Review of Blue Exorcist: The Movie
Warning possible Spoilers After finishing the first series, I was quite surprised to see that a movie had been made and was looking forward to seeing another hour and 30 minutes of Rin and the others. However this wasn't as fun as I was expecting. Story (6/10) Now I was really unsure whether the Movie is even connected to the TV series, true it has all the characters there, but nothing is said about Satan's defeat. Instead everyone is preparing for this special festival, while Rin and the others are guarding the academy from any Demons that try to interfere. While trying to stop a demon, Rin ends upencountering a child called Usamaro, who turns out to a demon and Mephisto has Rin take care of him.
However once everyone had gotten closer to Usamaro, it turns out he had been making everyone forget their bad memories and feelings, which allowed the other demons to easily attack everyone.
Yukio and another Exorcist called Cheng-Long try to kill Usamaro, but Rin manages to convince them that he won't do it again, but when a giant swarm of Demons start engulfing the entire city, Usamaro sacrifices himself to wipe the demons away while making everyone forget in the process, except Rin and Cheng-Long who remember everything that happened.
Yeah I don't really know why this needed to be made honestly, because it feels entirely separate from the whole story we had in the TV series.
Characters (6/10)
Now the most disappointing thing about this Movie, is definitely the use of the characters.
The main focus is between Rin, Usamaro and Yukio, while everyone else gets completely sidetracked hell most of the other characters don't even do anything their just there for the sake it being Blue Exorcist.
True I did like the relationship that builds between Rin and Usamaro, along with the dispute between Rin and Yukio in what to do with Usamaro as Yukio wanted to kill Usamaro, while Rin wanted to befriend him.
However that doesn't make it fair for the other characters, who are just used for random jokes throughout the movie, which isn't ok for me. Shiemi could've actually been used here as a big role acting like a mother character for Usamaro, since Rin pretty much acts like a father to him and this would've made the movie a little more interesting.
Art (6/10)
Now I don't know why they changed the look of the Academy, at first I thought it was the damage being repaired after the end of the series, but it's actually the city getting ready for the festival and honestly it looks pretty damn ugly. They also changed a lot of stuff around too, like the position of Rin and Yukio's accommodation which just looks out of place now for some reason.
The way the characters look is also kinda weird, true this is from a larger budget because it's a Movie, but it just didn't sit well with me.
Also WTF was with the designs of the Demons, the demon train looked pretty cool, but what was with the demons looking like goddamn balloons. That isn't intimidating it just looks ridiculous.
One other thing, where the hell are Yukio's demon teeth and ears and this pretty much makes me think this is it's own separate thing and has nothing to do with the TV series.
Sound (7/10)
At least the soundtrack was still good to listen too, although without any significant changes there really wasn't much to say about this.
Extras:
The action was still pretty decent, but lacking mostly as it concentrated more on a slice of life aspect with supernatural stuff rather than action, but Blue Exorcist never really concentrated that much on action in the TV series either so it's no surprise they didn't do much with the action here.
Enjoyment (6/10)
Overall (6/10)
Overall this movie didn't really need to happen, I was fine with the way the TV series ended, despite the issue of it deviating from the manga, but it was still enjoyable.
This just puts a thorn in the Blue Exorcist series for me and definitely isn't worth anything now, because of the second season.