Kaze no Stigma

Kaze no Stigma I believe had a lot of potential. It started off interesting, not entirely compelling but interesting. Then it went downhill faster than I could write this review. There was also another thing that bothered me, which was the way they handled deaths. When someone not particularly important died, the main characters just shoved it past their shoulders and act like nothing happened. Human life doesn't seem to hold much importance here(particularly to the heroine). Then again what was I expecting? It wasn't entirely an disappointment, I didn't expect much from it but I didn't expect it to be this bad.

Story: 3/10
It ... doesn't exist. There was a few tidbits of potential at the story but I have to say it just dragged on to different story lines that ended predictably.

Characters: 2/10
Kazuma to me was the only likable person there. If I looked past the fan service and pretty art, he was the only one remotely interesting. Everyone else seemed like filler characters.

Ayano to me, was extremely annoying. Whenever something went wrong, it was automatically Kazuma's fault. Especially at the first episode when she disobeyed orders and followed Kazuma which had two people killed. She is irrisponsible, short tempered and incredibly flawed. I did not find a single redeeming factor about her character. And really, screaming Kazuma at pretty much every single episode was not an attractive trait what so ever.

Ren is someone I wanted to like, and I admired his peaceful personality in contrast to Ayano's. But he ended up somewhat annoying with his seriously childish antics, and the only time I appreciated him was when he was being useful.

Sound: 5/10
Average, the OP and ED were truly nothing special. I could forget them and not miss them one bit. That said they weren't that bad, could be a lot better but if it had been any worse, I might have started crying.

Art: 6/10
Probably the highlight of it all, and even then it's not that entirely impressive as it lacks personality. Shiny art is shiny, but shininess doesn't mean it's amazing. Like a higher quality of a mediocre show. While the characters are pretty, the backgrounds are really unmemorable. The action scenes are visually pleasing but not very engaging.

Enjoyment: 3/10
I really did not enjoy it very much. It lacked so much that even if I didn't take it seriously, it was still rather bad to me. The execution of the story was terrible.

Overall: 3/10
I would not recommend it. That said I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy this type of anime. It has magic, romance and all the shoujo elements that tweens would like. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I couldn't take it seriously and even the funny parts weren't all that funny, I found myself smiling at best but most of the time I was just waiting for the episode to end.

Kaze no Stigma has been brought up by me several times as one of my most despised anime, but I've never really had a chance to say why, partly because it came out during a time when light novel adaptations were considered good and any that actually weren't were purged from the collective hive mind that is anime fandom - barring the occasional fanboy who still tries to claim that Kazuma is someone that protagonists should look up to. I saw it during a time when Bakemonogatari was airing, so you can imagine it took a lot to make me hate something when I was ... still buying Kanon and Shana DVDs unironically. I don't remember how I found out about the show beyond random Youtube searches back when you could actually watch anime there, but I remember thinking it seemed like a cool urban fantasy and instead got "why why why WHYYYYYY?!"

Whilst Sword Art Online and Mahouka are now considered the poster-boys for "Gary-Stu fanfiction/wish-fulfillment LN crap that's not even well-animated", Kaze no Stigma was doing everything it did back in 2007 aka "the golden year of anime that wasn't actually so golden when you look at it closely" and whilst I'd hesitate to determine if it's worse than either, it's the one that I hate the most largely because of the "shock". You know what I mean. The "shock" when you're a newbie who's optimistic about everything, unaware of what the dark side is truly capable of, and when you go in without any preparation you get backlashed so hard to the point that you can actually press charges against the creators. This is why I go into practically every anime with no expectations whatsoever. Because quite frankly, the "shock" is something I can do without for the rest of my already miserable life.

The story is centered on Kazuma, a kid who was banished from his family because his female cousin was able to wield magic without setting herself on fire and burning all her clothes off - which isn't nearly as positive as it sounds - and thus goes away for a few years only to return as a stock cocky douche who wields wind magic like Jesus on steroids. His reunion coincides with another wind user killing off his family and rather than do much to clear his name, he arrogantly takes them on, including his cousin (Ayano) who has grown into a beautiful sword-wielding babe so you know what's going to happen to her before the first half of the premiere even concludes. Other characters include Kazuma's brother (Ren), who sounds like a prepubescent kid who smoked too many marlboros, and his dad (don't remember the name and don't care to look it up), who gets hospitalized very early on due to father/son differences that I refuse to describe because I don't want to spend much more effort into hating this show than the creators did in its overall quality.

This admittedly is difficult to do because the main problem with this show, along with the reason I hate it so much, is that it's completely unimaginative in every single way imaginable (no pun intended). The anime was made by Gonzo post-Welcome to the NHK and that's pretty much all you need to know regarding the production values as well as the overall quality. But even if Kenji Nakamura was set to direct this show, you'd need a complete overhaul of the original source material to make up for writing this phenomenally bad. That story premise I mentioned above gets resolved within the first four episodes and then succumbs to light novel syndrome of padding out the time with lower quality story arcs, and considering how awful the first story arc, that's saying a whole lot. Now I never actually finished this show - get your mouse cursor away from that "x-mark" - but I have had some exposure to what I never gave a proper chance and my god it's like the writer wasn't even trying to make the very premise of their story interesting.

