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There are many anime considered a "Pokémon clone," but the subject of today is probably more famous as one of the two "Digimon sister franchises" xD. And, not...it's not Legendz! That one will have its turn one day~

So, if you are aware of it, then you know we're going to talk about Onmyou Taisenki! If you want to know what I mean by calling it a Digimon sister franchise, then you can read the details about that in here: https://www.reddit.com/r/digimon/comments/1p13jgc/22nd_anniversary_of_the_onmyou_taisenki_manga/

As far as I can tell, those guys only worked on Legendz and OT, or at least, those are the only series that I know that they did, which can be considered "sister" of Digimon. If you know about other stuff they did, please do let me know so I can check them out!

It all started with the "Onmyou Toujinki": "The Onmyou Toujinki (陰陽闘神機) are the original Shikigami-summoning mechanism items in the Onmyou Taisenki series. It was released by Bandai as virtual pet merchandise (as Bandai was also the creator of the Tamagotchi)." Later, that toy would be replaced by the Onmyou Drive, and this one seems to be the one used by the characters in the anime and manga, which means they must have created both the manga and anime to help promote that toy. So, we already have a similarity to how Digimon was created right here. And, like Digimon, they made an anime, manga, and a few games based on this IP.

Usually, an anime is an adaptation of the manga, regardless of its quality, but it's not the case here. Plot-wise, the manga is a direct prequel of the anime, but...not really? Kinda? It's weird, and they never talked about it, but the anime has stuff that directly contradicts the manga, and at the same time, it's obvious that the events of the manga must have happened due to Yakumo (MC of the manga)'s relationship with Kogenta, plus other stuff. For those reasons, the fandom believes it's more like the anime is based on a "what-if" or alternative version of the manga, which we never got to see. This means that while I do recommend you read the manga before you check this anime out, you don't really need to, since it's not like the anime is 100% based on the manga anyway. And aside from a few cameos and details, mainly Yakumo's past and who he is, you won't be missing much from jumping directly into the anime, as it has its own plot and cast of characters.

Speaking from now on, only about the anime, what is it about? From wiki:

"Riku Tachibana is a 12-year-old boy who lives near Tokyo. Never having met his parents, he lives an ordinary life with his adoptive grandfather. His grandfather had taught him a series of strange hand movements, which Riku did not know the purpose of until the day his grandfather was attacked near his shrine. But it is not an ordinary attacker. The attacker is a shikigami (式神; lit. 'Ritual Gods'), strange monsters with human owners. Riku comes to the scene, and that's where he first gets in contact with his Drive (神操機), the device he uses to call and make a 'contract' (契約, keiyaku) with Kogenta of the Byakko, his shikigami and, from that day on, best friend. The shikigami needs, for special attacks, a special series of Seal (印; In), one of which happens to be the strange hand movements Riku's grandfather always taught him. As time passes, his bond with Kogenta deepens, and he fights off other Toujinshi assassins who attack him one after another."

If you're a Digimon fan, then yes, those Shikigami are the "Digimon" of the anime, and there are a lot of them! If you want some general info about how they are divided, and official art of them: https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/Shikigami/Tribe_List

For this anime, we need to know what it considers a "Shikigami." According to wiki: "In the Onmyou Taisenki series, they are summoned to and from their homeworld called the Shikigami World (式神界, Shikigami-kai) by Toujinshis using their Toujinkis, abiding by their contract. Only by their Toujinshi's "qi" can they gain corporeal form in the material plane.

They are forces of nature anthropomorphized as animal spirits, divided into species tribes, each representing one of the 24 Solar Terms. Each tribe embodies a "meaning" which defines the "bond" between the Shikigami and the Toujinshi in contract, thus, in retrospect, their potential lies in how strong their "bond" followed by the toujinshi's strength."

Those guys have a good variety of designs, with most of them being furry. Here, a Toujinshi will make a contract with a Shikigami, and if the Shikigami accepts, they are now working together towards a common goal, which can really be anything, including stuff like getting power and money. Once that goal is achieved, the contract is over, and both Toujinshi and Shikigami go their separate ways. But if things go badly and the Shikigami is defeated in battle, the Toujinshi will lose all their memories related to their lives as Toujinshi. And if the Toujinshi is killed in battle or the Drive of the Shikigami is too damaged, the Shikigami goes to Naraku, which is technically hell for Shikigami. They can also go there if they kill a Toujinshi, even if following the orders of their own Toujinshi!

