「混沌」 (Konton)
“Chaos”

Episode at a Glance:
After being informed of Miharu and Yoite’s escape as well as the Wakachi’s involvement, Hattori decides to switch locations and move to their temple hideout along with Yae, while Ichiki orders the Tategami to retrieve the two runaway ninjas. However, before they get a chance to take Yae away, Sourou manages to save the Togakushi leader. Raikou stumbles upon her escape though, but decides to overlook it and simply asks where Hattori went. Before he leaves, Yae decides to read his mind and confirms that he plans to die, but tells him that Hattori’s not the person he thinks he is and that the world he wants to create will snatch the hearts from everyone, including Gau and Raimei. Yae then reiterates how he now feels that his mother’s belief is correct, before Raikou walks off.

Meeting with Hattori and Ichiki in the parking lot, Raikou confesses his involvement with Miharu and Yoite’s escape and is willing to give up his life for his disloyalty, but asks the Kairoushuu leader to pardon Gau, who he claims was only acting under his orders. Hattori retorts that Raikou was the one that brought him into the Nabari world in the first place though, so Raikou decides to question about the world he plans to create and whether people will be happy without being able to share happiness. Realizing that he heard about this from Yae, Hattori merely conjectures what happiness is and if Raikou’s definition of it can reflect the masses. Claiming that he’s discarded such a superficial and shallow principle long ago, Hattori leaves with Ichiki and Shiranui shows up to “assist” Raikou with his suicide.

Staked out at a nearby coffee shop, Kouichi and Raimei catch sight of Hattori leaving the premises, after which Gau stumbles into them and updates them on the situation, including how Raikou stayed behind. Meanwhile on a rooftop, Yae tells Saraba and Sourou that they need to save Miharu and stop Hattori, which they eventually agree to since they’ve gone this far and Katorou did allow them to act on their own. Unable to do anything Raikou for now, Gau decides to help Kouichi and Raimei look for Miharu and Yoite first. Back in the parking lot, Raikou runs off claiming he has things to take care of before he dies.

Out in a desolate snowy field, Kumohira reflects on the events of ten years ago and calls out for Asahi, Miharu’s mother. The lone Banten ninja then tries to perform some sort of separation jutsu, but fails to do so, after which Kotarou appears behind him saying his fundamentals for it are wrong. Shocked to see Kotarou here and more so that by the fact that he knows about the events from ten years ago, Kumohira angerly questions what he’s doing here. However, Kotarou only states that even he’s forgotten about exactly what happened here and only knows of it from the few remaining records, before rhetorically asking Kumohira if he’s made any progress on his method for separating the Shinrabanshou from the host. He then fills Kumohira in on the situation which has been steadily progressing while he’s been completely immersed in contemplation—the Kairoushuu plan on using the Idzuna Shingan to awaken the Shinrabanshou. Upon being questioned what he’ll do now, Kumohira takes off in a hurry.

In the sewers, Yoite tells Miharu to go on without him because they’ll be caught at this rate, but the Shinrabanshou owner refuses to leave without him since he promised not to die before he makes him disappear. Yoite only apologizes though, admitting that he lied about Kira-inflicted people dying if the user dies because he wanted Miharu’s powers. With Miharu refusing to believe him and stubbornly choosing to stay behind and die alongside him, Yoite decides continue on and the two of them make it outside, where Miharu invites Yoite to stay with him in Banten. They then run into Yukimi, who questions Yoite what he’s doing after he’s taught him so much, including this escape route. Without giving Yoite a chance to respond, Miharu stands in the way saying that he’s the Shinrabanshou, but Yukimi retorts that he can’t use it and that they have no chance of escaping.

The Tategami then arrive and Hyou gives them a meaningless choice of either being brought back bruised and battered for resisting or coming back obediently with only a few injuries. Yukimi tells them to wait though and questions who gave this order, but the Tategami refuse to answer, so he says that punk kids should withdraw. Shortly afterward, Kouichi, Raimei, and Gau show up and engage the Tategami head on. During all the exchanges, Yoite tries to help but gets knocked out easily, so the Tategami decide to withdraw with him and Miharu. Yukimi steps in though and with a gun in hand, tells both sides that he’ll take Miharu and Yoite back, which the Tategami hesitently allows. Off in the Kairoushuu temple hideout, news of this reaches Hattori, who feels that he’ll have to discipline Yukimi in some way. Meanwhile, the fight continues between the Kouichi, Raimei, and the Tategami, but the Kairoushuu detached force withdraws after getting an order from their leader, Shiranui.

