As allies gather together, a new foe appears who may stand in their way.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hiroshi Shiibashi
Translation: Cindy Yamauchi
Adaptation: Mark Giambruno
What They Say:
The Nura clan and their allies encounter a veritable forest of a thousand Torii Gates on their way to find the lost seals of Hidemoto. There, Awashima is transported to another dimension and trapped, diminishing the clan’s numbers. She’ll have to fight a powerful yokai before she can attempt to escape. And Rikuo and the others could be at the mercy of a yokai capable of using the thousand Torii Gates to form a massive labyrinth from which they will never escape.
Content: (please note that the content portion of a review may contain spoilers)
Though Rikuo has defeated this faction’s leader, the rest of Hagoromo-Gitsune’s army isn’t about to let the Nura Clan pass. Everyone is sure that the coming of daylight will cause a retreat, only to be shocked that the rising sun has no effect, not even on Rikuo, who remains in his yokai form. They incur a lot of damage to their ship (which turns out to be alive, to the surprise of both readers and characters) and have to proceed on foot to their first destination. This proves to be difficult when they are trapped in a torii maze, and the yokai controlling it nearly tears one member of their group apart.
Meanwhile, the Keikan family meet to figure out a plan. Hidemoto, now Yura’s shikigami, remains to give council to his family, telling them that they need both Hagun, the shikigami only Yura can summon, and Nurarihyon’s sword, which Rikuo now holds. The two groups meet up, but only just in time for an attack by Tsuchigumo, a horrifying yokai who no one has ever been able to defeat. He wants to pick off every member of the Nura Clan one by one — starting with Rikuo.
Shiibashi breaks up the main plot with the battle against the torii demon. This arc features Awashima, a member of Tono village who is female at night and male during the day (though due to Hagoromo-Gitsune’s effect, he’s stuck in his female body). These chapters were very interesting to read, the unique way the torii demon fights combining with Awashima’s intense techniques, and it was also satisfying to see a character have to think outside of the box to win rather than simply going at it physically. But like the side fights from the last volume, this also slows the main story down, and while one of the minor characters gets fleshed out, there is still the problem of there being so many other people — is everyone going to get their couple of chapters in this story arc?
Tsuchigumo appears as an overpowering enemy, defeating several Nura yokai within just a couple of pages. Another problem seems to be arising now that they have fixed one of the seals: the daylight is reaching Kyoto, and Rikuo seems to be reverting back to his human form just as he determines to fight Tsuchigumo. Rikuo’s been proving himself quite a bit lately, but it may be interesting to see what he is able to accomplish as a human.
One thing of interest is Kubinashi’s brief flashback to Rikuo’s father at the beginning of the volume. Having practically never been mentioned by the other characters, it’s been my longstanding assumption that he has no real effect on the story. However, these few pages throw that into question, both because of the words he says — seeming to have some prescient understanding of Rikuo’s importance in the world — and also from the way Shiibashi chooses to draw him. He is given a clear, solid form and a dynamic pose that implies he’s someone real and powerful, and a half-obscured face gives the feeling of mystery, that there’s something readers, and probably the other characters, don’t quite understand about him yet. It’s a little late in the game for Shiibashi to suddenly be giving importance to this character, but I’m still very intrigued about what his reasons may be.
In Summary
Much like last time, volume 11 of Nura keeps up the fast pace that makes reading the manga a breeze. Once again Shiibashi packs a lot in here, with the end of the boat fight, the torii demon, and then the new battle with Tsuchigumo. Unfortunately with so many characters involved, at times the battle scenes get a little cluttered. Hagoromo-Gitsune only appears occasionally in this volume, but she’s intense and frightening enough in those moments that I look forward to the eventual battle with her. The plan for the Keikan and Nura groups seems straightforward, but with Tsuchigumo now in the way, and Hagoromo-Gitsune’s continually growing power, it will hopefully be anything but.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: October 2, 2012
MSRP: $9.99