This means that all battles will always have big stakes since the Toujinshi don't want to lose their memories, and the Shikigami don't want that to happen or for them to be sent to Naraku. The Toujinshi are much more active in battles in this anime compared to other "Pokémon clones". First, they can influence the battle by using Toujinfu, which are like charms that have a lot of effects when used by a Toujinshi. Seriously, those things are crazy...they can seal, capture, create smoke, turn invisible, and much more. If anything, they can do so much stuff; it's crazy how they aren't used that much in most battles. And the other, and also the biggest way Toujinshi do in a battle is the use of In aka Sign.

I will be honest... as much as this is one of my favorite Kemono anime, one of the bad things about it is how it really sucked at explaining some aspects of its own lore and setting properly, and a big example of that is the In. Lots of stuff is presented and never elaborated on, especially the In. The wiki https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/Signs explains it in a way that was never even mentioned in the anime, so I wonder if they used information from the manga or from some of the games xD. And yes, this means that most of the time you will be watching as some human is holding their drive up in the air or right in front of them, yelling something like SHI KAN DA RI, and moving the drive in a specific way, which, in theory, will make the Shikigami use one of their special techniques. It should be funny, but the anime does it in a good way, and you can take the battles seriously, even if the In stuff doesn't make sense when you think about it...but I will talk about it more in the spoiler section.

Onmyou Taisenki can be translated as "Chronicles of the Great Yin-Yang War," and this is a reference to the two factions of Toujinshi: Ten-ryu, aka Heaven Style (Riku's faction), and the Chi-ryu, aka Earth Style. We follow Riku as he slowly gets involved in the world of the Toujinshi and the war between those factions, and he slowly gets answers like why he and his Grandfather were attacked by that Toujinshi in the first place. Think this is a good spot to talk about some of the characters, so let's do it~

- Riku Tachibana: Our main character! This boy of 12 years old was living a normal life before he and his grandfather were attacked by a Toujinshi and his shikigami, and now he has to discover what's up with that and his connection to that strange world of "Onmyou Taisenki".

He's a gentle and shy boy, but matures as the series goes on to take the battles and his responsibilities as a Toujinshi more seriously, being one of the three characters that get the most character development.

Maybe it's because Riku is quite normal for a MC, and so he can be on the boring side at the start, but the start of the anime paired him with three characters that are also normal kids and have nothing to do with the Shikigami stuff at all: - Momo Jouzenji, his childhood friend and classmate that has a crush on him that borders on stalker level and sometimes it crosses that line; -Rina Asou, this classmate of Riku has a strong psychic abilities which allow her to see shikigami like Kogenta. She even thought Kogenta was "Tora-san," her pet cat who died in a traffic accident.- Ryuji Kamiya is the class delinquent, even getting into fights! He has a soft spot for vegetables and rowing. Slowly opens up to Riku, and those four end up joining the rowing club, which is sometimes used as an excuse to give Riku a way to go to certain places to look for new Ins for Kogenta or whatever.

It's crazy how much the anime insists on putting those three normal kids (and their teacher later) together with him in his adventures and since sometimes this only happened because Momo acts like a stalker forcing her way into his trips and stuff, they're useless in most of the episodes except only two and you can tell that was the anime going out of its way to get them something useful to do for Riku. They're used as filler most of the time or to have some "relief" from the serious aspects of the plot and the action.

Riku's Shikigami is Byakko no Kogenta! He can be quite rude with his short temper and violent personality (never call him a cat...), and usually scolds Riku for not taking his duties as a Toujinshi seriously, but he cares for him. Sometimes, he might even clash with Riku thanks to his sense of pride, and when he talks to Riku about certain things that the boy just isn't ready for. Like the darkness in his heart...

The anime doesn't explain why or anything, but it seems the Byakko Shikigami are considered the strongest, and this applies to Kogenta as well. But, while he's also a Byakko, Kogenta has a big feud with Rangetsu, and they are fierce rivals throughout the anime.

