(L) Ao no Exorcist

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

It does seem that the japanese take on the matter is that way. Ga-Rei, Juuni Kokki, 3x3 Eyes, just to mention a few, all show how the evil creatures can be bound, controlled and used to fight other evil creatures.

It probably sounds more strange than usual to me because:

1) There are christian priests involved, which shouldn't agree with the use of demons

2) Using the evil creatures to fight evil creatures is one thing, using them for mundane tasks is a bit careless.

In particular this second point: If exorcists accept that, then they aren't really that different from demonologists like Crowley. In fact from what it was shown so far it is hard to say whether the main characters are being trained in exorcism or in demonology, probably both. Which means that a demonologist would find those lessons as interesting as any other "exorcist" would.

As far as mundane tasks go, only Mephisto has been shown to do that and we all know how eccentric he is. Of course, there's still no discounting the possibility of others yet.

As for the whole using demons to fight demons, I could see it as them considering it a necessary evil, much like the church Necessarius in the Index series where the use of magic is considered heresy but necessary in order to carry out their goals.

[kagato3]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

For what I know, that "demon" could be as well Mephisto himself. In the end pretty much everyone that works in that crazy campus is receiving orders from a demon.

Anyway I can't help but thinking how bizarre that school and the organization that supports it is. It is supposedly filled with people that fight demons and are supposed to send them back to the gehenna. And yet it's filled with demons and demonic stuff in every corner.

I guess that's a completely different mentality, but for example in the classic D&D setting summoning a demon is an inherently evil act, no matter what use you're going to make of it. Similarly I don't think the Vatican would even remotely consider the idea of using demons to fight demons and it would frown upon everyone that does otherwise (this was in fact well represented in Hellsing).


Well I don't know what's the author's idea on the subject, but personally I wonder, once humanity starts using demons for every mundane task (cooking?), doesn't that mean that the demons are already winning the battle against the celestial realm?

In this setting there is no celestial realm. as set up in the first ep there is Earth, the physical world, and there is Gehana, the spirital world.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

She is like that, she needs to act like a bossy bitch to overcompensate her inferiority complexes.

I think that in the end Izumo's friend will leave the exorcist cram school and therefore Izumo losing her entourage will take Shemi as a replacement.




It does seem that the japanese take on the matter is that way. Ga-Rei, Juuni Kokki, 3x3 Eyes, just to mention a few, all show how the evil creatures can be bound, controlled and used to fight other evil creatures.

It probably sounds more strange than usual to me because:

1) There are christian priests involved, which shouldn't agree with the use of demons

2) Using the evil creatures to fight evil creatures is one thing, using them for mundane tasks is a bit careless.

In particular this second point: If exorcists accept that, then they aren't really that different from demonologists like Crowley. In fact from what it was shown so far it is hard to say whether the main characters are being trained in exorcism or in demonology, probably both. Which means that a demonologist would find those lessons as interesting as any other "exorcist" would.

Hell who knows, maybe the "shrouded guy who never uttered a word" is like that.

Not all of the firmilures fall into what would be cassified as demons. Green men, while pagan, likely a fertility figure or a nature spirit, similar to the woodwose (the wild man of the woods) he frequently appears, carved in wood or stone, in churches, chapels, abbeys and cathedrals, where examples can be found dating from the 11th century through to the 20th century. The foxes are not evil but harvest gods that only turned on Izumo because she was unwothy.

if John Faust aka Mephisto Pheles aka Mephistopheles is one who's to say in this world Crowley wasn't a grade a exorcist

[Rushberry]

Kinda fail ..

Spoiler for boys' dorm:

and

Spoiler for female bathroom:

[Kakkou]

^Or you know, they could've just converted one of the bathrooms into a girl's bathroom by placing a new sign. Also since this is a dorm, it wouldn't be odd for there to be a female bathroom for the staff who would be normally running the place had it not been given to the brothers.

[Rushberry]

Originally Posted by Kakkou

^Or you know, they could've just converted one of the bathrooms into a girl's bathroom by placing a new sign. Also since this is a dorm, it wouldn't be odd for there to be a female bathroom for the staff who would be normally running the place had it not been given to the brothers.

I see.. but the boys' dorm in my place don't have female bathroom -_-a

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by Rushberry

I see.. but the boys' dorm in my place don't have female bathroom -_-a

Well I did say it could be one or the other. They could've easily just replaced the sign for one of the bathrooms to accommodate the girls.

