Kekkaishi

Watching _Kekkaishi_ is like enjoying a big box of chocolate; you know it's essentially just fat and sugar, but that doesn't stop you from eating it. _Kekkaishi_ offers nothing new, nothing spectacular, essentially nothing. It's not one of those animes that tries to be high brow and thought provoking. In the limitation of its scope, however, the series has done extremely well. The story progresses with fast enough pace that one doesn't feel the urge to fast forward, often with suspense--in the form of unresolved secrets or crisis--sustained throughout several episodes. The art is excellent as well: very clean and rarely with the exaggeration of eitherbeing too 'shoujo' or too 'shounen.' It's rather rare these days to see the female protagonist drawn without over-developed body parts, which in this case only makes her more charming and lovable. The story is simple and rather straight-forward. The basic premise of nearly all episodes lies on the encounter of the two main characters with the invading monster(s) of the week, with stories dedicated to character development revolving around this premise. I am glad to say, however, that the story has not fallen into one of the major caveats of this structure. The conflict resolution does not always depend on the main characters getting stronger (through training, for instance), but also on their character growth and interaction. Many hints are dropped within the series suggesting the series targets a rather young main audience: too many things are explicitly spelled out for you. The male protagonist's main drive, for instance, is hammered repeatedly to the audience from his own dialogue. A good thing that comes out of this is that the characters have well-defined personalities that explain why they do the things they do. Every character remains faithful to his/her main trait. This, unfortunately, also makes the characters rather simplistic and two-dimensional, with no room left for surprise. I find it difficult, however, to blame a series dedicated to younger audience for being reductionist in its portrayal of human psyche.

Let me start off by saying that Kekkaishi is NOT your average mainstream anime, because let me tell you, it ISN'T. It starts off making you think it's all "we've got one aspiring, goofy young teen who wants to be noticed, one smart-perfect round about girl, and one best friend who is half-human half-other" but then it takes you onto a whole other plane. Kekkaishi has your drama, your comic relief scenes, and your thought provoking scenarios all in one AND the best part is that it isn't long and overly drawn out like Naruto, Bleach, or InuYasha. Plot (9/10): As mentioned earlier, it's got your basic goofymain character who has a crush on his neighbor and later on meets his best friend who happens to be half-Ayakashi ("ghost"/"demon"). HOWEVER, Kekaishi also successfully merges in some well back story plots that defies your average shounen story making it about 100x more interesting and it isn't drawn out to be annoying. The only reason I don't give it a full 10 was because I felt the ending could have used a little more "padding" i.e, giving it a slightly more thorough conclusion. It wasn't completely open-ended, but I do feel that there were maybe one or two knots that could have been tied before ending completely. Art (8/10): Considering that I'm writing this review in 2015 and this anime finished airing in 2008, I'm actually rather impressed with some of the special effects in the show. There were a few questionable shots, but overall I thought the art work was clean, well-done, and interesting. I only give it an 8 though because there were a few awkward shots/angles. Sound (9/10): Awesome voice acing (I'm talking about the original Japanese) the voices are all amazing and you really feel like you're watching something and not listening to someone reading off a script. There are also some very good, well-known voice actors such as Hiroyuki Yoshino and Kenjiro Tsuda. Also, including sound, the voice sound wasn't as ill-proportioned as some anime can be (i.e, the sound effects and music overpowers the voices making it difficult to hear). Characters (10/10): The characters were all very "3D" meaning they really captured the audience's attention. In my opinion, I really got to "know" the characters more as people than just characters in a story. Even the villain Kaguro, because dang, did that guy have STYLE! He was bad to the core, but there was a certain amount of charm in the way he did things that kind of makes you like him and respect him, but still not "like-liking" him enough to hope he isn't killed off in the end. He made for a very good villain and normally one would hope to look for "grey villains" in anime that can decide to be seen as good or bad, but not this time. Kaguro was completely black in personality, and it was kind of "refreshing" in a way because often anime creates antagonists who, more usually than not, join the hero side which, although interesting, can kind of become predictably boring after seeing it occur so often. There is also a good amount of character development and interesting personalities and, like I said, you really "fall in love" with the characters. Overall and Enjoyment (10/10: Overall, it was an awesome show with a relatively satisfying ending and I'm actually really depressed now that it's over. I suggest it for people who want mindless fun, but not to the point of brain dead fluff. I mean, I liked it so much that I managed to write a review for it, which I haven't even done for my most FAVORITE or favorite shows; so it just goes to show how great this series is, right? :P

