While I will always miss the amazing aesthetics and other things from anime made in the 90s, that doesn’t mean that anime made after that decade suck. Even more if you’re talking about Shonen! It was the 2000s that gave us the legendary “big three”, after all. Few things could compete with Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece. The subject of today wasn’t able to, but I still think it’s worth remembering and watching it today! I’m talking about Kekkaishi!

It was a relatively well-known anime of that decade (from what I can tell), but I don’t blame ya if you never heard of it. Nobody talks about it these days. So, what is it about? From wiki:

“According to the legend, five hundred years ago, there was an insignificant lord who possessed a mysterious power that drew ayakashi (妖) (supernatural creatures) to him. A demon exterminator, Tokimori Hazama, was called upon to protect the lord and his castle. The lord's power stayed on the land even when he had died. Thus, Tokimori founded the Hazama clan, who inherited his techniques, to protect the land for centuries to come. This land is Karasumori (烏森).

In the present day, Yoshimori Sumimura and Tokine Yukimura, heirs of the Hazama clan, are the kekkaishi (結界師) that protect Karasumori (which is located on the grounds of the school they attend). They are ability users (people who can use supernatural powers) who use a technique called Kekkai (結界). Kekkai is a form of magical energy barrier that is primarily used to capture and destroy ayakashi that are drawn to this shin'yūchi (神佑地, "sacred land"). Any ayakashi that stay on the land become stronger. Yoshimori and Tokine are to guard the land from the intrusion of ayakashi who try to "power up" there.

Yoshimori and Tokine suffered a lot of hardships in their responsibilities to protect Karasumori. The ayakashi they must fight are becoming more and more powerful, but they managed to protect the land with the help of Yoshimori's older brother, Masamori Sumimura, and the Urakai (裏会, "Shadow Organization"). The Shadow Organization itself is an organization of ability users that is governed by a council of twelve, consisting of high-level ability users. Not all the members are the main inheritors of their clan's lands or titles, or are loners who have no place to go, and thus have become a force that controls the course of their country.

Many ayakashi try to become more powerful by using Karusumori's power, including Kokuboro (a group of ayakashi attempting to restore their leader's power), corrupt members of Urakai's council of twelve who either were in league with Kokuboro or were trying to kill another council member...”

So, as you can see from the plot summary, if you are into Shonen that is about adventure with heavy supernatural elements like having Youkai/Ayakashi in it such as Shaman King or Ushio to Tora, but with a bit of slice of life mixed in and, uh...not with the fucked up crazy shit that Ushio to Tora got, then maybe you already want to check this out. Let’s talk a bit about some of the main cast before we go deeper into the anime itself, though, so you can be more sure if this one is for you~

- Yoshimori Suminura: The protagonist of our anime. As a typical protagonist of an anime like this, he’s kind and stubborn, but does tend to behave as a typical 14-year-old would. Including in how stupid and reckless he can be despite his position as the 22nd Legitimate Heir of the Sumimura Clan.

Not that he likes being the heir, which tends to create conflict between him and his grandfather, but it’s unavoidable as the Houin showed up on his body, not on his more talented older brother. The conflict that Yoshimori has to experience because of his duty is where we will see most of his character development coming from, which is good, but it’s also secondary compared to his feelings for Tokine Yukimura, which tend to bring his whole character down.
It really borders on an unhealthy obsession. Heck, she’s even the reason why he wants to become stronger as a kekkaishi, and the only hobby he has, which is to make cakes, is also to impress her.
To help him during his work at night, he has the help of the Ayakashi called Madarao! We will talk more about him later~

- Tokine Yukimura: The deuteragonist of the anime and Yoshimori’s love interest. Being two years older than Yoshimori, she isn’t only more mature but his opposite. She’s very calm, collected, and ruthless during her work as a kekkaishi! And while she cares for Yoshimori, she’s often very frustrated by his attitude, always being lazy or reckless.

