Category: Nurarihyon no Mago

This episode suffered from a classic shounen syndrome: “I’m about to kill you! But first, let me play with my food in order to give you a chance to regroup and kill me.” The youkai with blindness powers was an interesting idea, but his powers were just too overwhelming so that the creators had to resort to dumbing down the main villain in order to prevent him from winning. That’s not good story-writing!

As for the rest of the episode… it was decent, I guess. It was a nice start to a climactic fight, but at the same time it also had nothing that really wowed or impressed me. It’s just… there. A decent episode, but not exactly the most wanted at this stage in the series. Much like the problem with Durarara’s final episodes: if this episode wasn’t the third before last I probably would not have minded it at all. Now however, I’m getting impatient.

The thing I liked best of this episode was that finally the grown up Rikuo isn’t all powerful: finally his combat shows any signs of flaws when he got blinded and I liked the interplay between him and Yuki-Onna after that. It’s not like this show is bad or anything, but I really do fear that it’s going to leave a bad aftertaste at this rate, especially when a second season isn’t going to be announced.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Wait, this was supposed to be a complete filler? I really would not have guessed if I wasn’t told this in advance, because this was actually a very good calm before the storm episode, which did exactly what the previous episode failed to do: create an atmosphere and tension. The sense that something really major is going to happen.

On top of that, it also fleshed out Tamazuki, telling a bit about his past and the weapon he wields (why didn’t the manga do that, I wonder?), and I liked the little talk that Nurarihyon had with the tanuki. On top of that, it also was an interesting idea for him to look up Kana, not to kill her, but out of simple curiosity. The dialogue in this episode felt quite natural and overall it really made up for the previous episodes (also notice how everyone is suddenly moving in the backgrounds).

And yet this remains a very strange adaptation. Just like how JC Staff put the wrong director on Bakuman, Studio Deen put Junji Nishimura on the wrong project: this episode really shined because of his influence, but he really is a guy who is at his best when working on original stories. I have to confess that my favourite parts of this series were indeed around the anime original scenes, and yet at the same time this series just glances over the supposed best parts of the manga and keeps delaying the point at which it is supposed to get really good.

I know that there are a lot of rumours and all, but I’m only convinced when an official announcement will arrive on the second season. At the moment, there are a lot of parallels with Letter Bee’s first season, which also padded itself out in order to put the good stuff in a potential second season, but there’s one crucial difference here: with Letter Bee, you could really see that it was building up to something amazing. I’m not seeing that with Nurarihyon no Mago. For all I know the story could end perfectly just at episode 25, and the only single indication I have that the story will end up awesome is the words of some of the manga readers.
Rating: * (Good)

This episode felt like an intermezzo between the build-up and the confrontation with the Shikoku Youkai. The status quo is restored with the training camp ending because Rikuo’s friends are no longer in danger (though it is a bit gullible of Rikuo, I can very much imagine that now that they’ve gathered 88 demons, they don’t really care for the small fry anymore).

It’s a major episode for Rikuo’s character-development, though. It’s a bit our of character for him to suddenly start worrying, but I like how he’s going to form his own parade of demons here, with youkai who are loyal to him, and not his grandfather.

It’s a shame though that this episode was supposed to be really awesome in the manga, because it wasn’t really standing out at that point for me. I wonder what happened here. My biggest issue with this episode was however that (or at least it seems like that) the previous episodes put into building up Rikuo’s classmates, it looks like they’re going to be put on a bus for the final confrontation with the Shikoku Youkai. I guess that it was inevitable and all, but it does feel like something is missing again.
Rating: * (Good)

So, this pretty much was a build-up episode, mostly meant to show Inugami’s background and where his hatred to humans comes from. It’s not fairly special, with my biggest gripe being a rather average fight scene. It’s a bit of a shame that the fight ended with just everyone retreating, but then again: the deaths in this series are unexpected; it’s never the guy you think that gets killed, and that definitely has some merit, compared to other series who devote entire episodes who keep hinting and pointing at the guy who’s going to be the next to kick the bucket.

The thing that bothered me about the fight scene was that it felt sloppy. I mean, Studio Deen are definitely not the best animators, but they’ve shown plenty of excellent action scenes in the past with their limited graphics, but this was just… rushed. The biggest issue was when that Inugami grabbed Rikuo and punched him into a wall: suddenly it gets dark really fast in order for Rikuo to conveniently transform into his Youkai version. That’s just something that worked against the tension that the previous episode built up for me.

With this kind of pacing, I expect that the creators are probably planning to end the current arc at episode 24, which poses a bit of a problem considering the rumours that this show will go on past that episode number. At this stage, the production of the must have already started, and yet Amazon still only lists 8 DVDs, with 3 episodes per DVD. The second DVD meanwhile has sold at at around 3000 copies, which is less than what Pandora Hearts got, which in the end did not end up with a sequel.

So yeah, I’m a bit worried. There are the kinds of series of which I don’t mind at all if they suddenly cut off in the middle, but this unfortunately isn’t the case with Nurarihyon no Mago: it really NEEDS a second season. On top of that, as a shounen series it’s currently getting more and more overshadowed by Letter Bee, while as a Youkai series it’s more and more falling in the shadows of Otome Youkai Zakuro. I really like the work of Junji Nishimura on this series, but even for him this is far from his best series.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

You can fault this episode because that wolf demon took too long in attacking Rikuo’s classmates: if he wanted to, he could have killed them off in a surprise attack easily, like what he did to that fish a few episodes back. On the other hand though, the way in which he played with them like a cat does with a mouse created one heck of an atmosphere.

