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「祟り寺の子」 (Tatari-dera no Ko)
“Child of the Cursed Temple”
Moving on from the transition into school, the actual schooling begins, with Rin snoring through every subject, inciting the rage of Suguro Ryuji (Nakai Kazuya, Zoro~), a man oddly with the same mission. Suguro’s had a tough life, people look at him with hate for his association with a curse, he doesn’t like it when others underestimate him, and he has a big goal, defeating Satan. Change four letters in his name and he’s Naruto! Maybe he’s a legitimate homage so that the author can imply that his main character is so much better than the rock-headed “Suguro,” and I’d have to agree. Rin’s decline at the provocation for who’s the better man was amiable, and to further salt the wound, proved himself better anyway. In the end, Suguro gains nothing as a character, and apologizes to our superior protagonist. Of course to catch up, Rin merely changes himself to study some more, as if now they’re clearly equal on all fronts, except that Rin is still superior. Which is too bad, really, because now Rin’s got nothing to learn from the guy, and he holds nothing over him, leaving Suguro to be an alternative venue for comedic relief. They do have their character interaction, which works pretty well, as I did laugh pretty hard at their last argument in PE.
Shiemi on the other hand, is having more trouble than Rin, simply because she’s apparently much more insecure. While Rin doesn’t give a damn if he doesn’t make any friends, Shiemi does, and has no real motivation from like Satan killing her father or something (where’s your determination for finding flower vahalla? was the last episode worth even less now?!). Having spent most of her life secluded from the social world, she’s like all of us (ok, some of us). Throw in that she has other compounding issues because she’s a girl for some unintentional sexism, add the Hanazawa Kana voice, and you’ve got a character asking for sympathy. So it’s too bad she has to suffer the classic “I shouldn’t say she’s my friend even though I really like her because it’d be too selfish of me to imply that she thinks of me as a friend too even though it should be obvious we’re already friends by the way we talk to each other” routine. Which… is basically Kimi ni Todoke S1’s first half in a nutshell. Sigh, her plea was so cute too.
On the overarching plot, we’ve got an event introduced like Walpurgis Night, except it only occurred once and sixteen years ago. The explanation was confusing because I couldn’t tell if Satan was killing priests all over the world, or just one temple where a lot of them were congregated. I’m pretty sure the first scene from the first episode was depicting “Blue Night,” but it doesn’t seem like the same temple Suguro is from, so I’m going to go with the former assumption. I’m also unsure about Yukio and what his gun was pointing towards, because it could be that he’s still ready to kill Rin at any moment he goes public. Mephisto is revealed to have some ulterior motives for having Rin under his “control,” something that other demons don’t seem to be too happy about, leaving me speculating that perhaps Satan’s power and position can be, let’s say, challenged.
While Suguro and Shiemi aren’t too special themselves, Rin’s reactions provide some zing, even if he pulled a shoujo move. He should have just said, “yeah she is my friend, you jealous?” The fact that it would’ve actually fit his persona is what makes it disappointing. Hmm, I do want him to mess with that Kitamura Eri tsundere though. Next week and for a few weeks after that I’m going to assume this kind of school life/mingle with other characters/gain life experience deal will keep going. It’s entertaining because the world’s so entertaining, but no more copycat characters please? And flesh out the current ones to have some more value. And don’t make that tsundere into Misaka Mikoto.
Preview
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Roronoa Zoro! >_<
I don’t know what you mean by “copy-cat” characters @_@ It’s not like Katou-sensei sat with her editor and go “hey I like Naruto so let’s copy him with Rin”. I’ll bet Naruto isn’t the one original for that kind of personality, nor any other tsunderes or any kind of scenarios (Kimi ni Todoke? Can I say it copied KareKano for similar events then?). Originality is rare and they only thing you can try to appreciate non-originals is how they execute it. I don’t think it was fair for you to say “Oh this is from this character and that anime”. Said characters and anime you’ve listed aren’t original in themselves.
