Nabari no Ou Episode Fourteen

NOM NOM NOM, or Shijima’s a frickin’ creep? You decide.

The episode picks up immediately where the previous left off, with Raikou and Yukimi cautiously making their way through the school, and in the process running into Kouichi and Kumohira. Yukimi admits, a bit increduously, to himself that he hadn’t been able to detect Kouichi’s presence at all prior to rounding the corner. Suddenly, the entire building shudders, and they realize that the others have gone underground.

Underneath the dorm, Yoite is squaring off against the seitokai. Catalina grabs Miharu, but is stopped by Yoite when he uses the kira technique. Yoite gets Miharu back, and the two try to retreat, but Shijima leaps in front of them, and attacks Yoite with her metal claw-attachments. Yoite is injured, but Miharu manages to create enough of a diversion for the pair to escape.

Up above, Yukimi and Kumohira have come to the door to the cellar, but it has been locked since Catalina tackled Miharu down it. As Yukimi beats at the door, Kumohira asks him if Miharu is really with the Kairoushuu, but Yukimi is a bit evasive, stating that being too soft is a bad thing. He stops trying to open the door for a moment to smirk and tell Kumohira that, if someone halved their personalities and put together their two halves, they’d both probably be a better person.

In another part of the cellar from all the fighting, Miharu sits with the injured Yoite inside a broken cabinet. Miharu is very worried about Yoite, but Yoite reminds him that he promised to not die before Miharu could use the Shinrabanshou. Miharu admits that his alternate plan was to simply use the Shinrabanshou even if they could not get the kinjutsu scrolls, and tells Yoite about how the Shinrabanshou appears to him. Yoite is surprised to hear that the Shinrabanshou is apparently a being in and of itself; Miharu is somewhat surprised to realize that Shijima looks like the Shinrabanshou. Unfortunately, Shijima herself appears to crash the party.

Elsewhere, Raimei and Juuji are still trying to convince Subaru of the fact that they were attacked by the other students, not the other way around. But Subaru doesn’t care, and when Catalina appears, the two are shot by tiny darts. Juuji instantly loses consciousness, but Raimei remains conscious long enough to hear Catalina refer to them as “important ingredients”.

Shijima seems to have both Miharu and Yoite cornered, as the kira doesn’t seem to have much of an affect on her. To Miharu’s shock, she states that she knows that Yoite wants Miharu to use the Shinrabanshou to grant his wish, and accuses Yoite of being afraid of death. After managing to get Miharu away from Shijima, Yoite is stabbed in the back by Catalina, who says that it’s ok for them if he just dies, as his body is useless for their purposes. Although he is suffering, Yoite blasts some power at the ceiling, creating enough chaos for he and Miharu to once again escape the deadly seitokai.

In the dorm, two Kouga students discuss whether or not they should attack Yukimi, et al. or not, since they haven’t seen the seitokai at all, even though Kannukki told them that they were the ones who approved the attacks. When Yukimi, et al. confront them, though, they retreat before the group can manage to extract any information from them. Kouichi, unseen to this point, apologizes off-screen, and the group turns to find him being held at gunpoint by the Queen Emeraldas escapee Kannukki, who tells them to drop their weapons.

Yoite, severely weakened, is being helped to walk by Miharu. After setting him on the floor, Miharu unbuttons his jacket to treat his wounds, and is disturbed by the sheer amount of bleeding Yoite has done. Yoite finally admits to Miharu that he does not want to die, and Miharu embraces the other boy, and tells him that they are just the same. Internally, he ambiguously states to himself that he understands the feelings he has for Yoite finally, but that he will keep them to himself.

Miharu tries to summon the Shinrabanshou, shouting out to it/her, and becoming quickly frustrated when he is met with only silence. From the shadows, Shijima throws a knife at Miharu, who is knocked out by the potion on the knife’s tip.

Back with Yukimi, Raikou, Kumohira, Kouichi, and now Kannukki, Kannukki reveals that the Daya requires that young ninjas are used to help prepare the medicine, specifically, their bodies. He wants to use the Daya to change the world, but also to line his own pockets, and to bring Alya Private Academy to more prominence and wealth. He also reveals that the seitokai also plans to make the Daya, although in their case, it is for the dying headmaster.