- Nazuna: This 10-year-old shrine maiden of the Shinryu Shira Shrine in Kyoto makes me question where the heck are the parents of part of the cast. Just think how insane it is that she is not only taking care of that shrine all by herself, but she's already a Tounjishi as well, having a contract with Holly Horin! Where the heck are her parents?!

She moves in to live with Riku and, despite being quite mature and reserved for her age, can't help but kinda become Momo's "rival" in wanting Riku's attention, though if she has feelings for anybody, that is Souma. Which is bad news for Teru, who has a crush on her and...wait, isn't he like 16 years old?
...
errrr LET'S MOVE ON!!

- Teru Saigo: This 16-year-old guy is a backpacker with absolutely no money, always on a training journey. Teru is earnest, polite, and honest, but also has a tendency to jump to conclusions and be clumsy, and is also a voracious eater, which can be a problem for others, including himself. After falling in love at first sight with Nazuna, he often behaves erratically when in her presence. He tries to get her to notice him, but she doesn't pay him any attention, and he doesn't see him as anything more than a reliable friend. Has a contract with Akabuto Isoriku, who apparently has no problem with his 16-year-old Toujinshi having a thing for a 10-year-old girl xP!

- Yuuma Asuka: The explosive personality of this 15-year-old boy is a big contrast with Riku, including their lifestyles, as Yuuma was born and raised in a Toujinshi family. Now, he's the leader of a squad at Chiryu. He's Souma's brother, who says he changed after what happened to their parents, and, indeed, it's so weird how Yuuma has no issues working for Mikazuchi after what he did! Soma's older brother. Maybe it helps that he is Mizuki's fiancée and Mizuki is the daughter of Mikazuchi, the leader of the Chiryu.

Yuuma's Shikigami is Byakko no Rangetsu! He has a feud with Kogenta, though we never find out why. Ironically, despite being a Byakko, he's a black tiger, not a white one like Kogenta! I remember back then when anime was airing, people thinking he was a panther or something xD. He's quite vicious and ferocious, and according to the guys at Chiryu, he's the strongest Shikigami. That's why Yuuma got lots of respect when he made a pact with him, but also lots of jealousy from other Chiryu toujinshi.

- Souma Asuka: He is 10 years old. He is Yuma's younger brother, who has a contract with Fusanoshin of Raika. He's shown to be quite the genius, even showing Riku his college graduation certificate! Yet he's still a normal boy who does things like preferring junk food, not holding his chopsticks properly, and being quite the crybaby. Not that I blame him for that, given what happened to his parents and how his brother makes everything more complicated by siding with Mikazuchi for reasons never fully explained. He and Nazuna became the closest thing the anime has for an "official" couple despite both being ten-year-olds.

Souma's Shikigami is Ikazuchi no Fusanoshin! While he can be quite childish and on the rough side, which makes him clash a lot with Kogenta, given the feline's own temper, he never left Souma's side, even when he was expelled from the Chiryu.

- Masaomi Ogami: This 17-year-old guy is on the popular side, picking up cute girls, and helps Riku as another member of the tenryu and a more experienced Toujinshi. It's impossible to talk more about him without giving spoilers, same with his Shikigami, Seiryu no Kibachiyo!

I think a good way to summarize OT is by saying this is an anime that's like a fusion of Onmyōdō with Digimon, and I mean that in a good way. While the Onmyōdō stuff is really what was used for the core of the anime, alongside the Shikigami (aka the "Digimon"), if you enjoy one, then chances are you will enjoy this anime a lot. It really should have explained some stuff about its own lore better, like how the In/sign stuff works, or some stuff about its characters, like the whole situation with Yuma/Souma's family, but this anime still has a good plot and solid characters, both human and Shikigami!  Even if the anime kinda only focused on only three of those to get some character development, and only them compared to their Shikigami.

Maybe that's because, as expected of an anime like this, there are too many characters to focus properly on all of them. And most of them will only show up to be defeated in the same episode they appear, and with their Shikigami being defeated, we won't see them again, with only a few exceptions. It's a shame since some of those characters seemed interesting or had Shikigami that also seemed fun, but this stuff is par for the course for any "Digimon anime," as the enemy or monster of the week trope is very common for it.