One story arc is centered on a girl wanting to kill Kazuma to the point that she'd sell her own soul to darkness, which made her the most sympathetic character on the show until her redemption at the end because she was nice to Kazuma as a kid and he even confirms himself that yes, that little thing was all she needed to do for him to care about her. Another one focuses on Jun trying to protect a girl he fell in love with after a five-minute at best playground romp only to discover she's an artificial human with limited time, leading to another vomit-inducing conclusion. There's even an arc where an American chick comes and falls for Kazuma because she's under the impression he has a nine-inch cock when in reality, it's (censored, but I assure you it's a small number) inches long. If mediocrity was an Olympic event, it'd get unanimous tens all across the board.

There's even an arc where Kazuma has to suppress a super powered dark side, which is meant to be the overlying plot that connects the various stories together, that has no weight to it because A) it actually makes him weaker, so I dunno why he has it to begin with B) he's so much of a hypocritical asshole as is that there's practically no contrast. Literally every second he's on-screen is a second that I want to steal his powers and go all Texas Chainsaw Massacre with them on his face, because the writer just can't seem to write his "loner with a heart of gold who gets all the ladies, seems to always know what's going on, and never gets so much as a scratch on him throughout the entire show" character consistently and decide whether his facade is an act or not. Not that the other characters are much better, being shallow stock stereotypes who wear the same outfit to the point that Ayano had to decide between four identical school uniforms to wear to a date, but at least they're straight-forward and actually get dirt on their faces (which says a lot about the show's quality when that's the best you have to say for them).

And of course it wouldn't be a wish-fulfillment Gary Stu story without awful action scenes that looked like they were conceived and choreographed by interns for the janitor position. They use the same stock footage of Ayano summoning her sword almost every single episode and it doesn't even work on the bad guys 95% of the time, which makes her even less competent than Asuna or Miyuki and ain't that a sad truth? Kazuma's wind powers are so cheap both in practice and in a visual sense that he doesn't even have to move in order to use them, which is pretty much the triple-threat of boring action right there.

Not that he moves during the non-action scenes either. I recall one episode where he, Ayano, and a bunch of her friends explore the school late at night and make the girls perform lame comedic routines whilst he just smiles without revealing the truth because we needed the plot to go on for an entire episode because we have two cours to fill and we don't have the brains to fill them with anything more meaningful.

Well I refuse to be the kettle that calls this show black, Gonzo, so I'm ending this review of your uninspired mess right now before my own imagination is sucked dry from this black hole (I don't see myself as a kettle, so I feel no hypocrisy in calling Kaze no Stigma that) of banal story, characters, animation, music, and even author existence - the writer of the original light novels passed away before he could finish the series - that in retrospect, I shouldn't have rediscovered in the first place.

One of the most generic, predictable anime I've seen. Kaze no Stigma uses the slightly underused approach of magic users and ninja clans in modern times, but, surprisingly, it's not meant to be wacky or childish like other anime of its genre. This gave me high hopes, and I remember catching myself thinking, during the first few episodes "this will really have to take a turn for the worse to prevent me from finishing it".

After sitting through cliché episode after cliché episode, I finally dropped it. While I like the main hero, Yagami Kazuma, the heroin, Kannagi Ayano is what ruined the ... series for me. Not only does her Japanese voice actress kinda suck in this role, her 'burn run time transformation-esque' summoning of Enraiha against every little thing really pissed me off. She never fights using just fire magic, and, despite an early youma kill that was supposed to display her adept fighting abilities, she spends 90% of her time being a decoy, getting defeated, getting caught, and, like any romantic comedy anime, blaming the male lead for her shortcomings. She's childish, weak, poor-sounding, but well drawn.

The animation is up to par, but everything else could have been done so much better; Kaze no Stigma is a testament to the old saying "All that glitters is not gold".

Imagine an anime where certain people have discovered how to magically control fire, wind, earth and water. One of them is Kazuma Yagami, a former member of the Kannagi clan, a group that uses fire. After being abandoned by his family, friends and clan for his inability to use fire, Kazuma returns to his clan, now a wind magic user. Believing him to be a traitor for his use of wind magic, the clan falsely accuses Kazuma of killing off members of their clan. It is now up to Kazuma to clear his name and hopefully regain the trust of his family. Add this story ... with a voice casting of screaming people, storytelling that leaves you with pointless information, the most unlikable cast of characters seen on the screen and you get the wretched project known as Stigma of the Wind, Junichi Sakata's latest entry (and failure) in the anime library.

While the story starts off with an interesting premise, it takes a nosedive after the third episode. It unfortunately tries to be a mystery, romance, drama, action, horror and comedy at the same time, causing lots of confusion and missed plot opportunities. Whether it be some random guy pretending to be an angel (I'm serious), or a guy licking wine off of someone's cheek, the show seems to reject anything normal in favor of complete chaos and anarchy. This wouldn't be a problem, except that nothing about these moments are funny. It's just insulting to the viewer's intelligence, since they paid the insane price of $50 for part one of the first season.

