天下制覇

Well… that sucked.

Impressions:

I’ll spare you the overhwelming bile since it’s basically the same thing that I’ve been saying for the past couple months. Kekkaishi started out a fairly generic, but rather well animated and constructed action series. Once it finally got around to having a consistent plot and antagonist… and added the charismatic Gen, things really gelled for awhile. Unfortunately, that didn’t last and it’s pretty clear by the ending that the series was on life support ever since the budget got slashed and it likely lost the majority of its audience when it was bumped from the primo timeslot behind Conan. Production values plummetted, and things clearly got stretched out as the show’s future was in doubt, which only ended up hastening the demise. I suppose there is room for a sequel series since they basically end it saying "and the adventures go on BUY THE MANGA," but given the dismal ratings, I’m pretty sure this one has breathed its last. The constant hiatuses didn’t help either I’m sure. 52 episodes (50 airings) would normally be a 12 month schedule. Kekkaishi ended up taking almost a full 16 months to air…. about four months worth of skipped weeks. That’s just… nuts. 

Farewell Kekkaishi. I’ll fondly remember episodes 20-36 and try to forget everything afterwards. We had some good times. We had some cake. We had ninjas. We had Gen. Truly, we had it all for those three short months. It’s a shame you had to fall to pieces like this.