Humans and demons have always been separated by two different worlds, humans in Assiah and demons in Gehenna. The only way to travel between the worlds is by possession, which is how Satan, the ruler of Gehenna, wages his war.
One day, Rin discovers that he is actually the son of Satan, born for the specific purpose of being possessed by Satan. However, while his father wants him to help conquer the human world, Rin decides to become an exorcist to fight him instead.
While shounen action anime has a habit of blending together, this one has a focus “similar yet different” enough from a lot of others as well as a passion for an older school formula that keeps it sticking around. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Blue Exorcist, head on down below.
Anime Like Blue Exorcist
For Fans of Demon Slaying Battle Shounen
Demon Slayer
After the death of his father, Tanjirou has taken up the role of the man of the home, supporting his mother and five siblings. However, after selling charcoal in town, he returns to tragedy.
All his family was brutally slaughtered, save for one of his sisters. Unfortunately, she has been attacked by a demon and mingled their blood, turning her into a demon as well.
However, she still shows signs of humanity, thrusting Tanjirou onto a quest to find a way to change his sister back and preserve what is left of his family.
Most obviously, both Blue Exorcist and Demon Slayer are about main characters slaying demons with swords, and sometimes doing so in a fiery blaze.
However, while Blue Exorcist sticks to more standard shounen storytelling and visuals, Demon Slayer goes above and beyond the usual shounen battler. It emphasizes a wide variety of different powers and demons with visual flair while making every character complex and interesting.
If you liked Blue Exorcist for its demon slaying, its action, and its quirky characters, Demon Slayer has all of that, although it does make its villains slightly more empathy-inducing, which may not be something everyone wants in their shounen action anime. Furthermore, because it often highlights tragedy and suffering in those stories, Demon Slayer has less moments of levity compared to Blue Exorcist.
D Gray Man
After three years training with one of their prestigious Generals that saved him as a kid, Allen Walker is finally ready to join the Black Order, an organization of exorcists that fight Akuma and their leader, the Millennium Earl.
With their Innocence weapons, Allen and his fellow exorcist embark on a journey to stop the Earl’s plot of ultimate destruction.
Blue Exorcist and D Gray Man are shounen action anime from a similar age, and thus, share a lot of the same innate sensibilities as well as a similar sort of set up.
Both series feature main characters that come from or were cursed by the great evil entity of their world, and then choose to join up with an order of exorcists to fight it. While Blue Exorcist focuses on his early days in schooling to become an exorcist, D Gray Man skips the training phase and instead starts as he becomes an official member of a professional branch after leaving his initial mentor.
While Rin gets his powers for his demonic power sealed in his sword, Allen gets his powers through his curse as well as Innocence, which every exorcist uses and manifests as different weapons for each user.
From there, both series follow pretty standard shounen action stories. They fight evil beings and make friends with their peers while eventually working closer to that looming great evil as well as having the main character confront their darkness.
Fire Force
A phenomenon has started overtaking mankind – one where people spontaneously combust and turn into destructive fire demons called Infernals.
To fight these demons, special fire forces were established full of those with dedication and powers to control fire.
This is the story of Fire Force 8 and their newest recruit – Shinra, who aims to become a hero and discover the truth behind the Infernals.
Aside from the fact that both Blue Exorcist and Fire Force has lots and lots of fire in their fights and visuals, they are both pretty standard battle shounen anime.
These two series highlight silly and diverse characters, but very much let the fights be the star of the show by making them flashy and interesting. However, while the fire in Blue Exorcist is limited to just Rin’s power, Fire Force is primarily focused on those who can wield fire in combat with a spare few non-fire-based combatants.
Jujutsu Kaisen
In order to gain more power, demons search for fragments of the legendary demon Sukuna to consume them.
One day, Yuuji Itadori, who just lost his grandfather, learns of this as he saves his school friends from being consumed by demons after they break the seal on one of the body parts of Sukuna that was at their school.
In order to stand a chance, he eats it, revealing himself as a rare vessel that can utilize and control the curse of Sukuna, meaning when he dies, Sukuna’s curse dies with him.
While Rin in Blue Exorcist is born from Satan as a pawn, Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen was a normal human until he ingested a demon and became a sort of seal/host to its power.
Regardless, both Blue Exorcist and Jujutsu Kasien are about main characters who get magnificent powers not so much from their own abilities, but from the dark power within them. They use this darkness to work as exorcists to rid the world of demons alongside a series of young peers.
However, while both are very much shounen battlers, Jujutsu Kaisen is a bit more mature and goes a lot darker with its story compared to Blue Exorcist, which, despite being about the son of Satan, has flashy looking fights, but not particularly visceral ones.
Seraph of the End – Vampire’s Reign
After a mysterious virus killed every human over 13 years old, the vampires rose up with a promise to protect the survivors. The only thing they asked in return is donations of blood.
For Yuuichirou and Mikaela, they have grown tired of being livestock and pose a daring escape plan. It ultimately fails with only Yuuichirou left alive. However, after joining up with a mercenary company, he swears vengeance on the vampires, no matter the cost.
While Blue Exorcist is more broad with demons being the primary enemies, Seraph of the End presents vampires as just as menacing, if not more deadly than demons. While about different enemies, both Blue Exorcist and Seraph of the End are about main characters that fight against this threat.
Furthermore, both Blue Exorcist and Seraph of the End feature main characters who wield a special sword that contains powers from a dark source. However, everyone in Seraph of the End has a similar type of weapon that they use to fight vampires whereas Rin’s sword is rather unique in the world of exorcists.
For Fans of Friendly Rivalry
Black Clover
After being abandoned at the same church, Asta and Yuno grew up together. Together they also grew up aiming for the same title – The Wizard King, the strongest wizard in the kingdom.
