First Impression – Kyoukai no Rinne
“I see dead people”
There’s that job that isn’t too much of a problem, but you think “If I don’t do this now, I’ll never do it.” That’s kind of how this FI for Kyoukai no Rinne was for me. For whatever reason, it just kept falling through the cracks. But here it is now, and let’s see how the show started off!
Maybe You’ve Seen This Before?
Two of these things are not like the others
Kyoukai no Rinne is based on a manga by Rumiko Takahashi. Those of you who grew up with Cartoon Network might remember that she was also the creator of (among a hundred other things) another series where a half-human boy with supernatural powers befriended a human girl with somewhat supernatural powers, titled Inuyasha. Now, I’m no expert on Inuyasha (I’ve seen a few episodes) but Kyoukai no Rinne does give me a very familiar feel, from the older-style feeling characters to the supernatural setup. I’m sure if you started comparing the two, you’d find plenty of differences, but there are also the similarities.
Rinne and Sakura and a ghost with a crush
In this series, Sakura Mamiya is a girl who has been seeing ghosts since she was a little girl, and while it doesn’t really bother her, she kind of wonders 1) why she can see ghosts and 2) will it ever stop? She might want to go back to being a bit more ‘normal’, but it doesn’t look that’s happening. To be honest, I think I got this series confused with Re-Kan when I watched that show, so I thought that Amami in that show was the one who wanted to not be able to see ghosts anymore. But that’s a different FI. Sakura is a very pragmatic girl, interested in what’s going on around her, and her ability to see ghosts and spirits has inured her to a lot of panic about weird things happening. So when she sees the boy who is supposed to sit next to her in class finally show up after skipping for the first month of school, albeit in a weird coat and talking to a chihuahua spirit, she kind of figures out that he’s not a normal boy.
A Bit Chintzy
Someone’s gonna be startin’ rumors!
Rinne Rokudou is the boy who is the co-protagonist of the show, and is half-human, half-shinigami, and all cheap. Some of that’s not his fault, since to act as a Shinigami, he needs to use devices to do the things that a full shinigami would be able to do. That doesn’t change the fact that these are really cheap things, usually under 500 yen (5 dollars). And even worse, he keeps hitting up Sakura for money, literally nickle-and-diming her to use the spirit tin-can phone at one point. All of this is in the service of helping spirits give up their regrets and move on to the Rinne – the Wheel of Reincarnation.
Don’t call her ‘obaa-san’!
And while we don’t know how Rinne ended up like this, we do know thanks to episode two that his grandmother (“O-NE-E-san!!!”) is a shinigami. For what it’s worth, it looks like Sakura and Rinne are in it for the long haul, and there’s not a bad dynamic between the two. Sakura is credulous of what’s going on with Rinne, but not overly so, while Rinne’s deadpan style helps give the show a nice levity, while also giving Sakura some chances for Tsukkomi retorts.
Bonus Unrelated Shinigami
Brains Base has given this show a pretty good look, with the somewhat ‘retro’ character designs but in a modern style. The show moves at a pretty slow pace, but doesn’t feel particularly draggy. And of course, Marina Inoue gives a great performance as Sakura, with a voice that’s similar to Kana Minami, rather than the more imperious voice that she has for other characters like Yozora or Tsukiumi. Of course, Sakura isn’t the gigantic baka that Kana is. This show feels fairly shounen, but hasn’t gone to fighting yet, although Rinne has talked about a scythe. All in all, a fairly laid back show to watch.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This series has been really just okay so far. This does sort of remind me of pre-Inuyasha, like Takahashi just couldn’t get the right idea at first and so this was the rough draft of what would later become Inuyasha. Which is kind of weird since Inuyasha came out first, but that’s just what it feels like.
I enjoyed Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 as some of my first anime series( I read every chapter of Inuyasha and saw every episode of that incredibly long series. 😛 ), but I do feel like I’ve outgrown them now, and they both were pretty long and tedious. 🙂 This series won’t be nearly as long, so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing considering how Takahashi writes.
