<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/2011-07-0419267387_300x300_1.jpg">
<b>Review of Nabari No Ou #1 by Raz112</b>
Ninja and high school have become a substantial part of TV anime, so much so that some may go as far to say that they have become genres of the medium. Becoming genres means an abundance of shows with a similar feel and formula, and though you can never have too much of a good thing, there comes a point where change is welcome.
So when a show attempts to fuse the two genres together, there are two ways to look at it; either it will be more of the same supernatural action adventure with super-powered teenage school kids, or it could be something different and unique.
This story concerns a fourteen year old boy named Miharu Rokujou who has a conscious desire to stay apathetic to everything. He has no dreams, no wants or desires. His mind and body simply drift through the days as he stares out the window. At school he is constantly pestered by classmate Koichi and teacher Tobari to join their Nindo club, comprising various exercises including martial arts. When this fails, Tobari resorts to telling Miharu the truth; Tobari and Koichi are in fact ninja, and other ninja clans are after Miharu due to a power that lies dormant within him. This power or 'hijutsu' is known as the 'Shinrabansho', a secret book created by ninja that holds all the wisdom of ninjutsu, making it the most powerful and sought after thing in the ninja world. Whoever obtains this power can become 'Nabari no Ou' - the Ruler of Nabari.
Miharu initially doesn't believe them. Even after an attack by the Kairoushu, whilst now self-appointed bodyguard Tobari and his disciple Koichi fret over his safety, Miharu remains apathetic as ever, not wanting to care and be dragged into this world of conflict where he is the sole target.
Though Miharu's apathy can really grate at times, it's not totally one-dimensional. We find out that he's quite a smart guy, causing humourous trauma to others through wordplay, and that his apathy stems from trust issues. This leads to an interesting premise for a hero who stays detached from everyone, even from people who swear to protect him, and he doesn't fight. There are good reasons for this as we discover that all the characters may have their own motives for the Shinrabansho, meaning Miharu can't trust anyone, even his own so-called comrades. Furthermore, he doesn't fight himself as he has no martial arts ability, making him a very unlikely hero who survives through his intellect and observations.
These features of the main protagonist lead to a show that is not as action oriented nor high school based as many of those anime lovers would think. The high school backdrop only serves as a makeshift base for one of the ninja clans and doesn't take a lot of screen time so far. In addition, the show is not action-packed like Naruto. Quite the opposite, Nabari no Ou is focused towards plot and character development. For every action scene, which are very well done with fluid animation and kinetic energy, there's double the amount of serious, tense conversations about Miharu's fate as the vessel of the Shinrabansho, Tobari's fears as a de-facto leader of his clan and sworn protector of Miharu, and the Kairoushu's most lethal weapon, Yoite, and his volatility.
This Yoite is a seventeen year old boy who has been forced to become a weapon for the Kairoushu through the ninjutsu he uses. This same ninjutsu is one that slowly devours his life and sanity. On the outside, though based on entirely different experiences, he also appears apathetic like Miharu, being an emotionless killing machine. However, with a few months to live, and his insanity increasing, his apathy slowly changes to desperation. With both having trust issues and being dictated to by others against their wills, an unlikely and uneasy alliance ensues between Miharu and Yoite, where they use each other and the line between friend and foe is constantly blurred. This secret alliance puts them both in more danger, as Miharu leaves Tobari's clan, and Yoite gets progressively weaker over time. However, both Tobari and Yoite's protector Yukimi have their own problems, and are unable to see past the apathy to the boys' true thoughts and feelings, making it difficult to help and understand them. This results in both protectors struggling not to alienate them further.
Whilst plot and character development are key to a good anime, it can also affect pace and momentum negatively if the balance is uneven. There are times where some action to break the tense musings and revelations would have been welcome. There is humour though, with most paying off, though this often depended on the delivery in the respective languages.
There are key differences between the languages and voice actors in Nabari no Ou. The Japanese dub is quite traditional with its language, while the English dub went for a more colloquial approach. While the colloquial approach works well to further immerse the ninja in their modern environment, it doesn't work well in flashbacks. Furthermore there are cases where the colloquial nature of the language used changes the nuances of a whole character, particularly in Yukimi's case where it can make him appear more rude and uncaring than his Japanese counterpart. Miharu's voices are similar in both languages, though the English voice may be more apathetic to the point that the pitch of his voice rarely changes. Yoite is much more of an emotional mess, and while some may prefer that to the Japanese reservedness, there are times where it feels slightly melodramatic. Koichi's Japanese voice is more layered and effectively switches between nice guy and deadly ninja, and Joji Nakata's distinctive voice (Amshel Goldsmith [Blood+], the Count of Monte Cristo [Gankutsuou], Alucard [Hellsing], Kirei Kotomine [Fate/stay night], Diethard Reid [Code Geass]) is much better suited to the boss of the Kairoushu than his English counterpart Kent Williams, who sounds meek in comparison. Either way, the male performances on both sides are competent. However, I personally found the English voices for the young girls annoying and whiny, particularly the voice of the katana-wielding Raimei. The Japanese dub is similar, but slightly more tolerable. The humour is also handled better in Japanese, though one should still be able to produce a chuckle when hearing the antics in English. Overall, either language is fine as long as you are aware of the differences mentioned above. The subtitles are also fine. They are not dubtitles in this case, and are in good 'ol yellow.