The characters are annoying and overacted, with the exception of the main character, Kazuma Yagami, who is calm and collected. A perfect example would be Ayano Kannagi the truth. Ayano reluctantly becomes an ally of Kazuma. Unfortunately, the first few lines in the pilot episode is her shouting, "I hate the wind!", giving the viewer a clear indication that she is going to be overacted in every possible sense of the word. Kazuma's relative, Ren Kannagi, is also a bit batty, but it's shocking when the viewer discovers halfway throughout the series that he is in fact a boy. Everything that Ren does, from the way he looks, to the feminine personality he has, gives you the false impression that he is a girl in the first place. Top all of this off with the fact that each character has their own annoying voice, making this one of the worst gang of animated characters ever to grace DVD.

If there is one aspect the series gets right, it's the artwork. Each frame of animation is extremely polished, with impressive animations, solid character design and a very clean look. Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything remotely unique, which is a missed opportunity, as the clean animation would have allowed plenty of successful innovation.

Stigma of the Wind isn’t the worst anime I have seen, but it sure is a messy one. The director really should have spent more time developing each character. Instead we get characters that scream at each other for no reason, constantly whine annoyingly and act in an incredibly illogical manner. It's not like this is cheap entertainment either, as it cost $100 for the first season, stopping me from ever recommending this to anyone. Please stay away, as dissatisfaction is the only result that will occur after wasting money on this lamentable product.

I really didn't like this show. I'm sorry. But it had a hype to it when I first read the summary (yet not any reviews, unfortunately). The characters were monotonous, the fight scenes were hard to follow and sporadic, the storyline was okay, but could have been better portrayed, and it was just an overall weird show. Wooden sword that catches fire? Not the weirdest I've ever seen, but still... Wood? They coulda done better. A lot better. Nuff said.

Ah, with the wonderful story of Kaze no Stigma fresh in my mind, I believe now is the perfect time to write a review for how I wasted my day.

Story: 5
Well, the story, nothing special, but not too bad. Mediocre is the perfect word to describe it. I'm not going to go too in depth with it, but I had high hopes upon reading about an overpowered person who comes back to a family who disowned him. To me, sounded pretty good, so I gave it ago. A few flaws. Earliest flaw I noticed was the fights, which might just be me, but the fights ... either took three quarters of the episode or thirty seconds. Now, I don't like fights where it takes a long time, but I certainly don't like thirty second over-hyped moments. The second flaw I noticed with the story is that later in the story, which may be a spoiler, is that when Kazuma goes hatred mode and is suppose to get more powerful, which they showcase well, as soon as Ayano interferes, Kazuma is super weak. I just... I just don't get it. Alright, spoiler over. There were a few more minor flaws I had with the story, but they weren't necessary to add.

Art: 4
I'm not exactly sure how to rate the art, but compared to earlier ones it was mediocre. The reason it's a four and not five is because the fanservice they tried to add was a miserable failure. There's really no other way to put it. They had quite a bit of pantsu shots, and I don't mind fanservice. As a male, I even encourage it. Just kidding, for the most part. But the problem with this particular fanservice was that the panties were just kind of like... there. I don't think I am allowed to post links here, so I won't, but the panties didn't have any... what's the word, I guess, depth. The creators could have just added another line in the middle to make it slightly arousing, but no, nope, nah. The other thing that bothered me about Ayano was her clothes. I think she's seen once out of her generic school uniform.

Sound: 5
Personally I didn't like the opening, or the outro, which both sounded as generic as the characters, but it's really just an opinion, I guess.

Character: 5
You know, this was one of the most "okay" things of the show. Like, generic overpowered main character? Alright. Generic tsundere? Hm, okay. But then there was one that brought back trauma to me specifically. That character was Ren. What trauma, you may ask? Only the scariest of scary. It was... Boku no Pico. I mean seriously, I was willing to sweep the fact that Ren looked almost identical to Pico under the rug. But no, f**king no, they had to make two, I repeat, TWO, scenes of Pico, I mean, Ren, massaging Juugo, which wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't for him grunting and Ren straddling him and rubbing.

Enjoyment: 6
I enjoyed this show, with an exception, which I will discuss below. This show, again, I genuinely enjoyed it. There were moments of actual hype and whatnot. I did enjoy the romance, until it was super forced with that McDonald girl. Why give a character the last name McDonald when she eats in a WcDonald? She came from America? Is Japan getting at something here? Well, I'm getting off track, so I'll skip to the overall now.

