Ao no Exorcist

I started this show with high hopes; needless to say I was let down. I liked the aesthetic, the characters seemed ok and I liked the premise. All signs pointed in a positive direction.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what this show lacked: direction.

Aside from establishing the premise, very little is done to advance the plot throughout the show. Most of the show is episodic, and the archs don't build up to anything. It really seemed like the creators didn't know where it was all supposed to go.

One of the things that disappointed me was the fighting, or the lackthereof. From the beginning they establish a universe with ... potential for awesome, supernatural fighting, and even introduce a number of characters that would probably be pretty awesome for that kind of show. In the end, there was really only a couple of fight scenes, and most (if not all) of them involved the same couple of characters.

It's also disappointing considering those fights ultimately meant nothing. They had nothing to do with any overarching plot because there was none; at least, not until very late in the show.

The ending for this show was pretty bad. It didn't do anything interesting with what the show brought to the table, and was downright terrible from an action standpoint. If it had introduced some kind of twist or something, then it might have redeemed the show a little bit, but it didn't.

Since both the action and the plot were nonexistent, there's really not much reason to like this show, though I will give it that the aesthetic and comedy were nice. It's a show that could have been nice had they decided whether or not fighting was what they were going for, but they couldn't make up there mind, and in the end they had nothing to show for it.

Story: 5
An interesting enough premise, but Blue Exorcist turns out to be just another school-setting shounen with a main character with the typical daddy complex and a shallow/unfinished romance.

Art: 5
The colors were bright, which is always enjoyable, but the character designs were lacking and some features came out awkward-looking. Ex: Shura's oddly boxy midsection and Yukio's unusually wide face

Sound: 3
None of the OSTs stood out to me, but I loathed the jazzy opening.

Characters: 4
I really enjoyed Rin and Shirou's relationship, and Shiemi's smidgen of character development was nice to see. But there was little depth in the characters otherwise. Instead, the writers took the ... easy route and focused on Izumo's (spoiler) easily-predictable somewhat transformation and Rin and Yukio's unorthodox relationship (which came off as awkward and forced to me). Though I must applaud the series for (spoiler) letting Noriko go, which shows some resolve.

Concept & Execution: 5
The daddy complex was nothing new, though I thought the religious overtones and occasional references were interesting and almost Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque.

Enjoyment/Overall: 4/4
I was rather let down by the series after hearing so many good things from friends. The first few episodes are still wonderful and emotion-filled, in my opinion, but the rest of the show fails to follow-up and the conclusion is horrifically anticlimactic, (spoiler) with the exception of the relationship between Rin's mother and Satan, which I found surprisingly touching.

Overall, it feels like a textbook shounen that could have taken an edgy turn with the religious overtones and instead wimped out.

Generic, generic, generic. This anime oozes from genericism.

Story: 2, Character: 2

Your typical shounen story done a million times, only now with exorcists.

The story starts as Rin, the protagonist and the guy who gets the most favorites of the show in MAL, becomes an exorcist because of certain circumstances (I don't want to spoil you why).
He enrolls to an academy, which deals with many things, along how to become a full fledged exorcist.

Sounds interesting at first? Well, NOPE.
...
The execution is so generic and bland.
*We have a protagonist who is short tempered and likes to fight alot? check.
*His brother is a cool calculated guy who the protagonist want to surpass? check.
*A useless female heroine/supporting character? check.
*A chock full of cast of annoying and useless characters? check.
*A female character with weird eyebrows that is even more useless than all of the other characters in the show? check.

The story is your typical Naruto/Bleach/One Piece, only with ten times more annoying and bland and useless characters. Even Heroman has more story going on than Ao no Exorcist, and Heroman doesn't have any story! EVEN HEROMAN HAS A CAST OF BETTER CHARACTERS...Wait... does Heroman has any notable characters?

The single interesting character of the show WAS Rin and Yukio's dad. But because of certain circumstances, he's not in the show anymore (I don't want to spoil you why).

Rin main goal in the story is to defeat SATAN. How is it different from your typical shounen goal of becoming the Pirate King/Hokage/whatever Ichigo from Bleach wants to become? Well, it's NOT.

Art: 5, Sound: 5

The art and sound are the strongest point of Ao no Excorist, but the art and sound are wasted on this bland show. The opening theme and ending theme songs are catchy at first, but then become annoying after a few watches because of their bland contents. The voice acting is bland too, because the script is bland and the lines are straight from a B-side shounen show. Did I mention the word Bland?

The art inconsistent, because many times you will notice the QUALITY. You feel that all the budget of the animation went to the damned and notorious cooking filler episode, because the foods look awesome, man!

Enjoyment: 2
What Enjoyment? Nothing is enjoyable about this show. But... it's possible that it will be enjoyable as your first anime, because baby's first anime is always enjoyable and unique.

Overall: 2
I can't recommend this show to anyone and not even as a baby's first anime, because there are much more interesting and unique anime shows out there that you can watch as your first compared to Ao no Exorcist.

If you like generic stuff/Naruto-One Piece-Bleach you might enjoy this anime. Otherwise, steer away. It's not worth your time.

At first I became curious of this anime. Seemed a lot of people wanted to watch it and the name "Ao no Exorcist" Popped up everywhere. It was always in my recommended bar. Finally i decided to watch it and now that I have I feel like it was a complete waste of time.

