Thursday, April 25, 2013
Ayakashi is a parasite life force that gives superpowers to its host, taking in return the host's entire life force. Kusaka Yuu is a student who lost his will to live after the death of a dear childhood friend, until the day a mysterious girl named Yoake Eimu appears. From that moment on, his life will never be the same again. Hunted by Ayakashi and their hosts, the power within Yuu awakens and a never ending battle begins.
Ayakashi, while underrated, might be overrated in the sense that I've rewatched the anime ten times over the course of the last year. Of course, I'm proud of this and you might be wondering now, exactly what's so special about this anime?
『アヤカシ』
Ayakashi starts off with a seemingly innocent scene but contains an important detail, causing the turn of events which are the circumstances certain characters faced in the anime.
The anime is based on the VN and has a total of twelve episodes.
Meet the protagonist, Kusaka Yuu, a magical being. More accurately, an Ayakashi user and the terms gives off vibes completely different from "magical" and even farther from "wow".
An Ayakashi user is a person who has been, in simple terms, infected with a parasite called an Ayakashi. The more the person uses an Ayakashi, the more debilitating the effects will be on the user and it comes with the implications of losing one's own sanity and sense of being at the final stage.
Yuu has no idea of this, only that he has a strange power which enables him to make taps bend and be bribed into doing magic tricks for lunch tickets.
That is, until we meet the female lead, Yoake Eimu.
She is the definition of mystery.
The first we see of her is her emotionlessly killing someone and then appearing in front of Yuu when he turns away from a person being bullied by the school's creepy-looking obviously evil K-something-kun.
We have a clichéd cast but no matter how cliché, an anime will always retain some originality if it's good enough. While Ayakashi might not have attained as much success, it remains one of my personal favourites simply because of its charm.
The animation for this anime flows smoothly most of the time and the characters are drawn beautifully. The whole context isn't too bright and fits the horror genre. Certainly, this anime isn't for the faint-hearted. The killing is shown without any qualms. While it is not graphic, it still instils a certain sense of disgust and fear if you're not used to the horror genre.
The aesthetic soundtracks are soothing to hear and I became addicted to the OP and ED themes, which are beautiful and hold certain meanings within the lyrics. Among the OSTs, one of my personal favourites is Speeder, an epic track if you wish.
Back to the plot overview.
We have a pink bombshell by the name, Hime. She's a little whiny, a sweet childhood friend and gets in too much trouble. She has an obvious crush on Yuu but I'm glad that this love triangle in the form of Hime-Yuu-Eimu was not explored and most of it was just Eimu and Yuu because I obviously ship them together. Yuu is the typical hero, but adorable nonetheless and Hime is a sweet character in her own way. Eimu is the dark but sad person kind of character but lovable, most definitely.
We're introduced to many characters and a plot deeper than we expected ( perhaps ) as the story progresses and it does become darker. Though from time to time, it feels like we've missed something and that there a few holes and questions that need to be answered. The good thing is that the characters have development and while some switch sides way too fast, it's understandable for a 12-episode anime.
If you want an anime with dramatic tension and plot development with flowing animation, a balanced amount of violence and horror, then this is the anime for you. If you're a hopeless romantic who wants to see a romance develop without too much headache-inducing drama, then this is also the anime for you.
It's been two years since I first watched Ayakashi and I still remember every single detail of the story. The plot leaves much to be expected after each episode so take your time to watch this underrated anime!
