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)
For a manga-reader like me, anime-original content can cut two ways: either it screws up trying to be different or add/remove something, but sometimes, like in this episode, it is a nice breath of fresh air.
Greater focus on youkai’s fear of Shikaku invaders, Kana and Yura meeting one of Shikoku youkai (this didn’t happen in manga), Kana calling Rikuo, Rikuo proclaiming that he intends to protect both his human friends and youkai comrades (this line was also added in the anime) and the best of all: Inugami (the dog head youkai) attacking the very home of Nura Clan (Inugami didn’t play any role until much later) and slaughtering a bunch of Nura Clan’s Youkai will help the story later on. I bow to the director, he did a mighty fine job here.
In other news, manga author said in chapter 125 that the tankbon volumes sold 6 million copies and the anime also got high rankings. Since in an interview it was said that the anime will be long-running if ratings are good (also, the future main villain already got a voice actor), this is good news IMO. Usually, I would prefer season breaks because of fear of fillers, but this episode proved that the director might be able to make quality fillers.
Haha, a chicken yokai.
In my case, for a filler this was ok, not particularly outstanding, but I’ve seen worst. I’m also a manga reader and the only problem I find is that things are sooooo slow paced, this is an action packed manga, and things are supposed to get interesting in this arc, yet the producers are slowing the pace because the anime might be extended… Man! I’m pretty sure that if they decided to keep a good pace they would reach the point where we are with the manga in about 50 episodes, since you say the director is good with anime original material, finishing things with a well though original ending would be the best thing to do instead of extending this to 100 episodes with lots of fillers.
I wouldn’t really call NnM an action-packed. In comparison to other shounens, NnM is lacking in that regard.
Not that there would be that many action if they stayed loyal all the time either. Nope, there would actually be less: the real action is not supposed to happen till quite a bit later and this episode, with the fire breathing chicken and Inugami’s attack on Nura household, had already increased the amount of action of the saga and looking at preview it seems that next ep might also be more action-packed then the manga was at this point.