First Impression – Ao no Exorcist

It’s here, it’s blue, and it is AWESOME~

Hoshi: Have my eyes deceived me? I literally have been waiting for this since the announcement first appeared. It has been MONTHS that I’ve been on the edge of my seat, waiting for this glorious anime to finally premiere which left me to agonizingly count the very days left. But now, after tantalizing streaming ads and promos, it. is. HERE. After rolling on the floor in intense excitement (don’t ask), it’s time to present one of the most anticipated animes of the season!

Kyokai: OMG. It’s here. It’s finally here! I have been waiting for this anime since I caught up to the manga. From the pilot run (The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident) to the real serialization, I have followed the progress of Katou Kazue and have liked the pacing of Ao no Exorcist till now. Of course, the premise is nothing new but it has some twists of its own and the characters are what make it golden.

Hoshi:  And what sort of characters make it golden? Well one is our main protagonist, Rin Okumura, who is first seen after punching a kid in the face for some unknown reason. He winds up in a confessional, giving his excuses to the exorcist, and also his guardian, Shiro.

And you thought all priests were calm…

After Rin gets a firm scolding from getting fired from yet another job, we are introduced to his younger twin brother Yukio, the more studious one with great grades and an incoming high school student at True Cross Academy. He ends up treating his older brother’s wounds, and is told the reason why Rin ended up in a fight.

Suddenly two guys from the abbey come in with a part time job offer at a mall (or market, really). They even have called in for an interview and lend him a suit and shoes. He has no choice but to go to the interview, where the manager already has a difficult task for him to complete.

Just as Rin thinks he’s finally finished, he trips and the last box flys out of his hands, and onto the manager. Thus begins a series of disheartening mistakes that nearly cost him the prospect of getting this job. In one last attempt, Rin manages to create a tasty dish that attracts customers. The manager tries it and finally gives him the job.

After giving the good news to everyone at the abbey, he comes upon a little girl, who was at the church earlier, chasing after her scarf. Rin manages to grab hold of it, but he suddenly realizes a small creature is hanging on the end. It manages to get free and runs into the market with Rin chasing after it. The creature lands on tall stack of boxes by the little girl, which causes them to collapse on top of her. Rin tries to protect her, but she still ends up getting injured.

It becomes late in the evening and Rin still hasn’t come back from work. The boys of the abbey decide to look for him, and Yukio ends up finding him sitting on a swing set, where Rin also tells him that he got fired. They head back to the abbey and there at the door is the little girl’s, Yui’s, father who was waiting to thank him for saving her.

The next morning, Rin wakes up to see tons of small, black creatures floating around outside. However, it seems that no one even notices them, and to top if off, the guy he punched the day before comes by to talk to him, and has a lot of the black creatures hovering over him for some reason.

It turns out the guy only wanted to pay Rin to keep him quiet about the whole incident, but being our diligent hero, he refuses. The guy takes it a step too far though and starts insulting Yukio, which causes Rin to punch him again. But now it seems even Rin stepped over the line as the guy suddenly transforms into demon The guy’s friends, unable to see the changes Rin sees, hold him down as the other gets a hot pipe to burn him with.

As he gets close, Rin lets out a yell and suddenly blue flames explode from him. The guy, now demon, tells him that they are a sign of the Devil’s offspring, and he holds out his hand to Rin. Yet before Rin can do anything, Shiro makes his sudden appearance. He takes down the guy and exorcises the demon from him.

Figuring out Rin can now see them, Shiro tells them that black creatures are Coal Tar, which hang onto dust and gather around evil humans and dark places. He then tells of two dimensions that face each other, our world being called Assiah, and the other, the world of nothingness of demons, Gehenna. They are separate worlds that shouldn’t be interacting with each other, but they, the demons, start possessing the material things of our world and interact. Now with this incident with the guy, they have apparently found out who Rin is, and will now hunt him down. Confused, Rin asks what he is. Shiro says that he is not human, that he is the child of a demon born of a human. Not any demon though, Rin is in fact Satan’s child. (-inserts dramatic music-)~

 

Kyokai: Hiroyuki Sawano has done the music and yes he doesn’t have a lot of work to show. I could only pick at Sengoku Basara and yes, I loved JAP by Abingdon Boys School, but I didn’t much expect from music. The only thing I can say though is that BGM is better than the ED. And I can only hope that UVERworld’s “Core Pride” OP lives up to its expectation to air next episode.

