Anime: Shounen Onmyouji

This is an interesting blend of various genres and I can even say it is even unorthodox. Although at first it looks like a fighting shounen / fantasy adventure ala Inuyasha, it quickly becomes a weird blend of various other genres. It is both shounen and shoujo, and even has josei elements to it. This definitely makes it feel a lot more mature and serious than your average no-brainer action show out there, but it sure doesn’t make it exciting enough to keep watching for long without getting fed up with its pacing sooner or later.

To put it simply, it is very straightforward and plain when it comes to the plot. The hero is the son of a famous Onmyoujii (something like a priest in ancient Japan) and he wants to be like him by beating up bad demons that roam the land. As his companion he has a furry little animal that turns to an awesome humanoid fighter when the need call for it. This is the cheesy fighting shounen aspect of the show and nothing we haven’t seen a billion times already. It later on adds a bit of mystery behind the monsters’ goals. And that s pretty much all there is to it, further watered down with silly comedy and monster of the week battles. I am warning you; even the most thrilling moments for the characters in this series will feel normal to you. Even the finale which is supposed to feel epic will pass mostly as a soft ending. And a rather open one too, since not all the original material was covered.

At this point you may be wondering how this is any different than Inuyasha or any other heave action show. Simple, the action part is generally dull and the main characters are very few in numbers to web an interesting chart of relations. Also, the hero is just a wimp who takes on monsters ten times his power and always wins because his hairy companion goes all GAR and wastes armies with his awesome powers. What a lame hero he is! That gets tiresome fast. Even if you try to imagine that the critter companion is the real protagonist, it again feels silly since when it’s not fighting, it is nothing more than an irritating little animal, voiced by a girl. How lame! As for the battles themselves, they lack choreography to be interesting to look forward to for more than a few times. They are mostly standing still and throwing energy beams at mook monsters. Or chant. Do you know how lame it looks when they recite silly poems and then just stand still as monsters around them go poof?

To be honest, this series is better suited for girls and women than boys, since the shoujo part overshadows the shounen. That becomes apparent when you realize most of the secondary characters are girls who are NOT in love with the protagonist, and the main focus is dialogues and not fighting. I wouldn’t say it suits men as well since the hero is a wimp boy (men prefer adults). As interesting as this blend is, I personally didn’t like the final result, since as I said the plot is basic and the action is dull.

And now some info about the production values. The artwork is nice to look at, since there is a generally good amount of details and a variety of colours given to clothes and sceneries. Most monster designs looked more silly than scary, and those huge Heian era hats always looked ridiculous to me. I didn’t like the animation since there is very little of it during action. Visual effects are taking up half the show, since most of everything ends up with summoning lightings or throwing fireballs. And they have funky glowing pentagrams as means of symbolic power and protection. The music score left me completely indifferent, as it was just soft lullabies sang by a woman (and I prefer rock and metal by men). The voice acting and the dialogues were generally appealing, and the only negative thing I found in them is THEY ARE TOO MANY. Seriously, it’s like most of the show is talking. INCLUDING THE BATTLES, since they chant their spells. I understand that since the story is based on a novel, yet I felt they abused the element to save as much as animation budget as possible. Nice to read but bad to watch in a series format.

Oh, and as usual I won’t forget to mention how it’s made by studion DEEN, so it’s bad by default. Keep failing you fools!

Onmyouji was interesting as a blend but it sure feels unexciting, while its cast and story are too simple to bother remembering after awhile. I recommend this anime only to girls and women who like fantasy and some action. I otherwise prefer Inuyasha over this one (but only the first 30 and the last 20 episodes, as all the rest was pointless filler).

What, you haven't seen this yet? Judging from the lack of votes and reviews, this has to be one of the more overlooked cute series in a long time. The review is based on R2J DVD (first 12) and RAWs (last 8), and AF-F Y-F fansubs for the rest; I will finalize the review when I get the last DVDs.
Please rate & comment if you read this review!

Quick Take:  Have you ever started watching a series, thinking, "What, another magic boy-with-buddy?" Been there done that & have the t-shirt. But this series rises above the conventions & budget limitations by having great seyuu, interesting characters and character development, a great story arc, and something that hasn't been done before much: a lot of background info on religious/cultural history of Kyoto and Japan. I think it's overlooked because it's different, and because it's got a lot of influence of the Onmiyoji (great movie by the way), yet it still uses the shounen conventions of weak male lead who has an unusual power that he grows to learn to use. Appropriate for all ages with the warning there is cartoon violence.

Now, I'm a sucker for history and culture.By episode 3, I was hooked.

