Weekly Recap: Nabari no Ou 01
Nabari no Ou Episode 01
After Naruto came to the US like kudzuu came to the south1, I have a hard time seeing ninjas without having the word “hokage” flash through my mind. And I only made it through 26 episodes before the tsunami of Narutards destroyed the series for me. But after the weekly disappointment that is Special A, I decided to try something new.
Just like me, entering a new series with trepidation
Leon @ Kita ze Inbou wrote that Nabari no Ou is a more mature version of a ninja show and I have to agree. Sure, the whole guardian of the ninja’s secrets, keeper of a powerful monster, indifferent high school student, and ambiguously friendly teacher are staples of anime, but the first episode manages to avoid drowning in the cliches and turn into something humorously entertaining. While it is still far too early to tell whether this will be a great ninja show or become overrun with fans is another question. However, the characters seem simpatico, even the aloof high school kid so I have a good feeling about this show.
One other thing to mention: the fight scenes were pretty good; however, I don’t think I was as blown away as blissmo @ Yukan Blog! or Riex @ THAT Animeblog. Part of this is due to the fact that there weren’t many fight scenes to examine and also that I am from the biased camp of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, the fight scenes of those shows having blown me away. But my main problem is that I didn’t really like was the music. I normally don’t care about music because I’m too busy paying attention to the action but in this episode, there’s some kind of moderately paced violin thing going on. To me, it just didn’t fit what was going on.
- http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_blaustein001.pdf [↩]
Related Posts
Comments
@blissmo: Don’t get me wrong, I liked the fight scenes and found this episode to be enjoyable. But after I was finished watching it, I hopped onto other blogs and saw the praise these scenes had gotten and I thought, “Really? That good?” So I watched them again but still couldn’t find the stirrings of fan-crazed mania that I would normally get. But I can see the potential for them to grow later in this series.
Really love the mischievous expression on Miharu face. He’s evil I tell you…Evillllllll ^^.
Miharu > Fight scenes :P The upcoming fight scenes are okay I suppose (well everything becomes more interesting when you have nature defying ninja techniques!), but nothing to shout to the moons about - which is probably why this show still gets dubious comments like “Naruto is better”. Uh-oh.
I was blown away! LOL! but this probably isn’t the best anime to watch :P