Ao no Exorcist

"Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years!" - Anton LaVey

One of the constants of many religions is the idea that sin and evil stem from a higher power. In some cases this means another deity that works in opposition to all things good, but for Christianity, Islam and Judaism such things are viewed as the domain of Satan (or "Lucifer, Fallen Angel, Prince of Darkness, Bringer of Light, Ruler of Hell, Lord of the Flies, Father of Lies, Apostate Supreme, Tempter of Mankind, Bringer of the Apocalypse, Old Serpent, Prince of ... this World, Seducer, Accuser, Tormentor, Blasphemer" - Glen Duncan).

Whatever name is ascribed to this being, the idea of him being the enemy of all things good is so deeply ingrained in society, he is usually depicted as the epitome of darkness and evil. While there are tales out there that try to cast Satan in a different light (for example, DC Vertigo's "Lucifer"), most writers find it easier to go with the prevailing opinion - which is a bit ... lazy to be honest.

Adapted from the ongoing shounen manga by Kato Kazue, Ao no Exorcist follows the adventures of Okumura Rin, a boisterous teenager with superhuman strength and a problem controlling his temper. Together with his younger twin brother Yukio, they live in a small Christian monastery run by their father, Fujimoto Shiro, and several monks who have helped raise the two boys. The series opens with a group of priests who are frantically praying in unison, but one by one they are being killed by a mysterious blue fire.

The scene shifts to Rin, who has just punched a delinquent for shooting pigeons with a crossbow.

Because this is a shounen anime, the plot adopts the action oriented, fight-of-the-week format that is so common in the genre. While this method is formulaic, it does have two advantages, the first being that the story becomes very easy to follow. Overly complex details and anything truly thought provoking have been discarded, which is more than a little ironic as, in true shounen anime style, this simplistic approach is reflective of the content of the series. The second advantage is familiarity, and while it doesn't seem like an important factor, it does play a key role when it comes to enjoying this show.

Sadly, Ao no Exorcist also suffers from many of the problems that plague the shounen genre, partly because of the formulaic plot, but mainly because the series lacks the much of the depth needed to keep the story interesting. The lacklustre narrative is filled with bland humour and pointless angst, and because of these factors, the series has a tendency to veer off track. Although there are attempts to keep everything running smoothly, the underlying lack of creativity and complexity make this difficult to achieve. In addition to this, only a part of the manga has made the transition to anime, and much like the first adaptation of Full Metal Alchemist, the latter portion of the series is completely original - and it shows (more on this in a bit)

When it comes to looks, Ao no Exorcist is on surer footing, although a part of that is because this is a manga adaptation. The majority of the character designs are very typically shounen in style (even down to the short, bald guy), but while the source material adds a degree of refinement to their composition, there are also a few inherent limitations. That said, there's a surprising degree of creativity in the supernatural elements of the series, and a few of the weird and wonderful concepts really steal the show. There are also a few imaginative settings that make a nice contrast to the rather humdrum everyday scenery, and when everything comes together the overall effect can be colourful and slightly outrageous (in a good way).

As for the animation, A-1 Pictures have done a decent job for the most part, even with the typical shounen posturing and theatrics. The characters move well, if at times a little unrealistically, and the majority of action scenes are fluid and well choreographed. Unfortunately there are some noticeable occasions where the standard drops, and sadly these aren't limited to periods of frenetic activity.

The strong shounen theme is prevalent in the two opening sequences, both of which are filled with action, posturing, and a smattering of angst. In addition to this, the two introductory tracks, "Core Pride" by Uverworld (episodes 1 to 12), and "In My World" by Rookiez Is Punk'd (episode 13 onwards), are very typical rock songs that one might find at the beginning of any shounen anime. Ao no Exorcist also features two ending sequences, the first one being a CG "journey" through a city that is accompanied by "Take Off" by South Korean boy band 2PM. The second features a montage of the characters against a variety of patterned backgrounds, all to the tune of "Wired Life" by Kuroki Meisa. The rest of the soundtrack is features dramatic orchestral pieces and strange little comic relief ditties, and while these are generally well choreographed, as a whole there's nothing really special about the background music.

One of the biggest problems with the shounen genre is that it can often be too formulaic, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the dialogue. The script appears to have been written by people with no idea of how teenagers actually talk, and the conversations are filled with pointless banalities, angst ridden diatribes and cumbersome bravado. Everything's a bit too contrived, and to further compound matters, the voice actors have obviously been instructed to play their parts with extra "oomph". The result is that emotions like anger, frustration, joy, fear, etc, often involve lots of shouting, while the rest of the acting has enough ham to start a business making sandwiches.

The characters are a veritable "who's who" of stereotypes, and it can sometimes seem as though the mangaka has followed the instructions in "How To Make A Shounen Character" to the letter. Rin is the typical lead male - all brawn, very little brains, and tries to solve every problem by hitting it, and surrounding him are people who epitomise their archetypes. In addition to this, Ao no Exorcist makes the age old mistake of assuming that overcoming trials and tribulations equals development, and while some of the characters do learn a thing or two over the course of the series, much of what passes for growth is nothing more than window dressing on a mannequin.

In all honesty the only interesting person in the whole show is Yukio, but given how shallow everyone else is, this may not be saying much.

Ao no Exorcist isn't a new concept, and much of the inspiration for the story has obviously come from Mike Mignola's "Hellboy". The sad part is that although the latter work is a gripping supernatural horror/thriller that touches upon many different cultural beliefs, legends and aspects of folklore, virtually none of that is present in this anime. The decision to make this a shounen tale has placed severe limitations on what can and cannot be done, and this means that the narrative can't achieve the atmosphere, the tone, or even the level of complexity of Hellboy.

Which brings us back to the latter portion of the anime.

Once the series moves away from the source material the story takes a slightly darker turn, and several themes are introduced that, if they had been used earlier, could have raised the show above mediocrity. Unfortunately these concepts are only lightly touched upon, which is a shame as there was an opportunity to take the anime in a direction that would have made it far more interesting than it actually is. That doesn't mean it should have gone done the path used by The Omen trilogy though (i.e. Rin becomes The Antichrist), but it would have been nice if the wistful, almost melancholy desire of his father was examined in more detail.

