Reviews for Nurarihyon no Mago (4.58) 4i2b5g

Nurarihyon is a very common type of show. It brings almost every aspect of the typical shounen show and builds it upon the over-used japanese scenario of youkais and other supernatural creatures. While at first glance the show can be completely ignored by the old and venerated by the early teenager, most of it has some depth that can certainly help the overall experience. The show is still ordinary, but can deliver a nice weekend for those waiting for good animes, especially with the poor quality that plagued shows aired in the last few years.

Art & Animation
Nurarihyon certainly has a good production value and the animation and art quality shows much of it. The art is solid and sharp despite the more childish design of monsters and characters in overall. The atmosphere proposed by the show is somehow darker than usual, but the bright colors and flashy designs make it look more like shows as Bleach and Soul Eater. Animation is fluid and deliver some good moments in combats and even in dialogue.

Sound
Sound quality is somehow poor. Opening and endings are fine, but there nothing besides it to make the show shine. Background music is very generic and voice-acting is unfiting for some characters and has a great potential to annoy anyone who hopes for a more serious show without noisy characters.

Story
Nurarihyon tells a story about a successor of a whole army of demons that hide himself in the form of a small boy who is unaware of its true power. This starting point can look generic, and it certainly is. The story overall is far too much based on cliches and the use of conventional formulas of the genre. Fights, hidding the existence of another world from ordinary humans, the school life, the temple life, typical servants with specific powers, etc. Everything in this department cries for an annoying plot and storytelling, and for most part Nurarihyon is indeed poor, but there are moments of glory and some cliches that are well used and make the overall experience more gratifying.

Character
Character-wise the show is very varied. The dark world of demons is usually treated lightly and most of the characters of the whole show serve as comic relief sometimes. The events involving them rarely forces them to evolve and what you see at the start is exactly the same at the end, except for the protagonist. Rikuo takes some of his experiences and grows in a good way through the middle of the show and in the end he matures enough to claim some responsabilities, but this is exactly what is expected for main characters of this kind of the show and its a bit sad not to see anything different to shake things a bit. Overall the characters are as weak as most of this genre and you can expect very typical things here.

Value
Nurarihyon brings nothing new and this is it. It uses a over-used theme, offers only basic personalities for its characters, has a common and predictable plot, has music that is exactly what you hear in any other of the shows and brings some good animation and art style. Those looking only for fun and is not affected by basic story can enjoy the show fully, but if you watch it expecting depth, development, and nice characters you better look elsewhere.

Enjoyment
Those watching Nurarihyon without much expectation can be surprised by how it can lure you even with nothing really extraordinary. The show delivers good events in its simple plot and its pace is certainly good, mixing the plot with some fillers without harming everything.

Comments
Everytime I my experience watching Nurarihyon I wonder how such a simple anime caught my attention and earned a few points in my conception. It's hard when this happen because when looking at each topic separetely, the scores are low and the overall is low, but the show offered a good weekend of fun and fufilled its duty to make me a bit happier with the new generation of animes, which has been pretty bad since 2008.

I can't, however, recommend Nurarihyon over many others shows of the genre. If you want more quality, depth and a slightly darker atmosphere, you're better watching Kekkaishi, but Nurarihyon is a better experience than Inuyasha and most of the new shounen shows.

Nurarihyon no Mago is an almost typical shonen show with an almost typical premise. Why “almost” you may ask? Well, the lead character is voiced by Jun Fukuyama, and that magically makes everything look better for the casual viewers. Damn, how easy it is for people to like a show for what is going on behind the scenes and not on the stage. If the above magician’s trick isn’t enough to con you, then you will mostly see this anime as something average with some rare outbursts at good. And by average I am referring to how it follows the basic shonen formula, minus the constant shouting and perpetual on-going training and fighting.

