Shounen Onmyouji - Reviews

The beginning does not inspire confidence, but it gets better. At least this one has an actual ending unlike so many others. 

The story took a while to start growing on me. It felt like the characters and scenarios could have been further developed to make an even better story, but overall it was fine. Of course, if I had my way, most anime would be 50 to 100 episodes long with few to no filler episodes. That won't happen. 

One thing I liked is the main character does actually fave consequences for actions such as injuries and things. Many animes barely have consequences for situations so it's hard to really care about the character. On the other hand, these consequences last for a few seconds and then there is the powers of a god or healing magic. Still, it often doesn't completely heal everything so I give it props for that.

If you like historical animes with magic and gods etc, you should give it a try. It's ending is sad though. I was a bit dissatisfied with how it concluded, but there was a conclusion so I shouldn't complain too much I suppose. I wanted consequences that lasted and I got one and didn't like it. How typical.

Sorry for the short review. It's been dubbed in case you prefer dubbed anime or whatever.

This was another love hate anime. I loved it so much and then the ending, the ending just leaves you going "AND THEN!?!". I loved it up until that. I could have done with a bit less romance but as it mostly focused on masihiro and gurren I accept the love interest they felt we needed to see. I enjoyed the storyline, art, sound/music and most of all the characters personalities. I also love that the main focus isnt romance, even though it is included. I've watched it many times and each times I love it and still even though I know it is coming get annoyed with the ending. If you ignore the ending part it really is a good anime. If you don't like cliffhanger endings do not watch, it will drive you insane.

This is one of those animes that i will start watching thinking that im going to hate it, then start loving it and then by the last episode i will hate it and promise myself that i wouldn't watch it ever again. (then i watch it years later thinking that its really much better than what my childlish eyes could see and saddly realise that really i was right, that this anime is a strange combernation for crap and gold all mixed into one, and sadly it gose from god to bad).   

To sum up the anime i would have to say that its weird, all through-out the anime you will question the everything and if your like me, then you will start to hate serent factors for the anime by the end of the first episode. Like the dub version ITS GODDAMM TERRIBLE!!!! some of the worse i have ever heard, and thats sayung something. Also the love interest, she is so unlikeable, its also funny. the way she speaks and how pointless she is will make you question way the 'hero' even bothers to save her.  

Now to talk about the verion that you can watch. like i have said this anime is dubbed but is also subeed and i have had the painful pleasure of watching both and i would have to say that if you do want to watch this anime then please watch the sub, becasue the dub is ear bleedingly fawful. to the point were is couldnt take the storyline serisorly when i tried to watch it. everyone sound lie they have been smoking something and it will make you hate the story and the anime, if you try to watch in in the dubbed. I dont know what they were thinkng when they made this, but they must have all been high, and couldnt give a f**k about how its sounds. IT REALLY IS THAT BAD. 

The good points about the anime:-

its fearly beautiful and, the fight scenes are good (not perfect) and the characters are somewhat likely. i found that the side spirts anf the main spirt where the only things i like, with SPOLIER the dragon begin my favorist, even thought she is only in 2 episodes. 

The prombles are:-

that the story is horrible, the ending is painful that lazy (SPOLIER losing merory and stuff like that to end a anime is a load of crap, its not a real finish, all it dose if anger the viewer). The chararters are sometimes a pain (princess, and main role). the script can be slow and boring and the music isnt that great. the human are all annoying and the reasons w=why they do anything is just werid. i wanted to have the main role really do something with the spirts, like his grandfather dying and he has to fight his own demons and culd to grips with filling out his grandfather shose, whilst protecting everyone. but instead i got a poorly put together that didnt invest me at all. by the end i really could care what happened to antone in the show, and that made me sad because it could have been really good. 

 i cant say that the show is horrinble, because i have watched it twice, but i can say that its one what i regret watching anf wont see again. I hope that you may have found this helpful, but dont let what i say stop you, give it a try and watch about 4 episode and f you dont like it by then, then stop because trust me, it will only it worse for you.   

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).

Good show. The character Mokkun was awesome. The little thing was so cute, but then it had to ruin everything by turning into a shirtless man. I just don't like how they have all these small stories that fill up the show until you get to the main problem near the end. You can tell that the antagonist at the beginning of the show wasn't the main villain, so it felt difficult to get into that part. I know nothing major was going to happen because they would save dramatic events for the final bad guy. Still, it was fun.

I found it kind of cool that that Katsuyuki Konishi played the character Guren (some romanize it as Gurren). In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Konishi's character Kamina pilots the mech Gurren.