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Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (TV) (both seasons).


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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:00 am Reply with quote


Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (TV)|
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Demon Capital (TV) (Season 2 discussion starts here)

Genres: comedy
Themes: Demon/s, Exorcism, Hybrid, Leader, love triangle, Monsters, Onmyouji, School life, Secret Identity, shikigami, Spirit/s, Split Personality, Yakuza, yokai, youkai

Plot Summary: Rikuo Nura, is 3 parts human and a quarter Demon, lives in a house of spirits with his grandfather, The current clan head of the Nura youkai. Rikou is set to be the next clan head, despit the fact he dilikes his demon side. He soon come to terms with his demon blood and decides to take his position as young master of the Nura house. However there are those who will certainly not allow it to be easy.
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This one doesn't come surprisingly as my new guilty pleasure of the season.
I have to admit that shonen anime almost always hit my soft spot. Mainly when it's one with good art and excellent voice acting.

So far, I can easily understand how dislikable the main character could be. Generic, weak, and refuses to do what the audience expects. His other self, however, seems interesting, strong, and perhaps somewhat evil in his own way. If I were to compare it to the Demon Lord from spring, I'd say that his other self is by far more interesting. But, the main problem would be that we'll hardly get to see him.

The anime itself is predictable. A plot that's been played over and over, and a story not particularly original.
At the very least, I can say that the character design is pleasing, and the background art is nicely done with what seems to be a higher budget than most summer anime we've had so far.
The voice acting doesn't stay far behind either. They seem to have picked excellent Japanese voice actors/actresses, and they match the characters really well.

If you're curious, we have Aya Hirano (Haruhi/Fairy Fail) as the female lead; Jun Fukuyama (XxxHolic's Watanuki) as the male lead; Yui Horie (past works - Bakemonogatari's Tsubasa, Fruits Basket's Toru, School Rumble's Eri, Toradora's Minori, and Umineko/Higurashi), one of my favorite seiyu, as Yuki Onna (Snow Woman; equivalent of Ice Queen, I guess). They also brought Gold Roger's seiyu as the protagonist's grandfather.

Recommended if you don't mind predictable shonen anime. No episode barrier, since it's scheduled to have only 24 episodes (second season will probably happen, depending).


Last edited by egoist on Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:30 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:34 am Reply with quote
Yep, I would say you nicely summed up this series, egoist. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I likes me some yokai.
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Westlo



Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:36 am Reply with quote
egoist wrote:
If you're curious, we have Aya Hirano (Haruhi/Fairy Fail) as the female lead;


Hmm how do I say this without just flat out saying it... hmm.. okay lets try this. Female leads generally don't come 13th in a character poll behind 4 other female characters. Seems the director likes Kana too..
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:38 am Reply with quote
I don't get your point? Leads are the characters with the most screen time, thus the importance in choosing a good voice. Polls are irrelevant and hardly reflect my taste.
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Westlo



Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:08 am Reply with quote
egoist wrote:
I don't get your point? Leads are the characters with the most screen time


Exactly.

spoiler[She's a distant 3rd in importance and screentime behind Yuki and Yura in the manga.]

director being a kana fanboy is really shining through. I lol'd when the mangaka said kana is in your hands now.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:15 am Reply with quote
Ah. I see. Is Yura the black haired girl in this image? She looks like an interesting character, and in case they're truly turning Kana into a lead despite that I can already foresee an annoyance. So far, Yuki and her partner were top in my list just after the protagonist's other self. But at the very least we got a good seiyu doing Kana's role, so it's not that bad.

I think I'm beginning to understand why manga fans get frustrated with some adaptations. Perhaps keeping my distance from manga was a good choice after all.
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larethian



Joined: 16 Mar 2009
Posts: 54
PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:53 am Reply with quote
As a mainstream battle manga, this manga is really not bad, and it's still growing. While not as fantastic as the Big Three in Weekly Shounen Jump, it's consistently among the most popular in WSJ and in single digit rankings. However, after watching episode 1, I was absolutely disappointed at the adaptation. I believe they brought in the spoiler[Gyuki arc in the first episode to add an additional hook to attract viewers to keep watching]. But I felt that the pace was a little off, and the protagonist wasn't introduced properly, in particular his beliefs before and after an incident 4 years ago. Overall the first episode didn't make much of a sense to me, not to mention that it felt slow and boring, with all the cut and paste scenes from different parts of the manga and gluing them together. This is of course purely my personal opinion. But I do believe it received poor reviews from many reviewers because of that.

