Fall 2006, studio sunrise created an amazing anime. The anime was so great that it received admiration from every anime fan in this world. Every one enjoyed it, loved it and admired it. It broke every record created by shows like cowboy bebop, fullmetal alchemist, Naruto and Bleach. Even most of the non- anime fan enjoyed it. It was the best mecha anime ever, yes I am talking about code geass. That anime became instant success but at the same time studio sunrise created another anime called Kekkaishi, which was also great and for me it was one of the best anime ever. Kekkaishi has every element to become a successful anime as code geass, It has great animation, amazing stories, likeable character, good music but for some reason it couldn’t grasp majority of the anime fans, it became unnoticed and died in the minds of the people, But now I am going to discuss why this anime is so great but it is not without flaws.
STORY: Sumimura and yukimura are two clans whose members are known as keekkashi, are entrusted to protect a piece of land from the demons called ayakashi. They have been doing this since hundreds of years, now we have yoshimori from sumimura and Tokine from yukimura clan, who has entrusted this duty to protect the land called Karasumori, which also happens to be the place where their school is built. So now they have to engage in this seamless battle with ayakashi. As the story goes, there is nothing original about it, but there are certain sub plots in the anime which are completely unique and I would call it breath of fresh air in a shonen anime, such as relationship between sumimura and his brother, the story behind the land of Karasumori being sacred and sumimura’s development. The kind of story that Kekkaishi has, one could possibly assume that, if it was handled correctly, there will be lots of development in the later episodes which will make the characters more likeable. But things didn’t happen exactly as I thought it would but I will talk about that later.
Characters: Our lead character “Yoshimori” is like a mature version of naruto, he does stupid things but he is not exactly as stupid and dumb as other shonen anime protagonists. Sometimes he makes sensible decisions. It is shown that he has great unexploited potential inside of him and if he trains hard he could become strongest of all. And he is in love with Tokine, his partner and his rival. Let’s talk about Tokine, She is your perfect female lead, She is one of those anime girls who are good in studies, beautiful, athletic, and everybody in the school likes her. In fact she is total opposite of our protagonist. Though she is good in combat but she is not as powerful as yoshimori is. Then we have masamori, yoshimura’s elder brother and yoshimori hates him and this is because masamori is stronger, and intelligent than yoshimori is. And also tokine likes him. Even though he is stronger than yoshimori he wasn’t chosen as the family heir but instead of developing a grudge against his yonger brother, who was chosen over him, he supports him to develop his power. Other supporting characters are yoshimori’s hotheaded but caring grandfather, yoshimori’s younger brother who is actually more mature than yoshimori, tokine’s grandmother who is just like tokine, smart, mature and elegant, Kaguro who is the main villain in this series, he reminds me of ulquirra from bleach. These are all likeable but the award for best supporting actor in kekkaishi goes to shesio gen. Gen reminds me of sasuke from naruto, he is your silent powerful type of guy. He has the ability to transform into an ayakashi, but he can’t control it, he is Immensly strong and he can heal fast. The reason he is so likeable is the character development he gained in the show though he is in the show for only 20 or so episodes. He has a sad past and it was well explained. We can see the relationship between him and his sister, which was really tragic. Being an ayakashi majri, people hated him, thus turning him into a monster. He is a member of night troop where masamori recognize his talent and becomes his mentor. He also has a good relationship with his trainer.
ANIMATION- The show is made by studio sunrise, so we can expect some decent animation. The character design is good, the atmosphere is amazing, it’s not too dark but not too bright either. The kekkai boxes are CGied but blends with the environment completely. For an unpopular show the production values are really high.
SOUND- Most of the successful shonen anime has the great sound track and this one is no exception( though it wasn’t successful). The OST is really good, the background score at the times of action scene is also amazing. Now about opening and endings, there is only one opening and they didn’t change it and may be for the good, because I really liked the opening track. And most of the endings were also good but my favourite was the 2nd one “Sekaijyuu Doko wo Sagashitemo”, by Aiko katahara, it has really nice music. And I don’t know anything about the English dub because I watched kekkaishi three times and all these times I watched it in Japanese and I thought it was amazing, maybe I can’t understand Japanese but I can say that the voice actors worked really hard to express the feelings and emotions.
OVERALL- Overall, kekkaishi is a really good anime and in my opinion this anime has everything to become a successful anime but it couldn’t, my only complaint is the ending, it wasn’t bad but it could’ve been better, the way the anime was going I was expecting some epic climax but it wasn’t and the fight between kaguro and yoshimori was a big disappointment. But again the creator did what they could to provide a satisfactory climax because the show went into the losses and there is no way they could continue it. Thus here’s my final verdict-
STORY-7
CHARACTERS- 8
SOUND – 8.5
ANIMATION- 7.5
OVERALL- 8/10
