Ao no Exorcist was a poor choice for me because of a few factors, the first being the setting. Since the anime doesn't start with its actual setting from the very start, I'll have to say that the anime until the point I got spent most of its time within a highschool setting were kids train in order to become exorcists, with everyone important in the school lowkey having superpowers or something to do with superpowers. So if you're tired of this setting, take a breath because not only this is the setting you get, but each episode the anime introduces a new character on which they focus on, in a somewhat slice of lifey demeanor, respectively with a food battle, a guy who's whiny that a guy takes worse grades than him and a girl who won't leave her yard. All of these episodes have a sense of the supernatural setting, but they very much feel like irrelevant everyday non-threat episodic stories, that after the introduction arc are a sore taste, and I can't detail exactly why without spoiling that arc. What credit I can give Ao no Exorcist in its introduction arc is that things constantly change and nothing really is constant, and the main character is constantly hit with new information about the life he's lived and who he is, which kinda makes the story seem like it's gonna have a direction and not be stationary. Like in a highschool setting. Meeting other students every episode. In an anime about the son of Satan. Birthed through a cult killing itself and being burnt.
The second gripe is the characters because they're uninteresting. The main character is a generic shounen wild numbfuck who's good natured and the whole package, but he's played off as intimidating and brutish because he's a demon. His twin brother on the other hand is the booksmart guy, who is popular, wears glasses, is smart, is booksmart, popular, wears glasses, is smart, wears glasses... Truly a character who interests me so much due to his abundance of character traits. What I'm saying that most of the characters don't really have depth and are one dimensional, and even despite life changing events, they will continue to act a certain way because the plot demands it, without their personality changing or the series taking it slow to show them taking it in. I don't really wanna describe any other characters, since they're either the main focus of the episode, and hence I will describe an entire episode, or they're barely relevant or just overall uninteresting because they haven't done anything noteworthy.
And my third gripe is the lack of action the series has. Look, on a technical note, yes, Ao no Exorcist has some action bits every episode. However, truthfully the fights never feel like they're ever gonna be a threat, with the characters even admitting that everything is a low threat and not that dangerous. There's only one episode where the fights had some sense of urgency and where everyone actually fought against a different side, with the feeling that this was an actual confrontation. And even if I found it a little ridiculous that the characters are constantly chanting and spilling christian bullshit while spitting fire from their mouths, at least I saw an actual confrontation that didn't feel onesided. Any other fight it's just some supernatural creatures getting their ass kicked and having no lines except for like one exception, and that's only about them having lines. None of the confrontations hold any meaning for the most part and they're there at best to enhance the drama, with some random fights and dangerous situations whenever is need of characterization. Like it's the only way to resolve conflict. They are also plainly one sided. And that made them really boring for me.
Finally, my final and most important gripe is the story itself. Continue reading this paragraph only if you don't mind being spoiled, as I will spoil the first three episodes with important and essential plot details. Skip this paragraph if you don't wanna be spoiled. This is your last chance. So after the first episode, it's revealed that MC's father is an exorcist and takes him home, a church to protect him against the deomns that found his location and give him a chance to run from Satan. He doesn't and instead argues with his dad which upsets his dad and thus the dad becomes emotionally weak and that way he gets possessed by Satan. And then the father kills himself in order to drive Satan out of his body. The brothers, after their father's death pretty much... are okay. I mean, they bury him, they both look at the grave alone for a while and then... one of them tells the other to die and afterwards the other says "BUT I WANNA BEH STRONK" and then they're like bruuuuuuuh and they're okay now, their relationship is back to square one. The way they resolve their conflict is quite superficial, and is merely done to keep the series lighthearted, and have their relationship as a tool for that. If you don't understand what my problem is, basically, after a battle against Satan and the main character, the son of Satan, loses his adoptive father, he goes to school and every episode meets new students or residents which are the focal point of the episode. After a fight in a church against demons with various techniques displayed, every battle is now onesided and non-threatening. And any attempt at drama is futile since the series has bad writing and the characters are uninteresting. This is exactly my problem. The direction of the story. Or rather lack thereof.
The reason I have dropped it for is because I don't care about the long winded wait for the confrontation against Satan and don't want to keep watching boring highschool students. None of the characters I have found compelling and the series feels like is gonna go nowhere and just keep the characters in school with perhaps random arcs threatening MC's safety and his friends. And I couldn't care less about any of that. There wasn't any action to entice me, the dramatic bits are poorly written, I don't want to wait for the show to find its direction and I don't care about any of the series' characters because they act like generic shounen tropes, despite plausibly being more substance to build them above that if the show tries.
I don't recommend the series if you are tired of the generic shounen tropes and action animes with a school setting. The action bits could always change, and there is promise there, substance might show through later, so I don't want to ruin your hopes for that, but I am 3 hours in and had only one relevant fight in the entire anime. If the setting doesn't bother you, then the anime might be worth a shot, as it has fairly decent production values. The animation looked decent, althought the art style is a bit generic and I have no complaints in the sound department. If you're looking for a shounen in a school setting that rather than focusing on action, chooses to focus on the characters inside its setting and their setting, this might be worth a shot. Ao no Exorcist isn't exactly bad, I simply found it uninteresting, because of its setting, its lack of compelling action and I found its bits where it tried to be dramatic quite dull and poorly written. However it can be comedic and enjoyable through its lighthearted nature, but it doesn't have substance in terms of narrative. Ultimately, it boils down to whether or not you enjoy a group of high school friends poking fun at each other with some supernatural elements in the story. I certainly don't. But if you do, this is the aspect in which I will agree it succeeds in the most. Unfortunately, this is not something I'm looking for in a series but if there's any other elements that might interest you in Ao no Exorcist, its setting might keep it alive for you. Unfortunately, it killed it off for me.
