Tag Archives: Exorcism

Yugen’s All-Ghouls Homeroom Review

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It’s time to look at a one shot in Shonen Jump from a while back. The idea of supernatural exorcists is nothing new but very few have used a school setting like this. Depending on when it came out I wonder if it was trying to capitalize on the success of Assassination Classroom. Well, either way this experiment didn’t really work. The title has potential and solid art but ultimately this did not work out. The main character hurts this series quite massively.

The story starts off with someone asking Yugen to help him with a supernatural situation. He agrees and then we never go back to that plot so it was a completely pointless opening page. The story really starts on page 2 as we’re introduced to Mishiro who is super excited to be a teacher at a very prestigious academy. She will be teaching a year 2 course and it ready to uphold the school name. Unfortunately one student named Saeri has not been feeling very well lately. She has become withdrawn in her house and refuses to go outside. This is bad news for the school.

See, the school is known as a perfect finishing school for young ladies and prides itself on a 100% success rate. They’ve never had a troubled student drop out or anything like that. They’re so desperate that they call in a local counselor who just so happens to be Yugen. Mishiro doesn’t like this because Yugen immediately sets a bad impression as he does not dress professionally and flirts with everyone. Can she keep him under control long enough to help Saeri or is this game over for all of them?

I can see what they are going for with Yugen (As the title throws this in your face throughout the one shot) but it doesn’t work. See, as an exorcist Yugen is completely oblivious to a person’s outside appearance. It’s why he falls for those who are much older and much younger than he is. He looks only to the soul and his goal in life is to one day find a wife. By the end even the main heroine starts to get on his side for that reason which is certainly cheesy and sudden but this is a one shot.

You can’t make a good main character like this though. The flirting kind of character is one I usually dislike and Yugen is no exception. He should be taking his job more seriously and not be flirting while on the clock. Naturally it turns out that he is a genius, but even so that doesn’t excuse him here. He’s easily the worst character in the one shot and since he is going to end up being the main focus, that’s a really bad sign for any future potential here. If you were going to do this kind of trait then the only way it could have worked would have been to make him a high schooler as well. He could just be a teacher because of what a genius he is. That would make the plot of him flirting with students not so bad and you could still have him irritate the other teachers. Of course then you can’t have a possible romance with the teacher but that shouldn’t be here anyway.

In this one shot Yugen quickly takes down the spirit possessing Saeri easily enough. It reminds me of Muhyo and Roji where it’s not really a fight so much as Yugen just pointing at the enemy and taking it down. I assume this would likely change as the series went on but I suppose that isn’t a guarantee. I’m not really sure at this point if the series would have turned into a full action or just been more of an adventure title as each kid has their own issues.

The artwork isn’t bad. The designs are suitably creepy and ominous for this kind of title. It doesn’t look like a brand new kind of series which makes sense since the artist is experienced. I do hope that whenever a spirit is exorcised this isn’t just an excuse for fanservice here as the soul ends up appearing each time. The one shot was fairly reserved so I won’t take that as a point against it for now.

As for the other characters, well Mishiro seems reasonable enough. You can tell her dynamic will be about calling Yugen out every time but always being surprised as his antics end up turning things for the better. Ideally she will be able to do more than that as the series goes on. Then you have Saeri who is the victim here so we don’t get to see her full character much. She seems nice enough though and now that she has learned to break the rules (The moral of the story here) she should be able to keep other spirits from possessing her.

Naturally the one shot does end with a big cliffhanger as more spirits attack and the students are going to be in a tough situation now. At the end everyone’s missing which seems to include Saeri. If that is the case then she is supremely unlucky to have been possessed twice. That or she’s in a different class which is definitely possible. After all it’s not the whole school that has vanished so this is certainly possible when you think about it.

A one shot should be intriguing enough to make you want to read a full series about the premise. That’s the entire point so the question is…did this one pull it off? I would have to say no to that. There is potential here but the one shot didn’t make the best use of that. As far as supernatural worlds go, this one has less to it than most. I wouldn’t say that there is a lot to make the series stand out in any way. As mentioned, it is definitely trying for a Muhyo and Roji kind of feel but without the humor and the main character is a big step down.