[Deconstructor]

If you were expecting the boys and girls to share bathrooms in their survival Exorcist exam training camp, then you'll be the one I'll point to when everyone asks who's idea it was.

Consider the dormitory may have been mixed genders before it was abandoned, or there simply may be a girls bathroom installed for when girls visit. And Kakkou's theory of there being more than one boys bathroom also seems plausible.

Regarding the lack of Heaven... reciting Bible scripture to fend off demons would seem rather ineffective if God (or some higher power) were not to exist. You can go with popular interpretations of God: He exists, but plays no role in the human world. But this show seems to say there are only two realms: Assiah and Gehenna. Maybe heaven and God do not exist in Blue Exorcist, or maybe no one has simply seen any angels. Since Satan is originally the creation of God, and Arias use Biblical scripture to combat demons, it would be paradoxical to say God is missing... perhaps God is dead already, or Blue Exorcist's mythology differs from Christianity. Demons might have simply existed in their own netherworld, just as humans evolved from primitive creatures on Earth.

Then you get Buddha involved, and things get complicated. Konekomaru says he and his friends are all monks - do they believe in Buddha and still recite the Bible? It is possible they believe in God where ever they come from. Assuming they follow Buddhism, is this more evidence to suggest there is no higher power existing in a celestial realm above? They could just be talking about the same divine being in different cultures, just as how Christianity and Islam share the same God.

But enough with religion; I'm more interested in the characters. Shiemi is far too nice of a person, and she really needed someone to take advantage of her. With Shiemi serving as a girl-slave, she could learn what friendship actually means, outside of a sheltered garden. Friendship is about making connections with people who can be useful to you, only to break those connections once the going gets rough.

Erm, my last sentence came out wrong. I meant, of course... friendship is yelling and screaming at people who you have to go to work or school with, every day of your life.

Well you can see I'm not good at describing friendship. Yes, a person does favors for a friend, but only because they know their friend would do the same in their position. In this case, I doubt Izumo was going to fetch fruit milk and carry bags for Shiemi. The strength of any shonen anime lies in how the main characters learn valuable lessons - whether it be through battles or interactions. So I'm glad to see Blue Exorcist following the moral formula, and doing a bang-up job.

Episode 7 Rating: 8.5/10

[Kafriel]

Konekomaru says he and his friends are all monks - do they believe in Buddha and still recite the Bible?

5:02 - Konekomaru: Arias fight by reciting the Bible and other holy scriptures. Guess that one's covered.

[Jan-Poo]

The problem imo is not whether the celestial realm exists or not in this universe, but whether the christian exorcists believe in it or not.

If they do not, then how can they be priests?

If they do, then they shouldn't like the idea of people seeking help from demons rather than from God.

5:02 - Konekomaru: Arias fight by reciting the Bible and other holy scriptures. Guess that one's covered.

A possible reason for this could be that what matters is the faith of the exorcist. So the various mantras and prayers would be effective because the exorcist believe they are, not because they are actually conjuring a divine power. This would explain why both buddhist exorcisms and christian exorcisms work despite their completey different faith system, or why they work even if God and the nirvana do not actually exist (supposing that's how it is).

But still, if faith is required, then they actually need to believe God and Buddha exist (even if they in fact do not).

[Deconstructor]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

5:02 - Konekomaru: Arias fight by reciting the Bible and other holy scriptures. Guess that one's covered.

That probably is the answer, but I assumed the holy scriptures they were talking about were all from Christianity. You know, the stuff Solomon or Peter might have written.

[PreSage]

ep 7 - interesting development at the end there. I kind of guessed that priest/prof. knew about Rin with that look he gave him during the lesson but I didn't expect him to be working for the bad guys. On second thought...maybe he's not working for the bad guys since it looks like his demon familiar is trying to kill Rin. Ahhh...

Ni is so cute...and so functional too.

Gah! I have one nagging question...who the world is that mystery student with the cloak...he's always covered in a cloak and hood. No one seems to interact with him, and he doesn't say anything. I don't think we've seen his face or know who he is yet...otherwise, I totally missed it.

I wonder for how long Rin's going to have to hide his powers...and not fight. =_= They're going to have to reveal his true identity soon or his hide-n-seek act will start to get dull.

