Tokyo Ravens

東京レイヴンズ

5.9(1)

OtakuDen

7.4(230,620)

MAL Score

Ranked #2651

Popularity #504

Action
Fantasy
Romance
School
Urban Fantasy

Episodes: 24
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Oct 9, 2013 to Mar 26, 2014
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Onmyoudou once stood as a formidable form of sorcery, even pressed into service during World War II. That era ended in catastrophe when the famed onmyouji Yakou Tsuchimikado triggered the “Great Spiritual Disaster,” a calamity whose lingering effects still haunt Tokyo. In its wake, the Onmyou Agency was formed to contain spiritual incidents and drive back the demons that slip into the human world.

In the present day, Onmyoudou has been modernized and streamlined, finding practical use across fields like medicine and technology—though only some can wield it. Harutora, born to a branch line of the Tsuchimikado family, lacks the talent and tries to live quietly despite a childhood promise to protect Natsume, the main family’s heir and believed to be Yakou’s reincarnation. When a high-ranking figure within the Onmyou Agency moves to repeat the kind of experiment that once led Japan to ruin, Harutora steps forward to honor his vow and stand beside Natsume.

Otaku Consensus

Tokyo Ravens lands as a solid, genre-savvy urban fantasy rather than a top-tier modern classic: critics and fan writeups consistently praise its escalating second half, visually varied magical battles, and a bittersweet ending that gives the 24-episode run more weight than its early school-comedy surface suggests. Takaomi Kanasaki's direction and Hideyuki Kurata's series composition are at their best when the show shifts from classroom antics into occult bureaucracy and large-scale exorcist action. The recurring criticism is that it can feel familiar and uneven early on, making it more rewarding for viewers already invested in magic-school urban fantasy than for skeptics of the subgenre.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Tokyo Ravens if you want an exorcist-school action series that treats magic like a regulated profession instead of a vague superpower system. It scratches the same itch as Blue Exorcist for academy occult battles and A Certain Magical Index for institutions, terminology, and supernatural bureaucracy, but with a specifically onmyoudou-flavored identity. The appeal is not just spell duels; it is the way the show keeps layering family obligation, reincarnation anxiety, agency politics, and romantic tension into what first looks like a straightforward battle-fantasy setup. Its 24-episode length also matters: reviews repeatedly note that it gains depth as it goes, so viewers who like a back-loaded payoff rather than instant prestige will get the most from it.

Key Characters

H
Harutora Tsuchimikado
Harutora works because he is framed as a branch-family lead whose emotional loyalty has to compete with an inherited magical order that keeps trying to define him.
N
Natsume Tsuchimikado
Natsume is the character who gives the school setting its tension, combining elite-family expectations with a social dynamic that fans often remember as one of the show's more distinctive hooks.
Y
Yakou Tsuchimikado
Yakou functions less like a simple historical figure than an ideological shadow over the cast, turning reincarnation and legacy into active sources of suspicion.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Studio 8bit produced the series as a full 24-episode TV run from October 2013 to March 2014, giving the adaptation room for a slow escalation rather than a compressed one-cour treatment.
2
The action is built around onmyoudou rather than generic elemental spellcasting, and review coverage specifically singles out the magical battles as one of the show's most visually interesting strengths.
3
The series mixes school-fantasy structure with urban emergency-response logic: the Onmyou Agency material gives the world a professional, bureaucratic texture uncommon in lighter magic-academy shows.
4
AniList's tag profile is unusually specific for the genre, with Magic at 93%, School at 92%, Exorcism at 79%, Reincarnation at 70%, and Crossdressing at 65%, signaling that the appeal is as much in its social complications as in combat.
5
The show carries a notable anisong lineup across its broadcast, including Maon Kurosaki on OP1, Gero on OP2, Yoshino Nanjou on ED1, and Mami Kawada on ED2.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Tokyo Ravens was directed by Takaomi Kanasaki, with series composition by Hideyuki Kurata and character designs by Atsuko Watanabe, a staff trio that shaped the anime's balance of comedy, romance, and occult action.
Fun fact 2: Masashi Ishihama is credited with storyboarding the opening, which is notable because opening-storyboard specialists often define a show's first visual identity before viewers even reach the episode proper.
Fun fact 3: Its reception sits in the respectable middle tier across major databases: MAL lists it at 7.4 from 230,555 votes with popularity rank #503, while AniList records a 71/100 score and 1,238 favourites.
Fun fact 4: The anime has one finished TV season of 24 episodes, airing continuously from October 9, 2013 to March 26, 2014.
Fun fact 5: Web reviews converge on a similar verdict: the show is considered worth watching for magic-action fans, with particular praise for its later depth and a common note that it is stronger than its first impression.