Review for Blue Exorcist: Definitive Edition Part 1

Introduction

Am I prescient or what? Last August, I reviewed the first part of Blue Exorcist on DVD. It was a show that Manga Entertainment had been thrilled to licence and were eager to promote, giving the UK a budget option for the high quality shonen action show compared to the US Aniplex release. That US release had been a subtitle only affair, so Manga were dipping their toes into a new market, releasing their first anime without a dub. And then Viz came and spoiled the party by announcing a dub for the show on their new Neon Alley online streaming venture. That was just six weeks before the Manga Entertainment release. Suddenly a whole bunch of fans that ought to have been excited about the forthcoming anime were asking a bunch of awkward questions. Things take time in the anime business, and simply postponing the DVD release and waiting for the dub would have taken too long. I guessed 12-18 months at the time, and advised that if you wanted to see the show, just get the DVDs. Anyway, it’s just gone over a year since the release of Blue Exorcist Part 1 on DVD, and the dub is finally here.

There is a bit of a hitch though. The dub of Blue Exorcist is a Blu-ray exclusive in the UK. Once again we’ve followed the US, and waited for Aniplex to re-release the show with the dub, and they did so on both Blu-ray and DVD. The same is true for Madman Entertainment in Australia. However Manga tweeted that for once, it would have been more expensive for them to re-release the show on DVD with the dub, than it is to release it on Blu-ray. The upside of it is that we get Blue Exorcist on Blu-ray in two halves, the US and Australia had to get it in three parts. You might have seen on some websites that this release was meant to have the subtitle only DVDs as part of a combo release, but that was changed at the last minute to Blu-ray only. But you know there’s a whole lot of positive to be had from this Blu-ray release, not least of which is that Manga have used the Aniplex Masters (after a trip to Australia to get Madman and Manga logos applied), and Aniplex give fans their money’s worth when it comes to the technical qualities of their releases. As I reviewed the show just last year, and my opinion of it hasn’t changed, part of my review is repeated from then in italics.

Incidentally, I am a subtitle and original language fan, but it would be illogical to get a review title whose selling point is a dub, and then ignore it. For the purposes of this review, I’m watching one-third of the release in English. You may wonder why such an odd fraction, but last year, two thirds of the episodes on that DVD release had problems with their subtitles, and I’ll also be checking for errors in that department as well.


How can one twin have a different father than his brother? It seems a logical impossibility, but for Rin Okamura, that is indeed the case. While his brother Yukio’s father was human, Rin’s father was none other than the Prince of Darkness himself, Satan. Yukio’s body wasn’t strong enough to handle all the demonic genes, so it was Rin alone who inherited his father’s demonic nature. Of course he knows nothing of this at the start of Blue Exorcist. All he knows is that he and his brother are orphans that have been brought up in a monastery, raised as sons by Father Fujimoto. While Yukio is the favoured son, hard-working and likely to succeed in his ambition to be a doctor, Rin is the delinquent, apt to be found brawling, when he isn’t being fired from his latest part time job.

All of that changes when Satan decides to take his corporeal offspring in hand, sending a demon or two to the world of the living to awaken Rin to his heritage. Suddenly Rin can see demons, is being hunted by demons. He also learns that his adoptive father really is an exorcist, and then he learns the truth of who his actual father really is. It’s a truth that is hard for him to handle, and he lashes out at those who care for him the most. That’s just the weakness that Satan needs, and disaster strikes. With his demonic nature wakened, it seems that there is no place in this world for Rin Okamura, but there exists a way out. Rin decides to become an exorcist himself, and deliver a smackdown to daddy dearest. That means going to the exclusive private school, True Cross Academy, where he will attend the secret cram school for would be exorcists. There are further unsettling truths to be revealed though, including first of all just who his teacher will be...

The first twelve episodes of Blue Exorcist are presented across three dual layer Blu-ray discs from Manga Entertainment.

Disc 1
1. The Devil Resides in Human Souls
2. Gehenna Gate
3. Brothers
4. The Garden of Amahara
5. A Boy From the Cursed Temple

Disc 2
6. The Phantom Chef
7. A Flock of Plovers
8. Now a Certain Man Was Sick
9. Memories

Disc 3
10. Black Cat
11. Demon of the Deep Seas
12. A Game of Tag

Picture

Blue Exorcist gets a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution. This is the second anime Blu-ray in a week that I have seen spreading its 12 episodes across three dual layer discs, and it’s the second anime this week that I have seen really take advantage of that format. Deadman Wonderland’s Blu-ray transfer was crisp and clear, Blue Exorcist’s transfer is to my eyes, close to perfect. This is the best I have seen a recent TV anime look in high definition, and it’s getting up there with some theatrical presentations. The image is clear and sharp throughout, line detail is excellent, colours are bold, strong and consistent, and there are no visible compression artefacts. That one slight bugbear about Blu-ray anime, digital banding, was wholly absent on these discs. I didn’t spot a single instance of it, even during the most dramatic colour and shade shifts. As mentioned, Aniplex go the extra mile to give value to their customers, and we are reaping the rewards of that effort here.