I really wonder what this episode looked like in the manga, as Rikuo’s classmates really played a key part in it: they were both the main focus of the episode, and they also served to anger that wolf youkai who loathed humans and had huge pride as a youkai. This episode worked well because the previous episodes did such a great job at fleshing out Rikuo’s classmates, but if they would have been just as annoying as in the first ten episodes, then this episode probably would not have worked.

Also, what was up with that scene of Yura, looking at a bunch of ants? It’s a neat detail, but I wonder why the creators decided to include it. I liked it for some strange reason, though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

A really charming episode. At this point, Rikuo’s classmates have really completely stopped being annoying, and they’re as interesting to watch as the rest oft he cast right now. Natsumi getting attacked was a very neat way to show her own experiences to kami and youkai. The drama around her could have been cheesy if she was the same nondescript character of the first few episodes, but here, it really worked.

On top of that, this episode also made use of the “forgotten gods”, like series as Natsume Yuujinchou did as well. It’s a great little theme, that works especially well in this context, because it’s a lot of those nearly forgotten gods, that maybe have one or two people praying to them, who lend the Nura-clan their power.

I wonder why that Sodemogi (on a side-note: I hate having to rely on MyAnimeList to check on the names of these characters: they’re riddled with spoilers. The page of this guy for example just tells how he dies without any sort of marking, making me glad that I didn’t see it last week…) went without an escort this time, though. Would that make him harder to spot or something?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Based on the things I heard about the manga, and how Rikuo’s classmates were supposed to disappear after the Gyuki-arc, I’m actually very impressed here in how well the creators of the anime managed to weave them back into the story. They’re getting better and better at this point, they create extra tension for Rikuo, and yet they don’t feel like the useless damsels in distress that they once were. Which makes me wonder: what was their purpose in the manga anyway?

I can somewhat see that the fight against the youkai who destroyed the shrines was part of the manga, and I really like how the classmates were weaved into that scene as an introduction: it both established Kiyo as someone who can actually use his head with his network, and Shima now turns out to play footbal. It’s definitely interesting to see these guys try to spend their time for multiple days like this.

The main story is still building up, however this episode did mark the first casualty from the bad guys now that the rooster is gone. I have a big suspicion that their purpose goes even beyond destroying the shrines around the city, though. And the build-off is already starting to pay off a bit here, with the atmosphere getting better and better. Yura meanwhile was a bit silly in this episode, but I like how she’s also working alone in order to try and figure out what’s going on.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

A few episodes ago I complained about how a building just disappeared after it was destroyed. Okay, so never mind: this episode revisited the site at which Yura and Nurarihyon had been fighting, and it was shown that people definitely noticed the mess, and blocked it off to fix it at a later time. Yay for continuity!

In any case, this episode focused on information warfare, in which the bad guys sent a spy to get some inside information about the Nura-clan. It’s also interesting that the Nura clan has actually suffered some fatalities, while their guys are still all alive.

In the meantime, the good news is that Nura’s classmates have stopped being annoying. I’m surprised how much I liked the few scenes in which they try to kill time inside the mansion, and I have to admit that it’s a nice twist to have Nura keep them safe. I mean, the fact remains that they’re very easy targets as soon as those youkai find out that Nura cares about them.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Okay, now it’s official: this series needs a second season. This episode was apparently also anime original, and yet it blended in really well with the story: I would not have guessed it. The way it detailed the scenario also is bound to be good for this series in the long term. However, at this rate we’re never going to be able to reach the good stuff at episode 25. Studio Deen’s policy around sequels is… a bit weird, though. I mean, they let Kyou Kara Maou go on for three seasons of 39 episodes (directed by Junji Nishimura, of all people as well), and yet Fruits Basket just never went beyond 26 episodes, despite the huge amounts of manga still left.

Overall, I liked some of the ideas in this episode: I like how Gyuki’s subordinates actually managed to track down one of those evil youkai, who on his turn was trying to destroy all kinds of statues in an attempt to destroy some of the defences of the Nura clan, as well as trying to piss them off. On the meantime, you see that the gate that was destroyed gets immediately rebuilt, and a grave has been put up for the youkai that died in the previous episode. This episode didn’t particularly develop any plot or characters, but it made the setting a lot more solid with these subtle details.

As for the rest of the episode, it was average. Rikuo’s classmates are getting better, but they still are not the most exciting to watch. It also was a typical building up episode. This episode had a neat atmosphere, though it still nowhere is where it needs to be.
Rating: * (Good)

So, this episode was mostly anime original? I would not have guessed, because it all followed quite naturally from the previous episode, and it’s in no way a filler episode, apparently the backbone of the plot is the same. Normally I’d be a bit wary of this, but when you have a series that is directed by someone who really excels at anime original material, I really hope that the rest of the episodes will also have this.

I really wonder what the original manga looked like though, because this episode did a very good job of showing the new villains, by immediately showing them get down to business. This episode made a good use of the setting around the characters by having these youkai attack in all different kinds of places, and Rikuo acted well as a leader, trying to gain the trust of all of the different sub-families. I also liked the twist with these fish: the only thing that seemed new was their sudden introduction, but I did not expect one of them to get killed off that easily. It’s a great way to show how fragile the things that Nura is trying to protect can be.

The animation was a bit weird throughout this episode. Most of it was nothing special, with a lot of still faces and all, but then there were those few scenes with interesting camera angles, and even that one scene at the end in which we see Rikuo running while the camera starts flying over him. I want to see more of that camera work in the next episodes. And more often.
Rating: ** (Excellent)