Director: Junji Nishimura
Starring: Jun Fukuyama, Grant George, Aya Hirano, Mela Lee, Ai Maeda, Michelle Ruff, Yui Horie, Cassandra Lee Morris,
Running Time: 325 minutes
Certificate: 15
This second season of NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI clan begins with a very interesting prequel episode. Taking us back a number of year, it shows how Nura was first announced as the successor to the clan. At this point in time Nura is ashamed of his demon side, and realises that his classmates have horrible stories of Yokai to tell. It makes Nura very conflicted as his human friends despise the ghostly Yokai and some of the Yokai look down upon him for being 3 quarters human. It builds upon the character nicely, which is important considering the rest of the series ignores Nura’s human aspects.
The majority of Season 2 is setting up a great battle, as a renegade Yokai wishes to destroy the ancient seals and become all powerful. The tone is a lot darker this time around, with the joyful segments of ghosts living together pushed aside to focus on battles and grimmer storylines. The opening episode shows a gang of Yokai that like to eat children, which emphasises Nura’s struggle to live as a protector to humans.
With the plot moving forward constantly, there isn’t much time to stop and get to know the characters. Most of them have been set up in the previous season, but the lack of further development means everything rests on the overarching story. Although it’s gripping enough, it does start to become repetitive highlighted by the fact the entire 13th episode is a recap of the season so far, which would serve better at the beginning of the next set of episodes. Many anime would benefit from a mid-season recap, but this just isn’t that complicated enough to merit such a turn.
The series gradually builds the gap between the human world and that of the demon world, but does so predominantly with focus on the demons. Some elements tie in with struggle between these two worlds, but the lack of human interaction at points means you’ll be forgetting about the more humorous and enjoyable scenes from the previous season. Action fans will have a lot more to chew on though with a number of visually spectacular fights brought to life despite a much darker colour palette.
NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN has certainly evolved, but the jump feels almost too sudden. The focus on a greater threat also means that the focus is split between a larger range of characters, which detracts from Nura’s battle to be accepted and balance his lifestyles. Fortunately there seems to be an endless stream of creative character designs for the Yokai, which constantly beg to be studied and looked at in detail.
[usr=3]NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN Season 2 Part 1 is released on DVD on 10th March Via Manga Entertainment.
Check out more Anime news and reviews here!
