Anime: Asagiri no Miko

Critic's Log - Earthdate: November 13, 2012. Review #21: Shrine of the Morning Mist



Intro...Intro... Intro... I am finding it difficult to come up with a
intro for the review of this anime. I guess I'm going to have to
undergo training for the mind. I guess some training would help me come
up with fresh ideas for fitting intros to reviews of certain animes. I
am now going to proceed in beginning my training... On second thought, I
don't need it! In fact, this intro is completely pointless, Let's get
right into Shrine of The Morning Mist!









Since he was young, Tadahiro Amatsu has two different colored eyes -
one brown and one light hazel (or is it red?). But, because of a shadowy
secret behind his left eye, he's become the target for the masked
sorcerer Ayatura Miramune and his band of demons. To battle the demons
appearing all over town, Yuzu Heida, a priestess in training, recruits
four other girls from her high school. Under the supervision of Yuzu's
elder sister Kurako, the five young priestesses must undergo months of
training to master their abilities.



To be technical, this is a Chaos Project and Gansis production and I
sure never heard of these two studios and I think it's because neither
of these studios never made big hits and I am not sure about the current
status of either of these studios but it wouldn't surprise me if these
studios are no longer around. I will give them credit that the character
designs are good for the most part and hey...the comedy isn't
overblown! The animation however is ok in some areas but it almost
barely moves from time to time. Some parts are fine, some even look
embarrassingly bad. The animation is not absolutely terrible; it's sadly
the only decent thing in this whole package because I have some issues
to discuss about this anime.



The music by Tsuneyoshi Saito is not memorable and it’s not
good at all. There are times when I think “Why does the music sound like
it would belong on a Nintendo 64 game?”. Some songs were a bit
overplayed and I really don’t have much to say about it except for the
opening. The opening is sung by Megumi Hayashibara and the song was ok,
but nothing too special.







As far as voice acting goes, the Japanese cast is fine and it was
kinda nice to hear Megumi Hayashibara voicing one of the characters
(Kurako). The English dub surprisingly isn’t terrible but the cast is
hit and miss on the dub. Alexa Zimmerman is in charge of the ADR
direction in the dub, but she hardly ever did ADR direction before or
since. However, there’s nothing really too special about either version.
The Japanese version has better quality in voice acting than the dub
but that’s just my opinion.



The characters are not that hard to mention because most of the
characters have variety in personality but they are mostly a bit one –
dimensional. The characters are alright I guess but I really find some
of the characters boring and some of them cliché as well and the
villains are also clichéd. I really have not much to say about the
characters here.



The story on the other hand is what I had the biggest issue with. I
was surprised that the episodes are about 12-13 minutes long but that is
what did lead to some problems I had with this show. First of all,
parts of the story are so cliché that it’s not funny. Secondly, these
episodes feel rushed near the end of some of the episodes and it’s done
more than one episode. Also, there are a couple episodes that have
fan-service and go nowhere. I sure hope some of the animes that Yuji
Moriyama directed are better than this because I don’t think
Moriyama-san did a good job directing this anime. I will give him credit
that he didn’t overdo the comedy in this series







Shrine of the Morning Mist is available from Media Blasters, the
manga by Hiroko Ugawa was available by Tokyopop and it is out of print.



With that said, Shrine of the Morning Mist is an anime that is
generic and has some little comedic moments involved but it doesn’t have
a story plausible enough to make it a good series, the plot is mediocre
as well as the music. The characters are forgettable but the character
designs are the only good thing in the series and that should not be the
only good thing in an anime series.



I give Shrine of the Morning Mist a 3.6 out of 10, it is WEAK!



Leave a comment below and have a good day.

Verdict: plain fare with Shinto topping.

Hm, which parts of this series make it stand out...? About the only answer coming to mind is a seemingly quite authentic connection to the japanese lore of shintoism/spiritism.

Apart from that, the series is mostly a mishmash of reliable, well-tested (and thus not exactly new) elements - be it the characters, the comedy, the fighting or even the plot resolutions. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean that the series is bad, but better don't expect many surprises here. :)



Animation:
It's true that the female lead, Yuzu, has a rather unusual facial design, but the whole rest of the (sufficiently cute) visuals would easily fit into a lot of other shows as well. Some SD scenes stand out as deliciously hilarious, but they are few and far inbetween.

Sound:
The OP becomes nice after a while, but the urge to click ahead is still there even after 26 eps. The seiyuu are quite well-chosen and do a good job, with the probable exception of the male lead. Then again, it's hard to make much of his character anyway. -.-

Story:
Well... a demon trying to re-enter our world sure is not exactly a groundbreaking innovation. Even so, the fact they try to make the most out of the underlying "Miko" concept successfully gives the events a certain distinct flavor - and can be considered a saving grace.

Characters:
Oh, they definitely aren't bad, heaven forbid. If Chika was a bad chara, then Morino from OnegaiTwins would be as well... if Shizuka was bad, then Koyomi from GirlsBravo would be as well... if Seiko was ba-
But well, you already got my drift, right? In other words, the charas are not just archetypes, but rather feel like carbon copies from other shows. Such unoriginality earns Asagiri a nasty -2 in my rating, but it doesn't make the characters itself bad.



Finishing line
As long as you're just looking for a relaxing time-filler, Asagiri is the right medicine for you. The plot calmly strolls by without many surprises, the characters deliver some nice comedy (mostly when they make fun of themselves) now and then and finally, the fact that each episode is only 12min long makes it an easy-to-stomach snack between your main anime meals.

I for my part approached it with that attitude and actually managed to enjoy it. And yes, save for a few nice comedy outbursts and the Shinto background, AsagiriNoMiko is truly average - still, we should not forget that there is an important difference between being "average" and being "bad". ;)

I always wondered a little why there were no reviews for this anime despite that quite a few have seen it... Well, after seeing it myself I think I know why, no one actually watched it to the end. ^^;

Asagiri no Miko could have been average and somewhat fun to watch if they somehow stripped the story and all the fighting out. I don't think I've sighed so much in a year. The fights are fast-forward material and the story is simply a patchwork job taking from the genre as a whole, aka lots of girls and one boy, "ganbare" moments and my favourite: overwhelming opposition crushed by the power of love and so on. Be warned though, the "lots of girls and one guy" is not an excuse to see it, the boy is essentially forgotten and there's no pantsu for the corrupted.

Animation is standard for this time and age but the op/ed and general music is just pure bad. Not even Megumi Hayashibara could help the op.

The only thing that makes this anime somewhat enjoyable is the non-story elements when the girls are just having fun doing other stuff. Lots of funny faces but it's sadly only the inbetweeners but I bump up the character score for this plus Shizuka is cute. ^^
Speaking of Shizuka, anyone with some japanese skills knows the name means “quiet” and well, that’s how far the creativeness in naming went.

Really, don't watch this unless you've got nothing better to do, no one needs to see this.