Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga

Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga is the second season of the Blue Exorcist anime: 12 episodes from A-1 Pictures, aired in Japan from January to March 2017 and adapting the Kyoto Impure King arc of Kazue Kato's manga, serialised in Shueisha's Jump SQ since 2009. It opens with Rin Okumura exposed as Satan's son and his cram-school classmates keeping their distance. When the Left Eye of the Impure King is stolen from True Cross Academy, the Exwires are sent to help guard the Right Eye in Kyoto, home turf of Ryuji "Bon" Suguro, heir to his family's temple, and his childhood friends. The real question is whether Rin's classmates can trust him again, with his twin Yukio, already a qualified exorcist, teaching their class.

The most useful thing to know: Kyoto Saga follows the manga, not the 2011 first season's ending. That season (25 episodes, directed by Tensai Okamura) left Kato's story in its final third, and roughly its last eight episodes tell an anime-original plot this sequel ignores; the 2012 film is an original story too. For the canonical story, Anime News Network's reviewer suggests jumping from episode 15 straight into Kyoto Saga, and we agree.

Koichi Hatsumi took over as director, with Hiroyuki Sawano back on the score alongside Kohta Yamamoto and UVERworld returning for the opening. This is the franchise's slow burn: early episodes deal with the fallout of Rin's exposure and the politics of Bon's family sect rather than fights, and reviewers split over whether that patience paid off. The closing episodes, when the Impure King itself threatens Kyoto, are the stretch most of them rated highest.

Studio VOLN has since continued with Shimane Illuminati Saga (January 2024), Beyond the Snow Saga (October 2024) and The Blue Night Saga (January 2025), 12 episodes each, the last two counted together as season four. No further anime has been announced as of October 2026, though Kato's manga returned that July from a four-month break taken to prepare its final stretch. Kyoto Saga suits viewers who care more about the Exwires' friendships than demon-of-the-week fights. For another exorcist school whose new student hosts the curse Sukuna under a suspended death sentence, try Jujutsu Kaisen; Blue Exorcist also sits ninth in our guide to anime like Demon Slayer.