「カーテンコール」 (Kaaten Kooru)
“Curtain Call”

 

Next Episode:
「意志」 (Ishi)
“Intent”

Impressions:
So back in episode five, I mentioned how Raikou would need a damn good reason for killing a bunch of the Shimizus if his character was ever going to be seen in a positive light. Now who would’ve thought that the writers would go and do just that and give Raikou a damn good reason for killing everyone. Or more correctly, I should say how Raikou didn’t kill anyone except his uncle Iroku, and this was only to stop him after he killed both his parents during a short-lived coup d’état to change the Shimizu ways. Regardless of the details, I still feel that the writers were just trying to prove everyone’s obvious conclusion wrong or something given how Raimei’s understanding of what happened isn’t remotely correct. I guess this could be considered “selective display of evidence” in an attempt to purposely mislead…?

As for what actually happened, Raikou was distraught about not being allowed to use his Nabari world abilities to help a friend from the Surface world, much like how his uncle Iroku had felt for a while. However, Raikou never expected Iroku to resort to such drastic measures in order to change the Shimizu ways. Realizing that Iroku had gone too far, Raikou decided to stop his rebellion but took the blame for the entire incident, thinking that doing so would save Raimei’s image of the Shimizus and her immediate family. In other words, Raikou was only looking out for Raimei’s best interests after this internal strife, which he thought would ruin her pride in the Shimizus and her love for her parents and uncle.

Personally, I think giving Raimei one person to concentrate all her hatred towards and making her seek revenge for most of her life is probably a lot worse than telling her that the Shimizus aren’t as great as she thinks, but hey, that was Raikou’s call and not mine. It was nice to see Raimei finally figure out the truth though, but it’s a bit of a shame to see Gau have to (basically) sacrifice himself in order to get those two to finally see eye-to-eye. Before Gau stepped in, Raikou was about to kill Raimei even after she already found out what really happened, which is something I find a bit perplexing about his character. I mean, Raimei figured out what he did for her and asked him to come back to the Shimizu household, but he refused to and tried to kill her instead, claiming that it’s too late to return now. Now is it just me or does that totally defeat the purpose of him taking the blame for the incident and joining the Kairoushuu to save her feelings in the first place? (If I’m overlooking something here, please feel free to fill me in.)

Despite my qualms with Raikou’s way of thinking, I like how they revealed the Shimizu past in detail this week, which allowed us to understand his reasons for doing what he did (…whether I agree with them or not). Also, the fight scenes this time around were longer and more action-packed than last time, and as odd as it may sound, I actually liked how they overexaggerated the length of their katanas (i.e. Kurogamon and Shirogamon). Speaking of the Shirogamon, i.e. Raikou’s white katana, he ended up leaving it on that field for Gau’s sake. Seeing as Raikou has decided to go back to the Kairoushuu for now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when he meets Raimei again in the future.

Next week, we see the wound on Miharu’s hand from blocking Yoite’s Kira technique, who we should also get to see more of as well.

 

P.S. My “spoils” from Akihabara today is this. I really like how cheap art books are over here. Speaking of Akihabara, things didn’t seem too different since that incident, but I did see an offering of flowers for the victims. =(

 

Cast:
– Rokujou Miharu (六条 壬晴) / Kugimiya Rie (釘宮 理恵)
– Aizawa Kouichi (相澤 虹一) / Hino Satoshi (日野 聡)
– Shimizu Raimei (清水 雷鳴) / Fujimura Ayumi (藤村 歩)
– Shimizu Raikou (清水 雷光) / Suwabe Junichi (諏訪部 順一)
– Meguro Gau (目黒 俄雨) / Okamoto Nobuhiko (岡本 信彦)
– Saraba (サラバ) / Watanabe Akeno (渡辺 明乃)
– Minami Juuji (南 十字) / Koyama Kimiko (こやま きみこ)
– Shimizu Kourin (清水 光輪) / Tsuda Shouko (津田 匠子)
– Shimizu Iroku (清水 伊肋) / Take Tora (武 虎)
– Shimizu Soumei (清水 想鳴) / Sakuya Shunsuke (咲野 俊介)
– Girl (少女) / Ono Ryouko (小野 涼子)
– Nurse (看護士) / Taruta Eri (タルタ エリ)
– Nurse (看護士) / Monden Yukiko (門田 幸子)
– Rebeller (造反者) / Kuwabara Keiichi (桑原 敬一)
– Rebeller (造反者) / Yoshikai Kiyoto (吉開 清人)

18 Comments

  1. umm apalo where have you been. apparently not following the series. the series itself has 26 epis in total. and that green hair girl has been in the series for a few epis now. dont remember her name but the second girl might be new. you are freaking doing cocaine i have to say.

    other than that. good review/summary to the epi. cant wait to see it since it seems to finally go into detail about one of the chars past and a lot of characters have a dark past.

    tPhan
  2. @Apalo: the first girl is … think she’s the one called Minami Juuji. Somewhat like a nurse, but she’s from Fuuma. That’s why she usually appears with Saraba. The second one, I don’t know. A female classmate of Raikou’s?

