Nabari no Ou
by V.E. on February 13th, 2010
filed under anime/manga, recap/review
I just finished Nabari no Ou and I have to say… It was really good. The ending got me all teary-eyed and everything, though I am known to be a softie for hurt/comfort-type drama.
Set in the modern age, Nabari no Ou (wiki) follows Miharu, a boy who just wants to live a normal life but is attacked by ninjas and consequently sucked into the world of Nabari. He learns about the secret art Shinrabanshou (“all things in nature”), which resides within him, from his friend Kouichi and teacher Kumohira-sensei and discovers that Shinrabanshou contains all the world’s knowledge and is sorely coveted in Nabari. Despite his wishes, he cannot return to his normal life and must take on the title of Nabari no Ou (“King of Nabari”) to survive.
Miharu and Yoite
I really liked the balance between Miharu’s apparent dysthymia and everyone else’s freak outs about him becoming King of Nabari. He’s totally not interested and yet, he falls into a friendship with a young man, Yoite, who asks Miharu to use Shinrabanshou for his (Yoite’s) sake. Miharu agrees to do so under duress and then finds out he actually wants to fulfill Yoite’s wish anyway, once he’s able to control Shinrabanshou (something that takes the entire series).
The music is pretty good, too. A decent composer can make or break a series or movie, but it’s best when the music sounds like it should. That is, the music doesn’t stand out as superb or terrible over the action and dialogue. I recommend Veltpunch’s opening theme, “Crawl” and the two ending themes are pretty good as well.
Shinrabanshou: when you watch the series, this will make more sense.
I haven’t read the manga (not unusual in my case), but I know that if you have, the series diverges after (at?) episode 16, which is also when the second ending theme is introduced. Also, I’ve heard it compared a lot to Naruto (wiki) because it has a lot of ninjas, but since I haven’t seen or read any of that either, I can’t comment on its similarities or differences.
L to R: Gau, Raikou, Yukimi, Yoite, Miharu, Kumohira-sensei, Raimei, Kouichi
