Random Curiosity

「別れの朝」 (Wakare no Asa)
“Morning of Parting”

Episode at a Glance:
With Miharu’s Shinrabanshou powers released, he easily brushes aside the Kouga student council, then checks on Yoite, during which he hears the hijutsu’s voice asking him if he’s going to make him disappear or save him first. Kumohira then intervenes, shoving Miharu’s head to the ground and telling him he mustn’t use it, but Miharu knocks him away, saying that his teacher is only concerned about his unbending beliefs and not him. Crawling back over Yoite’s body, Miharu begins using his power to heal Yoite’s wound, but Kumohira interferes again, and even tries to dispel Miharu’s techinque. (God damn Kumohira…) With no interest in his intentions, Miharu looks up with a face full of scriptures, and the Shinrabanshou tells the insistent teacher that he’s in the way, so Kumohira punches Mihara, knocking him out and relinquishing his power. During this time, the Shinrabanshou tells Miharu that he’s simply lost right now, and that it’s the only thing preventing him from controling the godly wisdom.

Holding the student council at gunpoint, Yukimi asks if they were invited here as part of Kannuki’s plan to make them all ingredients for the Daya. Taken advantage of their squabbles, Kannuki appears to taunt them, before locking them all in the room. While Raimei, Raikou, and Yukimi try to break the door down, Subaru tells them it’s useless, and Juuji treats Miharu’s injures. (I swear there were windows on the sides, but anyway…) Raimei then asks Kumohira where Kouichi is, rendering him speechless, but Raikou tells her that he’s probably dead after being shot by Kannuki. Yukimi then tells Miharu not to worry about Yoite since he won’t die so easily, while Subaru worries about what’ll happen to the school director.

Elsewhere in the school, Kannuki is trying to get the Daya scroll from Sirius, who tells him he’s better off shooting him instead. After being threatening using his precious students and told how all the others here feel about the Shinrabanshou being around, Sirius says that the Daya kinjutsusho has already been entrusted to someone else, along with his will. Angered, Kannuki fires at Sirius’ arm, but he retorts if Alya Academy is really becoming old and there is no future for the children, then the Kouga village should end with him. Hearing this, Kannuki tells his men to start killing the kids in the basement one-by-one, when suddenly Kouichi comes through the door with a devious smile on his face and cat-like red eyes. While Kannuki is shocked that he’s still alive, all his men open fire on Kouichi, but their bullets are unable to kill him, so he quickly dispatches everyone in the room, including Kannuki. Seeing his white hair and supposedly immortality, Sirius suspects that Kouichi’s is related to “her”, but Kouichi simply tells the school director to rest at ease as the night’s almost over.

Back in the basement, Kouichi opens the door for the others, sparking Shijima to comment on how he’s late. Thinking to herself later, Shijima believes that “an important person” is simply different to many people, thus leading to opposition and people killing one another. Also, it doesn’t matter whether one feels an opponent’s important person is such, or if he/she is even still alive. For now though, Shijima feels she’s found out what she wanted to know. Tending to Sirius, Juuji says they have to get him to a hospital immediately, but the school director claims that it’s fine, as he’s finished everything he had to do. When Subaru asks for the forbidden scroll/book, Sirius explains it’s no longer with him and that he’s entrusted everything to someone else. Reminded of her past with the school director, Subaru questions why he didn’t entrust it to her when she’s trying to save him, and grabs Juuji as a hostage out of frustration. Yukimi then fires his gun at Subaru’s kunai, and Catalina slaps her, saying that they’re the ones making the school director suffer the most. Claiming that their efforts to save him are more precious to him than immortality, Sirius asks his students to let him die as a person. Recognizing Miharu as the Shinrabanshou, he apologizes for getting him involved, and despite being burdened with such a painful mission, asks that he be true to his heart.

The next morning, students grieve over their director. Outside the building, Shijima explains that she was designated as a temporary successor of the kinjutsusho, and that as part of Sirius’ will, Alya Academy is to 1.) relinquish ownership of the Daya kinjutsusho, 2.) select a successor to the forbidden technique in the Nabari world using her judgement, and 3.) abolish specialized classes for Kouga ninjas once a new school director is elected, while prioritizing the interests of students at the school. She then decides to entrust the Daya to Miharu, as she’s personally interested in how he’ll change the Nabari world with his intentions. It turns out that Sirius was aware of all the unrest and turmoil amongst students and teachers, and this was a way to restore order to school. Yukimi realizes this, as they wouldn’t have been invited here otherwise, which surprises Shijima that he’s not an idiot after all (although Raikou begs to differ). All this prompts Shijima to think how “his” prediction was right after all, that he even went so far to send a messenger here, reminding Kumohira of something Kotarou said.