[kagato3]

Well we know that at least some little g gods are brings from Gehenna then maybe heaven and the silver city are parts of Gehenna the reason Demons are more plentifull on earth is that they have the most intrest in it.

As for useing demons to do gods work just look up the key of solomon and the 72 deamons bound by Ham and Solomon to perform works on God's behalf, and Books like the Key of Solomon not only had infomation on sumoning demons and neutral/natural spirits but even angels too. and angels tended to be a lot more pissed at being sumoned then demons did if it wasn't for an importent reason.

[Jan-Poo]

Well the key of solomon isn't a holy book.
A priest believing in that book would be considered an heretic.

Originally Posted by PreSage

Gah! I have one nagging question...who the world is that mystery student with the cloak...he's always covered in a cloak and hood. No one seems to interact with him, and he doesn't say anything. I don't think we've seen his face or know who he is yet...otherwise, I totally missed it.

It's a mysterious student, you didn't miss anything, it was really never revealed anything about him. But I have no doubt that before the end of this series we will get to know. I hope it will be a nice surprise. It would be lame if he was just a normal student.

Originally Posted by PreSage

I wonder for how long Rin's going to have to hide his powers...and not fight. =_= They're going to have to reveal his true identity soon or his hide-n-seek act will start to get dull.

I'm looking forward to see Ryuuji's reaction to that.

[DragoonKain3]

Must...resist...urge...to...kill..Izumo. How dare she treat Shiemi like that! All she wanted was to be friends...

[klare]

Spoiler for eps 7:

a Shiemi centered eps, she is getting better but still a bit... weird

Meister? heard that a lot in Gundam

i am guessing Rin will not belong to any of the class, due to his unique ablility

[Accelolita_]

Originally Posted by PreSage

Gah! I have one nagging question...who the world is that mystery student with the cloak...he's always covered in a cloak and hood. No one seems to interact with him, and he doesn't say anything. I don't think we've seen his face or know who he is yet...otherwise, I totally missed it.

I wonder for how long Rin's going to have to hide his powers...and not fight. =_= They're going to have to reveal his true identity soon or his hide-n-seek act will start to get dull.

Well, I have answers for both things. But it would be a huge spoiler. Only manga readers would know. So don't worry, it'll get revealed sooner or later. I don't know how many chapters the anime will include, so I cannot say how many episodes it will take until they reveal it :3
If you want to get spoiled I might as well tell you via PM. So if you're interested, you can ask me xD

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

I'm looking forward to see Ryuuji's reaction to that.

I hope we at least see this in the anime adaptation, because it's bound to be interesting.

Temptation to read the manga is as high as ever now!

[PreSage]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

I'm looking forward to see Ryuuji's reaction to that.

Me too. Ryuuji's and everyone else's reaction...it will be funny (maybe?).

Originally Posted by Accelolita_

Well, I have answers for both things. But it would be a huge spoiler. Only manga readers would know. So don't worry, it'll get revealed sooner or later. I don't know how many chapters the anime will include, so I cannot say how many episodes it will take until they reveal it :3
If you want to get spoiled I might as well tell you via PM. So if you're interested, you can ask me xD

Oh, good. Then it's intentional that student is kept as a mystery. Does the series give clues as to whom this person might be? And thanks for offering but I'm going to hold back on the spoiler for now - though I'm veerry tempted. I'll PM you if the anime doesn't reach that point in the manga but I hope it does. According to ANN, we'll have only 24 episodes...I wonder how much of the manga they can cover in 24 episodes.

[Accelolita_]

Originally Posted by PreSage

Oh, good. Then it's intentional that student is kept as a mystery. Does the series give clues as to whom this person might be? And thanks for offering but I'm going to hold back on the spoiler for now - though I'm veerry tempted. I'll PM you if the anime doesn't reach that point in the manga but I hope it does. According to ANN, we'll have only 24 episodes...I wonder how much of the manga they can cover in 24 episodes.

Mhm, as far as I remember. No, they don't give any clues. But that's okay, I guess. At least that's what I remember, but it's been quite a while since the last time I looked in the manga, so maybe I'm wrong
Well, lets say they cover the manga at least till the latest arc, then you get to know who this person is :3

[Kafriel]

Temptation to read the manga is as high as ever now!

Imo it's better if you don't, the anime's doing a great job at conveying the plot, and all the good stuff has yet to come^^