Ayakashi is the latest series from Tokyo Kids (Toward The Terra, Gallery Fake, Magikano).  It is adapted from the 2005 visual novel of the same name.  "Ayakashi" is a parasite life force that gives superpowers to its host, taking in return the host's entire life force. Kusaka Yuu is a student that lost his will to live after the death of a dear childhood friend, until the day a mysterious girl, named Yoake Eimu, appears. From that moment on, his life would never be the same again. Hunted by Ayakashi and their hosts, the power within Yuu awakens and a never ending battle begins.

The episode starts off in a flashback to the main protagnost, Kusaka Yuu's past, where he's with his 2 childhood friends as they watch a comet pass through the sky.

12 years later…

The scene shifts to the present where a man is walking and we see a mysterious girl following him.  Soon after, a building explodes.  A man lies dead nearby as another is engaged in battle with the mysterious girl.  He begs for his life and the girl turns around and starts to walk away when suddenly the man jumps into the air and tries to ambush her with a projectile.  The girl's "Ayakashi" is activated and easily defends her from the attack.  She then proceeds to kill the man in one swift move.  Blood splatters everywhere and we transition to another scene.

Yuu and Hime are now all grown up and attending high school.  A male student pulls Yuu aside and asks him to do something for him.  Presumably Yuu gets paid doing these "jobs" for people.  As Yuu was leaving school he sees 3 bullies beating up another student.  One of those bullies is named Sanada, who is called the king of the school by the other 2 bullies.  He sees Yuu and invites him to join in the fun, but Yuu refuses.  Sanada seems to know about Yuu's "part-time job" and provokes him.  He takes out a box cutter and challenges Yuu.  However, they're interrupted immediately by Kajiwara, Yuu's senpai who seems to have a crush on Hime.

Yuu then proceeds to a classroom where his friend who earlier asks him for the favor is there with 3 other students.  Apparently Yuu was asked to demonstrate some of his "powers".  Yuu uses his powers to bent some spoons without touching them.  The 3 students are obviously amazed.  Yuu's friend then asks him to use his fortune telling ability, which Yuu claims as fake, because he wants to impress one of the female students there.  Before they could go any further, the door suddenly oppens and Hime is there to put everything to a stop.

As Yuu and Hime are leaving school, they are confronted by the bullies minus Sanada.  They tell Yuu that Sanada wants to see him.  Yuu initially agrees, but then runs away with Hime.  On their way home, Hime scolds Yuu about using his powers for show.  Yuu jokes that he can use his powers to kill as well, which angers Hime and causes her to cry.  He apologizes to her but Hime insists that he apologize to Izumi as well, their other childhood friend who is implied to have died some time ago.  At that moment Sanada appears and demands to see some "magic tricks" from Yuu.  Sanada tells him that he is interested in his powers and can teach him many things…

Just then, a man in black suit arrives and challenges Sanada to a duel. The man pulls out a knife while Sanada pulls out his box cutter.  Before the man could do anything, Sanada shoots out some type of invisible projectile and cuts the man's knife in half.  He then proceeds to cut the man's nose off and later his eye in somewhat gruesome fashion.  After that he threatens Yuu to use his power or have his nose cut off.  Yuu appears to be scared and doesn't know what to do.  Sanada launches an attack at him but the attack was deflected by somebody.  The mysterious girl from the beginning of the ep appears and we shift to another scene…

The final scene of the ep introdues 2 more new characters, a woman named Akino and a man whose name was not revealed. The conversation is rather vague and ambiguous, but basically Akino warns the man about challenging the 5 users while the man talks about not having seen them in 2 years.  The episode ends here….

Impressions: 

The first ep reminded me a lot of Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou, from the aritistic style to the plot premise to the violence.  I found it to be a fairly interesting beginning.  I tend to like series where you get bits and pieces of the story at the start and you have to put them together as the story progresses to figure out what's going on.  Clearly there are still a lot of details that haven't been revealed about the characters and story yet.  All we know thus far is that Yuu has some type of power, but he's not the only one.  Then there are also the mystery girl and the 2 characters in the final scene who most likely will play major roles in the story as well.  Anyway, this was a good start and it should be interesting to see how the story develops from here.