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「闇の鼠は貓を食らう」
“The Rat of Darkness Devours the Cat”
This episode, deviating from the format used previously, continued the scene from last time showing Yura and Kana getting attacked by several youkai. Even though Yura is able to defeat several with her shikigami, the youkai successfully force her to stand down by threatening Kana. With the intentions of the youkai though, it was probably better if she had kept her shikigami then went to save Kana after (better than both of them dying). It’s very frustrating to see weaker characters dragging down the stronger ones. Since I don’t really feel any connection towards Kana, I just feel annoyed towards her, similar to my feelings towards Inoue Orihime from Bleach. However, no doubt most people would feel terrible knowing they are slowing down someone else, so some pity is warranted.
Kyuuso, the bishounen head of the rat clan, is pretty much a standard clichéd villain— no problem with using dirty tactics, treats subordinates cruelly and doesn’t keep promises. After kidnapping Yura and Kana, he lures Rikuo using a cute little mouse to trick him into coming alone to the clan hideout. It was pretty dead obvious the whole thing was a trap, but Rikuo is still too naive to judge. Kyuuso uses the girls as leverage to make him resign as Third Heir; thinking back now, it’s actually pretty convenient, since Rikuo wanted to break relations with the youkai anyway. However I wish he didn’t acquiesce to their demands so quickly (why do characters think they can trust the bad guys), since he would just end up losing it all. Even if he doesn’t have powers himself, he does have a host of youkai at his command. Rikuo really needs to think things through and get some confidence; just look at Ryota-neko, who was ready to go out alone to avenge his clan (even though it was practically pointless). The whole situation is rather pathetic, especially given Nurarihyon’s comment that the Kyuuso were small fry that got expelled.
Luckily, after seeing the youkai’s feelings, Rikuo transforms into his awesome night form immediately mobilizing his Night Parade of a Hundred Demons to go kick butt and save his friends. Once he transforms, his mindset is pretty much completely changed, as he rips up the resignation letter and declares that he will be master of the youkai. If he really does become clan leader, I could see some problems with his alternating weak and strong spells. But man, when he’s strong, he’s really strong. Immediately there was an all-out battle between the Nurarihyon and Kyuuso, and he himself burned off the small fry big boss in one attack. I’m surprised Kana and Yura haven’t found out Night Rikuo’s identity yet though, considering how the youkai referred to him, but the two versions are quite different. Of course, the existence of youkai themselves is probably solid in their minds now.
In conclusion, this series still looks like standard shounen so far, though it does have its good parts. Of course, the direction of the arc isn’t clear yet (for non-manga readers) so it’s too early to judge. The animation and art this episode looked very nice; the various effects used were cool, and I liked the animated ink drawings, though some of them were a little random. Yuki-onna with red eyes is awesome as well.
Preview
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OMG @ THE YUKI-ONNA IN PREVIEW. D’AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
A-hem. Kana = Orihime? Not in my books xD Kana may be useless or “lacks” in comparison to the other females but I don’t think she’s useless useless nor annoying. She still has some things that appeal to me – character design, aya hirano, positive thinking, striking sense of fashion while Orihime on the other hand has like… nothing but giant — yeah that turn me off along with her personality. At least Kana tries (she tried to cheer up paper girl before they ran into the youkai rats), and besides they’re only 15 in this aren’t they? o.O;;
Orihime is 15, Kana is 13.
And Orihime was a good character before/in the SS arc, she only got annoying ater that.
Well Orihime does have her set of powers, but I do agree she only got annoying later on after the SS arc.
Kanna seems like the kind of character that will forever be the damsel in distress since she is a completely normal human.
Hell yeah with Yuki-onna. It’s really really cute!
The series is going to start picking up steam soon. I’m just wondering where they’re going to stop, since they’ve been skipping some chapters here and there.
i was just wondering…aren’t you blogging high school of the dead anymore????
uh me?
Anyone else see that the B&W frames didnt truly match-up to the flow of the anime? Seems a bit undercooked to me…
@proof
oops…sorry…my bad.
This episode kind of annoyed me a bit, with the wimpy Rikuo and equally as annoying Kana. The pacing of this episode was painfully slow. Sadly it wasn’t till youkai-Rikiou came is that episode really got good.
-I know this is pretty obvious already, but i get the feeling that the useless Kana will get more screen time then the other ‘awesome’ female characters.