While she’s a great contrast with Yoshimori as a character, it’s very weird how she never figures out his feelings for her since he’s too dumb to hide them. And Tokine is shown to be very smart, she’s even a good student, which is impressive since imagine having to study to get good grades while every single night you go out risking your life to protect the school from Ayakashi!
To help her during his work at night, just like Yoshimori has the support of Madarao, Tokine has the help of another Ayakashi called Hakubi! Let’s talk about him later as well~

- Gen Shishio: The edgy, cool bad boy type that tends to keep things to himself, but can’t blame him, given his past. Gen is what the anime calls an Ayakashi Majiri, a human who is half Ayakashi. So he can turn part of his body into an Ayakashi or his entire body, and that means he has super-human strength, speed, and agility. The anime doesn’t go into detail about why this happened to him; it seems it’s an old family curse, yet his dad and sister are fine, so...maybe the curse only affects some random descendants?

I do like Gen as a character, though I can’t say the same about what happens by the end of his arc, but even more than that, I think his “presence” creates weird questions about the lore. Will talk about it more in spoilers.

- Masamori Sumimura: The older brother of Yoshimori, a more talented kekkaishi than himself and someone that Tokine admires, which can cause some friction between them. Despite being older and with that apparent more talent for the kekkai, he couldn’t become the successor since he didn’t have the Houin on his body. Things like that do cause conflict between him and his family, but he still loves them, and it’s a good guy, deciding to leave the family and do his own thing in the Shadow Organization.

Seeing him in action is like seeing a better version of Yoshimori or what he could be if he starts to take his training seriously and control his impulses. Masamori is a good character, and it’s a shame the anime ends before he gets much to do, given the cast gets somewhat bloated by the time he is introduced.

Because of the plot, around 70% of the anime happens in Karasumori, so don’t expect to see the characters going out on a journey or something like that. And in this setting, the Ayakashi can’t be out in the sunlight, which hurts them (like they’re vampires lol), so they only try to go to Karasumori at night. That’s why the anime also has slice-of-life elements all happening during the day, especially in the first 30 episodes.

Sometimes we do move our PoV to other characters like Tokine or Masamori or Gen, but usually we stick with Yoshimori, and it’s also through him that we see his life as a young kekkaishi, still learning the ropes about that dangerous family “business” while still somehow having to wake up early to go to school as if he were a normal kid.

This is just the most insane and nonsensical thing about the setting here. Just think about it. In the morning, they have to somehow go to school and have normal lives, without their teachers knowing about the stuff they do, so it’s not like they have some help during tests or stuff like that. And on every single night, those kids risk their lives going to Karasumori to kill any Ayakashi there. Tokine almost died in the first episode, though that was thanks to Yoshimori fucking up, but still! It’s no wonder that poor Yoshimori is always sleeping through his classes. If anything, it’s weird how Tokine is even a good student. Does she take drugs or something to keep up with everything? xP

While their families are rivals, those two tend to help each other during the night when facing a tough opponent, as they are still childhood friends. Yoshimori has a crush that is almost an obsession with Tokine, but it’s still crazy that you’re making only those two kids do such an important job. And it’s not like, for whatever reason, only the current family heirs can go to Karasumori or something, since later we see Gen and other characters like Masamori helping them. So, yeah...this part of the setting is just stupid and fucked up. If that’s how they always did things, it’s a miracle that the heir didn’t die before getting another son or daughter to be the next heir!!

That means that you should only expect to see the action part when it’s at night, in the morning, it’s all about the slice of life that can be mixed with drama related to the episode or something that happened in past nights. It can be anything from Yoshimori struggling to learn a new technique for his kekkai to wanting to practice his baking skills to make a candy castle to Tokine! This works quite well for this setting, especially since it’s very episodic in nature for around 25 episodes. Yes, we do have the “monster of the week” trope in action here, and it lasts for most of the anime, mixing in with the only big arc of the anime, Kokuboro.

For the most part, the fights are good since it’s not like they’re all the same thing. While both Yoshimori and Tokine have the same power, the anime goes out of its way to show they use it in different ways. Besides, the Ayakashi they face are different, and most aren’t so dumb that you can kill them in one second with their barriers. They need to think, to lay traps, to make strategies, and collaborate to be able to get their targets and defend Karasumori and live to fight on the next night. This adds a good layer of complexity to those battles, making some of them feel like the characters are playing chess, even if it’s against the monster of the week.

Things only really get more intense, and the “light” vibe of the anime starts to shift after Kokuboro is there, giving us what the anime didn’t have until this point: a proper villain, a face to put on the final boss with his own army and all. It’s not a drastic change in tone for the anime, like it occurs in stuff like Legendz, and not like we see lots of awesome twists in the plot that change it for the better, as it happens in Onmyou Taisenki, but it is there. So if you like anime that is more episodic in nature, or aren’t into it at all, keep that in mind. Especially since once Kokubori shows up, the anime spends the rest of its run dealing with it.

