Tougen Anki

📖 SYNOPSIS

Meet Shiki Ichinose: a hot-headed teenager who likes guns and getting kicked out of school. Pretty standard delinquent stuff — until an assassin shows up and his adoptive father dies protecting him, revealing that Shiki is actually an Oni, a descendant of the demon-like creatures from the legend of Momotarou. Except here, the Momotarou aren't the heroes. They're the ones trying to kill him.

This 24-episode TV series flips the classic Japanese fairy tale on its head. Instead of rooting for the peach boy, you're following the demon's side, watching Shiki figure out what he even is while people who've trained their whole lives to hunt Oni come after him. The blood-based power system is genuinely interesting — not just generic energy blasts — and Studio Hibari puts real effort into making the fight choreography feel weighty and fluid rather than just flashy.

If you liked Blue Exorcist's "discovering you're the son of the enemy" setup or the identity crisis vibes of Tokyo Ghoul, this scratches a similar itch. There's also that Demon Slayer mythological backbone holding everything together, but Tougen Anki leans darker and messier with its moral lines. Shiki isn't a noble protagonist trying to do right — he's angry, confused, and dangerous, and the show doesn't rush to clean that up. The soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting too, setting a mood that sits somewhere between brooding and volatile. Worth your time if you're into dark fantasy shounen that doesn't hold your hand.