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「慾」 (Yoku)
“Desire”
Before leaving Fuuma village, Thobari had asked the others to destroy the Banten books that he has hidden at school. He also told them that the Kairoushuu are probably busy trying to secure the remaining scrolls before the villages become defensive, so they should return to their normal lives for now. Raimei has been sent back to Banten as well to help protect Miharu. As for Thobari, he decided to walk home, so he’ll be arriving much later.
Back at school, Kouichi destroys the Banten books hidden at school. Raimei, who’s surprised that they’re stored there, asks if he’s destroying Banten’s kinjutsusho, “Engetsurin” (円月輪), as well, but Kouichi says that he doesn’t even know where it’s stored. Instead, he’s simply reminded that Thobari said it’s stored in a place where power should be stored. Meanwhile, Miharu is worrying about his eye and how his vision hasn’t returned, which makes him think that the Shinrabanshou may no longer reside in him.
Shortly after, Kouichi asks Raimei if she’s okay at a Tokyo school and wonders if her parents will worry about her, but she says she’s fine because she’s a tengai kodoku (天涯孤独) girl, i.e. a person without relatives or friends. After figuring out what a tengai kodoku is, Miharu questions Raimei as to what they are to her then (aren’t we friends?), which seems to cheer up Raimei a bit. Embarrassed, Raimei takes off for a short while, during which she recalls how her older brother Raikou and her had received matching katanas named Gamon (我聞), which are handed down in the Shimizu family and embody the spirit of the samurai. At the time, their mother had also told them about the need to suppress the Shinrabanshou.
While walking Miharu home, Raimei worries about what Miharu would think if he found out that she’s only near him to find the Kairoushuu. Upon arriving, Miharu finds Yamase-sensei, who asks him for help since he was cast aside by the Kairoushuu. When Miharu says he can’t use the Shinrabanshou powers, Yamase attacks him because of some strange rumor about obtaining the Shinrabanshou wisdom by drinking the host’s blood. Miharu manages to run outside though, where Raimei and Kouichi ambush then interrogate Yamase.
Raimei questions about the whereabouts of her brother Raikou, who had killed their parents and various other ninjas before setting off in search of the Kairoushuu. Yamase reveals that he ran into him around 5 years ago when the Jakushou Ryuuha (弱小流派) (lit. “Puny School”) gathered in search of the Kairoushuu, but doesn’t know where he is now. Yamase then escapes, but not before telling Miharu that everyone’s around him to use him (including his allies), which troubles Raimei. Unaffected by his words, Miharu tells the others that the Shinrabanshou may no longer even be in him, but Raimei promises him that she won’t hide anything from him or betray him while she continues to look for her brother. Hearing this, Miharu chooses to believe her. (Kouichi on the other hand is moved to tears.)
At Juuji’s house, Thobari has finished making some Irish braise when a short old man claiming to be Tarou Zaemon (太郎 左衛門) (while revealing himself to be Fuuma Kotarou at the same time) comes along. Kotarou, Thobari, Saraba, and Juuji then discuss the information Kotarou has gathered. Based on the report, the Togakushi ninjas have hidden themselves as a small employee placement agency located at the heart of Nagano prefecture. In the Nabari world though, their wide-scale “business” ranges from a spy corporation to an international secret intelligence agency, and their leader appears to be a woman, disguised as the company president. Their kinjitsu is known as “Idzuna Shingan” (飯綱心眼), i.e. “Fox Spirit’s Mind’s Eye”.
Hearing this makes Thobari realize how much they’ve already discovered, but Kotarou says that three ninjas died in order to make that report. When Kotarou shrugs off their deaths by saying there’s no reason to hold back now that the Kairoushuu have used their Kira, Thobari questions his decisions. Saraba tries to calm Thobari at this point, saying that she understands how he feels, but agrees with Kotarou’s decision, as does Juuji. Infuriated at how lightly they treat lives, Thobari says that he’ll protect Miharu without killing anyone or getting anyone killed. These heroic views cause Kotarou to become hysterical (baka switch on!), so he challenges Thobari to show him how naïve he is.
