Ayakashi doesn't care if you're rooting for the hero. It feeds on the idea that saving people costs something nobody wants to pay, and watching Yuu discover that the power to protect isn't the same as the right to protect tears the whole premise apart. The show sprints through its own plot like it knows you'll hate some of it anyway, which means it commits to the dark turns instead of softening them. By episode three you're not watching a battle shounen, you're watching a kid realize his gift is actually a parasite wearing a hero's skin.

Kusaka Yuu has stopped caring whether he lives or dies. A devastating loss left him hollow, going through motions at school with no real reason to keep going. Then a mysterious girl named Yoake Eim appears, and his life changes for good. Ayakashi are parasitic entities that bond with human hosts, granting extraordinary abilities in exchange for consuming their entire lifespan. These creatures and their enhanced users hunt relentlessly, and Yuu finds himself caught in their crosshairs. Something dormant inside him awakens in response to the threat, a power that forces him to fight whether he wants to or not. As a boy, Yuu swore on a shooting star to protect the weak, but after his friend died he turned his back on that promise and used his strange ability only to earn money. Now he must honor that old vow, battling those who misuse their own Ayakashi while searching for the truth about his friend's death. The result is an action fantasy with strong horror and sci-fi elements.