Blue Exorcist The Movie

With Aniplex of America and publishers in other regions following a six-instalment release of the English dubbed main Blue Exorcist TV series following a comparable two-part subtitled release, it has been quite a while since we have seen anything new released in terms of the successful anime adaptations. Finally after a long wait, we have finally been treated to the official English release of the creatively (??) named feature film Blue Exorcist the Movie. Featuring a unique, self-contained plot with all the perks of being a film rather than an episode, Blue Exorcist the movie is something that can be enjoyed no matter how far into the TV series you are.

Blue Exorcist the Movie takes place during a festival that only occurs once every eleven years on the grounds of True Cross Academy. During preparations for the festival, a phantom train runs loose on the grounds with Rin, Yuiko and Shiemi sent to exorcise it. However a rash decision by the trainees complicates the mission which ends up leaving much chaos and destruction in its wake. The destruction leads to the unsealing of a demon which takes on the form of a young boy – later dubbed Usamaro. His appearance is of little importance, with the academy renewing the wards that protect the city thus making it more vulnerable to demon invasion. Unwilling to let Usamaro simply be destroyed, Rin takes on the responsibility of the demon who has a deep relation to the festival.

All these key plot elements combined result in a film with plenty of action-oriented scenes throughout its ninety minute run-time which should appease the core shounen anime fans. But there is also a lighter side to Blue Exorcist the Movie which interweaves a number of scenes which focus on the growing brotherly relationship shared between Rin and Usamaro. As someone who has a soft spot for plots like this (I loved Bunny Drop, what do you expect?), while it may not bode well with Blue Exorcist’s key shounen demographic I thought it added an extra emotional layer to the gripping conclusion. Ultimately these scenes also end up being the only ones where anyone outside the core character cast manage to get more than a few voiced lines in – from a baseball game with all the exwires to an adorable dinner with Rin, Usamaro and Kuro.

There may not be anything elaborate to the plot itself, however when all the individual elements came together it made for an enjoyable experience that manages to be completely separate to any of the overarching plot events present in the main TV series. Given the manga has progressed a bit further it would not surprise me if a second TV series was announced sometime in the near future, however if this is the standard we can expect from individual films, I would love to see more like this in the future… perhaps with more creative naming than Blue Exorcist the Movie 2 though.

The original Blue Exorcist TV series boasted strong visuals that in my original review it walk away with an A- grade in the Design category. With the added attention that most anime theatrical releases earn, animation studio A-1 Pictures managed to best everything they presented before in the series, with Blue Exorcist the Movie being one of the recent anime releases that I would highly recommend picking up on Blu-ray rather than DVD. While True Cross Academy once again serves as the core setting for the film, much of it takes place in the previously unshown surrounding areas which are just as highly detailed and well designed. These environments particularly shine as the festival begins to get under way, with all the little details and lighting that makes each area stand out.

As with the recent DVD and Blu-ray releases, Blue Exorcist the Movie features both the original Japanese dub and an all-new English dub. Bryce Papenbrook, Christine Marie Cabanos and Johnny Yong Bosch return to voice the core characters Rin, Shiemi and Yuiko respectively and do a modest job in meeting the demands of their characters – especially Papenbrook who has made a name for himself in similar lead roles. Cassandra Lee and Todd Haberkorn take on new roles as Usamaro and Cheng-Long Liu respectively, also suiting their characters well. While I personally think the Japanese dub in this case is more enjoyable than the English one, especially given the Japanese audio commentary features that complement it, it is a film worth watching twice to enjoy both dubs.

While it isn’t all too common for Madman Entertainment releases to include anything extra in the case, this time around they threw in four artwork postcards based on different promotional artwork for the film. While I question who would actually ever use these to post a message to someone, they were a nice physical addition. Their release is not short of on-disc extra content either with two audio commentaries by the Japanese cast and production team, theatrical trailers, commercial and preview videos and the newer US trailer for the film. Both audio commentaries alone were enough, with all other extras serving as icing on the cake.

Taking into account the 90 minutes that the production team had to deliver the entire arc in, Blue Exorcist the Movie ended up being a well executed feature film and a highlight for the Blue Exorcist anime adaptations to date. While it doesn’t contribute too much to the overarching storyline about Rin Okumura’s mission to become a fully fledged Exorcist and defeat his father, Satan, in battle, it was nevertheless a charming story that offered something different from what the more action-oriented TV series did.

Already a fan? You will most probably have already picked this up.

Considering checking out Blue Exorcist? It may require a little bit of background reading but this may be a cheaper starting point to what has so far proved to be a competent adaptation of Kazue Kato’s manga works.

A Blu-ray copy of Blue Exorcist the Movie was provided by Madman Entertainment for the purpose of this review.