Welcome, welcome to Wednesday’s blog! It’s nice to see you all here looking and/or readin’ through this post today. For today’s blog, we’ll be chattin’ about Nurarihyon no Mago. Which so happens to be an older Anime, one that aired in 2010. From time-to-time, I think it’s important that we re-live and appreciate the Anime of old because it brought us where we are today.
Quick summary:
Nurarihyon no Mago is a 24 episode Anime that aired in the summer of 2010. It’s labelled under the genres of Action, Demons, Shounen and Supernatural. So if you’re a fan of any of those genres, I do suggest checking this one out!
Story: 8/10
Nurarihyon no Mago is a tale of the supernatural. It’s a tale of demons and spirits and the co-existence between their kind and ours. It’s also a tale of Rikuo Nura and how he takes over his grandfather’s clan known as the Hyakki Yakō, a clan made up of yōkai(demons) and other familiar spirits of Japanese folklore. Nurarihyon no Mago is about the trials and tribulations Rikuo goes through to achieve being the head of that clan(to which at first he has no interest in) while knowing that he is only a quarter yōkai himself.
What makes the story even more interesting is how the Nura yōkai clan portray chivalry, similar to those you’d find in yakuza (Japanese gangster) movies, and how this series uses fear to gauge their strength.
Nurarihyon no Mago is Rikuo’s story, as he struggles to find his place between both worlds, and it’s a tale of superiority between other yōkai clans as you’ll find in the second half of the series.
Art 8/10
Studio Deen has never really done a bad job with their animations, so there’s nothing much I can critique here. I really liked the colour contrast between the human and youkai societies. You can see that anything relating to humans generally has warmer colours, whereas anything relating to youkai generally has cooler colours.
Sound 10/10:
The OSTs in this anime are brilliant. Then again, I shouldn’t say OSTs, because it’s more like just one OST with many variations, but it still sounds good nonetheless. Again, I’m a sucker for Jun Fukuyama voicing characters with “double” lives, so I have no complaints there. Openings were decent, while the endings were not so decent. Not the best OPs or EDs for sure.
Character 7/10:
The series as a whole only really shines through its characters. For one, you have Rikuo who is a quarter yōkai which means like any shonén anime, there is a part of the main character that would make any fan who’s into transformations go: “Wow! Sick! I want to see more of this!” And I admit, when I had first read the adaptation, I was pretty much all over it the moment Rikuo turned into the ‘Master of the Night’.
Nurarihyon no Mago also features a huge cast of characters which at most ‘can’ be likable, but I wouldn’t start saying that they’d be memorable like other well-known shonén supporting characters and the only one I’d take real note of is Kiyotsugu (of the Kiyo Paranormal Squad) who happens to probably be the most annoying side character in all of anime history.
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One response to “Nurarihyon no Mago | Worth Watching?”
I really enjoy Nurarihiyon no Mago. There’s definitely some flaws with it, but I like the supernatural aspects and the characters and just enjoy watching it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.