If you are curious to check it out already, then you gotta know that, unfortunately, the anime only adapts roughly until Chapter 122 of the manga, which has a total of 345 chapters. That sucks, we didn’t even get half of the manga into anime form! They did the Kokuboro arc, with some changes, and that’s it. That sucked since this was among the best anime that Sunrise ever made, the animation was quite good for its time! I would love to see the rest of it to be adapted, especially since there are some kemono still exclusive to the manga!

As it is, though, you gotta see for yourself if you wanna check it out, even if you know you would need to read the manga to know about how everything ends. As for the anime itself, it really depends on how much you like shonen stuff that is about adventures with supernatural elements mixed with some slice of life. If you're curious to check it out after reading this review, take a look at three episodes, which should be enough for you to know if this anime is for ya~

Now, I will talk about some stuff about the plot and my opinion on it that will have spoilers. If you want to avoid spoilers and want to see what the anime offers for furries, which is the main point of my review, then please scroll down to the “KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT” section!
























MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME

- While I will always give praise to the battles and the action of Kekkaishi, that doesn’t mean there aren’t times that the only reason the main characters didn’t die is due to pure bullshit plot armor. That’s a thing in all shonen, and it’s no different here, really. But, of all of those times, there are two that I think are so damn stupid I wonder why it’s even a thing...

Ironically, both are related to Kokuboro. First, Hekian. He goes to Karasumori, manages to completely immobilize Yoshimori and Tokine, which means he could have killed any of them extremely easily...and does absolutely NOTHING. That’s just ridiculous. He had every reason to kill them at that moment! While he only got there to get information, he had no reason not to don’t take advantage and kill the two kekkaishi protecting the place that Kokuboro wanted to take over so damn much! I was even surprised he wasn’t punished later for being so damn stupid. But then again, for a guy that can “see” so much, we do know he’s stupid as fuck, given what Shion did to him later xP.

The other is way worse and even brings into question the whole Kokuboro arc. Byako has his massive army with powerful Ayakashi. If he had his eyes on Karasumori when he heard about it, we presume close to the start of the anime, why didn’t he send most of his army, if not all, from the beginning? All of those Ayakashi would have easily killed Yoshimori and Tokine, especially before they learned more about how to use their kekkai. Instead, that moron took his sweet time, letting the good guys learn about Kokuboro’s presence and their interest in Karasumori. And when he FINALLY gave the order to invade, not only did he give time for the good guys to have their own army there waiting for them, but he didn’t even send everyone that he got, allowing one of his strongest Ayakashi to be killed for nothing. Seriously, wtf.

- There are some “changes” to the anime that are questionable at best, and imo the worst one is Sakon. That character only exists in the anime! So, technically, everything with him is filler. Why the fuck do we need filler at that point in the story? You could at least have made him a kemono with a good design, but you couldn’t bother to do even that, which is so weird since we did have some good kemono in the “monster of the week” episodes.

- As much as I believe the plot and the characters of the anime are good for the most part, that doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. Yoshimori can be annoying with his obsession for Tokine, but the worst is when he acts just so completely like a moron, especially when he should know better. He was saved only by plot armor when he did something stupid like letting himself be captured on purpose just for a shot to get his revenge on Gen. And speaking of Gen...

- Oh, Gen...you poor bastard. I can’t believe the anime/manga treated you like crap. All that development and time with you only for a stupid and completely avoidable death, only to act as a “reason” for Yoshimori to want to get stronger, which is very dumb and useless since he already felt that way thanks to what happened to Tokine in the very first episode. And he didn’t even have to die; Karasumori could have healed him! It simply...didn’t feel like doing it?! What??? Fucking bullshit.

- While it does make sense for Yoshimori to want to find a way to “destroy” Karasumori so everyone can put an end to such a dangerous place that has to be guarded forever to stop random Ayakashi from getting overpowered. What doesn’t make sense at all is the reaction of all other characters. Yoshimori is dumb, but he isn’t wrong about at least considering the idea of destroying Karasumori. So nobody somehow even tried to do that before him in all of those hundreds of years? Really? You couldn’t even claim that some people tried and failed and died for some reason? The characters act as if nobody even thought of doing that before, which is quite stupid.