I'm sure the manga is great. I thought the basic story was a good one. Son's of Satan and then coming of age to inherit his powers, Great! The anime had a few great things in it. Some parts of the story was really beautiful but when you put it all ... together it was just a big mess.

(I'm only reviewing the anime NOT the manga).

There were plot holes everywhere. They would end an episode in a certain way and then start the next one entirely different with a new character all of a sudden.

I also had a problem buying the fact that they were twins. Yukio felt more like a middle aged man throughout the show and it kept bothering me a lot. I see how he couldn't have been older and I see why they couldn't be half brothers but the least they could do was give him a personality fitting a 15-year old.

This anime also contains a love story with no end.

Not to mention the poorly set up episodes.
What i mean is (judging from anime only, haven't read the manga) They had filler episodes that really weren't needed at all which they could have replaced with more important episodes that would've carried the main story better. What happened now is that they waited with the actual mission till there were only 5 episodes left. Everything felt rushed and i couldn't really comprehend what the heck was happening.

The goal was kind of unclear through the whole thing until the brothers revealed what they were fighting for in a final battle with fancy words.

Beautiful personality change in Satan, Yukio and Shiemi. (Add a ton of sarcasm)

Fear of killing main characters turned in to constant reviving or ridiculous "solutions"

SPOILER


Satan only wanted to unite the two worlds so that humans and demons could live in harmony in honor of his beloved "Wife" (apparently). Rin and Yukio should have wanted that more than anyone considering how they have gone through life, still they refuse to help Satan in the name of friendship. They killed their parents dream and the potentially wonderful lesson you could learn from this anime was killed along with it. instead they settled with a weaker message turning the entire series into a joke.

Blue Exorcist Review:
(Ao no excorcist)

MINDSET:
Aw, no excrement why am I seeing this with eights and nines?!

SYNOPSIS:
Rin Okumura is living through he's slice of life as a pubed teen with he's family and brother, soon finding out that he's excremental we don't care a jack prehistorically grown ash father gotten the fecies kicked out of him by Satan. Now its up to our run of the mill protagonist to shaft satan at he's new high school who teaches the art of excrementations, sorry, I mean rex-cor-cis-mmm. And lots of other jazz that needs explaining that will drag out five minute review! And he's brother is ... an excorcist and Rin is the son of satan, cuz the author thought they were cool...

REVIEW:
Basically, if You imagine all of the tropes and most generic archetypes in all of shonen add “excorcist” because it sounds cool BUT make it shorter, we get this horrendous piece of abomination! BTW You make them worse (and obviously, here is why)
a majority or even all of the entire cast don't seem to have enough depth, the show focuses way to heavily on the protagonist, anyone else who get more screen time and some characters that none of us give a damn. They show there back stories giving a decent or sometimes half-ashed explanation on why they have become that person.
However, that do not develop, or develop enough to show our empathy and care. All or most of the characters in some way shape or form, does not show a large amount of complexity or depth, they are governed by Archetypes and show no sign of originality or multiple factors and traits.
(That Anime Snob has much more detail on this subject from he's ten dimensions video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob3ReizUo1c) Sure there are characters that do actually develop, however, they still had the same issue with lacking enough complexity and have not developed just enough for us to care when they are at a rough situation. Also, there are like 3 characters that meet this criteria out of like more than 10 side characters and villains!

If we talk about those “other” characters who seem to be the majority out numbering the three characters who show “some” overall depth, Blue Excrement does not repair the damage it has done by having a bunch of badly written characters with only three average characters! Those characters can go to a tentacle hentai if they truly become 100% forgettable pieces of writing!

Because this is a Shounen, it is the characters that will drive the plot on being actually good. So yes, the story is bad. Soo to summarise a lot of details while having a clear image, far too much of the story heavily relies on plot conveniences. Too much feels forced, it doesn’t feel as if stuff happens naturally like how the show portrays that not all demons are bad and are just trying to protect there territory like animals. That could have been very interesting if we seen there side of view. However, the scenes about the concept seem to be rather few and far between, and none of us even care and none of the more “monster-like demons” seem to develop.

And now because I felt like it, here are a few reasons why Naruto is the better show: (despite of them being both sh!t)

-Naruto gives actual character exploration and some development through quite a lot of characters. (until the author thought we need to mix in some Yaoi)
-Some back stories make actual sense and logic.
-They had this whole concept of teamwork (before Sasuke becomes gay) ninjas MUST co-ordinate to become successful. In Blue Exorcist, we all know that the protagonist is going to kill everything at the end, so why not bother if the going gets rough if he was the son of satan?

CONGRABULATION NARUTO... YOU ARE RETARDED, YET YOU ACTUALLY MANAGE TO BEAT SOMTHING THAT IS NOT A TRAINWRECK AND YOU ARE AN ACTUAL EXAMPLE ON HOW MUCH THE 21ST CENTURY SHONENS HAVE WORSEN OVER THE PASSAGE OF TIME.
*CLAPS VIGORUSLY*

SCORE:
3/10 – Characters. HOW Can WE CARE?
3.5/10 – Half of the show was filler. The story was still bad any ways.
6/10 – Good Animation
6/10 – WHY IS THE OP SO F**KING AMAZING?!

PERSONAL SCORE:
3/10 – I feel nothing when I watched this show.

