The Morose Mononokean

This is another anime series in the style of Mushishi, or Natsume’s Book of Friends, where the world is teeming with mysterious creatures. In this show, youkai (demons) are once again there, although they are not actually evil, rather just misunderstood. So, some kind of main male protagonist character is needed to exorcize them or try to help them, and the people possessed by them. Unfortunately, in terms of the main characters' depth, interest, and charisma, it was only remotely close to what is referred to in the title mentioned above. Sure there was that nice "feeling" at times, although it certainly was not anything intense, and most importantly, it never lasted more than a few minutes. Some of the episodes were slightly above average; the final storyline and denouement were again a massive cliché. Still, it was quite likable at times, even though it did not go very deep, and in fact, the main thing it brought me is the fact that I am now much more looking forward to the new season of the much better-produced "Natsume's Book of Friends" 5.5/10. (03/07/2016)

Just when it was getting interesting, it was over... On the other hand, considering that the beginning of the second season just did not grab my interest at all and I had to force myself to watch the other episodes at some point... On the whole, I did not find the first few episodes all that interesting, and I was wondering after the first season (that was just a low-rent imitation of Natsume's Book of Friends) when did this show turn into a shoujo anime series. In addition to that, I also wondered why there were so many new bishounen characters all of a sudden, and if the "Enforcer" and "Justice" (some people translated it as "Judge") are somehow important to the plot, and also where the whole plot was heading during the first few episodes. I just could not enjoy the show as the endearing storyline about helping demons and the pleasant feelings you get after performing a good deed or hearing a good short story completely disappeared during the first couple of episodes. So then I felt like I was stuck watching some weird drama forced to figure out things that I simply did not find interesting. About halfway through the season, though, there is a change, and there are some episodes where those initial things I liked so much about the show, like say, the things I thought were good about the aforementioned Natsume (even though the quality is still low-rent) come through again. Then there was a pleasant surprise when the anime’s creators introduced a new storyline about the Ashiya family and I was finally hooked. There may be something that resembles the "mystery surrounding Natsume Reiko" a bit, however, the execution is solid and the character Ashiya Sakae seems quite interesting. I can pretty easily guess where this narrative is heading now even though it does not seem that bad at all, and so even if I am just awarding the same rating as I did in the first season, I am now even a little (but really only a little) looking forward to future episodes. 5.5/10. (27/04/2019)