    Thanks for the summary, Divine! Lucky, you can go to Akihabara. T___T Wished I could live in Japan too, but I’m surprised. Thought that after that incident there would be crazy security or something? Sad incident, though

  3. For the akiba thing, I guess people probably think that lives must go on (although it is rather quick to get over such an event)

    Great episode covering as usual~ However, as much as I like Raikai and Raimei (I like almost any character in this show), I am quite glad that the story is getting back to Miharu and Yoite (my most favorite chars). I may have read the mangas through but I still dying to see the anime version anyway.

    Kaitune
  4. “If I’m overlooking something here, please feel free to fill me in.”

    Well, after reading all the manga that is currently out (don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil anything), I can tell you that Raikou manages to make the worst decisions in almost everything he does. He’s an idealist, but when something stops fitting his ideals (either others or himself) he just becomes too controlled by his emotions and does stupid things. And he’s so messed up that he prefers living with the blame instead of doing something to correct himself for next time (I mean, sometimes it’s like he revels in the guilt).
    Also, manga fans have discussed that Raikou wasn’t really going to kill her in that scene, because he was too far away from her to inflict a serious wound. He hits Gau, but doesn’t kill him, although Gau was much closer to him than Raimei. Notice that Raikou wasn’t jumping forwards for the attack, either. So probably he was just going to give her a small wound like in the previous chapter (his purpose isn’t killing her, but convincing her that she should leave the dangerous world of Nabari).

    Was this of any help?

    Nui
  5. @Nui:
    Thanks for the insight and refraining from spoilers. I’ll be watching Raikou’s actions/decisions carefully from now on with what you’ve said in mind.

    As for whether Raikou would’ve killed Raimei there or not, I think using the distance thing to judge whether or not it would’ve been possible is just manga fans over analyzing the situation a bit. I mean, what didn’t kill Gau probably would’ve killed a no-name ninja. So basically, I think regardless of distance, Raikou could’ve killed Raimei there if the writers wanted her to die there. Just my two cents about that.

  6. Raiku is a tragic character in a way: rather brainwashed and messed in the head like Yoite.

    Kind of reminds me of cults and how the have a tendency to prey on victims of severe trauma. Notice how little they question Hattori.(except Yukimi who I think is more thick than brainwashed and is just catching on)

    Dana
  7. @Nui
    I agree. If the hit was really meant to take her life, Gau wouldn’t stand a damn chance. He may be in coma but he is still very much alive. It was probably a hard attempt to get her away from the world of nabari.

    Kaitune
  8. i must say raikou’s way of thinking reminds me a lot of suzaku from code geass. to me it seems like he knows he did something wrong and he intends to do what he thinks is right yet at the same time wants to die to atone for the bad things that he’s done. Much like suzaku hes not willing to just die so he wont just stands there and let someone kill him.raimei to raikou is like all the lil people who tried to kill suzaku. He puts himself out so he can die but not unless it was something that can be done about.

    darkerthanhei
  9. Raikou? His name should be Itachi.. He didnt tell Raimei the reasons he killed the clan for the same reasons Itachi didnt tell Sasuke, and that is for her to believe that her clan was something to be proud of which is exactly what Itachi did.

    bl24ndon
  10. The Raikou-didn’t-do-it plot is just another cop-out, very much like the Itachi-was-an-double-agent plot in Naruto. Raikou knew that Raimei was raised as a shinobi, and yet he tried to “protect” her from the ugly truth of the ninja world? Gimme a break. Most Asians movies/stories cannot refrain from letting bad buys be just bad guys. They have to make some lame excuses to forgive the wrongdoings of certain favourite characters just to make “resolution”. Such excuses are often nothing no more than self-pitying at the expenese of other characters around the “secret hero” who thinks he carried all the burdens on himself. This kind of childish plot only undermines the legitimacy of the primary conflict that drives the Raimei thread. Nabari no Ou has been a big let-down so far. (By the way, the Sasuke thread in Naruto is also a big let-down. But at least that story still has the Jiraiya thread and the Naruto thread to go on.)

    Matroid
  11. Raikou explains he can’t leave the Kairoushuu is because he’d already entered and gained notoriety as the one who massacred the Shimizu clan (in the manga Raikou’s even considered Hattori Toujuurou’s right hand man).

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Tatsie

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