The meat of the anime is the Onmyōdō and how it's used for the setting and plot, and how the characters deal and fight each other using their Shikigami, to what can almost be considered a Digimon anime, despite the Shikigami barely having other "forms," though their designs are good and very Digimon-like. Heck, today, we have a new series of Digimon called Digimon Beatbreak, and there's one Digimon there belonging to one of the main characters whose evolution could be considered Rangetsu's cousin xP.

The anime does have some scenes that make it easy for the fandom to ship some characters, even to form some "gay" couples such as Riku and Kogenta. But the only canon couple by the anime itself is Souma and Nazuna. So, if you heard of this anime because of those ships and expect to see something like Riku kissing Kogenta or something, know that it won't happen, haha.
Now, I will talk about some stuff about the plot and my opinion on it that will have spoilers. If you want to avoid spoilers and want to see what the anime offers for furries, which is the main point of my review, then please scroll down to the “KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT” section!
 

 

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND THE ENDING

 

-Some stuff from OT really needed to be more elaborated, and it's crazy that they never were. Like the Toujinfu. They are never properly introduced or explained; they just show up and are being used all over the anime, though at the same time, not as they should. Those things are so overpowered that you wonder why they aren't used in every single battle. We don't even know how their power level is supposed to be measured. What happens if two Toujinshi use the same kind of Toujinfu to attack each other at the same time? Who would win? Why do the Jinryu guys use the Toujinfu to "sneak attack" on Yakumo, since we know they can even be used to make you invisible? Why don't the more experienced Toujinshi like the Jinryu guys always use Toujinfu to get the upper hand in their battles with the elemental weakness of the Shikigamis, which is a thing that the show doesn't use enough? Seriously, Toujinfu can do whatever the plot needs, and yet somehow the characters don't use it as much as they should.

 

- The whole thing with the In/Sign is even weirder, barely explained, and convoluted at the same time. When you begin to think about it, this mechanic doesn't make sense at all. Who made those In for starters? Why can't the Shikigami know all its own techniques already? Especially when all of them are supposed to be alive for thousands of years? The anime shows that some In are so powerful that they can make the Shikigami completely exhausted, and so he's fucked if the Toujinshi fucks up and uses that In and doesn't defeat the opponent.

That explains why Shikigami would only teach some In to their own Toujinshi later, but what about the other ones? And if the Shikigami themselves don't know all of their In somehow, who the fuck "made" all those seals and stuff through the anime that has some In? And why do some In seem to only work for some Shikigami, or do all of them work for everyone to some degree? Regardless of the answer, you would think that at least the Chiryu guys, who have this massive organization, would make sure to teach their Toujinshi all the In they can use for their own Shikigami, but as we see with Rangetsu, that's clearly not the case. The In stuff is probably the thing about OT that makes the least sense xD. Maybe this is somehow tied to the Style Rank, but that thing was barely even mentioned, and in the end, it didn't even matter.

- Ironically, something else that the anime never explained properly, as it should be, are the Shikigami themselves. There are at least two things about them that I think the anime should have addressed properly. One is how their power level are supposed to work. From some bits of dialogue, it is mentioned or hinted that Rangetsu is the strongest Shikigami, or, among the strongest. Why? Are all Byakko that strong? That means there is some sort of hierarchy between them all or something? How does that work? If that's the case, why didn't someone like Mikazuchi somehow make someone make a contract with Rangetsu to use his strength for his own agenda? Heck, if Rangetsu is supposed to be the strongest Shikigami (or, at least, the one that the Chiryu has access to), why didn't he make a contract with him once he became the "shadow leader"?

Another thing that is so insane to me that they didn't do is well...remember, the Shikigami are around for THOUSANDS OF YEARS. And we assume they only make contracts with people from Japan. So, there's no way they all didn't already meet each other during all this time in the past. This means they should have all sorts of relationships with each other, from friends to rivals to who knows what else. But, not only do we BARELY see any of this displayed in the anime (mainly with Kogenta and Rangetsu), but it never plays any significant role in the plot of the anime at all. Not even for the arc of a character. This is so huge it could even be what the whole anime is about, so it's weird they never tried to use such relationships for anything. The only way I see this make sense is if the Shikigami also lose their memories when they are defeated in battle or something, but that's not the case. Maybe if we had more "unique" cases like with Koroku...but then again, his case is so unique that it brings questions to how that whole Shikigami going to Naraku works, since from what we see it seems to be a chill place lol.

