Ao no Exorcist Season 3: Premiere Date, Characters, Plot

Blue Exorcist (also known as Ao no Exorcist in Japanese) is a dark fantasy anime television series which is based on a manga series of the same name. Written and illustrated by Kazue Katou, the manga series was first published on April 4, 2009. It became quite popular in Japan, and was picked up by A-1 Pictures to be made into an anime television series.

‘Blue Exorcist’ is one of the most popular anime out there. The good thing about the anime is that it manages to keep up with the magic all throughout. It is a common belief that anime adapted from the original source often do better than anime that create original stories of their own. ‘Blue Exorcist’ is living proof of how much an anime can change, for better, if only it sticks to its source material.

Season 1 of Blue Exorcist made its way to viewers’ screens on April 17, 2011, and it was an immediate hit among fans of the manga series and new viewers alike. Following the release of the first season, a bunch of special episodes and an anime movie were also released between 2011 and 2012. Years later, a second season of the show was announced, and Season 2 of Blue Exorcist premiered on January 7, 2017. Since then, fans of the show have been waiting to hear news on a third season. Here’s everything we know about the prospects of Season 3.

Blue Exorcist Season 3 Release Date: When will it premiere?

Blue Exorcist season 2, titled Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga, was released on January 7, 2017, and it ran till March 25 of the same year. Following the release of Season 2, two original video animation (OVA) episodes were released under the title Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga OVA on April 4, 2017 and October 4, 2017. Since then, however, there has been no news on a third season.

This does come across as odd considering the fact that Season 2 ended on a note which warrants another season. There’s plenty of time left for a renewal to be announced. Our best guess is that Blue Exorcist season 3 release date could fall sometime in 2021. We’re keeping our ears open for news on Season 3 of Blue Exorcist, and we’ll update this section as soon as we hear more.

Blue Exorcist English Dub:

For those who like watching anime shows in English, the good news is that Blue Exorcist has a great English dub, which was made keeping the show’s international fanbase in mind. If you want to watch Blue Exorcist in English, you can find dubbed episodes on Crunchyroll.

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Blue Exorcist Plot:

Blue Exorcist has a fantasy setting and consists of a world which has two dimensions – Assiah, which is the material world humans live in, and Gehenna, a demon world ruled by Satan. While travel between the two worlds is mostly impossible, demons can pass through Assiah if they possess any living being. Given the possibility of demons traversing through Assiah, humans, for millennia, have trained exorcists, a group of specialists under the direct command of the Vatican who excel at hunting down and killing demons.

In this backdrop, the show follows a teenager called Rin Okumura. Although Rin is a seemingly ordinary teenager, his world gets turned upside down when he learns that he is the son of Satan, the ruler of the demon world. When Satan tries to invade Assiah by possessing Rin’s father, Shirou Fujimoto, the possession kills him, leaving Rin and his twin brother Yukio alone in the world.

Enraged at the actions of Satan and eager to avenge the death of their father, Rin and Yukio thus decide to become exorcists, hoping to kill Satan one day. To further their ambitions, they join the True Cross Academy and undergo training to become exorcists and join the Knights of the Holy Cross.

However, this journey proves to be far from easy. Not only does Rin have to deal with the academic pressure at the True Cross Academy and his troublesome peers, but he also has to keep his true identity and demonic powers hidden from people. Things are further complicated as there are plenty of evildoers around who want to use Rin’s powers for their own ends.

As the show progresses, students at the True Cross Academy eventually come to know of Rin’s true parentage and the revelation sends shockwaves of fear across the institute. However, this revelation is overshadowed when the left eye of a powerful demon called the Impure King is stolen from the academy, and Rin and his fellow exorcists have to embark on a race against time to prevent the right eye from getting stolen in Kyoto. However, when the right eye gets stolen also, suspicions arise about Rin’s true allegiance.

Blue Exorcist Characters:

Despite having dozens of characters, Blue Exorcist has only two main characters. Below, we’ve given you a brief description of each of the main characters in the show.

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Rin Okumura: The main protagonist of the show, Rin is the son of Satan born to a human mother. Being the son of Satan, he has also inherited Satan’s powers, and is a tremendously powerful demon. When Rin was born, however, his demonic powers had been sealed into the demon-slaying blade Kurikara, so that Rin could lead a normal human life for about 15 years. When Rin finally came of age, Kurikara could no longer contain Rin’s powers, and as a result, Rin came to know of his true identity. At this point of time, Satan senses that Rin’s powers have been awakened, and tries to drag Rin back to the demon world, killing Rin’s adoptive father, Shirou Fujimoto, in the process.

Following Shirou’s death, Rin is confronted by a group of exorcists led by the powerful Mephisto Pheles, who give Rin the option of killing them all or dying. Instead, Rin voices his urge to avenge Shirou’s death by becoming an exorcist, and is thus taken in by the True Cross Academy at the request of Mephisto. At the academy, Rin sets his sights on rising to the rank of Paladin so he can challenge Satan and kill him. However, this proves to be far from easy as several complications arise, and Rin has to find a way to deal with them all if he wants to achieve his goal of killing Satan one day.

Yukio Okumura: Rin’s fraternal twin brother, Yukio is the second main character in the show. An intelligent, kind, and no-nonsense person, Yukio becomes the youngest ever person to pass the exorcist test and enrolls at the True Cross Academy. There, Yukio’s brilliance comes out and he soon rises to the rank of Meister and becomes a teacher at the academy, and teaches Rin in the ways of the exorcists. Later in the show, it is revealed that Yukio also possesses demonic powers similar to those which Rin has.

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