「深海の悪魔」 (Shinkai no Akuma)
“Demon of the Deep Seas”

You smell that? Mmm, smells like… filler.

Filler generally comes with a negative connotation. I would think a good chunk of the anime community had once been addicted to Studio Pierrot’s Naruto or Bleach, because I know I have, those naive anime years… But yeah, Pierrot’s fillers can almost unanimously be agreed to largely suck ass. Scarred from such an experience, I assume that said chunk of the anime community have all created a self-defense mechanism and twitch in rage whenever they see “filler”. I bet you get a little pissed off just by saying the word.

So here strolls Ao no Exorcist, being the shit and all, mostly due to the staff from A-1 doing a particularly good job with the execution. The first filler with the cooking was absolutely amazing, and floored me with how great more things were weaved into what was originally a 2-3 page omake. See, the problem with filler in general is that it’s a complete waste of time. Other than seeing your favorite characters screw around with whatever plot they cooked up with, in the end, it usually doesn’t matter. It’s just inherent in the idea of a filler, which is non-canonical, and can’t develop the character nor the actual plot. This episode? Grade-A typical Pierrot filler. You can, and should skip this episode.

I’m disappointed that the staff couldn’t even mimic the great things about Exorcist. For the broad imaginative setting that the main plot resides in, they opted for a bland beach as the environment, and had a gigantic squid as the enemy. I mean, despite that the Kraken being called a “demon” is plausible, it’s so bland! Why not do more weirdo demons? They did have a legitimate excuse for only having Rin, Izumo, and Renzou, but what an obvious choice of a group. Turn Renzou into the perverted support character, have Izumo stand as the tsundere fanservice, and leave poor Rin to be the only original one. Sounds like that harem you saw last week doesn’t it? The comedy that usually had me laughing so hard was largely missing, which made me more sad. Izumo being led on by a little kid felt a little off, even if he only liked her for her eyebrows. It’s a bit like, “how you gonna let a filler kid teach you lessons about yourself?” There’s also the disappointment at the lowering of her tsun-tsun standards. Showing her dere so hard at a damn kid? I’m ashamed of you Izumo. Still, can’t complain about the plethora of attention given to her.

Too bad the last AnE I blog is a filler. Guardian Enzo will be taking over next week.

 

Preview

37 Comments

  1. I was raging so much. The last filler still had the ‘exorcist’ feel to it (cos it was from the omake anyway)

    This just felt like a mashup of past episodes that they had done on other series… And wtf, filler kid being deep when he’s only there for ONE EPISODE. :/

    Poor kii has to blog this as his last exorcist post. Aww.

    pimple
    1. A filler episode that includes a beach, a lame kid who has a bad sense of direction a lame stupid father who has a terrible sense of direction, a lame giant squid that has an abysmal sense of direction, a stupid hard-to-explain anti-climatic end to a fight, and some weird eyebrows were bound to be terrible. But for some reason, I didn’t rage. I just chuckled, laughing at its stupidity.

      Alec
      1. Ah, well not exactly rage but going ‘wtf is this… wtf… huh wait what? WHAT? Oh god..’

        but I couldn’t even laugh at it 🙁 I was more disappointed. When I posted though I felt pretty ragey lol.

        pimple
  2. I was under the impression that most beach episodes were fillers. D: Then again, there was absolutely no story development this time around. (Aside from maybe learning about Cat Sith’s weakness to raw squid.)

    Gah.. I was hoping to see Shiemi in a swimsuit. The preview shows her in a skirt however. ♥ Can’t wait~

  3. Well, there’s nothing else that can be done, you have to blog another Ao no Exorcist episode, Kiiragi, you can’t step down with such a bad last impression. : ) lol, sorry, I’m just still sad that you leave : /
    I wish I skipped this ep. : /

    Bambi
  4. I personally thought the filler was fine, though the gag that, in the end, the squid was actually… just a squid, was kind of dumb. I liked how they touched upon how Izumo was frustrated because the kid’s stubbornness hit so close to home for her, even though her “dere dere”-ness was weird. Shima is already a perverted character, so that didn’t seem off to me. Definitely didn’t have the charm of the other episodes, but I don’t think it was terribad,

    reminbee
  5. I actually liked this filler. Really, worst part of this filler was the lack of Shiemi fanservice. Best part was the reason as to why the kid found Izumo “cute.”

    paulrenzo
  6. Ugh. This episode nearly put me off this series entirely. When it started this show looked like it would be a brutal supernatural-action series. This episode was just stupid. The only thing brutal about it was how brutally stupid it was. Demons can have a change of heart, too. Well, maybe we should all just sit down for a cuppa tea with Satan and talk this out?

  7. The really sad thing about this filler is that one line spilled by the teacher; “even demons have a change of heart and turn good” (sorta). Show Spoiler ▼

    Sissy
  8. That’s a filler for ya.. -.-
    I’m kind of starting to lose interest in this anime. It doesn’t seem to be getting my attention. I don’t get that ‘wow’ feeling at all. Hopefully, next week’s episode will be interesting since it’s involving that dude.

    Valerie
  9. What do you mean with “the last”? I read in Guardian Enzo’s introduction that he was not going to work with you, that called my attention.. Now you say this is the last AnE you’re blogging? Am I missing something? Where are you going Kiiragi? You cannot go xD! You’re my favourite writer here T_T I’m sorry if I sound kinda psycho, but it took me for surprise.. I feel very “colgada” right now.. Are you going to another blog or you’re just dropping out blogging due to other responsibilities/lack of time/etc? If you’ve already talked about this here and I didn’t see it then I apologize, plz answer..

    Kishiu
    1. Lol, its true colors! XD God, this episode pisses me off, I’m starting to dislike Kamiki too. Uhh yeah, “wtf” filler episode 11 is. Hopefully, the next episode will be awesome. Shiemi wearing a uniform? Interested on seeing her on it. Moe

      yamaken

Leave a Reply to cybersteel Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *