Asura Cryin'

Title: Asura Cryin’ Genre: Fantasy, Mecha, Action Rating: 6.0/10

Summary: A semi-serious school action story revolving around the main protagonist, Tomoharu Natsume. He is haunted by his childhood friend, Misao Minakami, who became a ghost ever since he barely survived an airplane accident three years earlier. Tomoharu Natsume takes the opportunity to live on his own when he enters high school in his new place of residence, Meiou-tei, and starts enjoying a carefree high school life. His life changed when a beautiful girl named Kurosaki Shuri appears with a trunk which she claimed Tomoharu's brother, Naotaka Natsume, asked her to deliver to him. The presence of the trunk causes the appearance of Takatsuki Kanade, a girl dressed like a shrine maiden who is after the trunk. Tomoharu is in possession of the trunk, which reveals secrets about the world they live in.

Review: Asura Cryin’ turned out to be far more interesting than I originally thought. The story itself was pretty solid, but can be a little hard to follow considering it jumps through different worlds. Explanations are also a bit fuzzy and really saved up until the end (though I felt some of the explanations came out of no where). I did have a couple problems with the anime, like how people could see their ‘future’ selves. The anime strongly revolved around the idea of sacrifice, and without giving too much away I suggest you get used to saying, “That sucks” if you plan to watch this anime. Though I found the idea of balance interesting it is a bit over played. Another cliche` about this anime was having the constant sympathy for the devil atmosphere, because bad people aren’t really bad they just need a warm hug and someone to tell them it’s going to be ok. Even when the bad guys were defeated they sort of…faded out. Despite having depressing point about sacrificing the battles seemed a lot more half-assed. Even toward the climax of the anime the feeling of epic didn’t really strike, keeping the same level of intensity as the rest of the anime. The fight scenes were cool, but taking them seriously was a struggle. Next, the character models, which were surprisingly good. None of the characters were annoying or out of place, for a semi-serious action anime each character had a very good balance of drama, comedy, and bad-assery. I didn’t get very attached to anyone though, possibly because I couldn’t relate. This is a little strange considering the anime was 26 episodes. I believe that if you can’t get attached to anyone within that time span no one was that great. Understanding that being an action anime it wasn’t their intention for viewers to like anyone in particular I don’t dock them too much on it. The music was probably the best trait of Asura Cryin’, the techno opening was pretty addicting. Other than that though none of the fight scene music was all that memorable. The art style wasn’t horrible, very standard and got the job done. The only thing I would change is cutting that annoying strand of hair Tomoharu had dangling off his head.

Final statements: The anime is pretty cliche` when looking at the bare bones and nit picking at it, but isn’t a good reason to not watch it. Story is pretty solid and characters are decent. Pretty good curve balls too. Low priority watch.