Hoshi: Being an anime and Kpop fan, seeing Kpop artists take over enter the Japanese music market is quite exciting, and even more exciting when it’s now possible that they’re original Japanese songs can be anime openings and endings. BUT, I guess I was wishing too broadly and ended up having my most hated Kpop group, 2PM (sorry to all you 2PM fans out there) sing the Ending song to my most anticipated anime of the season. Talk about bittersweet! I’m not even going to dare myself to catch even a note of that song (it’s a fangirl pride thing; I know it’s incredibly silly) but animation wise, I do have to say…I enjoyed it a bit. While it is a bit plain with just the viewer being taken on what seems like a ride through the city, I did like how they added in the characters on screens to the side. Hopefully the OP is a lot more exciting. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll actually listen to the ED song, but as of now, my Kpop fangirl side says ‘No’ with a fiery background to it.

Kyokai:

  • Coming from the Director of Darker than Black and Wolf’s Rain, Tensai Okamura can actually be a tensai of adaptations. I already have high hopes for this anime. Even after being up to date with manga, the first episode did not feel like right off the manga. The anime holds its own pacing and I’m liking what I’m seeing.
  • Ryouta Yamaguchi has done the series composition, with a known record Cowboy Bebop, One Piece and Ranma ½ are just to name a few. If you get that shounen, action feel coming from this guy, you are spot on.

Hoshi: I’m not very big on voice actors unless it’s you know, Hiroshi Kamiya, because he’s the only seiyuu I was actually not so lazy to check out, so Kyokai has helped out on giving this list. I have to say, there are some great seiyuus working on Ao no Exorcist! A lot of them have turned out to have some pretty notable roles that I didn’t even know about, which further shows my lack of seiyuu knowledge. As for the characters revealed in this first episode, their voices to do sync well with their characters, so I have high hopes for the rest of the character voices who have yet to be revealed~.

  • Rin Okumura – Main protagonist & son of Satan: Voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto (Eiji from Bakuman, Usui from Maid-sama!, need I say more?)
  • Yukio Okumura – Main protagonist, Rin’s twin brother & an Exorcist: Voiced by Jun Fukuyama (Please, how can you NOT know?)
  • Shirō Fujimoto – Guardian of Rin and Yukio: Voiced by Keiji Fujiwara (Russo from Baccano!, Hughes from FMA, Village Chief from Arakawa…wait, WHAT? REALLY?)
  • Not revealed yet:
    • Mephisto Pheles – Voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya (Oh, I can hear the fangirl screams already, mine being one of them of course~)
    • Shiemi Moriyama – Voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Oh, I can hear the fanboy grunts already…)
    • Ryūji Suguro – Voiced byKazuya Nakai (Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara and tons more notable roles I can’t even count)
    • Konekomaru Miwa – Voiced by Yuuki Kaji (Oh hey! Finny from Kuroshitsuji, Walker from Durarara!!, Akina from Yozakura Quartet)
    • Renzō Shima – Voiced by Koji Yusa (Lau from Kuroshitsuji, Iku from Starry Sky; not many big roles from this guy yet)
    • Shura Kirigakure – Voiced by Rina Satou (Mikoto from Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, Negi from Negima!)
    • Izumo Kamiki – Voiced by Eri Kitamura (Sayaka from Maho Shojo Madoka Magica, Saya from Blood+)
    • Igor Neuhaus – Voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu (Oh man, this guy has been around for a long time! So many old anime and lead castings I can’t even…!)
    • Amaimon – Voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara (Simon from Gurren Lagann, Tomoe from Kara no Kyokai movie series, which I’m mentioning because we all know why, heh) – Kyo-approved :3

