SPNA – Darkness Calling

Now THIS is what I was hoping for when I first heard about the Supernatural Anime: mostly original stories showing us side moments and things they couldn’t show us in the show.

This story is an anime original (TRULY original this time) staring none other than John Winchester and focusing on a character we only saw briefly in the show: Lily.  It’s really cool as John teams up with Lily’s dad (who abandoned her for awhile, showing us that John could have even been worse to the boys) to save her from the YED.

We see some hiccups showing things like John driving a hatchback car instead of a badass truck and the revelation in this universe than “palo santo wood” is dangerous to lower level demons.  I’m actually sorry the latter never translated to the show.  Not only would it have allowed the boys to wield badass crossbows, but we could have seen them wield crude swords and “knives” made out of the wood against demons (I would have been more accepting of it than Ruby’s knife).

Other revelations in the show is that John says at one point: “Keep your cool or you’re dead” explaining why he comes off so cold many times.  And at the end of this adventure, we see John resolving to locate the Colt to kill Azazel.  Also, by episode’s end, we see the YED take over the body of Lily’s father (that had been helping John), making me wonder if that was the body played by the awesome Frederic Lehne in the TV show (would add extra explanation on how John knew it was the demon when he was interrupted in the hospital).

Oh, and remember the infamous quote about how Dean was Batman?  No, turns out he’s the SON of Batman

Batman wishes he could be John Winchester

Your eyes do not deceive you.  That is John Winchester, crashing through a skylight, shooting two pistols, with his longcoat billowing behind him (you can sort of see it through the glass).  No, really, this goes beyond him utilizing his “turning a water tower into holy water” trick (which he uses again in this episode).

This is why he was feared.

Yes, John is using a chandelier to swing down and hack off the arm of the YED.  What have YOU done with your life today?

This entire episode redeems the entire anime as far as I’m concerned (well, so far).  SPN fans, DEFINITELY catch this one, even if you avoid the rest.