Normally I don’t watch the opening music number of animes. Well maybe once, but then it gets old. I don’t like it on American TV and I don’t like it on animes though I’d rather hear a song than Stephen Amell explain why he’s the “Arrow” any day of the week. The thing is… I was curious about Kyōkai no Rinne after the cold opening. It didn’t make sense to me, but I was curious. Then the song hit and I spotted it… the creepiest fucking thing I’ve seen in a long ass time.
A cat…
With a human face…
I nearly turned it off. The TV. The electricity in my apartment. Everything. I was watching with my wife and a friend and I said that it was making me physically ill to look at it. They thought I was joking, but I seriously had to look away the entire opening. That human faced cat is fucking disturbing to look at and I hope to never see it again. Sadly, I kind of liked the episode, but I can see everything it’s going to do and eventually that fucking human faced cat is going to show up and provide comic relief and I don’t think I can deal with that. Goddamn creepy and yes it was hard for me to post the picture.
The story is easy to explain and it’s pretty clearly either for a younger audience or anime purest that dig the old school style of art and stories. We meet Sakura Mamiya, due to an event of her youth she can see ghosts and spirits (the second anime this week to do that). On her way to school we see one such ghost that’s stuck in one spot and thankfully can’t follow her. At school the desk next to her is empty and everyone comments on how the boy who sits there is always absent. Sakura looks over to see the boy sit down, but she’s the only one that can see him. The next day he shows up and is seen by everyone.
One of Sakura’s friends has a problem with her phone number being haunted and the boy (Rinne Rokudō) tells her that if she makes a donation to the spirit box in the back of the school that someone will help her. That someone turns out to be him, but when he wears a special robe he can’t be seen by mortals… except Sakura who can see him for some reason. Hijinks ensue and they bring about three different spirits to the wheel of reincarnation.
Now… I said it was simple and it is. Girl can see ghosts and boy is a grim reaper… wait for the cast of characters to inflate the show.
It’s not bad. It was funny even if they laid on the “I’m poor” jokes a bit too much. Once is funny, four times and you have something against people struggling to get by. The problem is the story is predictable already. It’ll be procedural for a few episodes while it introduces characters, but then it will focus on some big bad and only the combination of our two main characters will stop it… and more poor jokes since that’s all we know about Rinne’s character. It could turn out okay, but we’ll see. Oh and there will be something hidden in the past… there always is.
The art clearly has a budget. This thing looks beautiful from beginning to end. It also looks dated. Which should instantly bring the hate since it’s created by the same man behind Ranma ½ and InuYasha. And it looks like it. It feels like it. It’s like InuYasha had a love child with Bleach and bam… Rin-ne. I’m not a big fan of the style, but I could tell that it was animated quite well. The coloring in particular was given a lot of attention. You can tell by the hair because there’s at least three shades to provide a natural look for Sakura rather than using the lazy ass white stripe.
I know I’m probably going to be in the minority on this one and hey that happens. With as much anime as I’m watching this season (seriously is it just me or is there a ton of stuff to watch?) I don’t need to stick with everything and I know this isn’t for me. It’s humorous, but I can see the jokes wearing thin already and they’re the only thing I really like about it.
Or I could just be making excuses so I don’t have to see that fucking human faced cat…
Score: 3/5
Kyōkai no Rinne 1.1 Official Website