- I like the anime a lot, most of the human characters are good, even if only three of them had good character development with arcs and all, plus the plot is also good with some nice twists here and there. But the execution of it isn't always perfect, and of all my issues with it, probably the biggest one is how time travel is just a thing that is just here, and nobody seems to care that much. As if time travel wasn't a big deal. Like...soooo many questions about this. Riku, did you seriously never think about learning the "spell" or asking Nazuna (since according to wiki she's the one that uses the mirror of time to return Masaomi and his crew to the past, which btw is something barely addressed) to take you back to the past to meet your parents or something? And no way someone like Mikazuchi wouldn't know about this, and yet he never mentioned interest in fucking time travel. In the very least, Riku and Masaomi, no, the whole Jinryu guys should be all over it! And yet...this is so weird...

- I'm not going to pretend that everything about Mikazuchi was good or make sense (like how he didn't seem to care about Rangetsu, the supposed strongest Shikigami. What, he was hoping that Yuuma, IF he made the contract with Rangetsu, would want to join him DESPITE what he did to his parents? WTF), but he was fine as an antagonist until we got Utsuho, whose backstory and arc were quite great. But it would be good if we had more insight on some stuff like how were the Chiryu before he rose to power as the "shadow leader" (and how the fuck was that even a thing if Yuuma's family was the one with Rangestu...)? This is important because it makes no sense that after what happened between Chiryu and Tenryu, the Tenryu are somehow still around! Remember, AT LEAST by the time of the anime, the Chiryu are this massive organization that even has an entire "Tenryu subjugation division"! And the anime goes out of its way to make clear that the Tenryu is in such a condition that nothing about it can be called an organization! So...how the heck were the Tenryu guys still around by the time the anime started? By this point, they should be long gone, and Riku should be the only one left. Was Mikazuchi giving orders for them to leave a few Tenryu alone for whatever reason?

- Speaking about Mikazuchi, we see that he has a crush on Yuuma/Souma's mom, and he probably used whatever as an excuse to "punish" their father once he had the chance later and turned him into stone, making his own kids think he is dead. That was fucked up, but ok, he's supposed to be the "bad guy". What was the deal with their mom, though?! We never saw what happened exactly. It is implied that Yuuma arrived just as his mom lost a fight against Mikazuchi, which means that she forgot her entire family (which makes no sense, we see a married couple later and when he lost his shikigami he still remembered her but then again the forget things stakes they went with is a bit messy) since she forgot the Tounjinshi stuff when her Shikigami was defeated. That's what everyone believed, from her kids to Mikazuchi himself. And then...it was revealed that she was pretending? WTF?? Just...why? Why would you do that? And maybe more importantly, how? So you didn't forget stuff when your Shikigami lost the battle? Why was the exception? We know that has to be the case since she had her drive in her hand when Yuma found her with Mikazuchi when he rushed there. This was such a dumb plot twist. Done only for the sake of a twist, since all it did was to make their mom a horrible person to pretend she forgot both of them for no good reason.

- The whole thing with Utsuho and the Jinryu was very good and the best part about the anime's plot. Holy shit, what happened with Utsuho and those kids...that is enough to turn ANYONE into a good anime villain! To this day, I'm not sure if I saw any characters that got fucked so hard without deserving it like him! I just wish the whole bit with the Jinryu made more sense, but then again, they involved time travel, and it's very hard to make it all work for the plot. But I still think it's good stuff and IMO isn't a big problem compared to other stuff like others I mentioned xP.

- In the same way, I like the ending, but I still feel the epilogue itself should have been bigger. Maybe elaborate on some stuff more. For example, from my understanding, before he died, Utsuho used his power to restore the contract between the Shikigami and the Toujinshi that lost their battles during the anime, which is why we see some characters, such as Souma, back with their Shikigami and others that were defeated in the past, like Izou Kenzaki, in the ending. Now, let's forget for a second that this makes no sense because guys like Izou absolutely died, given that he lost his memories after falling into who knows where while inside Fukumaden. And this wasn't recent, it happened like over 30 episodes ago lol.