Abe no Masahiro is the fictional youngest grandson of the great onmyouji, Abe no Semei (921-1005 AD, a true historical figure). This gives us a time and place, so we're rooted in a type of historical context, if not reality. A fictional grandson, Masahiro, grows as an onmyoji (a kind of priest with magical ability) and from child to man in this series, so it's really about the coming of age of Masahiro. It also is about growth and redemption for his familiar, an incredibly powerful/cute spirit he calls Mokkun. (Mokkun has a dark history and is worth the watch just to see how his character develops). Masahiro has childhood hopes of being a match for his grandfather in onmyodo (the harnessing of spiritual power, largely by chants). Initially, what happens to him is very funny, as everthing he tries to do seems to fail; he completely hits his stride in later episodes.

Romance? Yep. He meets the daughter of a powerful court figure, and falls in love, only to be apparantly frustrated. So, it's the old work-friendship-love-battle evil demons setup, done similar to Full Metal Alchemist (and similar in terms of animation, characters and tone). But be warned -- it's addictive!


Animation:
Fluid movement, not much in super-deformation (SD) used. Good backgrounds, but mostly static (no wind blowing the trees, no movement in the background). No real use of CG 3D, though some effects seem like it. Some battle scenes are a little weak (action implied with streaks, unreal physics). You'll love how the main characters are animated, but they don't change clothes much... No real cinematics used (lens flare, apparant change of focus), and the style of animation is almost like my 2007 fantasy genre favorite, Seirei no Moribito. Since it's a tad below that in animation, it gets an 8-8.5.


Sound:
There is a moderate attempt to use directionality, but not enough to be immersive. Good foley and ambience. Great seiyuu; I switched to JN from the English because they were that good, and the English actors didn't have the same energy, though I think they did bring their A game. Op/ED were adequate, although I preferred the op to the ed by a good amount. Music in episode is standard synth tracks. Nothing groundbreaking, garnering an 8 also.


Story:
The story follow several arcs, each connected to the prior with an intro and recap (which I found a little tedious). Since it's a linear story line, I won't deduct for lack of background or context. The coming-of-age involves the boy becoming a man, and taking on adult responsibilities regarding life and love. It's a good story, with a few basic plot holes (why don't the demons act more effectively or faster?), and subject to the deus-ex-machina whenever there is a cliffhanger, but hey... it's a magic boy program! Not without cliches, but not bound by convention, and I particularly liked the introduction to religious and cultural practices it gives.

Story gets 9, only because the arcs actually make you want to see the next episode, and you feel like you've actually been somewhere.


Character:
Here is where SO shines. I'm a sucker for character and character development, and SO has it. You'll love the relationship Masahiro has with Mokkun, it's funny, but so is his relationship with his grandfather Abe. Side characters except for these main ones are not fleshed out, but there is a large cast. Each episode appears to have some character development, and they grow throughtout the series. I don't give 10 often, but it's almost a 10... say, 9+


Value and Enjoyment: (I collapse these because they seem the same to me).
Will you feel your time well used to watch it? I really think so, it was for me. Will you feel in awe of the production values, animation, sound? Likely not, but you won't think they skimped on much except the reused cells of about 1 minute in the weekly recaps. Is it worth buying on DVD? Hmm... ok, it would be, esp. if they provided some more cultural and historical refs in the chants he uses, the historical sites, some basic info on Abe, etc. I'd like that, and it would fit well with this series. (8 and 10)


Conclusion: Get this series! Excellent character development, good magic boy series, good coming of age, and nice buddy show rolled into one. It gives each character and shinigami a distinct fighting style, lets us know a little about them, but I wanted more context and background on side characters. Wanted to understand the villan(s) better, too. More Mokkun! Second season! Overall Rating: 8.5

At first I was sceptic about this anime, I didn't want to give it a chance but for the moment I was wrong...

- Animation: nothing special, a well animated anime. Nice drawn characters, and the action is animated fluent and fine. Maybe it's the group his work though, but the colors were nice (maybe because of the cleaning and clear. So a 9 for animation.

- Sound: this is something were I only gave a 7. The opening theme and ending theme are not my thing. Thereby you have the sound during the episode, when there's action but I never get caught by it. So here the sound didn't give me any feeling of tension, etc.

- Story: I like the story. And it certainly evolving fast. The hints are already given that there's something huge coming for our ayakashi to fight. The only thing I regret is the historical terms, because of that it's way difficult to follow.

- Character: at the moment it's our ayakashi and mokkun who have the main role. I like their relationship. It makes you laugh even during some action. That mokkun isn't annoying at all, but he reminds me a bit of a pokemon :D

- Value: well an 7 because of the fact I will keep following this anime. But there are more important for me. It's not the kind of anime where I'll always check more then once sites to see if a new episode appears. But I'll follow this one, because it suprised in a positive way and never bored me.

- Enjoyment: I must be honest, but those first two episode were simply good to very good. It never bored me, and the episode was in no time ended. I enjoyed the anime and that's why I give a 9