The List

7 Excellent Exorcists

Something seems different about your best friend. They hardly ever sleep, they're unsettlingly flexible, their voice has changed drastically, and they have a bad habit of projecting pea soup from their face. Not to mention they keep saying really rude things about your mom. If this sounds familiar, your friend might be suffering from demonic possession. It's super serious, and you should contact one of the following exorcists or trained onmyōji to help you with your demon problem.

Benio & Rokuro (Twin Star Exorcists) Reluctant hero Rokuro avoided his true calling as an exorcist after a mission went sour and left a good share of his friends dead. Meanwhile, Benio has trained her whole life to be the very best exorcist, and she's damn close to reaching her goal. This is enough to pull Rokuro out of a self-induced retirement, plus destiny muddled up his dreams of being a celebrity singer/soccer player instead. Combined, Benio and Rakuro are perfect for destroying all the Kegare lurking around your neighborhood

Rin & Yukio Okumura (Blue Exorcist) Who knows the Devil better than his own sons? The Okamura brothers weren't raised by Satan, but by a priest of all people. Rather than revering their infamous father, both studied exorcism under their adoptive father and are ready to take on all the evil that crosses over from Gehenna. Place your bets on Yukio though; Rin might have the power advantage, but I think I'd trust the guy that finished exorcism school first.

The Medicine Seller (Mononoke) This mysterious exorcist employs a unique method to finish off malevolent yōkai. He uses Mikkyo Buddhism's Sammitsu to unlock a spirit's true form, the circumstances regarding its appearance, and finally its feelings to exorcise it from a location. Not all spirits will go quietly into the night, as the Medicine Seller reveals the incestuous guilt that fills a sea with malevolent ayakashi or fends off a murderous piece of wood (no really).

Akina Hiizumi (Yozakura Quartet) The current head of the "Hiizumi Life Counseling Office," Akina's employment is only about "counseling" if you really stretch the meaning of the word. Hiizumi solves problems, specifically yōkai problems, by "tuning" them back into the world from whence they came. He often works with not-entirely-human girls, which causes its share of problems when more than a small percentage of yōkai consider tuning akin to murder. Akina's lineage has accounted for a fair share of these tunings. It's more than a little awkward when your grandpa exorcised your love interest's grandpa

Allen Walker (D.Gray-man) It's a hard life out there for an abandoned circus orphan. Luckily for Allen Walker, he was able to find his true calling by exorcising the demon army of the Millennium Earl and the descendants of Noah. Yeah, that Noah, the one with the Ark. Exorcists in D.Gray-man use the power of seemingly arbitrary items that are actually holy artifacts called Innocence. Allen is the main character, so instead of drawing power from an old book or inconspicuous wooden cup, he's born with an artifact in his arm.

Kantarō Ichinomiya (Tactics) Kantarō takes the trophy for the laziest exorcist on this week's list. He's more interested in lining his pockets and spends more time exterminating demons than his actual job as a folklorist. He's been able to see yōkai since he was very young, a skill that isolated him from his mother and peers. Nowadays, he uses his ability to make quick cash, but he often prefers to add a wayward demon to his entourage by naming it instead of simply ridding it from the world. This probably stems from his early friendships with yōkai when the schoolyard kids didn't want to have anything to do with him.

Subaru (Tokyo Babylon) A moment of silence for Subaru, who has canonically been treated like absolute crap despite being one of the purest boys in anime and manga. Subaru is part of the Sumeragi that has performed onmyōji duties for Japanese royalty for generations. Subaru is the clan's most powerful member. Besides performing exorcisms, Subaru is an occult detective whose cases range from awakening a girl in a coma to exorcising a suicide's ghost. He sees the very worst Tokyo has to offer on the regular, but that's nothing until the sixteen-year-old is betrayed by his 25-year-old maybe boyfriend.

The new poll: Which three choices top your grotesque animemust watch list?

The old poll: What's your favorite CLAMP work of all time?

1. Cardcaptor Sakura
2. xxxHOLiC
3. Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
4. Chobits
5. Magic Knight Rayearth
6. X
7. Angelic Layer
8. Tokyo Babylon
9. Kobato.
10. Wish