Kekkaishi-[adult swim broadcast] (w/index).

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[b]Kekkiashi[/b]

Kekkaishi premieres tonight on [adult swim] at 12:30 am EST. Trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX8WC1iWETA

Yes, this makes two anime premiering on [as] that feature Vic Mignogna as the lead.

So, this should be interesting since I don't know that much about the show aside from the fact it's apparently obsessed with barriers (hence the name). On the other hand, I've heard plenty of good things of the manga. Though most of it is of the usual "it gets better later on" variety that I'm not too keen on, so let's see how it works out.

EPISODE INDEX (Clicking the links below will take you to the approximate post where we start discussing the content - story, characters, production, etc.)

Episode 1- Scars
 
Kekkaishi-[adult swim broadcast].

braves said:
On the other hand, I've heard plenty of good things of the manga. Though most of it is of the usual "it gets better later on" variety that I'm not too keen on, so let's see how it works out.
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I usually consider this to be bullshit for many reasons, one of which includes directors and writers aren't suddenly going to become brilliant if they're mediocre or hacks to begin with. This is even applied even moreso to shonen series because usually their sense of fun and whimsy is replaced with Very Serious Angst and boring fodder that only serve to create endless strings of fights.

Kekkaishi is one of those genuine exceptions, though. I don't know how well the anime adapts the manga, but for the latter there is a gradual improvement once Yellow Tanabe lays the full groundwork. It's a slow-burner like One Piece, one where the various facets of the world are dolled out slowly, while maintaining the same appeal that the early volumes have (as in, they never become unjustifiably serious and lose the attitude of the beginning -- the scope just expands). The cast is actually... small, or rather more manageable than the bloated array that compromises many of the popular shonen types; this restraint also allows for some really creative monster designs, as well as some of the best fights I've read in manga. And there's some genuine pathos to the story as it plays out; one event in particular, with
a significant character death
, shows the series has more balls than most shonen out there.

A lot of this likely stems from the fact that Kekkaishi is serialized not in Weekly Shonen Jump, but in Shonen Sunday, which, as I see it, has always been more offbeat and "relaxed," for want of a better term, than the former.
 
Kekkaishi-[adult swim broadcast].

HellKorn said:
I usually consider this to be bullshit for many reasons, one of which includes directors and writers aren't suddenly going to become brilliant if they're mediocre or hacks to begin with. This is even applied even moreso to shonen series because usually their sense of fun and whimsy is replaced with Very Serious Angst and boring fodder that only serve to create endless strings of fights.
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That's the mentality that I have as well. For most cases, all I think you have to watch is the first episode/chapter to get an idea of how good or bad the show is most likely to be. I mean, the creator(s) know that the first thing they show to audiences is what will make or break their interest in following the show, so if they can't prove that they're competent enough on the first try, then why bother. Though, all I ask for is a reason to stick around, not something that completely blows me away to start with.

If it gets as good as you say later on, then I don't think that will be a problem.
 
I look Foward to Kekkaishi..even if it does just look like some sort of Bleach/Inuyasha hybrid/ripoff at first glance. I belive the show will do decently well, at least better then Moribito did (which is sad cause I for one enjoyed Moribito, even if it was somewhat boring.)

But yea, I hope this will get good ratings so that AS will consider getting even more new anime in 2011.

Also I wonder, when they are going to announce the 3rd new show, since its supposed to start in September...we should be getting some news about it sometime this summer...right?
 
Soundmonkey44 said:
Also I wonder, when they are going to announce the 3rd new show, since its supposed to start in September...we should be getting some news about it sometime this summer...right?
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The third anime will be InuYasha: The Final Act.
 
Watching now! So far, one voice in particular is throwing me off massively and that is Madarao, who, from what I've gathered from reading the manga so much, is
most likely a female
, I was expecting her to sound kinda like old Genkai to be honest, that's kinda the voice I gave Madarao when reading the manga.

I quite like the animations of the kekkai forming, this is the first time I've seen the anime at all and I quite like how that looks.
 
Oh wow, what a painfully generic anime. Can the characters be any more forced and stereotypical? Paint by numbers filler programming.

I can't believe CN grabbed this instead of Dragon Ball Kai. Even watching Goku fight Raditz for the ninetieth time is more entertaining.
 
Finished watching it over here in central time zone...the Adult Swim boards have been somewhat kind...

A little generic, but the animation's nice and the pacing feels faster than other shonen fair....

But I'll give it maybe three more episodes before I say anything else...
 