Kotarou finds out that Thobari’s best technique is his Kaiin Jutsu (解印術), a dispelling technique that requires the user to match his opponent’s jutsu speed, so he tells him to try dispelling his Henge no Jutsu (変化の術), i.e. transformation techniques. During their “fight”, Kotarou says that if a single Banten ninja could aready protect everyone, people wouldn’t be seeking the power of the hijutsu. Thobari then dispels some of Kotarou’s transformations, but he’s shocked at how quickly he can reform into a new one. In the process, Kotarou transforms to Raimei, Thobari himself, and then Miharu, while explaining Fuuma’s firm resolution to get things done. As Miharu, Kotarou makes an opening to knock Thobari out by saying, “if you don’t only think of me, I’ll end up hating you.” With Thobari on the floor, Kotarou tells him that his kindness alone will only make him lose everything someday.
Afterwards, Saraba takes Thobari back to Banten and Kotarou recalls how he thought like Thobari when he was younger. Back at Miharu’s house, Kouichi and Raimei are on the lookout, but get knocked out shortly after by Yoite.
Next Episode:
「選択」 (Sentaku)
“Choice”
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Another heavily dialogue intensive episode, with only glimpses of fighting coming from Yamase-sensei, Kotarou, and Thobari. The most interesting revelation this episode was the existence of Raimei’s older brother, Raikou (played by Suwabe Junichi), who has a katana like hers and is a self-proclaimed samurai as well. I got some Uchiha Itachi vibes from him though, when I found out that he killed his own family and went in search of the Kairoushuu. While I’ve heard his character’s personality isn’t quite as it appears, I’m not sure if I can ever see him in a good light given his parent-killing history. I mean, even if his character isn’t as sinister as Itachi, he’ll in all likelihood remain as a dark antagonist unless there was some really good reason for killing his family. I’m sure I’ll find out more along the way, but that’s just the feeling I get for now. In another obvious comparison, I’m quite relieved that Raimei isn’t so bent up on revenge like Sasuke, because that pretense has really grown old on me after Naruto dragged it out for so long. Currently, it seems like Raimei is searching for answers more than anything else.
Other than that, the other interesting thing was finding out how casual Kotarou is about the ninjas who died in order to accomplish his goals. When I heard him nonchanlantly shrugging off the death of three of his ninjas (and giving a half-hearted “sorry” to Thobari), I couldn’t help but think of how Lelouch uses the Black Knights as sacrificial lambs whenever it’s convenient. However, I don’t see Kotarou being quite as heartless as Lelouch, given how Saraba and Juuji tell Thobari it’s not that they want to let people die or anything; it’s just that casualties will happen when they’re dealing with the Nabari world. To contrast that, it was nice to see that Thobari has his much more righteous way of the ninja and refuses to let people die. Because of this, I get the feeling that the morals of these two will conflict again some time down the road, even though Kotarou already tried to remedy this difference in nindou (“way of the ninja”).
As for Kotarou himself, I took notice to how he told Thobari that he might even find out what his true form is if he’s able to dispel all his techniques. If you recall in episode 2, Raimei pointed out that the picture of Kotarou seen in his book (i.e. the human form we currently know) might not even be his true form, since he’s a master of henge no jutsu (transformation techniques). I doubt they’ll delve much more into this since his true form isn’t really important, but the fact that they brought it up again makes me wonder what Kotarou really looks like.
In the preview, it looks like Yoite has taken Miharu somewhere, but it doesn’t seem like he wants to kill him or anything. I realize that this screenshot seems to indicate otherwise, but the subsequent scenes show a troubled and almost remorseful expression on Yoite’s face. As I mentioned before, Yoite’s probably going to be a secondary main character more than a support character (based on the order in the credits if nothing else), so I’m eager to see what happens between him and Miharu. I haven’t ruled out the possibility that he may even side with Miharu’s group later on, but it’s much too early to make that presumption.
Addendum:
As for blogging, I’m still trying to get an idea of how much detail people want to see in Nabari summaries. I can continue summarizing as above (i.e. detailed conversation info) or I can leave out the specifics and provide a broader overview of what happens each episode. Granted, I usually have to double-check some of the ninja terminology (names, techniques, etc.) and Nabari is one of the more plot-driven series I’m covering, so I don’t mind spending the time to do the above; however, I’d like to hear what you, as the readers, prefer. If people don’t care for the details (or if I don’t even have any readers T_T), I can switch to the “Episode at a Glance” style I’m using in most of my other posts. Thoughts? Please leave a comment if you can.
