There are many reasons why certain people love Japanese anime: one of them is ideas. Anime can house some of the strangest ideas you could ever come up with, and put them in a television show that's actually interesting and fun to watch. In some instances, anime will look to other sources instead of making original work. But "Supernatural: The Animation" is a little special. Being based off of an American television show airing at around the same time (which would have longevity for several years on American broadcast TV), this is something that I have never seen done before, and for obvious reasons, can be prone to problems.Like the live-action show of the same name, the show follows Dean and Sammi, two brothers who happen to work as demon hunters for a living (ok, they are never actually shown making money, but ignoring that...). With the help of trusted allies, they hunt every manner of demon, including vampires, werewolves, ghosts, spirits, and so on, and helping the people involved with them. The show also hints at larger things, such as the mystery of their missing father, the incident about their deceased mother, all revolving around a recurring yellow-eyed demon (apparently names "Azazel" in the show). About half-way through this series, those overarching stories take center stage, allowing for some payoff by the end.When I first started watching, several issues were present. One, the original show was made to fill a hour-long time slot, but the episodes here are half that time, even though the stories are largely based off each other. The first several episodes feel too quick and unfocussed, cramming in a hour-long story in twenty-five minutes. Also, the show is purposely episodic at first, even though it refers to things not mentioned until later on. This is a terrible tactic that deters viewers, and I gave up watching the first few episodes in favor of other things before coming back to it. Basically, it's a terrible show to marathon.Sometime later, I did get back into the show, and I can say it really does pick up about 1/3 into the series. By then, we've learned more about the father, the mother, the yellow-eyed demon, and actually care enough about all of the characters. Even better, they hint at dark things to come before the end of the series, and indeed, people die, get hurt, and hurt others. The character development here really shines, and even though the final episode ends a little quickly, that payoff makesl it feel like it was all worth watching.
Yes, the individual ghost stories are interesting too, but we've seen this type of thing done so many times, and I personally have seen it done BETTER so many times. It really comes down to the writing, and somehow this show isn't successful in a episodic format. If you keep watching blindly for a episode a week, it will pull you in eventually, but you have to be patient enough to see it through.The art is typical Madhouse animation, meaning it looks good, but also too comparable to cheap made-for-American-tv shows I've seen (Madhouse would also animate a few adaptions of Marvel comics for American television, which have had mixed reception at best). The use of contrasting color is more prominent here than even their other shows, but the dark lighting does not do it any favors on home video. Audio is fine, and the ending theme in particular will get stuck in your head. The voice actors are the same as those in the live-action show, except for Dean, who was played by a different voice actor until the last two episodes. I don't know why they bothered to switch if the original actor couldn't be available from the start, but the change is very noticeable, which is a shame, because before that the dub acting was really good.I've never seen the live-action show, and I am tempted to see it now. The anime, however, is a mixed bag: it has so much potential with the material and exceeds it in certain ways, but it makes stupid choices too often in the direction and production. Ultimately, the good outweighs the bad. The Warner Bros DVD release is easy to find for a great price considering the amount of content you get for it, so for the price alone, I'd still recommended it. Barely.