I think Yukio was ready to kill the leaper if Rin was about to draw his sword… not killing Rin I don’t think.
I appreciate you blogging AoEx though~~ thanks! Always looking forward to it~
The “cliches will stay because you can’t always be original” argument is really getting old. Hell, I knew I was going to get a comment on this.
There’s a ton of things that could easily be changed to make every character a bit more original, and anime like FMA certainly had no problem creating an entire cast of original characters. “But anime as good as FMA is rare” is just an excuse. It’s not rare, it’s hard. I’m not going to suddenly forgive things because writing better characters is “hard.” You’re right about execution, and so far, it’s been alright in terms of the mentioned characters, which is why I didn’t complain THAT much about them. Plus, I’m certain the author can flesh out the characters to be much more unique on their own right as the episodes go on.
As for copycat, I’m not saying the examples I pointed out were the original idea. That’s why they’re examples.
Hey, I’m all up for originality. FMA was one of my fav animes so I salute it for being so awesome. There are things that irk me too in shounen series but I let it slide if I like it in general… you’re bound to hit into cliches. Not saying it’s ok, just saying that I’m sure the mangaka didn’t go around taking things from other series.
Have you read the manga? @_@ I love tsunderes and I think Izumo makes herself the “bitch” tsundere. I don’t see deredere anywhere. Maybe it might be something refreshing?
I agree with you on choices that would make a character stand out. I hope later on in the story we’ll get to see some real awesome developments.
Oh, well no, I was just playing around with the idea that the author made a Naruto mimic kind of like how Soul Eater did with Black Star, no real accusations here. I let things slide too, but since I write about it, I may as well point it out.
And I haven’t read Ao’s manga.
Mm I do agree with your likening to naruto but Black Star was slightly different….he took idiocy to a whole new level but always knew what he was doing anyway his big headedness comes from wanting to be bigger than everyone which behind that is a desire to protect his friends and for people to acknowledge his existence saying that he is not the remnants of a clan but a single individual, while naruto held similar views they were never really fleshed out and didnt have a character like tsubaki to enhance character developement
i think yall peoples are looking to hard into things why not just watch and enjoy >.>?
I think Rin is pretty unique. I mean, most shounen protagonists snap whenever someone yells “You’re just scared” but Rin unlike most shounen protagonists handled it in a more mature way, though I guess Suguro did not…
Btw, I totally love Rin’s voice actor. Brilliant voice!
Very Accelerator-esque at times. Love it.
You have a problem with biribiri?
It seems like the plot here is the Blue Night thing. I hope they pull something original rather than something that came out of a shonen cliche or something.
No, it’d just go against what I said about copycats, even if I’d enjoy it.
I think its fairly obvious that whole “Blue Night” thing is related to the birth of Rin. The year it took place in and the Blue Flames seem to match up fairly well.
Rin actually looks cool and smart unlike most shounen protagonists.
…looks.
I love your cynicism, and your thinly veiled and therefore hilarious critism. KEEP ON WRITING *sparkly eyes*
not watching anime because I read the manga~
Does anyone else have an inkling that Mephistopheles is gonna cause problems down the road for Rin and anyone else. He seems to be the the type of character that seems good but ends up being the messenger for all the bad guys. Something like that.
Well it seems the name really is true im guessing Mephistopheles is actually a demon and is truly Satan’s brother, whether or not he’s really evil is still in question
Mephistofeles is Satan’s son-
So he’s Rin’s brother.
Half-brother, but yeah
How are those spoiler tags treatin ya? Oh haven’t seen them have ya? O.o
But the brother thing was pretty obvious from the conversation between Mesphisto and his bro had at the end of the episode. (PS:I haven’t read the manga).
Is it just me or are they making Suguro into a tsundere and I love how there’s more than one character with a Kyoto-ben~
Exactly,it is not a spoiler since Mephistopheles calls Rin “younger brother” in this ep.
