Oni no Chi

Tougen Anki finally got an anime adaptation, I still can't believe I'm saying that... I've been reading the manga ever since 2021, back when the fandom didn't even exist. It always felt like an underground gem.

Let me just say: the intro animation and sound design? They absolutely nailed it, along with the voice actor choices. The intro had the energy I hoped for, the atmosphere was on point. I loved the sound effects and the music overall.

That being said, I have to be honest, I'm not a fan of how soft the overall animation style looks. It kinda took away from the intensity that the manga delivers so well. And the CGI moments were jarring, which was disappointing for a series that thrives on its raw, brutal aesthetic.

Still! Nothing will take away the feeling of finally seeing the characters I've loved for years come to the big screen. It might not be perfect, but it means a lot. Seeing this animated is a win itself.

About half way into the first episode, which so far had no bad or noticable CGI, although I guess the black particles are not handdrawn, there is a second fight. Here the protagonis Anki turns into a devil and now he and his opponent are no longer 2D, but 3D CGI, which is very noticable, especially because it looked good before hand in 2D. Basically the whole fight is made with this CGI characters, a few shots herr and there are 2D (from what I can judge).

This was a huge let down, and broke the immersion, which is always a terrible thing to happen.

I will still give another episode a try, hoping this won't happen again, although I highly doubt it, especially if they have such low quality standards in the first episode already.

The story is ok, classical side A vs side B. Here it's a side that uses it's devil blood to form weapons, so far firearms, vs the momotaro which use some black particles to form swords.

I've seen people saying the use of CGI is bad and it automatically makes the episode bad. When there's no animation (slideshow animation) it's bad but when they use CGI to save costs and time on some of the less important parts, it's also bad. Pick a side. I'd rather them use CGI than to have no movement. There is CGI, yes. But does it look bad? Not in the slightest.

There are two fight scenes in the first episode and both are actually well animated. I just find funny that Shiki is an Oni who uses guns as his weapons especially the first part when he literally has guns in his room. Where did he get them??