I have never read the manga, and know nothing about this series other than these two episodes. And yet I think I can guess some of the key plot points just from what I’ve seen so far.
Let me see:
Rinne is actually only half Shinigami and half human and thus why he can be in both worlds. He more than likely has an older half brother that’s a whole Shinigami and hates his guts. (I think we see someone fighting Rinne who looks a lot like him in the opening.) And of course there is Sakura who out of weird convenience can see spirits and therefore allows her to join the male in his supernatural adventures. Also, there’s a little
foxcat spirit that’s going to hang around with them, a guy who looks like he’s good with spirits and the ladies, and a girl who is also a warrior fighter against spirits (both seen in the opening)are going to become friends with them too.Am I close? -_-
No joke, this really does feel like Inuyasha 0.5. Watching the first episode, I wasn’t sure, but by the second it seems a bit more obvious now.
This show really does have a 90s feel. The characters, the formula, everything. Hopefully they left behind the female/male MC character bickering and the long overdrawn love triangles. 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
The child of Sesshoumaru and Rin? 😛
I will waaaaaaaaaaait and see and probably never pick this up.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
More like he’s Inuyasha lite, without the explosive personality.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
We’ll see how they do with it. I’m sure it could have a long run as a ‘Monster / Ghost of the week’ format. But for now we have 25 shows, not the 167 that Inuyasha had (in just the first series) and we can see if they have any sort of character arc. I don’t know if I’ll really care, tho, since I think some shows are fine without the big character arcs (That’s what turned me off of The X-Files in the 90’s, although you could argue that the overarching plot arc was just stupid).
There are plenty of shows that are lots of fun to watch just as Adventure of the Week.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Manga readers have warned the current story has settled into a “ghost-of-the-week” format, with no overarching plot or end goal at all. In short, like a longrunning Sunday newspaper cartoon.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
That’s basically Takahashi’s calling card. Inuyasha did have and overarching plot, but it was largely bloated with monster/demon-of-the-week stuff. Ranma was the same way, but battle/fight-of-the-week instead. It’s pretty tedious stuff if you’re not prepared for it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Inuyasha bloated mid-way with the occasional plot development. Sesshoumaru FTW!
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
OMG Sesshi was my very first anime crush. 😀 He was the reason I got interested in Inuyasha in the first place which got me into mainstream anime. (Before then, all I was watching was Yu-gi-oh, which was big at the time too.)
It was also funny that when I first saw him, it was a picture from the manga that a friend of mine had, and I thought he was a woman. I of course wasn’t used to I could anime bishies and how feminine they can look at times. When I saw him in the anime though, it was a totally different story. ^_~
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
And despite her weaknesses in plot, she’s still the richest mangaka in Japan. I wonder why.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Make umpteen successful stories, and there you go. It only takes one to be fairly rich. And most people let it go after one or two. She’s up to, what, 6 really successful series?
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Same applies to all long running series.
Like say… some particular series yhat resurrected all past foes as zombies…
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Brains Base has given this show a pretty good look, with the somewhat ‘retro’ character designs but in a modern style.
Speaking of which, I hear Takahashi tends to be rather old-school in her manga stories. For example, I heard that when she was penning Inuyasha, she turned a planned female villian into a gay male villian because she “couldn’t bear the idea of Inuyasha hitting a girl”.
Nowadays you get characters like Kamijou Touma who punch (evil) girls to save the world… (~_~)
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Hey, you want equality, sometimes you get punched. And granted, Touma’s pretty much a one-trick pony: all he’s got is punching people.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…he does have incredible misfortune..
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
That’s just teen angst. He is one of the luckiest guys ever.
(Seriously, his constant whinging about “Oh such misfortune” took one of the few characters that was not annoying and made him almost as annoying as the rest. Suck it up and deal, candy-ass)
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I’d like to hear what you’d say were you in his place. 😉
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Oh I remember that guy, that was Jakotsu, right? One of Naraku’s many minions? They never outright state that he’s gay in at least the dubbed version, but it’s implied. Especially when they confuse him with a woman when they first meet him.