With all of its flaws it may seem as though Ao no Exorcist has nothing to offer, so it's surprising that the show is reasonably enjoyable. That said, the best way to treat this anime is to think of it as a rather long action movie that has difficulty getting to the point, and if it's watched for the sole purposes of no-brain entertainment, then viewers can expect a decent return for their time.

That said, with two live action movies, two animated features, and a world of difference in content, some people may find Hellboy a better proposition.

Ao No Exorcist is set in a battle of exorcists versus demons. It is a typical shonen with a good main character as the backbone.

The backdrop of the story is that Rin and brother Yukio are the sons of Satan and a human mother. Rin inherited the demonic powers, while Yukio didn't. They are taken in by the current Paladin, Shiro, who raises them as sons. Soon, they are thrust in an ongoing battle of the Exorcists versus Demons. The story gets off to a very fast start, but from what I understand, lack of material for the spots the manga covered caused some ... more prolonged fillers than usual. Towards the end when the story picks back up, there are some "jumping the shark" moments which try to add to the intrigue and plays well on the Rin's character, but ultimately falls flat.

Rin makes an excellent main character. As the son of Satan who wishes to fight demons his very existence challenges the traditional views of the vatican, the major "good guy" base, in the series. He's foremost, a character you like to root for.

His brother Yukio is somewhat a foil to Rin. His personality is pretty much the opposite of Rin's, and even his weapon choice (guns) are contrary to his brother's (A sword). The strong point about both characters are that both of them have a good mix of personal strengths and weaknesses.

As good as the brothers are, the supporting cast fails to meet the same marks. Most of them have some sort of character episode or small backstory, but none of them really have any true development. In comparison, a show like Soul Eater (while having twice the episodes) managed to handle all of the characters in a way that made all of them seem important, this is not true for Ao No Exorcist.

The show has a fairly good mix of comedy and action. Some of the more comedic episodes are actually the stronger ones as they tend to focus more on a characters personality rather than the kinda middling story.

Ao No Exorcist is nothing new to the Shonen world, it suffers from some pacing issues and a bland supporting cast, but has strengths with the mains and overall theme. It's a decent show with some demons to deal with.

Hey guys, this is my first review on this site and frankly it's my first review I've ever written so here it goes.

Ao no Exorcist is an classic shounen anime as you may know judging by the hype it has gotten. Well to cut to the story, it revolves mainly around Rin whom is a demon spawn living in a chantry with his father, brother and a bunch of munks/exorcists.

The theory of the story is good, but not well made, a battle between exorcists and demons, a struggle to fit in where you should not belong, a strive to be the ... best. The pace in the story line kicks of in the first two episodes which frankly I think is great but after that is slows down more and more 'til the end of the anime where it speeds up 9999% without warning or preperations. That is a bad sign, to speed up an anime just to fit the ending in 4 episodes, I haven't read the manga so I can't say if the story is copied 100%. In my opinion the first episodes was freaking awesome, it was battles, hearbreaking and were exiting. After those episodes it slows down as I said before, to a pace were it resembles fillers that you can find in Naruto and other animes that are over 24-50 episodes. That is bad my friends in a 25 episoded anime, and it cuts down the enjoyment.

The art is just great, it's classic, nice colors plain beautiful. It goes from small cute demons to rotten ghouls very well made I must say and a very high variety of characters, you won't see anyone in this anime look the same exept from some smaller demons. The sound in this anime is well placed and has a great soundtrack fitting the moments. The ''main characters'' are well placed so to say, a great kemistry and gives a nice vibb to it. They have the right voice casting for every person that fitts their personality.

Overall it's a fair anime in my opinion, it may have a good theory behind it but is crushed by the way they made it to the screen. It jumps from one thing to another so it's hard to keep track of where it is taking you. I had high expectations for this anime which is a bad thing when they are not able to pull it through the way I like it. But, I have not seen the whole anime since it has not been subbed but I know that I can make a clear statement of the score I want to give it, sadly I think it's a disappontment.

Well guys let’s start off with the awesome characters in this awesome manga. First and foremost we have Rin Okumura our principle protagonist, followed by his younger twin brother Yukio Okumura, and then we have Rin Okumura, and then Yukio Okumura, Rin Okumura again, some blond haired chick, random people and some dude named Shiro (and guess what he has white hair, har har har… weaboo) oh and did I mention Rin fucking Okumura. Theatrics aside, we essentially only have two or three characters with important roles throughout the whole TV show. The rest are just ballast. However, seeing as this is a review and ... not a rant, I must divulge in the sweet juicy details. As I said earlier our primary protagonist is Rin Okumura, but what I neglected to mention earlier is that he is the son of satan (oh sh-). Now would be a good time to hide your nuns. It is almost as if the Japanese people live in an unreligious society and are completely unaware of the ramifications and controversy that would ensue from pursuing such a plotline. That being said, as far as shounen characters go he’s as typical as they get. Out of place, just found out he’s not like everyone else, has a tendency to fight a lot, not very intelligent. You’ll find him very reminiscent of Naruto(among others) character wise. Through his character we are expected to sympathize with him, the son of satan. Likewise, his younger brother Yukio, serves pretty much the same purpose. Although, much more akin to the role of a character like Alphonse from Fullmetal Alchemist. I mention these well-known shounen because that is essentially what this anime (and I assume manga) is; a bastardization/ hot pot of various other well-known shounen titles. While originality is not really known to the shounen genre (or all anime these days) this anime makes it blatantly obvious which minds it is melding from. More on this though when we reach the story section. The blond girl has a role but it’s more of the not really romantic, love interest that we are so used to in anime by now. Her and this big voluptuous chick named Shura are pretty much this show’s cockteases. The rest of the characters are not really important and seeing as the show simply abandons them half way in, I will do the same. Sure we have an episode where they celebrate everyone’s birthday but that’s just an excuse to do stupid crap for 30 minutes while displaying the whole cast. Those crazy Japanese! And that even crazier Daimyo for watching shows not originally intended for Western audiences. 6/10