The series feels a lot more grounded than other titles as the rest of the characters all seem like normal humans. Of course they could introduce more tough fighters eventually but I don’t see as much potential in this one. Throw in how the main character’s not very good and I have to give this a thumbs down. It’s not a one shot that I can recommend and I can see why it has not gotten a full ongoing at the moment. It’s just not ready for that.

Overall, Yugen’s classroom is already out of session and I don’t think any more classes will be coming up. Perhaps we’ll see more of this title in the future but I have major doubts on that. The art is the strongest part of the story and that’s not really a good thing. Of course I am glad that the art is good but you seriously need way more than that if you want to end up being a big story. That’s just how it goes but as they say, it definitely could have been worse.

Overall 4/10

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

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It’s time for a film based on a controversial case in Germany. Essentially there was a girl who was having visions and started acting crazy. Some believed she was possessed by a demon while others believed that she had psychosis and needed medication. She decided to go with the exorcism strategy instead, but it failed and so she ended up dying. The film focused on the court case which followed this while relying on flashbacks to fill in the gaps of the past.

It’s definitely not my kind of movie. Well, to address the case, I’m going to assume that she was simply very sick and not possessed. The topic of possession is always very complicated. I’m personally of the opinion that Christians cannot get possessed. At least not in the current age. It’s possible in the past that a Christian could get possessed as a test of faith or a way to illustrate God’s power to others. A child was possessed in the old testament after all, but there are two reasonings for it that wouldn’t necessarily go against my theory. One is that as she was a child, she had not yet become a born again Christian. As such she did not have any protection yet. Of course, even if she died while being possessed that wouldn’t doom her to Hell as another belief I have is that if you have not yet been given a chance to become a Christian before your death, then you still may if you would have become one. Since God knows the future, it’s conceivable (And probable) that he takes this into account. After all, it wouldn’t be very fair if you died in a bombing when you were 3 years old and must now go to Hell. It’s an exception depending on how you look at it or just simply a case of God knowing where you should be going and sending you there.

The other way the child could have been possessed is simply because Jesus had not yet died and so we weren’t given the Holy Spirit. I believe that our protection is a lot stronger now since through Jesus death on the cross we all received the Holy Spirit. Before that, times were certainly tougher even though you shouldn’t worry about the tribulations since it will all be worth it in the long run.

The girl was stated to be a devout Christian who was a Catholic. In this case that means she still believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also believes the Pope and the Church to have greater power than the average person and can be a way to salvation. That gets a little murky since Jesus is the one and only way to Christ, but I’m not here to debate Catholic vs Christian beliefs and haven’t studied up on it enough to ensure I wouldn’t make mistakes. I’ll just say that all of this gives me plenty of reason to doubt that she was possessed. I personally think she was just suffering from psychosis and had a lot of bad hallucinations that caused her to believe this. The mind is pretty powerful so hallucinations can absolutely seem real to the individual who is being affected by them.

It’s definitely a sad story and a pretty awful way to go. I suppose the film does a good job of showing how bad the whole situation is. Naturally the flashbacks go for the “demon is real” route since if it went too ambiguous it wouldn’t be much of a movie and this can also make the scenes more intense. The dream of sacrificing yourself to help others see the light doesn’t really seem like something the Virgin Mary would say. I also don’t remember her becoming an angel…..but it made for an intriguing scene. I believe that self sacrifice and suffering is a big part of the Catholic religion but hopefully that doesn’t fall into the being saved by works as opposed to repentance but again I’m starting to digress. Lets move on from that.

Back to the film. The court scenes are handled pretty well with the lawyers getting sarcastic and the Judge being fed up with both of them. It leads to a lot of back and forth even if some of the witnesses do seem kind of eccentric themselves. I just like court room scenes and whether the witnesses bring up valid points or not, I just like the atmosphere. If the whole film had been the court scenes then I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more.

Overall, This film is based on a real event enough so that I won’t give it an actual score. If you want to learn more about the case I’d recommend watching a documentary or following along through online. After all, if you watch the film you’re simply getting a very dramatized enactment of the story where you can’t trust the facts quite as much. I suppose the theatrical visuals will make it more entertaining but if you really want to learn about the topic, odds are that you’ll want to go straight to the source. 90% of the time that’s the best way to go about it. It’s not a super violent film or anything, but it does go into detail and again, it is trying for shock value and gritty realism so bear that in mind. As for me, I’ll just keep being thankful that my court case wasn’t too graphic. It was kind of rigged…but that’s a story for another day.