Ao no Exorcist Episode 5

Child of the Cursed Temple

Mimi: Well, it looks like Ao no Exorcist is going to have a string of average/filler episodes before it gets better. I know, I know, it’s shounen, what’d you expect? But I was hoping that the character development episodes, and the classroom scenes, were going to be more interesting than what they have been lately. Particularly Rin got a little annoying this time, as he just slacked off with his studies and became hot-headed with that punk in class, Ryuji. It was just so…~yawn~ This episode mainly served to flesh out Ryuji’s background, and I woulda preferred to have just read about it on his character page than to sit through his bickering with Rin (or next time, I’ll just skip around). The next episode is going to be all about cooking, which is also tempting to skip over. Give me back my cool Yukio and the awesome action~ D: Ahh patience…

Ao no Exorcist Episode 4

Amahara Garden

Mimi: Hmm, I wasn’t expecting this kind of episode to pop up now. To be honest, it’s a little boring. Rin meets a moe girl named Shiemi, voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Wait, Nessa?! NO way!), who is obsessed with taking care of her grandmother’s garden due to a certain incident in the past. A demon has control of her legs, sucking energy from her to support the garden. Rin and Yukio get rid of the demon, Shiemi reunites with her mother, and slowly let’s the garden go. I know that she’s going to end up being Rin’s classmate, so it’s good to know her background early. But I nearly fell asleep watching this one… At least Yukio continued to be cool.

Ao no Exorcist Episode 3

Brothers

Mimi: Rin contacts Father Fujimoto’s friend Mephisto, whom I can also easily imagine being played by Johnny Depp in a live-action version, and is taken to True Cross Academy. There, he will lead a dual life as a normal high school student and an Exorcist-in-training. So far so good, until Yukio shows up as his sensei to teach Exorcism. I was already interested in Yukio from the beginning, but wow is he awesome in this episode….definitely liking his new persona here. It seems that he has mixed feelings about Rin and even blames him for their father’s death, but brotherly love perseveres in the end. No, Rin and Yukio won’t be as epic as the Elric brothers, but they make a likeable, interesting pair.

As for Rin’s classmates, none of them are immediately annoying, which is a good sign. Some of them have yet to receive a ‘Spirit Wound’ to be able to see demons, and Yukio will have to summon a low-grade demon to give them one. First off, I’m interested in the shy girl who will probably have difficulty with that, the cloaked person sitting in the back of the room, and the boy with the puppet. How shall they fair as Exorcists? This I have to see. In the meantime, I’m praying that Rin won’t pick up an annoying, useless female classmate from his normal high school, or a female classmate pretending to be normal but she’s actually an Exorcist, cuz they tend to plague shounen anime.

Ao no Exorcist Episode 2

Gehenna’s Gate

Mimi: No surprises here: Rin gets angsty because Father Fujimoto never told him about his true nature until now; Fujimoto becomes possessed by Satan and ultimately dies; Rin awakens his amazing powers; Rin has flashbacks of his beautiful father/son relationship with Fujimoto…and he screams a lot. This is pretty much your standard shounen anime formula. And yet, why did I enjoy it so much? Sure, it was extremely predictable right down to the slap across Rin’s face, but I wasn’t really bored per say. Other than coming out very strong in the animation and music department, Ao no Exorcist does tell its story well; there are no glaring flaws that chase me away or anything, and it’s consistent in every department so far. Rin is also a likeable male lead–nothing like the moron I thought he’d be judging from the cover art. I’m also curious to see how Yukio will react to everything… I think I’ll just move right along to the next episode.

First Impressions: Ao no Exorcist

Ao no Exorcist

Mimi: I tend to be very very very picky with shounen anime, but Ao No Exorcist looks like something that I might enjoy, considering that it’s dark. To be honest, there’s nothing about the premise that hasn’t been done before—you’ve got the demon world and the human world, and the demons are starting to cross over and possess humans. The main protagonist, Rin, suddenly discovers his ‘powers’ at age 15, but the interesting part is that he’s the son of Satan, and he is being raised by one of the most powerful Exorcists ever. I can see this turning into an interesting conflict, despite the clichés (like Father Fujimoto, for example). What’s more is that the music, animation, and character designs are truly excellent. There’s a good chance that I will blog this one, as it seems to be more up my alley than Nurarihyon no Mago anyways.