Ayaka

Ten years ago, a volcanic eruption brought Japan's Ayaka Islands to the brink of destruction. Since then, Yukito Yanagi has lived with foster families on the mainland, but he has isolated himself from others following a disturbing incident. Due to the wishes of his late father, Makoto, Yukito is brought back to his birthplace on the day of his middle school graduation. There he meets Makoto's disciples and learns of the supernatural state of the region. Mysterious life forms known as Mitama inhabit the islands, but their potential to feed off humans' negative energy and turn into ferocious monsters called Ara-Mitama endangers the islanders' lives.

Yukito discovers that, like his father, he is a Ley Master—a special individual with abilities akin to magic, tasked with pacifying the Ara-Mitama. As he learns to overcome his trauma and control his powers, Yukito decides to follow in his father's footsteps and become a first-rate Ley Master to protect the peace of Ayaka.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yanagi, Yukito Main

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Sagawa, Jingi Main

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Ibuki, Aka Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Kurama, Haruaki Main

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Ichijou, Ibara Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Amamiya, Momoko Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Fukuwake, Chatarou Supporting

Kajiwara, Gakuto Japanese

Inou, Sanji Supporting

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Makita, Taihei Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Amano, Yako Supporting

Sakakihara, Yuuki Japanese

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Ozawa, Fumihiro Producer

Eriguchi, Takeshi Producer

Reviews

Sep 21, 2023

Jonteemen

Recommended

I liked this anime it was good but there were things that could take it to the next level.

Character development wasn't the best and could have been better. They could have gone deeper in the connections between the characters and some of the conflicts between them. I believe that if they had more than one season they would be able to dwell into the characters more and make them more nuanced.

Animation was okay, it isn't the worst or the best I've seen. The Ara mitama could have been better animated and "drawn" to better fit in as they feel a bit out of place.

The ... story line could have had a lot of potential if they had more time to work with. They could dive deeper into the past, present and possibly the future after the end. The way the ending was presented made it seem like this story was over with this season which I think is a bummer as I would love for them to dive deeper.

TLDR
They could have made the story better if dived deeper into characters and slowed down the story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 16, 2023

doreshnikov

Mixed Feelings

This show is... well... okay. I have to admit that I was interested in how all of the story plays out in the end since dropping any kind of plot that is not a complete garbage makes me anxious (and I can't call this anime a garbage, it's at least not bad).

But in the same time I found myself skipping through the latest episodes just to get the glimpse of what's happening without paying attention to details. A trait of a good story is that you want to immerse yourself into it and read or watch without interruptions it for the sake of getting ... all those different emotions. It's much easier to be interested just in the plot than to be interested in a story as a whole. If you'd prefer to choose reading a short synopsis with all the events over actually reading or watching the story then it's probably not worth it.

And with this anime I feel like it fails to captivate the viewer enough. It has an interesting premise and an interesting setting, the powers used by the characters are very harmonious with the setting and fit very well. But aside from that I found it a bit hard to be interested in any of the characters since all of them are basically bland. Even those who have either tragic backstories or unshakable dedication to something seem to follow the typical cliche archetypes of characters with such traits without anything unique about them.

Also the plot is not that complicated to compensate for it. It's pretty straightforward and you can often guess what will happen next. The final "plot twist" or "grand reveal" of the show is more or less obvious from the start and thus disappointing. I won't spoil it here but the show gets out of its way to help you make a connection between the main character and one plot-important concept as early as you can.

So, overall, if someone asked me to rate this show to know if it's worth watching, I'd tell them 6/10 to not discourage them. But for me personally it's closer to 4.5/10. If you are more or less new to anime or haven't watched many shows with similar premise, it'll probably be a decent way to kill time and get a non-zero amount of positive emotions from it. In other case, it probably isn't worth your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 16, 2023

KANLen09

Not Recommended

Yeap...this was, and still is, hot garbage.

You would think that from the writing group of studio GoHands's most famed series, K Project, the anonymous GoRA would have another jewel on their hands. But this is 2023, not 2012, and what they had for the always risky anime original show that is Ayaka (or its full name - Ayaka: A Story of Bonds and Wounds), yeah sure, it was INDEED a story of bonds and wounds, but this somewhat simple story, to put it simply, is an absolute chore to sit through.

Just about the only thing that I appreciated about this show is the setting: similar ... to the Pokemon Adventures of FireRed and LeafGreen, there exists a range of islands that are all interconnected to each other, which make up the Ayaka Islands, along with the supernatural-backed mythology of the monsters and spirits they call "Mitama" and "Ara-Mitama" to separate between the good and evil. Especially those blue Mitama blobs that surround the island, they're such cute and adorable creatures that manifest life onto the islands.

But otherwise, this show is shitting the shat onto the trash all around, like a "wait for something to happen" scenario, because this show ultimately is driven balls to the wall with a simple premise that drags on and on until shit hits the fan, then literally, skate and die with emotions overflowing, thinking that it can win the people over by the now-infamous death flag.

Simply put, you have this boy who was wrangled off the Ayaka Islands due to the imbalance between the gods, and him not knowing of the rich history behind it, had to have a caretaker to accompany him...and then bring him back when the time is right. This is what is happening to Yukito Yanagi, growing from a child then to a young adult uneventfully, until the green jacket-laden Jingi Sagawa has to find him and escort him back to the Ayaka Islands, telling him that it's his duty to remain on the island and train up on their Ley Mastery magic system, and train until something bad happens to be able to put that training to use. Thereafter, with the others like caretaker Momoko Amamiya, Ley Mastery experts Haruaki Kurama and Aka Ibuki, and many more, Yukito's life begins to shake slowly as an innert feeling calls him from deep in the recesses of his heart, only to be told that he would be the key to determine the fate of the Ayaka Islands.

The TL;DR if you don't care about the story: it's simple, and simple stories can work well, but it's the execution that really counts, and this show is the embodiment of a sloth scratching its head and in its usual "question mark" brain of what to do next. It's just bad execution with a boring story and forgettable characters, even when given the death flag.

The same can easily be said about the animation, which coming from Studio Blanc, maybe you should change your name to Studio Bland, because it's not at all impressive. Though I could speculate the reason that the studio's pairing with director Nobuyoshi Nagayama on Winter's Saikyou Onmyouji no Isekai Tenseiki a.k.a The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World, was partially why they wanted to continue the good business relationship since he had secured a hit with the exact same studio for Uramichi Oniisan back in Summer 2021. And almost conspicously as everything was suspiciously in line, music artiste angela took the reins for the show's OP, which was decent at best, along with saji's ED.

Nevertheless, with each progressing episode, I was finding myself having to tune the anime up to 1.3x watching speed just so that there will be some plot progression, but I guess with the supposedly "succinct" writing that had limits placed all over the place, it isn't saying much that the anime basically had nothing going for it, and only showing its cards once everything falls into place as it should.

It's just really meh and boring, please don't waste your time watching this crap.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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