Why did I watch this anime? Well I was on Netflix and I happened to scroll onto a show called Blue Exorcist. It told me that it was about a teenage boy who had to deal with being the son of Satan. Holy shit that sounds cool right? So I watched the first two episodes. The main character, Rin, finds out that he and his twin brother, Yukio, are both sons of Satan but only Rin inherited Satan's power. Satan kills Rin's adoptive father and Rin vows to kill Satan by joining a group called the Exorcist who are devoted ... to killing dangerous demons. "Wow this anime is looking to be really good" I said to myself. Too bad it was all a huge disappointment and a fucking waste of time. The plot sounded like this anime was gonna be big shit but literally NOTHING HAPPENS. Rin is transferred to a new school, his brother who is already an Exorcist has to train and keep an eye on him, and Rin literally does NOTHING to come even remotely close to even figuring out how to kill Satan. It's all episode after episode of Rin either easily killing irrelevant demons or dicking around with his friends (who suck by the way but we'll get to that later).

I'm not sure how to classify the art in this anime. It's not terrible but nowhere near the best. I'd say it's more like one piece but a few notches better.

The sound? I never really payed attention to it so it was nothing memorable but doesn't take away from the overall experience

The Characters. Rin, Yukio, and Shura are the only characters who you should give a damn about. Everyone else is useless and annoying. Let's go down the list.
Shiemi: She's a shy and polite girl who's very socially awkward. That's pretty much it and it gets old real fast

Bon: This guy gets on my nerves. He talks shit to Rin and acts big all the goddamn time but he is fucking useless and a waste of space.

Renzou: Annoying NEXT!!!

Kamiki: Bitch NEXT!!!!

Konekomaru: Real smart guy but can't do shit when fighting happens

Enjoyment: If the show stayed true to its original goal then I would've had a lot of fun. The action isn't that good, Rin just swings his sword around with no skill and thats it. Most enemies can be taken down in one move because they're so weak. Comedy is forced, nonexistent, and boring. A waste of my damn time. A terrible execution of something that could've been phenomenal.

This anime was shit. Very mediocre, and it for the most part is wasn't enjoyable.
Story was actually pretty good! I thought the idea was original enough, and there was some interesting concepts. This was the anime that made me interested in classic demonology so I give it a plus in that. However, lazy editing and cliche dialogue ruin what could've been a very good story.
Too much exposition. Like seriously.

Art was mediocre. Nothing more to say.

Sound was great! I loved both opening and ending themes, plus Rookiez is Punk'd is an awesome band all together. While I didn't like the anime, I gotta admit that ... the soundtrack was amazing for a shounen anime.

Characters? Good enough I say. Some of them were a bore, and needless romance was... Unneeded.
The mane character, Okumura Rin, is a decent mane character, but I personally enjoyed the struggles of his brother, Okumura Yukio a bit more. Other characters were good, mediocre at worst.

Overall this is a very mediocre shounen anime with a huge potential. If it gets remade, with new animation, better dialogue and more expansion on the characters and concepts of the universe, I'll give it another watch. Until then, I'll stick with other anime.

Blue Exorcist was very hyped when it came out, for two reasons. One being the only thing most people care about, the pretty colors. The animation was very good compared to most other anime which are cutting their budgets because they are just making cheap promotions of the source material. The other positive was the very exciting beginning, which was promising a lot, only to deliver nothing. In the first two episodes, the protagonist finds out he is the son of the devil, he vows before his foster father’s corpse to become the most powerful exorcist and to destroy him with his infernal powers. What ... followed that awesome premise had nothing to do with it. He just went to a school where he was shouting at his brother, reading manga, complaining about homework, sleeping in class, failing in all tests, and then hiting the beach so he could loaf around.

See past the initial hook and you get a generic shonen with a generic team of teenagers, doing generic ghost busting. There is nothing special about the setting or the way people and monsters interact with each other. The demons are not summoned because of human grief, the characters are not fusing their powers through teamwork, and heaven is just a place full of angels. Good luck making things interesting when the concept is bare bones.

It also makes no sense. I mean, they summon monsters by biting they fingers like in Naruto, or draw summoning circles on the ground like in Full Metal Alchemist. Why are they called exorcists when they are summoning demons? How are the fanatic paladins supposed to be Christians when they want to use Rin, who is full of the devil’s power? And why is a half naked bimbo able to make holy water by chanting when she never prayed to God? Why do you even need to chant anything in order to banish a monster when a simple sword slash is just as effective? And the best part is that they can’t sanctify their own school because it will drive away their own demons. As a result the school is constantly being attacked by fiends, and there is no protection against that. The defenses of Hogwarts say hello. My point is, these are definitely not exorcists. But then again Naruto wasn’t about ninjas either, so down to it this is all some lame excuse to call the characters something when they can be called anything else just as easily. Like Blue Ninja or Blue Summoner.

Besides lacking identity, the show has a lot less action than it has school comedy, making it one hell of a boring fighting shonen. Also, it’s not even good as a comedy, since the jokes are average stuff you can find in pretty much any anime.

Although it’s normal for fighting shonen to start light and humorous at first before they become heavy on action and drama later on, it never happens here because the show does not last long enough to get to that serious part. Even the sequel that came many years later failed to capitalize on that and practically nobody was watching it.

Sure, you can still watch it for the cool animation but even then there is no theme in the setting. Soul Eater had weird suns and moons, D.Gray Man had a gothic feeling. What is the theme of this world? Looks great but feels generic.

