Nabari no Ou – 04

「任務言渡」 (Ninmu Iiwatashi)
“Mission Orders”

With the sudden arrival of Kotarou and other Fuuma ninjas, Yoite decides to take the kinjutsusho (禁術書) and retreat. In the infirmary, Miharu gets his right eye bandaged by Minami Juuji, who informs him that he won’t have to worry about any scarring, but his eyesight is uncertain for now. As for Thobari, it seems that he suffered a concussion and some damage to his skull from almost getting his head crushed, but will be fine now.

Shortly after, Kotarou and Saraba (vice leader of Fuuma village) arrive to check up on Miharu and the others. During their visit, Kotarou explains that Yoite’s “Kira” kinjutsu is a fearsome technique that uses his own ki (気: spirit/life force) to attack his enemy’s body from the inside; however, the technique requires the user to expend his own life force in the process. Kotarou then tells Miharu and Kouichi that he’ll talk to them more later on, but for now, he has to make up fake “surface world” causes of death for the ninjas that died today. (Note: “surface world” is 表の世 (omote no yo) in Japanese, which refers to the normal lifestyle outside of the “ninja world”, i.e. 隠の世 “Nabari world”) In the meantime, Raimei is reflecting on her defeat and later decides to drag Kouichi off with her to train. Miharu on the other hand is wondering why the Kairoushuu want the Shinrabanshou so badly. He also recalls the fight earlier and how that was the first time he had every used such a large voice (i.e. screamed).

At dinner, Kotarou announces the loss of the village’s kinjutsusho, “Tenpenka” (転変化), but gives a speech to rally his ninjas and introduces Miharu to everyone. When given the opportunity to say a few words, Miharu says that the Shinrabanshou isn’t something everyone has to work so hard for (i.e. risk their lives for), but everyone misinterprets this as him willing to bear the burden alone. Miharu then asks Kotarou if he would want the Shinrabanshou if it could be extracted from him, to which Kotarou replies (with no shame at all) that of course he would want it. (lol) According to Kotarou, he would beat up all the Kairoushuu with it and make a “paradise” in Fuuma village. Hearing this renders Kouichi speechless, but Saraba, Raimei and all the others see it as nothing new and tell him not worry about it. Back in all seriousness, Kotarou then tells Miharu that he possesses wisdom beyond that of humans, i.e. the wisdom of a god, and that anyone would want it, so he should strive to become stronger.

After dinner, Raimei tells Miharu to not read too much into what Kotarou said, since he tends to joke around. Miharu then poses the same question to Kouichi about the Shinrabanshou, to which he replies that he’s only been thinking of a way to seal it and has never even thought about using it. Hearing this makes Miharu to question Kouichi’s actions before, but before he can say anything, Miharu leaves and tells them both to not be so concerned about him.

Off in an apartment somewhere, a delivery person has come by to pick up the Fuuma kinjutusho from Kazuhiko. During their discussion, the delivery person inadvertently says that Yoite has the face of a cute child, which leads to Yoite almost killing him with his Kira. Soon after, Yoite collapses from overusing his technique, while Kazuhiko logs in to the Kairoushuu homepage to listen to a webcast. As it turns out, there are Kairoushuu ninja from all over logging in to listen to this announcement from the Kairoushuu leader, Hattori Toujuurou.

Back in Fuuma village, Raimei is sparring with Saraba, while Miharu is paying a visit to Thobari. With Thobari awake, Miharu tells him that he has to think about himself as well when he’s trying to save someone. According to Miharu’s grandmother, “if you can’t say ‘yokatta’ (‘I’m relieved’) together afterwards, you didn’t save the person you were trying to.” After Miharu toys around with Thobari for a bit, everyone gathers for a meeting. At the meeting, Miharu says he doesn’t need the hijutsu and asks to be told how to extract it if it’s possible. As it turns out, any reckless attempts to do so would only lead to his death. Also, if the host dies, the hijutsu would simply move to another human. After unintentionally joking about what he knows about the hijutsu, Miharu is presented with a hijutsu history book by Juuji.

As Kotarou explains, in the past, the five warring powers who originally created the hijutsu, Fuuma, Kouga, Togakushi, Banten, and Iga, decided to seal it away by killing the user; however, the hijutsu simply revived itself by moving to another host. The second host was killed in the same manner, but the hijutsu continued to live on in someone else. In the present, the details/whereabouts of each of the powers are unknown due to a lack of interaction, but it’s clear that the Kairoushuu of Iga is after the hijutsu, whereas Fuuma opposes them. Details on the Idzuna of Togakushi and the warrior-proud Kouga are unknown. Banten, a derivation of Iga, is villageless and near extinction.