As this is occurring, the seitokai themselves stand over the unconscious Raimei, Juuji, Yoite, and Miharu, wondering where the kinjutsu is. It becomes apparent that they knew about what Kannukki was doing, but ignored it since they figure they can steal the kinjutsu from him once he uses his hostages to get it out of the headmaster. Catalina voices a bit of doubt, though, recalling that the headmaster doesn’t want the kinjutsu to be used. However, Subaru ignores her, and begins to leave to look for the kinjutsu; Catalina follows despite her doubts. Shijima lingers briefly, looking down at Miharu as she wonders if wanting to protect one special thing is what motivates human’s actions.

Kannukki is about the descend the stairs with Kouichi, but Yukimi throws an exploding pen which temporaily blinds the man. Once free, Kouichi viciously attacks the man, while Yukimi and Raikou dash down the stairs. Kumohira is horrified by Kouichi’s relentless attack, even as Kannukki asks him to hold up for a moment, and stops Kouichi. Kouichi argues with Kumohira, and ends up being shot from behind by Kannukki. Kouichi falls against Kumohira, and makes it very clear that he blames him for the fact that he has been shot. As he loses consciousness and hits the floor, he reveals that he knew Kumohira had planned to kill Miharu, and that, unless he can kill, he cannot protect.

As Kouichi lies bleeding on the floor, the building begins to violently shake. Below, Miharu is standing, surrounded by green lightning as the Shinranabshou’s script creeps up his neck and across his face.

Impressions:

This is probably the best Nabari no Ou episode so far. For those complaining of lack of action, this surely answers the call. Not only do we get action, though, we get a lot of character development, too, particularly in the case of Miharu.

Shijima is extremely creepy, and I really doubt she’s human, based on her thoughts toward the end of the episode, and how she behaves in battle. I didn’t mention it, but she bites Yoite’s knee at one point while they’re fighting. She also is shown as have extra-sharp canines at several points. This combined with her use of claws, and her seemingly luminscent eyes has me wondering if… well… is she Miharu’s cat? I know that sounds crazy, but they both have white hair and golden eyes, and, well, she acts like a cat… There’s also the question of what dropped behind her after Yoite used the kira (which unfortunately, I cannot find a screenshot for at the moment). I thought that was Yoite’s arm behind her at first, but if you watch the scene, it very clearly isn’t, so… tail anyone? But I’m probably just talking out of my ass.

Also, I really reallly have been trying to not see BL in these proceedings (although, obviously from my other episode posts, I have seen it), but… well, I dunno, guys, but I’m pretty sure straight guys don’t tend to hold their friends faces like this:

And that straight guys who get their faces held like that don’t respond by grasping the guy’s hand and nuzzling into it with his face. I can’t claim to be a straight guy myself, so I can’t say that for sure, but, yeah, just a hunch I get.

But, in all seriousness, Miharu’s internal monologue about his feelings about Yoite was very, very ambiguous, and I can’t help but wonder. I’M NOT TRYING TO SEE THIS GUYS, BUT IT’S TRYING TO MAKE ME SEE IT THIS WAY. I’ll admit to being a bit of a fujoshi, but I try to keep it within sane realms, so I wouldn’t be mentioning this unless it seemed to me that the show was actually encouraging this angle (so, you don’t have to worry about me sitting here and picking out tissue-thin “evidence” for BL in, say, Bleach).

Anyway, I doubt Kouichi’s dead even though it sort of looks like he is. We still haven’t learned his secret, and I doon’t think they’ll kill him off before we figure out what it is, as they wouldn’t bother have mentioned it before and then reinforced it with his seemingly cooly efficient dispatching of Eugene Frosty, and his attack on Kannukki here.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but for the first time since Soul Society Arc era Bleach, I’ve found myself seriously impatient with the seemingly slow march of time from episode of an anime being broadcast in Japan. I don’t know what I’m going to do next week, since I’ll be on vacation sans internet…