Anime Club: Blue Exorcist The Movie

For this week’s anime club, we dive right back into the world of Blue Exorcist for Blue Exorcist: The Movie.

BLUE EXORCIST: THE MOVIE

DIRECTED BY: Atsushi Takahashi

STARRING: Nobuhiko Okamoto, Jun Fukuyama, Kana Hanazawa, Kazuya Nakai, Koji Yusa, Yuki Kaji

GENRE: Supernatural, Action

YEAR: 2012

COUNTRY: Japan

Rin and his friends, along with the rest of True Cross Academy Town, are in the midst of preparing for a festival that is celebrated only once every 11 years. While the barriers protecting the city from demon intrusions are being repaired, Rin and his twin brother Yukio are sent to the scene of an exorcism as reinforcements. Things take a turn for the worse and as they attempt to salvage their mission, they meet a mysterious young boy that may threaten everything that they know. Meanwhile, Cheng-Long Liu, a First Class Senior Exorcist from the Taiwan Branch, joins the ‘simple’ repair operation that forces his fate to cross with ‘Satan’s spawn’, Rin.

As for the movie, it blasts off in full action mode with no time wasted. In fact, the premise immediately comes to fruition with the Phantom Train. The ride is a tough one though for Rin and the others especially since it’s not like anything they’ve faced before. Luckily, we can see that Rin and his abilities has not gone to stale and is able to fight effectively alongside his brother Yukio. The movie itself is also pretty straightforward. What you see is what you get a – fun supernatural ride, or at least in the beginning. The setting still takes place in the same place as the original series so don’t expect any certain twists in terms of the location.

Most of the main characters makes their appearances in this movie including the shy Shiemi, the confident Yukio, the hot-headed Shura, the stubborn Izumo, the wise head Konekomaru, the prodigy Bon, flamboyant Mephisto, easy going Shima, and among others. Even a familiar demon makes his cameo. One new character viewers might not be familiar with though is Usamaro, a strange kid with a pair of ears and curiosity. Voiced by the famous Kugimiya Rie, aka the queen of tsundere, she plays the role of this character. However, the kid has some secrets than meets more than the eye.

If there is anything that The Movie could have done to make itself much better, it would be the character development. It’s a shame how the new character Cheng-Long Liu did not get any form of characterization and ends up being a typical supporting figure. And, as decent as the movie is, it’s nothing more than an extension of the main series rather than a continuation so viewers don’t really stand to miss out on a lot of detail if they had followed the main storyline. But with a short 90-minute timespan, viewers can simply treat this as a good way to kill some time.

PROS:

• Majority of the main characters make appearances.
• Plenty of action.
• Stays true to the Blue Exorcist style.

CONS:

• No real character development for new characters.
• Doesn’t have anything to do with the main Blue Exorcist narrative.

SCORE: 7.2 / 10

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