Ayakashi Triangle: Season 1 Episode 1 — Matsuri, Suzu, and Ayakashi, Review (2024)

The following contains spoiler for Ayakashi Triangle, episode 1 "Matsuri, Suzu, and Ayakashi", now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Ayakashi Triangle is not the only gender-bending anime in this Winter 2023 anime season, and it is not the only one that is already generating controversy either. Ayakashi Triangle, Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, and ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister are three new anime series adapting IPs that deal with a main character whose gender was swapped, and the three involved males turned females. The first and the latter of the three already generated controversy, however, with Ayakashi Triangle, the controversy started with the source material for the anime series. The manga of the story that follows an exorcist ninja that ends up being magically turned into a girl when he was trying to protect his childhood friend from a powerful ayakashi stirred controversy before that.

VIZ Media had started releasing the volumes digitally, but Ayakashi Triangle volumes 1 and 2 were suddenly removed from e-bookstores and VIZ Media’s own website around the beginning of December 2021. VIZ Media rates this manga series 18+ because of its ecchi elements. When the 74th chapter of the series was to be released, both MANGA Plus and VIZ Media posted announcements they would skip it. The same happened with chapter 75. Both supposedly presented very objectionable content.

RELATED: Winter 2023 Preview: Reborn To Master The Blade: From Hero-King To Extraordinary Squire

What Is The Path Followed By The Anime Adaptation?

The story goes as follows — when Matsuri Kazamaki was younger, he joined his childhood friend Suzu Kanade in playing with the ayakashi, it was something they shared since they were the only ones that could see them. However, there are reasons for that. He is from a clan of ayakashi exorcists, and she is an ayakashi medium, which renders her delicious to ayakashi in search of increasing their power.

Because of that, Suzu tends to attract malicious ayakashi, not only the fluffy and cute type ones, and Matsuri takes it upon himself to become an exorcist ninja and slay any ayakashi will ill intentions, in order to secretly protect her. That is where his first big mistake lies — he treats Suzu as a damsel in distress and, by not telling her the truth, he does not spare his friend, he actually puts her in danger. Like the also controversial ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister!., it has plenty fanservice, but the male gaze fanservice looks much more problematic in ONIMAI than in Ayakashi Triangle.

Ayakashi Triangle As Seen Through Queer Lenses

Shirogane turned Matsuri into a girl, so he would not get romantically and physically involved with Suzu. Poor “evil” cat with his 400 years of age and not even considering same-sex relationships represents, whether it is the intention of the author or not, those “traditional” people so stuck in the past with their narrow minds. Gender-bending stories tend — and invite us — to subvert our conceptions of sexual and gender-based normativeness, even if they are generally intended to sexualize female characters, diminishing them through the male gaze fanservice that objectifies them. Viewed through queer lenses, these tales can serve to show that our sexual orientations have nothing to do with gender, the roles of which are determined and taught by society.

Unfortunately, many of those who approve of boys “becoming/turning into” girls in anime end up being most transphobic in real life, and the stars from the ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister hope this controversial anime teaches men about women’s daily issues, and also hope the anime can enlighten men about women’s struggles, while the original manga series is actually a beloved transgender one, and in this anime, they even use the color palette of the transgender flag, while comments from fans show this is not the message most people are receiving, even if this is the message being delivered. We cannot control what other people think, but we can change our perception and reaction to things that are out of the norm and ordinary.

Verdict?

The animation of Ayakashi Triangle is very beautiful, it is undeniable that the fanservice is there, showing women from bottom to top through the male gaze, repeating clichés concerning boobs and the like, and even the pervy old master is there too. The censorship is indeed funny because they are using stickers of the ayakashi cat that despises the horny humans — yet infuriating to a lot of people —, and the action scenes are very well animated, plus the soundtrack is amazingly good.

Not much of the story or main plot was introduced in this first episode, so, while it is too soon to judge if the adaptation will follow this thought-provoking route, or if too much is expected from it, it is also still too soon to be getting to a verdict regarding the overall quality of the anime. It will be necessary to watch some more episodes to determine if Ayakashi Triangle will stand out as a good new anime series, or if this will only add to the generic anime that serves as fanservice more than storytelling, and as full of controversies as its source material.

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