Rin Okumura, raised by a priest at a monastery, learns he is the son of Satan when demons come to drag him to Gehenna. After his guardian dies protecting him, he enrolls at True Cross Academy to train as an exorcist, where his twin brother Yukio turns out to be one of his teachers, hiding his blue flames and vowing to defeat his real father.
Plus 4 optional extras.
5 titles · 73 episodes · ~29 hours
Watch Season 1 up to episode 17, then go straight to Kyoto Saga, then Shimane Illuminati Saga, Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga. Season 1 episodes 18-25 are an anime-original ending that the later seasons ignore. The 2012 movie belongs to that ending, and the OVAs and Ura Ex shorts are optional extras.
Start here. Rin learns he is Satan's son, loses his guardian and enters True Cross Academy's exorcist cram school. Watch to episode 17, then move on to Kyoto Saga.
⚠ Episodes 18-25 are an anime-original ending. Kyoto Saga continues from episode 17 and ignores them, so skip them for now or save them for later.
Picks up after Season 1 episode 17 and follows the manga. The cram school students travel to Kyoto after the Left Eye of the Impure King is stolen. 12 episodes.
Continues from Kyoto Saga, with the Illuminati moving openly for the first time. A new studio, Studio VOLN, takes over from here. 12 episodes.
Rin and Yukio search for Shura at Lake Towada, while an Arch Knight starts digging into the Blue Night. The first half of a back-to-back run. 12 episodes.
The second half of that run, revealing what happened on the Blue Night and the story of Rin and Yukio's parents. The latest anime season. 12 episodes.
A 24-minute bonus episode in which Kuro, feeling neglected by Rin, goes looking for a new master. Watch it any time after Season 1.
A 2012 anime-original film in which Rin meets a demon boy during a festival at True Cross Academy. It follows on from the 2011 series, so it belongs with Season 1's anime-only ending rather than the manga story.
Two unaired episodes released with manga volumes 19 and 20 in Japan. Snake and Poison looks back at Mamushi and Juzo as True Cross students, and Spy Game is based on a side novel. Watch after Kyoto Saga.
Ura Ex, ten one-minute comedy shorts included on the Season 1 Blu-ray and DVD releases. They have nothing to do with the story.
Blue Exorcist has one trap that catches almost every new viewer. The 2011 season follows the manga for its first 17 episodes, then switches to an ending written for the anime, because the manga was still early in its run. When the anime returned in 2017, Kyoto Saga went back to the manga and continued from episode 17 as if episodes 18-25 had never happened.
That makes the cleanest path Season 1 to episode 17, then Kyoto Saga. Episodes 18-25 are not wasted time, but they are an alternate ending. Watching them before Kyoto Saga makes the start of that season feel like a rewind, since characters and events from the anime-only arc simply stop existing. If you want to see them, save them for after you have caught up.
From Kyoto Saga onward, every season is based on the manga and follows directly from the one before it: Shimane Illuminati Saga, then Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga, which aired back to back as two halves of the same run.
The 2012 movie is an anime-original story that the official site presents as a follow-up to the 2011 series, so it belongs with the anime-only ending. Runaway Kuro, the two Kyoto Saga OVAs and the Ura Ex shorts are side material that nothing later depends on.
Blue Exorcist has 5 seasons in the main run — 73 episodes altogether.
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Exorcist | TV Series | 25 episodes | April 2011 |
| Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga | TV Series | 12 episodes | January 2017 |
| Blue Exorcist -Shimane Illuminati Saga- | TV Series | 12 episodes | January 2024 |
| Blue Exorcist -Beyond the Snow Saga- | TV Series | 12 episodes | October 2024 |
| Blue Exorcist -The Blue Night Saga- | TV Series | 12 episodes | January 2025 |
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Exorcist: Runaway Kuro | OVA | 1 episode | October 2011 |
| Blue Exorcist: The Movie | Movie | December 2012 | |
| Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga OVA | OVA | 2 episodes | April 2017 |
| Blue Exorcist: Ura Ex | Special | 10 episodes | June 2011 |
5 titles · 73 episodes · ~29 hours
Kazue Kato's manga has run in Jump SQ since 2009, with 34 volumes in Japan as of May 2026, and Viz Media publishes it in English. After The Blue Night Saga, the story continues from Chapter 121 in Volume 25. The manga returned in July 2026 from a four-month break taken to prepare for its final arc. If you watched all of Season 1, the manga's version of what follows episode 17 starts in Volume 5.
Season 1 episodes 1-17, then Kyoto Saga, Shimane Illuminati Saga, Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga. Season 1 episodes 18-25, the 2012 movie, Runaway Kuro, the Kyoto Saga OVAs and the Ura Ex shorts are optional.
For your first watch, yes. Episodes 18-25 are an anime-original ending, and Kyoto Saga continues from episode 17 as if they never happened. They are worth watching later as an alternate ending, but watching them first makes the start of Kyoto Saga confusing.
When Season 1 aired in 2011, the manga did not have enough story for a full ending, so the anime created its own from episode 18. When the anime returned in 2017, Kyoto Saga went back to the manga and picked up after episode 17.
Not to the manga. It is an anime-original story that follows the 2011 series and its anime-only ending, so it has no connection to Kyoto Saga or any later season. It is optional.
It depends on how you count Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga. They aired back to back and are officially two halves of the fourth season, which makes four seasons. Many English-language guides count them separately, which makes five, and the table on this page lists them separately too. Either way, the arcs in order are Season 1, Kyoto Saga, Shimane Illuminati Saga, Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga.
73 TV episodes: 25 in Season 1 and 12 each in Kyoto Saga, Shimane Illuminati Saga, Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga. Following the manga path and skipping Season 1 episodes 18-25 leaves 65.
All three are optional. Runaway Kuro is a 24-minute bonus episode about Kuro that works any time after Season 1. The two Kyoto Saga OVAs were released with manga volumes 19 and 20 in Japan and are best watched after Kyoto Saga. Ura Ex is a set of one-minute comedy shorts from the Season 1 home video release.
As of mid-2026, no new season has been announced since The Blue Night Saga ended in March 2025. The manga is still running, so there is story left to adapt.
No. Kazue Kato's manga has run in Jump SQ since 2009 and had 34 volumes in Japan as of May 2026. It returned in July 2026 from a four-month break taken to prepare for the final arc. Viz Media publishes it in English.
After The Blue Night Saga, the story continues from Chapter 121 in Volume 25. If you want the manga's version of what comes after Season 1 episode 17, including everything the anime-original ending replaced, start from Volume 5.
Yes. Aniplex of America produced English dubs for the series, and Shimane Illuminati Saga streamed on Crunchyroll with an English dub.
Crunchyroll streamed Shimane Illuminati Saga, Beyond the Snow Saga and The Blue Night Saga as they aired. Availability of Season 1, Kyoto Saga and the movie varies by region, so check the services in your country.
