I must say: whoever designed the magical academy and especially its buildings did a mighty fine job. Everything looks grand, but beyond that there’s also a lot of creativity put in the different buildings. It’s also really well detailed.
Now, I did find it a bit far-fetched that Yukio turned out to not only be a genius exorcist at the age of fifteen, but also an actual teacher already. It’s in any case rather strange for him to wait until downright appearing in front of his class to reveal all of this, involving the rest of his classmates who should have nothing to do with him at this point.
The first half overall wasn’t really that interesting: it was just your average introduction. Then the second half came, and the brothers actually got to talk to each other, and it really made up for that. The creators of course had to make it exciting by suddenly unleashing a herd of random goblins on the characters, but that gave it a really nice charm. It’s been established by now that this is a pure shounen series, and considering that it does a very good job.
The main characters’ reason for trying to become stronger: again it’s typical shounen to put so much emphasis on this, but his reasons aren’t for revenge, trying to become the best, or trying to save a girl he likes, and instead everything here comes back to his father: wanting nobody else to die because of him. On top of that, the creators also used his brother to give the same reason. It’s actually a very good motivation, and I especially liked how this episode kept tugging at the relationship between the two brothers.
Rating: * (Good)
I haven’t seen the episode yet (waiting for the US stream on Wednesday) but I’ve seen some other manga readers say that they changed Rin and Yukio’s meeting. Quoting from the AS forums: “they change the event in flashback and also the scene in classroom. Yukio ordered the students to move outside for he wants to talk with Rin. Bon was irritated in it too. But in the manga that didn’t happen. Rin questions Yukio while lecturing which ended up dropping the test tube that results in hobgoblins to show up even if the students are still in the classroom .” The way it played out in the manga made sense so I wonder why it sounds like they changed it…
Well, discussing their heritage around a bunch of strangers probably isn’t a good idea; that’s why they changed it, I guess.
@Wandering-dreamer: that wasn’t even the biggest change, in the manga we see a fLashback showing how Yukio used to be bullied and was protected by Rin, which is why he wanted to protect Rin in return by becoming and exorcist.
I guess they wanted to make Yukio cooler? I have no idea…
(I will now go back to lurking).
They’re doing a fine job toning down the cheese from the manga. As I said, I hope the manga continues with these changes.
The Academy is like Dumbledore and Shinigami made a joint project to combine Hogwarts and Shibusen.
@Lirael: I heard about those changes as well, wonder why they didn’t just keep those things in, pacing?
Yukio being so badass kinda makes since when he said thier father was the best. he kept satan at bay and protected the son of satan for many years. you don’t just hand a job like that to a rookie. loved the emotion and play out between the brothers. i have alot of brothers so i can relate.
“Now, I did find it a bit far-fetched that Yukio turned out to not only be a genius exorcist at the age of fifteen, but also an actual teacher already.”
This series has lots of flaws and Yuko beeing trained as an Exorcist since he was seven without Rin knowing everything about it, is one of this flaws. At least it makes me wonder how close they really were. How can you hide such a thing from your twin brother?
By the way: I like the music. The creators sure know how to make a dramatic scene work well.
Really enjoyed this episodes various parts with the fun if standard introduction of the school and the great execution of the mood and talk between the brothers.
Agreed, Bruce, as Yukio’s character kind of alluded to by telling them to wait outside, I too think they changed it because in anime form it would come off much harder to believe that the other kids didn’t hear the truth about their heritage which is something that Mephisto specifically warned Rin against for obvious reasons.
@Lirael: Perhaps it was indeed done to push Yukio’s growth since then to the forefront and coolness to the audience, it was certainly successful to me. Also, it may have been for emotional flow in audio/visual form vs manga, the first part of that flashback was about their father and Yukio and that moment in the talk between the brothers was all about their father, it’s not until the next page in the manga that we really get to the second reason (and in the manga there was no need to get everyone back into the classroom at the end of the episode), so it probably won’t happen but perhaps they could even start off episode 4 with that last page of this chapter, having Yukio having the flashback showing more of his resolve to become an exorcist in order to protect his brother who had been protecting him. I’ve only read the first book or two but they’ve been doing a fantastic job managing the challenges of manga/anime conversion so far so I’m pretty confident they’ll continue to portray the characters well. At least I hope so.
As for the Yukio being bullied when they were kids info itself, Rin does indeed mention it in the dialogue at the entrance ceremony even if it’s not shown so it’s still part of the story and their development as brothers. I thought the execution of the story and the mood of the talk between the brothers were both really quite strong for both of them and well done.
