The story follows Mirai Kuriyama and Akihito Kanbara. Mirai is a spirit world warrior, the only one left of her cursed clan. Spirit world warriors earn a living by hunting youmu, which are other worldly beings (like demons) that are born of negative human emotions. Akihito is a half human, half youmu. The premise is far from original to those familiar with anime. Sadly, the plot going forward becomes more and more confusing, and by the very end of the series I did not understand the motivation of both the villain and Mirai. I was left questioning "Why the heck would this character do this?" I felt that the plot was poorly explained, and I truly didn't understand what the cast of characters were working towards for the second half of the series. I even attempted to look up an entire plot summary on Wikipedia to better understand the story, but to no avail. I feel as if there are plot holes left very exposed, on top of the story already presenting as generic. Now, I don't mind a generic story if it is grouped with other good elements, because I believe cliches are cliche for a reason- that those messages or concepts resonate with or interest people for whatever reason. However, I found the characters to all be very flat. The only exception I think is our two main leads... I felt for them in the bond and similarities they shared with one another. Aside from that though there really wasn't much to their characters either, and a character should not be defined by one single aspect. So in conclusion, none of the characters are three-dimensional whatsoever.
Also, I found the humor in the show very off-putting; the vast majority of the humor was very awkwardly, sexually based (characters referring to themselves as hentai, or "perverts", very very random displays of cosplay that did not fit into the story whatsoever, etc.). Yes, a lot of times anime has this type of humor and I have grown accustomed to it for the most part. However, in this series it felt like it was forced to fit into the show, as if it was desperately trying to get noticed *ahem fanservice*. I know Kyoto Animation does have a reputation for creating moe characters, but really these elements felt so unnatural and awkward in the show.
Despite all these criticisms I still found the show entertaining enough to complete the series. Why is this?? I think it's simply because I enjoyed the visuals and action scenes (which were nicely choreographed). The opening and ending credits were especially beautiful, and paired with some nice music tracks. In fact, my favorite part of the show may just be the opening and ending!! I think that's telling in itself.
If you're looking for a short (12 episode) series with action, beautiful animation, and moe/cute characters, check this out. If you're expecting more than that from this show be prepared to be disappointed.