Indeed going by the story it would not be hard to pinpoint who this show was originally intended for. A predominately nihonjin audience, most likely in school, more specifically junior high- high school, and while the manga is published in a shounen magazine, it is subtle enough to appeal to both males and females. In other words, it’s a McDonald’s anime, full of everything but substantially nothing overall. Yea you’ll eat it when you’re hungry but after you salivate it for a while you’ll feel nothing but cold guilt, despair and diarrhea as you ponder on why you didn’t find anything better and less regurgitating to eat. Opps, did I ramble off again? Sorry about that. The story is pretty much this, troublemaker boy who everyone avoids finds out he has a demon side to him, then goes to school for exorcism, wants to be the strongest exorcist which is called hokage…Paladin. Does this sound familiar to anyone yet? That was just the basic plot outline. We also neglected to mention that this show steals…gathers inspiration from other shounen titles like d.gray-man, souleater, fullmetal alchemist, among others. As naruto like as this anime is you’ll be verily disappointed to find out that a filler episode of Naruto has better and more exciting fights than this. Action- wise this show climaxed when Rin had to face Amaimon the earth king (2 lazy to add him to my character section). Everything else after this moment was just depressingly bad. Many times I looked forward to this character named Mephisto(opps left out another) to kickass but every single damn time he failed to deliver. Ultimately, that is what this show does, it fails to deliver. It tries to cater to a shounen audience but lacks the impact of better more successful shounen. Now Daimyo you might say that this anime is more story driven and thus does not need to rely on cheap acts of violence. Well, then OBJECTION! This show’s story is just as terrible as any other is, if not worse. There are a lot of useless plotlines that don’t even get properly resolved. Like who was it that brought Neuhaus’(at this point just screw the character section) wife back to life in the first place. That eyebrow’s girl story was pretty much thrown out the window too. We do not even know who the antagonist is the majority of the show’s run. When we finally find it out it’s satan, of course the Japanese have to make us try to sympathize so they paint satan as more of an anti-hero or at the very least an anti-villain(tv tropes motherfucker). He is trying to usher in a new world where the demons of Gehenna and the people of Assiah (more terms I ignored) can live together. So we get a satan that sounds more like Lelouche fucking Lamperouge than well satan. You know the absolute evil, cursed by the big G(google?), hated by all, yadda, yadda, yadda(for more info pick up your nearest Bible, Torah or Quran). Just as they had extinguished Mephisto’s flames right before his crowning moment of awesome, I felt they had extinguished my ability to enjoy this show.5/10

Let’s recap this a bit shall we. We are given a show with essentially two or three characters, a poor clumsy attempt at a storyline, topped off with disappointing fights. Basically, what we have is a wet mess. However, seeing as we had 3 paragraphs full of my failed attempts at comedy let’s get serious here. I am left somewhat confused as to how to finally score this anime. There were many moments throughout the course of the show’s run where I felt this show truly did deserve its rating of 8.20. Had this show ended right after the fight with Amaimon I would have scored it somewhere between the 7.0-7.5 range. The reason is not length. I mean the show is only 25 episodes, so perhaps I might be able to add this to the oh so common manga-anime adaptation failure’s list. Then you might say that this show is simply not my taste. Not quite if you were to view my anime and mangalists you would see that the majority of the shows I complete are in the category of shounen. Some might say this has caused me to lose out on other great animes from different genres/demographics over the years (alas only shounen and seinen satisfy my young manly soul). I feel modern anime in general tries to cater to too many different tastes at once and overall just ends up being tasteless. This is not to say I did not enjoy this show, it just felt rather bland. It’s not the type of show that left an impact. And ten years from now if someone asked me to name the animes from this era that left the biggest imprint on me, ao no exorcist most likely would not be part of the conversation. Who knows though? Anime is like fine wine, much better when it’s aged. Hopefully, by then Daimyo will be sufficiently aged as well.

(Scroll down for my... second review.)

I don't know how to rate this anime. I feel guilty for even liking it all. Everything is so cliche. If you based a drinking game on this show, where whenever someone or something cliche came up, take a sip. You'd be sick for the rest of your life. So why did I even like this as much as I did? I don't know! As a reviewer, it frustrates me not to know what I even sort of liked about a show, so in this review I'll be attempting (probably in vain) to find that reason.


Story~
Nothing new. We've all seen ... it before. When I first started this, I wondered why I was bothering. The religious subjects could have gone deeper, and then that would be my reason for liking it-- but did they? No, I think they purposely tried to keep it stereotypical. Why? There were so many dang good directions they could have gone. After I finished this, I just sat down and thought about it. I wish they could have taken this to a better light, but nah. Oh well, what's done is done I guess.


Art~
Me oh my. What to say here? Typical style for this genre, but still done very well. The movement for the fight scenes was definitely not skimpy, and was pleasing to my eye. Just because the style is a bit cliched doesn't automatically make it bad. I still think they gave us a nice bit of work of art to watch. But oh dear... When the animators DO skimp out, it's apparent, at least I thought so. Sometimes the quality takes a dip, but then raises later on. Erm... One problem though. This was supposed to be a shounen fighting anime right? Or was it? With the lack of fighting it makes you wonder. I hate drawn out fights where that's all the anime is about, and they last more than one episode-- it just bugs me. But this just didn't have enough fighting. Oh well... The art was still good when they did fight, though.


Sound~
...Good. The voice actors give a lot of emphasis to their roles, though sometimes way too much, which... sometimes ruins the mood. The openings and endings were present, but not memorable by any means whatsoever. I likedsome of the orchestral music that really built upon the mood when it needed to, but for the most part it went... unnoticed. But it's still overall good.


Character~
They were very cliche, even when fleshed out. Some developed more than others, but nobody really grew up too much. They all stayed their same old selves, with their same old goals and things. But they were entertaining somehow. I kept slapping my head while watching this show, hoping my brain would wake up and tell me the truth-- these are just cliche characters. But it never did. I still somehow enjoyed them, and though a lot of humor was dry, it sort of... mademelaugh. I know, you're going to kill me. But the characters were still somehow fun to me despite being so... well, unoriginal. But because of that, I can't give them a high score, no matter how much I sort of enjoyed watching them supposedly "grow" in whatever way they did.


All in all, Ao no Exorcist does a decent job, but nothing above that. The show itself takes a darker and stranger turn which was... to me, expected in a way, yet unexpected. I don't know how to explain it. I can't find what it is I liked about this show, but I did enjoy it very much as it was on-screen. Other parts were much less enjoyable but I still had fun watching this as a whole.