However, it soon became apparent that while Yuno has skill with magic, Asta couldn’t use it at all. This all changed when they were attacked and Asta was given a strange grimoire that granted him the ability to nullify magic.
After being abandoned at the same church, Asta and Yuno grew up together. Together they also grew up aiming for the same title – The Wizard King, the strongest wizard in the kingdom. However, it soon became apparent that while Yuno has skill with magic, Asta couldn’t use it at all. This all changed when they were attacked and Asta was given a strange grimoire that granted him the ability to nullify magic.
Both Blue Exorcist and Black Clover are shounen action anime that start off following two boys raised together by a priest. Both boys share a similar goal, but while one has a smooth path to entry, the other – who is the main character – has a major hurdle in his way. For Rin, he is the son of Satan, thus not a great candidate to be trained as an exorcist. For Asta in Black Clover, he can’t actually use magic, so not a great candidate to be the Wizard King.
Regardless, they both still try to work towards that goal with their friend/brother serving as their rival as they get into a wide array of visually stunning battles.
However, Black Clover, since it is about mages, is more magic-focused in its action, though the main character eventually starts using swords not unlike Rin.
Twin Star Exorcist
Parallel to our world is Magano where the Kegare dwell. Exorcists are sent in to deal with these monsters and cleanse impurities.
One day, a talented young exorcist named Benio is returning to Tokyo in order to meet with the Exorcists Union. On the road, she meets a young exorcist named Rokuro. After seeing some kids being plagued by Kegare, Benio rushes in and drags Rokuro with her. There, she discovers he has skill to rival her own, but refuses to fight.
Being paired up by the head exorcist, they are lauded as the Twin Star Exorcists and prophesied as the future parents of the reincarnation of the Abe no Seimei, who will cleanse the world of Kegare.
Both Blue Exorcist and Twin Star Exorcist follow young exorcists that are fighting against the version of demons in their world using exorcism techniques.
While both series are very much shounen action anime, they do show the two different sides of exorcism. Blue Exorcist has powers more based on Christian exorcism while Twin Star Exorcist is focused more on onmyouji-style exorcism techniques.
The biggest difference is that, due to the caveat in the plot that says the two main characters will birth the ultimate exorcist, Twin Star Exorcist has a larger focus on the relationship between the two main characters.
Naruto
Orphaned at a young age and ostracized by his village due to the nine-tailed fox demon that was sealed within him at birth, Naruto aims for the top. His dream is to eventually become the leader of his village, the Hokage.
However, first he must actually become a ninja and gain strength enough to rise to this pinnacle.
In truth, you can say Naruto is like any shounen action anime, and because shounen action anime often share so much, it really is true.
Both Blue Exorcist and Naruto share a similar sort of sensibility that older shounen action anime had where they have a large cast of quirky characters and are often heavily mission-based, which means there is never a shortage of battles.
Aside from that, they both follow somewhat outcasted main characters with a lofty goal and powers gained from a sealed forbidden source. It is just that one follows ninjas, and the other follows exorcists.
For Fans of Evil on The Side of Good
The Devil is a Part-Timer
Right on the verge of taking over the world, evil Demon Lord Satan was foiled by the hero Emilia and was forced to retreat through a dimensional portal.
He ends up in our modern world where he is without powers and without money. In order to pay his way, he gets a part-timer job slinging fast food.
While Rin is just the son of Satan, he still resists evil urges to help his family and friends whenever he can. Similarly, The Devil is a Part-Timer is about a demon lord from a fantasy world in our modern world, but who is still a pretty upstanding guy.
Blue Exorcist and The Devil is a Part-Timer are innately different in that Blue Exorcist is a shounen action anime and The Devil is a Part-Timer is often more of a comedic slice of life anime. However, as The Devil is a Part-Timer goes on, it develops more of an action element. However, both series do enjoy their comedy, it is just that Blue Exorcist enjoys its flashy action more frequently.
Blood Lad
Staz Charlie Blood is a powerful vampire that rules the Eastern section of the Demon World. While rumor will tell you he is blood-thirsty and vicious, in reality, he is just a big otaku.
While his underlings manage his world, he spends his days mired in anime and manga. However, when a Japanese girl accidentally wanders into his realm, Staz is thrilled, only to be heartbroken by her untimely death.
Now Staz vows to resurrect her, but probably because it means he gets to go to the human world.
Both Blue Exorcist and Blood Lad follow main characters who are technically demons, but are also pretty great guys. While Rin is resisting the evil of his true father by fighting him as an exorcist, Blood Lad is about a vampire who is a big weeb for human culture trying to help a human return home.
Both series are shounen action anime, but Blood Lad definitely has more of a focus on comedy with the occasional big moment of action rather than any sort of deep storytelling.
Noragami
There will be times where you may happen across an odd phone number written in red. If you call it, you will get in touch with a young man who introduces himself as the Yato God.
This Yato God is a minor deity and the self-proclaimed God of Delivery. He dreams of having millions of worshipers, but there isn’t a single shrine dedicated to his name. He spends his time doing odd jobs for spare yen until the day his weapon partner deserts him.
Just as things are looking down, he happens across a young school girl that saves him from a car accident by taking the hit for him. She survives, but her soul becomes loose. Together they set out to find a way to tighten her soul back up.
At a glance, Noragami and Blue Exorcist don’t have a lot in common other than being about a guy who fights demons on occasion with a sword like Rin. However, you need to stick with Noragami for awhile to see that, like Blue Exorcist, it is about a supernatural guy that was once evil now acting like a goofball on the side of good.
While Noragami isn’t as boilerplate shounen in its story like Blue Exorcist, it never skimps on the action and the comedy. It just focuses on a more serious narrative that flows linearly together.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Blue Exorcist? Let fans know in the comments section below.