End Thoughts:

Hoshi: A-1 YOU HAVE REDEEMED YOURSELVES. Mother freaking redeemed yourselves; Oh I cannot contain my excitement! I was extremely worried about A-1 handling Ao no Exorcist after the fail that was Togainu no Chi, but oh man my worries have basically flown out the window. Never have I in my entire Anime-watching career have I ever said that an anime’s first episode was one of the best…until today. I may be extraordinarily biased because I absolutely love the manga, but how can you not at least say that this has been one of the best first episodes? The animation is just amazing, stunning to me, really. Dare I say it’s even better than Kuroshitsuji’s! (/shot by my own conscious). They kept the character designs well, and the amazing seiyuus, of course, fit them perfectly, though I did imagine Rin’s voice to be a little less deep. I have high hopes for the battle scenes, which I’m hoping will come soon. I also loved the opening sequence with the priests and the first appearance of the blue flames. It was immensely entertaining.

For some reason, I find Rin a lot more sexy than Yukio in the anime. I mean, when I was reading the manga, I went, “MEGANE SPOTTED. INSTANT FAVORITE”. Yet, now that they’re all animated and moving around, I’ve grown a sudden attraction to Rin. I’m not sure if it’s that body and those clothes or that fiery temper but man, Rin is now my favorite boy of the spring season. We shall see how this goes once I see Yukio in his exorcist outfit, heheheh.

I don’t feel like I can really judge the pacing on the anime compared to the manga juuust yet, but this first episode actually ended well with that bomb of “You are Satan’s child!”. I expected them to fit it all into the first episode, but instead they added the scenes with him at the market, which I actually didn’t mind. It was pretty entertaining, and added on to my sudden attraction for Rin. So far, Ao no Exorcist definitely doesn’t disappoint, and while I think this first episode is great, I know for sure next week’s episode will be even better because we’ll get more action as Satan is possibly introduced, and we’ll hear Hiroshi Kamiya as freaking Mephisto!

Anaaga: Man, I love Ao no Exorcist. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the manga (like, four months ago or so), so I’m a little bit hazy about it. In fact, I don’t think I remember a lot about it. So I can’t really compare the anime from the manga right now, but so far I’m loving the first episode. It’s just awesome! The good characters are, so far, likeable. Nobody here pisses me off, which is interesting since I have the tendency to hate characters easily. The one I love the most is Rin, of course. I have a feeling that he will be the one character that will develop the most as the anime progresses. Oh, and let’s not forget Yukio too. I’m pretty sure he’s going to develop too, but I don’t think he’s going to develop as much as Rin will do in the future. Besides, I CAN MAKE A YAOI PAIRING OUT OF THOSE TWO! In the church *nosebleed*…*cough* EHM, the story is also nice. I’m into religions and stuff like that, so the story caught my interests.

And did I mention that the background music for every scene is AWESOME?? I mean, seriously! The violin sounds soooo smooth and perfect, I can actually watch the anime again and again just for the sake of the music. I would love to get the music sheet of it so I can practice it with my violin. I’m so taking the OST of this anime. But too bad the singer of the ED is 2PM. 2PM < ANYTHING.  Anyhow, Ao no Exorcist looks pretty awesome to me, and it’s in my Must-Watch list of Anime Spring.

Foshizzel: Whoa! This was a lot of fun to watch kind of wish I had a opening song but that will be next week. Rin’s character is interesting kind of the “troublemaker” always getting into random fights and generally has very poor luck, I had to laugh a bit during his job at the store LOL such misfortune. Then you have Yukio his brother the total opposite as Rin, kind of reminds me of my brother, I tend to be random and crazy while he is more normal I guess.

Animation was awesome! A1 Pictures always does great work anyway for me, the background artwork also amazing. Still waiting to see what the fights are going to be like animated, I said similar things about Yumekui Merry looking great but turned out to have horrible fight animation. A few people have already compared this to Full Metal Alchemist, I can see that in this with the brothers especially. While Rin is the “Edward” and Yukio as “Alphonse” character. Will have to watch this!So far I was impressed with this first episode, can’t wait to find out more about Rin and his father! Next week looks like we are getting some action and fighting. Damn that blue fire was nice! Anyway thanks for reading! Stay tuned to more spring anime on Metanorn.

