Ao no Exorcist / First Impressions

「黒猫（ケットシー）」 (Kuroneko (Ketto Shī))
“Black Cat (Cat Sith)”

The predicament with Cat Sith turning out to be a further development for Shirou didn’t come out to be too much of a big surprise. Overall, a pretty simple concept that felt a tad stretched over 20 minutes. Continuing from my point from last week’s post, a story like this didn’t really require an entire episode. The precious time that could be used elsewhere feels like such wasted potential but when you don’t have enough source material to go for 24 episodes, you gotta do what you gotta do. Nonetheless, despite being simple, the execution was superb, ending up with yet another solid episode for Ao no Exorcist.

Recalling my point on Rin simply being better than his brother because he was born with Satan’s power, this episode only furthered that statement. Rin could only hear Cat Sith because he was a demon, and therefore was the only one that could communicate, leading to more, “he’s so like Shirou!” these kinds of stories like to set up so much. With the revealing of Shirou being more than just a “shitty old geezer”, specifically the Paladin (who here wants to say this is a retcon?! lol j/k), Rin is more than ever foreshadowed to be badass (which he is already).

The Cat Sith crying scene was legit, and the focus on his shimmering eye as it teared up almost had me going. Other than that, not much to say about it. It’s a by the books sympathy plot except of course in Ao no Exorcist’s setting. For the overarching plot, more hints are dropped about Mephisto wanting to see Rin’s true power, but his brother is more interested in touring Japan, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing much anytime soon. Next week is a swimsuit episode, which of course is generalizing, but hey, Izumo in a bikini. Preview made it seem like she was the only girl though. Better be some Shiemi.

 

Preview

39 Comments

  3. It did feel a bit stretched out compared to the mouthful of story the last few episodes have been serving up. The only downside to this episode was the lack of Shiemi.. But even if she didn’t get the screentime, she gets an honorable mention! <3

    Speaking of which, I love the interaction between the Fujimoto brothers. Such a simple conversation went from trivial matters, to ones that required more attention, to trash talk, and then destruction of property. xDD That's classic slice-of-life material right there. 😀

    Shirt
    Reply

    1. Nice knowing he has enough glasses to cover his brother’s destructive tendencies… but how about glasses on the job? Does he pack a whole bunch when he travels on missions?

      deafvader
      Reply

  6. Thank goodness Natsume Yuujincho is back next season~ I’m starting to see parallels everywhere.

    Natsume=Rin
    Reiko=Shirou
    Cait Sith=Nyanko sensei/random youkai of the episode
    Yukio=Nattori

    momogoldfish
    Reply

    2. What? Can’t I like an anime that makes me feel nostalgic for a summer I’ve never experienced? And Nyanko-sensei is cute danammit!

      I agree that Mushishi has much better cinematography and creativity with its mushis and themes but its kinda hard to endear oneself to a main character who is always stoic and others who only appear in one episode.

      momogoldfish
      Reply

  7. The manga wasn’t that moving and didn’t have that much impact.. this part of the manga was great but they really pulled something better here. So far, the anime adaption really looks a little better than the manga counterpart.

    MrRei
    Reply

  8. This episode make me a little sadder than the manga counterpart. Must be the cat’s crying. But seriously, a beach episode? The cooking one was alright but I hope they don’t mess up with this one.

    haitechan
    Reply

  14. I LOL’ed quite a bit about Yukio’s stock of Glasse xD Also Rin mentioning Shiemi was quite funny 🙂 Seems like her crush on Yukio really is on his mind xD Yukio on the other side… -facepalm- You can’t be such a smart guy you pretend to be if you haven’t noticed her being all over you.

    This episode felt a bit short, because not much actually happened |D But I did tear up a little when Rin went to Kura and said “You’re sad and lonely too, aren’t you”. All the stuff that happened must be harder on Rin that he shows ;w;

    Recalling my point on Rin simply being better than his brother because he was born with Satan’s power, this episode only furthered that statement. Rin could only hear Cat Sith because he was a demon […]

    While you are right that Rin only could hear the cat’s thoughts because he is a demon, I’m still not sure Yukio would’ve reacted the same way if he had been the one to hear them. It doesn’t only take hearing what it said, but also listening to it and responding to it with genuine feelings. I’m sure Yukio wouldn’t have killed the cat either, but he wouldn’t have been able to feel with it. Not the way Rin does/did anyways.

    SummelBaerli
    Reply

  16. This episode didn’t felt as sad to me. It just reminded us that Fujimoto is dead and that Rin is a bit alike to him and that Rin does miss him a little even if he doesn’t show it.
    What interested me more is the short fight between Rin and Yukio at the beginning. The bonding between brothers never gets old, haha. For me, I feel like the story is moving at a very slow pace. Hopefully, that can change.

    Valerie
    Reply

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