Even if he somehow escaped that place all by himself and without his Toujinshi memories (which means he wouldn't be able to even fight the many demons in Fukumaden to make his escape), that doesn't mean that other Chiryu guys would simply welcome him. The anime made a point to show that he is scum and betrayed many of his teammates to get promotions in the Chiryu. If he's back and he has his memories, then so should all of those guys that he betrayed! This is exactly the kind of thing the ending fails to address properly.

- Why is Riku's grandfather such a terrible character? He doesn't even make sense. When he saw Riku and knew who he was, why didn't he look for a genuine Tenryu Toujinshi to raise him so he could be properly trained as a Toujinshi? What was his plan? To just...hide him in his temple, hoping the Chiryu would never find them? That's dumb as fuck and almost screwed up both him and Riku; he was so lucky that Riku was somehow able to find Kogenta's drive and make that contract as fast as he did! Not to mention how he just barely talked to him about anything when he finally woke up, and then he just left, abandoning Riku in the middle of the fucking war to what? Look for a poem left by his parents? Urgh...

 

KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT

Now that we put that out of the way...it's KAMIKAZETIME!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqmoABFM2wU

You guys know when an anime ends with an episode in a cliffhanger or leaving something (like a twist) in the open that will make you wonder how that will play out in the next episode? Jojo, for example, is a master of this! There's a good reason why "To Be Continued" is a staple of the series!

Onmyou Tainseki doesn't do it at the same high level as Jojo, but they did put in the effort. It's awesome hearing that Japanese cymbal rattle sound when you see the end of the episode, usually accompanied by a plot twist or a cliffhanger! I think it represents the sound of the "war" within the anime itself, how it's not over yet, the war is still going! Which is why that sound only changes in the last episode...a sound that will certainly make you feel something once you realize what it is~

You can see this kind of effort and mentality in the kemono of this anime as well. All of them are not only in the anthro side, but most of them are dressed for war, wearing armor, and with some weapon on! If you are into kemono that are always naked like big dragons, you will barely see that sort of thing here since the kemono of Onmyou Taisenki are always "ready" to fight. Same if you expect "cute" or small kemono like the Digimon Rookies, as 99% of the Shikigami are on the anthro side with a few exceptions!

While all of them are anthro, there's a wide variety between them as species, even if two of the main characters' Shikigami (Kogenta and Rangetsu) are tigers. Really, I think there's a bit of everything, though there are some exceptions. Sucks that we never got a bat Shikigami, for example! But, at least, we got many good ones like a dolphin, which is the case with Tankamui! Even today, kemono dolphins are quite rare!

It's not like they don't have other "forms," but only a few of them change due to the "grand summon" becoming bigger and either feral or more bara-looking. And, aside from those, only Kogenta, Rangetsu, and Kibachiyo have other forms, though they barely show up. Heck, one of them only shows up in the end! This means you better don't expect this to be like Digimon and think you will see the characters "evolve" into new forms in every battle or something, this doesn't happen here.

Besides, this anime does use the monster of the week trope, which means chances are if you see a Shikigami you really like, if they aren't the partner of one of the main characters...you better not expect to see them for long lol. It's a shame, especially since so many Shikigami with good design fall victim to this trope, but it is what it is.

Oh, and while the anime has most of the Shikigami, sadly, we didn't get to see them all! There are a few that seem to only show up in the GBA game Onmyou Tainseki: Zeroshiki! This includes who seems to be Kogenta's brother, Byakko no Gentaro! Shame the game was never officially released in English, and no translation patch exists for it as of now. The ones that you can only see in that game, as far as I can tell, are:
https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/Budlizard_Genpaku
https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/Thistlerodent_Chuukichi
https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/Holly_Jaja
https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/Frostnine_Kuroichi
https://onmyou-taisenki.fandom.com/wiki/White_Tiger_Gentaro

For ones you do see in the anime:

Bannai reference: https://imgbox.com/g/6gdcH3qxut

Buryune reference: https://imgbox.com/g/OsuGhtxCSm

Daikaku reference: https://imgbox.com/g/j4rSOcg07p

Demon Cat (not a Shikigami, just a cute demon cat lol) reference: https://imgbox.com/g/C8G1GDWSzC

