Nabari no Ou - Episode 2

Episode one of Nabari no Ou really rather impressed me despite being far from ground-breaking, so I was very interested to see how it would progress. After such a decent start, I have to be honest in saying that things slow down considerably in episode two, although it sets everything up nicely for the next instalment to get back to the action again.

The second episode of the series introduces (almost inevitably) a feminine touch to the proceedings, with the appearance of a young samurai student from Tokyo named Raimei Shimizu. From the on, we see yet more of our protagonist Rokujo's attempts to lead a carefree life despite all that's going on around him, while also giving further evidence of his ability to rather shrewdly manipulate those around him with little more than a change in expression. Consider we saw all of this last time around, it was a bit of a stretch to hammer this point home for as long as this episode did. Episode two also brought up some of the main character's foibles, from Thobari's fear of moving vehicles to Shimizu's frequently mixing people up. Whether these bits of information will have any use going forward I have no idea, but thus far they seem to be there simply to offer light relief.

The episode leaves us with something of a cliff-hanger, which as I say promises a more action-oriented third part. This will certainly need a little more meat to it than this episode, which almost had a filler-esque feel to it in places despite being so early in the series. I'm not too disappointed considering the need to introduce characters and set the scene, but the pace will definitely need to be picked up next time around.