Blue Exorcist is a high quality animation for the most part, great character designs, clean and crisp colours, and detailed backgrounds. True Cross Academy looks like something from a Ghibli movie, while the character animations are energetic, detailed and vibrant. This is a splendid looking anime generally speaking, although there are occasions where you can see the consistency begin to waver, especially in the filler material.

The images used in this review are sourced from the PR, and aren’t necessarily representative of the retail release.

Sound

You have the choice between PCM 2.0 stereo in English and Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. Once more I opted primarily for the Japanese audio, and the action sequences come across well, the cast is memorable, including the inimitable Kana Hanazawa and Kazuya Nakai, and the show’s symphonic soundtrack gives it a big budget feel. The show’s pop music opening and end themes also add a bit of class, especially the boy-band closing. Given the lossless presentation, the upgrade in clarity over the DVD’s Dolby Digital offering is evident, although not as drastic as the improvement in the visuals.

Of course the selling point of this release is the dub, and I watched about five of these episodes in English to get a feel of the show that way. It’s generally a good dub, one that flows well, with no awkward moments. The characters are cast appropriately, but it’s not a dub that stands out to me. It’s a dub which does what it needs to tell the story. One issue might be the inconsistency in name pronunciations, with even some actors unable to say their character’s name the same way twice. I’m thinking about Yukio’s pronunciation of Okamura.

The good thing about this release is that there are no problems with the subtitles, certainly no missing lines, no wayward characters, and no questionable punctuation. It makes you wonder how Madman got their DVD subtitling so wrong.

Extras

The discs get some animated menus to present their content, while everything is easily accessible from the menu bar.

The audio options facilitate accurate selection, clicking English will also highlight the songs and signs track, while clicking Japanese will also highlight the full subtitle track, but the discs aren’t locked, and you can have any combination of audio and subtitles you choose, and you can also turn the subtitles off completely from the menu screen. Of course this is all accessible directly via your remote as well.

Disc 1 offers the following extra features.

You get 2:36 of Ura-Eku (Bonus Short Movies) that are those special omake that also wind up as Japanese DVD exclusives. These are more comedic and daft in tone, and aren’t part of the story. There are two on this disc.

There is 1:30 of Web Previews for the episodes.

You get the first set of textless credits.

Unique to this Blu-ray release are the CM & Trailers, 8 short promo pieces for the show, and there are about 4 minutes worth on this disc.

Finally for disc 1, you get a page of credits, listing the Japanese cast and crew, and also the English dub cast, useful as the credits sequences on the episodes are left in the original language.

The CM and Trailers are presented in 1080i, while the rest of the extras are in 1080p resolution, The Web Previews and the Ura-Eku bonus animations have all been dubbed in English as well.

Disc 2

Here you’ll simply find 2:49 of Ura-Eku bonus animations, 2 in total.

You’ll also find 1:12 of Web previews, and once again these extra features have also been dubbed.

Disc 3

First up we get a full, Unaired Special Episode, which lasts 24 minutes. It’s one of those DVD exclusives in Japan and we get it too, a nice comedic and reflective piece that sees Rin’s adopted familiar Kuro, the cat demon, get annoyed at the way that his new master and his brother treat him, and he runs away from home, looking for someone that will treat him with respect.

The Ura-Eku on this disc lasts just 1:24 minutes and there’s just the one short here. Across all three discs, that makes the same five that were on Part 1 of the DVD release last year.

You also get the final set of web previews this time lasting 53 seconds.

Conclusion

Blue Exorcist is another shonen action story. I mean it may be the next big thing, and it may have production values at the higher end of the anime scale, but it is just another shonen action show, sitting in the same sort of niche as Naruto and Bleach, if a lot more efficient with its storytelling. It’s a big, epic storyline, with lots of interesting developments, plenty of characters, and it’s full of the jargon and complexity that shonen action fans adore, the details that foment divisions among legions of anime aficionados, assuring that they can never unite and take over the world. That’s the manga, of which I have partaken of the first few volumes. This TV series on the other hand is just 25 episodes long, and at the time of writing, there’s been no announcement regarding another series. This show barely scratches the surface, and to that, they still add an episode or two of filler.

It begins with such promise as well. I watched the first four episodes, certain that I would be wheeling out the ‘best thing since sliced bread’ cliché. The first four episodes really set the story up, introduce the main characters, show them happy and complacent in their world, and then tear that world apart, leaving them to pick up the pieces and come to terms with what has just happened. We have a pair of orphan twins, a genius and a delinquent, raised by their adoptive father in his monastery, and things seem pretty normal for Rin Okamura. His father and the monks are exorcists, but Rin thinks that just means laying the fears of the gullible to rest. It’s not until he actually starts seeing demons himself that he learns that exorcists are for real.