@egoist I do feel that you are missing a lot by not reading the manga and original content of many series. =)
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LeanGreen



Joined: 10 Jul 2009
Posts: 323
Location: New England
PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 1:22 pm Reply with quote
So far, it's certainly decent. I'm more interested in Nura's conflict between his human and demon sides, even though he didn't even fight as a demon in this episode. What a downer.

And one thing that I didn't really get was why his yokai companions are protecting him from low-level yokai when they seem to want him to become the next leader of the clan. If they want him to be the leader, I would think that they would try to provoke his demon side and get him to fight using his power, thus proving himself to a lot of the other clan leaders. Why do they keep preventing his demon side from coming out? Unless it will engulf him or something, but that doesn't seem to be the direction the show is going. Maybe they'll clear it up later, like his demon side's appearance attracts higher level yokai or something like that.
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larethian



Joined: 16 Mar 2009
Posts: 54
PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:50 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
And one thing that I didn't really get was why his yokai companions are protecting him from low-level yokai when they seem to want him to become the next leader of the clan. If they want him to be the leader, I would think that they would try to provoke his demon side and get him to fight using his power, thus proving himself to a lot of the other clan leaders. Why do they keep preventing his demon side from coming out?


spoiler[Yuki Onna & Kurotabou are very loyal and protective over Rikuo. At this point in time, Rikuo has only transformed once 4 years ago, and his transformation and abilities are not yet "proven".]
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Looks like it might be a good watch, the character I most like at the moment is Yuki, who is voiced by Yui Horie no less. Reminds me I also liked the snow woman in Rosario Vampire aswell. I have an interest in mythology, so the youkai thing has my attention.

Would I sound silly in saying that the lead reminds me too much of Negi Springfield though, well I am waiting to see what character traits he might have. And not just the dark side that is included in almost every shounen series.

It seems like they also put a bit of work into the artwork aswell as the voice actors. I was kind of thinking to myself that that one character's voice was very familiar, and made sense when I realised it was Aya Hirano.
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larethian



Joined: 16 Mar 2009
Posts: 54
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:09 pm Reply with quote
After 2nd episode, I still feel that the pacing is still pretty off for me. Don't really know why, the BGM sounds boring to me as well and has a sleep inducing effect on me. Glad to see Yura though it felt a little early. Overall, I still feel there is too much condensation which makes it confusing to people who haven't read the manga. Like when Zen talked about the general meetings, and the overall background motivation on why the different characters are behaving the way they are (even for Kiyotsugu) is not well covered, which serves to further confuse the non-manga viewers. Just my 2 cents.

Cheers!
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Westlo



Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:00 am Reply with quote
larethian wrote:
As a mainstream battle manga, this manga is really not bad, and it's still growing. While not as fantastic as the Big Three in Weekly Shounen Jump, it's consistently among the most popular in WSJ and in single digit rankings.


Oh come on, One Piece is the only great manga left out of the big 3.. I'll take Mago and Psyren over Naruto and Bleach in regards to quality and enjoyment easily.

Quote:
But I felt that the pace was a little off, and the protagonist wasn't introduced properly, in particular his beliefs before and after an incident 4 years ago.


Indeed, and not introducing the hook in the first episode is a bad mistake.

Quote:
@egoist I do feel that you are missing a lot by not reading the manga and original content of many series. =)


Yeah the second and fourth most popular characters in the series won't even appear in the anime. Speaking of the fourth most popular, was surprised to see so much fanart available for her..
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larethian



Joined: 16 Mar 2009
Posts: 54
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:37 am Reply with quote
@westlo

LOL I totally agree Bleach is dead. IMHO, though Naruto's plot development is drying up and seems pretty linear and predictable now, it still has interesting fights. Psyren's setting didn't really appeal to me when I read the first few chapters, and judging by its rankings objectively, it would have been cancelled if not for the fact that there are even less popular manga. Mago started as average for me but it's growing stronger arc by arc. Anime smile


Last edited by larethian on Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:59 pm; edited 1 time in total
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wandering-dreamer



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 1733
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:29 am Reply with quote
egoist wrote:
Ah. I see. Is Yura the black haired girl in this image?

Actually no, that's the villain for the current manga arc so most likely won't appear at all. Yura was introduced briefly at the end of episode two and she'll be showing her stuff in episode three it looks like.
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Westlo



Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:02 am Reply with quote
wandering-dreamer wrote:
egoist wrote:
Ah. I see. Is Yura the black haired girl in this image?

Actually no, that's the villain for the current manga arc so most likely won't appear at all. Yura was introduced briefly at the end of episode two and she'll be showing her stuff in episode three it looks like.


That image is pretty much a cleaned version of the color page for the character poll.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa197/esker08/Misc/Poll_results_1-4.jpg

Gitsune got very popular very, very quickly...
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