Out on another snowy field, Raikou retrieves his Shirogamon katana, recalls the words of his mother, reflects on how he’s made a mistake yet again, and vows to fulfil his duty as a Shimizu in accordance to his mother’s resolve.

 

Next Episode:
「発動」 (Hatsudou)
“Invocation”

Impressions:
The more closely I listen to the soundtrack for this series, the more immersed I get into how well it suits some of the scenes being depicted. I feel that it’s been more apparent as of late due to the direction this series is going, plus the fact that I’ve grown so accustomed to soundtrack now. One track I like in particular is the one being played when Yoite told Miharu to go on without him this episode, which won’t be available until the second soundtrack comes out later this month.

With that said, things naturally continued on from all the backstory revealed last time, with the most notable development coming from Raikou. Having confirmed for himself that Hattori has gone astray from his own beliefs, Raikou will undoubtedly cast judgment on his former leader in some shape or form. I’m actually quite pleased to see that he’s gone back to his Shimizu ways and acknowledged that his mother, Kourin, was correct in their handling of Nabari world affairs. Watching him retrieve his Shirogamon in the field was a symbolic way of showing his resolve as a Shimizu samurai. Hopefully this means he’ll side with Raimei and the others now, especially seeing as Gau is already with them now, but I still have this ominous feeling that Raikou may not make it until the end of the series. For one, he was willing to commit seppuku for dishonoring himself as a samurai by helping Miharu and Yoite escape. Secondly, he still seems intent on doing so after he carries out what he feels needs to be done about the situation.

Now that Kotarou has found Kumohira and Yae has decided to stop Hattori as well, it seems like members from all sides have assembled for the “greater good”. Given how I felt that things were going this way back in episode twelve, I’m not surprised by this turn of events, but I am quite pleased with it since I enjoyed a similar outcome in Gundam SEED. With Miharu and Yoite back in the hands of the Kairoushuu now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to Yukimi if anything. While he was the one that brought them back, he went against the Tategami who were under direct orders from Hattori, so he should be in store for some punishment. Whether or not this will be enough for him to switch sides is hard to say, but I don’t foresee him being an opposition to Miharu and the others forever.

 

Cast:
– Rokujou Miharu (六条 壬晴) / Kugimiya Rie (釘宮 理恵)
– Yoite (宵風) / Saiga Mitsuki (斎賀 みつき)
– Kumohira Thobari Durandal (雲平・帷・デュランダル) / Namikawa Daisuke (浪川 大輔)
– Aizawa Kouichi (相澤 虹一) / Hino Satoshi (日野 聡)
– Shimizu Raimei (清水 雷鳴) / Fujimura Ayumi (藤村 歩)
– Yukimi Kazuhiko (雪見 和彦) / Tsuda Kenjirou (津田 健次郎)
– Oda Yae (織田 八重) / Yukino Satsuki (雪野 五月)
– Fuuma Kotarou (風魔 小太郎) / Okiayu Ryoutarou (置鮎 龍太郎)
– Saraba (サラバ) / Watanabe Akeno (渡辺 明乃)
– Katou Sourou (加藤 候) / Kakihara Tetsuya (柿原 徹也)
– Shimizu Kourin (清水 光輪) / Tsuda Shouko (津田 匠子)
– 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)
– Hyou (雹) / Suyama Akio (陶山 章央)
– Shigure (時雨) / Mizuno Risa (水野 理沙)
– Kagerou (陽炎) / Sakaguchi Shuuhei (阪口 周平)
– Shiranui (不知火) / Egawa Hisao (江川 央生)
– Kairoushuu (灰狼衆) / Chijiwa Ryuusaku (千々和 竜策)

18 Comments

  1. Let’s get this out of the way before the fangirl whining begins:

    BAAWWW THIS IS NOT LIKE THE MANGA AT ALL BAWWWW THE MANGA IS SO MUCH BETTER AND IT HAS MORE YOITE AND MIHARU SHONEN AI BAWW.

    lerran
  2. I’m obsessed, aren’t I? I’ve been checking this site a bunch because I love the summaries you write for Nabari. I was only able to understand about… an eighth of the episode with my meager Japanese skills, so I’m grateful beyond the scope of words for this detailed summary. It really helped me to get a bunch out of the episode that I wouldn’t have been able to understand before.

