Blue Exorcist

Summary: >

Rin and his brother Yuko are like polar opposites, with Rin always in trouble and fighting, while Yuko is studious and calm. Together they were raised by a priest, until the night demonic powers attack the church. Rin learns he's the son of Satan, and vows to take revenge on Satan for killing the man who raised him. Rin is taken to a school training exorcists, but things are now set in motion which may bring the world to ruin. Will he be able to stop it?

Thoughts: >

Well produced with a good budget, leading to higher expectations. The first episode didn't blow me away, but it had potential. After a few episodes I realized "this is it". It's not bad, just bland. There isn't a good feature to recommend this for and the end is cobbled together in a sloppy rush.

The characters aren't good, just various shades of "okay". Rin is the usual rambunctious male protagonist, jumping into situations because he's an idiot. On the other hand I did like the dynamic between him and his brother. The two are very different, causing conflict between their opposing views, but the family bond holds them together in a way I think sincerely reflected how they were indeed brothers. The rest of the characters aren't worth discussing. They're shallow and uninteresting, although their back stories fair a bit better than the characters they support.

Mostly episodes come down to "fighting something" with little done to progress a bigger story. I found the attempts at comedy unfunny. Episode after episode of stuff with nothing appealing. Towards end shifts to a "lets wrap this up" stance, with stuff injected to "go out with a bang" and inevitably it becomes a huge mess.

There's the Holy bomber nuking hell, and the nail-polish hippie girl impregnated by a satanic flaming wolf, among other things. As I realize what I just wrote, this anime is not as awsome as that sounds. Actually, if someone would make a show with that as the central concept, I'd watch it and maybe help fund it. Uh, anyway.. new characters become the "true" antagonists, thus sideline existing ones. The end highlights another problem I have with Blue Exorcist: it can't keep its concept of Satin strait. At times Satin is the "Mwahahaha" evil dude you'd expect, at others it's like Satin is some lost spirit. These inconsistent motivations made it harder for me to buy into the end story.

As an anime with action I suppose it's fair, but I never felt invested in the battles, because it was always just another "thing" they fight; action for the sake of action. With lacking story and characters, Blue Exorcist simply isn't worth the time investment in my opinion, but isn't terrible.

Screen Caps: >