One Underrated Shonen Anime On Crunchyroll Is The Naruto Replacement You Didn’t Know You Needed

Naruto is considered one of the most popular and beloved shonen anime of all time, and for good reason too. The backstory of Naruto Uzumaki is captivating, and the series’ plot and themes worked as a gateway for many people in the western world to get into anime. Naruto struggles to fit in his village and is ostracized by the villagers surrounding him due to reasons outside of his control, something that a fellow shonen protagonist suffers through in a relatively underrated shonen anime.

If Naruto fans want to watch something similar to the smash-hit shinobi franchise, or find something refreshing that will help bring them the same joy as Naruto, then they should give Blue Exorcist a chance. Blue Exorcist follows the story of Rin Okumura, who appears to be an ordinary, troublesome teenager until one day he is ambushed by demons.

Rin, the protagonist of Blue Exorcist, discovers that he is the son of Satan and that he has satanic powers inside of him. The people around him are scared of Satan, for obvious reasons, and do not want to engage with someone who is the malicious being’s literal child.

The Story Of Blue Exorcist

Original story created by Kazue Kato

Blue Exorcist was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump before moving to Jump Square in 2009 and began broadcasting on TV in 2011. Currently, there are three seasons and one film available as a fourth season is set to release in October 2024. The world of Blue Exorcist consists of two separate dimensions that are attached. Assiah is known as the material world where humans live, and Gehenna is known as the world of demons. Demons can pass through to Assiah by possessing a living being and can wander to the other side unnoticed, only visible to people who have been in contact with demons before.

Exorcists were trained to remove demons who were seen as a threat to the livelihood of humankind in Assiah. The story revolves around Rin and his twin brother Yukio, who are known to be the sons of Satan. The pair lost their human mother when they were babies and were raised by Shiro Fujimoto, who is an Exorcist. Satan wants to use his sons as vessels so that he can cross over into Assiah and take over the world. Following in the footsteps of his guardian, Rin dedicates himself to becoming an Exorcist to protect the world against demons, as he rejects his father’s ideals.

The Parallels Between Rin and Naruto

Both Main Characters Have the Same Ideals

Rin and Naruto are very similar characters, and it makes sense that Kato took inspiration from Naruto when creating Rin as a character. Both of them never grew up with their actual parents or got to know them. Like Naruto, Rin has a strong power within him that makes people around him fear him and what he could become. They both want to be able to overcome the destiny that has been put on them and make the assumptions laid upon them be proven wrong.

They both want to get stronger to achieve the goals they set out for themselves. In Naruto’s case, he wants to become the Hokage so that he can earn the respect of the village that ostracized him and be able to protect them. Rin wants to prove that he is not like his father and seeks to eliminate the demons that plague the human world. He wants to keep people safe from the dangers that demons can impose; Rin and Naruto are both characters who give off hopeful energy and determination to survive in the worst situations. Blue Exorcist is available to watch on Hulu and Crunchyroll.

Blue Exorcist

Cast

Bryce Papenbrook , Johnny Yong Bosch , Brian Beacock , Sam Riegel , Kyle Hebert , Wendee Lee , Mona Marshall , Christine Marie Cabanos , Kira Buckland , Kirk Thornton

Release Date

April 17, 2011

Seasons

4

Franchise(s)

Blue Exorcist

Writers

Ryōta Yamaguchi

Directors

Tensai Okamura

Creator(s)

Kazue Kato

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