Kekkaishi Episode 12 - The Sealing of the Demon Dog Madarao
Hoots mon, there’s a demon doggie loose! Well, eventually, after Madarao whups Kouya’s butt and is driven mad by the power of Karasumori. It takes some bareback riding and fiddilng around with string to calm him down, but Yoshimori brings the rabid canine to heel.
I was going to save this comment for later as I’ve actually watched all the subbed Kekkaishi episodes out now (up to 18 at the time of writing), but as I have nothing to say about this episode otherwise I thought I’d mention that Kekkaishi is now the shounen fight show I have stuck with the longest. Why? I think I like the writing; it’s clear that there’s an overarching storyline, but we haven’t launched into a full-blown “arc” like the Soul Society stuff in Bleach; nothing’s been overly drawn out yet, which is th ebiggest problem most similar shows have. Whilst I can’t deny I’ll be interested to see where things go aside from Yoshimori’s attempts to seal up Karasumori, these little arcs are proving to work rather well (although they’re hardly as masterful as Darker than Black, obviously).
May 21st, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I’m curious what your reasons are for not liking the shounen arc format. I’ll admit, it sometimes has its downsides, like the really obvious lack of transitions, longwindedness, etc.. I’m enjoying Kekkaishi, which is a little different from other series, and partly for that reason, pretty fun. But I also think the shounen arc style can really shine when done well. Some feedback would be great.
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:31 am
I have the same feelings as you, I really hate how most shounen shows play out, but Kekkaishi is just different, it just feels more fresh and not so monotonous like Bleach and Naruto. I think I like Kekkaishi more because of the lovable characters, most shounen shows just have very cliche characters with little development.
By the way this episode has got to be my second favorite out of the whole series (I have seen up to 21 with RAWS using the manga as a reference) my first being episode 4 (that ending made me want to bawl like a baby) and this episode was also intensely heartwarming.
The series does get a bit slow towards the 20s but it is starting to pick up with a new character and the initial charm is back!