Studio Pierrot are the guys using Internet Explorer. It took them almost two years to realize the Naruto manga was over and they can stop doing anime fillers, and now they’re doing this show called Twin Star Exorcists (listed here as Sousei no Onmyouji), an anime that feels like it should’ve been released a good ten years ago. Main character has a rowdy side of his otherwise casual personality that comes with a tragic backstory, and he wants to be the best at whatever; main heroine is actually good at whatever, pretty attractive but not fanservice-y, hates the MC for whatever reason but you know they’re gonna fuck someday anyway, and they have to fight some stuff. Lots of fighting. Yippee.
“Oh boy, this guy’s another elitist who just complains about shows by comparing it to other anime!” Nah, I’m okay with shows being similar; in fact, some of the frontrunners that aired alongside this show are pretty basic and I love them a lot, but they have their reasons for being watchable. Sousei doesn’t do a lot to differentiate itself from the tropes it uses; most of its appeal as an action is merely weighted on its gimmicky combat, which incorporates traditional Japanese elements a bit.
- TRADITIONAL JAPENESE ELEMENTS - *poof*
HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
That’s every fucking fight. Someone will say an attack, then time will stop so the name of the attack can appear on the screen and the person can yell. Does it look cool? Yes. But just because it looks cool doesn’t mean it’s necessary, so after about two instances it gets pretty damn irritating and makes me feel like I’m being looked down upon.
Actually, Sousei just seems to look down on its viewers in general. A lot. One of several things is that whenever someone reflects upon something, a terrible-looking flashback will be shown of that event or quote, even if it happened five minutes prior. Even worse is that a character was made exclusively for the anime, whose only purpose is to suck the heroine’s dick. EVERYTHING that’s said by this Victini-looking motherfucker is just to make play up how badass Benio is so that maybe you’ll like her more. “HEY, IMP! (?) YOUR USELESS ASS IS HOLDING BACK BENIO’S AMAZING TALENT!!!” This isn’t complicated writing, Pierrot. Mommy says I’m a big boy now, so I can understand basic human emotions all by my alone.
If you actually want to know what the story’s about and don’t want to read the synopsis or other “objective” reviewers, it’s about our world if it had a bunch of creepy, weirdo interdimensional things called ‘karaage’, which… do… bad things. To people. Come to think of it, I don’t remember getting a good explanation of these things. Except that they’re bad. Are they bad? I guess they’re bad… They look creepy so they must be bad. And then people who aren’t bad perform exorcisms on them; in other words they do action-y stuff in special costumes and use magic with talismen.
- TALISMEN - *poof*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
That also has something to do with it, I guess.
The real kick of this story is that the two main characters are being forced to get married, hook up, and have a kid together. Twin Star Exorcists? More like Twin Star SEXorcists!!! AHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Anyway, they need to breed because somehow their kid will inevitably become the Hokag--ehsorry the Miko or whatever. Which is like the best exorcist ever. This kills the karaage. I appreciate that Sousei doesn’t beat around the bush with these two, you know they’re gonna hook up by the end anyway, but now that fanfiction-generating quirk has actual weight to the story. And instead of having the two fuck like wild rabbits, they have a typical but effective dichotomy between liking and hating each other. I’ll admit that I don’t like Rokuro much, but Benio’s cool, and more importantly they have a weird chemistry that makes their relationship fun sometimes.
“Don’t forget about their complicated backstories!”
Yeah… I won’t talk about how corny that is. You can probably find the basics of it on 4chan’s “write an anime plot” threads.
The backstory and villainous reveal could actually considered to be a good part of the series, as it adds a lot of drama and really darkens the story even if it wasn’t all that cheery to begin with, but it plays out in such a typical and over-the-top way that I started to laugh at it instead. But, to be knocked down means you come back stronger, right? So after a grim reveal and crushing defeat comes… an awkward couple of episodes of the two kids “training” by “bonding” together through some weird exercises. Oh.
