First Impression – Otome Youkai Zakuro

Demons and Humans…chaos ensues.

Kyokai: After the disaster of Star Driver, Zakuro actually made me laugh. I must tell you DO NOT WATCH STAR DRIVER!

Overcooled:: LOL oh dear…XD Well, I didn’t like Otome Youkai Zakuro that much. Probably because I’m extremely picky when it comes to comedies…there’s a not a lot that can make me laugh

Kyokai: If I hadn’t taken up the review for Star Driver, I would stop at 5 minutes and say sayonara. You’ll read my review and understand. Anyway, I went in watching Zakuro expecting nothing after the disaster of the above, I would have stopped watching this if it wasn’t any good 2 minutes in. However, all that changed with that haunting song…I was pulled in, even when I thought the design looked cheesy from the trailer that aired

Overcooled: Yeah, the first part with the creepy song was good. I didn’t know what to expect at all, since I forgot what genre this was LOL

Kyokai: Oh yeahhh! The twins were nothing special but I liked the haunting quality to it. And of course, some action helped

Overcooled: so I thought it would be all like…demon battles…and a side ofromance. but it’s romance with a side of demon battles -_-

Kyokai: I always categorize Youkai to Natsume Yuujinchou. I loved that series and it’s partially the reason I hated Nurahahdajshdakjsdhak. I was totally wary of this title because it seemed too shoujo-y

Overcooled: lol I’m downloading Natsume Yuujinchou right now, I wanna watch it. I only made it to halfway of the first episode of Nurarihyon then got bored and dropped it

Kyokai: Ohhhhh you gotta watch that! As for Nuraasdasjda, same here *high fives*

Overcooled:something about demon anime that’s it’s so easy to make it really bad 8D

Kyokai: I couldn’t even complete the first epi -_____- I was expecting Natsume and got Pokemon…Gimme a break

Overcooled: lol…OK, Summary time, everyone!! We start off with some creepy singing followed by the killing of a demon. It’s a very nice way to open up the anime, showing off the best visuals they can and a nice bit of action. If you expected there to be a lot more scenes like this opening bit…you’re going to be disappointed.

The first part is basically just bait so you’ll watch the rest of the episode, which starts off telling us that some (human) officers are being assigned to work with spirits/demons. Spirits will apparently help them fight, which should be awesome, right? The officer’s reactions range from barely stifled fear to enthusiasm.

The spirit’s reactions to the news are mostly that of welcoming and excitement, except for Zakuro, who is a textbook definition tsundere and hates humans.  From here, we can already see the gist of what the set-up will be like.

The demons meet the humans at their giant..house…thing. We get a bunch of introductions that tell us everything we need to know about the characters in just their introductions: Zakuro is a tsundere, the twins are ditzy fangirls, Susuki is the shy one, Riken is monotone, and Hanakiri is the boasting young one.

Well, that went better than expected.

The only one that can’t be summarized in one breath is Agemaki, who acts like a diplomat (well, more of a playboy, considering the sparklies and roses) but is actually a wimp who is terrified of spirits. We see this in action when he completely wins over Zakuro (DAMN, THAT GIRL IS EASY) and then faints at the sight of 2 demon pumpkinheads running around his feet. He plays it off, but after a conversation with Riken, his fear of spirits is confirmed.

After talking to Riken about trying hard to hold in his obvious fear, Zakuro enters his room with some medicine. She’s blushing and stuff, despite avidly hating humans just an hour beforehand. Agemaki freaks out when she comes too close, but once again plays it off with a corny line. I don’t know how she was impressed by that but…she was. Exit, stage right, Zakuro.

You’re…uhh…hot. Like the…sun.

Damn boy, you so smooth

As nighttime rolls around, Agemaki looks like he’s about to plan some sort of escape as he creeps out of his room. He is greeted by a series of different spirits, all of which he freaks out over and runs away. His escapades are fairly amusing, given his prettyboy act moments before. The icing on the cake is when he runs into Zakuro, suddenly embracing her. Is it love at long last? Nope, he needs to go to the outhouse and is too afraid to go alone. In moments, Zakuro’s image of Agemaki is shattered.

The next morning, all of the couples head out to go flower-viewing. Um, what? I guess it’s okay because some demon thunder dog appears out of nowhere and starts attacking. Agemaki bravely saves some squash babies, but then has to be saved by the spirit girl squad. Once again, we get to see the exorcism-type song. I kid you not, they pull sakura branches out of the mouth of the smaller spirits and use it for their dance. Zakuro’s branch turns into a sword. In a flash of awesome, Zakuro slays the beast with one strike.

After that, the show goes back to trying to be funny and interesting as they all laugh and picnic together. Little by little, the demons are getting closer to their human counterparts.

Kyokai: I was pretty wary of the whole youkai thing, because I like the genre in general. they just have to be creepy and interesting for me to notice, not that Zakuro has a lot of creepy ones

Overcooled: their idea of demons are cat ears and fangs -__-

Kyokai: Lollll. Oh btw, she’s not complete youkai – she’s half human and youkai

Overcooled: OH GREAT EVEN MORE CLICHE

Kyokai: I dunno how that happened but her and the twins are  kind of special. I think that elephant guy said something to that count. The story is nothing new, but I liked the characters for some reason. Somehow I loved watching Kei getting scared shitless XD All those expressions.

Overcooled :lol watching him get scared was amusing. But other than that, unless they go through development…I won’t be able to stand them for very long XD

Kyokai: I mean, with that pretty boy thing going for him, who would think he’d be a total wuss?