Overall: 4
Now, if you've made it this far, you're probably wondering, why is the overall a four? I'll tell you why. The ending. If the ending wasn't so bad, I would easily give this overall a six. Let me tell you why the ending was so bad.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
Firstly, the ending battle, the giant shadow hole? A demon climbing out of it? A giant magic circle? Where have I seen this before? Secondly, the romance, one of the few things of this show that I really found good. I was hoping that they would kiss on the final episode. Did they? Nope. What did they do? F**king generic overpowered character summons a wind to push her hair back towards him. Could have been really cute, I guess. What does Kazuma do with Ayano's hair? He grabs it, and during this whole time Ayano is blushing like crazy, and smells her hair. And he gets into it, man. He goes f**king hardcore. He follows it up by a pat on Ayano's butt. Who says romance is dead? The closest thing they get in this show to a kiss is a lick on Ayano's face.
***SPOILERS ENDED***

Yeah, so, in needless to say, if you're bored and have the entire day to do nothing, watch it. Otherwise, go watch somethin' else.

Despite this show looking nice and I guess sounding okay (Sound? there's not too many ways to fail on sound) it lacks a lot of essential points like good characters and writing. Here's what I feel was wrong with the characters, Kazuma is so godly powerful that no one can beat him (yeah that's what I want to watch, a show where there's no reason to believe that the characters will ever lose) I know your saying but what about . . . Well stop because no character in the show could beat Kazuma for real and that makes the show boring. Where's the tension ... the drama the what's going to happen? Every episode I found myself saying, doesn't matter Kazuma will win. I'd go on about the other characters that matter but there aren't any. (Doing this without spoilers is quite annoying) My problem with the story is that it was pretty basic Girl falls in love with guy but won't admit to herself because he's a asshole. The rest of the stuff like the magic and circumstances are pretty second nature in this series. Enjoyment is low because the action boils down to dbz/harry potter I'm going to throw energy/magic at you till you pass out. God forbid somebody know some martial arts in an anime. This show is also bad because of the villains reasoning at the end I can't say what it was but it involved the word COWARD, worst villain ever. Recap: this show makes me cry myself to sleep at night because I wanted it to be good because it looked so pretty. I learned something important from this show: Sometimes you have to look past the great breast on the outside and see the great breast on the inside.

This anime is one example that is really desperate to keep the audience entertained by making use of a lot of cliches. We have Ayano Kannagi who yields a flame sword and a tsundere just like Shana in Shakugan no shana. We also have Kazuma Yagami whose name was derived from Death Note "Yagami". By the way, Yagami means God of Night in Death Note.

The director of this anime is Junichi Sakata who passed away. I gave my condolences to him.

The premise starts of interesting but then it gradually fell apart and become so much annoying more than before. Again, Kazuma Yagami was ... disowned by the Kannagi family but came back as a Wind master. In fact, he was so powerful that nobody could beat him. He is arrogant, stoic and cold-hearted but he has a calm, friendly and collected personality inside him. The problem is that the anime didn't develop Kazuma enough for me to root for him. He just comes off as another Edward Cullen. Ayano Kannagi is the worst character in this anime, she is like Louise from Familiar of Zero, so demanding, arrogant, loud-mouth. I could go on forever. In fact, she is the worst tsundere I ever came across.

Catherine Mcdonald was also as annoying as Ayano Kannagi but she was featured in few episodes. Basically, the entire cast is so god awfully annoying that I want to stop watching this anime for good. I don't understand why people betray one another just over small thing. Of course always misunderstandings, ugh.

This whole anime is really about arguments and fighting, nothing else, no character development at all. This anime really expect me to care more about Kazuma Yagami because he had gone through worse things than everybody else. Okay, I have seen a lot of characters who had gone through worse situations than them and yet they remain as optimistic and caring. Kazuma Yagami is another Edward Cullen. His personality is bland even though he is badass.

If you want me to sympathise with the characters, then I want to see the characters learn how to trust and care one another like Special A. Special A starts off as annoying characters but then slowly they become great and likeable characters who learn how to trust and care for others. In fact, this was a good anime. But Kaze no Stigma is a great letdown with characters who whine and complain a lot until my ears bleed.

One example from episode 23, after Kazuma regains his memory, he kicks Ayano. Basically, the cast consists of people who are sore losers and they never learn from their mistakes. The fights are way too terrible and boring. I am not gonna say anymore. This anime is really a lot like the worse version of Zero no Tsukaima.

Another reason why I hate this anime, the ending was terribly executed. The anime ends with Kazuma beating Ayano and Ayano chasing him around. I cannot describe in words how bad it was. The art is also very dull which deserves a 3/10.


I will give it a 2 out of 10.

Junichi Sakata, I am so sorry I didn't like this anime.

Honestly I had some pretty good hope for this show. It was recommended to me, it started off pretty good then just started free falling.

The worst part about the show is the two main characters.

Kazuma is the try hard laid back type of character, well all except that one instance when he fought his father and was trying to impress him. But, other than that everything he says and does is trying extremely hard to be cool and it's honestly just the complete opposite. Also, come the second "problem" for him it seems like he's just looking to start trouble. ... He didn't actually kill someone but, he claimed he did? And for no apparent reason all to send a girl he cares about(?) on a frenzy of revenge against him. Yea, really stupid plot and that's about where I dropped this show.

Ayano on the other hand is annoying simply because she's obsessed with Kazuma, not in an adorable or funny way like the best character on the show Ren. From the very beginning for no apparent reason she's just been determined to go after and follow him and it's just annoying.