Depending on your taste, you'll either love it or hate it. Maybe I liked it because I watched all of it in one day and finished at about 4:00 in the morning... so if I give it another try while my brain is less asleep (the darn thing) then I can give it a more accurate review. Overall, it's entertaining but it didn't escape its cliches, and could have gone an entirely different and better direction-- but didn't. Yet somehow it was still so much fun. AGAIN-- I'll watch this one more when I'm actually awake, and maybe I'll re-review it with a more accurate score.



..:::..:::..

SECOND REVIEW

All right. As promised, I watched Ao no Exorcist a second time, and my rating hasn't dropped TOO much, but it still has lowered. I'll show you why.


Story~
I don't want to go into this again. It's cliche. It takes a few twists and does this and that, and the religious themes can be fairly enthralling-- but it's just cliche. That's all.


Art~
Yes, yes, if you read my first review you know what I think here. It's again-- cliche, but smooth and cute, and I thought very nice. The movement was eye-pleasing, but when they made mistakes it was... very apparent.


Sound~
...The review for the soundtrack remains the same. Please refer to my first review above.


Character~
The characters for Ao no Exorcist seemed as if taken out of "Anime's Book of Cliche Characters". The first time around, I actually enjoyed them, though they were admittedly cliche. Even when fleshed out they were still rather... overused. The second time around, my enjoyment didn't actually go down one bit-- except for Izumo and Paku's small arc. For some reason, the enjoyment there went down considerably, and I almost couldn't stand it. I pointed out every dang cliche thing about them and could only groan at it. For the rest of the series, it was still entertaining until episode 22. There's something about the ending (I have NO idea what) that just angers, irritates, and annoys me. I just dislike it, and I have no idea why. The characters are developed enough but still... yes, cliche.


All in all, Ao no Exorcist is actually very entertaining the first time around, if you don't mind cliche shounen and don't mind shutting your brain off for just a little bit of action and random yet cliche twists. I have a hard time knocking the enjoyment level down, because it's still fun for the first time around-- but the second time, I had to force my way through some parts.

If you love shounen genre, you will love this. I highly recommend this to you if you're like that. If you like a good, unique twist or something deeper, then maybe *maybe* try this if you just want to shut your brain off and not care about what happens on-screen. If you're hardcore mystery, dark plot twists, unpredictable things happening, and deep characters, don't try this at home. Just... Oh, I don't know.

Overall, I think it's another addition to the cliche shounen thing, but at 4:00 in the morning I was highly entertained the first time around. The second time-- I... wasobsessedwithRin'stail-- I mean, it was all very old and cliche. .../shiftyeyes

Basically, this entire show depends on your opinion, but the second time around I hated Yukio even more, disliked Paku and Izumo arc-thing, and hated the ending. Everything else was equally fun as the first time around. Do whatever you feel like based on this review (and some of the others).

Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist)

The first impression of this show was impressive, especially the first episode. An incredible start that set the scene for the series which had me hooked. (Including the theme song!) Sadly as the show progressed, my interest began to waiver. It has to do with the bulk of the characters and lack of progressive to flesh out the main story arc which really disappointed me.

Character and Plot development. (4.5) Rin is the MC (protagonist) of this story and by far the most interesting character alongside his father Shirou Fujimoto. The rest of the cast isn't really worth mentioning because they ... lack development on their identity. Sure you could argue that they have either subtle or obvious agendas in regards to their relationship to Rin but there's no growth to this intriguing introduction which sadly makes them a background addition to fill in for the off-screen time of Rin. This also translates to the plot there is no exploration of the Demon World and very little development of the outside world for an exorcist. Instead, the creators settled for a high-school setting with contrived situations and melodramas. The only substantial plot development is when Fujimoto is on-screen and given he's on-screen time is probably one of the shortest of the cast, this is pretty laughable and disappointing. One thing I will mention though is that the different forms of exorcists is interesting and is one of the few bright spots of the plot that they explore.

Art, Sound and Action. (8.5) I must admit, it is done quiet well. Especially the Art of when Rin unleashes his Demon powers. (blue flames) The fast action scenes are also very pretty and great to watch. You'll be popping eye and ear gasms throughout the series which makes up for the lack of plot. Looks a bit like the action of Bleach using their zanpakutos, only better animated.

I enjoyed Blue exorcist for the most part. It has a great start and builds an ethos worth exploring. Sadly they don't venture outside the realm of school very much but when they do its very limited and thus creates unexplained plot holes. So be ready for the melodramas and misfits of high school life. I would recommend watching with a lowered expectation of the ratings on MAL (currently 8.09 at the time of this review) or only watching the first 4 episodes to get the idea and then decide whether to drop or continue. Its certainly interesting and has the pieces to become a great anime, just lacks the execution to deliver a plot to bind all its characters, art, sound and action together.

Since the beginning of Broadway show themselves, shows has always follow trends of the era. This anime is reflects absolutely nothing of its tittle, but more of the current trend of today's fantasy.

When i started watching it, i was hoping for more of dark exorcist kind of anime. A much darker and eerie reincarnation of the son of satan , born and raised humble followers of God. But this hope was soon shattered in episode 2....

First of all, before you start thinking about exorcism and stuff, you should instead begin with looking at fairy tail. You see, the idea of church style exorcism here ... of more of a paganism... The so called "charms" around the church, the summoning of angelic protector in which the blood of the summoner must be spilled changed the entire tone... the so called church is no more than a black magic cult

the entire church itself seems to be protected by pagan magic entirely instead of the giant crucifix.. Its basically yet another random shounen incarnation with church in the background and having absolutely nothing to do with church itself...

While i prematurely dropped it, i can almost see how this goes.

1. It follows with him killing the "last boss"
or
2. A "twist"

I seriously doubt that the creator will be able to pull something original out of this series considering his total lack of ability to even set up the mainframe of the story

Any seniors should not worry to much in hoping for a breath of fresh air out of this but shounen lover might find something they like...

Alright time to take the fanboy hat off and give this show a review...
Now while I did enjoy this show, I'm not going to recommend it to anyone else, unless you are a mindless fanboy who likes shounen, boobs, demons, possible Yaoi pairings, other stuff that I could care less about.