If you look who else is on the production team besides the above wet dream then prepare to encounter a nightmare. The animation studio is THAT PIECE OF SHIT Studio DEEN! I get Goosebumps just by mentioning the name; OH THE HORROR! Nobody with minimum taste is going to like anything that comes out of the back hole of that crappy studio. As for the director, his entire roster is full of mediocrities, with the only exception being Ranma ½ and even there it was rather good because of the source material. They still ruined it after season four though.

So the lead hero is a combo of a harem lead and a shonen lead. And no, don’t believe that this makes a good spin on the formula because it’s not a blend but a dised coexistence. He has a split personality! His harem side is that of the archetypical weak dork with glasses, going to school and constantly being ridiculed at every turn of the way with his lame behaviour towards women and his zero power. His shonen side is on the other hand a dark personality living within him, coming out for some hours every night and kicking ass of monsters. Definitely cooler but with very broken powers and eventually nothing but the typical dark hidden personality all shonen leads have.

So he is the son of a very powerful youkai and destined to succeed him one day. Yet all he wants is to have a normal school life, even if he is useless. At this point I was clearly seeing this as a rehash of Hitman Reborn, with some Inu Yasha action with youkai; definitely nothing we haven’t seen before. The characters are other youkai at his service or human schoolmates and platonic romantic interests that typically head nowhere because of his harem side. In fact, most of the show is not going anywhere for the same reason. Despite him playing it courageous and strong willed, when the time comes he still is completely useless to do anything unless he transforms to his cooler alter ego; something that happens only at specific hours and not at will. Thus he is plain bothersome to follow around and you mostly wait for the action to come along.

The plot is basically him trying to live a normal life and keeping his secret hidden from his human friends, while looking for a killer youkai that is after his family. Sounds ok but the pacing is terribly slow to the most part and the rest of it follows the typical stuff we see in shonen. The cast is also way too big in number and most of them are practically background decoration. Furthermore, the story is very light and often comedic thus most characters are treated as nothing but comedy generators with various silly gimmicks. The youkai for example are named after and defined by a quirk in their look, a thing that makes them all shallow and eventually able. The humans on the other hand are too normal to stand out for anything particular in whatever they are doing. When the plot feels like it, it provides immersion to some of them and fleshes them a bit with flashbacks and daily activities. Yet to no avail, as eventually nobody’s story is important to the plot or even that special to as a stand alone.

The focal point of the whole story is of course the cool lead alter ego and his amazing voice actor. Well ok, even that ain’t anything special as he beats all monsters easily and the action choreography doesn’t excel anywhere. It is simple and, like everything else in this show, slow. There is no true challenge in battle and the search for the killer is simplistic at best. Most problems came to them instead of looking for them anyway.

The production values are… cute. That is the best way to describe them. There were no special in the setting, which was typical school grounds and traditional estates. The colours and the detail in drawings were ok, albeit too commonplace in most anime and thus again rather boring. Make that too boring if you add the slow plot. In all the artwork is typical but nice, while the animation is scarce as a cheap way to save money and slow down the plot. As for the soundtrack, well, it’s a mess. The openings are good, the endings are ridiculous jpops, and the BGM is soft to the point you don’t even notice it. Overall, nothing exciting, or atmospheric, or memorable. As for voice acting… WHO CARES; FUKUYAMA IS HERE; ALL HAIL LELOUCH!

So is it a good show? Well, it could have been if it had a faster plot, better action, more secondary character impact in the story, and if Fukuyama wasn’t the one and only thing the producers based on for the show to sell. Plus the premise is a rehash of other shonen which are more enjoyable in overall (not by a lot but they are). So no, I don’t consider this a worthy anime unless you are looking for an average time killer or you are Fukuyama fangirls. There are many people who loved this show by the way and recommend it like it’s some sort of masterpiece. In my eyes they are all nothing but Narutards who got bored of fillers and eat up any mediocrity that pops up and fizzles away. Don’t pay attention to them.

And now for some excused scorings.