I've only read volumes 1-6 of the manga, and there's only 3 "arcs" in that span of time. The rest is filled with monster of the week type chapters linking the mc's over all improvement of fighting and barrier making, along with questioning both family's "why are we doing this" motives.

The first episode of the anime matched the first episode of the manga quite nicely. The voice acting was better then I thought it was going to be. I love the dog's voices in English. I always thought they would sound a little full of them selfs and the dub nailed that down so far.

Over all I can't wait to see more of the dub and the anime it self.
 
This seems like an odd choice for Adult Swim. It doesn't really fit their guns blazing action format, or their mature slow format, or their weird comedy format, or their western format. Really the only thing that you could compare this to is Inuyasha. So I'm guessing this means they are trying to win back all of those Inuyasha fans that they use to get. At one point it was a very high ranking show for them so it's no surprise they want to do it again. But I don't think it will work. Most of the Inuyasha fans have either gotten more into anime and most likely would have appreciated a different, more notable series, over this. Or they have moved on and don't really watch anime any more.

I think Adult Swim would have been better off getting something that would have been a bit more of a sure fire hit like Soul Eater or Darker Than Black which would have fit in with their action line up and worked well with FMA.

That said I will still check this series out. I guess it wouldn't hurt to check it out and it's not like I have to go out of my way to see it. At my lowest expectations this would hold my attention for a few episodes. And at my highest expectations it should be good for a casual show to watch.
 
Watched it last night, overall its a decent show, if this were about 5 years ago it probably would have been on Toonami instead of AS though.

None the less, I think the show has potential, I'm gonna wait till a few more eps have aired to judge it as good or bad.

and I must say, the english voice cast was pretty darn good! IMPO that is.

overall though it was an enjoyable 1st ep (even if it does seem like a somewhat genaric series.)
 
classicalzawa said:
Watching now! So far, one voice in particular is throwing me off massively and that is Madarao, who, from what I've gathered from reading the manga so much, is
most likely a female
, I was expecting her to sound kinda like old Genkai to be honest, that's kinda the voice I gave Madarao when reading the manga.
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Madarao is male.
 
So yeah, the first episode of Kekkaishi? How does it compare to the dozens of shows they could have aired?

HORRIBLE!

TERRIBLE!

DEPLORABLE!

Just three of the words used to describe this mismash of anime cliches that makes Totally Spies! look like an original production. There is not an original idea in the entire pilot. This is junk. This might have been an acceptable Toonami or even Miguzi show back in the block's heydey, but it's 2010 and Adult Swim. Everything this show does, other shows have done better. And when you factor in something like Baccano and Soul Eater was turned down in favor of this because of the latter having violence and fanservice, it just becomes even more grating and annoying.

2/10. Had this aired on general CN, I might have been more forgiving.
 
Yeah, it's pretty easy to make the argument that Kekkaishi is generic, that it reuses shonen cliches that have been used many times before and looks like just about any other shonen action show out there. This is almost true. Kekkaishi does use a lot of shonen archetypes.

I think that the difference between Kekkaishi and those shonen shows is that Kekkaishi does this deliberately. It takes a totally generic storyline, trims out all of the fat and messes with the pace so instead of spastically writhing around for twenty episodes or so and then turning into another tournament show, it gradually builds into a cohesive narrative with a strong foundation. Probably the best evidence I could give that Kekkaishi is actually going somewhere is this: most shonen shows have one central gimmick. Naruto has ninjas, Bleach and Soul Eater have shinigami, etc. More often than not these gimmicks constrain what can actually happen throughout the course of the story. The best series, like One Piece, are able to fight outside of these limitations. Others don't. On the other hand, Kekkaishi doesn't even bother in limiting its scope. The kekkaishi are the main characters, sure, but they exist within an enormous framework of magic-users, gods, thunder-bears etc. that all exist at the same time. In this way the power bound in Karasumori is a power, one of many, which means that Kekkaishi isn't so much shounen action as shounen action/slice of life.

Someone said something once about the way the show treats its its villains, and I thought I'd repeat it here:
in most shonen shows, an arc with an interesting potential villain end with the villain running off into the sunset, to reappear in a later arc. Kekkaishi the anime ends with the Big Bad standing in a field of yellow wheat, attaining spiritual peace after years of sickness and then fading away forever. That's fairly indicative of how Kekkaishi is different from other shonen shows, I think.

So obviously Kekkaishi isn't as flashy as something like Soul Eater, but it might ultimately be better-made. On the other hand, Baccano tops either of them so...
 
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