REVIEW Anime Review: "Seraph of the End"

Polaris_Tae

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ANIME REVIEW: “OWARI NO SERAPH”
Written by: Polaris_Tae
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This review contains spoilers for the anime adaptation of Owari no Seraph

"Owari no Seraph" is the Japanese anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Takaya Kagami. It is about two childhood friends that are separated amid a tragedy in a post-apocalyptic, vampire-ruled society. The anime is split into two halves which aired throughout 2015. It opens to the destruction of the world in an apparent apocalypse and the beginning of a reign of vampires. Throughout these events, the show follows protagonist Yūichirō "Yuu" Hyakuya and deuteragonist Mikaela "Mika" Hyakuya — along with other orphans from the Hyakuya orphanage in which they lived — as they are captured and taken to an underground vampire city where they essentially begin their new lives as livestock for the sustenance of the vampires.

Yuu, however, is left unsatisfied with this life and dreams of going back to what little there is left of human society and away from the ever imposing threat and constant suppression of their freedoms at the hand of the vampires. Thus one night, after essentially selling himself out to one of the upper-class noble vampires through the willful donation of his blood — Mika gets his hands on both a map of the city and a gun for defence and essentially secures the orphans' escape from the city. Or at least, so they thought. In actuality, the group had played right into the hands of the vampires' trap, and just before the group made their escape from the city, Yuu's entire family — presumably including Mika — are all slaughtered at the hands of the vampires, leaving only Yuu to flee for his life.


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We pick up again a few years later, and Yuu is now a soldier in the military, eventually successfully attaining entry into the Moon Demon Company, a prestigious and elite demon-hunting force led by Guren Ichinose — the man responsible for rescuing and rehabilitating Yuu following his escape from the underground vampire city — who for all intents and purposes, seems like a less likeable, more shady version of Fullmetal Alchemist's Roy Mustang. Yuu, despite making it to his home back in the human world, is still haunted by his failure to save his adoptive family, and is plagued by the same nightmare over and over again where he fails to save his family and is forced to run for his life — leaving Mika to bleed out on the verge of death at the hands of the vampires.

If there is one thing that stands out in "Owari no Seraph" the most, it would be the symbolism of family. Yuu has spent basically the entirety of his life trying to find himself a family, and when he finally does find one, they are ripped from his arms and he is left to fend for himself yet again. It is only after he joins the Moon Demon Company that he once again finds himself a family — including Shinoa Hiragi, Shiho Kimizuki, Mitsuba Sangu & Yuuichi Saotome — which has so far stayed a complete unit.

However, just as Yuu is getting settled in his new life, he is suddenly confronted with a ghost of his past. Mika, in fact, didn't die during the confrontation at the vampire city, but was forcibly turned into a half-vampire by Krul Tepes, the third progenitor and vampire queen of Japan. This, of course, comes off as a complete and utter shock to Yuu who has been grieving for Mika— whom of which he had thought to be dead for over five years. However, during their time spent apart, Mika has developed a deep hatred for humans following the secret that he has discovered while living and travelling throughout the world as a vampire. Specifically that the humans are selfish and will do anything in order to secure their position on top as a species, which includes experimenting on both Yuu and himself while they were small children in order to establish the two as hosts for angelic beings titled, "Seraph of the End", of which Yuu is one of the few known active hosts for, with his seraph being the King of Salt.

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I found that one of the things that I could most empathise with, in terms of the story, was Mika's deep-rooted hatred of humanity. Humanity had essentially exploited him and his adopted family since they were children, not caring a single bit about the ethics of human experimentation, and were unremorseful towards their past actions: causing the apocalypse, experiments on mere children, as well as taking in Mika's only surviving family and purposefully manipulating him into a destructive tool for all their aims and purposes.

One of the major issues that the anime suffers from, however, is same-face disease where a number of the main characters, along with some of the secondary characters, essentially have such extremely similar faces that if it weren't for the hair colours I would have trouble telling them apart. This is only a distinctive feature in the anime, however, as the manga actually does have some distinctive differences between each of the different characters.

In conclusion, "Owari no Seraph" is a great anime that I often find myself returning to when I have nothing to watch and has an interesting religion-based story as well as a fantastic representation of strong characters and their belief in the notion of family, particularly that of found family. Almost all of the representations of families shown in this series are built around that aspect — seen in Yuu's first family, his new family at the Moon Demon Company, as well as Guren Ichinose's unit of friends. The ones that do display family through relations are, more often than not, toxic in nature (as seen in the hierarchical Hiragi family). However, I find that it is hampered by poor character design and what seems to be an expectation of renewal for a second season — based on the story build-up and likely the belief of the production staff at the time — that has still failed to appear to this day, five years after the initial premiere of the anime.


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__________________________________________________

Story: 6/10
Characters: 9/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Animation: 7/10
Voice Acting: 8/10


7.2/10
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PROOFREAD BY: @lex.
GRAPHICS BY: @yerm
 
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Ackerman

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I always had mixed feelings about this anime. In the end its an enjoyable watch if you don't try to probe it too hard. Its generic with good fight scenes and good animation, similar to SAO.
 

anh

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i think i watched the 1st ep but dropped it shortly after, so i guess i agree with the sentiment that it wasn't interesting enough to keep me in
 

Chiharu

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Oh, this is on my watch list. I mean, it seems pretty generic and meh, but Mika is cute, so that's a good enough reason to watch for me.
 
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