As many people say, Ao no Exorcist is heavily clichéd in many aspects so I might as well point them out first
We have a hot headed protagonist(+1) who hold immense power he could not quite control(+1), use a sword(+1) that is not any random sword but a special one assigned especially to him(+1). Protagonist is fighting against the biggest embodiment of evil there is(+1) for revenge of his father(+1) who died trying to protect him(+1). (Total cliché points so far +7)
The protagonist have a brother(+1) that is smarter and more skilled than him(+1), including more popular with the girls(+1), and he appears to be wearing glasses(+1). The brother have higher rank than the protagonist in their job(+1), prefer long-ranged weapon in comparison with the protagonist’s preference of melee(+1), and the protagonist wants to surpass his brother(+1).(Note: please take into account that some points regarding Yukio is meant to be taken as "secondary lead male" rather than "brother") (Total cliché points so far +14)
Now we also have a heroine who is a klutz(+1), doesn’t fight herself(in this case fight with her summoned demon)(+1). A group of people who are seemingly unfriendly at first(+1), which one of them took position as the protagonist’s rival(+1). The group grew closer to the protagonist but become hostile more than ever when they learned of the protagonist’s secret(+1), and so the protagonist must try to convince them 1 each at a time(+1). (Total cliché points +20)
So there you go, 20 cliché points altogether, but that wasn’t the reason I decided to drop the show from my list, I can live with the clichés and would even admire them if clichéd points turned out to be used uniquely. The reason I decide to leave this show is how it strayed from the manga, I have not read the manga but it simply seem rather obvious that what happen in ep16 is written by someone from the anime team who have very weak writing skill. The early eps was fine in my opinion, it was indeed clichéd but the writer still managed to make it touching to a minor extent, but after that nothing else touch you anymore and I was simply sitting there, waiting for something non-clichéd to happen, which it did not.
The usage on each terms are could have been achieved with better researches. The first example is the usage of the word “Paladin”, if you have played some RPG games you would have known that paladins, while may be a class of high rank warriors, with some saintly properties, are by no mean the best. Real historical paladins are the best guys the holy court can have, which is obvious that the king will have better men than that, and even more obvious that it is not a title suited just for 1 individual, as historical evidences pointed out that there are indeed multiple men who bear the title “Paladin”.
Further points about this ranking system, I highly doubt how Fr.Fujimoto, Rin’s father, who was appointed the Paladin when he was still living, would be free enough to live in an old church in the middle of Tokyo, raising 2 boys while keeping one away from the existence of anything magical. That logic never worked anyway in any situation, if you’re the top guy the organization have, then by normal logical thinking, you would be so damn busy that you would never get to exist in the old church you own, let alone raising boys and keeping big secrets, if you’re not gonna do it then you’d be instantly demoted. And as of anime ep16, Arthur Auguste Angel, the new Paladin along with Shura, a high-ranked exorcist could not handle golem-form Amaimon despite going 2 to 1, but then Rin awaken and bam! In 5 seconds Amaimon is history. So either Rin should be promoted uber-Paladin right at the spot, or Angel and Shura should seriously be fired from the Order.
Another inaccurate use of information is on the use of demonology, as an expert in world mythology myself(for my age, I have over 400 hours of research on myths of the world), each demon names used are either inaccurately used(Naberius being a lesser demon, while Astaroth and Amaimon are high-ranked demons, in reality all 3 are individuals among the 72 pillars of Ars Goetia and supposedly comparable in strength), self-made up demons(Leaper and Coal Tar should have been obvious enough), and for anime’s case, inappropriately used (Mara got demoted to a mere lesser demon when in truth, he should have been the Buddhist equivalent of Lucifer, being the tempter of the messiah of their respective religion, no you would not want to see Lucifer die by a single gunshot(unless the title of the anime is ‘Yondemasuyo Azazel-san’ in which a shoe would be enough to kill even Satan) so the usage of Mara in the anime as a minion demon disturbed me alot)
The art and sound are the saving grace of this series, the art is neatly drawn and the designs are actually not-so cliched as everything else the plot covers. I actually liked the second OP and ED and felt a little regret in dropping the series almost as soon as the new songs came up, the voice acting is nice with a neat selection of seiyuus that do actually fit the roles they are given.
Note: as someone who have spent 400 over anything you could have find on fantasy-JRPGs(mythology, middle age weaponries, etc) I know the terminology problem pretty much bugs only me and no one else, so yeah try to ignore my own little paranoia