The artwork is a strong point for Nabari no Ou, particularly the background art. Full of clean, crisp, detailed animation, the scenery involves a mix of sketched, watercoloured, and normal drawings that is constantly beautiful to look at. With the characters, it's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's very good quality nonetheless. As mentioned earlier, the action is handled very well too. It's just a shame there isn't more.
The transfer is decent, though on my display it was a little bright; easily fixed with a little TV display setting adjustment and of course that may not apply to you. However, as a blu-ray version is also being released, blu-ray viewers would most probably benefit from buying that rather than this DVD collection.
The soundtrack by Michiru Ooshima of Fullmetal Alchemist is competent, but not as memorable as her former work. The OP and ED are also standard fare; a typically catchy rock track and heartstring-pulling melancholic number respectively.
The extras as usual are nothing to shout about, with the textless OP and ED and a terrible English voice actor commentary for one episode. But as with most big collections, you're paying for the amount of episodes rather than the extras.
Ultimately, Nabari no Ou puts its own stamp on the ninja genre, but whether or not you enjoy it depends on your expectations going into the show. It's not an action packed adventure. It's not a slice-of-life drama either. It has its flaws in its pacing and its balance between action and exposition. However, it is a very interesting story of ninja living in the modern world, each fighting for their own hopes and desires, and a boy who wants nothing to do with any of this stuck in the middle of it all. Elements of promise can be seen throughout this collection, and they allow for many exciting possibilities for the second half of the series.<br>
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>
<b>Additional screencaps</b>
<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/screens/2011-07-04vlcsnap-2011-07-04-14h03m18s72.png">
<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/screens/2011-07-04vlcsnap-2011-07-04-14h02m07s119.png">
<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/screens/2011-07-04vlcsnap-2011-07-04-13h37m11s163.png">
<b>Review of Nabari No Ou #1 by Raz112</b>
Ninja and high school have become a substantial part of TV anime, so much so that some may go as far to say that they have become genres of the medium. Becoming genres means an abundance of shows with a similar feel and formula, and though you can never have too much of a good thing, there comes a point where change is welcome.
So when a show attempts to fuse the two genres together, there are two ways to look at it; either it will be more of the same supernatural action adventure with super-powered teenage school kids, or it could be something different and unique.
This story concerns a fourteen year old boy named Miharu Rokujou who has a conscious desire to stay apathetic to everything. He has no dreams, no wants or desires. His mind and body simply drift through the days as he stares out the window. At school he is constantly pestered by classmate Koichi and teacher Tobari to join their Nindo club, comprising various exercises including martial arts. When this fails, Tobari resorts to telling Miharu the truth; Tobari and Koichi are in fact ninja, and other ninja clans are after Miharu due to a power that lies dormant within him. This power or 'hijutsu' is known as the 'Shinrabansho', a secret book created by ninja that holds all the wisdom of ninjutsu, making it the most powerful and sought after thing in the ninja world. Whoever obtains this power can become 'Nabari no Ou' - the Ruler of Nabari.
Miharu initially doesn't believe them. Even after an attack by the Kairoushu, whilst now self-appointed bodyguard Tobari and his disciple Koichi fret over his safety, Miharu remains apathetic as ever, not wanting to care and be dragged into this world of conflict where he is the sole target.
Though Miharu's apathy can really grate at times, it's not totally one-dimensional. We find out that he's quite a smart guy, causing humourous trauma to others through wordplay, and that his apathy stems from trust issues. This leads to an interesting premise for a hero who stays detached from everyone, even from people who swear to protect him, and he doesn't fight. There are good reasons for this as we discover that all the characters may have their own motives for the Shinrabansho, meaning Miharu can't trust anyone, even his own so-called comrades. Furthermore, he doesn't fight himself as he has no martial arts ability, making him a very unlikely hero who survives through his intellect and observations.
These features of the main protagonist lead to a show that is not as action oriented nor high school based as many of those anime lovers would think. The high school backdrop only serves as a makeshift base for one of the ninja clans and doesn't take a lot of screen time so far. In addition, the show is not action-packed like Naruto. Quite the opposite, Nabari no Ou is focused towards plot and character development. For every action scene, which are very well done with fluid animation and kinetic energy, there's double the amount of serious, tense conversations about Miharu's fate as the vessel of the Shinrabansho, Tobari's fears as a de-facto leader of his clan and sworn protector of Miharu, and the Kairoushu's most lethal weapon, Yoite, and his volatility.