The same thing can be said about the characters who are all average. If I describe the protagonist as dumb, bored, with an OP dark side that comes out whenever he is in danger, I am basically describing 95% of all protagonists. The same can be said about the other characters which you have seen hundreds of times before.
- His brother Yukio is a dull four-eyes, who offers nothing to the overall plot other than being a complaining brother.
- Shiemi is the archetypical frail girl and token platonic girlfriend of the show. Being a girl in shonen she is typically a useless damsel in distress. She also is the healer of the group but that helps AFTER the battle is over. Beyond that she is as useless as Sakura from Naruto.
- There are lots of other students in the school but they also feel completely flat as personalities; I find nothing special in the entire cast. Especially because many of them were made to be just fujoshi bait cardboards or half-naked bimbos for the horny teens.

Then comes the cardinal sin of shonen, which is catching up to the manga and resorting to filler episodes. The adaptation came out way too soon and as a result half of the show is dead time and the rest of it is boring training sessions. It didn’t even bother to excuse the continuity, since when the sequel came many years later, the plot continues from where the fillers begin and ignores completely the anime-only changes, something which angered a lot of anime-only watchers.

Down to it, Blue Exorcist is a disaster. It gave you two great episodes and then stopped trying, before resorting to fillers nobody cared about, and then had a sequel that nobody bothered to watch. But the colors are pretty, so who cares?

Blue Exorcist was an anime that i watched a long time ago while it was airing. a friend showed it to me and while it looked interesting i never got into it, and thus never completed watching it. when the new season was announced it peaked my interest and i delved into the show hoping it was good, and lo and behold....it wasn't.

Animation- the animation for this show is standard. it's mostly OK and at moments can be very good or below average. character designs look okay, and background looks average.
7/10

Sound- The opening and ending credits are okay. the soundtrack is forgettable. the voice ... acting is pretty good.
6/10

Story-The story for this is just standard shounen fare. More than half of the episode are episodic stories that are mostly used to introduce all the side characters. It does start to pick up at the 13 episode mark only to fall back down, than get back up for a rather unimpressive ending. it does use most flashbacks In a useful way of showing things, not seen before, but there are so many and they don't really do much for the story. the setting takes place at some school which they don't bother rather explaining to a good extent.
even being exorcist is the same as calling ninjas characters in Naruto ninjas. the classes don't seem to serve one another when it comes to teamwork, and it wouldn't matter since you can have more than one class. even then if they are called exorcist why are they summoning demons to help them?
3/10

characters- as said in the story most character introduced are given their own episode. most of them have some sort of tragic backstory and we should feel bad, but over time feels repetitive and boring. there is little development with all the characters so they are mostly 2-dimensional. Rin is standard shounen protagonist and can best be described with few words and is nothing special. his brother is mostly a foil to him, but it can be said the same for him as well.
4/10

enjoyment- it was alright nothing notable that made me happy or frustrated. mostly bored
4/10
conclusion- the show has mostly good animation, average soundtrack, good voice acting,and below average story and characters.
4/10

Guys. I went into this anime having a BLAST- those first few episodes were so promising but not for long as we saw the story become backburner to classroom shenanigans. The characters started off being neat, they had a lot of potential, but ended up just being very cookie cutter. All of them did and then all of a sudden the show was over. The last few episodes seemed to remember there was a story, but it was already time to wrap it up. It was very disappointing. I don't usually finish shows like this but I was waiting for it all to get back ... to that promising start and hadn't realized that was it. There was nothing else. Suuuper disappointing show. It's pretty though, I will say that. I loved the aesthetic and designs. That's it.

***** SPOILER FREE *****


In order for an anime to be successful in my eyes, it has to meet three criteria:

1) Compelling Story
2) Strong Character Development
3) High Overall Entertainment Factor

An anime should be created in the order of 1-3. Skipping around will leave other criteria lacking. Once all three of these points have been met, an anime will leave the viewer satisfied and fulfilled for spending eight hours of their life in front of a computer screen.
...
Ao no Exorcist fails at all three of these points.

--- Story (2/10) ---

The synopsis for this anime is written at the top of this screen. What I am writing here is very brief. Rin Okumura and Yukio Okumura are the spawns (sons) of Satan, but only Rin has awakened his demonic powers. This alone was what sold me.When I watched the first episode, I was immediately hooked and was curious as to how the story would unfold. It's a shame that episode 1 was the only good episode in the entire show. When a story unfolds, a crucial element is the problem the characters are tasked with solving. Rin is faced with the task of defeating Satan (for reasons explained in episodes 1 and 2), the only problem is his lack of control over his power and his unbelievable stupidity. If a character is faced with such a daunting obstacle, the story has to keep a decently fast pace in order to show the development of the main character. The pace for Ao no Exorcist is UNGODLY slow. Why should Rin go to a school for exorcists when he has no skill in exorcism? Why didn't he learn to control his powers since episode 2 instead of waiting until the climax? Why was Mephisto (a demon) not overseeing the development of Rin if he was his godfather? Why is Rin soooo stupid? I get that ignorance from the main character is comical and serves an overall purpose, but Rin's IQ is less than 50 and pisses off the viewer more than entertaining the viewer. There are so many unanswered questions that make you wonder why certain plot lines were even explored. If a plot line is exposed, it better add to the depth of the story, otherwise it is a waste of time to introduce it. Ao no Exorcist leads the viewer away from the main path onto so many irrelevant bunny trails that it leaves you stranded in the middle of a forest wondering "What am I supposed to get out of this anime?"