P.S. My coverage of Sunday shows are later than usual because I was busy marathoning Densha Otoko. D: For those who haven’t seen that drama, I strongly recommend it whether you can relate or not. Omni covered the series when it aired a few years ago, so feel free to check out his posts as well.
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)
– Yamase Masami (山背 正実) / Kusano Tooru (草野 徹)
– 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)
– Shiratama (シラタマ) / Shindou Kei (真堂 圭)
– Shimizu Raikou (清水 雷光) / Suwabe Junichi (諏訪部 順一)
– Shimizu Kourin (清水 光輪) / Tsuda Shouko (津田 匠子)
– Juuji’s mother (十字の母) / Dodo Asako (百々 麻子)
– Grandmother (祖母) / Takizawa Kumiko (滝沢 久美子)
I love Raikou. He’s so funny. I’m just glad that the real action of the series is starting now that Yoite has taken Miharu. I’m so excited! Anyway, thanks for the blog. They are always really good to hear an opinion. ^_^
Hope that you will carry this series to the end. I really like your blog.
it’s going to be interesting next episode &hearts
i’m also getting the uchiha itachi vibe from raimei’s brother. Hopefully, his personality is nothing like itachi ^^;
There is a reason for why Raikou slaughtered everyone but Raimei but you’ll have to see it in the later episodes. Anyway, Raikou’s far less crazy than Itachi and is quite dorky sometimes.
Can’t wait for your summary coming.
so…. the samurai shes looking for is her older bro? is he that pick haired guy from the OP? ;o
looks like another good ep 8D ooo and a good cliffie at the end from the looks of the screenies too
gyaahh, another pretty boy https://randomc.net/image/Nabari%20no%20Ou/Nabari%20no%20Ou%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
i wonder what happened to miharu here –> https://randomc.net/image/Nabari%20no%20Ou/Nabari%20no%20Ou%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
raimei looks incredibly cute when she was younger
@eipu
Don’t worry. Raikou’s personality is pretty much different from Itachi.
Not only he is a good heart dork (with super horrible fashion sense…), he is one of the comic reliefs in some serious moments of this series
>katsuboshi
That’s not Miharu, it’s Fuuma. (He transformed into Miharu to throw Tobari off-guard.)
so the pink haired samurai in the OP and ED is POSSIBLY raimei’s brother… or he is…?
anyways, thanks for blogging! can’t wait for next ep, how did yoite end up with miharu again? =]
https://randomc.net/image/Nabari%20no%20Ou/Nabari%20no%20Ou%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
LOL. Look at Kouichi’s teardrop sparkle.xDDD
@ kuromitsu
lol,that’s why ^^;
can’t wait to see this episode subbed!
I’m hoping you’ll continue blogging the way you are now…. :3
I also hope you will continue with the detailed summaries. I watch this with Korean subs, and no matter what I’ll always be more fluent with English, so your summaries really help me understand the complicated terms and such ^^; And I love how you put the cast list at the end of each post. Since I have a terrible memory, it’s a nice way to remind me of who’s who ^-^;
Love your summaries. However, I would like to hear more of your thoughts and analysis on the eps as well (I am all fired up for some Nabari no ou discussions!).
About the details on each Nabari no Ou blogging, I don’t mind you writing a lot of details at all. Actually, I love it~ Write all the details you wish to write, I am more than happy to read them.
Thanks for the feedback so far. =)
While I don’t particularly enjoy writing summaries (mainly because I want to focus on impressions), I definitely see the need (demand? o_O) for them, so I’ll try to stick with what I’ve been doing.
I gave a fairly long impressions write-up for the last episode, but that was written after the summary was done. I find that when I’m writing a summary, I usually think of more things to talk about, so I’m considering doing an “initial impressions -> summary -> additional impressions” type of blogging, but I’m not sure if people check older posts enough to make it worthwhile.
In any case, I’m always reading comments for my posts, so if there’s some discussion going, I’ll gladly join in. ^_^
If you don’t want to spend time writing all that, you could just give a brief summary of the important bits. 🙂 Either way, I appreciate your efforts and impressions.