Story- 6
Now if you want a really good story in your daily dose of Japanese animation then.... you're show is in a different castle. The story had so much potential, but it didn't use everything that it had to really get you into the story. I'm not going to criticize the show for ... using the overused "demon within" thing, because let's face it, originality is hard to come by these days. Now what I will criticize is how poorly this was done. There were parts that showed how Rin is looked down on, hated and/or feared for being the devil spawn, these parts I liked, but they could have been better... or at least gotten deeper into the plot with that.

The main character is consumed by his demon powers and is throwing a fit like how most teenagers would when they're mom takes away their phone, but then the power of friendship or the love interest's voice (his brother) wakes him from his mood swing. It is your typical shounen anime so don't expect much, but this is just boring now. The first few times I saw this in an anime I was like, "...cool?", but now it's just stupid.

The ending... well do you remember your favorite 25 episode shounen anime's ending? Well it's just like that... there's lame music in the background, the characters team up and defeat the Big Bad, but not before saying something friendship related.

Now I'm just going to assume that the manga is still ongoing because, it doesn't take much to impress an anime fan. So while we wait for the next season let us foolishly hope that it will get better and that the author is just warming up.

Art- 6

It's anime the greatest art form to plague the internet what else do you want? Oh wait I know! Something that catches my eye and makes it look different from other shows.... it gets a 6 for looking decent, and like the story, it had cool design for some characters, but failed to take advantage of that. I did like the school though and a number of the demons.

Sound- 7

Ummm.... I don't remember the OST... and maybe because of that it deserves less than a 7, but I loved the both openings and the two ending were aight. Sound really helps set up the mood and atmosphere, while it certainly did the job, it's not enough to make them memorable. Like I said, loved the openings so it gets a 7.

Character- 5

... They all suck... not really. The characters are entertaining I give the show that one. Rin is like your typical delinquent, but the author did a decent job in making him just notch higher than most anime delinquent characters. A number of the characters help prevent the show from being dry, but it really is just not trying hard enough. I'm just glad that the characters have enough personality to be individuals and not stock anime characters. Is there character development? Yes. Is there good character development? Ehh... as much any other anime...

Now I want to point something out, and that is Satan... watch out for spoilers... this isn't really part of the review, it's more like a nitpick. Ok, so Satan in the first episode was this crazy maniac that tried to take Rin away, but then over a dozen episodes later, we find out that he is actually a pretty decent dude that just wanted live on earth. He fell in love with Rin and Yukio's mother... I think... and is shown to be very protective and caring. But fast forward that 5 minute in the same episode, Satan is batshit crazy again... The lack of consistency with him just baffles me.

Enjoyment- 6

Eh... it was pretty dry. I really have nothing else to say, it was just dry. There were moments that were funny, but no action scene that really got my testosterone pumping the same way other shows do... so yeah 6.

Overall- durrr this anime so good it gets a 10... no it gets a 6

Maybe I'm a little harsh on the show, but maybe I'm also just tired of the same crap over and over again. I criticized the show for lacking originality, and I'm staying with that. I'm not really looking for something completely new, but what I'm looking for is a fresh new take on something overdone and this show just didn't do that for me.

NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty poorly written so I decided to rewrite it completely.

Blue Exorcist is a perfect example of a series which was supposed to be the next big thing but killed its own hype due to many factors such as long hiatuses and sloppy execution so most people have just lost interest and moved on to the next hyped up thing. The premise of the series might seem generic, taking elements from other shounen titles such as Soul Eater, D. Gray-Man or Fullmetal Alchemist, which would be fine if it was ... well executed, the problem is that the series just doesn’t do anything interesting with it.

The anime was made by A-1 Pictures, so we have above average production values with well animated fights, good looking backgrounds and characters and catchy opening themes. The endings are decent pop songs but not as memorable.

However, once we get past the stylish presentation there are lots of problems with this anime. The setup of the series is intriguing at first, we have a caring adoptive father who takes care of our main character Rin who is in fact the son of Satan. He’s also a pervert who likes reading naughty manga. Unfortunately he quickly dies so later he only appears in some flashbacks. But after the exciting start and when our main character enters the exorcist academy things quickly get boring and instead of doing something fun like training or missions, most episodes are wasted on standard slice of life and school moments which have nothing to do with his task to defeat Satan.

Most of the characters are not particularly memorable or unique, Rin is our typical shounen protagonist, a kind hearted person with a dark side whose notable trait is that he likes cooking. His brother Yukio feels like a waste of potential, they could really do something interesting with the dynamic between the two brothers but he just comes off as jealous and cold despite also being Satan’s son. The Academy is led by a goofy principal Mephisto Pheles who is similar to Shinigami from Soul Eater. The classmates are also painfully bland, we have a guy with pink hair and some weird staff who loves flirting and hates bugs, a short tempered ambitious kid, a girl who is only notable for her ridiculous eyebrows and another girl who is supposed to be caring and friendly but just ends up being whiny and useless. Also one of the exorcists is a woman with big boobs who makes sure to always reveal her cleavage but she is actually competent and not treated just as a token fanservice bimbo.

The sword and gun fights in this show are well made but the fights with praying and summoning beasts look pretty dumb. The religious symbolism and syncretism also feels kind of pointless because it lacks any depth and doesn't add anything. It just looks weird seeing one guy fight with a cross and another one with a Buddhistic prayer.

But then we get to the biggest issue, like many anime, it started airing when the manga was far from complete so what the studio decided to do is adapt the first half which is mostly pretty boring and the second half consists of anime original content. There’s nothing inherently wrong with anime taking a different route and the anime actually gets kind of interesting and has a decent but incomplete ending, but it's a bit too late at that point. However 6 years later we finally get a second season which basically completely retcons the story by ignoring the second half and continues following the manga more closely. But at that point most people did not care anymore and neither did I. After over 10 years the manga still hasn’t been finished and even if third season is announced it’s not certain if it gathers enough interest now.

Honestly I really can’t think of a good reason to check out this series anymore, it’s not offensively bad, it has solid animation and it is not painfully long at 24 episodes, but it quickly throws away its interesting premise and the second half is basically fanfiction which is completely discarded by its sequel. As far as fighting shounen go you can definitely do worse, but you can also do much better.