As she excuses herself, Yukimi asks who she is, but she simply replies that she’s Kurookana Shijima—just an observer. Miharu asks her if she knows anything about the hijutsu, but she simply says she knows that she doesn’t know. Miharu then leaves with the other Kairoushuu, saying that they’ll get Banten’s kinjutsusho in no time, but Kumohira tells him that he can’t save anyone with the Shinrabanshou powers, and if he uses it, he’ll never forgive him. Hearing this, Miharu simply covers his ears and keeps walking.

Next Episode:
「遠来の客」 (Enrai no Kyaku)
“Distant Visitor”

Impressions:
Given the length of the summary, it should go to show the amount of explanatory dialogue I had to muddle through this episode. I actually had to stop on a few occasions because I was getting a bit tired of translating, which is why this post is out much later than I would’ve liked. In any case, Miharu showed some brief flashes of Shinrabanshou power, but the meddlesome Kumohira interfered yet again. I was actually pretty annoyed that he was preventing Miharu from trying to save Yoite, especially when he just got Kouichi (supposedly) killed earlier. In light of this, it was actually relieving to hear Miharu tell Kumohira not to touch him, and knock away for a moment. Aside from Miharu’s display of the ultimate power, the big revelation this episode was undoubtedly Kouichi’s apparent immortality, but more on that has yet to be explained. As Siruis noticed, there appears to be some connection between him and “her”, which given the white hair, is most likely Shijima. Evidently, there’s much more to her than appears, more of which should be explained in the next episode.

While going through this episode, I did cross-reference the mangas that I bought (which is also why I have the Shijima hunch above), and was a bit surprised to see that this episode pretty much concluded all of volume seven. Given how only eight volumes are currently out, and how this episode alone finished three-quarters of volume seven, it seems like the anime is rushing along for some reason or another. I suspect that the producers realize that they’re going to run out of manga material sooner or later, so rather than leaving only a few episodes for an anime original conclusion, they’ve decided to speed through the manga material. While purists will argue that this isn’t the best approach, I made brief mention of some possible drawbacks of strictly following an unfinished manga in my SEKIREI post.

As a general rule of thumb, I like to treat mangas and anime adaptations separately, but I should use this opportunity (seeing as I’m in a position to do so) to mention how the anime adaptation of this Kouga arc completely left out a character named Ashikawa Tasuku, who’s another student at Alya Academy. While I haven’t read the manga thoroughly yet (nor do I plan to while the anime is still airing), I noticed that Tasuku’s role was fairly significant, but the anime adaptation retained the same outcome even without him. What was also left out though, was the history between Subaru and the school director, which would’ve explained why she was willing to do anything to save him. Since it’s uncertain how much of a role the Kouga ninjas will play down the road (seeing as the manga hasn’t gone that far yet), I can understand why the producers left this part out. In retrospect, it would have just extended the number of episodes required for this arc, and will probably never be alluded to again.

Next time, hopefully more of Shijima as I love hearing Shindou Kei’s voice (Wang Liu Mei in Gundam 00, Kagami Kuro in Kodomo no Jikan), Yoite’s condition, as well as the next stage of the story.

Addendum: I believe volume nine of the manga has been released. I didn’t see it when I was in Japan though, so I didn’t pick it up. =(

Cast:
- Rokujou Miharu (六条 壬晴) / Kugimiya Rie (釘宮 理恵)
- Kumohira Thobari Durandal (雲平・帷・デュランダル) / Namikawa Daisuke (浪川 大輔)
- Aizawa Kouichi (相澤 虹一) / Hino Satoshi (日野 聡)
- Shimizu Raimei (清水 雷鳴) / Fujimura Ayumi (藤村 歩)
- Yukimi Kazuhiko (雪見 和彦) / Tsuda Kenjirou (津田 健次郎)
- Minami Juuji (南 十字) / Koyama Kimiko (こやま きみこ)
- Shinrabanshou (森羅万象) / Tamura Yukari (田村 ゆかり)
- Kurookano Shijima (黒岡野 しじま) / Shindou Kei (真堂 圭)
- Fushita Subaru (伏田 すばる) / Kawakami Tomoko (川上 とも子)
- Toudou Catalina (藤堂 カタリナ) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
- Shimizu Raikou (清水 雷光) / Suwabe Junichi (諏訪部 順一)
- Kannuki (閂) / Fujiwara Keiji (藤原 啓治)
- Sirius Hashiba (シリウス・ハシバ) / Kiyokawa Motomu (清川 元夢)
- Teacher (教師) / Oohara Takashi (大原 崇)
- Teacher (教師) / Ogino Seirou (荻野 晴朗)