One-Shot for the Weekend: The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident

Alternative titles: 深山鶯邸事件 | Miyama Uguisu Yashika Jiken | Miyama Uguisu Tei Jiken | The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident

Manga-ka: Katou Kazue

Genre: Action, Fantasy, One Shot, Shounen, Supernatural

The one-shot pilot of Ao no Exorcist. Monaka, the heiress to a prestigious family, is staying with her sadistic and controlling uncle after the death of her parents. Her life is given a twist upon the arrival of an unsual exorcist claiming the mansion is being haunted be a demon.

Published as a one-shot in Jump SQ  in 2008.

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We destroyed a record last week by not publishing a one-shot but ‘real’ life called. I read this without prior knowledge of Ao no Exorcist, I haven’t read the serialisation or watched the anime so I sort of fail in being all trendy in the anime world. So anyway, I don’t think that many people out there know of Ao no Exorcist’s origins since it is of a different name so I shall remedy that.

The story’s setting is really your average Shounen manga. You got the bad dude with a hostage and then your hero. What really stood out for me was the story/flashback of ‘the nameless demon.‘ It gave the story a deeper aspect which I thought made it great as a prologue. It was simple but touching with it’s themes of care and kindness, maybe you would shed a tear. It was also kind of refreshing to have a more western interpretation of demons in the story.

I have no idea what happens in Ao no Exorcist but if you’re a fan, I recommend visiting Ao no Exorcist’s roots as it may be thought-provoking or even allow you to look at the serialisation in a new light. I always welcome the idea of knowing how a story developed from it’s original stimulus. Oh, why do shounen manga heroes always begin as a loser?

Rating: 3.7/5

Spring Anime 2011 – Ranks, Rants & Ratings

OOOOOKAYYYYY!!! So I’ve been through most of the Spring 2011 Anime, and here are my rankings (in the order in which they appear), my rants (what I pretty much thought about them) and my ratings. The first 2 are pretty subjective to me, but I tried my best to keep the ratings more unbiased; so basically I could think an anime was good, therefore giving it a high rating, but personally preferred another one over it hence giving it a better rank and rant.

Ratings might still be quite biased since I pretty much dashed through everything (there’s about 26 anime here people!) but I tried my best – in fact I think this is the longest post I’ve ever written… Anyway I might give them proper reviews later on in the season, but if you have any favourites you particularly want us to review or whatever, feel free to drop us a message! =D

*WARNING: LOOOOOOONG POST*

This is a pretty huge step up from my previous spring anime post since there are so much more episodes and series’ this time round @_@ Sorry if it’s all a bit too much spammed into a single post – I just really wanted to clear it all up in one go… so let’s start!

Ao no Exorcist

Hopeless dude who can hardly get anything right and keeps getting into fights. Was brought up in an orphanage with twin bro, when suddenly – well, waddya know? – an extremely shounen twist of fate happens.

Okay this rant is going to be super biased since I’m already a fan of the manga. Seriously though, out of the long list of anime I’ve watched so far this spring I still think this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most. Even if you’ve read the manga and know everything that’s about to go down, Ao no Exorcist is definitely still a must-watch. It’s not just the animation, it’s the structure of the story and everything that just makes it completely worthwhile. Also – besides the fact that for some reason I can’t get enough of Rin’s face – story-wise and overall, this is already my favourite so far… and I’ve only watched one episode of it XD

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Since this is No.1 I’ll put in a special mention for their ED – I seriously like it! It’s by that 2PM korean boy band or something =P

Mushroom Manga! Ao no Futsumashi & Saruyama!

Ao no Futsumashi (青の祓魔師)

Manga-ka: Katou Kazue

Genre: Action, Adventure, Shounen, Supernatural, School Life

Satan is the god of demons; but there’s one thing that he doesn’t have, and that’s a substance in the human world that is powerful enough to contain him!
For that purpose he created Rin, his son from a human woman, but will his son agree to his plans? Or will he become something else…? An exorcist?

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What with all these yellow flowers that I’ve never seen before sprouting all over the place recently, I have decided that it is the time for spring. Therefore I am mushrooming one of the manga that have been adapted into anime for this Spring 2011 – Ao no Futsumashi, that most may know as Ao no Exorcist.