Blue Exorcist Manga... is surprisingly good

I never thought of giving Ao no Exorcist a try, because you know, it's just another shounen anime. And shounen anime tend to suck, because I'm no longer it's target audience.

Out of sheer boredom, I gave the manga a quick look, and I was surprised. The manga was good. Really good.

Not that it has reinvented the genre or anything, but I never did saw a shounen cliche anywhere. The story never talk endlessly about some childhood trauma. It didn't keep whining out helplessness or lack of power or something like that. It doesn't give a full-page coolest line of the chapter delivered by the main character or someone important at the moment. And it doesn't make everyone stare in silence at that guy delivering a really cool line or making a really cool pose.

So you take out everything a shounen story's suppose to have, what do you get? An uncool but likable protagonist that is for once, an optimist.A rival that actually uses his head, even though he looks like a complete asshole. A female character that isn't a moeblob or deredere, but just plain silly-cute. It might not sound like it would sell, but originality in this stagnant genre is the highlight of the manga.

Its downside? The drawings are pretty crappy, if you ask me. That's why I want to see if the anime can combine the story with all its goodness with befitting production values. If A-1 pictures doesn't disappoint me, I think we're looking at a winner here.