Stats:Episodes: 26Aired: April 6, 2008 - September 28, 2008Current MAL score: 7.60Current MAL rank: 988
Short synopsis: Miharu has the power of the "Shinrabansho", said to give its user incredible strength and wisdom, but Miharu wants nothing of it. He only wants to be "normal". However, his normal everyday life is shattered when ninjas, all vying for Miharu and his abilities, drag him into the world of ninjas; otherwise known as the "Nabari world". There is one ninja named Yoite who wants to use the Shinrabansho to erase his very existence from the world. He ends up black-mailing Miharu into helping him reach that goal.
Just warning everyone that this series has a bit of shonen ai. However, it wasn't too intensive and could be looked at as a strong friendship between two boys. If you really don't like watching anything having to do with shonen ai, then you may not enjoy the series as much, though. You'll just have to try it out to tell.
Since I was just speaking about shonen ai, I might as well start off the review with my thoughts on the main "couple". Watching as Miharu and Yoite slowly became closer, I marveled at how much the two teens were alike. They were both quiet and kept to themselves. They both didn't want to get emotionally tied to anyone or have anyone do kind things for them. They were practically reflections of the other, but they handled things very differently. Miharu was apathetic about everything around him. If he cared for someone or something, he barely showed it. Yoite, on the other hand, was much more violent, using the kira to slowly kill himself. They were incredibly alike, but different enough to work as a couple. I didn't quite see them that way, though. Somehow, in my eyes, they never went past "friends". In a show like this, it's all about perception. If you want to see them as butt buddies, you can. But if you're not into that kind of thing, it's easy to see them as simply friends. It reminds me of Kuroshitsuji in regard to the "could be friends, could be more, so you choose" main couple.
Shimizu Raimei
Other than the main two guys, the show had a nice array of characters that complemented each other quite nicely. Each character was unique in their own right without outshining the main two. The writers always knew when the two MCs were getting tiring, and whenever they were, they would focus more so on the side characters and their back stories. I believe each character was properly fleshed out. In particular, I really enjoyed Raimei and Raiko as characters, especially Raiko (ohhh, that sexy voice mmm). Although all of the character's pasts were fleshed out satisfyingly, I found that there were a lot of questions that never received satisfaactory answers. First and foremost, why did Yoite want to disappear from the earth? I understand he went through quite a lot of pain in his lifetime, but I never understood completely why he wanted to be erased. There were only a few flashbacks showing Yoite's parents telling him they wish he had never been born, but there must be more to it than that. What happened? Shaky, random flashbacks are not enough to explain one of the major plot points like this.
I also wondered why Miharu couldn't use the Shinrabansho, and why everyone (especially the teacher, who I loved at first, but got increasingly more annoying as the show progressed) was so against Miharu using the Shinrabansho. A lot of the logic used in the show was lost on me, especially how Miharu's mom cast a ninja spell thing on Miharu to make him completely forget about the Nabari world. I know that she just wanted to protect him, but shouldn't she have taught him to used the Shinrabansho to its fullest instead? I mean, it's practically inevitable that ninjas are going to try to kidnap Miharu and get him to use the Shinrabansho for their own selfish desires, so if Miharu had learned from the very beginning how to use the Shinrabansho, he could've avoided a huge amount of violence. Even if he forgot he had the Shinrabansho, people still came after him and a lot of people got hurt or killed, so if he had simply known how to use his goddamn power from the beginning and scared all of those pesky ninjas away, a lot of the death and destruction would've been avoided.
"The Bad"
The evil characters in this show are kind of odd. Rather, there isn't really any "evil" characters in the show. Almost everyone had good intentions. The line between good and evil was extremely thin, but the opposing sides continued to fight without knowing that the enemy had similar interests. Miharu actually switched sides several times, and you could never really tell who he was "with". It was very odd seeing Miharu playing both sides of the fence so easily.
There was one man who had been portrayed as evil throughout the show, and while his intentions weren't bad, they were nieve and unreasonable. He wanted to erase all of the pain and suffering in the world. He wanted to erase everyone's memories and start everything over again in a world made of peace. In my opinion, this is a terrible idea. Pain, misery, sadness, and fighting are simply inevitable. There will always be opposing viewpoints as long as humans can think for themselves, trying to stop it is pointless. Plus, how would we know happiness or how to savor it if we didn't know what sadness feels like?
"The Good"
On another note, I'd like to look at all of the aesthetics of the show. The music was fine throughout, though it was nothing really memorable. I was kind of disappointed that the OP wasn't changed halfway through because it was starting to get old.
Despite being about ninjas, the action in the show wasn't that great. It was a bit disjointed, had awkward camera angles, and lacked flow. It wasn't terrible, but I was expecting more from a show about ninjas.
The backgrounds in this show were pretty awful. They were bland, shapeless, and looked really odd behind such detailed character art (all of the characters had nice designs, some even fappable xD)
Overall, the show left a good taste in my mouth. While not amazing, it did manage to entertain me throughout its 26 episode run. It wouldn't be on the top of my recommendations list, but check it out if you're hungry for ninjas and depressing teens (Yoite was depressing/depressed a good 95% of the time).
Plot: 7/10Music: 7/10Ending: 8/10Art: 6/10Characters: 8/10Personal Enjoyment: 8/10 Total: 44/60Mean: 7.333...
Other stuffI thought I would be annoyed by how apathetic Miharu was, but it wasn't all that bad.
I bought this on DVD for $50. Not really a good idea. I almost always buy DVDs of an anime I've never watched. That's probably not a great idea.
MY COMPUTER BLEW UP. It got infected by this nasty Trojan that runs a fake Windows XP thing telling you that you have all these hard drive errors. It hides all of your files, and once you run its scanner, it tells you that you have to pay $20 to fix all these "critical errors" with your hard drive. Except it's all fake, and after shelling out that $20, it only gets worse. Plus, your computer is dead and they have your credit card number. Fucking extortionists. Good thing my dad was smart enough to figure it out. We're working on fixing it now, though it'll probably remain this way for a while. For now, I'm using the "family" mac. Sucks, man.
I fucking love German music. :3
I want my computer back!!!!! ;__________________;
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