Interesting to have an entire episode dedicated to Gyuki. Unfortunately we’re going to have to wait for the conclusion, because it ended right after the end of Gyuki’s backstory, which really was quite long. The first five minutes or so were dedicated to a fight between him and Nura, in which he questions whether Nura has the ability to lead the youkai around, but after that it’s all about how he grew up, and how he met Nurarihyon (who looked really different from his current form, by the way).
I’m not exactly sure why Gyuki suddenly told his entire life story in front of Nura, but I’m surprised at how much time and effort was put into his story here, where we saw him grow up from young child into a full fledged youkai. Especially that point at which he faced the youkai that ate his mother was really well portrayed, and had some surprisingly good looking visuals.
Standalone this episode wasn’t the most exciting due to the lack of context (hey, Gyuki was about to explain why he attacked Nura when he suddenly starts talking about his life story, and at the end of the episode we still don’t know the reasons behind his actions), but I can very much see it work out in the long run. It perhaps could have been better paced, but the fact remains that this episode added quite a bit of depth to Gyuki and the series itself.
Rating: * (Good)
>>(hey, Gyuki was about to explain why he attacked Nura when he suddenly starts talking about his life story, and at the end of the episode we still don’t know the reasons behind his actions)
What a hell happened to my comment o_O up there? 90% of it disappeared…
>>(hey, Gyuki was about to explain why he attacked Nura when he suddenly starts talking about his life story, and at the end of the episode we still don’t know the reasons behind his actions)
What a… will try to repost the comment again…
What a hell happened to my comment o_O up there? 90% of it disappeared…
“(hey, Gyuki was about to explain why he attacked Nura when he suddenly starts talking about his life story, and at the end of the episode we still don’t know the reasons behind his actions)”
The problem is that to fully understand Gyuuki’s reasons, you need to know his backstory. The next episode should reveal the reason, what Nurarihyon said to Gyuuki and end the arc.
For the manga reader, this was a great episode and some new stuff was added and the flashback in general was better.
Gyuuki is kind of like Olivier Armstrong, only as a literal monster, instead of a sentimental Social Darwinist.
I wasn’t going to watch this series, but the screengrabs drew me in. The backgrounds and the color design are the best part of this show. The narrative isn’t very interesting, but it’s nice to look at.
As a manga reader I really enjoyed this episode, and it’s not that Gyuki tells his story to Rikuo but actually more like a flashback. At least that’s from my point of view.
Ransom: Aw, come on. It’s not like diverting from the manga is inherently bad. There have been plenty of good examples. Plus, if it’s true what you say that this series will go anime original, then I’m really looking forward to it. I really love the director’s original series, so I don’t mind it at all.
psgels: I don’t think that Ransom said anything against the diverging. Both he and I enjoyed the episode as did many other manga readers (tough the anime-only audience seem to like it much less)
Well, if the ending is original, it will be in S2 (which is far away) as I think he confirmed that they intend to animate the huge Kyoto arc (that will not be present in S1 unless the number of episode is around 50 rather then 24). And even if it is original ending, the director and mangaka are working together so the ending probably won’t be bad.