- By the end, the cast got quite bloated, and so it’s not like we have time to give everyone a proper arc or development, especially when anime went out of its way to do it for Gen only to kill him later lol. But maaaaaaan, that whole thing with Byaku and Heisuke came out of nowhere, and it’s a fucking mess. A mess that at that point we don’t even have a reason to give a fuck. Especially when in the end it’s all about two terrible people trying to kill each other, and nobody in the entire anime even heard about that.












KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT

Now that we put that out of the way...it's KAMIKAZETIME!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80d6CCTfJlw

When you get a setting like this, it’s common that at least some of the Ayakashi or Youkai (or whatever the spiritual entities of the anime/manga are supposed to be) are kemono, and it’s sure the case here. In fact, Kekkaishi is one anime with a supernatural setting that has quite a nice number of kemono. Not all of them have good designs, though, especially when it’s those Ayakashi that are “random” and show up in groups.

Most of the good ones are ferals, and it's evident in two of the Ayakashi that appear throughout the entire anime: Hakubi and Madarao!

As Yukimura’s demon wolf, he served Tokine’s family for centuries and has a soft spot for human females, which sure brings a lot of questions the anime never bothers to answer! He even has a special nickname for Tokine and her grandmother, who is also an heir of the family, so he worked with her in the past. It’s nice seeing him teasing Yoshimori and Madarao, and his relationship with Tokine. However, as good as Hakubi is, he has nothing compared to Madarao!

It’s just so cute seeing that lazy, selfish but adorable wolf doing his thing while getting on Yoshimori’s nerves, or even Hakubi’s! And that’s not counting on a detail that really distinguishes Madarao from most kemono of any anime: he’s 100% gay in canon! The anime/manga makes it VERY clear! If you know of any other kemono that “came out” as gay in anime before Madarao, I would love to hear about it. As far as I know, this white wolf was the first one! That’s an important step for anime history right here!!

Not only that, but he has a nice arc, though quite a short one, in which he confronts Kouya, an Ayakashi from his past. While he is Madarao’s childhood friend, we never find out if Kouya is also gay and has feelings for Madarao, which is a shame. But then again, things REALLY go downhill from this point on, kemonowise. That means not only for our spirit canine pals, but for the kemono in Kekkaishi.

First, this little arc shows that both Madarao and Hakubi are “sealed,” so they won’t turn into wild Ayakashi. WTF is that nonsense? What’s even a wild Ayakashi? We see many Ayakashi that seem just fine; it’s not like they are attacking people at random at night or something, especially strong ones like the guys from Kokuboro. And from what we see, Madarao “unsealed” should be around as strong as those guys.

So, what’s up with that? Why do those two need to be sealed? It’s even worse when you see other “good” Ayakashi later, such as Raizo, and there’s nothing about them having to be sealed for whatever reason. Why does this only need to be a thing for Madarao and Hakubi? Not only does it sucks since it feels the anime is “castrating” them for no reason at all, but we never saw Hakubi’s true form thanks to that.

The worst part about Madarao’s arc wasn’t even that, but what happens with Kouya. It already sucked what happens to him in the anime, but in the manga it’s SO much worse. Seriously, what was the point there? It’s almost like the mangaka wanted to fuck Kouya for the second time for no reason!! He really deserved better!!! xP

Then, there’s also what happens with Gen, which is just...urgh. By this point, you kinda start to wonder if the mangaka actually hates kemono or something despite doing a great job with the canines until the end of Madarao’s arc. Look how the kemono of Kokuboro are all treated. For no reason, they got this human “skin” which is really just an excuse to make them look like humans all the damn time, since in the end, it barely played a role in the plot. And only some of them have good designs or are developed enough to be called characters, and even so...you will not see them for much longer once they appear xP!

Honestly, it’s baffling. I can’t believe the same anime that gave us the first official gay kemono in anime/manga history and even gave him his own arc with an antagonist and all can also fuck up its own kemono so damn much. From fucking over the best kemono for no reason to hide some of the few good ones with human skin for 90% of their screentime and barely doing anything with others that only show up just to be the monster of the week to be killed when their designs are so good they deserved to be part of Kokuboro!

