The villain is fascinating and the yokai are unique and fun, but there are still just too darn many of them. Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hiroshi Shiibashi
Translation: Yoshiro Watanabe, Cindy Yamaguchi
Adaptation: Mark Giambruno
What They Say
Rikuo has successfully defended his classmates from the vicious Inugami’s mad-dog attack. But that battle is just a hint of what’s to come. The sinister Tamazuki has remained in his human form so far, but now he’s unleashing his true form: a ferocious yokai leading the 88 Demons of Shikoku, a disciplined demon horde hell-bent on taking the Nura clan out. With Nurarihyon missing, Rikuo must step up as a warrior and a leader.
Content: (please note that the content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The fight with Inugami comes to a close when Tamazuki, the leader of the 88 demons of Shikoku, shows up to kill his subordinate himself. After that attack, Rikuo sends Gyuki’s subordinates, Gozumaru and Mezomaru, on a spying mission to Tamazuki’s stronghold. There they find a powerful sword, only to have Tamazuki use it on them. Though they are rescued, this encourages Tamazuki to issue an all-out attack on the Nura clan, which may lead to a one-on-one showdown between the two leaders.
Tamazuki becomes a more interesting villain in this volume, shown to be not only so cold that he’d kill his underlings, but also manipulative enough to lie about it and spur on the subordinates he has left. And while his human disguise is a pretty generic Evil Teenager look, this volume also shows off his elaborately detailed true form, with tanuki ears, mask, and patterned cloak.
The unevenness of Rikuo’s character development shows in these chapters. After the Inugami incident, he mentions non-chalantly that he may not be able to go to school anymore, though up until just previous to this keeping up his human life was one of the most important things to him. His personality is beginning to blend more with that of his yokai self, which is good for keeping down the awkward character shifts. But it also leads to a confusing message, as Rikuo states he has to become strong enough as a human to gain followers, but still allows his yokai form to take over when sealing the bond of brotherhood with his staunchest supporters.
As the final fight begins Shiibashi gives each of the Nura yokai – Kappa, Kubinashi, Aotabo, and others – a chance to show off their particular skills. It’s cool, and gives you a chance to root each of the characters on, but it also reminds you of Nura‘s most persistent problem: there are just too many characters, so even though they’re all given a scene, no one gets any depth. Rikuo’s fight with Tamazuki is also preluded with an obviously made-up-on-the-spot bit of backstory to help explain the sudden attack from a yokai that makes Rikuo blind. It’s sad to say this means Rikuo can’t put up much of a fight, but the appearance of Yuki-Onna to save her master gives me some hope that this previously poorly used female character will get to show how tough she is.
In Summary
The upward trend I’ve seen in Nura, of the manga slowly but surely improving, has plateaued in this volume. There are simply too many characters and relationships to maintain effectively, so many things get overshadowed or thrown the wayside – not just with yokai characters, but with supposedly important human characters like Kana and Yura, whose only real face time comes in a goofy bonus chapter. Boring school scenes and superfluous Paranormal Patrol stories are practically nonexistent thanks to plenty of action pushing them out. There’s also enough intrigue to get your brain gears clicking just a little bit, with Rikuo’s fear that there’s a traitor within the Nura clan, and also Nurarihyon’s self-imposed mission to find out the reasons behind all of these attacks. Nura does get too complicated for itself, making it easy to forget people or events until they pop up in a panel, but Shiibashi keeps his story mysterious enough that I’m still highly interested in what happens to our yokai hero next.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: October 4th, 2011
MSRP: $9.99
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