Anime Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness

[Dagger]

Being the shonen-ai fan that I am, I've been eyeing this series for quite a while. But it seems to have gotten mixed reviews, and I'm uncertain whether the boxed set would be worth the money.

So for those of you that have seen Yami no Matsuei, is it good in its own right (not just as a shonen-ai show)?

I've also heard that it's a rip-off of CLAMP's Tokyo Babylon. Is that true?

~Dagger~

[eleanor]

[size=1] EEK! I [i]love[/i] Yami no Matsuei! NO, I don't think Yami no Matsuei is a rip-off of Tokyo Babylon.

And yeah, if the story was revolved around a het-couple, the show would probably be insanely popular. Or something along the lines...

The artwork is really great, and the plot is very cool. ^_^ I think the whole series is 26 episodes or something...maybe I'm way off. O_o

Anyways, I really enjoyed the series. Some of the parts are corny and stupid, but a lot of animes have those moments. I dunno...what exactly are you looking for?[/size]

[Dagger]

Wow.

So I went ahead and bought the box set..... and it was [i]definitely[/i] worth every dollar.

After watching the first three episodes, I'm just about speechless. Yami no Matsuei is incredible. Hell, I even like the dub--which is saying quite a bit.

The animation and character designs completely blew me away. They were as good as--if not [i]better[/i] than--that of shows like Full Metal Panic, which has pretty much set current standards in terms of artwork and graphics. One of the things that really struck me was how realistically and smoothly the characters moved.

The basic concept of the afterlife as a bureaucracy reminded me very much of Yu Yu Hakusho (particularly when those cosmic chickens appeared... talk about random). Interestingly enough, Tsuzuki's summons have the same names as YYH's Saint Beasts. I'd like to learn about the mythology behind that.

Anyway, although the shonen-ai aspects certainly appealed to me, I think I would have loved this show even if, say, Hisoka were a girl. I can't wait to watch the rest.

I don't know where on earth a series based on shonen-ai manga got the budget to pull off such perfect CG and special effects.... but I'm very glad it did.

~Dagger~

[eleanor]

[size=1] The Saint Beasts would probably be in several animes, I think. I guess it's a part of a Japanese religion. *shrugs*[/size]

[Ratix]

I dont know about the anime, but I really like the manga. The style is perfect and so is the plot. It is shonen-ai yeah, but I guess thats more the anime than the manga.