Historical fiction yet Another Great Anime

Written by eri8cthow on September 1, 2011 at 4:34 AM

If you look past the historical basis of the series, you'll find that Shonen Onmyouji is a fairly average outing. Masahiro starts off as a character that everyone expects to become a powerful onmyouji and follow in his grandfather's footsteps; so much so that Seimei names Masahiro his successor. The only problem? Masahiro's not particularly good at onmyodo, the discipline of astrological spell-casting that all onmyouji practice. He very quickly finds the motivation to improve himself however, which starts the generic "I must overcome obstacle x to become y" plot that is a staple of the Shonen genre.

-Story-
The story is set in Heian period of ancient Japan. It follows Abe no Masahiro (Abe no Seimei's grandson), a young onmyouji in training. Accompanied by his guardian and partner Guren, a powerful shikigami, Masahiro faces off against different mononoke that disturb the peace of the city. The anime is divided into two main stories, which are the adaptation of the first two arcs of the original light novel. The transition between the arcs, however, is done very smoothly, and there is no obvious 'break' point -- the story flows naturally throughout the entire twenty six episodes.

Though some may see it as a comedy at first glance, Shounen Onmyouji gradually develops into a serious drama with gentle romantic subplot that touches upon some of the very important points -- like understanding and acceptance of others, forgiveness, and the search for one's true place in the world. There is also enough comic relief, provided very cleverly and only at appropriate times, to give the partially light-hearted atmosphere and to help the story stay serious without crossing the line and becoming depressing.

While the anime only covers the first two arcs of the novel and obviously doesn't show the entire story, it definitely does not look cut off or unfinished. There is room for discussion after the final episode, but an overall feeling of completeness is present.

-Animation-
The art style is very different from the original novel illustrations, but that does not make it any less beautiful. I loved all the character designs, of both human and non-human characters. The contrast between Guren's mononoke and shikigami form was very distinct: Mokkun is small, cute, and childish, while Touda looks strong and mature, with a god-like aura around him; this portrayed his personality well. I especially liked the clothes designs for the twelve shikigami; it made them stand out among all the other characters. The little youkai that Masahiro kept interacting with were adorable and very expressive.

The opening animation was exceptionally well done, especially the scenes of shikigami introductions, as well as the scene where Masahiro and Guren reach out to take each other's hand during the line "I will not let go of that hand again" -- it was coordinated perfectly with the song. I also liked the idea of using colored illustrations from the novels as the insert images during the half-episode break points. Overall, the art and animation section gets full marks from me, for memorable designs and originality.

-Overall-
The story is entertaining, with the drama elements and some attempts at humour. There's the typical ayakashi hunting episodes, and cute relationships that develop between the characters. The series has the potential to be better, but in the end tends to disappoint on that end, and just screams for a second season.
It's a fairly good episode to enjoy on a rainy day, so to speak.