline really brought me to enjoy this series very thoroughly. Although a few things were a bit predictable and funky, I loved to watch the story unfold. The finish of the anime left a rather unsettling impression, though, in my opinion. Even so, I recommend this story to all slash/shounen-ai fans. It's a romance story that you cannot miss!

(Meh, I might be a bit biased with my review because I love shounen-ai... But, I still think my ratings were rather valid (inspite of the fact that many people do not agree with such high ratings)).

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 7, 2015

nogitsunechaos

Mixed Feelings

It wasn't a bad anime. It just wasn't a good anime. But I suppose it is good enough that I manage to watch all 13 episodes within about 3 days.

The animation was weird to me that so many of the characters basically look alike and I kept getting confused as to who was who. I'll cut it some slack. This anime is over a decade old but still the fight scenes were a bit weak and disappointing.

Characters....i'd say the characters were mildly interesting. Surprisingly no one really annoyed me or I flat out hated them. They were tolerable enough but this is one of the ... few anime where literally no one seems to stand out. From the main character to the minor character, they all seem equally boring and unappealing. I suppose if I had to choose a character, i'd say Naoe is my favorite only due to his twisted character and persona and the evolution of the character throughout the 13 episodes.

Storywise...I really can't tell you what the plot was because so many things were happening at one time. The first episode alluded to one thing and I thought it was going to heavily focus on that particular plot but by episode 2 or even 3 it was abandoned and then we get some fillerish moments before another crazy plot happens and this plot confuses the crap out of me and doesn't make much sense. It's conclusion, though rushed, was satisfying enough but I still was like "What was the point of...." or "why did this..." quite often.

Last but not least the romance...This is quite a twisted anime, especially with Episode 11. The problem with this is....the romance feels forced and tacked on. For most of the 13 episodes there doesn't seem to be too much of a build-up and i'd say around maybe episode 8 or so is when it finally was like "Yeah let's get around to the romance."

I love the idea behind it. It was twisted and not something you see or expect. That being said, the execution sort of made an awesome idea fizzle out royally.

In the end, I say watch it but be ready to binge it. I'd love to see what this anime could be like present day with a much better budget and perhaps even more episodes to fully flesh out characters, plot and romance.

Within 13 episodes, it just was barely average and likely a forgettable anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 27, 2008

TrenchKamen

Not Recommended

Preliminary (2/13 eps)

So this was playing in the "yaoi" (not really) room at Fanime 2007, and I parked myself and my luggage in there since I did not yet have my badge or a hotel room in which to store my stuff. (Con advice: make sure at least one person from each travel party has a name on the hotel reservation so you can get a key upon arrival.)

Guh. GUH.

Admittedly I was interested in this anime upon seeing the previews. The character designs reminded me of "X" and "Tokyo Babylon" (the main character is a Seishirou ripoff liek whoa), and there was some nice scenery. I have ... a weakness for urban fantasy, and like every girl, I'm crazy for a sharp-dressed man.

That isn't enough to hold my attention more than ten seconds, unfortunately. And that is where this show's good aspects end.

The story sucks. The dialog sucks. The anime itself DRAGS with filler that fills in the gaps between a story that is boring enough in-of-itself to feel like filler. It's filler within filler. There are some gratuitous shounen-ai-esque touchy-touchy moments. Woo-hoo.

It was so boring I don't even really remember what happened, something about a war and the main character being reincarnated and zombies. Sounds like it has the potential to be interesting? It's not.

Just watch "X" and save yourself the grief.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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