Ayakashi

As a child, Yuu Kusaka made a vow upon a shooting star that he would stand on the side of justice and defend the weak. However, the death of one of his friends robs him of the desire to live up to that vow, and he turns a blind eye to the misery of others, using the mysterious power he possesses as a means of making money instead of helping those in need. His days of living only for himself continue, until he's forced to fight for his life against another classmate with powers similar to his. He's saved by a mysterious girl named Eimu Yoake, who also has strange powers.

Eimu reveals that his powers stem from a creature known as an Ayakashi, a parasitic being that grants the user special abilities at the price of slowly draining the life of the host. She helps him fully awaken his own. Now aware of the ayakashi he possesses, Yuu must live up to his childhood vow, putting his ayakashi to use and fend off those who would use their own for evil, all while unraveling the mystery behind the death of his friend.

Yoake, Eimu Main

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Kusaka, Yuu Main

Kishio, Daisuke Japanese

Kare Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Asakura, Pam Werne Supporting

Shimizu, Ai Japanese

Yoake, Akino Supporting

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Makihara, Izumi Supporting

Nogawa, Sakura Japanese

Natsuhara, Orie Supporting

Nogawa, Sakura Japanese

Yakushiji, Hime Supporting

Matsuki, Miyu Japanese

Yamazaki, Asuka Producer

Aoki, Kiyomitsu Producer

Yoshinuma, Oshi Producer

Takada, Jun Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 4, 2020

Deepen1

Recommended

Everyone has his or her own talents. Whether you're good at drawing, playing a sport, or even making a simple meal, there's a special hidden talent within everyone. For a particular boy named Jun Sakurada, he has a talent too. We should all be proud of our accomplishments right? Well, that doesn't fit the case with Jun because after a particular embarrassing moment in his earlier school years, there's that fear of anxiety that followed him for the rest of his life. Has that ever happened to you before? Maybe but did it ever escalate it to a point where a person almost completely changes ... from whom they were once before? Probably not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 22, 2013

gaimcap

Mixed Feelings

Check your brain at the door, it'll just get in the way.

The show starts off with an interesting premise, but ultimately, that's all it is. The show feels like it was created by hobbyist highschoolers shooting for "cool" by being violent and "edgy" with pseudo-intellectual "dark" moments, but the execution was mishandled and it just comes off a convoluted mess.

Too much stuff happens in too quick a succession (pacing problems), and things are conveniently forgotten and parts of the story skipped (lazy writing). You'll find yourself thinking, "Wait, why is that happening? Did I miss an episode or something?" much too ... often, and it's not because you missed a detail, but because they couldn't be bothered to explain and just decided to jump ahead.

If could you treat this like a mindless horror-action series, all that would probably be forgiven (ala Elfen Lied and Deadman Wonderland), but unfortunately that's hard to do. The truth is, while there are some gory scenes, they all take place outside of the fighting so they feel like throwaway shock-value (they're not particularly graphically gory either, just violent in nature; and the violence is pretty much shrugged off by the characters, so there's no suspense or gravitas, making the scenes feel decidedly surreal). On top of this, the actual battle sequences are relatively boring and unsatisfying.

The animation and art are quite good, but these guys clearly did not know how to choreograph fights, so you just get a bunch of 30 second skirmishes with half a dozen action poses, and then someone "winning". It lacks the stylistic over-the-top moments that carry and elevate other shows of the type; and that may be its fatal flaw.

If you go into this not having been exposed to the action horror genre before, you might enjoy it more, but otherwise the anime is mediocre at best. It's certainly not absolutely horrible, and if you've got nothing else to do, its easy on the eyes and can pass time, but there's probably something better to watch. The concept and art style make me think this show had potential, but ultimately, all i feel is disappointment that the production company dropped the ball on this one; and that's the core reason I'm so negative on this show.

Story: 3 (The potential was there, but it was wasted :/)
Art: 7 (Visually above average for the time period. The palette and monster-character models are somewhat interesting, and the animations feel smooth... but the smoothness feels wasted, because their actions are so unimaginatively bland, and that drags it down. What's the use in making it look pretty, if you do nothing with it?)
Sound: 5 (Kind of forgettable. I do distinctly remember hearing a sound effect so hackneyed I couldn't help but laugh though)
Character: 4 (The characters are very RPG'ishly one dimensional. I read somewhere this started off as a visual novel or eroge... and it makes sense--... but then, I guess so did Fate/Stay Night. *shrug*)
Enjoyment: 5
Overall: 5 I've seen worse. It's watchable at least. It could have been great :/.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 25, 2023

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Not Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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