Though TDKR is at least a creditable adaptation, SUPERNATURAL THE ANIME SERIES demonstrates that some ideas just don't lend themselves into animated spin-offs.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the idea of Japanese storytellers providing their take on an American series, or vice versa. And given that the live-action SUPERNATURAL has provided some strong scares and shocks throughout its eight seasons, one might expect that some Japanese artists might be able to ring in their own cultural approach to horror.
Unfortunately, the twenty-two episodes of this Japanese TV show-- whose segments are introduced by the live-action stars Ackles and Padalecki-- tend to plod along, offering few shocks and seemingly concerned with riffing on the live-action series' mythology (only from the show's first two seasons). There are many metaphenomenal series-concepts whose mythology is loose enough that an animated show can riff on it to good effect, but SUPERNATURAL is not one of them.
The animators clearly like the seriocomic appeal of Dean, barely getting any of Sam's mojo. Not surprisingly, the Winchester Boys end up fighting a few more Japanese demons-- a *kappa,* a poverty-god-- than they would ordinarily encounter. Even the better episodes rate no better than a "fair" episode of the live-action series. Toward the end of the DVD, I did get one laugh: when Ackles and Padalecki say to their audience, "Really? You're still watching our lame promos?"
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