Nov 17, 2009
Nabari no Ou decided to take the ninja theme and put a little twist on it - the ninjas exist in modern times. I'm not saying this hasn't been done before, but it's definitely a change of pace from most ninja anime where ninjas are completely different from our contemporary culture. Nabari no Ou is about a boy named Miharu who has a powerful forbidden art called the Shinrabanshou inside him, a skill that can give infinite knowledge to the user, thus giving them the ability to grant wishes. Once his schoolteacher recognizes him, things pick up from there and he is
...
dragged into the underground ninja world so they can seal the Shinrabanshou in his body (you didn't think using it wouldn't have a consequence, right?).
At first, I was pretty disappointed with the series. It seemed to be the same old tired ninja series with nothing special to offer. They didn't execute the modern day ninja as nicely as I'd have liked them too. However, about 10 or so episodes in the show started changing focus. Yes. Instead of running around to get scrolls, Miharu was becoming obsessed with a boy named Yoite. From this point on, some really complex character relationships start to form, creating a sort of soap opera effect that keeps you watching. It gets ridiculously melodramatic at points (running in the snow at Christmas after someone, a character going into a coma, Yoite being unable to accept kindness...) but it's impossible to not get sucked in by the drama. I feel this may not be as interesting for guys though, because the relationships become borderline yaoi at a certain point, so some guys may not have the same interest in the series after the "boy love shift" occurs.
The story itself ends up getting lost amongst the drama and character relationships. The epic hunt for all the scrolls is pretty laughable because the only enemy is a group called Kairoushuu....You would think every ninja clan in the world would be trying to collect scrolls to get their hands on Miharu's power but nope. Just one group. Anyways, Kairoushuu is the worst villain group ever. The villains aren't evil - they constantly help the heroes. In fact, they constantly run to them and provide them with information or even work alongside them. It creates no tension at all. Oh, and the leader? His final "battle" with Yoite ends in....5 seconds maybe? That's just pathetic. Don't even get me started on how bad the ending was. It went from EXTREME ACTION into the quaint, melancholy ending of japanese drama series. There is no plausible way for it to have been more anti-climactic.
Lastly, the characters need some work. Nabari no Ou wanted to be like Bleach so they put in a hole flock of characters - many of which they don't even use for anything interesting. They build up something about a character (Oda and Katou's relationship, Aizawa's 'secret' or Hattori's assistant) and then don't touch it any further. Personally, I would like to know how Oda and Katou hit it off afterwards, or see Aizawa use his EPIC secret in abttle at least more than once in 26 episodes. Even seemingly main characters end up just spectating or flouncing around, like Kumohira-sensei. At a certain point, the designs even started to get less interesting. However, the main characters they DO focus on are pretty captivating.
Overall, I can see that this series has some minor flaws (too many characters, plot could use work) but it really is very enjoyable. Some may watch for the fights, but I watch for the character relationships.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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