Anime Like Onmyou Tai Senki
It starts like every merch-driven summon show you've already dismissed, then quietly spends 52 episodes earning the runtime. Riku Tachibana is a first-year junior high kid with nothing special about him until a self-declared Warrior of Earth picks a fight, and suddenly he's the last of a bloodline everyone assumed was wiped out. The hook isn't the Drive on his wrist, it's Kogenta: a gruff tiger shikigami who did not sign up to be a middle schooler's partner and spends the early stretch making that painfully clear. Watching that relationship shift from tolerated arrangement to genuine trust is the entire show, and the Heaven-versus-Earth conflict never lets it stay cute. This is 2004 kids' programming that treats a twelve-year-old's obligations as real weight. You come for the beast summons, you stay because Kogenta finally says the kid's name like he means it.
SYNOPSIS
Riku Tachibana is just another first-year middle school student trying to coast through his days unnoticed. That changes instantly when a stranger challenges him to a duel, revealing a hidden supernatural world that's been waging war in the shadows. Riku learns he's the last surviving member of the Warriors of Heaven, a bloodline everyone thought had vanished centuries ago. Armed with a device called DRIVE and bonded to Kogenta, a powerful Shikigami beast, Riku gets pulled into an escalating conflict against the Warriors of Earth. The two sides have been locked in battle for ages, and now that Riku's existence is known, both factions want him on their side. Between school life and combat training, Riku must master his newfound abilities while figuring out why he was hidden away in the first place. The action ramps up as stronger enemies emerge and the scope of this ancient war becomes clear. What starts as confusion quickly becomes Riku's unavoidable destiny.
