Twin Star Exorcists, will probably always be my longest weekly reviewed series. It is even now, a few months after it aired, I am not fully aware on my stance of the show. Normally I know before even writing a series review. The best I can do is take a step away, and not look at it as a group of episodes as I did for weekly reviews or even compare it to the manga, which ultimately I probably will, sort of. So, it is time to finally get started.
Twin Star Exorcists is based on the manga of the same name, by Yoshiaki Sukeno. Yoshiaki Sukeno also wrote the manga Good Luck Girl, or Binbougami ga! (Which I did not know until halfway through watching this series and I loved the Binbougami ga! anime) The series is not a parody like the predecessor, instead it is a mix of romance, comedy, and action. The anime however, only adapts and adds onto the first five volumes of manga before going on its own for the second half of the series with original stories and ending with a total of 50 episodes.
The series follows Rokuro and Benio as they are told they are the Twin Star Exorcists. Two that have the potential to be two of the most powerful exorcists that are said to marry and give birth to the child, Miko. Who, will be the ultimate exorcists that will put an end to the 1000 year war with the evil spirits, Kegare. The two are not open to this at first, but as time goes on, their feelings begin to bloom as more problems arise.
Studio Pierrot oversaw the adaptation, and they have worked with long running series before, it certainly shows, but also the typical issues that go with long running series also appear too. The art does have moments where it dips in quality, sometimes for a whole episode, sometimes just a short scene, but they are far and few in between. As for the overall story, it too seems to have ups and downs.
The plot is really where I feel hesitate to say this could be anywhere from an okay series or a great series. The romance was a huge importance in the manga, but it felt rushed. One thing the anime nails, is seeing their progression. In fact, I think comparing the two, the relationship is stronger or can be seen as stronger in the anime. Story wise, it mostly comes into the second half, which is all original. Although the first 20 episodes did have a lot of original material, it still followed the manga closely. The second half builds up a lot on a single character, only to have it taken away twice on that potential the final villain. It felt as though there was no sense of where they wanted to end it. The ending, I will say kept what the main focus was in mind, still was mixed with super satisfying and felt like there needed to be more.
It is even hard to say if the shows ending could be an original ending. But those final few scenes make it seem possible it could continue and go back to being canon. Although seeing the main villain’s fate from the manga is an issue, that could easily be fixed. I think the reason for this slight issue with plot comes from it making a 50 episode series and using a monthly manga with fewer than 30 chapters at the start of the series. It only used 5 volumes, and that turns into 17 chapters, most where battles that lasted for several chapters.
As an adaptation, it is average, I think I can at least say that looking and comparing it to the manga. It added a lot and expanded on a lot. As a series, expanding and trying to set itself away from the manga, certainly worked for the better for its episode lenght. Most series, this does not work well, even with 12 episodes. It had more freedom, and room to expand on the characters. It added a lot of interesting concepts. It may have become inconsistent with the flow of plot and direction at times, but it stayed true to the core concepts and the end goal. I think if there were at least 4 extra episodes, the final 10 would not seem to have been an issue. This was more with the villains in the last 10 episodes then the plot. The 50 episodes successfully showed the growth of the characters through their journey and what the show focused on. The impact of this was easily the strongest point at the end. It had a weak start, a somewhat strong middle, although the ending felt like it could have ended weak, it bounced back for a satisfying ending.
With that I believe I made my choice:
- Enjoyment: A
- Plot: C+/B-
- Characters: B+
- Adapted Half: B-
- Original Half: C-
- Overall: B-
Crunchyroll licensed the show for both streaming and home video, although at the time of writing this they have not released a dub or the series on home video.
Either way, what are your thoughts on the series, if you saw it that is?
As always I hope you enjoyed.
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Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.
– Joe
The Reviewer's Corner 
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