The Kannagi's are a clan that uses Fire magic to destroy evil spirits called Yoma. They are also a well respected family among magic users and concentrate on keeping up their status. When Kazuma is unable to use Fire magic, he is shunned and finally kicked out of his families home. After four years or being exiled from his home, Kazuma returns, and he's ready to show them what he can do with his newly developed wind magic skills. Shortly after word gets out that he's back, a series of murders occurs among the branch families of the Kannagi family. It turns out that the branch family members were killed by wind magic. This enrages the remaining family members along with the next head of the family. They investigate Kazuma and eventually discover that he is not the killer. With the newfound knowledge that Kazuma is not a murderer, the head of the Kannagi clan decided to hire Kazuma to find the real killer. Kazuma would eventually become the Kannagi's main go-to guy.
While Kazuma works on jobs given to him by the clan head, he is accompanied by the daughter of the head. She is a fiery, hot-tempered high school student who is to take her father's position as the clan head. At first she hates Kazuma, but, after the first epic battle the two fight together, she begins to like him, well, more like a crush on him. This crush fuels her eccentric nature and ends up causing more trouble.
Kaze no Stigma has the potential to be an excellent amine. The action scenes are well done and the scenery is beautiful. The plot is solid, and the story is interesting. The characters are a bit shallow, and almost predictable. I was surprised at how easily their personalities were revealed completely, and not in a good way. It did take away from the opening of the series by developing faster then the story and plot. It forced the epic battles to be quick (the first one lasting a little more then half an episode), and the reasons for these battles were weak (the bad guys want to destroy the earth because nobody understands them, etc.).
Besides the week characters and almost lame "epic" battles, the series wasn't actually that bad. There was a lot of realistic humor, but with a magical twist. What would happen if a fire controlling high school girl became extremely jealous over a guy she swears she hates? Destruction would happen, and the loss of many street light poles. I found myself laughing at things that really aren't that funny in the real world, just because of how out of proportion those situations became.
When the story was supposed to be serious was when it wasn't that great, luckily, those times were rarely reached. Similar to Bleach, few things were taken really seriously without some sort of comic relief occurring in the middle of it. While on the subject of similarities, I almost immediately was reminded of Darker then Black. Kaze no Stigma even had some of the same terms (like "Contractor"). The creators could have at least been a little more imaginative with the terminology and themes.
Surprisingly enough, there is an Extra that isn't Textless songs and Trailers. "Ayano's House Call: All-You-Can-Eat Cakes" is a three part extra that has random home-made films about three of the Japanese voice actors, and their adventures around Kobe (a port in central Japan) and China Town. At first these films were funny and fun to watch, but then it just went down hill, becoming to silly (like watching three slaphappy teens) and was almost hard to watch. But who buys anime for it's extras? I surely don't, so I'm not affected by this extra.
Anyway, I felt this series became better as it progressed and was by the end, enjoyable. I would say it wouldn't hurt to have this series in your collection. I wouldn't suggest Kaze no Stigma for someone under 16, for some mild sexual humor (which wasn't that bad).
ComicsOnline gives Kaze no Stigma Volume 1 – Wind, 3.5 out of 5 annoying pixies.