Rin Okumura, our main Protagonist, lives a fairly normal life until the day he finds out he is the son of a demon - more specifically: the living offspring of Satan. Quite a promising premise for a shounen anime; unfortunately, it could not keep its promise, mainly due to its characters and storyline.

Having said that, this leads us to the first issue: the Story. Ao no Exorcist starts off strong; throwing both you and Rin into unfamiliar territory filled with demons and priests and a very interesting actual state of the world and how it is divided. But soon after, the story develops into a ... veritable donwfall. The Serie suffers greatly under its predictable storyline and lacks of the much needed depth which is essential to keep the story interesting for the rest of the show. Rather than giving us a better picture of the two worlds, the Story is filled with bland humour and uninteresting storyarcs instead.

Ao no Exorcist revolves around two worlds; the human world "Assiah" and the demon world "Gehenna". One does not simply travel between these two worlds unless you have a key which, paradoxically, quite a bunch of poeple seem to have. With this being the case it appears as if this key had been sort of a giveaway long time ago.

Let us have a look at the characters of Ao no Exorcist. Rin Okumura appears as the stereotypical shounen main protagonist; not much intelligence, edgy personalty,... . He might be likeable, but is definitely not worth being called memorable.
Yukio, his brother, serves as the smart, clever boy who tries to hold his brother in check throughout the anime - but offers not very much to the story itself.
And of course there is a archetypical girl in the anime which, after all, can easily be compared to Sakura from Naruto or Asuna from Sword Art Online. They all share and possess the same stunning quality to serve a story.

However, there were things that deserve a certain amount of praise. Let us begin with the Animation and the visual quality. The regular animation (CGI has been used as well) and the visuals of the demons did not disappoint. The variety of demons that were presented can arguably be
classified in "exceptionally creepy", "fancy little badass" or "cute little fellows".

Editing/Cutting were well-directed and the Music/Sound were appropriate for each scene. That is all we can ask for.

In conclusion, the anime does not have the dark tone as we could have expected out of the first few episodes. Surprisingly, however, it possess a reasonable amount of Entertainment, especially at the beginning. Therefore, Ao no Exorcist cannot be classified as entirely bad rather than wasted potential.

In the months before I found out that this would be airing, I was reading the manga, and extremely happy with it. Then I was hyped as ever as it actually aired. This was up until about episode 16 where they basically just went "fk it, we're going to make this as far from the manga as possible and turn it into trash", and they did.

tl;dr, Read the manga, it's wonderful.

A classic shounen anime that I'm not too fond of. I know this is a popular anime but I honestly don't think it deserves it's popularity. It was just eh.

Story: The world that this plot takes place in consists of two dimensions joined as one, like a mirror. The first is the world in which humans live, Assiah. The other is the world of demons, Gehenna. (MyAnimeList.net summary part)
The Plot revolves around a young boy called Rin Okumura and his twin brother Yukio Okumura, both sons of the demon king, Satan. They both end up attending True Cross Academy due to reasons that I don't ... want to spoil. And there, Rin decides to become an exorcist. Meanwhile, Yukio was already a exorcist, but why? Yukio doesn't seem to have demonic powers, but Rin does, and everytime he uses his demonic sword, Kurikara, he seems to lose control of his powers and himself. All the meanwhile, Satan is lurking beneath the surface waiting to take the form of someone powerful enough to contain him (Maybe someone with demonic powers like Rin? Or maybe not) and take over Assiah for specific reasons. The overall story actually takes place in school/or school-related activities outside of school, rather than random demonic fight scenes, which I didn't mind that much. I thought the story was all over the place though, and the ending just didn't make any sense to me. The series lacked the depth needed to keep the story interesting, and had no comedy to keep me interested. Random fighting going on that I didn't really enjoy either.

Art: Just like any other modern day anime... It was decent, nothing too special though.

Sound: I actually liked both the openings of the anime, they were really good! Furthermore, the soundtracks of the anime actually kept my attention onto the anime, without the epic music, I'm not sure if I would have actually payed attention to the fighting or useless dialogue going on. Very good music.

Character: The characters lacked depth. Overtime, there was supposedly development/change in the characters because of what they've experienced, but I didn't really notice any significant development or change other than the fact that the Okumura brothers went from innocent and pure to corrupt and berserk, back to being heroic brothers and saving the day in the end. Typical shounen... Too many minor characters that disappear without another trace. The only memorable character was Memphisto because he was the only entertaining, funny character. Everyone else was really dull, boring, and honestly besides the Okumura brothers, pointless.

Enjoyment: Not terrible, but definitely not a memorable anime that I'd recommend to everyone. If you like to watch shounen anime that include exorcists, and devils with random action then I guess this anime would be enjoyable for you. I don't know, Ao no Exorcist just didn't appeal to me as much as I had hoped it would from it's popularity.

I've recently discovered that Ao no Exorcist, or Blue Exorcist, is divided up between those who love it and those who... well... don't really love it.

So it Blue Exorcist really worth the watch? Well...

Story:

Anyone who has witnessed shounen series of any kind will be able to instantly recognize the fact that this story doesn't fail to follow in the footsteps of others. A teenage boy who discovers he has all these immense powers and sets out to defeat evil.
But despite this, the premise itself does pose an interesting storyline, and poses some strong introductory episodes. But while the story does start off strong and I ... enjoyed it until about the halfway point, it really disappoints in the end. There is little advancement in plot throughout the whole series, and so lots is taken up by filler.

I found the first half of the series enjoyable enough, but my real problem was with the second half. The closer I got to reaching the ending, the more it felt like a chore to complete this series. While plenty of other 25-episode series have filler episodes in them, I found this to be very frustrating. It felt like the writers didn't have anything good to give us until their very anticlimactic ending (I'll get to that in a sec) so they gave us poorly written filler that didn't serve any purpose to the outcome of the story, and I really stopped caring altogether before the series even ended.

So what's up with this ending? Well it shouldn't be any surprise to hear that this shounen follows others by finishing off with an unsatisfactory, mediocre ending that doesn't follow the original media. Now this wouldn't be as big of a problem if they had bothered to write a decent ending. But while the rest of the series was enjoyable to an extent, the ending feels rushed, anticlimactic, and a poor way to finish off ta series that generally had promise to it.

The story is not terribly written. It is not a bad story, but it certainly is not a masterpiece to me. Overall, it's alright. Not too bad, not too great.