I don’t think we need to worry too much about his alternating weak and strong spells and Rikuo’s weak side is not exactly weak and
Show Spoiler ▼
Show Spoiler ▼
@ Prooof
I’m glad I’m not the only one that immediately recognized the awesomeness of red eyed Yuki-Onna lol.
i love the background music whenever Night Rikuo appears.
I always hate Yuki-Onna, her fangirling and uselessness in the manga and now Yui Horie’s annoying voice. I never like cutesy moe character and Yuki-Onna is no exception. That preview with her big eyes, so creepy…. I really hope she would at least stop fangirling toward Rikuo all the time. If only the mangaka would kill her off.
Well, there are different types of Yokai, strong and weak. I generally thought the Snow woman race were strong, and considering that she’s only a child, (though either she was next to her grandfather or that was her mother) her powers haven’t fully developed yet. Anyways, if everyone in the parade was stronger then they appeared, than that would be way to boring… it’s nice to see that there a difference in strength in every character, as it be unrealistic if every one suddenly goes, I GOT A POWER I’VE BEEN HIDING THIS WHOLE TIME. You can only hope she gets stronger, or becomes at least a pivotal step to make the character stronger. Not every character needs to be great at fighting, some characters are there for other reason, of course not fangirling, but to encourage and support characters through ordeals. Btw, that’s in correct, she was useful in fights early on, but the power difference as the manga progress between new enemies is showing now which makes her seem useless in the manga thank you.
Perhaps you have a fear of cute people, no offense lol. Or big eyes in general. There nothing honestly creepy about it.
It’s probably her mother, that snow woman had a different name. And don’t forget that the shikigami guy whose name I forgot (the one summoned as shikigami) asked her about the other woman.
So probably mother or something, yes, and I guess the fangirlness is in their blood. 😛
Well I figured it’s probably a mother. She would have spilled the OMG, I was hiding powers a long time ago lol.
As said, if I remember correctly, the type of yokai she is supposed to be high level. I just don’t think she found her full potential yet, considering a couple of thing that gone through the manga. As I said before, the only real reason why she seems to be useless later on is because the enemies are significantly much stronger then before… Show Spoiler ▼
BTW, Tsurara isn’t a child. She’s older than Rikuo, most youkai are older than they look. Kubinashi and Aotabou are hundred of years old.
Woah, intense hate you have there .. or intense fear of cuteness haha. But anyway, she later became more of a support anyway so I don’t see any problems with that.
@ Eriker
Yes, she is the higher rank youkai but at the same time, not exactly the most powerful. However, I don’t think she’s useless at all which is one thing I’m totally disagreeing with nura rihan here. If you want to look at uselessness, there is another character that is much closer to that although I still consider her important since she might have a role later.
Kubinashi, Kejorou, Kurotabou, Aotabou are all stronger than Tsurara even without training. All of them manage to fight Kyoto Youkai on even footing even if Kubinashi and Kejorou loses. Tsurara, not so much. And don’t get me started on Itaku and Awashima.
Sigh, that’s precisely why you’re too quick to judge. The fact you can’t tell what age they are means that Yuki-onna might be younger then the rest of the Yokai. And they have clear backgrounds to explain why they’re strong without training let alone centuries to hone their skills. Hence the OH I WAS HIDING MY TRUE POWER ALL ALONG. Let alone, you already proved my point through that. I’m sure we already establish that the snow women who sided with Rikuo grandfather was not her. This is like comparing a starting martial artist with 5 months of training to a martial artist who’s hone his skills through 10 years. Mind you that they did have some time of peace, if not a long time for peace. 400 years is quite a while though it also depends on other factors if you all know what I mean.
Sorry for saying child sir, but I figured you would have realized I meant with respect to a Yokai’s life span, not as in younger then Rikuo or the same age.
I’m sorry, but when you’re desperate and care for someone, let alone has hardly any fighting training (in the case of Tsurara, none, everyone else in some point of their life had enough fights) people tend to do stupid things nura rihan. Me, you, or let alone anyone depending on how your fight or flight instincts are wired as well as how much confidence one has may do things just as stupid as that.
Even then, what still stands against you is this Show Spoiler ▼
.
Either way, it’s your opinion. I’m just telling you that it’s flawed logic just on the account that training can be based on anything from centuries of fighting to simple training under a master. You’re to narrow minded on the term “training”. Peoples minds work differently in the fight to the death, especially when they striving to do something. You don’t have like in Naruto, 50 seconds to talk your thoughts let alone, say Sasuke.. over and over again. Desperation can bring the worse decisions in life. Here the case of one.
