Anime Club: Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga

BLUE EXORCIST: KYOTO ARC

CREATED BY: Koichi Hatsumi

NO. OF EPISODES: 12 Episodes

GENRE: Supernatural, Action

YEAR: January 7, 2017 – March 25, 2017

COUNTRY: Japan

After a few years of real time off, Rin Okumura and his fellow ExWires are back in action! In the wake of the incident where Rin had to reveal his true nature to save the others from Amaimon, he finds his friends mostly still quite distrustful – even fearful – of him and his flames. This raises the potential for strife as most of the squad head to the Kyoto branch of True Cross, where they to help reinforce the branch after it was attacked by a culprit apparently (unsuccessfully) seeking the Right Eye of the Impure King. Meanwhile Yukio goes off on his own mission in pursuit of a disaffected career-exorcist-turned-demon who has stolen the Left Eye of the Impure King.

It’s about time that we can have our favorite exorcist back (Sorry Allen). We are dropped right into the middle of the original story, right after Rin has accidentally displayed his powers and is actively known as the “Son of Satan”. Almost all of the main cast stays the same from the original series, with the exception of a fantastically evil and ever-threatening demon as the main antagonist (no spoilers). First, there are multiple schemes and plots from different parties to reach their own end goals, and all are hidden from the viewers to give them things to think upon and to leave room for upcoming episodes/chapters. Character development is also better portrayed because everyone has their prejudices towards the “Son of Satan” and their own personal skills they need to strengthen to become stronger/better people themselves.

Now that I snagged the best aspects out, it’s time to analyze the corpse. The Kyoto Saga is definitely not for the average anime viewer if you haven’t seen the original Ao No Exorcist. While they try to wrap up the events of the first seventeen or so episodes in the first episode of Kyoto Saga, I definitely would agree with the majority and say that they missed the mark. If you have seen the original series and have not the read manga, then you may also be confused pretty quickly. They basically ignore the latter third of the episodes and unfortunately basically erase the character development of the rest of the ExWires. Way to go, take a step back.

PROS:

• Fantastic opening.
• Lovable cast.
• Re-make of ExWires’ character development.
• Interesting faithful adaptation.

CONS:

• Completely forgets the last few episodes of the original series.
• Not for new fans to the series.

SCORE: 8.0 / 10

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