So tired...need to stay up all night...might as well do this....
10. Nurarihyon no Mago
Author: Shibashi Hiroshi
Debut: March 2008
What is it, pj?
A battle shounen about yokai. The legendary yokai Nurarihyon wants his three-quarters human/one-quarter demon grandchild, Rikuo, to take over the clan, one of the most powerful in Japan. For the first 10 chapters or so he acts like a brat that just wants to live a normal school life and stuff and hates the idea of it. At night the yokai quarter takes over and he looks like an older badass with a much less annoying demeanor with great swordfighting skills. As the battle arcs happen, the "Night" form essentially becomes the real main character, pretty much appearing in 90% of the chapters. Eventually there becomes virtually no difference between the Day and Night forms, as he accepts being the head pretty quickly, becoming a much better protagonist.
Story
Even though it takes place in modern day, it's got a pretty cool feudal Japan feel that is supported by two things. First, all the yokai pretty much live and act like it's olden times, and it's primarily where the story arcs take place. Secondly, lots of the story takes place over backstory, which actually DOES take place in the past, following the events of his grandfather in his prime, and his own half-human half-yokai father. Some of the best storytelling happens in the backstory, which on the flip side means the main story generally just gets relegated to fights with mostly uninteresting minor characters.
I do like however that "arcs" have a weight behind them that cause dynamics of the world and characters to change permanently, though it rarely capitalizes on it to make that much of a difference, though maybe in the future it will? Who knows.
Characters
The three heads of the Nura Clan are pretty cool, and generally the villains of the past also pretty interesting. Unfortunately all the main character's schoolfriends and main yokai allies generally kind of do nothing but get captured/fight bad guys. They also don't have much chemistry for being a big ol happy family, and while I'm not expecting a bunch of humor from a series with quite the serious tone, there could be done a lot to make me care or even enjoy watching them...do things. It's just very dry and not emotionally captivating.
Art
Pretty nice, a few bland designs here and there, but it captures the feel of that traditional Japanese art pretty well (for WSJ anyways). Can be kind of dirty and messy, in the sense that panels are generally chock full of background and black lines and complex looking things. Not a bad thing to me though, as it's kind of charming in it's own way. For reference, One Piece is probably the next "dirtiest" looking things, so it's definitely not bad!
Action
Fights are well coordinated enough, though I feel it sometimes doesn't drum up enough build up to make it too satisfying. What's particularly annoying is several power-up ideas brought up that radically change the main character's fighting style don't get used in any sort of logical consistency. I guess whatever looks the coolest at the time. It's disappointing because one idea is so cool and varied it could carry a series on its own merit and then...something entirely different gets introduced. A real shame, as it was a perfect way to utilize the very varied cast that didn't really have much to add on their own.
I want to mention one thing though, and it's the violence that is very gratifying.
Shonen Jump seems to be on a mission to censor the hell out of itself these days, and it's to have an author that has to balls to have villains kill off innocents, and even in gruesome ways. One example depicts a person decapitated midsentence, the speech bubble protruding from the severed head.
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