Onmyou Kaiten Re:Birth – 01

A couple of – let’s be honest – bottom feeders premiere today. There are going to be a good few digest posts this season, simply as a function of having previewed 27 shows. The season is still a trickle at this point but when it becomes a flood, I not be able to do posts on all of them unless they catch my fancy in some way.

As for Onmyou Kaiten Re:Birth, it didn’t make that much of an impression (first or otherwise) on me. David Production can be interesting, and there are some solid names in the staff list. But overall this was pretty so-so in terms of execution. The premise combines Abeno Seimei/onmyouji with mecha and isekai, which at least isn’t totally out of the cookie cutter. But the sum of the parts wasn’t especially captivating, I did like some of the cinematography but the story and protagonist just didn’t click for me.

Jigoku Sensei Nube (2025) – 01-02

There are two 20th-Century WSJ series being rebooted this season – this one and the even more ancient Cat’s♥Eye. I don’t know which of the two I’m going to find more interesting, but of these two premieres it’s Jigoku Sensei Nube in a walk. This double-episode was pleasingly high-energy and eye-catching without being too self-consciously “old-school” about it. It did condense a fair bit and trimmed some of the extremely politically incorrect content from the manga intro which is, shall we say, very much a product of its era…

Hell Teacher follows a young sensei named Nueno Meisuke, possessor of some rather strong psychic powers. He gets assigned to an elementary school in a small town that’s being plagued by trouble from the spirit world. In fact his left hand seems to be possessed by a youkai, which he puts to use in battle against other ones. He’s assigned to a fifth-grade class and one student, Hiroshi, is having issues with anger management (and superhuman strength, judging by the fact that he keeps putting people in the hospital). You can probably see where this is going.

The particular being possessing the boy is a “99-legged” bug, which is an evolved form the “tantrum worm” which generally possesses infants harmlessly (there’s definitely symbolism in all that). Hiroshi has had some bad experiences with the paranormal, clearly, and instinctively mistrusts Nube-sensei (as Nueno tells everyone to call him). But eventually circumstances conspire to bring the youkai out into the open, where Nube can do battle with it.

That leads to a showdown with the true villain of the first piece – a yoko named Tamano who’s decided that Hiroshi has a good head on his shoulders. Perfect, in fact, for him to complete his “humanification” ritual. This actually gets pretty dark and rather graphic – Hiroshi certainly sees enough to traumatize him pretty hard. But after a bit of mutual rescuing at an unopened amusement park Hiroshi is Nube’s biggest fan, and Tamano has been vanquished (though only to return another day).

There are some gestures towards updating the setting here – like giving the students tablets. But one reason Jigoku Sensei Nube worked for me is that it came across as a nice hybrid between an older-style Jump series and a modern one. It didn’t try too hard to be either and as a result was authentically both (and there’s a lesson in that). I also quite liked Hiroshi and Nube’s interaction – he and the girl named Kyouko (who already knew Nube for some reason) seem to be the first among equals with the students, though it’s early to make that call. And while Kai is not a glamor studio and the staff isn’t peppered with big names, the first two eps looked quite nice, employing minimal CGI. All in all, a very good start.