But that heralds the revelation that he’s been lied to all his life. His past, his father’s world and career, his brother’s real calling, all have been hidden from him. The ultimate lie of all is the circumstances around his birth. It turns out that his father is none other than Satan himself. With all that has been hidden from him, it’s understandable that he reacts the way that he does, taking out his frustrations on his adoptive father. That’s just the moment of weakness that Satan needs to act, and disaster ensues. It’s great writing at this point, with the characters’ emotions driving the story. You really get to empathise with them, and with the orchestral score really reaching a crescendo here, you really begin to feel that you’re watching something special.

With Rin’s heritage revealed, as is his demon half, he’s left with few choices, but he has vengeance to seek, and Satan’s butt to kick, so he decides to follow his father’s line of work and become an exorcist himself. That means going to exorcist school, and this is where Blue Exorcist falls down into the pit of mediocrity. It’s another high school anime! Rin goes to the same exclusive school as his brother, True Cross Academy, but he also gets a magic key that opens the door to the Cram School, where he will actually be learning the lessons behind exorcism. Of course he has a magic sword bequeathed by his father, which reins in his demon half. He has an instinctive skill in using it to scythe through demons, but his delinquent nature makes sitting in a classroom learning almost impossible. It isn’t made easy by the reveal that his brother Yukio is actually a qualified exorcist already, and will be one of his teachers.

We’re in Harry Potter mode here, with a lot of the stories that develop set around his fellow trainee exorcists. Moe comes in the form of Shiemi, a former shut-in daughter of a shop owner that Rin rescues from a plant demon, while tsundere comes in the form of Izumo and her memorable eyebrows. There has to be a rival for Rin, and that comes in the form of the abrasive and uniquely coiffured Ryuji Suguro, although his friends Konekomaru and Shima do much to balance his tendency to rub Rin the wrong way. It’s typical high school anime antics, with demon hunting and exorcisms thrown into the mix.

Of course the whole Satan thing isn’t too far behind, and it turns out that the school’s principal, Mephisto Pheles has his own plans for Rin Okamura, which begin by testing his demonic nature, causing all sorts of havoc in the school. By the end of this half, if it wasn’t already clear from his name, it becomes clear that Mephisto isn’t exactly native to the human world, which makes it curious as to how he’s so high up in the Exorcist command structure, running one of their schools.


You’d think that this would be a lot to be going on with, and the show should be densely packed with high school hi-jinks and hellish hyperbole, but we actually have room for stories that sidetrack from the main narrative here. Episode 6 is all about a phantom cook that prepares the food for brothers Yukio and Rin, in the abandoned dormitory they have for their sole use. Rin manages to offend the ghostly chef when he cooks up his lunch there. Episode 11 has Rin, Izumo and Shima off to the beach where they have to deal with a Squid-vasion. No, not that one-geso. But there had to be a swimsuit episode here somewhere. I’m stunned at the restraint shown in not taking Shiemi along... except that descent into mediocrity hits again when the Shura Kirigakure character is introduced in episode 12. She’s an exorcist with attitude that arrives to deal with Rin, and her habitual mode of dress is a bikini top that is two sizes too small. She also has blonde hair with streaks, is accompanied by kettle-drum, booby bounce sound effect, and deals with Rin by putting him in a face-into-boob headlock that would have otaku dying by their basement loads from nasal haemorrhages. The artists so obviously want her to be Yoko from Gurren Lagann that my eyes were rolling just as much with the anime, as they were when she was introduced in the manga. Did I mention that she pulls her magic sword from the tattoo in her cleavage? Nose bleeding yet?

Having said all that, while Blue Exorcist may be nothing new, it is still told with energy, efficiency, and verve. The production values occasionally slip after the opening few episodes and the theatrical music which works so well then, becomes misplaced and overbearing when used for less potent scenes. But the characters appeal, the comedy works, and most important of all, it’s entertaining. Blue Exorcist is a run of the mill anime, but it’s a high quality, top notch, run of the mill anime.

It’s definitely been worth the wait for the Blue Exorcist Blu-ray. Not only do we get the dub now, which for a mainstream anime like this really is essential, but we get it on reference quality discs. I can’t emphasise enough just how impressive this show looks in high definition. Aniplex’s authoring is meticulous, getting the best out of the show’s visuals and audio, and it sets the benchmark other distributors have to aim for when it comes to releasing contemporary anime. You watch this, and you wish that Steins;Gate and Blood C could look so good. This is one of those releases that it’s worth upgrading your home cinema for.