Harutora lives a quiet life in the countryside away from any expectations thrust upon him except by his friend Hokuto. Coming from a family famous in onmyoji circles, Harutora is encouraged by Hokuto to become one himself. Unfortunately he has no talent for it since he can’t see spirit energy. The heir to the family, a girl named Natsume, shows up later in a confused manner only to disappear when Harutora says her actions aren’t cute. When a festival comes around, the fun Harutora is having with Hokuto and Touji comes to a swift end when an elite onmyou Suzuka appears to come after Natsume.
This is yet another one of these series this season that features a main character who the audience is supposed to empathize with because he has no talent and spends time feeling sorry for himself. He has a girl close to him that tries to push him in a direction he doesn’t want to go, but he never provides an alternative justification to her so he comes off like an asshole to her. Touji plays the cool friend role in that he always seems to have a grasp for what to do in a given situation. It’s a real shame that he’s relegated to a supporting role since his story would be far more interesting. Then there are the magic users Natsume, a cousin of Harutora voiced by Hanazawa Kana, that seems to be playing more as a childhood friend type character than anything else, but is probably in love with Harutora in that way. Then there’s Suzuka whose role in this episode is easily defined as a rich, angry girl that oozes with sexual frustration in her actions.
The story itself seems to be going down a very familiar path. Harutora as the loser character is needed for some great mission. So all of these other magic users gather around him to try to take him. The rest of the series will play out where he is put in ever increasing danger while bemoaning how bad his life is. If only there were a slightly better character around to punch him in the face while lecturing him.
As far as some comments on the production, the setting is pretty much bog standard Japanese countryside. The action scenes look fine up until CG is used which looks rubbish. That seems to be a theme this season. The opening theme is awful, but I was a fan of the ending song. I’m surprised I didn’t skip either though.
Reasons to Continue Watching:
- NTR vibes in the ending of the first episode. How will Hokuto respond to a challenge?
- The character designs look pretty nice
- The first summer festival to possibly ever have booths that take credit cards as a form of payment
Reasons to Drop
- It’s quite boring
- The protagonist is inherently unlikeable
- After last week’s episode of Monogatari, Hanakana’s angry performance here is mailed in
My Verdict: This will be another added on to my drop pile. There’s only so many Touma-lite characters I can take at once. This one just seems too boring and moans constantly. Why couldn’t Touji be the main character?
Lower Mid-Table 