Blue Exorcist DVD Vol. 2
Studio: A-1
Licensed by: Aniplex
Release Date: January 24, 2012
MSRP: US$37.48 [Buy here or here]

Once again, I went into this DVD set having not watched the material previously. After seeing the first seven episodes, I was pretty amped to see the rest of the series, but I never did get around to it before this next box showed up in the mail. I'm glad for it, because the DVD experience is pleasant.

The DVD box itself comes with a nice little sleeve cover with cool artwork on it. The DVD's sleeve insert is reversible, so you could have some cool art decorating the DVD case or the usual cover and content information. Inside, you'll see an awesome reversible poster among the usual inserts. Overall, an A+ DVD set release because it contains plenty of extras and everything is crammed into one disc. Nice and neat.

At this point in the story, we'd left off with Rin having been inducted into the cram school and having some basic background for most of his class mates. Rin can't be discovered as a demon, or there'll be problems, so whenever they run into danger, he has to figure out how to lure the monsters away and take care of them by himself.

That's what he thinks, anyway. Never having had any sort of formal training in sword fighting, his style is clumsy, and as his brother Yukio points out he depends too much on Satan's power rather than learning any valuable skills or using his brain. To that end, by the end of this disc, we see Rin get his ass handed to him, royally, twice, and his sword taken away by a newly introduced character, an ambassador from the Vatican, Shura.

It is revealed that Shura has been entrusted by Rin and Yukio's father to mentor him and teach him how to use his demon sword.

That's the basic jist of where things are in terms of Rin's ultimate goal in the series. The rest is some good character development for a few others, and even a little bit of budding romance happenings between Rin and Shiemi, a quiet Tamer-type exorcist and my favorite character in the series thus far.

I've noticed that, although the characters in Blue Exorcist are rather typecast, there isn't really anything boring about them. The dynamic between the characters just works, and well.

If you check out the DVD extras, you'll see the usual stuff: some shorts, textless OP and EDs (by the way, episode 13 introduces a new OP and ED for the next arc), and an unaired episode that features  Kuro, another new character which was introduced in this DVD as the familiar of Shiro, Rin and Yukio's father. Since Shiro passed at the beginning of the series, Kuro went a little berserk, but as you could imagine Rin was able to tame it and thus gain a familiar for himself. Kuro is adorable. Watch that unaired episode if you get your hands on the DVD!

As I mentioned in my previous article, I figured this would be just a fun shounen type show that doesn't take itself too seriously. When it needs to be dramatic, the drama is there, but it's not a serious type series at all. Rin is the usual goofball sort of main character: a total idiot that is serious when he fights and a total dummie when he isn't.

I've found the artwork isn't as choppy as I expected it to be, either. It's overall not the most gorgeous thing I've seen, but the quality hasn't gone down, which is the important thing.

Next month marks the release of the third DVD, which will feature episodes 14 through 19. Exciting! Fans of the show might want to get it on pre-order. I'm definitely interested in watching more, so keep a look out here for my thoughts. Share yours in the comments, too!

[see also: Hiroko's final impressions of the show from back when it aired]