--- Character Development (2/10) ---

Rin Okumara and Yukio Okumura are introduced as the lead characters, but the anime makes it especially clear that Rin is the MAIN character right off the bat. If the production team decided on Rin as the main character, then it would make sense that Rin should get the spotlight at the end of the show... right? Apparently, such a strain of thought is illogical, but hey, what do I know? I'm just here to criticize their failure.

Shiro Fujimoto is the guardian for Rin and Yukio. He is probably the one character that served his purpose effectively. Without giving too much away, his life was what character development should have been. The viewer learns about Fujimoto through a handful of flashbacks that were scattered far and thin. My only criticism is that these flashbacks should have told more of his background due to the fact that he is a pivotal character in the story.

Shiemi Moriyama is Rin's crush, although his affections seem to fade.. Why? Who knows. She is one character that is very entertaining and shows the best development in the entire show. From shy and timid to outstanding and vocal about her opinions, she was truly the only character that was enjoyable.

Ryuji Suguro, as well as some others, are Rin's classmates. My only quibble is that if a character has a foil, the foil should develop as fast or faster than the main character. Suguro is introduced as the foil to Rin, but it looks like the production team decided not to waste their time with him and transferred the role of foil to someone else. Make up your minds people!

Shura Kirigakure is an upper class exorcist that "trains" Rin. The word train is used very loosely as the only role she serves in this show is for fan service.

Mephisto Pheles is one of the most enigmatic characters in the entire show. His motives are kept hidden from the viewer... for the entire show! Seriously, if you're going to introduce such an amazing character, at least have the courtesy to do him justice. It's such a shame that an incredible potential to better the story line is lost entirely.

Kuro and Ukobach are two very cute characters (one being a talking cat, and the other a cooking imp). Too bad they were introduced and left to rot. The lack of attention to these characters annoys me to no end.The production team randomly gave, Kuro, the giant cat, the ability to fly in the middle of the last fight scene so as to allow the good guys to win. Why?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

SATAN is probably my favorite character in the entire show. You never see Satan, you only hear his voice. The voice of Satan is phenomenal. Saying anything more about him delves into spoiler territory. All I can say is that Satan is done justice. It is truly remarkable how characters that have less that 30 min of screen time tend to have the highest character development.



--- Art (7/10) ---
The art design was decent. The transformation of Rin into a demon is very stereotypical, especially with the elf-ears, and doesn't provide the "awe" factor. I would expect some more thoughtful creations. The various demons that the characters encounter are somewhat creative. Nii was a smaller version of Cacturne. I don't understand how art can be so difficult to incorporate into a story. If the production team lacks art creativity, then the story should revolve around that aspect. It's like trying to make a science-fiction film with the budget of a romcom. It just won't work. Either increase your budget, or stop with those high aspirations.



--- Sound Production (9/10) ---
The only reason this category got a 9 instead of a 10 is because I absolutely loathe the voicing of Rin Okumura in the english dub. It's the epitome of annoyance. Besides that, the sound production quality is exceptional. Hiroyuki Sawano is a musical genius. Absolutely brilliant background score. I loved it so much, I purchased the entire soundtrack. The first opening was catchy with the jazzy intro, but the second opening definitely stole the spotlight. Both endings were beautiful. It's a shame that such wonderful accompaniment is given to an undeserving show.





--- The Final Verdict ---
Ao no Exorcist is an anime that had an excellent premise for a game changing show. There were so many instances where deep, thought provoking, philosophical themes could have been explored but where left to catch dust instead. The overall pace was pitifully slow. There were many times that I wanted to quite watching, but my OCD for leaving a show unfinished is what helped me get through it. An unnecessary amount of comic relief was used in areas of the story that were fine without it. I might have completely missed the point, but what I saw was a disgraceful excuse for an anime. Due to the PG-13 rating, I judge that this show was meant for children. If that's the case, efforts to include dark, spiritual content should be avoided entirely. If an anime decides to explore grim themes, it should fully commit, not make a half-assed attempt at a godforsaken excuse for entertainment. I really see no reason to recommend watching this show. If you are an audiophile, I recommend listening to the entire background score. Otherwise, only watch Ao no Exorcist for the sake of adding another anime to your list.

Im giving this an overall four. The reason for the low rating is that this anime is quite boring and lacks enjoyment. I will admit Rin is pretty cute, but sometimes he acts very stupidly. The anime is not very enjoyable and seriously in episode 3 or 4 or something they fight a FLOWER. I understand it was a demon flower or whatever but they couldve made it something better. I also think its a bit weird Rin wants to be an exorcist if he's a demon himself, wouldnt that mean he'd have to kill himself? Overall I just do not really like this anime.

This anime starts off very well. It had a lot of potential. When I was watching it I was actually very interested in the story and how the main character "Rin" was going to go on an adventure to find and kill Satan. But then, he just goes to school...........Yep

After this, the story becomes extremely boring, a lot of boring things happen and a lot of boring characters that I couldn't possibly care less about are introduced.

Look, I haven't seen the entire Anime, but I don't want to put myself through unrelenting boredom. It tries to have interesting scenes, but it fails so ... hard that I'd care more about how many minutes are left in the episode than what's actually happening.

The OP for Ao no Exorcist is the only thing i liked about this Anime besides the first 4 episodes. It had great music and visuals. I would actually get sad when the OP finished, because i knew i had to endure 20 minutes of bullshit.

