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)
So Inugami lives here, huh? In manga, the doggy actually got killed which was important for the drama later 😛
Also, not happy for them moving the battle against Inugami into that ruin rather then let it happen in school filled with students like it did in manga (both the comedy and action were better there)
Manga is really good. I don’t see the series getting cancelled with so much amazing material to pull from
It’s not officially confirmed. but Nurarihyon might have a second season because VA for the villain of next arc has been confirmed. And it is only a rumour but Bakuman’s second season is already planned as well. Those are Shonen Jump shows so probably some more sequels are expected as long as they hold high popularity.