What is it that sets Kekkaishi apart from other shounen anime? Well, nothing really. Kekkaishi had a fairly original premise of two young kekkai users battling ayakashi (youkai) in order to protect a powerful piece of land. In order to protect the land, their rivaling families have lived next to each other for 400 years. Growing up together from a young age, Yoshimori and Tokine knew that their families were "frienemies" and that they should not maintain a close relationship. So the story begins... Unfortunately, all the unique and interesting parts of the anime had little development, and the animefocused on the run-of-the-mill shounen fodder. It would have been interesting if they had addressed Yoshimori's unrequited love for Tokine and what makes Yoshimori's powers so unique, but sadly it was mostly ignored. Another disturbing characteristic was the seeming lack of emotion over death. Without going into too much detail, usually people have a strong emotional reaction to death. Well, in this case, the next episode was back to usual and the death was rather unemotionally brought up only when convenient. Many parallels can been seen between Kekkaishi, Naruto, and Bleach. Yoshimori is basically a pre-Shippuden, less obnoxious Naruto; while Tokine is a slightly more useful and naggy Sakura. One of the enemy ayakashi is a forgery of Rukia from Bleach. It was pretty blatant character stealing. Story: 5 Mediocre. It had potential, but the beginning of the anime basically had no plot. Art: 8 Very good. While it was not my preferred style, the art was crisp and clean. The characters were a little above average, but the backgrounds were beautiful. Unfortunately, they use the same background over-and-over again. Definitely the best aspect of the series. Sound: 3 Poor. Whoever decided on the theme song needs to be fired. It's one of those songs that is maybe ok once, but that screechy harpy voice makes you angry the second time you hear it. All the ending themes but one were lackluster. Sound effects were normal in the episodes. Obviously, something the series fails at. Characters: 6 This is what kept me coming back for more. No, not Tokine and Yoshimori, but some fairly decent bad guys. It's pretty sad when you want the protagonists to lose and have the antagonists take over the story. Almost all the characters (especially the protagonists) were one-trick-ponies. They had no discernible character development and felt flat. Enjoyment: 5 Mediocre. Unfortunately, the last 10 or so episodes do not make up for the 40+ bland episodes before it. I would have rated this higher if the first episodes had been less repetitive. Overall: 6 Fair. Although the the anime wasn't terrible at the every-episode-fight-weak-random-bad-guys scenario, I could have substituted any episode for the other. That said, the anime did show significant improvement after the 40th episode. Kekkaishi could have benefited from compacting the beginning storyline and reducing the episode count. Quantity does not equal quality. In conclusion: At this time, I would only recommend this anime to people who are new to the shounen genre. Maybe you can enjoy it more if you have nothing to compare it to. If there is a second season, that picks up were the first left off, I might actually recommend it. That being said, you would have to sift through the previous 40 boring episodes. I would recommend Bleach and Naruto over Kekkaishi (as long as you skip the fillers), and less well-known series such as: Sengoku Basara, Soul Eater, Monochrome Factor (manga is better), and Tactics.

Kekkaishi is a decent shonen show. All the usual elements are there, a simple minded young hero, the cute girl from the neighbourhood, their hate/love relation and lots of monsters to make them evolve and become powerfull saving the day. What makes it decent? the techniques they use are interesting and the enemies vary as well, plenty of original monsters and the usual undisclosed romance do a good job entertaining, topped with funny gags and cliches that worked out quite good, becomes very silly for moments but also has the dramatic scenes building up momentum for the end. Its not completely original or a must see butits well built and didnt became boring like most shonens nowadays, if theres any flaw its prolly the open end, built on a good plot I was personally expecting more, at least the arc ends, but leaves room for more seasons. Taking all into consideration its an average show built for entertaining and does it well, its not incredibly good but doesn't fall into boring or the usual flaws of shonens, if your into the style its a good watch but if you prefer something more elaborate, don't expect too much of it. Wont disappoint but wont leave a strong impression either. I enjoyed the ending song quite alot and Id like to comment on the 8 scoring in character, because I do believe there are good characters here, not original but better built then other similar shows. The enjoyment rating is a bit overrated because its hard to find an action shonen lately that isn't completely cookie cutter, this managed to get out of the box enough to be watchable.