Since the romance is what makes Shipping no Onmyouji possibly stand out in the crowd, they should make it count, right? …Eh. One, the characters aren’t that interesting to begin with. Two, a lot of it is just… awkward. Much of it is forced--no, literally, it’s forced by other characters because they want them to fuck immediately so they can have a kid and so the kid can save everyone, and so Benio and Rokuro get thrown into some strange shenanigans that force them to cooperate. Oh boy, I really feel the love in the air! I think putting the two in a nice villa was a good move, but everything else just seemed excessive and annoying. Little of it is about Rokuro and Benio growing as people and getting attached to each other, it’s about them reluctantly playing a shitty game by one of their bosses. I guess down the line this could evolve into a good romance, but I think thirteen episodes is a bit too long of a wait for what should be a major draw to this series.
Last thing I’ll mention before moving on, but there’s a lot of filler in this anime, as could be expected from a fifty-episode series by Pierrot. A lot of episodes have some sort of nonsense going on between Rokuro and Benio, and to make it seem important somehow, the firefox fuckwit mascot character will make an incredibly irritating scream about karaage showing up, so a little bit of action will happen. There’s slow pacing, and in the case of Sousei, there’s just general dicking around.
Alright, now the art. This has potential, I’ll give it that. If this show was brought down to even two cours, this would probably look pretty great. But unfortunately, Pierrot doesn’t want to spend all eighty-nine quadrillionteen yen they made off Osomatsu-san to make the whole product look good. Therefore, faces often look janky and off-model at even the slightest of distances, and what little animation Sousei has is pretty weak. The actual character designs look good, though, with some rather beautiful eyes (to the animator guy saying that eyes take too long to draw nowadays, sorry) and good clothing. Rokuro has some weird shark teeth, but I think it’s okay given his character and design.
Stylistically, it’s interesting. The action takes place in another dimension, a very desolate and apocalyptic-looking dimension with a lot of red shading and outlines. The karaage are incredibly off-putting, weird, shadowy monsters that occupy it; altogether it brings about an interesting setting. Unfortunately, the setting is all it can be: a setting, so it doesn’t make the actual fights look great, which is a shame because I quite like the idea of using magic with talismen and shit.
Less ideally, all the flashbacks seem to have been filmed from an iPhone; the aspect ratio becomes more vertical and looks super awkward, and they fill the empty spaces on the sides with some distracting, scratchy graphics. What’s with this weird design? If this was trying to be original, that doesn’t mean it was a good idea either way. And since this is your average shounen, get ready for 25% of the episode to be composed of flashbacks.
The one notable thing about the sound is the hellish, creepy “voices” of the karaage. It’s fucking bizarre and I love it. Other than that, everything here’s another mixed bag of mediocre. The OP is by Wagakki Band, another interesting gimmick J-rock band that combines hard rock with traditional Japanese elements.
- TRADITIONAL JAPANEoh i did this meme already.
Anyway, if you’re into Japanese music these days, you’ve probably heard of their song, Senbonzakura, which blends these styles really well. Valkyrie, the Sousei OP, is a different story; the song itself sounds decent, but if you took out the traditional instruments then you wouldn’t have much of a difference. Thematically, it’s still a good choice for the show, I guess. The actual OST should’ve taken some notes with Wagakki Band’s ideas by blending traditional and modern sounds; instead it just sounds modern with some shitty electronic music playing in the back of the fights and some softer piano tunes wherever else.
Would I recommend Sousei no Onmyouji? Based off of this first cour, I wouldn’t. There are some good ideas, but nothing’s really getting done here, and saying “it gets better later” doesn’t really prove a point. In the six+ hours it’ll take for Sousei to “get better” you could… read the manga, which people have apologetically claimed to be a much better experience, and given the amount of filler here I can see that.
Would I recommend Sousei no Onmyouji? ...More like NOsei!!! 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Story - 3/10
Art - 4/10
Sound - 3/10
Character - 4/10
Enjoyment - 2/10
Shipping - eh/10
Overall - 3/10
Favorite character - Benio
Favorite episode - 13 until they did that stupid fusion attack
Recommendation level - Low