I remember watching Kaze no Stigma back when I was a younger version of myself and I thought it was really good, though considering it as a classic now. Years later, I decided to rewatch it again because it was a childhood classic for me. Unfortunately, it got me really disappointed and there were so many things that got me pissed off in the show.

Story: (3/10)
From the first episode, the plot and narration started really tight and balanced. The premise sounded really cool. I liked the first few eps, practically how a shounen does right. Nevertheless, it started became really cheesy, in a ... sense of your normal shoujo trope, in the 2nd half and 75% fillers as they really don't contribute to the main story. To be honest, the comedy and the drama was eh. I wasn't a huge fan of it despite the main female lead ruining it most of the time. The execution bit, whilst showing the plot twists is just downright pointless and poor. Wow talk about getting fooled by a promising premise.

Art: (6/10)
Art was fine. The animation was below average. I personally liked Kazuma's character design since he is depicted to be that Badass wind user character. The others weren't exceptional, lmao I couldn't care less.

Sound: (5/10)
Hm, OP and ED weren't really special in any way and forgettable. The soundtrack was alright, nothing ground-breaking or unbearable. I watched this in eng dub and the voices seemed so forced and cringe, whenever a fight/dramatic scene comes up. Although, Kazuma's eng dub nailed his badass essence as well as his calm nature. If you ask me, that's a pretty good casting voice for Kazuma.

Characters: (3/10)
Oh no. This is where the juicy parts comes in. Let's begin with Kazuma, since he is the only likeable character in the show (for real). His introduction was able to sympathise with him for a while, until the second half. His character was unfortunately meshed with insufficient characterisation, which made me feel disappointed, as I enjoyed his character a lot. Nevertheless, it doesn't stop liking his personality and intriguing background.

Ayano here was another dumpster fire character that I completely hated the most. Every time she blames on Kazuma, I had to start ranting because of how annoying she is. Well in this case, she's your generic tsundere with no chill.

I really forced myself to like Ren, but no, he went the same direction as his sister did. He was likeable when he is useful in some ways of the episodes, but again I could not sympathise with his background.

The supporting characters were just a bunch of cliché acts, can't explain more than that.

Enjoyment: (3/10)
What ruined the series was the dragged storylines as most of the eps were a bunch of cliché + generic ass moments. Including Ayano and her constant summoning of Enraiha, whilst trying to be a badass, but she's not. The fanservice was just unexpected and made it worse for her character. Which was another factor I couldn't resist.

Overall: (4/10)
I'm not giving anything lower than this, despite this was my childhood show when I was kid. But I personally, do not recommend this, even if you do not like generic tsunderes and dragged down storylines.

Kaze No Stigma –

Overall..... Nothing impressive.

Kazuma is an perverted, greedy, arrogant @$$hole. I actually liked his personality!
Ayono Kannagi (Yagami) is a Self-righteous b!tc#. Hers I didn't like at all.
Perfect couple.

As for the series. Eps 1-12 were pretty standard. Nothing to write home about.

... Kazuma was disowned from his family for not learning their fire magic.
I get the feeling this is like a mix of Avatar, Full Metal Alchemist (The way she draws her sword) and Shakugan No Shana (All poor imitations mind you)
Now this family, with the exception of his father, are trying to get him and the heiress of the family together for some reason. I smell subliminal incest.

Eps 13-18. Nothing much happens here.

Eps 19-24. It takes this many episodes to finally get to the final battle and what a waste of time it was getting there!

The final battle was over in less than a minute. You know what??? It wasn’t even a battle!!!

Kazuma, Ayano and the little brother, Ren all combined together to obliterate some demon who had even barely emerged. One way fight??? Not very impressed.

The overall animation was decent. Storyline is another story. Im not sure why Ayanos father was trying so hard to get them together, they’re from the same damn family!
But that ending really pissed me off. I hated it and the score will surely reflect this.

It might have been manageable if they didn’t pull some DBZ/Bleach s#!t and drag out the most boring final battle/ending I’ve ever seen!

Final thoughts! You're better off saving time watching something else.

Rankings!

Animation – 7.5
Story/Plot – 4.5
Character interaction – 6
Action – 6
ENDING – 2
Overall – 5.5

absolutely unoriginal and uncreative. even the battlescenes and dialogue feel so staged. The story and character design is identical to a large amount of stories. The choreography or direction of how the episode flows, including the time allocation having an opening dialogue every episode. The theme/mood of the show is not evident whether it is a serious, comedic, or neutral theme. Of which is determined by the music, the contrast and colors of the show. the voicing also seems staged.

Overall it might have been a waste of time to have made it 24 episodes as there is no significant impact to the watchers.

When i started this anime i was very surprised the story ended somewhere at the fourth episode and then some random storys took place. The acting sux and the sound is quite poor. The anime is realy tough to watch. Still haven't dropped it simply because i don't like quitting on things I start ... And the animation where that girl summons the sword is annoying.......

