Blue Exorcist

The following is a first look at the series Blue Exorcist from my blog Ultimateotaku.com

Summery

Humans live in the world of Assiah, demons in Gehenna. The two dimensions are not meant to interfere with each other, but demons still possess creatures in Assiah in spite of this. The humans who can fight these demons are known as exorcists. Rin Okumura is a boy who bears the curse of being Satan’s illegitimate son. His foster father sacrificed himself to save him from demons. To avenge his foster father’s death as well as to prove himself, Rin decides to follow the path of an exorcist.

First Look

I’ll say it outright in general here, I am a Christian. A lot of anime nowadays seems really Anti-Christan like in SnO were they portray God as being the bad guy, one of the only things I hate about the show. Blue Exorcist seems to be a complete 180 of that. Being a Pro-Christan anime I had to give it a look.

The first episode ends with Rin, ( played by Nobuhiko Okamoto who also voices Usui in Kaichō wa Maid-sama! and Yorito from Sola ) finding out he is the Lucifer’s son. The reason Lucifer bore a son is because no human is strong enough to contain his essence for very long, so he gave birth to Rin to be his container on Earth. This is not to Rin’s liking so he decides to fight his father and fate and by becoming an Exorcist, a very good idea for a plot. The characters seem likable enough with Rin being a good-for-nothing slacker, and his twin brother a very successful overachiever who wants to be a doctor.

The anime has a comedic tone to it, like when Rin is trying to explain away his scratches and bloody nose from a fight, he says he tripped down some stairs into a sexy girl and got a nosebleed, although it also seems like its going to be very action based.

A thng I don’t particuarly like is how the majority of the demons seem to be drawn. In my opinion demons should look like the hooded things from the song “Hellfire” not scribbles out of my math notebook, but I digress.

The series seems very good so far, and I think I’ll have to stick with it. This anime is a contender for my favorite anime of the spring line-up for sure. So is it worth watching? I’ll say yes. And hey if my First Look doesn’t convince ya, maybe the fact that it was #3 on the New York Times best selling manga list might.

I feel this has been one of the best series that I have watched since I started watching anime. I fell in love with the characters and all their personalities, with shiemi the girl who's personality is similar to Winry Rockbell from FMA in the sense of her love of the boys, as well as all the others. I could go on detail on all the characters but I'll keep my review to the point. I loved this series and I truly do wish they would of expanded on it some more. I feel they have some platform to jump from, but of course that's up to the writers and producers. Thank you for this beautiful anime.
-Crystal Chaos

Why It's Good

The story focuses on Rin Okumura, the son of Satan, and his adventures trying to fit in socially as well as trying to control his powers. Together with his brother and friends they each play a pivotal roll in helping Rin achieve his goals.

The characters and catalysts to the story are introduced well though it does so quickly leaving a bit to be desired. The characters themselves aren't given too much back story but enough to justify why they are currently in the story.

The animation is amazing and the music really adds to the atmosphere. The academy that they train at is bar none one of the coolest looking places I've ever seen.

Why It's Bad

The anime lacks a few things though which make it a 3 star rather than a 4 star.

First, the plot feels abrupt sometimes. Key elements and figures should be given more attention and instead you might see something for a couple minutes and later on down the road you are required to connect Point A to Point B.

Secondly, I had hoped this would be a little more mature. I would have liked to see more demons, demonic transformation in Rin, and more violence.

Overall

All in all it was fun to watch and I enjoyed every moment of it. If you're looking for something without a mature theme that lightly touches on demons then this is the anime for you!

Suggestions:

If you really enjoyed this anime and want something else, Soul Eater comes to mind.

The first half of this series deserves 4 stars easy. The character progression is nice and the story is great. Even the pacing seems good. This show easily set itself up to be the next Bleach or Naruto with engaging characters and a nice mix of comedy, drama, and action... Instead, without spoiling anything, the last 3 episodes we get an incredibly rushed ending clear out of left field without nearly enough character development and many unanswered questions.

I was really loving this show up until the end. When everything was over, I couldn't help but feeling slighted.

For me I just started watching Blue Exorcist and it's instantly 1 of my favorites. It's creative and has a unique sense of humor (in my opinion)
I love how they made the plot, the first time my friend lent me the manga she was already praising it. As soon as I got a hold of it I felt the same way. We were jumping and non stop talking about it, soon some boys looked at us like we were on drugs.
It is so good that (if you haven't seen it) I don't want to ruin anything! If you haven't seen Blue Exorcist then stop reading this review and watch it cause seriously it's just that good!

It's an awesome anime with loads of funny moments and insane scenes as well as a real feel connection with yourself and the characters. A definitely MUST SEE SHOW XD I have yet to find an anime that can cause me to emotionally empathize with a minor side character demon cat simply because of a well displayed shared father figure and hardship. The writers understood what they were saying, where they needed to take the story, and most importantly, what to leave on the cutting room floor. This skill left the viewer with a crisp, engaging story with deep, identifiable characters that you couldn't help but empathize with.

Most of the detractors will bring up the differences the Manga might have with this, and say that the story is long and drawn out. However, I LOVED the characters and the overall story arc, and it wrapped up in a nice fashion, although slightly rushed but it doesn't detract from it that much.
The characters all didn't seem completely formulaic. Also, there are distinctly Asian concepts of heaven and hell that aren't known to the West as a whole. This is one of those titles that I have specifically sought out in North America and purchased even though it is little more along with the Japanese anime price point (no $40 for an entire box set here). I really wish I could get a 1080p BD of the series, similar with what Aniplex of America did with the Durarara series. It's that good.