Overcooled: Mmm that’s true lol. it’s an interesting combination =O

Kyokai: Yosh, bishounen who is a scaredy-cat

Overcooled: Especially since he switches between the two so fast

Kyokai: Also, I always like the silent and tall types, like Riken. He’s sure not bishie but I liked him

Overcooled: =D he was so nice to..what’s her face…LOL…that shy girl

Kyokai: Kana Hanazawa

Overcooled:: See, I don’t even remember their names <_<

Kyokai: err…lol, I don’t either. I remember the seiyuu XD

Overcooled:: lulz

Kyokai: btw, I know someone who is crazy after Nakahara Mai

Overcooled: : reallly?

Kyokai: He goes to fangasm hearing her. Oh, and you know him too :3 A certain someone doing podcasts…Baku. The biggest Nakahara Mai fan

Overcooled: Ooh baku lollll I shall try to remember this. So overall did you like it? I’m starting to feel like I was harsh, but I’m pretty apathetic about the whole show

Kyokai: I was more optimistic

Overcooled:: it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. It’s in some sort of limbo for me. Mostly because the genre isn’t my thing, I guess.

Kyokai: It’s okay. Nothing special, but better than the series I’ve watched till now. I think I liked it more just because I was so disappointed with Star Driver. It being awful, watching this shoujo-funny one made me laugh

Overcooled: This is where my distaste for shoujo becomes apparent XD But I’m gonna admit the exorcism dance thing was pretty sweet

Kyokai: Also, character designs are good, seiyuu cast is solid…Seems like a fun series that would just make you smile

Overcooled: the animation was nice..

Kyokai: Don’t expect too much plotwise though. I think there would be new youkais to deal with every episode with character development. Everyone’s already paired up anyway

Overcooled: I hopppppe they develop. Especially the twins lol

Kyokai: I like guys in uniforms XD hahahaaa

Overcooled: lol

Kyokai: the twins just fawned over the lil guy. The first thing I said, when Zakuro appeared: neko mimi, moe~

Overcooled: if only it were black…black military uniforms are hawt.

Kyokai: Oh they are :3 But I think it was a good watch for me

Overcooled: I’ll watch the next episode, I guess…I feel empty inside watching it, and that’s not good lol

Kyokai: I look forward to more development in case of all characters. I would recommend this to those who like the magic/youkai genre with a mixture of rom-com

Extra Screencaps:

PIIIKKAAACHUUUU!!!

Ewwww that means it’s sticky…

“Hey can you do anything else demon-y?” “I can make my eyes disappear” “Nice.”

These two should be the main couple. >_<

Out of context this may be weird…don’t worry, it’s just an elephant trunk

End Thoughts:

Overcooled:: I don’t think I felt anything while watching this at all. It is a show that simply exists. It has a plot, but it’s the overdone “hey let’s put demons and humans together, it’ll be a riot~”…relying on those differences alone to carry along a story. Of course, the human is afraid of demons and the demon is overly cautious when it comes to humans. The other characters could almost be considered filler. I mean, all those twins do is fawn, giggle and hold hands…<_<

Please note that the only thing demon-like about them are “ears” (they have 2 pointy tips to their hair…think Tatsumi from Shiki, but less fluffy) and slightly sharp fangs. Other than that, they look like lame catgirls.

It’s pretty much just an uninspired rom-com…and I hate romance. <_< So it doesn’t help matters. I don’t want to be too cynical so I might watch a few more, but the more romance they add, the more I can’t see me watching this to end…or even past the 3rd episode. It does have some redeeming qualities like the art at times (I swear it keeps changing) and the interesting exorcism song/battle thing. Without the fight, I would be completely turned off by this. As for now, I’m just apathetic…Which still isn’t something I should feel when watching an anime. I WANT TO ENJOY MYSELF!! I’m sorry to fans of this show, but I won’t be doing episodics.

Kyokai: When you start with haunting song, something sure catches the ear. I sat down to watch this, having no expectations whatsoever. It surprised me with its humour that is not outright slapstick. Of course, I went Neko mimi, moe~ in Usui-style when Zakuro showed up. I didn’t know the shoujo air would be so pronounced (like Bakuman caught me off guard with that confession), when I was expecting some commando Youkai action. Not that there was none; the fight scenes are very well animated.

Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed this, especially the transition from action to comedy with a dash of blushing and bishounen swooning. I mean, Kei could really turn on the charm to even affect the guys but you would never expect him to be scared of spirits, right? Wrong! And that is what made it really funny. The outhouse scene was just epic:

This HAAAAAAAAH, was priceless!

I already know someone who fangirls over Nakahara Mai (Zakuro), our very own Bakuhasu from the DDD cast; he was the first one who actually pinged me to watch Zakuro, even when I had lukewarm impression of it while reviewing the fall line.

Cuteness of moe, you see?

Seiyuu cast is very important to me when I check out any animu because unknown names just don’t make it right unless you count something like the seiyuu for the main lead of The Girl Who Leapt though Time, Naka Riisa who shifted to doramas and movies full time than voice-acting. I definitely see the moe-cuteness of all females including, Kana Hanazawa (Susuki-asdasd-HAH?), whose voice is made for the silent types and meganekko. It sure helped that Kei is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai, who’s one of my favourite seiyuu and I’m beginning to like Satoshi Hino (Riken) too as he’s voicing Akigo in Bakuman (I sure loved him!). Who can forget Yuuki Kaji; all the Kuroshitsuji fangirls raise your hands for Finny!

So, this became a light-hearted treat for me after the biggest disappointment of fall. I will be watching the next two episodes to see if I would be continuing with this or not but currently both Overcooled and I are unable to make up our minds for doing episodics on this. Of course, there are so many shows to still air and I’ve already put complete dibs on two. Let’s see how things turn out but I’m definitely watching this space for more. ^^

Preview: Zakuro has her first mission and we learn a bit more about the character’s pasts…Yay. <_<