Ao no Exorcist: A review

Also known as the Blue Exorcist

I really liked the female lead in this Moriyama seems like a normal decent person. She isn’t a helpless crybaby like Sakura from Naruto, neither is she a sex symbol like Yoko is in TTGL. Although Moriyama is competent at what she does and is rather strong willed she is still defiantly a girl, unlike Shakugan no Shana whose only feminine qualities are boobs and that she cries when she is sad. (Normally anime blokes don’t cry, they just have a blue aura, AKA Bleach)

Of the protagonist Rin, I will say this, he reminds me of Azuma Kazuma  that makes me happy and is sufficient description for him I think.

Levi put me onto this anime and said that despite being about exorcism and quoting multiple religious texts and having Satan as one of the main characters, he was able to watch it and rather enjoyed it.

I found it to be a nice interpretation of exorcism and a very Japanese take on demons and the underworld. So rather than Satan being the Deceiver/Destroyer he is just the űber powerful king of the spirit world, most spirits being practical jokers and curiously seeking chaos.

One of the messages of the story is about anti-racism, and accepting people for who they are, not their appearance. If you stand on your own two feet and be yourself and accept others at face value then people may get to know you, and once they do they will realize what a nice person you are. This is also seen in Rin’s interactions with Eyebrows girl.


Spoilers:

The plot centers around twin boys that were immaculately conceived by Satan, their mother was of priestly decent, she and Satan became friends.

The boys earthly father was a Paladin and one of the elite of the church, apparently the strongest exorcist ever. When he was sent to kill his girlfriend and the spawn of Satan he found he couldn’t kill the children and raised them as his own. So the boys are raised as humans and have a human body but the soul and magic powers of a demon.

There is the normal anime bit of growing as a person, overcoming adversity, being ostracized and making good friends.

Then at the end of the first series the protagonist is sacrificed on a cross for the salvation of all mankind, his blood given as a pure offering where none other would suffice.

Again here Moriyama shows up and is actually helpful, not just a love interest/bystander, and along with Kirigakure the women stood at the foot of the cross.



That got me thinking then. If the boys here are physically human and have a demonic soul and people/things can be possessed by another soul; then maybe that is something of what Jesus was? A physical human with the soul of God, given the breath of life by the Spirit (pun intended). As it says in Heb 4:12, its not easy to separate those things. Following on from that then would I be a lump of meat that was possessed by an angle (I’ve passed on lots of messages) and given the breath of life by the Holy Spirit?