I would recommend the first 4 episodes of Ao no Exorcist, but after that, it's just a shit Anime.

Once again a warning that i swear a lot and if you are a kid and read this u might be consumed by the evil flames,become a deliquent,do drugs and lust after your sister..Or so say the admins and the overprotective internet..So off we go and let's see what's what..

One would expect Blue Exorcist to be something among the lines of typical shonen genre trash.Know what?It abso-fuckin-lutely is.Blue Exorcist,while entertaining,doesn't bring to the table anything that the tired genre hasn’t already seen before.

The protagonist(can't be bothered to remember the name cause he's just like every other protagonist of the particular genre)is an irresponsible lad who ... just happens to have a hidden power.Unbeknownst to him,he is the son of Satan and has in his disposal all sorts of demonic power ranger tricks.I know all this because it is revealed in the very first episode.After that revelation he decides to fight the powers of evil.

He then takes off and enrolls in True Cross Academy.which is like Hogwarts,without Ermione of course,so now if you are a child molester you can't fap to that perky little ass..YOU DAMN PERVS..Anywho in this academy he will learn how to be an exorcist.He also meets a bunch of uninteresting,boring to death,second grade characters(thank you shonen genre).Also,his younger brother turns out to be an exorcist too,and SURPRISE SURPRISE HE IS SO FUCKIN AWESOME HE IS HIS BROTHER'S TEACHER...OMFG!!!!!!!!!!Someone kill me now please..

Throughout the course of his training,the protagonist battles all kinds of monsters and eventually has to face off against the real daddy..The Dark Lord Volder....Sorry i meant Satan.During the whole show i had this question stuck in my head:Where are the real exorcists?You know,the school’s teachers or the people from the Vatican?Apparently,they don’t give a shit or they figured they could leave it up to some students.Fortunately,the protagonist and his brother kicked Satan's ass and the world was once again a flower filled utopia,where they could all run naked in turnip fields.The End......Oh wait....Now what in the name of all that's holy is this?They have one final battle with a demon who inhabits motor vehicles???????What the unholy fuck is this?

The only thing that really stood out for me in this show is the obsession animators had with moles.The brother had three moles on his bloody face.The protagonist’s mother had four moles on her face.Whoever did the character designs for this clearly has a mole fetish.

All in all,while Blue Exorcist has good animation quality and is mildly entertaining to watch,it ultimately belongs with all the other typical shit animes of the genre..To the history garbage bin.

I'm dropping this anime so this is just a short review, mostly for me, so that I can memorialize my thoughts. Maybe I will continue watching this someday, but I don't think that will be the case.

I'm 11 episodes in and, although I won't pretend to be an expert on the show, around 4 hours of a good show should provide something to give the audience a reason to continue watching. This show just didn't do it for me.

The show has a lot of things that are reasonable in a vacuum, but just don't make sense in the context of the show. Basically, ... in every aspect of the show, there is no element which answers "Is this a show I should continue watching?" positively. I'll run it down.



Story: 4

The show is very episodic. There's nothing wrong with that generally, it works to great effect in tons of shows. However, it is absolutely non-traditional for the genre. A lot of mediocre adventure/action/angst anime are held together solely by the promise of a climactic plot structure. ANE may have that in the end, but I can't see any sign of it. There are certainly signals that -something- is happening in the background, but I'm halfway through the series and I don't really have a sense of what that is at all.

Good episodic series succeed because they execute well within each episode. That means they must have something that entertains the audience. But it doesn't. More on that later.



Art: 8

OK. The art isn't bad at all. A 7 at worst. It is certainly stylistically uninspired and the character design isn't super engaging, but generally, everything is well-drawn. Even the CGI is done pretty decently. However, since it is uninspired, the art won't be the reason you watch it. This is the anime review zone. You're not going to watch an anime 'because it looks like anime'.



Sound: 5

The sound isn't bad in a vacuum. The tracks are actually stylistically sort of neat. However, they don't make any sense in the context of the show. Nothing else about this show is stylistically inspired or gives a hint that these are the sorts of tracks that should be playing. Often times the tracks just evoke the improper emotional response for the situation as well.

The voice acting is also annoying. All lines seem forced and angsty. It's not natural. I can't blame sound entirely for that though.



Character: 3

All the characters are bad. No exceptions. The crux of the problem is just in how they act. Forget the backstory. Really, there are only 2 notable states for the main group of characters, super angsty or hyper-emotional. It's not realistic at all. There is no character I can think of that has any positive, relatable traits. It seems that way because, whenever the characters are not in this state, they fail at imitating normal human behavior. Nearly all attempts at humor fail. There is never and subtlety or semblance of delicacy with how the series handles human interactions. Everyone takes their turns for their lines and the all feel so forced. Nobody has anything interesting to say, ever. Don't watch this show if you care about characters.



Enjoyment: 3

Obviously, so far there is nothing worth enjoying. It could have bad animation or sound and be worse, but whatever. Something that can normally save these types of series would be good action. ANE have simply OK action, and it isn't happening often enough. It isn't enough to make you want to watch.

Just to reiterate, each of these things alone is not good enough for you to want to watch the show: art, world building, sound, characters, plot, action, humor. What else could a series like this have to offer?