Character:

So if the story wasn't all too great, then the characters must be better... right?

Well............................


While I did find Rin Okumura enjoyable enough to watch as a main character, I didn't truly find anything special about him. He was okay. He was a typical rebellious teenager who was trying to defeat evil with his powers. And that's kind of it.

However, he is the most entertaining of the series to watch, maybe besides Yukio, who also holds up strongly as a main character. Shiemi is a femcale character who's there just for fanservice and undergoes little development. The other characters lack development and backstory, not to mention how little they are explored, and are just okay. None are too interesting, and the female characters just aren't all that standoutish. Most of the characters aren't memorable, aside from maybe Rin. I just couldn't get into the characters all that much and found them very by the numbers.

The only true relationship I really cared about was the one between Rin and Fujimoto, which is the strongest and the most realistic in the entire anime, despite it only being shown very briefly. Rin's bond with Yukio is genuine enough, but fails in comparison to other brotherly relationships in anime. Shiemi's "romance" with Rin is incomplete and is frustratingly very scarce, giving viewers no chance to really root them on. I truly found the characters to be disappointing.


Art/Animation:

The art style is certainly not my favorite, but the animation is solid and the style compliments the series well with its themes and moods. There isn't much to say here besides the fact that it holds up well in this series.


Sound:

All the music in this anime is very well done. The OST is pretty epic and compliments the story very well. The openings aren't my favorite, but that's just me. They do hold up well with the story though, and have good animation. I wasn't too big on the endings, but as far as the music goes as a whole, I found it to be well done.


Enjoyment:

I truly base my ratings off of how much I enjoyed as series, regardless of flaws or how much I can overlook them. But I didn't really enjoy this series. It isn't because it's a shounen; I like action well enough. But it just isn't a well told series. There's a lack of action, very flat romance, and the characters just aren't that memorable and don't hold up all that well in the story.

So overall, the series is just alright. It's nothing too special. If you want a story with memorable characters, great action and a great story, than this isn't an anime for you. It just isn't executed well, and while it appeared interesting at first, it failed to hold up in almost all aspects. I could have lived without seeing this anime, as it really isn't anything that good or special. It's very by-the-numbers, and I found little enjoyment in it. While it does stand slightly above average with it's exceptionally strong beginning and good first half, it truly just falls to pieces as the story struggles on. Not all that worthwhile.

This show is a decent concept with poor execution.

My pet peeve is frustrating shows, and Rin (the main character) is completely frustrating. At every turn he makes almost the dumbest decision possible and wins through with nothing more than spirit, learning nothing in the process. Yukio, Shiemi, every other supporting character, they are all fine. oh wait, the paladin guy is worthless too. Unbelievably worthless.

A lot of scenes feel like they could have been better written. The pacing of the show sometimes feels like it's falling over itself to escalate the action in lieu of interesting plot.

This is honestly not a very good show. Worth ... watching if you're a current season watcher, but not worth going back and seeing later.

Story: 3.4
This show has a very good start to it and introduced a lot of potentially interesting themes, however after the first few episodes things start to go downhill. Inconsistencies is this shows' biggest problem as it tries to be many things but by doing so it looses its identity. One episode its an action anime the next its a slice of life show and few episodes later it can be a romance when really it should be more focused towards being a supernatural show. I'm not saying that a show can't be multiple things but when its bad at them the show suffers for ... this loss of direction. The show is best when it does focus on the super natural however the narrative quickly becomes very predictable.
Another major issue that plagues this show is the lack of character development. The viewer really only gets the back story to a select few characters and you only see a slight character arc with Rin. This in turn makes the action sequences feel inconsequential and lack any emotion put in by the viewer and the show never really makes you care for many characters, and in some cases makes you dislike them. The action sequences are pretty good and the overall art style is the best part of the show but without an attachment to these characters its hard to care if they succeed in battle or not.

Character: 3.5
On my other point on making the viewer dislike characters, for me there were a few standouts in this area. The standout of the awful characters has to be Shiemi in my opinion. This girl never actually does anything when it comes to the action sequences, rather relies on her familiar, and is actually kinda dumb as she is more of a hindrance towards the group then anything else. Her only use in the show is as a love interest towards the brothers which is just sad. The other horrible character would have to be Shura, which clearly exemplifies a prime example of how the creators of the show view women, as it is common to all the female characters in this show but with Shura it is at an extreme. She basically doesn't wear anything, just a bikini top that is big enough to cover her nipples but small enough so you can see the rest of her DD breasts. I would have even of brushed it off if it was just a one time thing that she wore but this was what she wore all of the time even as a teacher... There are many women in anime who are objectified as sex object and are amazing characters like Winry Rockbell from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or Kurisu Makise from Stiens Gate, and this show sadly goes in the opposite direction of a strong female character. The only character I did like was their dad Shirou Fujimoto, and was the only character that had any real depth to him and was likable but sadly was only around for a few episodes.

Art: 7.8
As I said above the art is great and the action sequences are pretty good but nothing really amazing. The best parts of the art is when they show off the variety of demons but like I was saying before its hard to feel anything towards these action sequences with the poorly written characters.

Sound: 5
There is nothing amazing either about the sound in this show as the voice acting for the characters do not fit for many characters, most notably would be Rin voiced by Papenbrook, Bryce. There is a lot of humor in this show that I never laughed at and I can't help but feel it was poor line delivery by the main character here. Sure it might not have been my kind of humor but the delivery of the lines throughout the show by him in particular came off as annoying to me and sometimes laughably bad, and laughing for the wrong reasons isn't a plus for the show. Voice acting for Shiemi is pretty bad as well as she just comes off as annoying and there's even a line where she says,"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait ect... The only decent performance was by Johnny Yong Bosch as Yukio which is no surprise given how talented he is.

Overall this anime showed some early signs of promise but quickly diminished when the show lost focused and become an entirely different show then it seemed to have initially intended. The action and art are the standouts of the show however it is bogged down by terrible characters, lack of character development, unfocused narrative, cheesy dialogue and flat humor.I might recommend this to people who are die hard fans of the supernatural genre but other then that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Score: 4.8
+Nice art and action sequences
+Cool supernatural elements
-Bad character development
-Many unlikable characters
-Dialogue cheesy
-Overall story predictable
-Sexual objectification of every female character

Bottom Line Up Front: Great for people who enjoy watching anime just to have something to do (such as myself) or for young teens. There are far worse anime, but the character and story development leave a lot to be desired. Very unoriginal, very cliche, very generic. Too much fanservicing. Anyone who rates it very highly likely has zeal for other superficial anime or is unconcerned with depth.

