I am Durandal, A Ninja From Ireland

Author: nova

One notable thing about this season is the sudden rise of shounen-genre. After a winter of eroge-adaptations and romantic dramas some might say it’s a pleasant and refreshing surprise. So once again we have a bunch of young men with egos the size of a battle tank and irresistible need to become the strongest of them all.

Or do we? One shounen-style series in the season has an ace up its sleeve – the main male of Nabari no Ou is anything but manly, motivated and egoistic. This is indeed a trick that manages to differentiate the show from the vast mass and personally I find Rokujou Miharu much easier to relate to than the typical shounen heroes. He’s just simply dragged into the mess and has no choice but to fight on just to keep his own skin intact.

Now I’m beginning to sound like I really like Nabari no Ou, so I shall stop praises and get to the juicy bits. You see, the show also has a bunch of problems that are somewhat difficult to ignore. The main problem is that Nabari no Ou is, simply put, ridiculous – which in the case of shounen-shows isn’t anything new, but the show also tries to take itself very seriously. NnO attempts to be more than what is capable of, which makes watching it almost embarassing at times. The thing is, I was actually expecting the show to be shounen with more mature touch and it’s sad to see the it miss the chances it has.

Where is the drama? Where are all the possible feasting on main character’s psyche – the dude is yanked from an everyday life into a war where everyone is interested in getting their hands on him. NnO just takes the disappointing path of going from where the fence is lowest and building some clichéd “don’t hurt my friends or I will get very angry and motivated to become the strongest to kick your butt!”-drama we’ve seen in the past many, many times. I believe Nabari can be successful among the typical young target audience of shounen-shows but for now it has missed most of the chances to be something more.

Bored? Here’s a fun game: Repeat “My name is Durandal, a ninja from Ireland” with a straight face – if you smile, you lose! I guess Nabari could learn a thing or two from these guys.

How about the other big shounen title in the season then? Soul Eater, offering us living weapons, slick cartoony animation and, surprise, loud egoists with the need to become the strongest of them all. Yes, Black Star is Naruto on steroids and thus a significant magnitude more annoying. Luckily he isn’t the main character but nevertheless gets more screentime than what my tolerance is. Otherwise Soul Eater succeeds in where Nabari no Ou fails – it takes itself just as seriously as it is, which isn’t much. However Soul Eater isn’t without flaws. Putting aside some annoying characters, the show doesn’t seem to have any point whatsoever. I would wish that after the first five episodes a series would make more or less sense, but Soul Eater just throws in more and more of random stuff. I can see it making progress but painfully slowly.

I guess this concludes the rants for this week. Due to my work I’m forced to live in the middle of nowhere with no internet access except on weekends, but I will do my best to keep the blog alive and running at least on a weekly basis. After all this ranting about male characters makes me tired, so let’s end this with some female Alto.

Bend, genders!