I just finished watching what was perhaps one of my most anticipated shonen battle series during my childhood. My expectations were raised pretty high for this show; I was expecting something equivalent to A Certain Magical Index or Kenichi - both of which are decent shows with their own set of flaws but pretty enjoyable.
I was rather met with an extreme amount of disappointment. Never in my entire lifetime did I ever think that Kaze no Stigma would be a source of it.

NOTE : This review isn't dictating other's take on the show but my own, so feel free to point out any flaws in ... my review if you wish to. Criticism is always welcome and appreciated on my profile.

Introduction:

I can't tell you how painful it was to watch this series. This is perhaps a minor e.g. of why I avoid watching shonen anime, be they short or long. Of course, not every shonen falls short of its premise but this specific show just couldn't live up to the pace of the plot.

For those who don't feel like reading the whole review. Here's your...

TL;DR & Verdict - Kaze no Stigma stands up as a unique shonen battle series but fails to make most of its premise or release any of its compressed potential. With a lack of proper characters to direct the cast of protagonists and a lack of a properly inducted villain, it's a mixed bag of mostly rotten strawberries with 3 or 4 edible ones.

REVIEW WILL CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS (So BEWARE ) :) !

This series failed with its execution and tried too hard to cover it by introducing new characters to the scene followed by a slow pace with it. The cliffhanger that it leaves with doesn't really help recover it from the mess it creates initially. The biggest mistake would be introducing Catherine and the setup that was poorly built to introduce the villain.

Review will consist of 5 sections:

-Characterisation & Plot
-Theme
-Literary
-Animation/Fights
-Soundtrack

Characterisation & Plot :-

The plot surrounds a protagonist who had some complications with the hierarchy of his family and inheriting a specific super-power , which in many cases thickens the plot and character of the protagonist to be set already. Not in this case because our protagonist is set to appear as more of an anti-hero with a pink haired nuisance, who's perhaps the least annoying pink haired character - lmao, right. Follow that with the protagonist's younger brother who almost seems to be the perfect fit for the show itself but is caped by the narrative surrounding his brother - in fact they try to make it so apparent that he's going to fit his brother's bill too ( one specific plot device- let's call this plot device 'The Lover's Tie' - and an interesting one at that tries to debate that against his brother).

Cough Cough The protagonist is obviously overpowered but by another plot device, a semi sort of deus ex machina, one could predicate. Leaving them aside, the other characters don't seem to be all that well explored either. Between episodes 13-19, the writers come up with a brilliant idea to present a typical caricature of a character which is cringe at the worst, if not unfunny.

The villain is barely memorable and is only indirectly covered through the last quarter of the series, not well explored at all. The pandemonium games didn't really make any effort to bring any sense of justice to the premise or the plot; the setup looked so filler-esque and superfluous that I started wondering if I was having an ADHD episode. It's quite a shame because I was actually growing a bit of an intrigue in this ambiguously framed character. The only foreshadowing of the villain's appearance you'll find is through the protagonist's seemingly inauthentic plot device( yet again, The Lover's Tie) - even that doesn't tell you jack shit about the villain, anyway.

Ayano needs to go though - I seriously don't get why every pink haired ends up being an eyesore no matter how hard I try to like them.

Theme:

The thematic part of this series is vague and unexplored at best, given that there's no clear distinction in the events to justify the presence of one other than your typical shonen tribunals. Yet again, this is because of its inconsistent storyline.
There is much more to learned from Kazuma's character, given that his hatred for the polar opposite organisation is implemented to be a justified true belief; I wouldn't want to juxtapose it with the cliffhanger, since that seems more of an off shoot to do so - given that there is continuity afterwards but it also can't aid in grounding the basic frame of his character. One prominent theme that runs fairly well in this anime is the idea that one shouldn't dictate their fate upon the events of the past - again, this is just sitting there in hope of developing Kazuma's character. The only setback would be it doesn't flow well with the villain's heinous last ditch appearance, along with his subordinate ( who's supposed to be very relevant to Kazuma and, a part of the cliffhanger actually leaves the audience with a gaping moment). Another theme that the last arc tried to prevail would be 'Playing God', yet again this is fine for a shonen series but, KnS only throws a build-up that completely butchers the pertinent side character and its pertinence to the theme. The villain on the other hand barely has much to offer to that theme itself and is best described as the 'Acting God' himself.
I dig the theme and, I believe I would have loved it if they tried to uncap some of the potential that was initially expressed in the beginning of the series; that way, this show would have been decent enough experience.

Literary ( how well are the literary elements executed):

I really loved how the series started off with a couple of common plot devices, such as deus ex machina and 'The Lover's Tie'. I don't have any complaints with it but, I'd have really appreciated it if they didn't iterate the latter plot device in another one of its main cast. I mentioned about that specific event in my Plot/Characterisation section. While that arc was surely decent and one could have predicted the event from miles away, I'm not sure if using that plot device was a good idea, since it becomes apparent later on that the main protagonist pretty suffers from a similar fate.
Flashbacks were done pretty well, I must say. No complaints on that, they helped foreshadow the coming of the villain anyway. So props for that. Satirically, the show feels very pushy with its comedy at times but is fairly well at delivering the comedy for a teen audience- it wasn't too funny for someone like me. The jokes get pretty cliche and the worst satirical element of the show was Catherine's caricature of a character. I have no issues with portraying foreigners in a satirical manner but, if anything Catherine's appearance attributes more to someone who time traveled around a century earlier, got fed some crap about superiority complex and then drained down to the 21st century. While it is a fine try, it's indeed a failed one.