Highs: Decent action scenes, a few glimpses of interesting art, interesting first few episodes

Lows: Overarching unoriginality, very poor character development, annoying at times

If I could describe this anime in just one word it would be 'generic' everything about it felt so cliche and typical that it just felt like it was just going to be everything you think that would happen does happen and it has no real hook or appeal to it.

Story: The plot is about a demon hybrid named Rin Okumura who goes to a school learning to be an exorcist and has a magic sword and flames as a weapon, that's about it really without giving away anything but you would probably already know what happens from episode 1 as it doesn't do ... anything different from the standard shonen battle anime. The plot is incredibly easy to follow so you might lose interest early on.

Art: The art is decent but once again its nothing you haven't seen before its just playing it safe, although the blue flames look pretty nice that's about it.

Sound: The openings are quite nice but doesn't really hook you in it's just there, voice acting is okay but nothing special or unique and could be done by anyone.

Character: The main character Rin is your typical reckless, powerful, violent but friendly person who looks very average apart from blue flames, there are a lot of other characters such as his brother Yukio who is the complete opposite of Rin and once again doesn't stand out.

Enjoyment: I watched it because nothing else was on at the time and I just wanted to watch something I don't need to think too hard about, if you just want generic shonen anime then this anime is for you.

Overall: If you're tired of shonen anime then avoid this because every cliche you see is in this series and feel that you watched it but didn't gain anything from it.

Oh boy, this anime though...*sigh*

Story:

Where to start? I did find the first half of this very enjoyable. The flow was consistence and kept my levels of anticipation high, but once the filler arc came in... plot holes ahoy! I found myself slowly and slowly getting more bored. Things would happen that didn't make a whole lot of sense, the pace felt off, and some cliche scene came into play. I found there were references to other mangas (Bleach) and TV shows (Supernatural). The story-line was a bit overdone and cliche at that point.

Art:

I was very impressed with the animation in this. ... I really loved the setting and the placement of The Vatican in there. There was some really good detail especially in the main city and the Academy as well.

Sound:

I loved the first opening song. I actually downloaded it on my iPod for later use. But I didn't really like some of the music they used. It didn't quite match the scene as well as I wanted it to. It did add a bit of interest, but I just didn't get the anxious and suspenseful feeling I wanted to get.

Character:

I found a few stereotypical characters, Izumo was one of them with her snobby attitude and thinking she's better than everyone, there was also Yukio holding the litter-brother-smarter-than-the-big-brother characteristic. Shura reminded me a lot of Yoruichi from Bleach too, and almost had the same personality as her (and yes I am aware the English Dub was voice by the same actor). I didn't find much depth or development in characters either. There were a lot of static characters. Throughout the whole thing I think Shiemi was the only character that was well developed.

Enjoyment/Overall:

I'm not going to lie, this wasn't the best anime I've seen. I was quite disappointed in the end and didn't get the satisfying feeling I wanted to get. I understand the manga is very popular, but I don't think I'll pick it up. I lost interest in reading the real plot after watching this. At first, yes this was very exciting and I loved some of the scenes, but I felt like when the filler came, my whole experience was ruined. I would recommend reading the manga instead of watching the anime if you don't want to be disappointed. Other than that, I give this anime a C- or 58% on the scale.

-This review is spoiler free-

Blue Exorcist is your normal anime. A story line that meets your expectations, good characters and enjoyment. It's like enjoying a warm breeze with fluttering eyelashes. However, there's a catch...

Story (7/10)

It's a pleasant story that involves originality when it comes down to it. However, while I sat through episodes, my eyes seems to wander elsewhere. My focus is not struck onto my laptop screen, but is observing the blank walls and other thoughts drifting through my mind - all while I'm watching the episode. This is not necessarily a horrible coincidence, I usually act like this when it comes down ... to watching new animes.

However, if my attention keeps prolonging - now that's a problem. It's not particularly the actual "plot" but the way they performed it. As I stated before: It's similar to enjoying a breeze warming up your face...

But that quickly becomes boring, doesn't it?

Art (7/10)

In my opinion, the art is good. Not something that people should fawn over, but not something that deserves a sign of revolt.

Sound (7/10)

The voice acting is very well done. I suspect that every animes voice acting is splendid. I never crossed one that made me cringe. The OST for Blue Exorcist has a very powerful and epic tone, but it also has a tranquil atmosphere, depending on the scene.

Characters (7/10)

Your typical goofy and impulsive main, male protagonist. A man who would risk his life for his friends and family. There isn't much to say, except that I didn't get very attached towards the characters. From my perspective, I didn't find them that unique. However, Shiemi had a little touch towards her character, which I found very interesting.

Enjoyment (6/10)

Blue Exorcist was a nice experience, but I quickly dropped it once my attention diverted from it completely. I actually dropped it when it hit the climax, and it's safe to say I didn't really regret my decision. However, I would totally recommend this to you if you prefer something gentle, but still realistic and ferocious when it grows more into the episodes.

Overall (6/10)

If you want a deeper connection with a story, then this might not suit you well. There is still a connection, but instead of it hitting five bars, it somehow hits a low three. (WiFi reference. TeeHee.) However, that doesn't mean that you can bring it back up. This may not be for everyone (especially not me) but give it a try! You may be surprised by the outcome.

Ao no exorcist is a supernatural shounen that presents a very interesting premise with a MC training to become an exorcist with the exception of being Satan’s offspring. This show had lots of potential throughout the early stages but is sadly wasted as it leads into a high school setting with a generic shounen plot and mediocre characters.

The action was average at best with nothing really standing out. The concept of individual combat skills got me interested but unfortunately wasn't really looked upon as the show had many inconsistencies in terms of plot. Most of the characters were very minor; nothing new we haven’t ... seen. The art and sound was average with the second opening coming to my liking.

Overall, I enjoyed the first few episodes until it felt like boring filler. It’s a very generic shounen anime that I wouldn’t really recommend.