After over ten years of watching anime, I have a hard time of finding animes/manga's that are mature enough to keep my interests. The story had everything I was looking for, a strong female lead, a focus on romance with actual development, quality fight scenes, entertaining bad guys, and last but not least a wonderful blend of traditional Japan and modern Japan.
I even found the filler episodes tolerable especially when compared to most popular series. There's a little bit of something for everyone in this show. I loved the main character Kazuma for not being your typical hero, he's kind of an asshole but you can't help but love him for it; a charming scoundrel. Another awesome thing about this anime is that I didn't completely hate the English speaking voice cast, and I almost always watch with subtitles.The art is fantastic, I really loved the extra emphasis on eyes. The fights scenes and magic are well done. I also appreciated that all of the supporting cast all had distinct features.
I am sad that this story had phenomenal potential, I can't help but think if the author had lived longer this could've been in the ranks of Naruto or Bleach. I am rather obsessed with endings, it can make or break and story or film for me. I was at episode at 13/24 when I found out about the death of the author, and was absolutely dreading the ending. But I strongly advise not to avoid this series, the ending was good enough that I was totally satisfied. Kaze no Stigma was fantastic overall.