In my experience, any character voiced by Kazuya Nakai is bound to be awesome (Zoro, Mugen, Masamune, Hijikata…etc.)
You bring up an interesting point about Suguro and Naruto. I wonder how close their names appear in Japanese
The only similarity between their names is that they both have 3 syllables.
Really, I don’t get how Kiiragi could compare Suguro to Naruto of all people. Having a sad past and a clear determination to overcome that past is hardly anything new in anime. At least Suguro is serious and actually a genius, unlike Naruto. Now if you compare Rin to Naruto, I wouldn’t be as surprised although I don’t think it’s a copycat either. All of the characters in this anime have felt very real to me so far and I’m enjoying them very much.
“The explanation was confusing because I couldn’t tell if Satan was killing priests all over the world, or just one temple where a lot of them were congregated.”
in the manga it’s made more clear. Satan killed a whole lot of powerful holy men across the entire globe, including many priests at the Cursed Temple. your assumption was spot on mate
Once again, all I can say is this episode was EPIC!! With the music the ppl laughing at Suguro’s goal than Rin saying “Let go!”. My brain was screw by excitement by this one scene and the build out to it just had my smiling how similar the 2 were.
is the principle another Satan’s son, he totally looks demon, and when i watched it, they mentioned *brothers* quite a bit
Yeah, the Blue Night was supposed to attack priest from various sects and religion and it totally gets a better explanation in the manga (we’re now on chapter 4, btw). It’s pretty obvious the significance of that night, even though nobody has really said anything about it. Also, dang it, next episode’s a filler and most likely an extension of a short 4koma the creator did (and that I had mentioned some time before), but none the less, I patiently wait for your review since it’s nice to know other’s opinions too.
And I’m having new love for Ammaimon and his voice.
Also, did anyone else get this feeling of having heard that ‘burn to hell’ line somewhere else? I’m racking my brain and can’t remember from where.
Yay! More cast! I guess I’m in love with this series too much to discriminate the originality of the characters. X’D
Ughh… the next episode’s preview looks like a studio-original episode. (Don’t remember it in the manga) D: I hope its good…
That doesn’t seem like the case, but is Mephisto going to be another Izaya Orihara? He’s voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya and he wants to have fun watching the strife between our heroes and the villains…
And so, the filler starts next week. I was looking forward to Kamiki’s arc too.
The scene where Rin told the demon to “let go” really gave me chills for some reason. I don’t know if it was the visual stimulation accompanied with the great voice acting, but I found my heart racing at the moment.
I’ll second to that!
I swear, Rin is the most moe protagonist I have ever seen. <3
Other than that, I really am glad with how the adaptation is going so far. I hope those upcoming fillers are just as good as the original material.
You dont like Mikoto Misaka?!?!!?
No dammit, read my response to ahelo.
Damn, I’m really slow. I’ve been wondering where I’ve heard the name Mephisto before. Turns out it’s probably a short form to Mephistopheles and if there is any truth to that, we may see something similar to the character Mephistopheles in the Faust legend.
mmm fillers next week…
I swear Kiiragi, your posts never fail to irritate and befuddle me. The drivel you write is more suitable to /a/ than RC.
Don’t read them then…
Yes, and your lack of detail really helps in taking your opinion seriously.
@Darklord. Until some other RC blogger starts doing Ao No Exorcist that’s not really possible.
@Kiiragi. Whinging on about shounen genre constantly. Whinging about studio X you dislike and how studio Y is OVER NINE THOUSAND TIMES BETTER.
“Change four letters in his name and he’s Naruto!”. Change two letter in your name and kiiragi becomes kiifagy. Does that mean anything? fuck no. If you were looking to link between Naruto you could of simply said ‘X has a striking resemblance to Naruto in these ways….”.
If I had to sum up the problem with your posts in one word, it would be ‘whinge’. Your posts come off much more negatively than other authors’ posts. .
