TV Show Review - Blue Exorcist (Seasons 1-2)

 

Its been what feels like a long time since I last reviewed an anime series. So I felt it was time to do another one seeing as yesterday's film review was inspired by anime in a way. I've seen a lot of anime as some of you long time followers of mine will know and many of them I have watched recently on the likes of Netflix, Prime Video, Crunchyroll and Funimation. I've even got an all-time favourite list of a few that I like. Now with Blue Exorcist, I watched the first season a few years ago and thought it was alright. But now that there is another season for it, I felt it was time to finally review it because well, horror stuff like this has always been quite interesting. So let's take a look:

Season 1

The series, at large, focuses on Rin Okumura (voiced by Bryce Papenbrook) who is the son of Satan and as such, gets forced into fights and basically just has a very troubled life. Rin soon learns of this, having been unaware of such things, and manages to unlock his hidden demon powers. With demons trying to take him down, he enlists himself into becoming an Exorcist, so he can defeat his father. Just as a new threat to the world emerges. One thing I always like with most anime shows is how it spends time developing the characters, and I really like the humour that goes with that. It sort of shows that it's not all completely serious, and Blue Exorcist does a reasonable job of this. All the characters are wonderful to look at, each with their own personality and also reason to do what they do. 9/10

Season 2

So just to make things a bit confusing, Season 2 is presented as an alternative chain of events after episode 17 of the first season. In a way, it kind of moves away from the manga, but sometimes this is a good thing. So Rin's secret is out and he and his classmates set out to find the "Left Eye of the Impure King". Demons are wanting to revive the Impure King and cause mass damage to humans and the world at large, so it's up to Rin and the other Exorcists to prevent this from happening. As it's happening, Rin's classmate Ryuji (voiced by Kyle Herbert) learns some things about his father and his heritage. Among other things happening too. It's interesting how the second series didn't come about until quite a few years later after the end of the first series. For what it is, I can sort of see why it's treated more as an alternative chain of events than an actual series that is set after its previous series. Still doesn't make sense, but there are a lot of intense battles, character development and fun to be had. The actual main antagonist of this season does remind me of recent events in a way, too. 8/10

It's an interesting series, but it's good that exorcisms can now be seen in other forms of media besides that one very well known horror film. It's got good animation, great characters and some good story arcs. Hoping we see more of this show in the future. 8/19