“This series has lots of flaws and Yuko beeing trained as an Exorcist since he was seven without Rin knowing everything about it, is one of this flaws. At least it makes me wonder how close they really were. How can you hide such a thing from your twin brother?”
Nothing’s perfect but I don’t think there are any major flaws so far.
Actually, I don’t think it would be all that difficult to hide since it’s clearly mostly been schooling/training and he’s obviously got his father helping/wanting him to keep it a secret (and the other guys at the monastery also likely knew everything about it just like they knew the truth about Rin), just like how their father hid the real depth of what his job as an exorcist really consisted of, only allowing Rin glimpses of the more mundane “counseling side” of the job.
Still you’re right there’s not much in the way of hints prior to it, I guess they could have foreshadowed with a little dialogue that Shiro and Yukio used be gone for hours after school every so often while they were growing up just to vaguely set it up for the eventual reveal.
Agreed on the music, we need an OST date 🙂
“They’re doing a fine job toning down the cheese from the manga. As I said, I hope the manga continues with these changes. ”
Agreed, and even the necessary genre cliches feel like they’ve been given a very good effort to smoothing them out to at least stick out less and feel more natural (something Fullmetal was so great at even before it pushed into the next level with it’s awesome weighty story), plus the mood and how wonderfully I feel the animation, VAs, and music have been shifting the mood and easily put me through all sorts of surprisingly strong emotions merely three episodes in has been a really nice surprise and utterly fantastic.
I agree with sadakups’ comment about the school reminding me a lot of Hogwarts/Shibusen. Even more of a parallel to Soul Eater is the goofy headmaster of the school!
I also found the likelihood of Yukio teaching a class, despite it being a 1st-yea class, very farfetched. No matter how skilled of an exorcist he is, most schools I’ve encountered have very strict regulations on code of conduct between teacher and student. The fact that Yukio is of similar age, as well as related to a student, has too much potential to create problems in the teacher/student relationship.
Sorry for the double-post:
“Now, I did find it a bit far-fetched that Yukio turned out to not only be a genius exorcist at the age of fifteen, but also an actual teacher already.”
Yeah Psgels, it works and bring Yukio upto/above Rin’s level despite his powers which is probably the idea but I guess it’s a little nag. I guess he probably wouldn’t have told the class any more than his background rather than going into details about his past if Rin wasn’t there or bugging him, still at least it doesn’t seem like he’s a teacher in the “visible” school only in the exorcist school and at least he’s not a “exorcist candidate” or something like that and leading a class and actually has finished part of his training before doing so and is starting with a class starting at the bottom/first year. I think whether it works is all gonna rely on the execution of the story now that the initial set up is over 🙂
Good point Marina, at the very least requiring putting him in charge of a different class Id imagine.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure the first-year part is valid in whether he’d be able to teach in and of itself as that seems to be more related to his freshman status in the regular publicly known school I think. Even if he’s new to the school’s “exorcist school,” his rank being that of an actual exorcist and not an apprentice/page/whatever probably makes his “year” in the exorcist school side relatively complicated in terms of whether or not he can teach. Maybe they should have just aged up the two brothers lol, then again not saying this will ever reach FMA’s level but I must admit once the series got going it was easy to forget that the Elric’s were crazy young for what places they get into and their level of authority in certain situations and Ed’s rank as a State Alchemist was how they got around that too and that was even a military position, so I guess it’ll be up to the execution of him as a teacher and we’ll see how believable they make Yukio’s position going forward. 🙂
Yes! I’m getting the same Soul Eater vibes about the school and Mephisto lol 🙂
I didn’t really mind that Yukio is so young, it just shows that he’s a prodigy. Like DangerMouse pointed out, even FMA had very young people working in places they shouldn’t be able to.
@Marina & DangerMouse: the fact that Yukio is one of Rin’s teacher might have been on purpose to look after him, in the same way that Yukio is sharing a room with Rin for that same reason.
“@Marina & DangerMouse: the fact that Yukio is one of Rin’s teacher might have been on purpose to look after him, in the same way that Yukio is sharing a room with Rin for that same reason.”
Agreed Lirael.
I thought Yukio’s prowess were explained by the fact, that he received the wound and ability to see demons at birth. Usually, if you train a person from a very young age and sacrifice his childhood it’s fairly easy to produce a prodigy that can measure himself against grownups.
Just a thought.
It was weird that Rin didn’t know, though.
Also – considering the headmaster is insane enough to let an archdemon study exorcism I would think a code of conduct in not much of a deal around there.