Meanwhile on the webcast, Toujuurou announces the procurement of Fuuma’s kinjutsusho and asks his fellow ninja to gather the remaining three kinjutsusho from Kouga, Idzuna, and Banten so that the Kairoushuu can devise a new technique to harness the powers of the Shinrabanshou. By doing so, Toojuurou intends to evolve mankind with its wisdom. Realizing what the Kairoushuu are up to, Kotarou gives the same order to his group, but it’s so that he can devise a method to safely destroy the hijutsu for good. Much to everyone’s surprise though, Katorou tells everyone that if they can’t get the kinjutsusho peacefully, they simply have to take it by force. Kouichi says that doing so would make them the same as the Kairoushuu, but Kotarou points out that he never said they were on the side of justice to begin with.

 

Next Episode:
「慾」 (Yoku)
“Desire”

First off, long summary, so my apologies to people who don’t care to read that much. This episode was pretty dialogue heavy and took some time to translate properly with all the ninja history, so I thought I’d get the details right for anyone who’s interested. If you notice any mistakes though, please feel free to let me know and I’ll gladly look into it. I still find that this blogging style doesn’t quite suit me (time-wise anyway), so I’ll probably drastically shorten the wall of text you see above in the future.

As mentioned in my previous post, I suspected that Miharu’s eye injury would be pretty significant since it’s shown in the ED sequence, but last episode seemed to rule out that possibility. This episode however, supports my original suspicion as Juuji tells Miharu she’s not sure how his eyesight is until they remove the bandages. The preview shot though, seems to indicate that something will happen to his eye after all. With that said, I doubt that Miharu will stay permanently blind in one eye, so I get the feeling that his Shinrabanshou powers will come into play at some point.

Speculation aside, the big revelations this episode were the true identity of Hattori Toujuurou (i.e. leader of the Kairoushuu) and the significance of the kinjutsusho (禁術書). In a way, the missions laid out for the Kairoushuu and Fuuma have an RPG feel to them as they’re now off on a quest to find the other villages and gather their scrolls. Undoubtedly, the series is going to spend some time showing their endeavors doing so, but given the formula they’re following, the really important stuff will probably happen after one side has gathered them all. Naturally, I expect some plot twist at this point, but I’m getting too far ahead of myself for now.

With regards to the Kairoushuu, it was pretty strange to see a ninja clan use an Internet webcast to convey information to all their members, but given that they live in a modern world, I guess this shouldn’t be too surprising. (It’s just… ninjas… and computers!) Kazuhiko even made fun of Fuuma for being old-school, as we know they issued out postcards to gather all their members.

Motive-wise, I found Toujuurou’s ambitions to further evolve mankind a bit over the top, as I don’t see what any modern day ninja with a normal life now (Kairoushuu or otherwise) would see to gain from helping. On the other hand, Kotarou’s goal is much more believable since his clan opposes the Kairoushuu’s advances to obtain the Shinrabanshou and is for the most part, on the side of justice. Speaking of justice, Kotarou’s words at the end kind of throw that idea into the “I’m not so sure” pot, so I wonder if even he has some ulterior motive. Given his goofy yet powerful stature, it’s kind of hard to tell what he’s really thinking at times. (Hey, maybe this is the plot twist I was thinking of.)

Unsurprisingly, Miharu never fails to use his “girly smile jutsu“, but it was still pretty amusing to see Thobari storm into Kotarou’s office and collapse from his own injuries. (For those of you wondering, Miharu told Thobari that he was bullied a bit by Kotarou.)

Seiyuu-wise, Saraba is played by Watanabe Akeno (Viletta Nu in CODE GEASS, Yuuki Rito in To LOVE-Ru, Kurakuri Chachamaru in Negima!, Al in ARIA), whereas Minami Juuji is played by Koyama Kimiko (Sendou Yukari in Rosario + Vampire, Narutaki Fuuka in Negima!). In addition to working together in Negima!, the two of them also had minor roles in Shakugan no Shana alongside Kugimiya Rie (Miharu), who played Shana. As for Saraba herself, while I’m not complaining, I’m curious to know how her gi stays on.

Finally, I’m not following the manga, so for those of you out there in a similar situation, it may seem like Yoite is more a secondary character for now. However, based on what I’ve been hearing and the fact that he’s listed second in the credits, I get the feeling he’s going to become more of a main character (alongside Miharu) later on.

 

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)
– Hattori Toujuurou (服部 柊十郎) / Nakata Jouji (中田 譲治)
– Fuuma Kotarou (風魔 小太郎) / Okiayu Ryoutarou (置鮎 龍太郎)
– Saraba (サラバ) / Watanabe Akeno (渡辺 明乃)
– Minami Juuji (南 十字) / Koyama Kimiko (こやま きみこ)
– Fuuma ninja (風魔忍) / Ishikawa Ayako (石川 綾子)
– Fuuma ninja (風魔忍) / Monden Yukiko (門田 幸子)
– Fuuma ninja (風魔忍) / Aoki Noriko (青木 紀子)
– Delivery person (宅配員) / Maeno Tomoaki (前野 智昭)