- Ayakashi Gen reference: https://imgbox.com/g/LP4phJwvwL

- Big Kouya and Madarao reference: https://imgbox.com/g/AhydBxKIfV
Madarao here is the only time we see him in his “true”! Ayakashi form!

- Feline reference: https://imgbox.com/g/o3WJTNLuam
Come on, that feline deserved his own episode, and yet he barely appears and isn’t even named!!

- Feral Fox reference: https://imgbox.com/g/reYFvFCdeg

- Gagin reference: https://imgbox.com/g/31BKjRLCTc
You try to make sense of how he was hiding that body in that fake human skin xP!

- Hakubi reference: https://imgbox.com/g/Lndhv1ink4
Poor wolf stayed as a spirit, and we never saw his true form...

- Hisui reference: https://imgbox.com/g/O1po1oFxOk
I have never seen such a “zoraesque” kemono like this in anime, not bad at all! Shame we barely see him...

- Hitotsume Tokage reference: https://imgbox.com/g/AWd6Z9II7a

- Kouya reference: https://imgbox.com/g/HmF9JT1f2E

- Lord Uro reference: https://imgbox.com/g/UK7L7Kgr6s

- Madarao reference: https://imgbox.com/g/4mqtqArBXO

- Madarao and Kouya alive reference: https://imgbox.com/g/LYe9ZHx3Z7

- Majiro reference: https://imgbox.com/g/f1Zww3jQaz

- Messenger reference: https://imgbox.com/g/xkkwaSKWqP

- Mole reference: https://imgbox.com/g/qMvf0uWjPV

- Nagao reference: https://imgbox.com/g/ThF9PpfD3Q

- Raizo reference: https://imgbox.com/g/761fpMmzAt
Of all the “good” Ayakashi that we got, this one had the potential to be a real character, given he got most screentime, but...

- Random Ayakashi reference: https://imgbox.com/g/EU7EMxKTl3
Those are the best ones of those imo xP

- Special Satan Ayakashi reference: https://imgbox.com/g/hhYxbiM4dn
This one could be great both for design and his importance in the plot (well, for one of the characters...), but we barely saw him, and he looks quite different from the manga, which is both good and bad as the manga’s design wasn’t bad either. We don’t even know his name, so calling him Satan lol

- Sensuke reference: https://imgbox.com/g/DwvCMFpDwW

- Tsukinojou reference: https://imgbox.com/g/BoEIctRcxO

- Weasel reference: https://imgbox.com/g/bYByJ22RcT
Of all the “random” Ayakashi of the day, this one absolutely was the most wasted! Come on, you had an episode for him and didn’t bothered named him?!

- Yaichi reference: https://imgbox.com/g/6NTB5FyRDs

- Yoki reference: https://imgbox.com/g/X3HpNaQxui

Kekkaishi does have more than just one or two kemono with good designs, as you see. The issue here is how it really wastes most of them. It’s like the mangaka stopped caring for kemono after concluding Madarao’s arc, which is so insane!

For those reasons, I believe that Kekkaishi deserves a...
*turns around and points dramatically at the anime*
A TWO OUT OF FIVE OF LOF IN THE KAMIKAZE SCALE!!!

Normally, this one should be an easy three on our scale! Not only for the number of kemono, but some of them do have good designs, plus we have anime history here with the first official gay kemono! And he has his own arc, which is good!

However, more than add we need to subtract one point from what the anime does with its kemono right after Madarao’s arc (or counting with it, depending on whether you count what happens to Kouya in the manga or not...). A shame, but I think a two is a fair rating to go here.

It’s still a good anime on its own right, though. Kemono aside, it depends on your taste of Shonen with supernatural elements and battles if you will like it or not! Just don’t expect to see much of kemono like Madarao or Hakubi. After Madarao’s arc is over, it’s like those two are just there, barely forgotten. And they still will show up more than the other kemono in the gallery! Sigh...

The best furry character this time is...will go with Kouya! He really deserved much better!!

The "kemono in the refrigerator" this time is...this is a tough one! Think it’s a tie between Kouya and Gen, but depends on your PoV!!

Aaaand that’s it for this one! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this review. Please don't hesitate to leave your comments and opinions about it, and also about Kekkaishi if you happen to have watched it or maybe wanna check it out, thanks to this review xD. I want to leave those journals as a place where people can discuss the respective things being reviewed here!