Tokyo Ravens Episode 14
What They Say:
Harutora and the others face off against Ashiya. Doman invades Onmyo Prep with his army of Tsuchigumos as he searches for the Raven Coat.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Tokyo Ravens has skirted around some of the bigger issues for a bit, giving over small bits of time to the adults in the background and the larger threats that are out there and finding their place. That’s been interesting, but spread too thin to really be a cohesive storyline on a weekly basis. Instead, we’ve mostly had light and fun moments with the cast since Suzuka was introduced but also some decent character material as she and Harutora talked about who they are. But that’s all changing here in this episode with the bad guys coming into this world in a big way while throwing a lot at the prep school itself, making for some dark, dangerous and fun to watch sequences as the school gets overrun and everyone flees, except for our core group of characters of course.
Naturally, this leads to a whole lot of action, especially in the first half as everyone groups together and does what they can to move along and keep safe. With Harutora and Natsume being the more powerful among them, they’re able to keep everyone moving as Doman and his spider-like creatures are all over the place, though with some curious quirks to them that makes you wonder just how grounded they are in this reality. It’s light and quick as it goes on and the first half really does fly by as we see how well everyone operates together while Doman just rails on about things in his own way, keeping it serious and intense with his design and manner. It’s certainly coming across as properly threatening for the kids.
The second half slows down in a lot of ways as it brings Ohtomo into the picture, complete in shrine outfit, to try and protect the kids by taking on Doman directly. It’s not a bad idea and there’s obviously some history between the two with the way they talk at each other, but it kind of slows the progress of the episode since everyone is basically set to the background while the two older characters fight it out. It does bring in some hugely impressive magic though, which really surprises Harutora with just how big in scale and power it is, and there’s a lot to like in terms of presentation for it even if Ohtomo means little to the viewer overall. It all builds bigger and bigger with a few more additions along the way, but it’s just welcome to see the show play to such a large scale.
In Summary:
Tokyo Ravens has been in a bit of a rut for me for the last few episodes and this one, while not changing the dynamic overall for me, definitely throws us more into the actual story mode with things happening. I like character material a lot, but what we were getting was pretty mild and weak in a lot of ways, as fun as it may have been at places. Here, it’s all about the action and making it clear there is a much bigger world of power out there and it hits it home in a hard way. Which works well, but it doesn’t have a really strong connective aspect to it since the main cast are off to the side, either running or being protected, and it’s mostly characters that we don’t know much about that are fighting. Which makes for some great looking scenes to be sure, but not much in the way of heart.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.