Hime: HHHNNNNNGGGG…..DAT VOICE. DEM MOLES. THAT BROTHERLY LOVE. Oooooh Yukio’s going to be my BBF this season, I can just tell. It’s criminal that Jun Fukuyama isn’t in more this season. There was a time when he was everywhere, and I needed an oxygen mask to just get through the day. But I digress, Rin is the hero of Blue Exorcist and damn if he ain’t a sweet one, too. I love the interactions between him and the Father,Yukio and the rest of the cast. Rin has such a great personality, it’s really enjoyable to watch. He really reminds me of Oga from Beelzebub; tough guy exterior with a heart of gold.

While the humour is a bit hit and miss, the real downside was the animation. Aside from the bad CGI towards the end it was very standard. Once we really start getting into the meat of the story I hope it will ramp up, cause I really like the style itself. I love demons/exorcists and everything ghostly, and it made me laugh but the exorcisms are exactly like the ones in Supernatural. The ED song is also really catchy and fun, I can’t wait to see the OP.

One of the most anticipated animes of the Spring seasons lives up to the hype in this first episode IMO.

Kyokai: After a long wait, I finally get an anime that had no disappointing factors. Well, except for the 2PM thing but I’ll let that slide. When you have good manga art, you always become anxious about the adaptation and how your favourite characters would look. Being all caught up in the story and knowing almost everyone on screen has its pitfalls of the plot being boring (something that I faced in Bakuman), but not for Ao-ex. I have been mildly surprised with how the first episode was so tightly paced. You can’t pinpoint one place where it slowed or had any kind of flaw.

Character portrayal has been brilliant and it seems like Nobuhiko Okamoto was born to voice Rin, while Fukuyama Jun for Yukio (it’s not like they don’t have too many memorable roles on their belt too, Accelerator/ Usui/Tohru/Yumeji for Nobuhiko, while FukuJun for Lelouch/ Shinra/ Lawrence/ Grell/ Kimihiro). Fujiwara Keiji has done a brilliant yet spunky father-voice, just as expected. I think I fangirled during the watch like anything and the reason for me to dish out the above graphics. I went on a squee trip. xD

Overall, I loved what I saw and A-1 Pictures has done another good job of adaptation. I would love it if this remains consistent because then a second season would be a total breeze. What to expect next? LOADS OF AWESOMENESS! Ja ne~

Preview:

Shiro and Rin haven’t escaped from demon clutches yet! It looks like a battle is up along with the intense reappearance of Rin’s blue flames…and a sword? Plus, who is this new odd-looking, suspicious character? Until next week folks~!

About

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
Blinklist BlogMarks Delicious Digg Diigo FaceBook Google MySpace Netvibes Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Twitter

59 Responses to “First Impression – Ao no Exorcist”

  1. Ryo_kun says:

    Been waiting for this since last year and it really lived up to my expectations. The premise is cool and the graphics – stunning. Definitely gonna continue watching this. xD

    • Foshizzel says:

      Same here was expecting great things and was happy with what I Saw! Amazing details I love that damn blue fire so bad ass 😛

  2. Alynn says:

    THIS WAS SO GOODDD OMG. DYING SO HARDDD.
    Loved the images you guys used for this post! THEY ARE ALL SO PRETTY!

    – I thought I recognized that artist for the ED, except I got confused because I didn’t know they sang in Japanese! Haha.

    fffffff I’m starving for the next episode.

    • Foshizzel says:

      I shall join you! Dying hard brb xD

      Yeah I am not to familiar with the ending band, hopefully that OP is great! Hopefully it’s something like a rock group?

      SAME NEED MORE.

  3. Carla says:

    *w*
    When I saw this season’s anime, I felt disappointed.
    But now I’m a lot more hopeful :3

    • Foshizzel says:

      Yep! I was the same until I actually saw a few of the shows now I have roughly eight to nine shows that I am following for spring.