Animation/Fights:-

Now, the fights in this anime were actually pretty good if I'm being honest; there's nothing innovative about it but, they seem to be animated pretty fine. Less calling names and more action, fair enough. The scenes in general have some sort of life in them and are far from being called 'monotonous'.

Soundtrack:

I'm going to be honest. One of the only reasons I wanted to watch Kaze No Stigma is because of its appealing soundtrack. I swear, it's the kind that seems from a pre-20th century cyberpunk garage type stuff but is escalated with a mellow tune. I totally dig it and would love more of it.

Rating Agenda:-

Plot: 5/10
Characterisation: 6/10
Animation: 6/10
Soundtrack: 7/10
Personal Enjoyment: 4/10 ( not counted in the overall score)
Concept Execution: 5/10
Theme and Literary Exposition: 3/10.

Verdict: 4.9/10

If you've taken the time to actually read through my review, you have my eternal gratitude :D. Feel free to give me negative or positive feedback on my writing and if I could have written it in any different format or manner.
Thank you !

Character
The producers want to focus on how cool and strong kazuma is, unfortunately they did it by showing how stupid pepople around him is. boring, can't the do it in the smart way like having Kazumi outwit his enemy in a battle of wit?
Art
the art is good eventhough there is inconsistency every now and then
Story
The story is standart, the major weakness is we can already know who is who by looking at chow the character is drawn( its look)

So I wasn't expecting much from this anime, because i assumed it is one of many who are similar, but actualy I realy enjoyed the MC for his characterdevelopment throughout the story. But the tsundere girl protagonist is just an awfull onesided, and horribly anoying character that basicaly destroyed this anime completely. The art is fancy considering the time it came out, and the soundtracks are verry enjoyable. However, the story development over all is complete trash because of certain protagonists that kinda hinder the you from experiencing the MC going through a crisis, just because the studio tried to pack this into one single ... episode. I dont recommend this anime, except you're like completely into tsundere romances.

Kaze no Stigma is the perfect example of what happens when a show plays it as safe as possible and follows the formula to the letter. It will be deemed boring and be forgotten very fast. Nothing in this anime compels you to keep watching as you have already watched everything in it already a hundred times in other shows, with far more exciting presentation and characters.

The story is as typical as stories of this type can get. “Supernatural girl unwillingly teams up with supernatural boy and go to fight baddies while having a growing attraction for each other” is all you need to know ... about it. All that about families with special control over the elements is just a blunt backdrop story that hardly feels mystical or even thrilling looking to pay attention to for long. Can you believe the same premise can be found more captivating in a silly show like Naruto? Anyways, aside from being identical to a hundred other shows, there also aren’t any plot twists or anything to surprise you about it in general. It plays out so dull you are watching it with apathy.

A good thing about it is that it brings closure in the end instead of NOT bringing closure like most anime do. It is still a predictable outcome but it is better than no outcome. I would normally score an average score of 5/10 for it, but then there is another problem. FILLERS! Lots of them, many of which are throw away fan service ones. And most missions don’t even seem to connect with one another even when they are supposed to be in the core story. So you basically get only the three first and the three last to have a meaningful plot. Which is in effect 1/4th of the total duration and for that I give it a 3/10.

The characters are basic when it comes to personalities but at least they are not following the usual mold when it comes to shounen. The hero is almost an anti-hero and the heroine can actually fight well despite being a girl in shounen. Other than that, their chemistry is nothing much to write home about; as usual they begin as unwilling allies and along the way they get to like each other more and more. And yet you never get to see anything more past some platonic affection so it never gets spicy enough to bother paying attention to them.

Even past the expected development they get as characters, you still find it hard to like them, since they are otherwise quite blunt. Kazuma has nothing more going about his personality, other than playing it uncaring and avenging, and Ayano is basically a red-haired tsundere with a flaming sword, which passes as a less interesting Shana clone for not being voiced by Rie Kugimiya. All the other characters don’t even manage to be regarded as anything more than one dimensional allies and bad guys, with zero characterization. And seriously, Kazuma’s sibling is a boy??? Whatever, this is a show that bases all its appeal on the lead duo and does very little to feel any better than whatever else you can find out there. I would again normally score a 5 here since they do develop expectably, but then you have a big cast of cardboards surrounding the main duo, so they feel like lots of wasted material and I lower it to 4.

