Anime: Ayakashi

Elfen Lied meets Tokkou. That pretty much describes this series, just a chain of shocking scenes, unreasonable behaviors and convenient events. It’s about monsters empowering humans, while destroying them in the process and it’s done in the usual way where a bunch of kids will be able to level buildings with energy beams, without a penalty by the police or their parents.

It has a lot of splatter, along with some psedo-serious aspects, all presented in a lukewarm way with dumb facial expressions and simple special effects. The battles feel “turn based” and without choreography, the monsters are static, and the splatter scenes lack details to even register as gruesome. The dialogues were also stupid and shallow, ranging from one-liners of seduction and threats, to endless monologues full of shallow motives.

The anime is based on an eroge, thus the feeling of “all the females in the story act like dumb, squeaky voiced bimbos who want to screw the hapless leading male” is strong. Males on the other hand just talk like barbarians and simply want to hurt or kill the protagonist. It’s all done in a very dumb way since the anime tries to come off as edgy rather than mature. There is a scene where a villain cuts to pieces dozens of people. The protagonist looks and says “Hey, another Ayakashi user is near.” Get it? He didn’t say “Oh my God, he killed my friends!” Then a psycho little girl appears out of thin air and he says “Nah, it can’t be her. She is just a girl.” Very reasonable answer, right? Then the scene changes and he is mysteriously bound with chords in a warehouse. The girl is dressed like a bride and wants to have sex with him. Then another girl (which of course also digs him) is mysteriously freed and summons her Ayakashi to defeat the evil girl. And then the protagonist gets all powerful (a thing he could do anytime he wanted, but didn’t) and saves the little girl because “She is just being used.” Yes, she is just being and the hundreds of people she has turned into mincemeat are no longer an issue. The girl simply fades into thin air again and the protagonist returns home while caring the other girl on his back, and feeling her legs all over his body… Did you like any of that shit? It all happened in just 15 minutes. Imagine how it goes from there. Villain women trying to seduce the protagonist instead of simply capturing him and stealing his powers. Characters standing still in plain sight when fighting with Ayakashi that move like the wind and cut people like butter. The edge!

Just like Elfen Lied and Tokkou, this series tries to pass off as serious by implementing as much splatter and insanity possible. It even tries to play it mysterious by having secret organizations, the amnesia routine and lost old friends in the background. Which of course is like having a naked woman talking about the injustice in the world. Are you going to listen to her or look at her hooters? An insult to one’s intelligence! Just play the damn eroge and skip this entirely.

[br][br]This is all taken from watching the Animanda fansubs of this show. Spoilers and what the show is actually about will be included under story and characters.
[br][br]Animation: Semi-realistic. Characters are well proportioned for their age and type, albeit still animated. There's the usual gamut of hair and eye color not found in nature. Backgrounds and so on were well drawn, there was no use of CG that I noticed (so no cg-cel animation conflicts). Not much in the way of repeatedly used animation sequences in fights and such either, except in the form of flashbacks. Overall I'd say the animation felt "soft", a bit fuzzy around the edges of pretty much everything. Not sure if that was due to the source I was watching, or if it was done on purpose.
[br][br]Now as to the content of the animation. It's graphic. Minimal ecchi content such as ripped clothes, kissing etc. An abundance of gory scenes throughout, however. Not "tokko" graphic, there's no entrails or organs strewn about, but these is quite a lot of blood, severed limbs and so forth.
[br][br]Sound: It has a nice OP. The animation fit perfectly with the music and was VERY representative of the show as a whole. It was good enough that i didn't usually skip through it. ED is not memorable. I have very little interest in sound, so I can't be more detailed than that. Appropriate sounds throughout the show, OP/Dialogue/Sound effects all sounded pretty clear.
[br][br]Story: It was pretty good. Yes, I know that tells you nothing. It begins when three of the characters are children. A singular event happens one summer, snow in the middle of summer right when a spectacular comet is spotted. From there it skips forward to the characters teens, and there's only two of them left. From there the story takes off, and is quite linear to then end. At several points, there are flashbacks which reveal exactly what happened (and also try to explain what is going on). There's a sense of sadness and...consequence to the entire plot. Most of the main characters have spirit-like creature they can summon to battle with, which they call Ayakashi.
[br][br]But unlike most super-powered characters, every time the creatures are summoned they exact a price. Physical, mental or both. As an example, the female lead is going blind. And the more she uses her Ayakashi, the faster this occurs. Another student has simply gone mad, and uses a serpent-like Ayakashi to cut things in half....including people. Most of the villans are quite normal people who have had their minds twisted by overusing their powers.
[br][br]The real basis behind the story is the Ayakashi themselves. The male lead character, Ryu, has a sort of dragon-like Ayakashi sealed inside him. But if he awakens it too fast, it will try to achive it's "full-grown" or "perfect form" state, by EATING him. And most of the other ayakashi share that trait. Anyway, I won't spoil it further than that. Not much in the way of amusing or ecchi scenes throughout the whole series.
[br][br]Characters: There's several main characters. Essentially two female leads, one male. Ryuu, Eimu, and Hime. Ryu and Eimu have Ayakashi. Hime does not, but can see them (most people can't). There's a host of other supporting characters and the main villian, Orochi. The character development is fairly detailed, you find out quite a bit about all 4 of these characters....from how they gained their powers to what happened to the 'missing' character...to how exactly the plot all fits together. There's quite a bit of back-and forth, midway you'll probably be unsure who is on which side. Eimu is probaby the most interesting and developed character, with Hime being the most light-hearted and amusing.
[br][br]Watchability: Good. The whole show fits together nicely and is about the right length for a series of this type. By that I mean it's hard on characters, many don't live more than a few episodes. Too much of that and you stop caring about the characters completely. What got me more than anything was the morality of it all: power comes with a price. And sometimes the price is so high, nothing is worth using it.
[br][br]That's all from me. If you choose to watch this show, I hope you enjoy it. I did. If I get some feedback I might refine this review a bit further.