Overall: 4

4 seems like the appropriate number, but my experience with the show thus far has been mostly negative, and MAL calls 4 decent. A 3 at worst. If somebody talks me into watching the whole show for whatever reason, I could continue. But this is where I end for now.

This review contains spoiler!

Story 6/10:
Ao no Exorcist indeed deserves its popularity. It has the potential to continue its quality. However, the story remained very one dimentional.

Demons in this anime portray a very interesting role, taking on both the part of traditional images of demons and gods. The idea of depicting demons as ancient forms with a curious mind is a very good idea. They needn't to be sympathized with, nor understood. In some way, they lack complex thinking, but are more powerful than humans. This make them decide very easily rights and wrongs as though their first experience in assiah. Those whose action ... hasn't been denied by humans continues to help and protect humans, the others turn "evil" and take revenge on humans.
This way of representing mythical power and forms is in some way very accurate. As Rin said in the end, humans have to hear the voices of these demons. Demons are not a kind destined to be hated or loved. The point of their appearance on earth is to integrate in Assiah and be accepted by humans.
Nonetheless, this anime failed to display the one thing it is suppose show: make them listen to eachother. Throughout the entire show, there is not a moment where one message is successfully passed on. The people are either yelling, being stubborn, too lazy to explain, or successful in solving the problem by shouting a few short sentences which missed a whole lot of informations. In the end, right after Rin said his sentence (the one above), he took out a sword and is ready to knock the demon unconscious. The most irritating part is the false message passed around the main family. Yuri's (Rin and Yukio's mother) message to Satan is misunderstood. When she said she wanted a world with demons and humans, she meant an integration, not a destruction-filled takeover. Satan's (Rin and Yukio's biological father) message to his sons is misunderstood. He wanted to complete the world their mother wished, not distroy Assiah. Yukio, receiving the memessage did not care about it's contents. He and his brother Rin then slashed the gate of Gehenna and shouted to their father: we don't care about your reason, we just care about our situation.
Yes, so much for listening.

The ending felt a tiny bit rushed. There are less dramatical pauses than other animes. Although it is not a huge problem once you get used to it.

This show really is something to look forward to, but is flawed with communication problems, making it - fair(6).

Art 9/10:
The art is quite unique, and captivating. The characters do not have giraffe necks and googly eyes. The movements are fluid and the color fits very well with the theme.

Sounds 8/10:
The seiyuus are very good. Their voices really matched the characters, or their coices brought the characters to life. The background music, however, doesn't fit sometimes. The hype is way to high sometimes for certain scenes. It's a relief that it only happens once in a while.
The opening and endings are all great. The production team chose them well.
All together, the sound is very good(8).

Characters 5/10:
Communication problem, disability, makes reader fustrated
As pointed out before, the characters are reluctant to listen to eachother. There are a lot of shouting consisting of short sentences, which is then followed by silence or a loud (also short) response, or useless happy talks. When the problem is magically solved without real exchange between the characters, it is just frustrating. This really makes one wonder if they have communication disabilities.
If not for this big dent in their design, the characters are quite likable. I hope the sequel improves on this.


Even though I have just written an (perhaps in some viewers' eyes unfair and) harsh review. The show is still enjoyable to those interested in this genre. It is not the top, but it is certainly not the bottom. It's a good anime that needs to improve a bit on it's writing.

So, it's just another pretty bad shonen. Nothing too surprising. I had pretty high hopes of the series after a friend of mine recommended it while he was still only watching the series. Needless to say, i was very disappointed. The first two episodes i thought were excellent. They introduced a lot of potential for a cool storyline and for some amazing fight sequences. Really enjoyed the plot those two episodes had.

...and then the story just disappears and is thrown straight to the thrash can. Ao No Exorcist ends up being a very generic school shonen.

Story - 3

Apart from the first two episodes, the story ... was practically nonexistent. They set up a good plot in the first two, did some random stuff for 20 episodes and then wrapped up some loose ends from the first two episodes. It was pathetic. The few fight scenes it had, were boring and included the same characters. Many episodes were completely unnecessary.

Art - 7

The art is fine, nothing wrong with that.

Sound - 6

Sound is also just fine.

Characters - 3

Apart from Rin and Yukio, none of the characters get any depth really. There are a few interesting ones, but they are all wasted.

Enjoyment - 3

It should already be pretty obvious, i did not enjoy watching this series.

Overall - 4

In the end, it's just a big pile of disappointment. A good concept is utterly wasted, which is a shame. I really did like the first two episodes a lot. Just watch those, quit watching, and you'll be more satisfied than after enduring through the whole series.

I had really high hopes when I first watched this, but I guess that was all for nothing.