The production values are ok for the time the show was made, although they never manage to get into awesome levels for lacking aesthetic appeal. For example, the elemental families are supposed to be centuries old and delved deep into tradition and mysticism yet you hardly feel anything mystical emanating from the whole setting. The use of superpowers in battle is also basic to the most part and despite there being 4 elements, after awhile they all play out the exact same way and it only matters who has the bigger energy beam. The use of special effects also feels dull, as most look like nothing more than monochromatic computer generated overlays. The several scenes of fan service also don’t offer any more excitement to the table, since they are all very basic and softcore. I also didn’t like the overuse of deformity every time they try to make Ayano look funny when she is angry. It looks cheap, not funny, and of a style one would normally encounter a decade ago. I give the artwork a 7.

The music part left me with complete apathy; neither the songs nor the voice acting were anything special. I leave it at 6.

Value and Enjoyment are rock bottom for all the reasons I stated above. This show has nothing to offer to a veteran viewer and barely tries to be anything more than a goofy, average, tired, watch-once-and-throw-away anime with simplistic characters, loose plot, dull fan service and battles, and predictable outcomes. Not recommended at all.

I came across Kaze no Stigma a long time time ago but for some reason never finished it and hardly remember anything besides the first episode, now I know why...

The animation and fights were really sloppy and boring compared to other anime that aired around the same time for example Darker than Black, Code Geass, Baccano.

There were very few characters that werent annoying as hell and there wasnt much of a character development. In all the episodes there wasnt even one where the main heroine wasnt complaining.

Usually deaths hold a special meaning in anime and encourage character development of the main characters thats not really ... the chase here for most of the time. Mostly the characters dont seem to care after a few seconds.

The only thing I didnt have a problem with were the music and sounds but those were by no means anything special.

All in all for me it was more of a chore to complete this serie than enjoyment.

*keep in mind im not an nativ english speaker

Plot: 6
- Incredibly underwhelming story, given the synopsis you'd expect there to be a central idea embedded into 24 episodes. However, there is no central plot, rather its a collection of sub plots every 3- 4 episodes.
- Character development is near minimal, plot development makes no sense most of the time and not once is there an expression of any form of empathy.
- Side characters ended up being more interesting than the MC, who btw was just an arrogant and overpowered brat with no sense of emotion.

Animation: 6.5
- Given its 2007, its slightly on the weaker side but holds up well most ... of the time, the fight animations are very simple and leave no room for layering.
- General animation is alright.

Voice acting: 6
- Most of the time, the characters did not have fitting voices, there was no passion in any scene and felt faked throughout.
- However the few times there was a spark of emotion, the contrast between other characters would undermine their acting.

Music: 7
- OPs were above average
- EDs were decent
- General music and OSTs were average

Execution: 6
- Could've done way better with proper emotional development, I felt 0 attachment to any of the characters. If someone ended up dying there was 0 remorse by any character, it was almost as if it was another day at the office. Incredibly meh.

Enjoyment: 6
Overall rating: 6.3
Adjusted weighted Rating: 6.25

P = 35% - 2.1
A = 30% - 1.95
V = 20% - 1.2
M = 10% - 0.7
E = 5% - 0.3

This first section gives my thoughts without spoiling anything.

I watched this with no expectations and still left disappointed. Everything was good until episode 13, which started the path towards rock bottom. Episodes 13-21 were still fine, but they lead the story into one of the worst I've seen in anime. Episodes 22-24 sucked. They pretend that character development exists when there was no effort to make any for over 20 episodes, and they try making this the focal point of the story.

The art is fine, it's nothing special but is above average for the most part. The sound design isn't anything to remember but ... also not bad.

From this point on, I will not avoid spoilers.

The relationship between Kazuma and Ayano is dreadful. These two are cousins, so a relationship between them already feels wrong. This is amplified by the complete lack of chemistry between them. Kazuma constantly belittles Ayano, and she hates every action he takes and the decisions he makes. Despite this, the story tries pretending that they are a couple in love. This gets worsened when it's revealed that Kazuma had a real lover in the past. The story demands that Kazuma loves Ayano, a girl he lacks any chemistry with, more than he loves Tsui Ling, the girl who brought him out of depression and gave him his dream life after banishment from the family. For whatever reason, he does without hesitation. To top it all off, it is revealed that Tsui Ling hated Kazuma in her final moments, which is a reveal that only exists to make Ayano "the one."

The characters all fell flat and lacked any depth.

Kazuma was the best of the bunch, and was thd only character that felt complete. (Well until the end, where he fell apart). He was the standard op mc, but he didn't have heroic intentions, focusing instead on making money and protecting his brother. He wasn't a pushover that submitted to others intentions, which is very refreshing in anime like this.

Ayano was a tsundere type who had no reason to like Kazuma and lacked any traits besides being the female mc.

Ren was the younger brother who flipped between being capable/intelligent and being captured easily/childish.

The Soshu wanted to harness Kazuma's power, so he tried getting him to bang his daughter Ayano so a "mistake" would be made.

Kazuma's father Genma exists solely so Kazuma doesn't want to join back with the family. He hates his son because he used to be weak, even though he's easily the strongest in the world currently. Genma is supposed to be the strongest of the family, but he is never seen in action against anyone besides Kazuma, who swept the floor with him.

I would recommend not watching this anime. It's 6/10 until the end, where it becomes a 2/10.