And you’re wickedly jumping the assumption gun you idiot. None of us ever said we find her cute for doing stupid things in fight. I would love to jump the your logic is stupid, but I know that most people when frustrated with something tend to overlook things. Let alone I understand where the useless thought comes from, though there is a cause for it if only you tried to think more about why is that so.
You’re totally entitled to call her annoying though, it’s why we like some people and not others.
No one was ever hiding their strength. Most of the demons was already powerful since the beginning. None of them has lost a fight since the beginning with the exception of Tsurara, she lost against Yosuzume and only manage to freeze her at the last moment while the others were easily beating the enemy left and right. Aotabou and Kurotabou never lost a fight, even Ryuuji and Mamiru could only manage to knock Aotabou unconscious. Tsurara is weak, really weak. Yeah, whatever, maybe you should by the book first huh, dickhead? Have you ever in a real fight for you life BTW? If I have somebody like Tsurara in my team, I would have kill her myself if she does what Tsurara does in the fight against Tsuchigumo
Aw man you’re being unreasonable. Kurotabou and Aotabou were in Nurarihyon’s hyakki yakou 400 years ago. And even at that time Nurarihyon had been fighting up and down for hundreds of years. Judging from the duo’s position they even may had been following Nurarihyon from the very beginning. That means well over half a millennium of experience. Even Kejourou and Kubinashi had a nasty reputation before joining in the clan. Tsurara? I’d figure she was born inside the clan and has been living in the house since then, in relatively peaceful time. It’s a matter of course she’s much more naive and not as skilled and experienced as the other youkai, even if her line is of a higher level. That’s not to mention Yosuzume was not just a simple youkai among the Shikoku clan.
Sir, I’ve read the book. And Hawkie absolutely right in everything he’s said. You’re still flawed in your logic. I hate to break it to you, but I have been in a fight once, not pretty. Me and my friends were pretty much beaten down, but when we were recounting what had happen, I noticed my smart friend who usually knew better had done some stupid things. He basically could only tell us was that he was in the moment. Btw, knocked unconscious is pretty much as good as dead, if not defeat sir. Just calm down and think through your thoughts. Cause even then, some of these common sense points that I’ve listed, I’m sure that even you would have thought of it if you didn’t take your rage on me. Cause even without experience in a fight, everyone knows that adrenaline can get the better of you at times depending on who you are.
And don’t bring up the if she was in my team. You wouldn’t have even let her in your team in the first place from the looks of it. A team is filled with people you trust or at least has enough skills to sustain it self, so I don’t understand why you would mention that if she was on your team you would kill her if she probably wouldn’t have made the audition to be on your team. It’s an illogical conjecture. It’s not the same thing of if I was in that position, because you would never place yourself to be in a position to command her in the first place. Yes, I’m saying you’re creating a paradox.
Let alone I still annoyed at the fact that you assume we’re calling her cute for all the wrong reasons.
Anyways… Hawkie basically said everything that I would have said so I’ll leave it at that.
did anyone notice the *specially* prepared meal yuki-onna made?
its finally here. oh how i wanted to see the march
Haha, Yuki-Onna in the Parade was like “LAWL I HAS RED EYES!!! WIN!!!”
@nura rihan – Who did ever say that Tsurara was weak? She is actualy one of the higher-lvl youkai at the Nura clan…
The author himself stated the following:
“Yuki-onna attacks by creating blizzard or makes weapon from ice. Her strength is weak, but enough power to be an escort.”
in the character data booklet. She may appear strong but as the story progresses, its seen that compared to the other yokai of the nura clan, she isn’t that impressive
I know, I have the book. That’s why I called Tsurara weak. Even in the Shikoku arc she couldn’t even finish Yosuzume properly and that was where she was at least a bit useful. After that she become useless and does dumb things like refusing to do Matoi with Rikuo for completely dumb reason. In a fight to death, she still think of dumb things and do dumb stuff. People find her cute for doing that, not me, it was stupid, annoying and as her usual role in the series, completely useless
For a moment I mistook the ratboy for Toono and was all “waitwhat??”. Then I recalled who that character was supposed to be.
I find Tsurara cute because of her character design(maybe because of her voice too) not because she does useless things like nura rihan(the who replied) says.