I could have sworn that this show was only 24 episodes long. Ah well, with the state that this series is in now, an extra episode doesn’t really matter. And I know that I usually try to avoid spoilers in the screenshots, but this episode just had too many things that made me raise a proverbial eye brow.
This episode pretty much had the same problem as the Konekomaru arc: it is very difficult to properly portray someone getting possessed, without being overly cheesy. Here though, Rin pretty much ended up talking the monster to death. It worked a bit: the themes of Yukio always wanting to do everything on his own were what saved it in particular. But I have to face it: the suicide scene made me laugh. Just about the opposite effect that the creators intended.
Yukio: if you want to commit suicide: that’s fine. If that happens to kill Satan at the same time, then I can understand why you’d do it… but why the yelling? The thing is that in martial arts, yelling does have a very important purpose: By combining it with breathing, you can really deliver harder punches, et cetera. With Yukio however, he was trying to pull the trigger on a gun. That requires a completely different kind of concentration, so he just looked silly while yelling.
In any case, the final episode: it pretty much was the most cliched set up that the creators could think of. Throughout this episode Satan already got strangely weak whenever the main cast was around (remember: this is the guy who easily scorched the best exorcists around like it was nothing, and yet at those convenient points he simply forgets that he has that power)… but the point where the penultimate episode ends with all of the main villain’s plans exhausted and the only thing that still needs to be done is beating a ridiculously powered up version of him… it’s been done thousands of times before. Yeah, it’s good for the animation team: they can go all out, but can this series really set itself apart with such an ending?
Overall, the anime original material in this series wasn’t the worst. It sure as heck was better than in Yumekui Merry and it did stay true to its characters. But still, the creators constrained themselves too much by trying to go with a “by the books” ending. Instead they should have looked at what kind of ending would fit best with its constraints. Some series that did this well in my opinion were: Hellsing, Bokurano, King of Thorn, Himitsu -the Revelation, Hourou Musuko and Kuroshitsuji. This isn’t compared to their manga, but these are the series that instead of half-heartedly just animating a bunch of chapters until they ran out of time, really looked into how to make their anime adaptation story work best. These are the series that new adaptations who know that they’re never going to be able to fully animate their manga’s story should take a good look at and learn from.
Rating: – (Disappointing)
Funny, I thought it’d be 24 episodes too. :S Maybe 25? Or maybe they’re just screwing with our minds. Anyway…
So yeah, what little hope I had for this show has died even more. I was willing to hold out and see if things might get a little better, but as someone commented on another site they’ve changed so many things in a way that it’s hard to wrap it up properly or make it believable. I’m still not buying Satan’s supposed love/romance for Rin and Yukio’s mother; and you’re right, they have conveniently downplayed his powers when the main cast is around. I went into this episode half expecting him to have wiped them all out within the first five minutes. So much for that.
Another thing that sorta bothers me is Mephisto. It’s like he’s just there commenting for no reason, and it’s getting more annoying because I’d expected much more from him in the first half in the series. I expected a lot more from everyone in the first half of the series, but that’s just setting myself up for disappointment I know.
I haven’t even read the manga, but I’m wondering in this case if it would have been better for the creators to just have stuck religiously (no pun intended) to that source material instead of tweaking the things they did. Huh… Well, the end is nigh. Let’s see how they finish.
I am currently praying, with all my heart and soul, that we get an “Ao no Excorcist Brotherhood” or something along those lines(you get the gist).Although I guess thats near impossible, considering it will never reach the epic proportions FMA did(both in plot and popularity). So unless someone performs a miracle, we[the general populace] aren’t getting a remake. Or maybe we will-we just have to wait twenty years or so when the original material is finally done and there’s a whole new generation who have no clue about the series.
@Enna: Yes, ithis series just can’t compare to the manga unfortunately, but they didn’t have a choice considering the rate the manga is going(it’s monthly for cripes sake!).
I couldn’t stop laughing… in disappointment.
@Gintoki Well, the manga sell IS currently very high. If this could go on for some years, there might be a chance for a remake.
Too many manga adaptations need a remake. Like Pandora Hearts and Shiki…
To be fair, the director could have consulted the author, or something…. Oh well, I guess Ao no was just unfortunate for being a monthly.
I bet yelling has a similar effect to clenching your fist. There have been studies that show clenching your fist increases your willpower with regards to random things like resisting the temptation of sweets.