Supernatural The Animation

Before starting, I should note that I am a fan of the TV series, but I will review the anime as a standalone piece. I will put myself in the shoes of someone, who has never heard of Supernatural and evaluate its merits and faults from there.

Story: 7/10
The story is simple and easy to follow. It is about Sam and Dean, two brothers who hunt demons and evil spirits. Most of the episodes are following the “monster of the week” formula… but there is a general plotline that advances slowly throughout the series. There is also a main villain and the Winchester brothers have a ... personal score to settle with him. Unfortunately, there are a few filler episodes with weak story and unoriginal enemies.

Characters: 9/10
The personalities and the interaction between the two brothers makes the difference between Supernatural and other similar TV and animated series. Sam and Dean are not perfect and flawless superheroes, they are normal persons. They can make mistakes, they can be paranoid, confused or angry and they always argue with each other. Because of that, they are a more realistic type of protagonists and the viewers can relate more to their problems and challenges.

Sound and animation: 8/10
The animation is decent, but not perfect. Some things bothered me, like the awkward looking faces… but if you deal with demons, your face will probably look strange too. There are also some good ideas, like the excessive use of black ink in every frame, which creates nice contrast and the camera movement during some of the action or driving sequences, which almost makes you feel the action. The music includes some nice and slow themes, which create mysterious atmosphere. The good sound effects (like the Impala’s engine) and the occasional scary noises enhance the whole experience and should also be praised.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Supernatural has interesting heroes (and villains) and manages to create a scary and tense atmosphere, through good use of sound effects and music. There are a few great and very dramatic episodes with some interesting plot twists. The ending is above the average. It leaves the story open, but also gives some sense of completion. What hurt the whole experience is the lower quality of the stories created especially for the anime. I also expected Supernatural to be a bit darker and scarier.

Overall: 8/10
If you are not familiar with the series, the flashbacks in the beginning would be confusing and meaningless. However, little by little the background story and the important details are explained. Basically, Supernatural feels more or less complete on its own and watching the TV series before starting the anime is not an absolute must. It may even have a negative effect, as some fans of the TV series hate the anime, because “it is not exactly the same”. You can be smart and ignore them. Supernatural is a great series for any fan of the mystery/horror anime.

This is a creepy show. Having not seen the live-action show before, I don’t know if it does justice to the show or not but I have to say, I really like it any way and it does make me want to see the original show. The episodes all have to do with someone dying in a gruesome way, then the brothers’ end up being at the right place at the right time. Each show is its own storyline without many things to link them together. The story is slow, and not really action orientated. Many of the shows act more like detective shows where ... something odd happens and they discover why only to have a small action scene at the end. There is a larger mystery that they have in this show about the brothers trying to find their Dad.

The art style is rather interesting, almost a cross between anime and American comic book style. The characters are hard edged, and a lot of dark lines and heavy shadows that pretty much are black. Everything has a nice vintage feeling, sort of grimy in a good way. The characters look like the characters from the live-action as well which is what I would wish to see unlike some of them. Sadly, some of the images are pretty frozen, still images that feel like cop outs, especially when this was made in 2011.

The English voices don’t feel up to par with the animation, and feels a bit forced and doesn’t match the lip sink most of the time. They talk when the mouths are closed and part of it might be to get information out since this is shorter then the actual show. Even then, it just feels rushed and makes it a little hard. I really love the ending song though. I never thought I would hear “Cary on my Wayward Son” by Naoki Takao fit so well.

EDIT: I have now seen the live action show, I really like it as well. The show has the same creepy feeling and the same slowness that the animation has. The stories are altered slightly from the original but that’s partly because they were putting a 1 hour episode into a half a hour one.

STORY: 4
The plot seems okay. How Mary Winchester died is still the same as it was in the original series, but it wasn't as detailed. The flashbacks that Sam had near the beginning of episode 1 made me go "What?" once or twice, so I had to rewatch that scene a couple of times before I went "Oh... Okay".

The anime desperately tries to have the same feel as the original series. Honestly, it did have the same feel, but there was just something lacking.

ART: 3
The character designs are simply pathetic, it's too over-shaded, the characters seemed poorly planned out. ... Honestly, the background characters are more eye-catching than the two main characters. Since Madhouse was in charge of the animation, I figured that it wouldn't be too bad, but I was sadly mistaken. I put all this horrible art to a lack of a budget. To say the least, I was shocked when the scenery was so beautiful. The thing that should catch your eye are the characters NOT the scenery.

All-in-all, they just needed more of a budget for art since it seemed like they didn't have enough money for it.

SOUND: 6
The sound is fine, but I just feel that they could've used more fitting music. The English voice actors did put emotion into their lines, so it wasn't dead. I have not seen the Japanese dub, but I assume they're similar. The sound effects seemed fitting for the anime, but sometimes the sound effects just didn't fit

For the English dub, the words don't exactly fit with the lip flaps. The sentences don't go over, they go under the amount of flaps. It wasn't enjoyable.

The ending theme wasn't the greatest because it wasn't the original, but I suppose it worked. I guess it's debatable depending on what you like for vocals.

CHARACTER: 4
Character designs left so much to be desired. I understand that, no matter what, the animated characters won't look like the actual actors, but I just think they could've planned out the designs more carefully. Dean's design reminds me of someone who was put in jail for a crime. I have nothing to say on Sam's design since it was alright. The extras, as I said before, were better drawn.

ENJOYMENT: 3
I really do NOT care for this anime one bit. I don't intend to watch another episode unless I'm dreadfully bored and the only other option is banging my head against a wall or playing with matches... Even then I'd probably play with matches.

OVERALL: 4
Even though the idea of turning Supernatural into an anime is good, I believe that it could've been done better. If they didn't jump into it because anime is the "in thing" right now, I honestly believe it would be better. This is one of the worst animes I've seen to date. If you plan to watch Supernatural: The Animation, I suggest that you don't. Just stick with the live-action series.