      This will probably make everyones top five easily, depending on how things go with the plot and action.

  4. anaaga says:

    I think the anime starts is better than the manga. the manga is so fast-paced. it’s like, the first chapter and BAM all kind of things happened >.<

    • anaaga says:

      Also, I hate 2PM. HATEHATEHATEHATEHATEHATE

      • Hoshi says:

        ~YES, HATE WITH SUCH A FIERY PASSION.

        I think we should form the Metanorn divison of the 2PM Hate Club.

      • Namika says:

        It’s the first time I heard them, but that was pretty pathetic ==”
        The main…. conceptI think of the song was interesting, but they didn’t make it…… so the song was……plain….boring.

        =3= chuuuu

      • Overcooled says:

        Really? 2PM sounds good to me~ owo

      • Foshizzel says:

        So much hate! Anyway I am not a fan of Kpop anyway but I won’t bash someones taste in music! Listen to whatever you like xD

        You can do what me and my brother do, we mute the music and use our own music hahah sometimes you find random songs match perfectly with the visuals lmao.

        • Namika says:

          Yeah, that’s really interesting sometimes. I had a similar issue with the opening of Gosick and TTGL opening’s song. It fit perfectly O_O

  5. Metalsnakezero says:

    Nothing too interesting but it is a nice opening to what will be a cool show. Fathers never been so awesome since any action series involving the church.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Pries characters in anime tend to always be awesome! Like the one in Soul eater with the earphones and then you have the priest guy in Hellsing! So awesome. There are a few others but I don’t want to list them all hahaha.

  6. Junko says:

    I’ve been waiting on this one since the adds started popping up in my FABULOUS STAR DRIVER episodes. Liking it.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Hell ya! I think everyone was waiting on this to come out, hopefully they can keep things going.

      KIRABOSHI! <3 Gaaah loved Star driver.

  7. BlackBriar says:

    Awesome anime!! I don’t mind that it’s off to a slow start. Rin is a badass character and so is his voice actor: Nobuhiko Okamoto, the voice for the equally badass character Accelerator from Toaru Majutsu no Index and Index II. I’ve got my list of anime to watch this season: Ao no Exorcist, C The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Deadman Wonderland and Hidan no Aria.

    Toward the end of the episode, Rin’s priest guardian bears an uncanny resemblance to Hellsing’s Father Alexander Anderson. They even have the same awesome smile. Maybe they’re distant relatives.

    • Namika says:

      Well, I haven’t read the manga, but I think that this episode can’t be considered as slow >.>

    • Foshizzel says:

      Rin is indeed badass! I will always be thinking Accelerator thou hahah sorry IndexII fans >.>

      Good list of shows!

      YES I was telling my brother the same thing! Then again priest characters in anime always turn out to be damn cool to watch.

  8. cassi says:

    I’ve already watched the episode twice. The Voice cast for this anime is simply awesome.

  9. Kyokai says:

    Forgot to mention above, those moles of Yukio are even more pronounced in anime and he looks so kawaiiiii~ I will be fangirling these two boys just too much. >///<

  10. Hato-kun says:

    So is this any good? Haven’t really felt any desire to watch it…

    …Maybe I should. I might get killed if I don’t.

  11. Renn says:

    This was way better than I thought it would be. I was expecting standard shounen fare, and I got it but with really great execution. Gah, I loved this episode almost as much as Tiger & Bunny’s first episode. 😀

    The ED for this episode is such a joke, haha. I can’t wait to see the OP though–classic shounen openings with a flood of crazy characters have a lot of rewatch value for me. :3

    • cassi says:

      So true! If there was one nitpick than it was the boring ED.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Yep should be a very addictive show, hopefully they can continue to keep the action flowing for us.

      Yeah I gotta get to Tiger and Bunny I didn’t like the CGI, but why not I can try again.

      OP should be great! Unless they go with more Kpop? LOL anyway hope we get something awesome.