    I’m really happy with how the anime is coming into its own with its original material. It’s successfully developing and changing the characters. I especially like the way they went about portraying Raikou in this episode. Miharu being stubborn when Yoite told him to go on alone was one of my favorite parts. And… and… Yukimi…! o_o Graww, I will eat Hattori before he can hurt Yukimi. XD

    I’m definitely excited for the next episode.

    Thank you so much for the summary! *_*

    Alaena
  3. I wonder how this series would end? Yoite returning to his 10 year old appearance? It would kinda be nice if Yoite was eating at the okonomiyaki restaurant with Miharu, while Tobari sensei being a nut jumping in and all the other “good guys” coming in through the door.

    Sigh shounen-ai is going off the hooks, but its nice once in a while to see romance, but no smut.

    Cherubium
  4. I’m glad someone is still blogging about this series. I actually quite like it. I’m seeing death flag for Raikou who’s one of my favourite character but I’m still hoping he’ll survive to the end. I never like that Hattori guy…his intentions weren’t good from the beginning.

    Browniekat
  5. Since subs have been pulled for this show, I haven’t been keeping up. But the anime is going in quite a different direction then the manga, so I’m interested in how things will turn out.

    kureejii
  6. Eh, thanks for the summary, makes it much easier for us non-japanese-speaking people to understand. Apparently just watching isn’t enough to understand everything, though even RAWs are (definitely) better than nothing. Still, you do a great job, arigatou gozaimasu ^^

    Tonka
  7. @ -_-;
    I don’t think anyone gives two shites about what you want.
    If you want a fall anime preview list, pull your finger out and do the research yourself you lazy bastard!

    Back on topic, greatly appreciate the blogging of this show. Shame the subs were pulled but at least I can keep up with the plot until this get licenses for R1 DVD release.

    domgo
  8. Exciting stuff, I really like the direction Nabari is goin in. Watching the raws I’m always struck with ‘what are they saying?’ sydrone, but this blog always helps. I haven’t read that far in the manga but I always find it interesting when anime’s take their own direction. That’s what’s fun about the Nabari universe, there are so many fun things to play with!

    But Raikou – I hope he doesn’t die, but there’s always one character that has to go before the end. But I do admire his honour and the fact that he now realises his mother was right and fundamentally that power corrupts humans – even if they start out with ‘good’ intentions.

    Once again, thanks for the summary divine!

  9. Alaena, Tonka, MangaGirls:
    You’re welcome. Again, I’m glad to hear people are finding these posts helpful.

    While this summary wasn’t as much of a literal translation as last week’s, all of the key points should be there, and with enough details so that someone watching the raw will be able to understand exactly what’s going on.

  10. I just can’t see how they can justify their decisions with their anime original material…sorry. This ep is okay, but the two before it were boring and took the story nowhere..

    I still have hope for this…they have done a good job for the most part.

    Twirble
  11. Twirble:
    I think the decision was easy to make since the manga is still ongoing and the anime was slated for 26 episodes well in advance. I imagine that most people want an “ending” to the series, especially those who don’t read the manga.

  12. Ever since Funimation made that announcement and it’s been hard finding subbed episodes for Nabari no Ou anymore, it’s really helpful that you write a good summary of the episode. I like to read it, then watch it in the original Japanese, so even though I don’t understand some parts, I still know what’s going on.

    Angelina R.
  13. Am I the only one who was slightly amused by the fact that the supposedly feared Tategami, Raimei and the immortal Kouichi, who were all fiercely fighting with their lives for a moment, ALL had to stop and bow down to the power of Yukimi’s gun??? Or did I miss something and his incredible ability of only being able to aim at one person at the time is really THAT fearsome?

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