Demons (OT has some furry demons, but they pale compared with the Shikigami, as you can see) reference: https://imgbox.com/g/I11v2Yv7k4

Fusanoshin reference: https://imgbox.com/g/NMJlJmrLeu

Fuurai reference: https://imgbox.com/g/dAOZIENrdK

Ganzou reference: https://imgbox.com/g/2hO2USgUdt

Gorouza reference: https://imgbox.com/g/4Ycba4TFmr

Houshun reference: https://imgbox.com/g/V4T93fSy6Z

Kantarou reference: https://imgbox.com/g/X9xGKdZYc3

Kogenta reference: https://imgbox.com/g/nENCwgnhJ7

Koroku reference: https://imgbox.com/g/nnXMLsSovP

Kujirabei reference: https://imgbox.com/g/Mtesedxdo1

Magahoshi reference: https://imgbox.com/g/78COBt1yZ0

Masurao reference: https://imgbox.com/g/oMyxUQjcI5

Ninkurou reference: https://imgbox.com/g/r7qJb3Uwzp

Onishiba reference: https://imgbox.com/g/Bo4EvXAFMM

Otochika reference: https://imgbox.com/g/R3iFYZxNvw

Raiden reference: https://imgbox.com/g/Dfom7HV07Z

Rangetsu reference: https://imgbox.com/g/GWAan4PqjT

Sanemaro reference: https://imgbox.com/g/FG3kABml8i

Tankamui (still one of the best dolphin kemono I've ever seen!) reference: https://imgbox.com/g/BoYDNZwh69

Toubee reference: https://imgbox.com/g/0XGmY7OjmS

Zukumaru reference: https://imgbox.com/g/yG46Khibw1

Spoilers (would only see them if you don't care for spoilers or want to check their designs better after seeing them in the anime)
Bara Kogenta, Rangetsu, and Kibachiyo reference: https://imgbox.com/g/bLKWOFt9Xe
Bara Kogenta reference: https://imgbox.com/g/s0SuVErEGm
Bara Rangetsu reference: https://imgbox.com/g/QnEiaBlEw1
Furry Fusanoshin reference: https://imgbox.com/g/J7CsHqO2Lm
Group reference: https://imgbox.com/g/zxBG8O7KyY
Kogenta "2" reference: https://imgbox.com/g/4eLsZS039t
Kogenta "3" reference: https://imgbox.com/g/dbQvBTPwGu
Kogenta "4" reference: https://imgbox.com/g/1OiggAaDMY

 

As a sister Digimon anime, this is good, and I'm sure that if you are a fan of Digimon, chances are you will love it. If you don't like any of the Digimon anime, I recommend watching about 5 episodes to see if it's for ya, since it's around this time when the plot starts to pick up for real. However, as much as I like this anime...

I believe that Onmyou Taisenki deserves a...
*turns around and points dramatically at the cartoon*
A THREE OUT OF FIVE OF LOF IN THE KAMIKAZE SCALE!!!

I would love to give this one a four, but I just can't do that! Not only because there's some dumb stuff with the plot as I mentioned in the spoilers section, which I think brings the whole thing down a bit (but only a bit), but also because, as much as I like the Shikigami...they are NOT what the anime is focusing on.

The anime's focus is on the war, both the war between Tenryu and Chiryu, and the... let's call it "mankind" war to avoid spoilers. The Shikigami are just soldiers or tools used in the war; the anime isn't about them at all. Except technically only Kogenta, they don't even really matter to the plot at all (if you don't count the twist presented at the very end, but still..). No wonder none of them really had arcs or development through the anime. So, I think a three is a fair level of LOF!

The best furry character this time is...lots to choose from, at least design-wise! But overall, you really can't go wrong with Kogenta! He was very popular when the anime came out, and if you watched it, you know why~

The "kemono in the refrigerator" this time is...Houshun. There are other candidates, but what they did with Houshun...this was the anime trolling with our feelings!!

Aaaand that’s it for this one! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this review. Please don't hesitate to leave your comments and opinions about it, and also about Onmyou Taisenki if you happen to have watched it or maybe wanna check it out, thanks to this review xD. I want to leave those journals as a place where people can discuss the respective things being reviewed here!