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Again, Nurarihyon no mago is the best.
After watching episode 4 of the second season, I felt like re-reading the part when Nurarihyon meets Youhime since it had been awhile and I wanted to make note of scenes I should be excited about when episode five airs.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about a few things in relation to Youkai and this series in general, and re-reading these few chapters kind of cemented my opinions.
Opinion the first
-It looks like the author really understands the subject matter.
The author obviously does a fuckton of research, and he combines it with a great understanding of Japanese folklore. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I like to think that I understand it at least a little. Even with my inexperience , I can tell that Hiroshi Shiibashi has studied Japanese folklore with just as much enthusiasm as I have. In the few flashback chapters I re-read, Nurarihyon’s “courting” of Youhime (which is more like harassing by modern standards) read very much like a setsuwa, a kind of Buddhist-themed parable. Some could say that the way Nurarihyon expresses his interest in Youhime, coupled with the fact that Youhime herself is a very passive and weak character, is sexist. While this may be true, that’s not the point. That’s not the point at all. Having read setsuwa and other pre-modern Japanese fiction in an academic context before, I believe that his aggressive approach to marrying Youhime mirrors a theme often found in older Japanese literature; basically, “Guy sees girl. Guy likes girl. Guy marries girl. Girl isn’t upset even though she had no choice in the marriage.” Since the flashback takes place in the late Sengoku period (late 1500’s- early 1600’s,) this is a perfectly logical choice for an author who wants to create a fully-realized “old Japanese” setting. The argument could be made that the later relationships of Nurarihyon’s son (Nura Rihan) and grandson (Nura Rikuo, the main character of the series) negate any kind of notion of the author drawing on older themes to create the setting he wants, and instead prove that he is some kind of sexist. To those people, I say “shut the fuck up.” I would remind them that the same theme shows up in the literature of the Edo period, when Nura Rihan is alive in the story. Although he lives for quite a while afterward, he is forever connected to the Edo period. So again, the theme of aggressive courtship in this case works to give the reader a sense of setting. Nura Rikuo’s interest in Kana may seem harder to justify in that he is living in modern Japan, but it’s relatively easy to do so. Nura Rikuo, who is one quarter Youkai, shows affection for Kana in the normal way a middle-school/ early high school boy would. He kind of just thinks about her. That’s it. He’s not aggressive in any way. However, this is just when he is in his “day” form. Since he has Youkai blood, he can turn into a Youkai at night. In the story, this functions in the way a split personality would, and the two sides of Nura Rikuo are essentially separate characters. Day-form Nura Rikuo is a modern boy that wears modern clothes and looks human. Night-form Nura Rikuo acts like his father, wears traditional clothes, and doesn’t look entirely human. Being that he is a Youkai that is supposed to resemble his father and grandfather (both of whom evoke different historical eras,) his aggressive interest in Kana is meant to evoke “old” Japan. So like, Hiroshi Shiibashi is not sexist or anything. I’m sorry that got really off-track, but the amount of analysis I can generate and amount of comparisons I can make on this one theme alone show just how much understanding the author has of his source material.
Opinion the second
-Youkai people are fucking stupid.
I know I’ve said this a few times before, but god-damn are they stupid. By “Youkai people” I mean hobbyists that frequent sites like Youkaimura or the forum of Obakemono Project (which is actually a fantastic site by itself. Only the forum is a mess.) I remember reading awhile ago a thread on some forum about “this stupid manga abot yokai lol” which was basically the aforementioned “Youkai people” talking about how bad Nurarihyon no Mago is. The entire experience made me rage pretty hard, considering how great I think the series is. One of the arguments was something like “they dont even look like yokais.” This is fucking stupid because the author makes an effort to have his Youkai look as traditional as possible while still maintaining some kind of modern visual interest that keeps Shounen Jump’s readership interested. Saying that the series is bad because it doesn’t look just like five-hundred year old picture scrolls is like saying that Japanese movies are bad because they don’t look like Kabuki or Noh. That’s a retarded thing to say.
Opinion the third
-I am absolutely in love with Tsurara.
She’s adorable.
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Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
Wat.
Okay, so Hagoromogitsune I understand, but why did they make TWO 3D mousepads with Yuki-Onna/ Tsurara? There’ll be no wrist support at all. I would still buy them because she is my favorite.
From now on, I will attempt to talk about this series as often as possible. It’s really the best Youkai series around. Also, I will tag it properly when I do, but in an effort to deter faggots who couldn’t even pick a Kappa out of a lineup if it was screaming about how much it loves cucumbers, I will only be tagging in Japanese.