This Yoite is a seventeen year old boy who has been forced to become a weapon for the Kairoushu through the ninjutsu he uses. This same ninjutsu is one that slowly devours his life and sanity. On the outside, though based on entirely different experiences, he also appears apathetic like Miharu, being an emotionless killing machine. However, with a few months to live, and his insanity increasing, his apathy slowly changes to desperation. With both having trust issues and being dictated to by others against their wills, an unlikely and uneasy alliance ensues between Miharu and Yoite, where they use each other and the line between friend and foe is constantly blurred. This secret alliance puts them both in more danger, as Miharu leaves Tobari's clan, and Yoite gets progressively weaker over time. However, both Tobari and Yoite's protector Yukimi have their own problems, and are unable to see past the apathy to the boys' true thoughts and feelings, making it difficult to help and understand them. This results in both protectors struggling not to alienate them further.
Whilst plot and character development are key to a good anime, it can also affect pace and momentum negatively if the balance is uneven. There are times where some action to break the tense musings and revelations would have been welcome. There is humour though, with most paying off, though this often depended on the delivery in the respective languages.
There are key differences between the languages and voice actors in Nabari no Ou. The Japanese dub is quite traditional with its language, while the English dub went for a more colloquial approach. While the colloquial approach works well to further immerse the ninja in their modern environment, it doesn't work well in flashbacks. Furthermore there are cases where the colloquial nature of the language used changes the nuances of a whole character, particularly in Yukimi's case where it can make him appear more rude and uncaring than his Japanese counterpart. Miharu's voices are similar in both languages, though the English voice may be more apathetic to the point that the pitch of his voice rarely changes. Yoite is much more of an emotional mess, and while some may prefer that to the Japanese reservedness, there are times where it feels slightly melodramatic. Koichi's Japanese voice is more layered and effectively switches between nice guy and deadly ninja, and Joji Nakata's distinctive voice (Amshel Goldsmith [Blood+], the Count of Monte Cristo [Gankutsuou], Alucard [Hellsing], Kirei Kotomine [Fate/stay night], Diethard Reid [Code Geass]) is much better suited to the boss of the Kairoushu than his English counterpart Kent Williams, who sounds meek in comparison. Either way, the male performances on both sides are competent. However, I personally found the English voices for the young girls annoying and whiny, particularly the voice of the katana-wielding Raimei. The Japanese dub is similar, but slightly more tolerable. The humour is also handled better in Japanese, though one should still be able to produce a chuckle when hearing the antics in English. Overall, either language is fine as long as you are aware of the differences mentioned above. The subtitles are also fine. They are not dubtitles in this case, and are in good 'ol yellow.
The artwork is a strong point for Nabari no Ou, particularly the background art. Full of clean, crisp, detailed animation, the scenery involves a mix of sketched, watercoloured, and normal drawings that is constantly beautiful to look at. With the characters, it's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's very good quality nonetheless. As mentioned earlier, the action is handled very well too. It's just a shame there isn't more.
The transfer is decent, though on my display it was a little bright; easily fixed with a little TV display setting adjustment and of course that may not apply to you. However, as a blu-ray version is also being released, blu-ray viewers would most probably benefit from buying that rather than this DVD collection.
The soundtrack by Michiru Ooshima of Fullmetal Alchemist is competent, but not as memorable as her former work. The OP and ED are also standard fare; a typically catchy rock track and heartstring-pulling melancholic number respectively.
The extras as usual are nothing to shout about, with the textless OP and ED and a terrible English voice actor commentary for one episode. But as with most big collections, you're paying for the amount of episodes rather than the extras.
Ultimately, Nabari no Ou puts its own stamp on the ninja genre, but whether or not you enjoy it depends on your expectations going into the show. It's not an action packed adventure. It's not a slice-of-life drama either. It has its flaws in its pacing and its balance between action and exposition. However, it is a very interesting story of ninja living in the modern world, each fighting for their own hopes and desires, and a boy who wants nothing to do with any of this stuck in the middle of it all. Elements of promise can be seen throughout this collection, and they allow for many exciting possibilities for the second half of the series.<br>
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>
<b>Additional screencaps</b>
<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/screens/2011-07-04vlcsnap-2011-07-04-14h03m18s72.png">
<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/screens/2011-07-04vlcsnap-2011-07-04-14h02m07s119.png">
<img src="http://www.animeuknews.net/img/uploaded/screens/2011-07-04vlcsnap-2011-07-04-13h37m11s163.png">