The story follows a pair of twin brothers, Yukio Okumura, and the star of the show Rin Okumura. They're the sons of Satan. The conflict is between the Okumura brothers. Rin was born with demonic powers, similar to those of his father. Yukio was born about as normal as any other person. The most interesting thing about Yukio is his brother. Yukio is a selfish person more worried about himself than others. He thinks like a child. He seems to have a problem with his brother because ... ... he's the son of Satan? You're twins! How could you dislike somebody for who their father is if you guys have the same parents? Yukio tries to kill Rin multiple times throughout the series, failing to get even remotely close every time.
Most of the other characters have bland personalities. They have the stereotypical anime girl. What was her name, Chiemi? Sorry, Shiemi. She has the most boring personality I've ever seen. She hasn't been anything but a bother to everyone around her. Rin's probably saved 3-4 times. What is Shiemi doing in a school for exorcists if she's afraid of everything?
Miwa is a terrible friend and an even worse person. He was a sketchy guy from the very start. Once Rin reveals himself to SAVE Bon, Miwa, Shiemi, Yukio, Izumo, and Shima, everyone turns on him. Why? Because he's the son of Satan. Funny thing is, they don't seem to hate Yukio. Miwa was the worst of them all. Bon, Shima, Izumo and Shiemi slowly begin to trust Rin, while Miwa gets himself possessed and blames it on Rin. Even after he is in control of himself again he continues to complain about how the son (singular, mind you) of Satan is allowed to go to a school for exorcists.
The plot of the story starts really slow. It was so slow that I guarantee I could've read half the series by the time Rin's demonic powers awoke. The pacing was all over the place. It was slow for every episode, until the final one. The final episode did not line up with anything that had previously happened. It was all so fast you didn't have time to understand the idea of the episode. The final episode definitely should have been left out of the show entirely or at least been turned into two or three episodes.
Overall, sound and animation are not really anything to fuss over. They don't stand out. For a show animated in 2011, the animation lacks any style. Even shows like Sōru Ītā, or Kuroshitsuji, both from 2008, have better animation quality than Ao No Exorcist.

One of the worst shounen anime I've seen. I had watched a few episodes initially when it first came out and dropped it. Then after many years seeing it pop up semi-frequently as a recommended anime I decided to try again. I managed to complete it but was staring at my phone or the ceiling most of the time because it was so boring. Another fraud by the online hype machine or fanatical manga readers.

If you didn't know the premise of the story already, it couldn't be more stupid. The MC turns out to be the son of Satan and he wants to go "beat ... him up". Yes, the setup is undeniably stupid, something a five year old probably thought up. Then, because this is Japan, you throw in Japanese demons, Buddhist mantras, guns, alchemy, and the Vatican. A five year old understanding and exposure of these "toys" all thrown into one toy chest. There's no character development. The plot and the conflicts are just a bunch of illogical flip-flops in allegiances or motives, bouncing back and forth like a ping pong to create fake drama. Either they accept Satan's son or they don't, their convictions as fickle as the weather and the change never supported by anything meaningful other than a shoddy plot. There are no real demon encounters other than questionable school invasions. There is a fabricated moral dilemma near the end where the exorcist trainees, their sole purpose of joining being to massacre demons unconditionally, suddenly waver during a demon purge, because it's "just not right". It all culminates into a cliche finale to break down the barrier between demons and humans, orchestrated by Satan. Satan's backstory and motivations are a complete joke. He has the mental capacity of a toddler and was nurtured by the MC's mother to want to become human. Why he was even in the human world to begin with is never explained. The last ten episodes are actually completely made up and not canon, which still doesn't excuse the piss poor writing.

And as a shounen, they committed the cardinal sin of making the fight scenes and enemies as dull and underwhelming as a starter area of a video game. They all look and fight like generic level one monsters. A fight usually involves little more than the other characters standing there acting surprised and useless while the MC tries to lure the demon away so he can slash it once with his blue flaming sword without revealing his satanic power. Once his secret is out, they add hostages or steal his sword to prolong the fight. It's not flashy, the animation is bad, and there's zero strategy. The adult exorcists also do basically nothing other than make good cannon fodder while they shoot toy guns or occasionally swing a sword with no effect. There are no pretty spells or special powers. Just the MC and his dull as f*ck blue flame you already saw in the first episode.

The supporting characters are extremely one-dimensional and forgettable, plucked from a sea of generic faces all wearing the same bland student outfit. They are so weak and unremarkable they serve as window dressing during fights or fillers in an empty room. And half of them use the corny Kansai dialect so it's always a cheap slife-of-life comedy when they speak. The MC is by far the worst shounen protagonist. He makes Naruto, Natsu, or Luffy look like intellectuals. He is screaming 95% of the time in a screeching pubescent voice, making snap assumptions, constantly angry or irritable, and speaks like a cave man, not to mention the other typical shounen tropes like being dumb as a rock, always doing the right thing, and using sheer willpower to win. The writing in general is so bad, I don't even need subtitles to understand the crude and simplistic things the characters are saying.

Very bland characters and choppy fight scenes. It's rather aggravating seeing some non-combat movements being animated smoothly and fight scenes being ignored. The art is drab and generic. Ditto the soundtrack. The only thing memorable is the ending theme.

The series starts off pretty strong, like every tipical shounen series, something important happens right off the bat in order for our protagonist to start his or her adventure, meet a bunch of different characters, who soon become his or her friends. Major villain in the background doesn't do jack s**t because to OP, so we are introduced to a minor villain who beats the main protagonist's ass. Then the main protagonist recovers and gets stronger.
No particular mistakes were made up to this point.
The secondary characters aren't too bad, especially Shiemi, as I was expecting her to be completely useless but was the ... one who did the most during fights IMO.
I'd give it an 8 for the the first part only.

Then for some reason the series changes completely, the plot is all over the place, characters' character change in the blink of an eye and I'm too lazy, as the writer/writers of this show, to write a detailed review about all the mistakes that were made.
I'll simply give it 4 for the second part.

So the final score should be 6 right?
Nope
-1 point for the most detestable character I have ever seen: Rin's mother.
You know what f*** it
-1 point for also changing the most devilish badass of the series into a complete p**sy

Final score: 4