But this is all my personal opinion, and you seem to have quite a few fans that love your jazz; so maybe your style just simply doesn’t work with me.
Huh, interesting alternative word for whine.
Anyway, your complaints are incredibly generalizing. I don’t bang on the shounen genre constantly, that was merely one instance last episode, and I do praise and compare Ao to FMA, which also happens to be a shounen. I also came to the site initially to write about One Piece, which is… a shounen. I have nothing against shounen, and my complaints almost always have reason. Yes, they are negative, but I don’t bash on things for the sake of bashing. People usually see that the problems I point out are there, and they feel that they can ignore it and still enjoy the show, which is perfectly fine, and this is where taste/standards differs.
The Naruto name change was merely a joke, and you apparently missed the several reasons I laid out before that to find a connection between characters… so you’re simply coming off as trying to find reasons to hate my posts. That’s fine, my “style” might not work with you, but don’t describe them as whining when you don’t even understand what I’m writing.
Oddly enough i feel the same way it was alot more obvious when he was blogging Yumekui Merry i thought i was the only one annoyed by his writing.
Correct, my previously stated opinion was largely formed while following Kiiragi on Yumekui Merry, so perhaps I left it a little late to express my distaste. I have only followed the last couple of Ao No Exorcist posts.
@Kiiragi. Yes I realised the Naruto thing was a joke but that doesn’t make it less moot/absurd.
“Suguro’s had a tough life, people look at him with hate for his association with a curse, he doesn’t like it when others underestimate him, and he has a big goal, defeating Satan.” Why do you think I had this sentence before it? I thought people would figure out that I was trying to make it sound vague on purpose and then lead on with the lame joke that was changing 4 letters to Naruto. Goddamn. Way to ignore the majority of my reply btw.
@Kiiragi. You’re right, I was generalising. Largely because I simply cannot be bothered sifting through all your posts and picking out pieces of your posts to construct an argument. What I mentioned in my original post were just things I could remember off the top of my head. I never said that you disliked shounens either, in fact I remember reading your one piece posts without bother. It was just that the post with the line about Ao No Exorcist screaming i’m a shounen or whatever it was, just seemed silly. Similarly, the naruto joke/whatever seemed silly too.
To avoid a circular debate of opinion, I’ll rescind my original statement and simply say that your posts have had much more negativity entrenched compared to other writers, and therefore have been less enjoyable to read.
Though I personally do think Kiiragi can get over the top when he ramps up the cynicism (no offense), it provides something different from what Divine, Takaii, and Proof write.
Divine looks at thing with the benefit of the doubt in mind.
Takaii usually pokes at all of the positive aspects of the show, explaining what entertained him, and focusing less on actual plot.
Not too sure what Proof’s style is (less references to draw from), though he seems to be more of a middle man.
In total, it’s just different forms of criticism. If you can’t handle Kiiragi’s posts, then don’t read them. Read someone else’s blog on the anime, or wait for the Monthly Retrospective Looks.
Agreed with this well explained post.
I enjoy reading a blog precisely because I can get a different perspective on things.
Kii
ragerragi <3 is just one of those writers that focuses on what could be improved, which can be a thankless task ladidaI like this ep much better than the previous one! I even felt sorry for Suguro’s father. I’m weak to such things.
I find Shima and Izumi interesting. Dunno, could be their character designs or something. Shiemi is too cute for me.
I thought that Yukio pointed the gun at the frog (to kill it first, in order to prevent Rin from pulling his sword and tell the entire class that he is somehow related to Satan).
And, is Mephisto Rin’s (and Yukio’s) brother!? He said siblings. Does that mean he is also Satan’s son?
I have no idea what took me so long but it took a long 4 or 5 weeks just to read 24 chapters of Ao no Exorcist(Blue Exorcist) and is it me or does the show seem dramatic. the music in Ao no Exorcist sounds like something you put in a movie.
Best. Tsundere. Ever.
Shiemi on the other hand, is having more trouble than Rin, simply because she