So who hated the first season's ending........AND the movie?
Well, this second season VASTLY makes up for that...
Kyoto Fujouou-hen erases what the first season finale did and makes it's way to a new conflict involving the resurrection of the Impure King, however with this going on, Rin Okumura has his own personal demons to deal with along with Bon's more family issues to wring in much more character development from the rest of the cast, what can LA say ALREADY but this second season MASSIVELY helped with it's characters with how they portrayed and developed the majority of it's main cast.
***** SOME SPOILERS AHEAD YOU HAVE ... BEEN WARNED *****
Because of that, let's dive into the characters a bit deeper. Let's start with Rin himself, Rin gains soo much character development, from his isolation that he was ousted as Satan's son, thus discrimination permeates the rest of the gang and it becomes even worse once they land in Kyoto due to Bon's religious sect having a deep loathing for Satan and thus Rin. His development also goes into his insistent on controlling his flames which is blockaded from how everyone sees him as a demon instead of a human wanting to protect his friends and everyone else around him. Next is Rin's brother, Yukio who goes through some personal demons of his own in the form of the main antagonist of the Kyoto arc and this main antagonist taunts him as to how a reckless brother like Rin gets special treatment while he had to work extremely hard to even get Yukio's own father's attention and his personal demons drives him through the anime. Bon gets the character development he NEEDED in the first season, as his delves into family and hierarchy issues with his father Tatsuma voiced by Jin Urayama, the leader of the Kyoto religious sect and his disconnect to his father and his way of doing things in defeating Satan through prayer?...or through brute force action?, but that is later explained by his father WHY he did what he did especially concerning the Impure King. Hmmm Shiemi and Izumo got a bit of character development in the form of their growing friendship and their beliefs about Rin, Konekomaru and Renzou also got the same things with their confused beliefs about Rin as well with varying directions on how they "tackle" the situation. LA might also add that we got the backstory of Shirou Fujimoto, Yukio and Rin's father with the Rin's Kurikara which is ALSO linked to the Impure King. Other characters like the Honjou sisters to Shura to Kuro to even Mephisto do take a backseat to these proceedings but nonetheless they do have a part in the Kyoto Fujouou-hen no mater how small. Favourite character?, for the first season was Izumo and Shiemi, but for Kyoto Fujouou-hen...goes to our resident Japanese ninja badass shameless fanservice girl Shura voiced by Rina Satou (sure she's support, but badass and has a stake in the plot concerning Rin and Yukio so she's somewhat important albeit a supporting character).
Wow that's alot about the characters...and LA isn't done, because of all these themes these character goes through, from Rin's discrimination, Yukio's grudge with Rin, Bon's family and hierarchical issues with his father and the isolated beliefs of Konekomaru, Shiemi and Renzou on Rin being a demon all manifests and ultimately resolves themselves with the main antagonists especially concerning Rin and Yukio to their respective villains, Rin to the Impure King and how even though he's a demon, HE WILL DEFEAT Satan and the Impure King is essentially his literal environmental stigma villain, Yukio on the other hand has his own personal villain to deal with his problem in the form of Saburouta Toudou. LA just loves how Ao no Exorcist manages to balance out both the "monster villain" as well as the "human villain" and makes use of both of them to Rin and Yukio respectively, something not a lot of animes does well with multiple villains let alone doing the major monster villain correctly executed!.
This anime not only has it's character development and eats it too, but it also delves world building wise, from Bon's religious sect to the lore of the Impure King, heck even some of the battles instills a bit of battle lore concerning the exorcism of demons and the entire elemental rock paper scissors format of defeating demons and LA just thrives in this kind of battle lore especially in a fantasy shounen anime like this.
Ok, next would be the animation done by A-1 Pictures and ohh boy did they pull out all they could for this season of Ao no Exorcist, from the polished character designs and upped detail from the first season, the AMAZINGLY detailed and crisp and fluid fantasy battles and sure they use CGI, but they used it CORRECTLY enough it was hardly annoying at all considering how well the animation is and how much an upgrade this season is from the first season. What can LA say but, A-1 Pictures outdid themselves and that is no understatement.
For voice acting, the majority of the voice cast did amazing with no annoyances at all. Special praise goes to Kazuya Nakai as Bon, Kazuhiro Yamaji as Saburouta Toudou, Rina Satou as Shura Kirigakure and the MVP's of this voice cast going to Nobuhiko Okamoto and Jun Fukuyama as Rin and Yukio respectively. STELLAR voice cast.
What can LA say about Ao no Exorcist Kyoto Fujouou-hen, LA can't even think of any flaws to talk about, the character development is stellar and desperately needed and delivered, the lore of this season was amazing along with the interpersonal issues the character did manifested itself well with it's villains to it's themes it did subtly to the amazingly well done and fluid battles and lore to it, animation is top-notch and the voice cast is no better. If your an Ao no Exorcist fan, DEFINITELY WATCH this season, if you want to see an amazingly well done second season of a shounen anime, then LA without a doubt will say to recommended watching Ao no Exorcist as a whole including this season as it will not disappoint in many of it's elements. This is obvious but, Ao no Exorcist Kyoto Fujouou-hen is definitely in LA's Top 3 Animes of Winter 2017, without a doubt.
*Note - LA has NOT read the manga for this season, thus this is PURELY LA's opinions on what this anime's second season has delivered, nothing more.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc Japanese: 青の祓魔師 京都不浄王篇 Information Type: TV Episodes: 12 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Jan 7, 2017 to Mar 25, 2017 Premiered: Winter 2017 Broadcast: Saturdays at 01:55 (JST) Licensors: Aniplex of America Studios: A-1 Pictures Source: Manga Demographic: Shounen Duration: 24 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 7.351 (scored by 413,963 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #25642 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #251 Members: 764,938 Favorites: 1,623 Available AtResources |
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