@ divine
i agree with the previous comments ^^ i like it better when you post longer impression about the episode, though it might be more time consuming for you than the summary itself. I don’t mind shorter summaries btw, anyhow, i really appreciate what you’ve done so far with your nabari posts.
@ cas
i also would like to see some discussions here.
i wonder if there are people here who have actually read the manga. After all, only a few chapters have been scanlated so far.
@cas & rei:
I’ve updated this post with more impressions, which I actually find easier to write than summaries. The main reason is because for Nabari summaries, I usually have to cross-reference some names to ensure that I haven’t misunderstood anything, whereas for impressions, I just write whatever I’m thinking. =)
If only Nabari was as easy to summarize as To LOVE-Ru or Kanokon. -_-;
gyahh, you’re amazing divine! I mean, seriously, you went through the trouble of adding more stuff in your post. I sure hope we are not making things more difficult for you ^^; after all, we don’t want to keep you from enjoying nabari by making you pay attention to the littlest of details just so you can write more about them.
According to some people in animesuki, the only thing similar between raikou and itachi is the seemingly same background of killing their family members and leaving one survivor. But personality wise, they are very different and the issue between him and raimei will be resolved fairly quickly. Good for us.
Between kotarou and thobari, i like the thobari more even with his somewhat idealistic view of not letting people die. It makes him more human to me. And yeah, yoite will play a bigger role than what you anticipate. And i can’t wait for next episode ^^
Nabari sure has a lot of heavy dialogues, and it won’t stop in this episode (sorry to disappoint), but i guess, that also makes this series good because it doesn’t rely to much on exaggerated and lengthy fight scenes.
@rei:
Thanks for the compliments. I’m happy to hear that my posts are well received, even if the audience isn’t nearly as large as the really popular shows this season (most of which are covered by Omni).
Also, thanks for extra tidbit of info on Raikou and Yoite. I’m looking forward to seeing those two even more now. =)
I love this style!!!
Thanks for the addition. Yeah, as rei has mentioned earlier, it’s pretty dialogue heavy as compared to a show like soul eater. But there’s a fair share of fight scenes as well (if it follows the manga closely, which it most likely will, judging by the eps that are out) and action. But more drama than a typical shounen anime. I personally feel that Nabari No Ou is kind of a new hybrid of the shoujo and shounen genre. Does anyone else agrees?
Also, several chapters have been scanlated into English this week. If anyone is interested, you can check them out here: http://community.livejournal.com/nabari_no_ou/
@divine regarding “I’m happy to hear that my posts are well received, even if the audience isn’t nearly as large as the really popular shows this season (most of which are covered by Omni).”
Heh, I always thought Nabari No Ou was one of the more popular shows this season. 🙂
@cas:
I think Nabari is one of the more popular shows this season as well, but it doesn’t seem to draw a crowd larger than say Soul Eater, Vampire Knight, or even Druaga. Of course, I’m only judging this based on the number of comments we get for each of these shows, but this method does give us a rough idea of what our readers are taking interest in.
As for your comments about the mix of shoujo and shounen, yeah, I kind of get that impression too thanks to Miharu. It’s this genre mash-up aspect of Nabari that I find so appealing. It just feels quite different from the norm, despite it being mostly shounen.
@divine: Soul Eater is awesome! I can’t say the same for V Knights though, though I am probably a main part of the target audience 🙂
Yeah! I can never get into Naruto or Bleach ‘cos it’s really too shounen for me (Soul Eater is fine cos’ i really dig the eccentricity of the art [reminds me of Gorillaz], comedy and the story sort of draws me in) , lol.
NnO is just, you know, a right mix of the elements of both the shounen and shoujo elements. Not overpowering in action, and not too drenched in angst, and definitely no ehrm, overtly cheesy romantic scenes. Lol, yeah Miharu is an interesting anti-hero sort of protagonist, which is more realistic IMO.
Anyway, looking forward to your recap/impressions of ep 6! 🙂
Gosh. This series is getting so interesting!
Is that a ring finger on Thobari-sensei’s hand!?!?!
Is he married???? I didn’t think he was…
omg. this show is full of pretty boys.