  12. Amutofan123 says:

    Looks awesome! I need to find some time to watch it. Along with other spring anime that I need to watch… But… hehe… Jun Fukuyama… hehehe… megane… *fangirl sqeal*

    • Foshizzel says:

      Hopefully you get some time to watch! Hahaha this was my number one pick for most wanted well wanted for watching xD

  13. MikADo says:

    ITS HEREEEEEE but it sure is having a slowwww plot development 😛 episode 1 should have finished with the Satan thing on the priest :3 oh and quite surprised that 2PM did the ending song XD yunha works for me but 2PM on anime songs? idk…

    • Foshizzel says:

      True! But all good things take a while to get started, would have been boring if the first five mins were “you are the son of Satan”

      Ending song was weird! However I am not a huge fan of ending songs anyway.

  14. Namika says:

    KITA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~ I can’t stop fangirling over this, I just can’t!
    Rin is the sweetest main hero I’ve seen(in a shonen anime, though ^^”)!! I kept “Daaaaaw”-ing and “Kawaiii~”-ing throughout the whole episode xD But still, my favorite is Yukio. Just…. look at him! He has THREE MOLES on his face, and it looks adorable~! megane dork fetish

    Oh, the BGM was amazing! I instantly fell in love with it, starting from the first scene. I’m definitely getting the OST album *,*
    No complaints so far. Except for – I want the next episode! Now!!

    • Foshizzel says:

      HAhahah no worries! Fangirl all day 😀

      Rin is very cool, the girls will love the male designs! You can tell that is really the target they are aiming for.

      Yeah OST should be good can’t wait!

      • Namika says:

        I think I already calmed down a bit. But still, I will fangirl over this show ’till it’s end. I get a gut feeling, that I will. They’ve hit the spot with the characters, 80% of watchers will fall in love with every single one. Okay, maybe that’s a bit too much, but still xD

        The OST will be out in June. THAT’S TOO LONG FOR ME!!! >_<"

  15. Moni Chan says:

    i remeber when i was reading the manga. one chapter was 6o something pages depending. i havent watched the episode yet, from the looks of it the whole show has a lot of AWESOME SAUCE. the ending sucks kuz a k-pop boy band worked so hard on it ( havent listen to it ) i is a big fan of 2PM even though i cant match the names with the persons

    • Foshizzel says:

      I remember small pieces of the manga, I read it man I don’t even remember anymore? A year ago? hahaha.

      Yeah most people are hating on the ending song, I will just mute mine and play my own music XD

  16. Reaper says:

    With the seiyu cast, how could Ao no Exorcist fail? Don’t think the OP was in the first ep but if it was what was playing in the sponsors announcement, I will be a very happy fan 🙂
    The hype for it had be for a reason, and when I found out Tensai Okamura was directing this (a la just now), I’m now completely set on this because DtB is one of my favourite anime. If only Hei could just drop on a demon and electrocute one in Ao no Exorcist just for any kind of announcement of DtB3, i would be stoked.
    Expecting great things from Ao no Exorcist, don’t fail me now!

    • Foshizzel says:

      Amazing voice cast so far, they are going all out with high animation,music and voice work.

      Oh? Nice I loved all of DtB so good! Agreed hope we can get great things from Exorcist.

  17. Amutofan123 says:

    Okay, so I finally watched the episode and IT WAS AWESOME!!! Oh my gosh, Rin is sooo cute! I want to take both him and Yukio home~ Wow, I can’t wait for more. 😀

    • Foshizzel says:

      YAYYYYYYYYY!!

      Hahah all the guys will be taken home by you xD I like those character designs.

      Yep we all want more!

  18. Kuroneko says:

    I`ve been reading Ao no Exorcist for a year or so… And I LOVED this episode. I don`t know why, but Rin looked so cute! And his seiyuu is pretty good, too~ I think everyone wants to take Rin home XD.

  19. Ranma says:

    […] original post here: First Impression – Ao no Exorcist – METANORN Comments […]

  20. Yvoon says:

    yes!!

    its finally here!!

    i’ve been waiting SO LONG for this to come out!! XD

    thank you!! ^^

Leave a Reply to Namika