This is actually funny since Inuyasha fought against female villains as well, like Kagura, who later was a darker antihero. And there were others, I’m not sure what the problem was.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Some musings on Takahashi and Inuyasha:
After rewatching some of the 1st anime series, there were certain things she got right and wrong.
The right: Down to earth historical fantasy designs that aren’t too over-the-top or anachronistic. I always loved the designs for Sesshomaru’s armoured kimono and Naraku’s flowing purple and gold-patterned kimono.
Also pretty good for laugh out loud humour, especially in the anime-original episodes.
The wrong: Overuse of Naraku. I still think Takahashi should have killed him off and introduced new villian groups to fight; groups with even more sinister ambitions for the Jewel (maybe a touch of human sacrifice ala the latest Fate episode?)
Also, missed story opportunities to explore characters like Sesshomaru in greater emotional depth, and fully explain the past of him and Inuyasha. Other mangaka would’ve taken the opportunity to do flashback arcs or spinoff manga explaining the character’s past. Perhaps even follow Yona’s mangaka and devote arcs to side character development (ie. Koga).
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Sess-sama~~ we love you~~ Sess-sama, Defender of LOLis.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Ah yes, Sesshi-sama, the greatest defender of lolis around (sorry, skylion. 😛 )
His and Rin’s connection was my favorite within the entire saga. I never saw them being romantically involved as some others did, I saw them more as big brother/little sister or father/daughter. He wordlessly cares for her despite his supposed hatred of humans, and she is every loyal to him.
And woe be to any who even think to harm her. O_O
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, I never followed the franchise, and I don’t have the habit of envy of fictional characters… 😉
POWUH: iLurker with 7 comments
Takahashi was aiming this at a younger audience than Fate, so don’t be surprised if you don’t find it as dark and moody. Frankly I find both Fate and Rinne pretty uninspired for their respective target audiences.
Ultimately Rinne is just a simple story about a poor kid who never gets a break, because the light comedy gods need a good butt-monkey to entertain them.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
The Church is unimpressed with your lack of faith. We shall remedy that. Father Kirei, what is your suggestion?
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 37 comments
I’ve been keeping up with the manga and am quite enjoying this adaption so far- it’s faithful but modernized to a degree, enough to draw in the new generation without taking away the nostalgia for older folks like myself. Since it’s only listed at 25 episodes at the moments, I’m hoping Brains Base will cut down on the endless silliness and choose to flesh out the more relevant arcs instead. I like Takahashi’s comedy, but it’s always been the emotional/plot-filled moments that pulled me in close. Given the set up, I definitely think the story components are being underutilized, so here’s hoping the anime pulls through on that end.
Overall though, I think this will end up being a nice casual show for me to relax and enjoy without worrying too much about the drama and depression that comes along with most of the anime in my queue.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I’m one of the numbers who grew up with Cartoon Network so, yes; I can definitely feel the Inuyasha vibes just looking at Kyoukai no Rinne. Not just by character designs but by the choice of coloring for everything used, especially the shade of Sakura’s hair in particular. Also the supernatural world with various creatures, some that seem familiar. They’re not even trying to hide the similarities. I didn’t get to watch a lot of Inuyasha but enjoyed what did get to see as it was one of many series that got me into anime.
An acceptable pass. Seeing this is a confirmed two-cour, it’ll take some time to get anything moving. Like the author has done with her previous series, it’s a fair bet Rinne is a half-blood reaper. Humans in anime sure love to mix things up with other species. The way he has to ask for money in order to accomplish things is rather pitiful and crying blood, disturbing. What I can already see becoming a pet peeve is the grandmother. Hello, if you have a grandchild, there’s no denying you’re up there in age. Plus I’m sure she’s got a couple hundred years on her before Rinne was even born.