Nabari no Ou – 19

「死神の横顔」 (Shinigami no Yokogao)
“Profile of a Death God”

Episode at a Glance:
Trying to inform her brother of the situation, Kazuho is surprised to see Miharu and Yoite suddenly return. She then goes off to check on Gau, who was awakened by Yoite’s Kira. Meanwhile, Ichiki is informed about Yoite’s condition, so she tells Kazuho that this was expected, after which she gets permission from Hattori to call in the Tategami as they planned. Later on, everyone else meets at Yukimi’s appartment to discuss the Engetsurin, where Gau expresses his distaste for Yukimi’s messing living style. Yoite later arrives, making Yukimi apprehensive of the situation, but Gau manages to remove that tension by pulling Yoite in. Gau’s also pleased to see that Miharu has joined them, but gets a bit creeped out by his overenthusiastic greeting. Raikou then explains how there’s little information on Thobari outside of his surface world English teacher job, so Yukimi suggests the possibility of him having gone back home to Ireland. Given Thobari’s phobia of riding vehicles though, Raikou suspects that he’s still around and asks Miharu if he thinks so too, but he simply claims that he doesn’t know anything about Kumohira. Gau then offers a piece of cake to Yoite and thanks him for saving him. Likewise, Raikou expresses his gratitude and says he’ll repay this debt one day.

Later that night, Yukimi meets with Kazuho and finds out that Yoite only has a month to live, which he feels explains the Kira user’s behaviour as of late. Hearing this, Kazuho suspects that Miharu is trying to use the Shinrabanshou to save Yoite after all, making Yukimi question what they’re doing. Sensing his uneasiness, Kazuho asks him not turn on the Kairoushuu though, as they’ve finally found a place where they belong. Elsewhere, Gau explains to Raikou how he sensed the sadness within Yoite’s heart when the Kira was flowing through him and asks him to help Yoite somehow. Returning home, Yukimi finds Yoite huddled on the ground with a fever, so he makes him some hot lemonade. Yoite later apologizes for being an idiot and says he doesn’t expect Yukimi to forgive him, so Yukimi questions what him and Miharu are really after with the Shinrabanshou. Assuming that he wants to be saved from the Kira, Yukimi gets angry over the fact that he learned it in the first place, but stops when he sees a transparent look in Yoite’s eyes that he’s never seen before.

With them asleep, Yukimi recalls how Hattori entrusted Yoite in his care, who was a mere child at the time whose name, age, and birthplace are still unknown to him. He also recalls how the Kira’s side effects made all the bones in this body painfully grow overnight and how he and Kazuho fed him a lot of food to put some meat onto his now grownup body. It turns out his name, Yoite, was also given to him by Yukimi after he had taken a liking to it. Reminiscing of all this, Yukimi wonders exactly who Yoite is. The next morning, he wakes up to find Yoite and Miharu gone, unbeknownst that they’re threatening Kazuho for research information about the Shinrabanshou. Miharu suspected that she was hiding something from him before, so she ends up revealing that they have incomplete data on the possibility of using the Idzuna Shingan to awaken the Shinrabanshou; however, she claims it’s uncertain whether or not doing so will cause the Shinrabanshou to go berserk. The two of them then leave with a binder full of data and hop on the next Shinkansen to Nagano, where Togakushi is located. Meanwhile, the Kairoushuu Tategami members meet up with Ichiki just after finishing up a job.

Next Episode:
「戸隠へ」 (Togakushi he)
“To Togakushi”

Impressions:
So as suspected, Yoite purposely used his Kira to awaken Gau rather than to kill him, as his forbidden technique can activate a person’s ki (spirit/energy) much like it can stop it. In any case, they revealed how Yoite was left in the care of Yukimi, and how his body sporadically grew in a matter of days because of the Kira. While this gives us a bit more information of how Yoite became like he is now and how twisted the forbidden Kira technique is, not much has been explained about his former self, Sora, because even Yukimi doesn’t know about his past. This leaves Hattori, Ichiki, (possibly) Kazuho, and Yoite himself as the ones who actually know, so until one of them reveal more about his past with his parents and attempted suicide, we’re unfortunately still left in the dark for now.

Seeing as Miharu and Yoite have forced information out of Kazuho regarding how the Kairoushuu intended to use the Idzuna Shingan to learn about the Shinrabanshou (not a good idea in my opinion if Yae has taught us anything), the two of them seem to have parted ways with the Kairoushuu for now and headed to Nagano in search of the Togakushi leader. Judging from the preview though, it doesn’t look like she’ll be happy about their sudden visit. What’s more interesting though is the introduction of Kairoushuu’s detached force, Tategami, which includes the likes of Hyou, Shigure, and Shiranui according to the credits. Given how we’re getting close to the end of the series now, I sort of expect them to be the new antagonists of the series, with Hattori and Ichiki as the ultimate ones, but that’s just my suspicion for now.

There’s still a fair bit of background story about Yoite that needs to be explained and the Shinrabanshou has still yet to be seen in full force, so I’m quite looking forward to the last stretch of this series.

Cast:
– Rokujou Miharu (六条 壬晴) / Kugimiya Rie (釘宮 理恵)
– Yoite (宵風) / Saiga Mitsuki (斎賀 みつき)
– Yukimi Kazuhiko (雪見 和彦) / Tsuda Kenjirou (津田 健次郎)
– Hattori Toujuurou (服部 柊十郎) / Nakata Jouji (中田 譲治)
– Ichiki (一季) / Amano Yuri (天野 由梨)
– 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)
– Amatatsu Kazuho (天立 和穂) / Kano Yui (鹿野 優以)
– Hyou (雹) / Suyama Akio (陶山 章央)
– Shigure (時雨) / Mizuno Risa (水野 理沙)
– Shiranui (不知火) / Egawa Hisao (江川 央生)