Kekkaishi

Kekkaishi begins with cake. Yoshimori Sumimura is a Kekkaishi, a type of caster who can create temporal spaces. This power is used to capture and destroy ayakashi (demons). Of course, other than a few instances, the first several episodes of this anime is focused on Yoshimori’s love for baking. He makes various cakes to win over his neighbor and fellow Kekkaishi Tokine Yukimura. …Way too many episodes were wasted on cake.

But if you are patient this anime gets much better.

Yoshimori and Tokine spend their nights defending Karasumori, a plot of land that has powers that attract and transform ayakashi power. Their school just happens to be built on the site.  Yoshimori is the a-typical anime hero. He defends everyone, and particularly Tokine, with all his strength and without regard to himself. Tokine, the responsible one, is a scalpel to Yoshi’s hammer. She comes off as prissy at first.

The simple days of cake, and nights of weak ayakashi, don’t last long. Stronger and more dangerous ayakashi appear….at about episode 20.

Kekkaishi is the love child between Bleach and Inuyasha. It has a lot of Bleach like action and elements mixed with the world of demons and critters from Inuyasha. Unfortunately, the pacing of Kekkaishi is bad. The cake jokes last until episode 8..a full 6th of the show. The main storyline doesn’t even get started until around episode 20.

But the character development is very good.

Yoshimori, Tokine, and family are believable…if a bit odd. The dynamics between Yoshi and Tokine are a nicely conflicted mix between friendship, siblings, and love. Yoshi can be frustratingly proud. The fact I felt frustration with him tells me how well developed he was.

Kekkaishi has a lot of twists in the plot. I was surprised with most of them. The show certainly wasn’t predictable. The buildup in tension was well done. Also, the animation is very good.

Despite the pacing problems, Kekkaishi is a good anime. If you can get through the first part, you will be rewarded with good character development and surprising plot twists.