Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyo - 06

As I wade deeper into Nurarihyon and the mythology that surrounds it, it’s becoming more clear to me every week just how different this season is – and just what an impact director Nishimura Junji had on the first season.

It’s an odd thing. Nishimura is a talented and accomplished director, with an impressive creative peak in having directed True Tears. Sennen Makyo director Fukuda Michio is much less accomplished, having a track record almost entirely as an animator. Yet it appears that Nishimura radically altered the material in both tone and content, focusing heavily on human Rikuo, the Supernatural Squad generally and Kana specifically. Not knowing the manga well I had no idea at the time how different this was from the source material, but Fukuda appears to be much the better fit as director. This season has a much darker, more focused and weighty feel to it and the material seems an order of magnitude more substantial.

Human Rikuo and Kana have been almost entirely absent for the first six episodes, and it doesn’t appear that’s going to be changing anytime soon. With the focus on Kyoto and the Hagoromo-Gitsune arc, Yura has emerged from the shadows as the most significant girl in Rikuo’s harem, and when we haven’t been flashing back 400 years we’ve seen much more of Rikuo’s youkai form than his human one. Anxious to go to Kyoto and deal with Hagoromo-Gitsune, Rikuo has no idea just how inadequate his skills are. He’s gained confidence in his defeat of the Shokoku Gang, but as Grandpa Nurarihyon is only too willing to show him, they – and he – are no match for world-class ayakashi like Gitsune and her inner circle. After thoroughly kicking Rikuo’s butt in combat, he has the boy abducted by the Tono Clan, from Tohaku (a region much in the news this year, sadly) there to be shown in even more detail just how much he has to learn.

This season has been all about Grandpa so far. Thanks to yet another flashback we’ve seen how he lost his son, and Rikuo’s father, to an ambush by a (very important and familiar-looking) sword. He treasures Rikuo and has always tried to protect him, but the time has clearly come from Rikuo to step out of the old man’s shadow and to do that, Nurarihyon realizes he has to be humbled and start his training from the apprentice level. Thus the abduction to Tono, where Rikuo seems to perpetually stay in youkai form due to the demon aura that clings to the village and the surrounding wilds. There his master is to be Itaku (Kishio Daisuke), though he’s spending most of his time washing clothes and chopping wood, for now.

We’re in pretty familiar shounen territory here, with the sidetracking of the hero to learn new skills at the feet of an abusive yet ultimately caring master so that he can go off to Kyoto and deal with the real villain of the piece. No genre is more given to a set structure than shounen, but I have no problem whatsoever with genre material if it’s done well – and it appears to be done very well here. This arc is clearly going to be a very big story (as was the Kyoto arc of that other shounen manga) and eventually, the other familiar characters will work their way back into the story. The Kiyo Squad is on their way to Kyoto to check on Yura, and I’ve no doubt that Rikuo’s own second-generation Night Parade will eventually join him in Kyoto for the final battle. It should be a good ride, if the first six eps are any indication.

9 comments

Nayrael

August 8, 2011 at 7:57 am

Those Toonoists are so impudent: nobody called him Rikuo-sama and they even made him do the chores. HIM!

I also liked how Rikuo's coolness reduced through the episode: first he gets beaten by gramps… than by Toono fodder… than by slippery rocks… and than by a freaking bridge. In short, was not a good week for our Nurarihyon no Mago 😛

Yura's naivety is also cute: she still trusts in her honest and loving brother 😛

Also like the scene of Rikuo daydreaming about Tsurara. He already misses his Yuki Onna servant XD

In summary, me liked the episode.

jrj

August 8, 2011 at 1:43 pm

so what I didn't understand is why Rikuo didn't use fear on his grandpa… but I guess it doesn't really work on that old guy anyway… hopefully he would learn some kick butt skills soon 🙂

Karmafan

August 8, 2011 at 3:45 pm

I wouldn't credit the change so much to the director as the source material. The anime is following the manga pretty faithfully and it was the Kyoto act and how gramps got his wife that was a much darker tone and that continues to this day in the manga (other arcs covered what happened to Rikou's dad as well as some side characters of the clan).

I guess it was fairly lighthearted until he made his decision to become the third and thats when the series changed. As if prior to his decision he was a little kid and after it he became a young man.

RE: Rikou's fear… When Rikou drinks saki with someone and they become part of his night parade (ceremony) he gets to "wear them" (making his fear strong) and I can't remember if anyone or many of the clan have performed the ceremony with Rikou so his fear might be weak compared to gramps.

admin

August 8, 2011 at 4:03 pm

@Nayrael: Tsurara is the one I'll always root for, as much as Yura is growing on me – I sincerely hope that daydream is a love flag!
@jrj: I don't think his fear would work on Grandpa, would it – since he basically inherited that skill from him?
@Karma: What was interesting is that someone (Luka) pointed out to me that Kana was basically non-existent in the Tamazuki arc and Nishimura edited her in… And I know that Nishimura said in an interview that he was a huge Kana fan. Having scanned those early manga chapters now it definitely looks like Kana and the Kiyo Cross were pumped up quite a bit…

Nayrael

August 8, 2011 at 4:36 pm

@Karmafan:
While Kyoto Arc is better than Shikoku arc, in the hands of the last Director it would not be as good: the man gives himself too much freedom and we would once again get HIS version of the Kyoto Arc.
He is not a bad director, but I think Anime Original series fit him better than adaptations.

belatkuro

August 8, 2011 at 6:04 pm

The pacing and the music could.use some tweaking but otherwise it's going well.
I remember that this was the last time Day or Human Rikuo appears. From here on it's Night Rikuo all the way up until a certain point :). More of deep FukuJun voice for us 😀
And the concept of Fear is now being tackled and this is what makes NuraMago stand out.
Cant wait for the things to come.

Fancy seeing Nayrael here, if you're the same one in MAL.

Looking forward to your posts Enzo 😀

admin

August 8, 2011 at 6:13 pm

Ack – spoilers! Well, it's not like it wasn't obvious that it would be Night Rikuo for a while. Still – without the tag option at Blogger please be a little cautious about that…

Thanks for commenting, and welcome.

belatkuro

August 8, 2011 at 6:33 pm

Didnt think it was that spoilerish. Or at least it's not a big deal. I take care about what I say. If anything, Karmafan's is a bit more than mine.
Either way, I apologize about that. I'll be careful next time. Sorry.

admin

August 8, 2011 at 7:09 pm

Nah, no big deal – like I said, I think it was pretty obvious, but I always like to err on the side of caution. Someday Blogger will get into the 21st century and enable spoiler tags (and threaded comments) like WordPress does.

Definitely no need to apologize – just me being oversensitive!

Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyo – 06

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